It sounds like what you're talking about is fairly ordinary political maneuvering of an already-extant official group?

Like, the fact that it's a "council" means that they're already meeting regularly and talking to each other, about these specific things.

When a group like that decides not to advance a proposal because they think it will be voted down, that's not a conspiracy; it may be a highly undesirable behavior, and something we should try to prevent with changes in the structure or rules, but "conspiracy" isn't just a word for every group of people who does things we don't like.