Council Hears Staff Court Choice Behind Closed Doors

Meeting in work session, the Fredericksburg City Council has just entered into a closed session to discuss evaluations and analyses of five remaining proposals for a new city court facility. 

According to City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, the City Council members will be discussing a memo from City Manager Beverly Cameron which evaluates the proposals and offers his official recommendation for which courthouse scheme the city should build. 

During tonight's work session, the City Council first had to approve a motion making that memo confidential and then had to approve a motion to enter closed session to discuss the memo and Cameron's recommendation. Both measures were unanimously approved 6-0, with Ward 3 Councilor Fred Howe absent at the time of the vote. 

There was little discussion of the motions to make the memo secret and to enter closed session. Ward 1 Councilor Brad Ellis asked Dooley to clarify why the memo should be made confidential on the grounds that it was a document pertaining to negotiation, however Dooley declined to answer his question while the meeting was still in open session. 

Information breaking down the costs of the court proposals into their individual components, as well as details about any pending litigation against members of the design build teams and financial reports for the companies are among some of the details which have remained confidential so far in the deliberations. Also confidential is an analysis of the eight schemes prepared by the consulting firm Arcadis. 

At its last work session, the City Council voted to locate a new court facility on Princess Anne Street,, but leaving . The City Council needs to reduce  further before entering into final contract negotiations to award a contract to develop a new court facility. 

Fredericksburg Patch will be live-tweeting throughout the regular session of tonight's City Council meeting under the Twitter username FBurgPatch.