[Thanks to one of our readers for his comments and bringing this to our attention!]
The Moraga Town Council frequently conducts closed sessions to discuss matters that may be confidential or sensitive to public release. Typically, these include personnel discussions and legal issues.
State law requires disclosing the subject matter of these closed sessions and any votes - individually - taken during them.
Here's part of our reader's email:
So, we decided to contrast Moraga's approach with Orinda's.
What we found: Unlike neighboring towns, Moraga provides virtually no information on the context or nature or outcomes of closed session meetings and just reports that “there was nothing to report.”
We went through an entire year of Moraga's Closed Sessions, each and all absent much context and ultimately reporting "nothing to report." The first closed session item we clicked for Orinda, on the other hand, provides a reasonable level of detail on discussion items and outcomes so Orinda residents have a clue about what is being discussed and decided outside the public eye.
Here are some examples:
Moraga's approach: click here
Orinda's approach: click here
One more for good measure, the City of Alameda: click here
This needs to change; Moragans deserve more transparency.