LANCASTER : City Officials Promise Public Decisions on Land

Lancaster officials, faced with allegations that the City Council has been violating the state’s open meeting law, promised Wednesday that the council will make future real estate decisions in public and reveal the prices paid.

The decision came after The Times reported Saturday that the council voted behind closed doors last month to authorize purchase of downtown area properties and did not reveal what it planned to pay. In announcing the policy change, city officials continued to defend the actions as legal.

However, The Times on Wednesday filed a legal protest with the city, alleging that the votes did violate the Brown Act, the state’s open meetings law. By doing so, the newspaper preserved its legal right to later ask a judge to overturn the decisions unless the council remedies them.