Insider Intelligence

This week, a bipartisan plan was introduced that would place the legislature and executive office under open records laws. Specifically, it would create the Legislative Open Records Act, which is similar to FOIA laws, and would make certain documents and communications within legislative offices subject to FOIA requests. The governor and lieutenant governor would be […]

The House agreed that Michigan government should be more transparent, passing a proposal this week that would expand open records laws. Under the plan, the governor and lieutenant governor would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The legislature would be subject to similar standards under a newly created Legislative Open Records Act. The […]

How can Michigan become a leader in transparency and accountability and restore the public’s trust in government? This week, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson shared her ideas on how Michigan could accomplish those goals. Her plan includes working with the legislature toward full disclosure of all money in politics through revising reporting requirements and closing […]

This week, a bipartisan group of Representatives introduced a bill package making reforms to transparency laws in state government.  Currently, Michigan is one of only a few states that exempts its governor, lieutenant governor, and the Legislature from sunshine laws. This package would remove those exemptions, something which the sponsors state would increase accountability. Under […]

The Freedom of Information Act is a powerful tool for citizens and businesses that want to know more about their government.

In January, legislation was introduced exempting certain records related to procurement from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  In our first blog post on the bill, MLC’s procurement expert, Tony Des Chenes, provided an overview of the legislation as introduced and why it’s important to our clients during the procurement process.  In addition to certain […]

This week, Senator Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton) and Senator Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) introduced legislation expanding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to include the governor’s office and the Legislature.  The bills remove the current FOIA exemptions for the governor, lieutenant governor, and executive office employees and create a new part to the act, the Legislative […]

This week an eleven-bill bipartisan package was introduced with the goal of increasing transparency in the executive and legislative branches.  Under the proposal, the executive branch would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the legislative branch would be subjected to a new, similar act, named the Legislative Open Records Act (LORA).  […]