#atxcouncil hides City Manager candidates from Public

"For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."
John 3:20

LOL:

The Austin City Council might have broken Texas law Thursday when council members left the posted location of a meeting and rushed away in vans that took them to an undisclosed place to conduct interviews with city manager candidates.

Several lawyers who are experts in Texas open meetings law said the council violated the law by leaving the Hilton Austin Airport, where they had intended to conduct the interviews, in favor of a conference room at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport that was inaccessible to the public.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Houston lawyer Joe Larsen said. “Obviously, what they have done is completely outside of the pale. Clearly they are trying to engage in a secret meeting.”

....

The Statesman sued the city this week for blocking requests for information about candidates made under the Texas Public Information Act. The paper was amending its complaint Thursday, alleging the council violated open meetings laws with the hasty change of venue.

Mayor Steve Adler, Council Member Kathie Tovo, Council Member Ann Kitchen and a statement from city staffers all said they violated no laws by secretly moving the location of the interviews from the meeting’s posted site. All other council members either did not answer questions or gave no comment on switching locations.

Adler said later that he didn’t feel good about how things happened Thursday, but stood by the actions. The mayor said he felt badly that the council had been unable to maintain the candidates’ confidentiality Tuesday after it had said that it would.

“The whole situation is awkward,” he said. “We want to have an absolutely open process, and we want to make sure we find the absolute finest candidates and, where those things conflict with one another, you get to a place that does not feel good.”

....

As on Tuesday, the council began its meeting for the second round of interviews at the Hilton, then adjourned to executive session. Several council members headed to the hotel conference room where they had held their closed-door meeting on Tuesday, but they then boarded two airport shuttles that took them to Austin-Bergstrom airport.

One reporter tried to follow a shuttle in his car only to be blocked by a city staffer who closed and padlocked a gate behind the shuttle. That staffer refused to give his name.

The Statesman later located the council, which was in a conference room beyond the airport’s Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint. The airport’s staff refused to allow reporters to that area of the airport.

Read the whole thing here.