Scottsdale City Council adjourns into executive session to discuss litigation, meeting practices and two top hires

The Scottsdale City Council on Jan. 28 moved into a closed executive session to receive legal advice on ongoing litigation, consult about council meeting agendas including invocations and guest speakers, and discuss recruitment and hiring for a new city auditor and a new city manager.

Mayor Lisa Barasque asked for the motion, saying, "Now I'll entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session in order to discuss as posted, consult with the city's attorney for legal advice, discuss and consult with the city's designated representatives to consider its position, and to instruct representatives regarding ongoing litigation," and to consult with attorneys regarding "council meeting agendas, invocations, and guest speakers," and to "discuss, consider, and provide possible direction regarding the recruitment and hire for a new city auditor and new city manager." The transcript shows a motion was made and the meeting was adjourned into executive session; the record provided does not include a mover's name, a second, or a roll-call vote tally.

The items listed fall into three categories: (1) receiving legal advice and discussing positions in ongoing litigation, (2) seeking legal guidance about the content and handling of council meeting agendas, invocations and guest speakers, and (3) discussion and possible direction on hiring for the city auditor and city manager positions. The public transcript captures only the council's motion to go into closed session and the subsequent adjournment; no substantive deliberations on those topics appear in the public record provided.

Executive sessions are closed to the public under state law when they concern litigation strategy or personnel matters; the council's announcement identified those purposes but did not cite a specific statute in the public remarks. The transcript shows the presence at roll call of Mayor Lisa Barasque; Vice Mayor Barry Graham; Council members Jan Duboscas, Adam Kwasman, Kathy Littlefield, Mary Anne McAllen and Solange Whitehead; Interim City Manager Greg Caton; City Attorney Sherry Scott; Acting City Treasurer Annalia Johnson; and Clerk Ben Lane. The record does not include any public comments, staff presentations, or vote tallies related to the items before the council entered closed session.

The council did not return to a public discussion on these items in the provided transcript, and no public outcomes, appointments or contract authorizations related to the executive-session topics are recorded in the supplied excerpt. Any formal decisions or actions resulting from the executive session would be shown in subsequent open-meeting minutes or staff reports if and when the council chooses to disclose them.

A roll-call sequence in the public record indicates members answered "Present" when called; the transcript excerpt does not record how individual members voted on the motion to adjourn to executive session.