City Council - Special Meeting

Good afternoon. I would like to call to order the special meeting for the Hutchinson City Council, August 27, 2026. Mary, call roll.

Druin. Here. Garza.

Here.

Goss. Here. Fast. Here. Magers.

Here. So the order of business is I need to make a motion for an executive session.

I have a question before we do. The public is expecting this to be an executive session only agenda as published. So I'm asking you, Mayor Meggers, do you intend to amend the agenda after the fact to include action items that were not on the original agenda?

I do not.

Mr. Villegas, do you have any intent of recommending action items that were not on the original agenda?

No, no.

Okay, thank you.

Council, any other questions? Okay. I need to make a motion to move the City Council recess into executive session for consultation with the City Attorney on matters desired privilege and the attorney-client relationship, the subject being an update on the Hutchinson Rec Commission investigation and the City's related legal position pursuant to the attorney-client privilege. Exception under KSA 75-4319, the executive session will include the city council, city manager, and the city attorney. The open meeting to resume the city council chambers at?

416.

416.

Second. Truen? Yes. Gajda? Yes. Goss? Yes. Fast? Yes. Magers?

Yes. Ms. Gossard, you're not ready.

Truen? Yes. Garza? Yes.

Goss? The public did not hear or see what was just discussed because the music was playing and the audio and video was cut. Thank you. Can we restate that so people watching or people at home can actually see what happened?

So when did we go off the public screen? So it was picked up when I just discussed it? No. Okay. Council, I am advising to motion to recall this executive session. Ms. Goss stated that she is not recusing from this matter. It is the city attorney's position that, based on her husband's position with the Hutch Rec Foundation, that she does have a conflict of interest with respect to this matter. She has previously recused herself on this matter. Based on that information, I cannot give privileged legal advice to the council if someone is present that is not entitled to receive privileged information. So on that basis, I would ask for a motion to recall that executive session that was just passed due to those reasons.

And I'll restate what I said as well, which is I consulted an attorney and I was told not to recuse myself and that no conflict of interest existed. And then my other remark that I believe was cut is that council has instructed that Mr. Truen would also be recusing himself from this subject matter, and he is not being asked to recuse himself at this time.

He recused himself from the ex officio position going into executive session for the Hutch Rec Commission. That is what was discussed in terms of what he would recuse on. I never stated that he would recuse within the... City Council meeting and I would also ask who your attorney is.

I don't have to tell you that And just to make a statement The last executive session the rec commission had I did State that I was recusing myself of anything dealing with the Attorney General investigation They accepted that and I left the executive session before it started

Okay, so I guess I need to make a motion to recall the vote.

So moved. I'll second.

Truen? Yes. Garza? Yes. Goss? Yes. Fast? Yes. Magers?

Yes. So Cody, how do we proceed then?

Well, we move to the next one.

Okay. So I just need to move on to the next executive. Move the City Council recess into executive session to discuss personal matters of non-elected personnel. The subject being employment matters the City Manager has requested to discuss with the City Council pursuant to the non-elected personnel exception under KSA 75-4319. The executive session will include the city council, city manager, and the city attorney. The open meeting to resume the city council chambers at?

About 45 minutes.

So like 440? Did I give you enough time? Or do you want to go for 45?

That's 30 minutes.

Well, you know. I need to try it. Let's do 450. 450, okay.

I'll second.

Druin? Yes. Garza? Yes. Goss? Yes. Fast?

Yes.

Meagher?

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. Bye.

I just need to make a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second.

Truman. Yes. Garza. Yes. Goss. Yes. Bass. Yes. Makers. Yes.