As Palo Alto prepared to consider on Monday night a proposal to open Foothills Park to the broader public, Mayor Adrian Fine surprised some of his colleagues when he publicly rebuked Council member Lydia Kou of divulging information that the City Council discussed in a closed session.

The accusation was based on two emails that Kou had sent out in the weeks prior to the Monday vote. One was a survey that Kou had sent to her mailing list on Oct. 28, in which she asked residents for feedback on the city's plan to eliminate the residents-only requirement at the 1,400-acre nature preserve.

In providing background for the vote, Kou's message alluded to the closed session that the council held on Oct. 19. She wrote that the council "voted in a closed (confidential) session to settle the lawsuit with the public vote coming on November 2."

The council had not publicly disclosed in the past it had taken a vote on the item in a closed session. Vice Mayor Tom DuBois, who chaired the council's regular meeting on Oct. 19, made no mention of the vote during the council's regular hearing, only saying that there was "no reportable action."

The council routinely reports "no reportable action" even when it takes action in a closed session, as when it settled last year a lawsuit against the Palo Alto Police Department over a violent arrest at Buena Vista Mobile Home Park. While it did not report that it had voted in closed session on Foothills Park, Fine and DuBois released a joint statement on Oct. 22 expressing confidence that the council will move ahead with the staff proposal to expand access to the park as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of residents and nonresidents.

Kou's other email was an Oct. 19 exchange with two supporters, in which Kou thanked two residents for their comments and mentioned that Fine would be present at the meeting only for the closed session portion. Kou's emails did not disclose how the members voted or describe any of the council's deliberations or any confidential advice that members had received during the closed session. It only mentioned Fine's attendance at the meeting.

"Not only is that conduct unprofessional, it is also likely illegal and does enormous disservice to the community and to the public good," Fine said.

Fine's accusation appeared to have caught his colleagues, including Kou, by surprise. She denied that she had publicized confidential information.

"I would like to object to it because I have not divulged any information," Kou said. "I did do a survey of my own, but no divulging."

She also requested that Fine make public his evidence against her.

Kou also strongly objected to his comments and demanded that he provide evidence of her supposed violations to the public. She also rejected Fine's comment that his rebuking of her is "not personal."

"Of course, this is personal," said Kou, who has frequently clashed with Fine over the past four years.

At the end of the meeting, Council member Eric Filseth, who is politically aligned with Kou and DuBois, noted that disclosing closed session votes is "something we're not supposed to do."

"I'm hoping to see documentation of that in writing — which meeting, which vote and so forth — so that we can get to the bottom of this," Filseth said. "And I hope we can see that soon."

Kou was one of two council members, along with Greg Tanaka, who voted Monday against eliminating the residents-only requirement at Foothills Park. Both are seeking a second four-year term in Tuesday's election.