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Governor Gretchen Whitmer signs bill to permit local government meetings to be held virtually

"Virtual Meeting with Dr. Kamlesh Nilkant Vyas (01011640)" by IAEA Imagebank is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill this week that enables local government meetings to be conducted remotely.

Public bodies in Michigan will now be allowed to meet virtually through the end of March.

The modification of the open meetings act, which started during the pandemic and briefly lapsed earlier this year, will stay in effect until the spring.

Meetings can be conducted by phone or video conference. Many local governments requested state legislatures codify this provision when a Supreme Court ruling upended the executive power Governor Whitmer was using to allow for virtual meetings.