BIG MYSTERY ABOUT MONDAY BOARD MEETING 1/7/19

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Big Mystery About Monday Board Meeting 1/7/19

The agenda for Monday’s meeting was released and your Editor has been asked what is being discussed at the Executive Session. Only the Board and Village Manager know for certain, but we can make a guess. The Village Manager states that the purpose is discussion of a real estate matter.

By law, Board meetings are public except under very specific circumstances. Those circumstances are in NY Public Officers Law 7-105(h), and there are 2 prongs which must be met.

(1) The matter must concern “the proposed acquisition, sale or lease of real property” and

(2) “publicity would substantially affect the value thereof.”

Because of the first prong, the matter can’t be the renovation of Gouveia. It also would probably not involve any lease of the property, since mere publicity about a lease would not “substantially affect the value” of Gouveia.

It is unlikely to be about a sale of Katz or the Muni Place land. Any such sale would ultimately require a competitive process, so public discussion of solicitations to purchase on Monday would not “substantially affect the value” of those parcels.

It is possible that the Board is going to violate the law and discuss something that is not allowed in Executive Session, but since the Village Manager is requesting the invocation of the Executive Session this is unlikely.

By process of elimination, the most obvious remaining possibility would involve negotiation for the Village to purchase or lease property somewhere. That would be a permissible purpose for excluding the public, and it is the most common reason for a Village Board to invoke this part of the law.

Stay tuned for updates. 

The link to the entire agenda is here.

MORE ABOUT THE CONDUCT OF EXECUTIVE SESSIONS here.