San Mateo City Council convenes closed sessions on litigation and labor talks

San Mateo City Council met in a short special session May 4 and moved into closed session to discuss existing litigation, two labor-negotiation items and a workers' compensation matter, Mayor Lorraine announced.

The City Clerk called the roll and confirmed attendance: Council Member Diaz Nash, Council Member Sperokiditsky, Deputy Mayor Fernandez, Mayor Lorraine and Council Member Newsom were recorded as present. "With pleasure, Mayor Lorraine," the City Clerk said while calling the roll.

The City Clerk also explained how members of the public could participate in public comment — in-person yellow slips, Zoom raise-hand, and phone star-nine — and noted that live public comment via YouTube was not available. Before the council moved into closed session, the City Clerk asked whether anyone wished to speak on the closed-session items; none had requested to do so.

"I will close public comment and we'll move to closed session and return to adjourn once completed," Mayor Lorraine said before the council recessed into closed session. The transcript records no further public action in the special session; the mayor later announced the special meeting was adjourned and that the regular meeting would reconvene in about five minutes.

The closed-session items listed publicly at the start were: conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation; two conferences with labor negotiators; and a conference with legal counsel on workers' compensation. No votes or other formal public actions related to those closed sessions were recorded in the publicly available portion of the transcript.