Arriving at 100 Congress Avenue in downtown Austin on a Saturday is no great feat for ordinary people. There was plenty of street parking when triple digit weather kept Austinites indoors and, if they are like me, stuffing themselves with ice-cold grapefruits.

Finding the public board meeting of five members, recently plucked from general obscurity to finalize the Formula One Grand Prix near Austin, seemed another ordeal for ordinary people. The board, known as the Circuit Events Local Organizing Committee, or CELOC, officially represents the City of Austin as a chief negotiating body with England-based Formula One Management. F1 is taking $25 million, from the state’s tax coffers, allowing Austin to hold a race.

The meeting -- the third held by the group since June 6th -- was at the offices of the Armbrust and Brown law firm. Unlike most of the countless public meetings I’ve attended as a reporter, when I arrived this blistering weekend there was no clue to indicate anything going on inside the sleepy 22-story Class A office tower.

The security guard at the front desk said there had been a lot of people heading upstairs, but knew nothing of a public meeting. Reassured they didn’t cancel this meeting suddenly, like they did the week prior, I found my way to the law firm’s office lobby, and the meeting already in progress.

The five CELOC members, plus Richard Suttle, the lawyer from Armbrust and Brown who masterminded F1’s whirlwind approvals through City Hall, sat at the end of a long table, huddled and spoke rather quietly for a open, public meeting.

Not that anything too terribly important happened, beyond the formalities posted on the agenda. Suttle -- who went to law school with former Austin mayor and current state Sen. Kirk Watson -- is way too savvy to do anything of substance regarding the U.S. Grand Prix in public view.

It just so happens, by the way, that Watson authored the legislation that cleared the way for $25 million in state tax funds delivered to the pocket of F1 billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, which the CELOC is in charge of overseeing. It’s the kind of small town Austin culture that makes an out-of-towner wonder whose interests are being represented at CELOC. Turns out, no one knows because their interests are “a hard thing to describe,” as Suttle told a local TV reporter at the board meeting.

The scene inside that board meeting, representing a multitude of known and unknown interests, was this: Two TV cameramen had their gear pointed at the board members, who occupied the conference room along with bored spectators, carrying the vacant look you see in the eyes of people in airport concourses or doctor's waiting rooms.

Despite the fact that it looked like the entire bunch just took a bong hit, the puppet masters weren’t taking any chances. Just outside the meeting room sat two plainclothes police officers. One, who introduced himself only as “Tank,” was amusing himself on an iPad. The other was wearing a wired earpiece, like a secret service agent. They said they worked for the city and were friends of Suttle.

One citizen attendee -- there were about five in attendance, plus a few reporters -- named Gus Pena asked to see the papers passed around to board members, according to one of local TV station report.

Instead, the board told him “they were not available and that a freedom of information request would be required to obtain the information,” according to the TV report. That is not normal for public meetings, but it should be known: nothing about the F1 deal had been normal since it was announced in May 2010.

Had someone from Austin city staff, the city manager’s office, a council member, staffer or even a Travis County Commissioner been there to ask for the papers, it might have changed the answer. Unfortunately, the meeting was conspicuously absent of anybody I recognized from those offices.

Some might be surprised at the void, after so many hems and haws from Austin City Council members, like Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole, who’s voice broke with emotion when talking about City Council’s duty to be safe-keepers of the community during a F1 hearing. But everyone knows city council members work long hours, and God bless them if they can get some relaxation on a Saturday. Plus, it was really hot out.

“It is up to us, I guess, the press, the Fourth Estate, to keep tabs on this meeting,” I told myself, blasting out a couple Tweets with meeting details.

About 15 minutes my attention was waining when -- though I expected the Austin American-Statesman news desk would be there in full force -- I realized I didn’t recognize anyone from their newsroom.

On July 4, the paper published a blistering editorial, proclaiming in a headline the “Formula One deal needs greater transparency.” Beyond blasting the murkiness of the entire CELOC, the daily newspaper begged City Council “at the earliest possible date to provide greater accountability and transparency.”

Surely the Statesman would be all over this, probably playing it on the front page, like they did recently when F1 promoters got permits to start pouring concrete foundations, I thought.

Later I learned the Statesman sent their brand new intern, Farzad Mashhood, to cover the opaque board it so passionately railed against. Mashhood, employing the full breadth of his Austin knowledge and the nuances of the Formula One deal after 28 days on the job, filed dutifully and even updated his Twitter page.

Fortunately, I recognized a couple other reporters at the meeting: one from the Austin Business Journal -- my old haunt -- and another from KUT News, our local public radio station. KXAN and YNN Austin -- two TV stations -- also had crews there.

I was glad they were there, because I wanted to leave. Besides, if there was no indication of a public meeting in the lobby, no documents to distribute to attendees, no clear indication of whose interests the board represents, no microphones for murmuring board members, no one attending from City Hall or no full-time Statesman reporter, it must not be important, right?

I split and went back to my apartment to devour another cold grapefruit, and figure out how exactly to describe what I had just witnessed.

[Editor's note - a previous version of this story stated this was the group's first meeting - "the first for the group after public meeting notifications forced the cancellation of two previously". We regret the error which was no fault of the reporter.]