From the Daily Camera (Boulder):  The Boulder City Council met behind closed doors for the first time Monday evening, the historic debut of the elected body’s new voter-bestowed ability to discuss municipalization-related strategy and legal advice in secret.

The council met publicly in the Boulder Municipal Building just after 6 p.m., then voted unanimously to adjourn to executive session around 6:20 p.m. for what had been scheduled to be a roughly two-hour meeting.

At just after 8 p.m., the council re-convened and voted to extend the session by another two hours, finally emerging after 9:30 p.m. and adjourning at 9:48 p.m.

The city’s Channel 8 television network broadcast the public portion of the meeting, then, to the strains of a smooth-jazz soundtrack, continued to show the empty council chambers behind a placard indicating the body was meeting in executive session.

While Colorado law allows city governments to meet in closed session to discuss legal matters, personnel decisions and real estate transactions, Boulder’s city charter had required that all council meetings be open to the public.

In November, Boulder voters approved Ballot Issue 2B by a 56-to-44 margin. The ballot issue gave the City Council limited ability to meet in closed sessions to get legal advice and discuss negotiation strategy related to the formation of a municipal utility.

At the opening of Monday’s meeting, City Attorney Tom Carr walked the council through the ground rules of its new closed-door sessions: no votes can be taken, everything is recorded, and those recordings can only be released by unanimous vote of the council.

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