Niles Township was not found to be in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, Berrien County Prosecutor Art Cotter told the township board at a lengthy, often heated meeting Monday night at township hall.

At the board’s April 18 meeting, Township Supervisor Jim Kidwell accused the board of violating the act on two occasions. Kidwell suggested the board didn’t give proper reasoning for closed sessions on Feb. 22 and March 7.

On both occasions, the board went into closed session to discuss a harassment complaint against Treasurer Jim Ringler and a third party investigation of the issue. But Kidwell, who is facing a recall effort for releasing details of those closed sessions to the public in a press release, claims he he didn’t know the purpose of the meetings at the time nor did the public.

Ringler said he couldn’t believe that Kidwell didn’t know the reasoning for the closed session, considering he was involved in initiating the investigation of Ringler.

“You’re going to sit there and say you did not know why we were going into closed session?” Ringler asked Kidwell. “How can you even begin to say that?…Unbelievable.”

Cotter addressed the board and said the reasoning for the closed sessions were valid. He said the law does require that the board have minutes of closed session meetings that include the roll call and purpose for the closed session and if the board wanted to amend the minutes to give more specific reasoning for the closed meeting, it could do so.

“The purpose of this act is to promote free and open government,” Cotter said. “It is isn’t a ‘gotcha’ act. It isn’t a cross your ‘t’s’ and dot your ‘i’s’ act.”

The board then approved a resolution made by Ringler to confirm the purposes of the closed meetings and amend the minutes to further describe the purpose of the closed session. Kidwell was the only one to vote no.

Earlier in the meeting, Kidwell made a motion to approve a resolution to invalidate the decisions to go into the closed sessions and retract any decisions made during those sessions. The motion died for lack of support.

During public comment at the meeting, several residents took the board to task for its bickering.

Chuck Rodgers told the board he was sick of the “bad blood” between board members.

“Will it ever be resolved?…This is not good for the township,” he said.

In one of the few times the board was in agreement, it unanimously voted for a second time to table a resolution to support a proposed county-wide road millage to benefit Berrien County Road Commission projects.

“It’s premature to pass a resolution,” said Clerk Marge Durm-Hiatt. “We need more input. We need more public hearings.”

The six-year 0.5 mill levy would generate $3.4 million a year. Sixty percent of the township’s taxes would stay in the township, while the other 40 percent would go toward county-wide projects.