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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