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State lawmakers must address FOIA ruling

A government only works for its people when its people know what their government is up to.

But the Michigan Court of Appeals early this year ruled essentially that only public bodies, not the employees of public bodies, are subject to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. The Michigan Supreme Court recently refused to intervene, allowing the lower appellate court’s ruling to stand.

The case at hand involved a Rochester parent who wanted the curriculum materials for a class at her child’s school.

The school district refused, saying FOIA didn’t compel the district to force an individual teacher to hand over records. The Court of Appeals agreed.

The ruling could mean that thousands upon thousands of local government and school district employees could hide their taxpayer-funded doings away from public scrutiny. A governing body could more easily cover up wrongdoing by making sure related documents stay within the hands of their employees.

The ruling cannot stand.

Governing bodies create policy, but government employees put policy into practice, and their actions ought to be subject to disclosure so the public can better understand what’s turning in the wheels of power. Documents created and held by public employees ought to be subject to FOIA, as lawmakers certainly intended when they created the law decades ago.

We call on the Legislature to hastily — as in, during the current legislative session — amend FOIA to make it clear that governments can’t hide malfeasance in the hands of their employees and that public transparency means transparency for all public employees, not just governing bodies and chief executives.

Anything less is government over the people, not by the people.

— The Alpena News

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