Monday, January 19, 2015

[Santa Clara County] Palo Alto: Council to consider closed session voting policy


The Palo Alto City Council is slated Tuesday to answer the lingering question of whether it should always vote before holding a closed session.
The issue is returning to the council after its Policy and Services Committee deadlocked on a recommendation.
The question sprang from a discussion in September about a Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury investigation that criticized the council for meeting in secret to discuss billionaire developer John Arrillaga's proposals to build a mixed-use project at 27 University Ave. and to purchase a 7.7-acre parcel deeded to the city for conservation purposes.
Councilman Greg Scharff has led the charge to make it standard operating procedure for the council to vote before holding a closed session. He has argued that it would increase transparency.
"I see no real downside to doing it," Scharff said at the Policy and Services Committee meeting on Oct. 21. "Almost always we'll vote to do it, but at least we'll be thinking about it."
Scharff found support for his position in then-Councilman Greg Schmid, who is now the vice mayor.
However, Councilman Larry Klein and Councilwoman Gail Price weren't convinced that anything needed to be changed. Klein and Price both stepped down from the dais earlier this month.
"I think this is a solution in search of a problem," Klein said at the same meeting. "I don't think there is a problem."
Klein added that he had never been questioned by a member of the public about a closed session.
"That's not the same thing at all," Klein said when Scharff reminded him about the controversy over the 7.7-acre parcel.
The civil grand jury blasted the council for meeting in a closed session to discuss Arrillaga's $175,000 offer instead of following an established public process for selling surplus public property.
The family of Palo Alto Medical Clinic founder Russel Lee granted the land to the city in 1981 with a deed restriction that it "be used for conservation, including park and recreation purposes." The council ultimately voted to add the parcel to residents-only Foothills Park.
The council also waited nine months before telling the public about Arrillaga's proposal to build four office towers and a performing arts theater at 27 University Ave., according to the investigation.
The council is allowed under the Brown Act, the state's open meetings law, to hold closed sessions to discuss personnel matters, litigation, real estate transactions and labor negotiations.
The council already has the authority to vote before holding a closed session, according to a memo from City Attorney Molly Stump.
"Having a formalized procedure would ensure that it occur each time the council holds a closed session," Stump wrote, adding that San Francisco is the only city in the Bay Area with such a policy.
The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave.
January 16, 2015
San Jose Mercury News
By Jason Green

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