Richmond City Council holds closed meeting to discuss performance of a council appointee

At an informal meeting, the Richmond City Council voted to go into a closed session to discuss the performance of a council appointee under an exception in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

A council member moved that the council "go into a closed meeting pursuant to subdivision A 1 of section 2.2-3711 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to discuss and consider the performance of a council appointee." The motion was seconded by Mr. Breton and approved by the council.

The council resumed open session later in the meeting and certified on the record that, to the best of each member's knowledge, "only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification applies, and only such public matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered." That certification was announced before the council adjourned.

Before the closed-session motion, the clerk reviewed the docket and noted multiple consent-agenda items were being continued: several ordinances were continued to the May 27 and June 9 council meetings, and other items were retained on the regular agenda as amended. The clerk also announced that certain members were not present earlier in the meeting but that a quorum existed.

The council did not record any substantive public debate of policy issues in the portions of the meeting available in the transcript; the formal, recorded actions in the transcript concern the motion to enter the closed meeting, the later motion to exit, and the certification on the record upon return to open session.

The meeting concluded with the informal session adjourned.