Minnie Bardenhagen

Editor-In-Chief 

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On Nov. 4-5, I had the opportunity to participate in the Michigan Press Association’s (MPA) 2025 Michigan Trott Foundation News Fellowship. This opportunity took me to the state capital, Lansing, where I got to meet fellow student journalists, and talk to state politicians about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which was the subject we were assigned to investigate for the fellowship.

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About 180 miles south of Traverse City, I found myself in another world. In my time as a reporter and editor for the White Pine Press, I have not yet had to use FOIA, nor dive deeply into the world of Lansing politics. I knew as soon as I arrived in the Capitol that I was about to be pushed way beyond my comfort zone.

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Michigan’s FOIA law has been the subject of expansive debate for over a decade. Michigan is one of only two states where the legislature, governor, and lieutenant governor are not subject to FOIA. This point of contention exploded after 2015, when Michigan ranked near the bottom out of all 50 states in a public integrity investigation. This dubious distinction happened in the midst of the Flint water crisis, which sparked conversation over the lack of disclosure on how officials dealt with the crisis.

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The most recent efforts to expand the FOIA law were Senate bills 1 and 2 of the 2025 legislative term. The bills, co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Jeremy Moss and Republican Senator Ed McBroom, garnered bipartisan support in the Senate, as they were passed 33-2. In the House, however, the measures have not been taken up for a vote, as House Speaker Matt Hall has not waivered in his refusal to prioritze them.

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“We’re trying to shine a light on those dark corners [where] bad actors would operate,” Moss described. Both Moss and McBroom share a goal of allowing the public to get a better grasp on who is communicating with state legislators and executives. “By exposing those calendars to people—who we meet with and how often—there is a certain level of accountability that gets to be established, and certainly the press would play a huge role in bringing [that] forward and being able to point that out,” said McBroom.

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While Moss and McBroom both said they try to voluntarily operate with transparency, the bills they are trying to pass would give them the resources they need to do so on a larger scale.

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“It’s difficult for us to implement everything that these bills would do just individually, because we don’t have the infrastructure,” McBroom explained, “I don’t have the staff who have the time to go through documents… and right now there isn’t a mechanism for us to really retain them.”

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A challenge the two senators face in getting the bills passed is getting House legislators to prioritize them. This starts with getting constituents to prioritize FOIA expansion, which is a difficult task.

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“I think Senator McBroom and I can definitely acknowledge rising costs, employment, food assistance, housing… we know that those are real urgent crises that people grapple with at their dinner table every night as they sit down as a family. They do not grapple with FOIA,” Moss said. However, he also pointed out that getting information on these issues may be easier with wider access to legislative and executive information: “You could see the discussions that go on in the legislature. And how do you see that? FOIA.”

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Brian Calley, former lieutenant governor under Rick Snyder who is currently the CEO and president of the Small Business Association of Michigan and serves on the Board of Trustees of Oakland University, has always favored increased transparency. 

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“You know, we have a democratic republic, and that means we elect people to represent the people, and how do we ensure that representation is happening? Transparency is really the main way,” Calley said, “Outcomes tend to be more transparent than the process to get to those outcomes. The process matters because the means don’t always justify the ends.”

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Throughout his political career, Calley aspired to be voluntarily transparent. Notably, towards the end of Snyder’s and Calley’s time in the governor’s office (2011-2018), they voluntarily released more than 270 pages of emails relating to the governor’s correspondence during the Flint water crisis. This precedent, however, existed even at the beginning of Calley’s time as a state representative, where he voluntarily chose the seat closest to the press booth.

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“From my first day on the floor of the House of Representatives, I started a trusting relationship where I saw the benefit of communication with the media,” Calley explained, “As an elected official, it was a way to amplify the work that I had. If I expected my work to be amplified by the media, it required a trusting reciprocal relationship.”

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Although there is evidence of high support among citizens for expanding FOIA laws, Calley said that it’s not at the top of constituents’ minds.

“It’s just that as long as political people are responding to things that are higher on their list, those political people are [not going to] support FOIA and maintain support of the voter, ” Calley elaborated.

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Those already subject to FOIA, such as Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, echo a similar sentiment.

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“It’s just amazing how every session of the legislature, they find some way to not apply FOIA to themselves,” she said. “There’s something cultural here… if all you’ve ever known is ‘these conversations are not made public,’ ‘these conversations are not exposed’... You get used to it, right?”

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We had the opportunity to meet with Attorney General Nessel and State Operations Division Chief Jessica McGiveny to talk about the process agencies have to go through to respond to requests. Notably, Nessel described the effect of high numbers of FOIA requests pouring into her office. While long waiting times and high fees have been a point of contention with Michigan’s FOIA process, Nessel explained that they prioritize making sure necessary redactions—personal phone numbers, addresses, social security numbers, etc.—are made. 

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While these kinds of redactions are required by law, Nessel also has personal experience being doxxed by a FOIA request that has made her extra cautious. In her time as a Wayne County prosecutor, Nessel claimed that a FOIA request ended in her personal information being exposed to the public.

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“I was really upset about that, and that’s why I take it so seriously,” she said.

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Four other student journalists were chosen for this opportunity: Blace Carpenter, managing editor for Central Michigan University’s (CMU) CMLife; Lee Marenette, news editor for Grand Valley State University’s (GVSU) Lanthorn; Ameera Salman, news editor for Eastern Michigan University’s (EMU) Eastern Echo; and Lilly Kujawski, managing editor for the Eastern Echo. I was able to learn about the challenges that come with managing larger university newspapers, while also finding common ground on some challenges. My biggest takeaways from my trip to Lansing came from watching the confidence and expertise of the other student journalists. Watching how they adapted to every situation was inspiring and gave me motivation to improve my own work.

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I want to thank the MPA: specifically Lisa McGraw, MPA’s public policy manager; and James Tarrant; MPA’s executive director, for supporting student journalism and accompanying us during our time in Lansing. I also would like to thank David Clark from the Midland Daily News for being our mentor.