Beaver City Council unanimously votes to enter closed sessions on real estate, litigation and personnel

Beaver City Council on Monday, Feb. 3, voted unanimously to go into closed session three times during a special meeting to discuss (1) purchase, sale or lease of real estate; (2) pending or imminent litigation; and (3) personnel matters.

The motions were made and approved by roll call. The council first moved to enter a closed session for "purchase, sell, or lease of real estate," with the motion made by Council Member Tyler Skeene and seconded by Council Member Owen Spencer; council members voting in the roll call included Owen Spencer, Lance Cox, Tyler Skeene, Allison Webb and Randy (Hunter/Humphrey recorded in transcript) — all recorded voting yes. The council then voted to enter a closed session for litigation on a motion by Council Member Lance Cox, seconded by Council Member Allison Webb; the same five members recorded yes votes. Later in the meeting the council voted to enter closed session for personnel on a motion by Council Member Skeene, seconded by Council Member Webb; again the roll call recorded unanimous yes votes from the five members.

Minutes and the public transcript show the council spent about an hour in closed session for litigation before returning to open session. Council members indicated uncertainty about how long the personnel discussion would take and said staff or outside parties might be recontacted if the matter required additional time. After concluding business the presiding officer called for adjournment and the meeting ended.

The actions removed the three topics from public view in closed sessions as authorized under the council's meeting procedures; no substantive policy debates or final public actions on those subjects were taken in open session during this meeting, and no additional details about the matters discussed in closed session were disclosed in the public record of the meeting.