VBT has no business on workshop agenda; goes into closed-door session

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
On June 30, the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees opened its regular work/study meeting at 4 p.m. and adjourned into closed-door session at 4:02 p.m. After that session, they adjourned.
There was nothing on the agenda for open discussion but the closed-door session with attorney Patrick McCauley was to discuss:
• An attorney-client opinion letter on litigation pursuant to Open Meeting Act Section 8(h); and
• An attorney opinion letter and recommendation on the Waste Management demolition waste product proposal. The board had been asked by Waste Management at a recent work/study session to give WM an answer by the end of the month on whether it will accept a reduced tipping fee for its special project of disposing of the waste from homes being demolished in Detroit.
As to the first attorney opinion letter to be discussed under Section 8(h), the Michigan Open Meeting Act’s Section 8 reads “A public body may meet in a closed session only for the following purposes: … (h) to consider material exempt from discussion or disclosure by state or federal statute…”
The hotline attorney for the Michigan Press Association, Joseph Richotte of Butzel Long law firm, explained to the Independent: “Written legal opinions are protected by the attorney-client privilege, and FOIA (the Freedom of Information Act) exempts attorney-client privileged material from disclosure. MCL 15.243(1)(g). Thus, the document the trustees were going into closed session to discuss was ‘material exempt from . . . disclosure by state . . . statute.’ ”