- Robert Davis
By Diane Bukowski
February 7, 2012
Ingham County Circuit Court Chief Judge William Collete issued a formal ruling today that meetings of the Public Act 4 review team for Detroit must be open to the public, under the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA).
The ruling was a response to a motion for a restraining order filed on behalf of Highland Park School Board member and AFSCME Council 25 representative Robert Davis.
Bloomberg News reported that Collette said the review team “flies in the face of the Open-Meetings Act,” during the hearing in Mason, Michigan.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette
Bloomberg quoted Collette as saying the panel is “more than an advisory committee,’ and that it has “a right to review records. They have the right to issue subpoenas, and they have the right to require people” to talk, which “goes far beyond public advisory power.”
The lawsuit was filed by Attorneys Andrew Paterson and Carl Marlinga Feb. 1, against Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and State Treasurer Andy Dillon.
“This is a victory for open government and democracy,” Bloomberg quoted Paterson, who said he will file for a declaratory judgment ruling that the previous actions of the team , violated the open-meetings law. This would void anything the panel has already done, Paterson said in an interview.
To date, the review team has met secretly in Lansing Jan. 10, and conducted closed-door sessions with individual members of Detroit’s City Council.
“It’s quite upsetting to know that a governor and the treasurer and the review team are meeting in secret about something so important that’s going to affect the city of Detroit for years to come,” Davis said in published remarks.
Treasurer Andy Dillon had hoped to be governor but lost the Democratic Primary to Virg Bernero.
“Treasury is disappointed with the decision, given the possible chilling effect it could have on a review team and the review process,” Terry Stanton, spokesman for Treasurer Andy Dillon, said. “As noted previously, the department’s position, for more than 20 years, has been that a review team is not a public body and is therefore not subject to the Open Meetings Act.
“It is important to note that the injunction does not stop the review team process, it simply means that review team meetings must be open, unless or until the court rules otherwise. We are reviewing the injunction and will consult with the Attorney General to determine the appropriate course of action.”
Brandon Jessup
Brandon Jessup, Chairman and CEO of Michigan Forward, which is conducting a petition campaign to repeal PA 4, said in a release, “Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law is wrong. We support the early informal opinion of Judge Collette [made Feb. 2]. Governor Snyder should take every step outlined in our January 23 communication to his and the State Treasurer’s office. The appointment of Emergency Managers in Flint and Highland Park School District should be reversed. The review teams in Detroit and Inkster should be disbanded and new reviews should be conducted in all 4 of these communities. All findings, activities and expenses of review teams in Detroit, Flint, Highland Park and Inkster should be published immediately and made public.
He added, “The exclusion of community members severely discredits the ‘early warning’ theory often used by Michigan’s Chief Executive [Snyder],” Jessup said. “Public Act 4 provides a blank check to special interests focused on selling public assets, eliminating public contracts and dissolving Democracy.”
READ THE LETTER fr0m Michigan Forward and the NAACP to Snyder and Dillon.
Michigan’s Open Meetings Act (click on Michigan OMA and FOIA to read the OMA) defines a “public body” as “any state or local legislative or governing body, including a board, commission, committee, subcommittee, authority, or council, which is empowered by state constitution, statute, charter, ordinance, resolution, or rule to exercise governmental or proprietary authority or perform a governmental or proprietary function, or a lessee thereof performing an essential public purpose and function pursuant to the lease agreement.”
The governor appoints the review teams under state statute Public Act 4, making them public bodies.
Behind closed doors
The OMA defines “meeting” as the “convening of a public body at which a quorum is present for the purpose of deliberating toward and rendering a decision on a public policy.” It goes on to limit closed sessions, which must be called by a two-thirds vote of the body, to consideration of limited matters such as litigation, employment contracts, and “to consider material exempt from discussion or disclosure by state or federal statute.”
A close reading of Public Act 4 (click on Public Act 4) shows nothing specifying that meetings of review teams are closed to the public. However, State Treasurer Dillon said before the first meeting of the Detroit review team, “Under Public Act 4 the meetings that we hold are confidential and we’re not subject to the Open Meetings Act.”
The Detroit review team held separate meetings with members of Detroit’s City Council, as review teams did with governing bodies in other cities like Inkster. Council members JoAnn Watson and Kwame Kenyatta refused to meet with the team, citing their belief that Public Act 4 is unconstitutional.
Former Detroit School Board member and activist Marie Thornton, who attended more educational sessions on state law held by the Michigan Association of Public School Boards than any other board member, has contended for years that such meetings must be open to the public.
Marie Thornton
“The Jan. 10 meeting on Detroit’s finances was illegally closed,” Thornton said. “Additionally, the review team violated the Open Meetings Act when it met secretly with Detroit City Council members and officials from other cities. It is not legal for public officials like Gary Brown to discuss issues affecting the public, such as retiree benefits, behind closed doors with a public body, without facing public scrutiny.”
Thornton asked, “How do we even know for sure that Detroit has a financial emergency?”
The City Council illegally held a closed session with representatives of Ernst & Young to discuss the city’s finances. Ernst & Young is a multinational accounting firm which is being sued by the states of New York and New Jersey for helping Lehman Brothers cook its books prior to the company’s collapse, which triggered a domino effect on Wall Street.
In 2008, when Thornton was on the school board, Gov. Granholm declared a financial emergency for the Detroit Public Schools. Despite continued attacks by the majority of the school board, Thornton fought single-mindedly against the closed sessions held then by the DPS review team with board members. She was the ONLY board member to vote against a Consent Agreement which led within several months to the appointment of an emergency manager, Robert Bobb.
Bobb further devastated DPS with more school closings, the appointment of high-paid cronies, and the lay-off and privatization of thousands of DPS workers’ jobs.
Thornton, who has continued to stress that secret meetings of review teams violate the OMA at public forums including those held by the NAACP, has filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding the minutes and all other information pertinent to the meetings of the Detroit review team.
The case is Davis v. City of Detroit Financial Review Team, 12-112-CZ, Circuit Court, Ingham County, Michigan (Mason).
