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Although not tossed out of a recent safety meeting, Rogers was again told that he could not attend.

Upon arriving for a scheduled safety meeting that was to be taking place before the 8 a.m. board meeting at the KCRC building, Rogers found that the meeting's members seemed to have disappeared. On further investigation, Rogers discovered that the meeting was being held in the building's basement. Rogers then made his way to the basement and took a seat, setting up his camera, as he did.

"I didn't realize that you guys were holding the meeting down here," Rogers said.

"You guys can't stay here," Nice said, referring to Rogers and his son.

Rogers then quoted the Open Meetings Act (OMA) to Nice and the others gathered at the meeting.

"Well, I'm not going to argue," Nice said.

After a few moments of conversing with Jim Green and the others gathered there, Nice turned to the group and said something quite interesting.

"We'll just go to my house after the big meeting," Nice said, referring to the board meeting that was to be taking place in a few minutes in the upstairs meeting room.

At this point, all gathered there stand up, gather their things, and move to the upstairs board room for the board of commissioners meeting.

It seems that a disturbing pattern is arising out of these more off-beat meetings. This is the second time in as many weeks that Rogers has been told that he could not be involved in what was obviously a meeting in which decisions were being made that affected the public in such a way so as to have Rogers' removal be a violation of the Open Meetings Act. Although this meeting was adjourned, it is anyone's guess as to whether or not it continued at Nice's home after the board meeting had concluded. In a previous meeting that was to involve discussions between two townships and George Nice and Jim Green, Rogers was asked leave as well. When he did not comply, he was removed by a deputy at the request of Nice and Green.

The Open Meetings Act is interpreted by the Attorney General in two very important ways. First, that a meeting of a standing committee of a county board of commissioners, composed of less than a quorum of the full board (which was the case with both meetings that Rogers was barred from attending as Nice and Green were the only present board members), is subject to the OMA when the committee is effectively authorized to determine whether items of county business will or will not be referred for action by the full board (as seemed to be the case at both meetings). Secondly, the OMA states that organizations are not required to establish a regular meeting schedule as a result of the OMA. This is not to say, however, that public bodies may avoid the notice requirements by refusing to establish a regular meeting schedule. Public bodies which meet only when necessary may continue to meet on this basis and are not subject to the 10-day notice requirements of Section 5(2) of the OMA. They must, however, observe the requirements of the 18 hour notice for special meetings provided for in Section 5(4) of the OMA.

Taking advantage of that second opinion is a very good way to ensure that those that one may not wish to be present at a certain meeting are indeed not there. One hopes that certain members of the board of the KCRC are not using this rule in such a fashion.

This is not the first time that Nice has upset a colleague with his modus operandi.

"My 40 plus years of public service employment has been at the professional level with more than 34 years in supervisory and administrative positions. I have dealt professionally with 15 different road commissions and four different Michigan Department of Transportation districts. I have never seen a board member, or any road commission employee, act as unprofessionally as I have witnessed here at Kalkaska since commissioner Nice has been a member of the board. Every meeting has been a personal attack on the manager and staff. I can no longer be a part of the continuing attacks and the incompetence of the commissioner," Harold Sheffer, chairman of the KCRC commissioners, wrote in his resignation letter dated October 7, 2005.

One would hope that things are not as dire as they may seem at this point, that perhaps there is a misunderstanding.

This, however, is seeming less and less likely, especially in light of the actions taken by the Kalkaska County Board of Commissioners at their March 11, 2008 meeting. Commissioner Crambell moved that the Kalkaska County board of commissioners lodge a formal complaint with the Kalkaska County Prosecutor's Office against James Green and George Nice for violations of the Open Meetings Act. When it came to a vote, it passed unanimously.