Garden Grove’s closed session on the city manager’s job

The Garden Grove City Council held a special closed session meeting at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, August 31, 2026 at the Community Meeting Center, 11300 Stanford Avenue. The notice and call was dated August 28, 2026 and signed by Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein. The posted agenda has two closed session items and no open-session business, both on the same subject: the city manager’s job. We publish this for the record; the council’s closed-session discussions are confidential and no action document has been posted for this meeting.

Source: official notice and agenda (PDF) · meeting page

🔒 What was on the closed session agenda

• Public employment / public employee appointment, under Government Code Section 54957(b). Title: City Manager. Item 2.1
• Conference with labor negotiators, under Government Code Section 54957.6. The agency’s designated representatives are listed as City Attorney Omar Sandoval and Human Resources Director Jany Lee; the unrepresented employee is the City Manager. Item 2.2
• Oral communications were taken before the council went into closed session. The agenda lists nothing else — roll call, closed session, adjournment. Item 1

📄 What came next, on the public record

• The council’s September 8 regular agenda lists, as an action item, “Approval of an Employment Agreement with Matthew S. West for the position of City Manager” (Item 386/2026). Sept. 8, Item 12
• Under the Brown Act, a council may meet in closed session to consider the appointment of a public employee, but the employment agreement itself is acted on in open session. We have not yet obtained an action document for either meeting; this page will be updated with the recorded vote when the city posts its minutes.

🪑 Who was noticed to attend

• The agenda lists the full council for roll call: Council Members Phillip Nguyen, Cindy Tran, Joe DoVinh, Yesenia Muneton and Ariana Arestegui, Mayor Pro Tem George S. Brietigam, and Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein. Attendance is not recorded on the posted agenda.

Council Brief summaries are produced from official public records by our automated newsroom and reviewed before publication. Items are described as posted; the council may amend, continue, or remove items at the meeting. Spot an error? hello@councilbrief.com — we publish corrections.