ROCKLAND, Maine — The City Council refused Monday night to open up about details concerning what was discussed during three closed-door sessions in the past year.
The council voted 3-2 against a request by Councilor Elizabeth Dickerson to consider waiving the confidentiality of an executive session held earlier that evening and one from Aug. 26. Discussions during both sessions concerned proposals from companies seeking to help the Council conduct a search for a city manager. Councilor Louise MacLellan-Ruf joined Dickerson in support of waiving the confidentiality.
The council then voted 3-2 to a proposal by Councilor Frank Isganitis to vote to waive the confidentiality of those two meetings as well as one held on Sept. 9, 2013. The September meeting involved discussions about city property. Isganitis’ motion failed, however, because the city requires unanimous consent to add an item to the agenda.
Dickerson said she wanted to make public the closed-door deliberations about the recruitment companies. She said the amount of money being spent by the council — $17,000 — was jaw dropping.
“If you want to gain the confidence of the community, you need to get off this roller coaster before it’s too late,” she said.
Dickerson said executive sessions are not a place to say just anything and that discussions can be revealed if untruthful or misleading statements are made.
Councilor Eric Hebert defended the closed meetings and said the proposals to waive confidentiality were trying to change the rules after the fact. He said the tenor of executive sessions would be different if people knew the deliberations would later be made public.
Isganitis said Dickerson had been advised by the city attorney before she revealed discussions last October about the September executive session that only a vote of the council or a court ruling could allow for executive session discussions to be revealed but she revealed it anyway.
He said the discussions at that September meeting concerning city property were held for legitimate reasons.
Dickerson said the meeting was held for the council to discuss the possible relocation of City Hall and then put the city property up for sale to attract potential commercial development.
Isganitis disputed Dickerson’s statement that nearly all the meeting was about the City Hall property.