Minutes of an an improperly called closed session held by the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners in August to discuss a lawsuit against two employees of the county Building Inspections department may be released to the public later this month - without a court order.

Last month, the county’s “corporate counsel,” attorney Peter Cohl of Lansing, advised the county board to apologize publicly for going into closed session on Aug. 21 to discuss “pending litigation.” The state Open Meetings Act allows public bodies to conduct closed meetings to consult an attorney about pending litigation, but only if the attorney is either physically present at the meeting or on a speaker phone.

No attorney was involved in the Aug. 21 meeting.

During a special meeting of county board last month, the board voted to apologize for its Open Meetings Act violation – but stopped short of releasing minutes of the illegally closed meeting as requested by the publisher of the county’s weekly newspaper, the Leelanau Enterprise.

At last month’s special meeting, Cohl told the county board that they could not release minutes of the closed session unless they were sued over their Open Meetings Act violation and were issued a court order to release the minutes.

That bit of legal advice from Cohl was apparently in error.

Another attorney in Cohl’s law firm, Tim Perrone, has advised an attorney representing owners of The Homestead resort that the county board may release the minutes of the closed session without a court order as long as the board votes to do so at an upcoming meeting.

Attorney Thomas Oehmke of Northport is representing owners of The Homestead resort in their suit against two Leelanau County mechanical inspectors who approved the installation of fireplaces at a lodging facility at The Homestead several years ago. The fireplaces were later shown to present a “life-safety” hazard due to faulty installation.

After learning of the county board’s public admission that it discussed the case in an illegal closed session, Oehmke issued a subpoena to the county board, demanding that they provide minutes of the meeting.

“The county’s attorney tried to argue that under the Open Meetings Act the minutes couldn’t be released without a court order,” Oehmke said. “But you simply can’t claim to be sheltered by the Open Meetings Act when you’ve admitted that the meeting was unlawful under the Open Meetings Act.”

Apparently at Cohl’s direction, Perrone informed Oehmke that the board “will consider adopting a resolution to make public the closed session minutes from its August 21, 2007 meeting, in light of the fact that the Board has already formally determined that the closed session was not entered pursuant to a valid reason under the Open Meetings Act.”

County administrator David Gill said the issue will be on the agenda of the board’s Executive Committee meeting on Nov. 13. Final action to release the minutes could be taken at the board’s regular monthly meeting on Nov. 20.

The trial date in the case against the two Leelanau County mechanical inspectors has been set for Dec. 4-6, according to Oehmke.

The publisher of the Leelanau Enterprise, Alan Campbell, said he believes the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners also violated the Open Meetings Act in holding closed sessions on Feb. 14, March 13, and May 11.

Although commissioners have publicly acknowledged that they held a “straw vote” during a closed session on March 13 – a direct violation of the Open Meetings Act – Cohl has advised the board to make no further admissions of guilt.