Cleveland Heights — The Cleveland Heights council committee voted unanimously on Jan. 15 to enter an executive session to consider the appointment of a public official to the city’s Planning Commission, then adjourned after returning from the closed meeting.

Committee members moved into private session after a staff member read the Planning Commission’s responsibilities, which the committee described as including recommendations to the mayor and city council on physical development, plans and maps, zoning-code amendments, and review or revocation of conditional-use permits. A committee member said, “My preference is to go into an executive session,” and a motion was made and seconded to do so.

The committee did a roll call vote to enter executive session. The transcript records the vote as: Posh — yes; Petrus — yes; Larson — yes; Cobb — aye; Kudo — yes. Russell Maddox was recorded as excused. After the executive session the committee resumed briefly and adjourned; the transcript notes the committee came out of executive session at 6:25 p.m.

Committee members said going into executive session is the commission’s customary practice for interviews and personnel matters so applicants can speak and be questioned in private. Before the motion several speakers reviewed practical issues the Planning Commission considers, including parking, hours of operation for proposed uses, noise ordinance compliance and differences between planning and architectural review.

No public candidate name, appointment decision details, or other formal action on a specific Planning Commission nominee appear in the public transcript portion provided; the meeting record shows only the motion to go into executive session to consider an appointment and the unanimous roll-call vote to do so.

The Planning Commission powers referenced during the meeting included the authority to make recommendations to council and the mayor on physical development, propose amendments to the zoning code on the commission’s own initiative, review or revoke conditional-use permits that are the subject of unresolved complaints, and make determinations about uses not expressly listed in the zoning code. The committee did not take any public action to appoint a specific person before recessing to executive session.

Minutes and any formal appointment, if taken in the executive session, will be reflected in a later public record if the committee produces an official vote or report when it returns to open session.