This posting has raised a number of questions and emails like the one below, so I thought I would answer this question publicly to give some insight into Council operations.
John,
Since this meeting is to be held in executive session, whereby citizens cannot attend, I am curious why you wanted us to know. Is this just informative for CC before the evening meeting? Are there three issues, or one issue involving 3 aspects? I am concerned that this comes on the heels of elections and before Denny Shortal takes office.
I trust someone will inform the press.
Pat
Pat, the City Council has “Executive Sessions” quite regularly after our regular Monday evening meetings to discuss items allowed by Georgia law to be confidential. The only three allowances are for legal cases & lawsuits, purchase of real estate and items dealing with a personnel matter. When I am invited into these sessions, I don’t get a published agenda as to what will be discussed so to answer those who have asked; I don’t specifically know what is on the agenda. In this case, I am being requested to come to City Hall for a special Monday morning closed-door meeting where I believe all three things will be discussed because that is what looks to be published on the agenda. The City Council has several direct employees (City Manager & City Clerk) who need to have performance reviews and evaluations done behind closed doors, so I am guessing that might be one of the topics as it is the end of the calendar year. This topic alone is not enough for me to be summoned to City Hall away from my full time job, as this could have been done after the regularly scheduled December meeting. The city is actively participating in several lawsuits and one of those may have had some movement one way or another where staff might need to give us an update. Councilwoman Tallmadge is also new and would need to be briefed as to the status of all active legal cases so we might be discussing those in detail to get her up to speed? As far as Real Estate purchases, none happen overnight and they are all finalized in the public session, so we might be discussing or working on an item that has been in the works for quite some time or there may be a new proposal regarding some aspect of real estate acquisition that the City Manager wants us to review?
As far as why I posted this on my blog, I have posted every City Council agenda for the last seven years and would not want this to break my string. The unusual special called aspect of this meeting also raises suspicion, to even me, that there is something special going on that even I am not yet aware of. As far as the sitting City Council taking action on an item prior to the new Mayor taking office, I can assure you that no official action can happen behind closed doors. Mayor elect Shortal takes office in January and there is just one meeting in December for the City to take actions prior to his arrival. Seeing that Councilwoman Tallmadge was handpicked by Mr. Shortal to fill his vacant council seat, Pam will be involved in all aspects of council governance and Mayor Davis will complete his elected term. The special called meeting is listed on the city website and has already been picked up and published in today's AJC.
This posting has raised a number of questions and emails like the one below, so I thought I would answer this question publicly to give some insight into Council operations.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
Since this meeting is to be held in executive session, whereby citizens cannot attend, I am curious why you wanted us to know. Is this just informative for CC before the evening meeting? Are there three issues, or one issue involving 3 aspects? I am concerned that this comes on the heels of elections and before Denny Shortal takes office.
I trust someone will inform the press.
Pat
Pat, the City Council has “Executive Sessions” quite regularly after our regular Monday evening meetings to discuss items allowed by Georgia law to be confidential. The only three allowances are for legal cases & lawsuits, purchase of real estate and items dealing with a personnel matter. When I am invited into these sessions, I don’t get a published agenda as to what will be discussed so to answer those who have asked; I don’t specifically know what is on the agenda. In this case, I am being requested to come to City Hall for a special Monday morning closed-door meeting where I believe all three things will be discussed because that is what looks to be published on the agenda. The City Council has several direct employees (City Manager & City Clerk) who need to have performance reviews and evaluations done behind closed doors, so I am guessing that might be one of the topics as it is the end of the calendar year. This topic alone is not enough for me to be summoned to City Hall away from my full time job, as this could have been done after the regularly scheduled December meeting. The city is actively participating in several lawsuits and one of those may have had some movement one way or another where staff might need to give us an update. Councilwoman Tallmadge is also new and would need to be briefed as to the status of all active legal cases so we might be discussing those in detail to get her up to speed? As far as Real Estate purchases, none happen overnight and they are all finalized in the public session, so we might be discussing or working on an item that has been in the works for quite some time or there may be a new proposal regarding some aspect of real estate acquisition that the City Manager wants us to review?
As far as why I posted this on my blog, I have posted every City Council agenda for the last seven years and would not want this to break my string. The unusual special called aspect of this meeting also raises suspicion, to even me, that there is something special going on that even I am not yet aware of. As far as the sitting City Council taking action on an item prior to the new Mayor taking office, I can assure you that no official action can happen behind closed doors. Mayor elect Shortal takes office in January and there is just one meeting in December for the City to take actions prior to his arrival. Seeing that Councilwoman Tallmadge was handpicked by Mr. Shortal to fill his vacant council seat, Pam will be involved in all aspects of council governance and Mayor Davis will complete his elected term. The special called meeting is listed on the city website and has already been picked up and published in today's AJC.