A three-month investigation into whether Grand Traverse County commissioners violated the Open Meetings Act (OMA) when they voted to end the contract of former County Administrator Dave Benda with scant public discussion has still not reached a resolution.

Though Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Mark Henschel completed his interviews of commissioners and submitted a report with his findings to Grand Traverse County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Cooney last week, Cooney tells The Ticker he forwarded the report on to the Michigan Attorney General’s office for review. Due to his role as chief civil counsel to commissioners, Cooney has requested a special prosecuting attorney be assigned to take over the case.

Both the Michigan State Police and Cooney have so far declined to publicly release or discuss the report. “I feel that this is an open investigation right now,” Cooney says. “Until a special prosecutor has reviewed it and decided whether to issue charges, or decline, I would be interfering with that prosecutor’s ability to do their job if I released it. I would want to make that call myself, about whether there’s other evidence we need to look at or if additional interviews need to be completed.” Cooney also cited the potential for witnesses to “tailor their statements” if the report was made public.

Cooney says he expects a special prosecuting attorney to be assigned to the investigation “within a week.”