STATE OF MICHIGAN

FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Opinion No. 5286

March 31, 1978

MUNICIPAL OFFICERS & EMPLOYEES:

Resolution restricting members of a city council from observing collective bargaining negotiations

HOME RULE CITIES:

Resolution restricting members of a city council from observing collective bargaining negotiations

LOCAL LEGISLATIVE BODIES:

Resolution restricting members of a city council from observing collective bargaining negotiations

OPEN MEETINGS ACT:

Collective bargaining strategy sessions

A city council may only act as a body.

A city councilman acting in his individual capacity has no greater right to participate in city business than any other member of the public.

Section 8(c) of the Open meetings act authorizes a city council to meet in closed session to discuss strategy connected with collective bargaining agreements.

Where a city has appointed a bargaining agent or committee to act on its behalf and has closed the negotiating sessions to the public, the city council may restrict members of the council from participating in or observing the collective bargaining negotiations.

Honorable Jeffrey D. Padden

State Representative

27th District

The Capitol

Lansing, Michigan

You have requested my opinion on the following question pertaining to collective bargaining sessions in the public sector:

You have indicated that the City Council of Wyandotte has passed a resolution establishing a four-member bargaining committee with authority to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement for the city. The committee is to be composed of the purchasing and personnel director, the urban renewal director, the finance director and the city engineer. The city council has retained the power to approve all final negotiations but has prohibited its members from attending or participating in the actual bargaining sessions.

A city council, like other corporate boards, can only acts as a body at official meetings duly assembled. 4 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations (3d ed), Sec. 13.07, p 482; 17 Michigan Law & Practice, Municipal Corporations, Sec. 41, p 40; Power's Appeal, 29 Mich 504, 509 (1874) (A common council may act only by written resolution). See also McLaughlin v Board of Education of Fordson School District of City of Dearborn, 255 Mich 667; 239 NW 374 (1931) (A board of education acts as a body and executes its powers at meetings lawfully called).

The Wyandotte City Charter recognizes this principle in Article 4 by vesting the city's legislative authority in the council, providing for regular and special council meetings, requiring a quorum of council elect as a requisite for the transaction of city business, and by specifically disallowing business to be conducted by fewer than a quorum. Article 4, Secs. 66, 70 and 71, Charter of the City of Wyandotte. It follows, therefore, that an individual councilman, acting in his individual capacity and apart from the governing body, cannot transact city business. Hence, such city councilman, acting in his individual capacity, has no greater right to participate in city business than any other member of the citizenry.

Unless otherwise excepted by the statute, meetings held by public bodies are required to be open to the public in accordance with the Open meetings act, 1976 PA 267; MCLA 15.261 et seq; MSA 4.1800(11). The city's four-man bargaining committee, however, as an advisory body, can only recommend approval of a negotiated collective bargaining agreement to the city council, which has retained the authority to make final decisions. As such, the bargaining committee is not subject to the provisions of the Open meetings act, OAG, 1977-1978, No 5183, p ___ (March 8, 1977), and need not therefore open its negotiating session to the public.

Even assuming that the bargaining committee is a 'public body' within the meaning of the Open meetings act, supra, its 'strategy and negotiating sessions connected with the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement' are specifically authorized to be held in hearings closed to the public. 1976 PA 267, supra, Sec. 8(c).

Since the negotiating sessions of the city's bargaining committee are not required to be open to the public and since an individual councilman, acting in his individual capacity, has no greater right to attend these sessions than any other member of the public, the city council may properly exclude such councilman from attendance at the negotiating sessions.

Accordingly, it is my opinion that, where a city has appointed a bargaining agent or committee to act on its behalf and has closed the negotiating sessions to the public, the city council may restrict members of the council from participating in or observing the collective bargaining negotiations.

Frank J. Kelley