Terms Used In Michigan Laws > Chapter 15 > Act 267 of 1976 - Open Meetings Act

• Absent voter: is a voter who utilizes the process described in section 759. See Michigan Laws 168.2
• Absent voter ballot: means a ballot that is issued to a voter through the absent voter process. See Michigan Laws 168.2
• Administrator: means the administrator of the authority as provided for in section 21525. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affiliate: means a person that directly, or indirectly through 1 or more intermediaries, controls the person specified. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• annual meeting: when applied to townships, mean the annual meeting required by law to be held on the Saturday immediately preceding the first Monday in April. See Michigan Laws 8.3d
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Approved claim: means a claim that is approved pursuant to section 21510. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Authority: means the underground storage tank authority created in section 21523. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• board: means the board of directors of the authority. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Bond proceeds account: means the account within the fund to which proceeds of bonds or notes issued under this part have been credited. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Bonds or notes: means the bonds, notes, commercial paper, other obligations of indebtedness, or any combination of these, issued by the finance authority pursuant to this part. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Bulk transfer: means a transfer of refined petroleum or a refined petroleum product from, or purchase for resale by, a refiner, pipeline terminal operator, supplier, or marine terminal operator to or from another refiner, pipeline terminal operator, supplier, or marine terminal operator through pipeline tender or marine delivery, including pipeline movements of refined petroleum or a refined petroleum product from 1 or more marine vessel movements of refined petroleum or a refined petroleum product. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Bulk transfer terminal system: means the refined petroleum or refined petroleum product distribution system consisting of refineries, pipelines, marine vessels, and terminals and includes refined petroleum or refined petroleum product storage tanks and refined petroleum or refined petroleum product storage facilities that are part of a refinery, boat terminal transfer, or terminal owned, operated, or controlled by a refiner, marine terminal operator, or pipeline terminal operator. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Claim: means the submission by the owner or operator or his or her representative of documentation on an application requesting payment by the authority. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Claim period: means a 1-year period commencing on October 1 of each year and ending on September 30 the following year. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Claims limit: means $1,000,000. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Closed session: means a meeting or part of a meeting of a public body that is closed to the public. See Michigan Laws 15.262
• Commission: means the commission of natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.301
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conference committee: A temporary, ad hoc panel composed of conferees from both chamber of a legislature which is formed for the purpose of reconciling differences in legislation that has passed both chambers. Conference committees are usually convened to resolve bicameral differences on major and controversial legislation.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Controls: means the possession or the contingent or noncontingent right to acquire possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities or interests, by contract, other than a commercial contract for goods or nonmanagement services, by pledge of securities, or otherwise, unless the power is the result of an official position with or corporate office held by the person. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Corrective action: means the investigation, assessment, cleanup, removal, containment, isolation, treatment, or monitoring of regulated substances released into the environment from an underground storage tank system that is necessary under this part to prevent, minimize, or mitigate injury to the public health, safety, or welfare, the environment, or natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.21302
• Corrective action: means that term as it is defined in section 21302. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dealer: means any person engaged in the sale, lease, or rental of snowmobiles as a regular business, other than an auctioneer. See Michigan Laws 324.82101
• Decision: means a determination, action, vote, or disposition upon a motion, proposal, recommendation, resolution, order, ordinance, bill, or measure on which a vote by members of a public body is required and by which a public body effectuates or formulates public policy. See Michigan Laws 15.262
• Deductible amount: means the amount of corrective action costs or indemnification costs that are required to be paid by an owner or operator as provided in section 21510a. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the director of the department of natural resources or his or her designee to whom the director delegates a power or duty by written instrument. See Michigan Laws 324.301
• Department: means the department of environmental quality. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Department: means the department of natural resources unless expressly indicated otherwise. See Michigan Laws 324.33924
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Director: means the director of the department of natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.301
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Election: means an election or primary election at which the electors of this state or of a subdivision of this state choose or nominate by ballot an individual for public office or decide a ballot question lawfully submitted to them. See Michigan Laws 168.2
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Finance authority: means the Michigan finance authority created by Executive Reorganization Order No. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Financial responsibility requirements: means the financial responsibility for taking corrective action and for compensating third parties for bodily injury and property damage caused by a release from a refined petroleum underground storage tank system that the owner or operator of a refined petroleum underground storage tank system must demonstrate under part 211 and the rules promulgated under that part. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• firearm: except as otherwise specifically defined in statute, includes any weapon which will, is designed to, or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by action of an explosive. See Michigan Laws 8.3t
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fund: means the underground storage tank cleanup fund created in section 21506b and includes the bond proceeds account established within the fund. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• general November election: means the election held on the November regular election date in an even numbered year. See Michigan Laws 168.2
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Historic snowmobile: means a snowmobile that is over 25 years old and that is owned solely as a collector's item and for occasional use and for participation in club activities, exhibitions, tours, parades, and similar uses, including mechanical testing. See Michigan Laws 324.82101
• in writing: shall be construed to include printing, engraving, and lithographing; except that if the written signature of a person is required by law, the signature shall be the proper handwriting of the person or, if the person is unable to write, the person's proper mark, which may be, unless otherwise expressly prohibited by law, a clear and classifiable fingerprint of the person made with ink or another substance. See Michigan Laws 8.3q
• In-kind contributions: means services and goods as approved by the department that are provided by a grant recipient toward completion of a department-approved local snowmobile program under section 82107. See Michigan Laws 324.82101
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Indemnification: means indemnification of an owner or operator for a legally enforceable judgment entered against the owner or operator by a third party, or a legally enforceable settlement entered between the owner or operator and a third party, compensating that third party for bodily injury or property damage, or both, caused by an accidental release as those terms are defined in R 29. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Joint meeting: An occasion, often ceremonial, when the House and Senate each adopt a unanimous consent agreement
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• local unit: means a municipality or county. See Michigan Laws 324.301
• Location: means a parcel of property where refined petroleum underground storage tank systems are registered pursuant to part 211. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Manufacturer: means a person that prepares, produces, derives, propagates, compounds, processes, packages, or repackages a drug or device salable on prescription only, or otherwise changes the container or the labeling of a drug or device salable on prescription only, and that supplies, distributes, sells, offers for sale, barters, or otherwise disposes of that drug or device and any other drug or device salable on prescription only, to another person for resale, compounding, or dispensing. See Michigan Laws 333.17706
• Marine terminal operator: means a person that stores refined petroleum or a refined petroleum product at a boat terminal transfer. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Meeting: means the convening of a public body at which a quorum is present for the purpose of deliberating toward or rendering a decision on a public policy, or any meeting of the board of a nonprofit corporation formed by a city under section 4o of the home rule city act, 1909 PA 279, MCL 117. See Michigan Laws 15.262
• Metropolitan district: means a district incorporated under the metropolitan district act, 1929 PA 312, MCL 119. See Michigan Laws 168.17
• Metropolitan district election coordinator: means the county clerk of the county in which the largest number of registered electors of the metropolitan district reside. See Michigan Laws 168.17
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• month: means a calendar month; the word "year" a calendar year; and the word "year" alone shall be equivalent to the words "year of our Lord". See Michigan Laws 8.3j
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: shall be construed to include the word "affirmation" in all cases where by law an affirmation may be substituted for an oath; and in like cases the word "sworn" shall be construed to include the word "affirmed". See Michigan Laws 8.3k
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Operate: means to ride in or on and be in actual physical control of the operation of a snowmobile. See Michigan Laws 324.82101
• Operator: means a person who is presently, or was at the time of a release, in control of, or responsible for, the operation of an underground storage tank system. See Michigan Laws 324.21303
• Operator: means that term as it is defined in section 21303 or a person to whom an approved claim has been assigned or transferred. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Operator: means any individual who operates a snowmobile. See Michigan Laws 324.82101
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: means a person who holds, or at the time of a release who held, a legal, equitable, or possessory interest of any kind in an underground storage tank system or in the property on which an underground storage tank system is or was located including, but not limited to, a trust, vendor, vendee, lessor, or lessee. See Michigan Laws 324.21303
• Owner: means that term as it is defined in section 21303. See Michigan Laws 324.21502
• Owner: means any of the following: