The Review Magazine Summer 2025

Municipal Q&A

Q. Our council meetings often last for three hours. A neighboring municipality suggested we use consent agendas. Can you explain what they are and how they are used? Are they controversial? A. A consent agenda contains routine items (not controversial) that do not need further discussion, all listed and voted on under one agenda item. The use of consent agendas can shorten a meeting. Some items typically included in the consent agenda are the approval of minutes and payments, appointments and resignations, and setting dates for hearings. Consent agendas are flexible: items can be pulled off the consent agenda for discussion if desired. Q. . It seems like roll call votes take a lot of time to execute— are they required? Can’t the council just vote all at once and if it is unclear if there is a majority then take a roll call vote? A. Some items of municipal governance require roll call votes by statute; others have been instituted by the municipality. For instance, every municipality adopts its own rules for meetings—yours may require them. Some charters or rules only require roll call votes for particular items, such as adopting ordinances and resolutions or selling or leasing land. It is worth looking at your rules and charter to see where roll call votes are required. You can amend your charter or change your council rules (much simpler than amending the charter) to remove this practice, if you desire. It is important to state that the Open Meetings Act has roll call vote requirements for MCL 15.267(1): “A 2/3 roll call vote of members elected or appointed and serving is required to call a closed session, except for the closed sessions permitted under section 8(a), (b), (c), (g), (i), and (j). The roll call vote and the purpose or purposes for calling the closed session shall be entered into the minutes of the meeting at which the vote is taken.” See our Fact Sheet: Calling Closed Meetings, available at mml.org. Q. How do we correct a mistake in the minutes? A. According to the Open Meetings Act MCL 15.269(1), “The public body shall make any corrections in the minutes at the next meeting after the meeting to which the minutes refer. The public body shall make corrected minutes available at or before the next subsequent meeting after correction. The corrected minutes shall show both the original entry and the correction.” Q. What is a public record? A. The Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (MCL 15.231-15.246) defines public records as recorded information “prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public body in the performance of an official function, from the time it is created.” Q. Are all municipal records considered to be “official” records?

A. No. The State of Michigan Archives, in General Schedule #1, addresses the retention of “nonrecord” materials. These documents are broadly defined as drafts, duplicates, convenience copies, publications, and other materials that do not document agency activities. These materials can be disposed of when they have served their intended purpose. Government agencies need to identify the “office of record” when multiple offices possess copies of the same record. The “office of record” is responsible for following the retention period that is specified; duplicates do not need to be retained. A more comprehensive definition can be found in the approved schedule available online at http://bit.ly/4lJEeh4 Q. Are the retention periods listed on general schedules minimum amounts of time that a record should be kept? A. Yes. General schedules authorize, but do not require, public officials to dispose of records after the expiration of the assigned retention period. Local situations may require retention beyond the periods listed, and nothing prevents a government agency from retaining records longer than the specified period of time. If records are kept for less than the amount of time listed, the agency can be penalized for unlawful destruction of records. In addition, if records are kept too long, they can waste valuable storage space, and they can become a liability to the agency if it receives a FOIA request or if it becomes involved in litigation.

The League’s Information Service provides member officials with answers to questions on a vast array of municipal topics. Call 1-800-653-2483 or email info@mml.org.

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| Summer 2025