{"id":8654,"date":"2014-04-22T15:25:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T19:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nmc.edu\/?p=8654"},"modified":"2015-09-11T11:14:40","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T15:14:40","slug":"update-on-board-of-trustees-communications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nmc.edu\/?p=8654","title":{"rendered":"Update on Board of Trustees Communications"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week NMC President Timothy J. Nelson sent the campus community an e-mail in regard to an issue that would be addressed at last night’s Board of Trustees meeting. \u00a0As promised here is an update from the president.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last night the regular April meeting of our Board of Trustees was held at our Parsons-Stulen building, and it was the first meeting to be video recorded.\u00a0\u00a0I want to thank Kyle Morrison and Dennis Schultz of our Educational Media Technologies department for their work in creating a very professional and unobtrusive process for recording the meetings.\u00a0\u00a0The meeting will soon be posted on the NMC website and that process will be the same for all future regular board meetings.<\/p>\n

The college and the Board of Trustees value input from the public, and public input was a key factor in the decision to begin recording the meetings.\u00a0\u00a0Transparency is an important factor in keeping the public trust, and we are committed to maintaining that trust.<\/p>\n

Last week I sent you all an e-mail and encouraged you to await the final report to our Board of Trustees for an understanding of the facts in regards to an issue being brought up by our local newspaper.\u00a0\u00a0At last night\u2019s board meeting, the college\u2019s counsel, Chuck Judson gave a presentation and stated that his firm, Smith Haughey Rice and Roegge had conducted a thorough review of records provided by members of the Board of Trustees in compliance with numerous Freedom of Information Act requests by the Traverse City Record-Eagle.\u00a0\u00a0The requests were for electronic or written communications between board members as they considered adopting a policy for recording our regular Board of Trustees meetings.<\/p>\n

It was Judson\u2019s opinion that the Trustees\u2019 email communications did not constitute a violation of the Open Meetings Act.<\/p>\n

In his chairman\u2019s report, Board Chair Doug Bishop detailed a letter received in the NMC President\u2019s Office from the Record-Eagle that accused the Board of Trustees of multiple violations of the Open Meetings Act and included a statement from the Record-Eagle that it\u00a0might file a criminal complaint unless NMC\u2019s \u201celected officials and administrators\u201d complied with the following demands.<\/p>\n

That letter was received in the President\u2019s Office on Friday afternoon, March 28, and the Record-Eagle requested a response no later than Wednesday, April 2.\u00a0\u00a0Their letter, and my reply to them (sent to them on April 2)\u00a0are included here:<\/p>\n