Minot City Council votes to enter closed session to discuss potential land purchase

The Minot City Council voted unanimously Sept. 2 to enter an executive session to discuss a potential land purchase and to provide negotiating instructions to the city's attorneys and negotiators, the presiding officer said.

The presiding officer announced that the legal authority for closing the meeting was "North Dakota Century Code section 44-04-19.1" and said the session's purpose was "to allow the city council to discuss negotiating strategy and provide negotiating instructions to its attorneys and other negotiators regarding a potential contract for which negotiation is likely to occur in the immediate future. An open meeting on this topic would have an adverse fiscal effect on the bargaining position of the city." A motion to discuss agenda item number 3 in executive session was moved by Alderman Blessum and seconded by Alderman Samuelson.

During a roll call immediately before the executive session, the council recorded unanimous support to enter the closed session: Blessum, Fuller, Janser, Olsen, Pittner and Samuelson each voted yes. The presiding officer said the council would relocate "to the city council conference room adjoining council chambers," that the executive session would be recorded and that members should limit discussion to the announced topic. The presiding officer also noted the council anticipated reconvening the open meeting at approximately 3:50 p.m.

When the council returned to the dais and reconvened in open session, the minutes reflected that "the executive session was adjourned at 03:47." The meeting then concluded with a motion to adjourn and a voice vote of "aye." The transcript contains no substantive negotiation details, proposals, or decisions about specific parcels or purchase terms.

The council's use of the statute cited allows discussion of negotiating strategy and provision of negotiating instructions to lawyers in closed session; the presiding officer clarified during the announcement that, under the cited statute, the prohibition on taking final action during an executive session does not apply to providing negotiating instructions to the city's attorneys and negotiators. The transcript does not record whether any such instructions were given or any subsequent formal action was taken on the land matter after the meeting.

The council's vote to enter executive session and its subsequent return to open session were procedural steps recorded in the meeting minutes; no further follow-up items, future meeting dates, or staff assignments related to the land purchase appear in the transcript.