From the Daily Camera (Boulder):  Boulder voters took a historic step Tuesday and placed a new trust in their City Council by approving a charter amendment that allows closed sessions to discuss legal advice and negotiation strategy related to municipalization.

With 28,198 votes counted as of 11:45 p.m., 54.4 percent of Boulder voters were in favor of Issue 2B and 45.6 percent were opposed.

Boulder’s city charter — the equivalent of its constitution — requires that all council meetings be open to the public.

State law allows local governments to meet in executive session to discuss legal matters, personnel issues and real estate transactions. A 2008 charter amendment that would have granted that broader executive session authority to the City Council was rejected by 61 percent of the voters.

Issue 2B carves out an exemption for meetings to discuss sensitive legal issues around municipalization.

Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum said he was “a little surprised” to see the measure winning.

“I certainly appreciate the voters’ trust in the City Council,” he said. “We tried to structure it in a way that was very tailored to the municipalization effort, and we tried to include some safeguards.”

Entering executive session would require a two-thirds vote of the council, and any two members could immediately suspend the session if the discussion strayed into other areas. The authority would expire at the end of 2017.

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