Rob's blog

Oh, you want to know about all of the illegal smoke-filled room meetings, eh? They may have them elsewhere, but sadly, we don't allow them (surely, you take me literally?).

Utah State Code requires that all municipal governments conduct all business in full view of the public, allowing for public scrutiny of the actions that are taken by their elected officials. However, a provision is made for city governments to hold "Closed Door Meetings" for very specific purposes, which are outlined in State Code in Procedures for a Closed Door meeting and Purposes for Closed Door Meetings. Essentially, the reasons allowed for these kinds of meetings is to allow for review of city personnel issues that regard the professional competency or physical or mental health of an individual; to discuss pending or imminent legal action where publicily disclosing the information could affect the outcome of the case; to discuss the cty's selling or buying property where disclosing the city's intent to could change the value of the property and cost the taxpayers additional money in the transaction; or security related issues for deploying security devices or personnel or investigations into allegations of criminal misconduct. The reasons are very clear and specific, and a tape recording is made of the meeting unless it is to discuss personnel issues to ensure compliance with the Utah Open Meeting Act. These tapes are not available to the public and would only be used in a court or State Attorney General office's investigation of an alleged illegal meeting. If personnel issues are being discussed, no tape recording is made, but the Mayor signs an affidavit that personnel issues were all that was discussed during the meeting.

The law does not prohibit chance or social meetings by council members, but it is understood that if such incidental meetings do happen, those council members may not use such encounters to conduct illegal business. To this end, no more than 4 Council Members can be in a location at a time without a publicly noticed meeting unless it is a chance or social meeting (like showing up at a restaurant unplanned) and no city business is conducted. This allows the public to have decisions that affect it made in the light of day and able to be reviewed and reported on.