OPEN MEETINGS — Three of the five members of the Costa Mesa City Council wanted to meet privately with Governor Schwarzenegger Monday, but concerned with even the appearance of a Brown Act violation, his office insisted that one of them sit out the closed-door conference while the others and city staff lobbied him—in vain—to drop plans to sell the Orange County fairgrounds. 



As reported by Mona Shadia in the Daily Pilot,

Aside from not giving the city of Costa Mesa what it wanted, the
governor’s office shut Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece out of the meeting
with Schwarzenegger.

The governor’s office did not accept the
city’s notice of a closed-session City Council meeting in the state
capital, said Mayor Allan Mansoor, who traveled there with Leece,
Councilwoman Katrina Foley and City Manager Allan Roeder to meet with
Schwarzenegger.

Because three of the five council members were
meeting with Schwarzenegger, the city officially noticed the meeting as
a special closed City Council session and produced an agenda for it.
But the governor’s office did not want to create the appearance of any
open-meeting law violations, Leece said.

Though Leece spent a
week preparing her talking points for the meeting, she said the
important thing was to make the case to the governor against the sale
of the fairgrounds — a task that her fellow council members
accomplished, she said.

The city's special meeting notice had labeled the proposed closed session as follows:

Conference with Real Property Negotiators – Property: 88 Fair Drive.
Agency Negotiator: Allan Roeder, City Manager. Negotiating parties: 
State of California. Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8.