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Benzie County officials receive FOIA, Open Meetings briefing; attorney to weigh in on grievance delegation
Summary
At a June 27 special meeting, Benzie County commissioners heard a county attorney review the Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act and said he will provide a written opinion on whether Step 3 personnel grievances may be delegated to the county administrator; a public commenter urged greater board involvement in litigation settlements.
Benzie County commissioners held a special meeting on June 27, 2025, for an informational briefing on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Open Meetings Act (OMA) and to discuss the county's delegation practices. Chair Art Jeannot called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. in the Frank Walterhouse Board of Commissioners Room in Beulah.
County attorney Matt Nordfjord reviewed distributed materials, including summaries of FOIA and the Open Meetings Act and a packet titled "Opening Meeting Act: The Dangers of Delegation." Nordfjord summarized the relationship between the board, elected officials and the courts and covered FOIA, OMA, closed-session rules, remote participation and rules on abstaining from votes. "I will provide a written opinion to the Board of Commissioners regarding the delegation of the County Administrator to handle Step 3 Grievances," Nordfjord said during the briefing.
During the public-comment period at 9:01 a.m., Eric Van Dussen of Benzonia Township thanked the board for the educational materials and asked that the county attorney issue an opinion on whether Step 3 personnel grievances, previously handled by the Personnel Committee, may be delegated to the County Administrator. "I believe that they need to be held in a public meeting and would like the county attorney to give an opinion on it," Van Dussen said.
Van Dussen returned during the 11:54 a.m. public-comment period to urge the board to take a more active role in settlement decisions for pending litigation, saying joint status reports are filed in those cases and that attorneys should discuss settlement discussions with the board when appropriate. He also noted he had received the FOIA/OMA update packets via email from "Katie." The board did not take any formal action on settlement oversight during the special meeting.
Procedurally, Commissioner Trigg moved and Commissioner Davis seconded approval of the meeting agenda; the motion carried with all commissioners present voting aye (Davis, Jeannot, Markey, Nye, Roelofs, Sauer and Trigg). At 11:05 a.m. Commissioners Nye and Roelofs were excused. The meeting was adjourned at 11:58 a.m. on a motion by Commissioner Markey, seconded by Commissioner Davis; that motion also carried unanimously.
The attorney's written opinion on the delegation of Step 3 grievances is expected to be provided to the board as a follow-up; the board did not adopt any changes to grievance procedures at the meeting.
