Rob's blog

Could two council members call a "meeting" and make decisions for the city without the other people knowing about it? Nope. Wouldn't be valid.

First, a city council meeting has to be noticed to the public no earlier than 24 hours from when the meeting is to be held. Information about the meeting is posted on the bulletin board at city hall, in both libraries in the city, on the city's web site, and is faxed to the two major newspapers in the valley. If it is anything less than 24 hours before all this is done, the meeting is illegal and thus invalid.

Second, Utah State Code requires for cities with our form of government (optional Council/Manager form with 7 council members) that a minimum of 4 council members must be present at a meeting to form a quorum. The law also states that on ANY issue, a minimum of 4 "yes" votes are required to pass any issue placed before the council. Therefore, if only 4 council people show up, all 4 have to be unanimous on any issue for it to pass - even one "no" will sink it. This requires both the participation and the agreement of a majority of a city's elected officials to pass any issue instead of just whoever shows up at a particular time.