Michigan House Oversight Committee hears testimony on new transparency bills
(The Center Square) – The legislative fallout continues over Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s taxpayer-funded severance packages and confidentiality agreements for at least two high-ranking former members of her administration.
The Michigan House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Thursday heard testimony from Reps. Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain, and Annette Glenn, R-Midland. The legislators also fielded questions from committee members regarding LaFave’s HB 4566 and Glenn’s HB 4588.
Both bills seek to prohibit nondisclosure agreements with public employees and state officers.
Sponsored by LaFave, HB 4566 would create a new act to prohibit the state, except as otherwise required by law, from entering into, amending, extending, or renewing a confidentiality or nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with an individual who holds an elective or appointive state office. The bill is cosponsored by Oversight Committee Chairman Steven Johnson, R-Wayland.
HB 4588 would prohibit employment contracts between the state and departmental heads in the executive branch that include nondisclosure agreements. Violation of the proposed law would result in civil fines up to $2,500.
Both bills were introduced after it was reported Whitmer had signed confidentiality agreements with Robert Gordon, former director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Steven Gray, former director of the state’s Unemployment Insurance Agency. Gordon received $156,600 in severance and Gray received $85,872 in severance.
“What I want to be clear about is this body, the Legislature, makes the laws of the land, and if signed into law or a veto is overridden, the law simply will be that state officers cannot accept NDAs,” LaFave told the committee.
“The governor is not above the laws, although she likes to think she is,” he added.
“[T]his is taxpayer money,” Glenn said. “It’s not our money [and] it’s not the governor’s money. I mean this is taxpayer’s money that they entrusted to us.”
The committee testimony occurred on the same day the House adopted new transparency rules for severance packages, including banning gag clauses and limiting severance buyouts to six weeks of pay after it was reported the Michigan Senate settled 20 severance packages totaling approximately $373,000 in taxpayer money.
The House last week unanimously passed a bill to expand the Freedom of Information Act to include the legislative and executive branches of state government. Both branches are currently exempt from FOIA requests.
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