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Council member recuses from closed-session on litigation at Corte Madera Town Council special meeting
Summary
At a June 2 special meeting, a council member announced a recusal from a closed session on existing and anticipated litigation citing a common-law conflict of interest; the council noted emailed public comment, closed public comment, and adjourned to the closed session with a promise to report back.
At a special meeting on June 2, 2026, the Corte Madera Town Council opened public comment on a closed-session item described as a "conference with legal counsel" regarding existing and anticipated litigation, acknowledged an emailed public comment, and then adjourned the open session to hold the closed session.
The council called for public comment on the closed-session item and staff reported two people were online whose hands were not raised. Officials also said an emailed public comment had been received, provided to council, and posted on the town's website for public review. The public comment content was not read into the record during the open session.
A council member announced a recusal from the upcoming closed session. "I will be recusing myself from the closed session due to a common law conflict of interest related to an apparent appearance of bias on my part," the council member said. The member added, "I want to be clear from this recusal that I believe strongly in the protection of our town's open spaces and public right ofways." The member said they would "see you all at 6:30." (Speaker not named in the record.)
Following that statement, the council adjourned the open session and said it would reconvene after the closed session and report out to the public. The closed-session item, as stated on the agenda, concerned a conference with legal counsel on existing and anticipated litigation; no formal vote or motion on the merits of litigation was recorded in the open session.
No additional details about the alleged conflict or the subject matter of the litigation were provided in the open session. The meeting record notes that an emailed comment was posted to the town website for review; the content of that comment is not specified in the minutes presented at the meeting. The council indicated it would report any allowable information after reconvening from the closed session.
