Respect For The Spirit Of Sunshine

The Escondido City Councils enjoys having closed session conferences with its real property negotiators on the price and terms of payment for two small streets segments around Palomar Medical Center. This item is on today's agenda:

CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATOR (Gov. Code §54956.8)
Property: Valley Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Valley Parkway and certain portions of Pennsylvania Avenue between Valley Parkway and Elm
Agency Negotiator: Clay Phillips and Jeffrey Epp
Negotiating parties: City of Escondido and the Palomar Health District
Under negotiation: Price and terms of payment
http://www.ci.escondido.ca.us/government/docs/index.html

(Someday someone at the City will realize that they are negotiating with the Palomar Pomerado Health district!)

This same item was on the agendas of December 21, 2005, December 14, 2005, December 7, 2005, November 16, 2005, and September 14, 2005. This item has now been on the agenda for six (6) meetings!

During this time, the following important topics have not been on the agenda for Council discussion:
1. Traffic effects of closing Valley Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Valley Parkway.
2. Infrastructure improvements by PPH for the ERTC (including Citracado Parkway).
3. Development agreement between PPH and Escondido for the downtown site.
4. JRM (private developer) agreement with PPH to build medical office buildings (not part of the hospital) on PPH land in the ERTC.
5. EIR for ERTC zoning change to accommodate a hospital.

Are these topics not important enough for discussion by the Escondido City Council? Or has the Escondido City Council found a "loophole" in the Brown Act, allowing discussion of a wide range of topics, if the discussion is in some manner tied to negotiations on the price and terms of real property? Is the Escondido City Council respecting the spirit of California's sunshine laws?

These may prove to be interesting questions during the upcoming political season.