An “informal” meeting of the Solon Township Board May 29 brought to the forefront the requirements of the state Open Meetings Act.
Solon Township called the meeting to discuss with Polka Fest organizers a fee for use of park space in Cedar. In previous years no payment had been requested.
While the township clerk provided a meeting notice upon request after-the-fact, the communication did not say when (date and time) and where the special meeting was posted. Special meetings notices must be posted 18 hours prior to its scheduled meeting date, according to the Open Meetings Act.
“There was no agenda and no minutes taken,” township Clerk Shirley Mikowski said.
The Enterprise has a longstanding request to all local units of government (schools, township, county, village) that notice of special meetings be provided at the same time they (physically) post these gatherings.
No notice of the meeting was provided as requested. Neither were meeting minutes produced, which township Clerk Shirley Mikowski said were not necessary for the meeting because it was “informal.”
The Michigan Open Meetings Act states that any meeting of a board which has a quorum must be posted. All five members of the board were present.
Elsewhere in the county, units of government go as far as posting notices to cover themselves acknowledging that a quorum of the group may be present. However, “no business will be conducted.”
“It appears, if the public body conducted business or deliberated in an informal session, that the discussions and decisions made during this informal session would be improper under the Open Meetings Act, which promotes transparency,” said Jennifer Dukarski, general counsel, Michigan Press Association. “Making decisions in a non-public meeting is the opposite of the spirit of the law and would run afoul of it.”
Lisa Rossi-Brett was among those at the “informal” board meeting May 29, and reported there was no agreement reached.
The board, during a special meeting June 28, approved a lease amount of $1 for this year.
Both the Fest organizers and township board will continue to work on a different fee schedule for 2025.
“Pragmatically, since it sounds like they ‘undid’ what they ‘did,’… There really isn’t much of a remedy,” Dukarski said.
