A Nutter aide, joined by a police officer, insisted that the briefing was a private matter. Reporters, citing the state's Sunshine Act on public meetings, refused to leave.

After some debate, Nutter started the briefing by saying that the briefing could be private if Council didn't deliberate or make any decisions.

"I'm not going to waste anybody's time arguing about it," said Nutter, adding that he reserves the right in the future to hold private briefings.

Reporters remained for the 30-minute briefing.

The Sunshine Act says that official action or deliberation by a government agency must take place in an open meeting if a quorum of the agency's members attends. Nine members of Council equal a quorum. Fifteen of Council's 17 members attended.

City Solicitor Shelley Smith later called reporters to say that a private briefing was fine, the "mere fact that information is exchanged and debated informally" does not rise to the legal standard of deliberation in state law.

"This administration has been more open and accessible than I think the perception is that this local government has been for a long time," Smith added.

Teri Henning, general counsel of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, said that the discussion by Council members about the budget added up to deliberation since they will eventually have to vote on the city's budget.

"The intent of the Sunshine Act is to allow the public to observe the discussions and deliberations leading up to a decision," she said.

In the briefing, Finance Director Rob Dubow outlined fiscal constraints in the city's five-year plan - a dip in the real-estate transfer tax, the delay on when the city receives casino revenues and the uncertainty over the cost of upcoming city contracts.

Dubow said that the slowdown in the housing market has reduced the real-estate transfer tax revenue more than originally projected. After the meeting, he said that the projected $205 million in revenue for fiscal year 2008 will be closer to $185 million or $197 million.

On casinos, Dubow said that the city will get more than $70 million in "host fees." The plan starts counting on that money in 2010. But, Dubow said that "to hit that, construction needs to happen now." Since construction hasn't started, that seems unlikely.

And on the pending city contract negotiations - the current agreements expire June 30 - Dubow said that it's hard to predict the financial outcome.

"As you know we put $400 million in the plan for the cost of those awards, but until the awards come in and the collective-bargaining process is over, we won't know exactly where they come in," he said.

In other government-transparency news, yesterday was the deadline for Mayor Nutter, his top appointees and other city officials to file financial-disclosure statements for 2007. But the city's Department of Records delayed public access to the documents, saying it was too busy collecting the forms to show them to reporters. Officials at the city Board of Ethics approved the delay. *

Staff writer Bob Warner contributed to this report.