CITY COUNCIL TIGHTENS UP EXECUTIVE SESSION RULES
In-person attendance required for closed-door meetings
At least for the time being, the Dacono City Council will no longer allow public officials to participate in executive sessions remotely.
Instead, they’ll need to be there in person.
An executive session is a closed-door meeting where public officials can only discuss certain topics as outlined by the Colorado Open Meetings Law, such as property sales, litigation and personnel matters involving employees.
The council voted during its Feb. 12 meeting to require inperson attendance for executive sessions. In addition to the City Council, the new rule applies to local boards and commissions who may need to enter into an executive session on occasion, too.
Dacono Mayor Adam Morehead said Monday the decision to prohibit remote participation in executive sessions is to keep the applicant pool for Dacono’s city manager position confidential until a group of finalists has emerged. The deadline to apply for the position was Feb. 2, according to a hiring brochure.
“We just want to be impartial,” Morehead said. “When it comes down to the final applicants, that will all be public.”
Last February the Dacono City Council voted 4-2 to fire former City Manager AJ Euckert without providing an explanation as to why. Only one of the four councilmembers who voted to terminate Euckert — Councilman Danny Long — still serves on the council.
Former councilmembers Jim Turini and Jackie Thomas were recalled and former Mayor Pro Tem Kathyrn Wittman did not seek reelection after supporting Euckert’s removal. Long was not in attendance for the Feb. 12 city council meeting when the rule concerning remote participation in executive sessions was amended.
Morehead said during the
meeting that Long had asked for time off to deal with personal issues and that he would be excused from the council’s February and March meetings.
A councilmember who is unable to attend an executive session in person may submit a request to the city clerk to review the recording of the closed-door meeting at city hall. It isn’t clear how often Dacono City Council members participated in executive sessions remotely in the past.
“I wouldn’t characterize remote participation in executive sessions as common, but the Council Rules of Procedure were amended during the pandemic to permit it,” Kathleen Kelly, whose law firm Kelly PC represents Dacono, said in an email Monday.
Unless the council decides otherwise, remote participation during executive sessions will be prohibited moving forward.