PHOENIX — Another Arizona city may consider whether to approve civil unions that could include same-sex couples.

The Tempe City Council plans late Thursday to meet behind closed doors to get legal advice on civil unions.

The Arizona Republic reports that Councilman Kolby Granville requested the executive-session discussion and plans to ask for council action on civil unions in coming weeks.

Granville says it’s an issue of civil rights and that civil unions would be the next best thing to same-sex marriage..

Tempe has approximately 165,000 residents and is one of the Phoenix area’s larger cities — it is home to Arizona State University.

The Tempe council’s scheduled discussion comes after the Bisbee City Council approved an ordinance for civil unions Tuesday night.

Bisbee is a city of about 5,600 people in mostly rural Cochise County in southeastern Arizona.

Attorney General Tom Horne has said he will go to court to block Bisbee’s new ordinance. Horne contends the Bisbee council acted outside its legal authority because state laws control things such as community property.

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