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Detroit Public
Schools CEO Did Not Violate Open Meeting Act
MIRS, April
1, 2005
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The Court of
Appeals today ruled that Detroit Public Schools CEO Ken Burnley
did not violate the Open Meetings Act (OMA) when he chose not to
invite the public to 13 meetings he had with various curriculum
leaders and curriculum coordinators, whose contracts he later
did not renew, because he is not classified as a "public body."
A group of Detroit citizens claimed that since Burnley broke the
state's Open Meetings law when he held these meetings behind
closed doors, the contracts of these curriculum leaders
automatically should be renewed. This argument in the case of
Danny CRAIG v. Burnley (No. 249948) made sense to the Wayne
County Circuit Court, but not the Court of Appeals, who
overturned the lower court in a unanimous decision.
The appeals court wrote that if a regular elected school board
were to hold meetings with curriculum leaders and curriculum
coordinators, they would have to be held in public. But since an
appointed CEO run the school system, the rules change.
Burnley is more akin to a city manager, who also is not
obligated to follow the OMA because that position is not a
"public body," which the court defined as a "collective entity."
The court also noted that it is infeasible to require an
individual to deliberate in an open meeting.
The upshot of the decision is that emergency officials appointed
by the state to clean up a perceived mess in a local
municipality or school district is not subject to OMA.
"… Because (Burnley) is an individual and not a 'public body'
within the meaning of the OMA, he is simply not able or required
to carry out these functions at open meetings," the court wrote.
The ruling was signed by appellate judges Hilda GAGE, Patrick
METER and Karen Fort HOOD.
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