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Sunshine Week calls awareness to public records, open meetings and the ways we can see what our elected governments are doing.
Michigan's Open Meetings Act handbook (PDF) spells out the obligations government bodies have to conduct their business in public.
Sunshine Week is a yearly celebration of government transparency — the importance of public records and open government for a functioning, healthy democracy. It occurs every year in mid-March, coinciding with James Madison’s birthday (March 16).
To mark Sunshine Week, IPR is providing a brief rundown of the government transparency laws in Michigan and how those laws are enacted here in the northwest lower part of the state.
The basic documents local governments use to inform the public on what happens in their meetings are their agendas and minutes.
Agendas are an outline of what the government body will discuss during the meeting. Minutes are the notes (normally taken by the clerk) on what happens at those meetings.
The requirements for how those documents are made available to the public is part of the Open Meetings Act (OMA).
The law states (section 4) that as a bare minimum, “a public notice for a public body shall always be posted at its principal office and any other locations considered appropriate by the public body.” In other words, they have to let you know that they're having a meeting, and when and where it will be. And that information needs to be easily viewable.
This is often done with a thumbtack and a bulletin board.
The law specifically states that all local government units must “make the minutes available” (section 9) at the location where the meeting was held, but it makes no such requirement of the agendas.
There are 88 local government units in our listening area. That includes Traverse City and the various townships, villages, and county governments in Antrim, Kalkaska, Benzie, Grand Traverse, and Leelanau Counties.
An IPR analysis finds that local government units comply with the bare minimum transparency prescribed by the law. Many go beyond.
Of those 88 local units, all but three have a website, and 70 post their minutes online in a timely manner. At least eight local government units go as far as recording and posting their meetings online.
Fewer than half post their agendas online.
The best way to find out what is happening in your local government is to go to the meetings in person.
All local government bodies are required to post the date, time, and location of their meetings at the location the meeting is held. All but one township has that information available online.
If you have trouble contacting your local government unit, your county clerk's office is a great resource.
Below are a list of links to more information on some of the local governing bodies in our area.
