Closed-session minutes get their own rule: retained until approval of the minutes of the regular meeting at which the closed session occurred, per MCL 15.267, plus 1 year and 1 day. Quoted from the official DTMB schedules.
Open-session minutes are permanent. Closed-session minutes are the deliberate exception, with a retention rule that quotes the Open Meetings Act inside it:
DTMB General Schedule #35 (Administrative Records), item 35.115; approved 6/6/2023. Applies to all Michigan public bodies.
DTMB General Schedule #25 (Township Clerks), item 25.202; approved 6/17/2008.
Notice what starts the clock: not the closed session itself, but approval of the minutes of the regular meeting at which the closed session occurred. A closed session held in June whose regular-meeting minutes are approved in July may be destroyed one year and one day after that July approval, at the earliest.
Closed-session minutes are a different kind of record. Under MCL 15.267 they are confidential, exempt from FOIA, and available essentially to one audience: a court, if someone sues alleging the closed session was improper. The year-and-a-day window matches the timeframe in which such a challenge can put the minutes in front of a judge. After it passes with no action pending, the schedule authorizes destruction.
The standard caveats bind here more than anywhere: if litigation over the closed session is pending or reasonably anticipated, the hold overrides the schedule and the minutes must be kept until the matter concludes. And the retention period is a minimum; a body may keep them longer as policy, though many attorneys advise destroying on schedule precisely because the statute permits it. Ask yours. The production deadlines and custody rules for all minutes are in our minutes checklist.
Dekree keeps closed-session minutes separate from the public record, tracks the approval-anchored clock for you, and never publishes them to your portal. The retention rule comes from the official schedule, applied automatically.
Both quotes link to the exact page of the official schedule on michigan.gov, and the statute text of MCL 15.267 is on the Michigan Legislature’s site. Every series is searchable in our free retention database. Closed sessions are legally delicate; confirm your practice with your municipal attorney.
General Schedule #35 item 35.115 (Meeting Records, Public Body Closed Meetings) reads: RETAIN UNTIL: Approval of the minutes of the regular meeting at which the closed session occurred, per MCL 15.267(2) PLUS: 1 year and 1 day THEN: Destroy. The township clerk schedule (GS #25 item 25.202) carries the same rule. This mirrors the Open Meetings Act itself, which requires closed-session minutes to be retained for at least a year and a day after approval of the regular-meeting minutes.
Closed-session minutes are the exception to the minutes-are-permanent rule because they exist for a narrow purpose: to document what happened in a lawfully closed session in case of a court challenge. MCL 15.267 keeps them confidential, available only to a court on order, and allows destruction after the year-and-a-day window because they are not part of the public record the way open-session minutes are.
They are not public records under Michigan law. MCL 15.267(2) makes closed-session minutes available only to the public body itself and, on a court order, to a judge in an action challenging the closed session. They are exempt from FOIA disclosure. Custody practices for them are covered in our meeting minutes deadlines guide.
This article is educational information for Michigan public bodies, current as of the publication date. It is not legal advice, and statutes and court decisions change. Confirm specifics with your municipal attorney. Statute text: legislature.mi.gov.