Health & Fitness
City Council Closed Session Clarification
When can the City Council meeting in a 'closed session' meeting?
On Monday, Feb. 13, the West Hollywood City Clerk’s Office posted a public notice that the City Council would hold a Closed Session meeting Thursday, Feb. 16.
The purpose of the Closed Session meeting is to conduct the annual “Public Employee Performance Evaluation” of the City Manager. The City Manager’s contract has provision that requires that he be evaluated annually by the City Council.
This is a routine evaluation that the City Council has conducted annually with the City Manager since he was first hired in 1999. In fact, all City of West Hollywood employees are evaluated on a routine and confidential basis every year. This is standard procedure for all California local governments.
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As in the private sector, all public employee evaluations are private and confidential. State law requires confidentiality for all employees at every level of the City, including the City Manager.
Since the evaluation is conducted by the City Council as a legislative body under the California Open and Public Local Government Meetings law (i.e. the Brown Act), the meeting notice must be posted in advance as is the case with all City Council meetings.
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The meeting agenda follows the same format as any other City Council meeting, with the exception of the confidential performance evaluation portion of the meeting.
While virtually all activities of local government are required to be open to the public, under the State law, a City Council (or school board, etc.) is allowed to meet in Closed Session on a limited number of very specific matters, including (1) personnel matters, (2) labor negotiations, (3) real property negotiations, and (4) consultation with the City Attorney regarding existing and potential litigation.
The Closed Session meeting on Thursday night is one of the many ways in which the City Council ensures that the City government works to continue to meet the needs of the community. I hope this clarifies some of the that some members of the community have raised.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Prang
Mayor Pro Tem, City of West Hollywood