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Mayor reads sunshine-law text as resident questions closed-session real-estate dealings on Main Circle
Summary
At the Feb. 3 Chesterfield City Council meeting, the mayor read portions of state open-meetings statutes while a resident raised concerns about an apparent past city negotiation to buy an office on Main Circle and questioned legal costs and transparency.
The mayor read aloud state open-meetings language and an executive-session exception for real-estate transactions at the Feb. 3 Chesterfield City Council meeting, and a resident said she has tracked what she described as a negotiated but stalled attempt by the city to buy an office building on Main Circle.
"It is the public policy of this state that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies be open to the public unless otherwise provided by law," the mayor read from the statute, quoting language placed on the public record by the council.
Patricia Tocco of 14720 White Brook Drive told the council she had reviewed redacted legal invoices and other packet materials that she said indicate the city negotiated purchase terms, appraisals and draft purchase-and-sale documents for an office building on Main Circle. "I personally hope this transaction is never consummated," Tocco said, and said her "best estimate of cumulative legal costs incurred through the current date is about $20,000." She urged greater transparency in such transactions.
A staff member responded with an interpretation of the statute's application to executive sessions, saying, "The way I read it is a two-prong [test] ... there would be two separate situations ... that those records will become public records." That speaker framed the exception as applying when a transaction can no longer be affected or when it is executed.
The mayor had earlier read the statute's broader language and the closed-meeting exception for leasing, purchase or sale of real estate, and then invited comments and questions. Neither a formal council action nor a vote on a real-estate purchase was on the meeting agenda; the remarks were made during communications and public comment.
The council did not take formal action on the matter during the meeting. Speakers urged clarification of when executive-session minutes and records become public if a proposed transaction stalls or fails to close; staff described competing interpretations and noted case-by-case application of the statute.
