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Mayor Howard said, "I'll speak for myself. You have spoken to me about the number and the frequency of our Executive Sessions. At no time have you ever spoken to me about the appropriateness of any topic. The number and the frequency, yes, but you have never spoken to me about topics and your discomfort that we may be violating the Brown Act. But I can only speak for myself. Mr. Schricker or Mr. Everett?" City Attorney Schricker said, "The complaint, that's too strong of a term, but we did confer, I believe, on the telephone, but it had to do primarily with the number of meetings that we were requiring attendance." City Manager Everett said, "I have had several discussions with Councilman Leipzig dealing with the number of meetings both closed and here, the number of meetings in general, the length of the meetings both in closed session and here in general, and the need for meetings both in closed session and here in general. So I have had all three of those discussions with Councilman Leipzig, but I have not had a discussion about the legality of them." Vice Mayor Ruskin said, "I apologize, my patience is being a little tried. I regret that I answered a fellow Council Member that his statement was nonsense. But the fact is that we spoke on the phone just a few weeks ago about another subject, the beautification of El Camino." In response to Council Member Leipzig's remarks, which were made away from the microphone, Vice Mayor Ruskin said, "Maybe it is time. This is nonsense. This is nonsense Councilman Leipzig. I'm going to stop before I say something I'll regret." Mayor Howard asked if anyone else had anything further to say. No one wished to speak. Mayor Howard said, "I'd like to say this is a very unfortunate event. Councilman Leipzig did not raise this issue of illegality (nor) at any time did he make his concerns known to myself. And having addressed the City Attorney, he has stated such and the City Manager has stated such. I believe this is an attempt to make himself look more worthy in the eyes of the public by lessening the opinion of those people around him. The unfortunate result is that Council Member Leipzig not only has lessened himself in the eyes of his colleagues, but more importantly, it lessens the opinion of this City Council in the eyes of the public. Despite the fact that there is absolutely no truth to the press release that was released, which I might add, none of us were privy to before it was released. We did not have advance notice about this, and that is why it is on the agenda this evening. What has been done is contrary to everything this City Council believes in and has tried to do. This City Council has attempted to improve communications with the public. We have gone to more neighborhood meetings, we've been promoting business and publicizing the different activities we have had in our City. We spent a tremendous amount of time, energy and money trying to be sure we get out to the public as much as we can. We are really trying to do our very best in that area, including updating our Web Site to get as much information as possible on that Web Site for those people who cannot come REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 56 JUNE 22, 1998 MINUTES Page No. 586 PAGE 24