On Friday March 31, Commissioner Jones and a group of concerned citizens met with City Manager, Frank Johnson and City Attorney, Todd Fitts. The citizens group included Tom Allin, George Carter, Henry Bradbury, and Phyllis Bailey. Ron Munden served as the media representative.

Three topics were included in the discussion:

· How the Open Meetings act applies to Advisory Boards?

· The justification of the City Commission discussing the Open Meeting Act in closed session.

· Why Mr. Bradbury was singled out and unjustly accused of operating without board approval.

Today I will report on the second item.

Most of those in attendance found it ironic that the City Commission went into a Closed Session to discuss a resolution relating to the open meetings act.

On Friday I said that I thought the City might have violated the Act when it went into executive session, and I asked for the justification of the reason. The City Attorney, referenced the following paragraph (2):

A governmental body may not conduct a private consultation with its attorney except:

(1) when the governmental body seeks the advice of its attorney about:

a. pending or contemplated litigation; or

b. a settlement offer; or

2) on a matter in which the duty of the attorney to the governmental body under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of Texas clearly conflicts with this chapter.

I asked him specifically what was the conflict between State Bar’s document and the Open Meeting Act. Mr. Fitts said he would get back with me.

On Tuesday April 4th, Mr Fitts called and we had a very productive conversation.