The Citizens' Council on Immigration — a blend of big ideas and ordinary folks — kicked off Saturday morning around a table at Salt Lake City Hall.

As with any discussion about the volatile topic of immigration, there was talk about border patrol, crime and the economy. But more than equal time was given to a discussion of hidden cognitive biases, the triune brain theory and the Golden Rule — all in an effort to teach participants how to have a respectful conversation with people who don't agree with them.

The first of four meetings that will culminate in a public forum Sept. 2, Saturday's council included five immigrants and one refugee. Next Saturday's council will include "longer-term residents." A third meeting on Aug. 18 will combine both groups in what professor Jeffrey Nielsen hopes is not a debate but a deliberation.

Nielsen, who teaches philosophy at Westminster College and Utah Valley State College, is the force behind the Citizens' Council on Immigration, which he hopes will be the first of many citizen councils in various communities, tackling issues such as health care and education. This first effort is a collaboration with Mayor Rocky Anderson's Office of Diversity.

Nielsen, who launched what he calls the Democracy House Project last year, says the councils are an "experiment," and he hopes they will be an antidote to the yelling and polarized views found on talk radio. His vision, he says, is that ordinary citizens have the wisdom, moderation and morality to reach the kind of consensus that eludes lawmakers.

Although the subsequent meetings in this immigration series will be open to observers — and the Sept. 2 public forum at Salt Lake City's Downtown Library will include audience participation — Saturday's event was closed so that the immigrants and refugees would feel more free to participate, according to Office of Diversity administrator Josie Valdez.

The closed meeting rankled LeGrand K. Holbrook of Salt Lake City, who describes himself as "a concerned citizen." Holbrook, after reading about the Citizens' Council in the newspaper, arrived at the City-County Building at 8 a.m. Saturday but was told he couldn't stay.

"I'm getting tired of being pushed around in my own country," Holbrook said as he left the building.

Phyllis Sears, who heads the anti-illegal immigration group Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration in St. George, also expressed concerns Saturday about the closed nature of the meeting. Her group is not affiliated with Nielsen's.

"It doesn't seem like a government in the U.S. should behave this way," said Sears.

She added that Valdez had invited her to participate in next Saturday's meeting after Sears contacted the mayor's office to complain. She also charged that "half of this 'citizens' council' is not citizens. ... They are taking people who are not citizens to work out solutions that citizens will have to live by." She said that in her group, all members are either U.S. citizens or are working toward becoming citizens.