Yesterday, the House Oversight and Ethics committee passed out HB 4522 with only one legislator voting no.  A different substitute was adopted from last week requiring that at least one minority vote must be in favor of passing the subpoena resolution in an attempt to help limit abuse of the act.  It also stated an attorney must be consulted before passing the resolution and the normal 18 hour notice of a committee hearing must now be a 72 hour notice when a subpoena resolution will be on the agenda.

The ability to subpoena local records is already allowed under Act 118 of 1931 by a resolution of the full house/senate.  This legislation would give authority to the committee that receives and reviews auditor general reports (the Oversight committee in this case) to subpoena witnesses by a vote of the committee  and not the full house/senate.

The League along well the Michigan Townships Association, Michigan Association of Counties, Michigan Sheriff’s Association and school organizations are opposed to this legislation.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development, land use and municipal services issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.