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Here’s a tip for all you casual government watchers: If you request a meeting with your Councilmember or other elected official, no matter who you are, that meeting will take place behind closed doors. Thus, it’s a “closed-door meeting.”
If you're a community member who wants a stop sign at a dangerous intersection: Closed-door meeting. Developer who wants to build a giant apartment complex? Closed-door meeting. Residents who want to oppose the giant apartment complex? Closed-door meeting.
Closed-door meetings still appear on the elected official's calendar, a public record you can request to find out who met with the elected behind closed doors. You can even request any notes from the meetings or handouts provided by participants, if they exist.
If the ideas presented in the closed-door meetings are good, they eventually become the subject of public meetings. And that, friends, is how "closed-door meetings" are a normal and necessary part of functioning government and not nefarious acts for which you oust officials.
Bonus pro-tip: If you disagree with the outcome of the elected official's engagement with citizens, the "closed-door meeting" was with "special interests." If you like it, however, the elected official was "listening to the community."
