Palm Springs council adds late closed‑session item on potential litigation

Palm Springs City Council on June 11 voted to add a late‑breaking closed‑session item to meet with legal counsel about potential litigation and then adjourned to a nearby small conference room.

A city staff member told the council that "Seth would request the council add" the item and that "in my opinion, there is significant exposure to litigation based on those facts and circumstances." The staff member said those facts and circumstances came to city staff after the agenda was posted and that an agenda description had been provided to the city clerk.

The presiding officer recorded that "all members are present" and said there was no public testimony: "We have no public testimony today." After the council added the item — which staff said required a four‑fifths vote — members recessed to the small conference room for the closed session.

The public portion of the meeting included no substantive discussion of the underlying facts; the transcript records only the council adding the item and adjourning to an executive (closed) session. The transcript does not show a formal roll‑call vote tally or the names of any mover or seconder for the agenda addition, nor does it record the subject matter of the litigation beyond the staff characterization of "significant exposure to litigation." The council also asked the clerk to reflect that all members were present before adjourning.

Under California law, Government Code section 54956.9 permits local agencies to discuss certain litigation exposures in closed session; the transcript indicates the council relied on that authority when adding this agenda item. The closed session itself is confidential, and the transcript offers no further public details about the facts that prompted the addition or the outcome of the closed‑session discussion.