Dozens of residents attended Oakland County commission meetings Wednesday and protested two closed sessions for Republican and Democrat caucus meetings. By the end of the night, residents were confused about whether the closed meetings were legal.
The caucuses met behind closed doors with the county’s lead corporate attorney, Solon Phillips, to discuss a resolution passed in February that bars federal agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol from some areas of county properties, with several exceptions, including a judicial warrant.
Caucus meetings allow each party to decide independently if they support or oppose resolutions to be decided during an open meeting. County commission caucus meetings that include a majority of the entire board must be open to the public. The county commission’s Democrats hold a 12-7 majority over Republicans.
Most county commissioners maintain the closed sessions were legal. The state’s Open Meetings Act allows for closed sessions of any public meeting to discuss legal opinions, real estate negotiations and personnel issues. The law requires votes by government boards to be public and generally requires government boards to be as open as possible as often as possible.
But residents were encouraged to follow Democrat caucus members into the closed session by Commissioner Charlie Cavell, a Ferndale Democrat.
“We’re going to follow them because they are running away from you,” Cavell told residents over the noise of other conversations as the Democrats’ caucus moved to a new room for a closed session.
About a dozen sheriff’s deputies were present in the first meeting room and moved with the commissioners to an upstairs conference room. Deputies used calm conversations rather than confrontations to direct the crowd and prevent them from entering the second conference room.
Cavell told The Oakland Press that he did not use “running away” in the literal sense but that he was purposely grandstanding.
Cavell has been frustrated with the commission, particularly Commission Chairman Dave Woodward, a Royal Oak Democrat, for not taking a stronger stand on ICE action as well as unrelated transparency measures he and Commissioner Kristin Nelson, a Waterford Township Democrat, have promoted since May 2025.
Nelson has been asking for more than a year that the Democrats’ caucus be livestreamed. Woodward has said there will be no livestream.
Cavell and Nelson left the caucus last summer after repeated disagreements over transparency issues with other Democrats.
In addition to his actions for the Democrat’ caucus, Cavell led residents in protesting the Republican caucus’ closed session, though Republicans are not subject to the Open Meetings Act because their numbers do not include a majority of the commissioners.
The commission late Wednesday night released a statement that the closed meetings met the standard of the state’s Open Meetings Act because both caucuses were reviewing a written legal opinion.
Cavell proposed resolutions to set aside $150,00t to help immigrants’ families with legal support for wrongful detention and groceries was referred to the commission’s newly created community safety and civil rights subcommittee last year
That subcommittee’s meeting is at noon Tuesday in a commission conference room at 1200 N. Telegraph. That meeting is open to the public.