MARQUETTE — During Tuesday night’s meeting of the Marquette County Board, the County’s civil council made a privileged comment relating to the lawsuit against the county filed by Mark Hangen related to the county taking ownership of the Fixed Base Operator at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport.

“Marquette County was involved in a pending lawsuit,” said the County’s civil council. “And this pending lawsuit was filed by Mark Hangen against the county of Marquette. And it is my pleasure to tell the county that that case was dismissed on April 17th … Essentially there were two claims against Marquette County. Both were eventually dismissed. There was a due process claim and also a substantive claim. The court did not have a hearing on the due process claim. They actually dismissed that sua sponte prior to the hearing. They did hear the substantive claim on the merits and they did eventually dismiss that as well.”

“The federal lawsuit that Hangen filed has been dismissed,” said Chairperson Joe DeRocha.

Hangen filed the lawsuit at the beginning of February, alleging that the County was in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, as well as that the county was in “violation of substantive due process” relating to their decision to take over the Fixed Base Operator at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.