Hutchinson council calls special closed sessions on city manager, recreation commission investigation

The Hutchinson City Council will meet behind closed doors at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, to discuss its city manager and the Hutchinson Recreation Commission investigation, and could act in public afterward.

The first session, held under K.S.A. 75-4319(b)(2), is a consultation with the city attorney on matters the notice describes as privileged in the attorney-client relationship, to brief council members on the Hutchinson Recreation Commission investigation and related legal issues. Citizen Journal reported that the council notified the recreation board of a state investigation on Wednesday, Aug. 12. The notice does not identify the agency conducting the investigation, what it covers, or whether the two closed sessions are connected.

The second of the two closed sessions falls under K.S.A. 75-4319(b)(1), the Kansas Open Meetings Act exception that allows a governing body to discuss in private the personnel matters of employees who are not elected officials. The notice says the session is to take up "specifically matters relating to the City Manager," the city's top administrator, but it does not name the manager or say what about the employment is at issue.

The meeting is in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 125 East Avenue B. The notice states that the special meeting was called solely for the two sessions and that no other business will be conducted; the agenda lists no public comment period and no other action items. Executive sessions are closed, but the notice says the meeting is open to the public at all other times.

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