Committee Revisits Executive Session Rules, Recording Retention and Littleton’s Charter Limits

The Charter Review Committee examined Article 3, Section 27 of Littleton’s charter and compared local language to Colorado open-meetings law. City Attorney Reid traced changes from a voter-led 2013 amendment that tightened executive-session authority to a 2018 amendment that partially restored it. He said the city charter is currently more restrictive than state law for the threshold on when executive sessions may be convened. The attorney told the committee that executive sessions are typically used to consult with counsel, give instructions to negotiators, discuss personnel matters and consider litigation strategy. “The whole purpose behind the open meetings law was really to keep it open,” Reid said, adding that executive sessions are a narrowly enumerated exception. The committee discussed how the city records and stores executive-session audio: staff turn on a digital voice recorder, note the statutory basis and attendees, then deliver the recording to the city’s custodian of records (Colleen). If litigation challenges whether an executive session complied with the law, a court may review the recording and could void decisions made in violation. Reid said state law retention is 90 days for recordings, but Littleton’s charter currently requires retaining recordings until the officeholders are “no longer in office,” which could be as short as two years depending on term limits. Committee members asked staff to research how state statute treats executive-session retention, and whether cross-references in the charter should defer to state law to avoid future conflicts. No ordinance or charter amendment was adopted at the meeting; staff were asked to prepare comparative language and a parking-lot entry for further review.