Executive Session 12/01/05

A former City Attorney once told me that the Council could meet for any reason they wanted as long as it was posted as "Conferring with City Attorney over legal matters". Such is the long standing habit in our City. The notice on the posted agenda for this and all executive sessions as well as the motion always read by the City Attorney at the meeting is so comprehensive anything goes. No attempt is made to be reasonably specific as to the authority for the meeting they are using under State law.

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On Thursday at 5:00 pm the City Council and NURA will meet in executive session to discuss the next move in the effort to develop the land acquired by the City adjacent to the proposed theater. As you might remember they are trying to decided whether to select another developer or attempt the project internally. The discussion most certainly will cover public policy issues and then they might spend a few minutes discussing a real estate or contractual agreement. I would venture a guess that 80% of the time will be on matters that do not justify the need for secrecy.

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The Mayor, City Council, City Attorney and City Manager should break with the questionable tradition of using the executive session at the drop of a hat. It should be convened when absolutely necessary and only cover the point or issue that must be held in temporary secrecy. The executive session this week should be cancelled or at least only convened for the minimum time necessary to discuss eligible items. Convening an executive session for the planned, far ranging discussion is inappropriate and a public disservice. Thanks to a court decision earlier this year the executive session will be recorded and subject to an in camera review by a District Court judge, should one be requested.

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I have one more complaint about the Mayor and Council's continuing disregard for serving the public interests. Once again they have scheduled the executive session at the start of a Regular meeting. Once again they have not established an estimated time for the beginning of the Regular meeting. If you have any interest in other items on the agenda, you can sit and wait thanks to your current public servants.

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As a public service I would like to give some advice to the NURA Board. You are a seperate governmental body and notice of your meeting with the City Council must also be posted in advance. Furthermore, you too must call a meeting and vote to go into executive session; in public.