Court upholds ruling in Open Meetings Act lawsuit against Grand Ledge schools
GRAND LEDGE – The state's Court of Appeals has upheld a judge's dismissal of a lawsuit claiming Grand Ledge Public Schools' Board of Education violated the Open Meetings Act by asking people who wished to speak at a 2021 meeting to identify themselves and provide personal information.
Eaton County Circuit Court Judge Janice Cunningham was right to dismiss the lawsuit, filed by Amber Redman last November, the Michigan Court of Appeals said in its Oct. 6 opinion.
According to Redman's lawsuit, which named the school district, the board and its seven members as defendants, asking people for personal information at a June 28, 2021, Board of Education meeting was "inconsistent" with the Open Meetings Act, which states a "person must be permitted to address a meeting of a public body under rules established and recorded by the public body."
School officials asked attendees at the meeting to fill out a sheet that provided space for a person's name, address and the topic they wished to discuss. It also asked whether they wanted to speak about items on the board's agenda.
Redman's lawsuit, filed in August 2021, claimed the form was "inconsistent" with the board's own policies.
"Requiring attendees to fill out the form in order to speak was a reasonable method of maintaining an orderly meeting," the Court of Appeals wrote in its six-page opinion. "With no violation, (Redman) was not entitled to have defendants fined, and judgment as a matter of law was appropriate."
A statement from Board of Education Trustee Sara Clark Pierson "addressed the events leading up to the June 28 meeting, which prompted defendants to adopt the use of the form," wrote the Court of Appeals. "(Redman) did not advance any evidence to rebut these facts."
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On Monday Eric Delaporte, Redman's attorney, said the court's decision will be appealed.
"If you take the Court of Appeals decision and apply it to school districts, now a school district no longer speaks through its minutes," he said. "It speaks through a wooden sign in the lobby placed there outside of an open meeting."
John Miller, an attorney representing the school district, said both Cunningham and the state's Court of Appeals were right in their rulings.
"Over the last two years, we have seen a large uptick in similar lawsuits against dozens of Michigan school districts," Miller said in an email. "These lawsuits are largely politically motivated. The unfortunate byproduct is that school districts — such as Grand Ledge — are forced to spend time and money that should be spent on students. We are happy that this matter was dismissed.”
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Court upholds ruling in Open Meetings Act lawsuit against Grand Ledge schools
