All meetings of the Common Council shall be open to orderly members of the public; provided, that the Council when sitting as a committee of the whole may go into executive session and exclude all persons from attending such executive session except those whose presence is deemed necessary by such committee of the whole; and provided further, that the committee of the whole shall not reconstitute itself as the Common Council until the executive session is terminated and the meeting is again open to orderly members of the public.
(Prior Code, § 2-20)