Court Opinion

ID: 9693617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:52:42.22842+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:48.971022
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, J.
(dissenting). I agree with the majority opinion insofar as it holds that the prerequisites to the invalidation of any decision of a public body listed in MCL 15.263(1)-(3); MSA 4.1800(13)(1)-(3) are disjunctive rather than conjunctive. However, I write to express my reluctance to go so far as to declare that every vote taken at a public meeting must carry with it the identity of the voter. The meeting of the township board was open and accessible, advance notice was given, and there is no claim that appellant or any *466member of the public was barred or hindered in attendance or in opportunity to address the public body. Had there been any request for a tally, the township board would have been called upon to respond; if it had refused, I believe the spirit of the Open Meetings Act would have been violated, but I would not go that far on this record.
The act has not prescribed procedures for the conduct of voting by public bodies. Nothing in the act requires that voting and balloting, if conducted in public, be announced publicly, conducted by "yes” or "no” vote, or accomplished in any formal way as plaintiff contends. Section 9 of the act does require that the minutes "shall include all roll call votes taken at the meeting”, but the act does not and cannot purport to dictate when a roll call vote is required or describe the formalities for conducting such a vote. Are we to say that, if there had been 100 such applicants, the act would be violated unless 100 roll call votes were taken, or 66, or 33?
I would prefer a far more detailed chronicle of the legislative processess underlying the act before finding a per se violation on these facts. There must be countless situations before public bodies calling for a process of elimination and if that is required to be accomplished with the same formality as is required for the adoption of a final decision, (e.g., a roll call vote), the ramifications might be, if not incalculable, certainly unduly burdensome.
Apart from my reluctance to find a violation of the act on these facts, I must also dissent from the majority’s ultimate disposition of this case after finding a violation. The majority holds that, although there was a violation of the act in the *467present case, "since plaintiff failed to allege that the rights of the public were impaired by the secret ballot, he failed to state a cause of action under the act for invalidating the decision of the board”. I respectfully disagree.
MCL 15.270(2); MSA 4.1800(20)(2) states:
"(2) A decision made by a public body may be invalidated if the public body has not complied with the requirements of section 3(1), (2), and (3) in making the decision or if failure to give notice in accordance with section 5 has interfered with substantial compliance with section 3(1), (2), and (3) and the court finds that the noncompliance or failure has impaired the rights of the public under this act.”
I perceive no requirement in the statute that the plaintiffs complaint must allege that the violation impaired the rights of the public, for it states that "[a] decision made by a public body may be invalidated if * * * the court finds that the non-compliance or failure has impaired the rights of the public”. Because this case was decided on a motion for summary judgment, the facts have not been fully explored. Although it seems unlikely from the facts already presented that plaintiff can demonstrate sufficient reason to invalidate this decision, he should nevertheless be given the opportunity to prove such facts, especially in view of the fact that the trial court and the parties addressed themselves almost exclusively to the issue of whether secret balloting was prohibited by the act and did not enter into a contest over the other facts of the case. Therefore, I would hold that as a violation of the act is found here, plaintiff should be given an opportunity to prove an impairment of rights by adducing proofs thereof.