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Elizabeth Pagano is the editor of the Austin Monitor.
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Asked and answered
Friday, February 13, 2015 by Elizabeth Pagano
Can Council members invite members of the public into an Austin City Council executive session? No they cannot. “That is not possible,” said Acting City Attorney Anne Morgan. “The executive session is to have an attorney-client conversation, and it’s privileged conversation. There are some rules that guide that.” That concise answer was spurred by a request from Council Member Don Zimmerman who was first rebuffed when he asked to have Austin Firefighters Association president Bob Nicks join the executive session. He got a similar response when he asked about the more general, hypothetical possibility of Council bringing “anybody of their own volition, or any experts they have.”
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