The Michigan Open Meetings Act, found at MCL 15.261 through 15.275, requires state and local governmental bodies to deliberate and make decisions in public, give advance notice of their meetings, keep minutes, and allow residents to attend, record, and speak. When a body breaks these rules, the decision it made can be invalidated in court, and officials who violate the law intentionally face personal criminal liability.
Which Bodies and Meetings Are Covered
The act reaches any state or local body that exercises governmental authority, including boards, commissions, committees, subcommittees, councils, and similar entities created by constitution, statute, charter, ordinance, resolution, or rule.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.262 – Definitions City councils and county commissions are the obvious examples, but library boards, zoning boards of appeal, downtown development authorities, and public university governing boards are all covered too. A lessee of a public body that performs an essential public function also falls under the act.
Private organizations are not covered, even when they receive public funding, unless they have been specifically empowered to exercise governmental functions. The judiciary is outside the act, and so is an individual officeholder acting alone rather than as part of a multi-member body.
A “meeting” happens whenever a quorum of a public body’s members gathers to deliberate toward or make a decision on public policy.2Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.263 – Meetings, Decisions, and Deliberations of Public Body A quorum is typically a simple majority. The trigger is not a formal vote but the exchange of views among enough members to shape a collective decision. Two board members talking at a coffee shop usually is not a meeting. If enough members to form a quorum discuss pending business, the act applies no matter how informal the setting.
What Notice the Public Must Receive
No meeting can be held without proper public notice, and the requirements shift with the type of meeting.3Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.265 – Public Notice of Regular Meetings
- Regular meetings: within 10 days after the first meeting of each calendar or fiscal year, the body must post a notice listing the dates, times, and places of all its regular meetings for the year.
- Schedule changes: an updated notice must be posted within three days after the meeting where the change was made.
- Special or rescheduled meetings: notice stating date, time, and place must be posted at least 18 hours in advance in a prominent location at the body’s principal office, and on the body’s website if it maintains one with monthly or more frequent updates.
- Emergency meetings: if the body cannot meet the 18-hour requirement, paper copies of the notice must be provided at the meeting itself with a specific explanation of why the emergency prevented normal notice.
- Meetings in a private residence: notice must run as a display advertisement in a local newspaper at least two days before the meeting, including a statement that the meeting is open to the public under the act.
The statute does not require notices to include a phone number or other contact information. The required content for regular, special, and rescheduled meetings is only the date, time, and place.
Your Rights at a Public Meeting
If a meeting is open under the act, you have several protections you can rely on at the door and in the room.2Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.263 – Meetings, Decisions, and Deliberations of Public Body
- You cannot be required to give your name, address, or any other information as a condition of entering or watching.
- You may tape-record, videotape, broadcast live on radio, or telecast live on television. The body may adopt reasonable rules to prevent actual disruption, but it cannot ban recording.
- You must be given an opportunity to address the body under rules it has established and recorded. The body may set time limits and procedural guidelines, but it cannot require advance registration as a prerequisite to speak.
- You cannot be removed from an open meeting unless you commit an actual breach of the peace at the meeting. Disagreeing with the board or making officials uncomfortable does not qualify.
When a Body Can Close the Doors
The default rule is that all deliberations happen in public. Closed sessions are the exception, and MCL 15.268 limits them to specific purposes.4Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.268 – Closed Sessions; Permissible Purposes The most common ones:
- Personnel matters: considering the dismissal, suspension, or discipline of a public employee or officer, or hearing complaints, but only if the named individual requests a closed hearing. That person can withdraw the request at any time and force the matter back into open session.
- Student discipline: a school board may close a session to discipline a student if the student or parent requests it.
- Collective bargaining strategy and negotiations, if either side requests a closed hearing.
- Discussing the purchase or lease of real property, but only up to the point when the body obtains an option to purchase or lease.
- Consulting with the body’s attorney about trial or settlement strategy in specific pending litigation, but only when open discussion would harm the body’s legal or financial position.
- Reviewing an application for public employment if the candidate requests confidentiality. Actual interviews must be in open session.
- Considering material that state or federal law specifically exempts from disclosure.
Entering a closed session usually requires a two-thirds roll call vote of the members elected or appointed and serving, and the vote and stated purpose must appear in the open-session minutes. A majority vote is enough for closed sessions covering personnel matters, student discipline, collective bargaining, partisan caucuses, public health compliance conferences, and university presidential searches.5Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.267 Whatever the vote threshold, any final decision on the matter must still be made in open session. A vote taken behind closed doors is not valid.
Email, Group Texts, and Remote Participation
One of the most common ways public bodies run afoul of the act is through electronic communication. Email chains, group texts, and private messaging among a quorum of members can be illegal deliberation if the exchange moves toward a decision on public business.6Michigan Department of Attorney General. Open Meetings Act Handbook The Attorney General’s office has specifically warned against “round-the-horn” decision-making, where members use sequential phone calls or sub-quorum side conversations to build consensus before a public meeting. The result is the same as if the full board had met privately, and it violates the act. Texting or emailing between members during an open meeting about the matter being discussed creates the same problem: a closed deliberation inside what is supposed to be an open session.
Michigan is also restrictive about virtual meetings. For most public bodies, members must be physically present. The act allows electronic participation only to accommodate a member absent due to military duty or a medical condition.7Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.263a When a meeting accommodates a remote member for one of those reasons, every other member not on military duty or dealing with a medical condition must attend in person.
A few bodies have broader remote-meeting authority. Boards managing municipal public employee retirement systems and joint energy agencies formed under the Michigan Energy Employment Act may hold electronic meetings for any reason, with no sunset. Agricultural commodity groups received similar permanent authorization in 2021. For these bodies, the technology must allow two-way communication so members can hear each other, the public can hear the members, and public comments can be heard during the designated comment period. Notice of an electronic meeting must be posted at least 18 hours in advance on the body’s website, with an explanation of why the meeting is being held electronically, how the public can participate, and how people with disabilities can access it.
Minutes and the Clock They Start
Every public body must keep minutes recording the date, time, and place of the meeting; which members were present and absent; decisions made in open session; the purpose of any closed session; and all roll call votes.8Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.269 – Minutes
Proposed minutes must be available for public inspection within eight business days after the meeting. Once the body approves them at a later meeting, the approved version must be available within five business days after approval. These dates matter beyond record-keeping. The clock for legal challenges to a decision starts running when the approved minutes become publicly available.
Closed sessions require separate minutes taken by the clerk or designated secretary. Those are not available to the public and can be disclosed only if a court orders it in a civil action challenging the closed session.
Penalties and How to Enforce the Act
A decision made in violation of the act is presumed valid, but the attorney general, the county prosecuting attorney, or any person may file a civil action in circuit court to invalidate it.9Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.270 – Decisions of Public Body; Civil Action to Invalidate The deadlines are short:
- 60 days after the approved minutes become publicly available, for most decisions.
- 30 days for decisions involving contracts, bids, assessments, bond issuance, or borrowing proposals submitted to voters.
Miss those deadlines and the court loses jurisdiction to invalidate the decision, even where the violation is clear.
If a body is not complying with the act, a person can also sue for an injunction to compel compliance or stop further violations. A plaintiff who obtains relief recovers court costs and actual attorney fees.10Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.271 – Civil Action to Compel Compliance or Enjoin Noncompliance
Officials face personal exposure too. A public official who intentionally violates the act commits a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.11Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.272 – Violation as Misdemeanor; Penalty A second intentional violation within the same term of office carries a fine of up to $2,000, up to one year in jail, or both.12Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 15.272 – Violation as Misdemeanor; Penalty The word “intentionally” does the heavy lifting. Honest procedural mistakes rarely draw criminal charges, but a pattern of deliberately shutting the public out of deliberations can.