The side effects of having an unrepentant lawbreaker as a governor.
Something occurred to me this morning.
One of the ways in which government has been able to operate at a board level is by Zoom, of some other streaming service. The problem with this however, was the ways in which the streaming option limited the ability of those who wish to attend meetings and keep government open and transparent.
The answer was Executive Order 2020-15. EO 2020-15 changed the requirements of having the meetings, to allowing by remote access with limited public interaction:
Acting under the Michigan Constitution of 1963 and Michigan law, I order the following:
Effective immediately and continuing until April 15, 2020 at 11:59 pm, to the extent that the Open Meetings Act, 1976 PA 267, as amended, MCL 15.261 to 15.272 (“OMA”) requires that a meeting of a public body be held in a physical place available to the general public or requires the physical presence of one or more members of a public body, strict compliance with section 3 of the OMA, MCL 15.263, is temporarily suspended in order to alleviate any such physical-place or physical-presence requirements, as follows:
Etc., and so on.. (feel free to follow through and see the conditions)
The order allows forms of electronic meetings that would not otherwise be allowed under legislative authority without the power assumed by the governor. It essentially kept local governments ability to operate under ‘stay home’ conditions that might arise.