Elected officials are spending nearly as much time in back-door discussion as they are in front of the public lately at meetings of Hall County Board of Commissioners and the Gainesville City Council. Executive sessions, which legally allow the officials to hold private meetings to discuss some items (such as real estate sales and purchases), are being held fairly frequently as Hall County government attempts to negotiate the sale of the old county jail to the city of Gainesville. So far, stakeholders in the sale of the old county jail — Hall County, the city of Gainesville and the building's current lessee Corrections Corp. of America — are saying little about the progress of the behind-the-scenes negotiations taking place this week.