GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids’ former city attorney is questioning secret meetings held regularly by city commissioners.
Catherine Mish, who served eight years as city attorney, is now running for a seat on the City Commission. If elected, she said, she would refuse to attend the meetings, which are held every other Tuesday at City Hall.
“If the Grand Rapids City Commission, in an open meeting by majority vote, waives attorney-client privilege and allows me to speak to you about this issue, I’d be more than happy to tell you everything I know about what really happens behind closed doors in Grand Rapids City Hall,” Mish told Target 8.
The meetings are called “three-on-ones,” or “ward briefings” — usually the mayor and two city commissioners at a time, along with the city manager and other city staff. They discuss big issues — from roads to panhandling to backyard chickens — weeks or sometimes months before going public.
While the meetings are a commissioner short of a quorum, an attorney for the Michigan Press Association said that doesn’t make them legal. She pointed to a 1988 state Court of Appeals ruling that found similar so-called “mini-meetings” held by the Wyoming City Council violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.
City Manager Greg Sundstrom has twice turned away Target 8 from the secret meetings.
He refused to sit down for an interview, but said he started holding the meetings nearly a decade ago. He said they are more efficient and allow city commissioners to ask questions without worrying what the public might think.