The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
School board faces OMA violation
By Kathleen Conat, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: June 14, 2007
A ruling that trustees of the Ypsilanti Public Schools Board of Education violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act is being disputed by those who attended the meeting where the alleged violation took place.
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Washtenaw County Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Steven Hiller ruled last week that a March 8 meeting with Ypsilanti High School teachers and staff who had concerns and complaints about then-principal Layne Hunt was in violation of the law.
Hiller said he would not prosecute the matter, however, because he could not prove there was intent to commit the violation.
In a nine-page memo, Hiller outlined the case against the four trustees, Amy Doyle, Andrew Fanta, Cameron Getto and Thomas Reiber, who attended the meeting after a communications snafu. Doyle and Getto have since resigned from the board.
Hiller then concluded the board members had broken the law by deliberating on the issue of firing Dr. Hunt. If the trustees deliberated and/or made a decision regarding the issue, the meeting would have been a violation of the OMA because no notification was given and no minutes were taken.
But, attendees at the meeting insist the session was for information-gathering only and no deliberations or discussions were held.
"It was for information-gathering purposes only," insists Kelly Powers, president of the Ypsilanti Education Association. "That's what they [the trustees] said at the beginning of the meeting and that's what happened. They listened and took notes."
Powers cited the Open Meetings Guide put out by the Michigan Association of School Boards to back her stand. Under the heading of "Examples of Permissible Gatherings," the guide states:
"Members of a school board may meet with a neighborhood organization or group without meeting OMA requirements as long as the sole purpose is merely to observe or gather information and the school board members in attendance do not make decisions or hold any deliberations toward arriving at a decision. The board members' role in this situation is limited to listening to presentations by their constituents or observing demonstrations."
Powers also said the teachers and their union representatives had met several times with Dr. James Hawkins, superintendent, and were merely following the chain of command in speaking with the board members, who employ Hawkins to oversee the district,
"We absolutely have the right to meet with board members," she said.
Powers said she questioned Hiller's characterizing the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department's investigative report as "thorough" when she was not contacted as part of the investigation.
"Why would they not want to talk with the person who set up the meeting - me?" she asked. "The only people they talked with were the board members and whoever complained. How about the other people who were there?"
Powers said she intended to contact Hiller this week to talk about her concerns with the way the investigation was conducted and his ruling. "This is a travesty and it needs to be corrected."
Fanta and Getto questioned both the findings and the release of the memo, itself.
"I thought Mr. Hiller could have dispensed with the question in one page," Fanta said. "He's made decisions on other, more serious, matters like shooting deaths that don't get this kind of attention. Here was a finding of lack of intent of nine pages, but those other rulings only merit a page and a half.
"I also question this decision. Are we, as a board, to stagger our attendance at open houses, or post public notice that we will be there and all arrive together?"
Getto, when contacted, said, "I think people are generally skeptical when a prosecutor indicates to the media that a law has been broken and then declines to prosecute. Doing so suggests a desire to charge in the court of public opinion rather than acknowledge that the allegations were specious. That's about as unseemly as it gets within our system of justice."
Regarding the original complaint, Getto said, "I can't say why this small, disgruntled group of people is so angry at nothing more than a simple desire to collect facts and get to the bottom of the problems at the high school. It seems to me that they don't really want the truth to come out."
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