Is it legal for one's city council to hold secret meetings or closed door sessions?
In most places there are certian criteria that allow for closed door sessions.
Those reasons are very specific.
You need to look at your counties policies concerning how the rules are written, they vary from county to county.
You should be able to find the charter on your local county web page (specifically your county commissioners web page) or through your state dot gov page.
if you can't find the info, call the county clerk or if you want to be a Mocker call the commissioners office and ask how to find the info.
In my city, The "closed door session" precedes the "open to the public" one every month. But, they do post the agenda online for both sessions. The ones I like are "special council" meetings that rise up with little, or no notice
This doesn't concern my community...it's a small, in the middle of nowhere, town in northern New York. Apparently the mayor has been making a habit of closing the city council meetings to the general public. New York state has something called the "Open Government Law" as well as a "Freedom Of Information Law" that applies to local governments. It's not being followed and the community feels as if they have no recourse.
File action with the attorney general, they are the ones responsible for the legalities within the state.