Lawsuit claims regents break Open Meetings Act

ANN ARBOR (AP) - The Detroit Free Press has sued the University of Michigan, saying its Board of Regents routinely violates the state Open Meetings Act. The newspaper says it filed the suit last Friday in the Michigan Court of Claims. The Associated Press left phone messages Sunday seeking comment from university spokespeople. The newspaper says the regents make many decisions privately before their monthly public sessions, which it says do little more than "rubber stamp" them. The Free Press says it analyzed regents meetings from January 2013 through February 2014 and says only 12 of 116 they voted on underwent discussions. It says there were only eight cases of a regent voting no. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told the newspaper university officials hadn't yet seen the suit last Friday afternoon and he declined comment. Published: Tue, Jul 15, 2014