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Hooper council delays ordinance to strip mayoral powers, rescinds firing of city attorneys
Summary
After heated debate about governance, personnel hires and legal representation, Hooper City Council voted to table an ordinance that would remove the mayor's executive duties and to rescind a unilateral termination of the city's longtime attorneys, naming them interim counsel while the city reworks an RFP.
The Hooper City Council on Feb. 21 voted to table for three months an ordinance that would remove the mayor’s executive and administrative powers and, in separate motions, rescinded a unilateral termination letter to the city's legal counsel and the outstanding request-for-proposals (RFP) for legal services.
The move came after more than two hours of discussion by the mayor, council members and residents about governance, recent personnel changes and long-running friction between council members and the mayor. Council Member Hill moved to table the ordinance until June 25; Council Member Northrop seconded the motion and the measure carried on a roll-call vote.
The ordinance before the council would have amended the Hooper municipal code to transfer the mayor’s administrative authority to the city council and leave the mayor a largely ceremonial role. Mayor said the proposal required “careful consideration of legal, operational, and community impacts,” and urged a transition plan be developed before any transfer of duties.
Council members who backed tabling said recent personnel decisions and a lack of transparency had contributed to distrust. During the meeting council members raised concerns about several hires made since late 2023 — including a city planner, a part-time deputy city recorder, and a financial clerk — and said they had not been consistently briefed on budget impacts.
On the city's legal representation, the council took two related actions. Council Member Hill moved to rescind the mayor’s Feb. 21 letter terminating the city’s long-time attorneys and to apologize; the motion also named those attorneys as interim counsel immediately, pending a reworked RFP. That motion passed. Council Member Hill later moved to rescind the current RFP for legal services and direct staff and council to edit the RFP together; that motion passed as well.
Council and staff said the city had been out of compliance with procurement practices: the Office of the Utah State Auditor had contacted the city beginning Dec. 20, 2023 about the absence of a written contract for legal services. Staff said the RFP process — with proposals due March 5 and a council decision scheduled for March 20 — was intended to correct that lapse. The mayor said the city published the RFP after consulting the Local Administrator Advisor (LAA) program, which recommended standard procurement language and flagged the need for clearer rules about who may contact and incur hours from legal counsel.
Several residents urged the council to find common ground. Council Member Hill proposed tabling the ordinance for three months, coupled with a closed-door meeting or mediation to address personal and professional divisions; the proposal was adopted. The council directed staff to draft an interim contract while the RFP is revised and to bring recompense and process changes back to the full council before reposting the RFP.
Other procedural items handled at the meeting included direction on planning commission term staggering and clarifications about how planning agendas are set; those items were advanced as guidance to the planning commission rather than by ordinance.
Mayor and council members acknowledged long-standing interpersonal divisions that have spilled into public meetings and asked for a facilitated conversation to address the tensions. Several residents who spoke during public comment thanked the council for the turnout and urged orderly, civil debate going forward.
What the council approved
- Table the ordinance amending the municipal code to remove the mayor’s administrative powers until June 25; motion passed on roll call. - Rescind the unilateral termination letter to the city’s attorneys dated Feb. 21, 2025, and reinstate those attorneys as interim counsel pending an updated RFP; motion passed. - Rescind the current RFP for legal services and direct council and staff to revise and repost it; motion passed.
Next steps and timeline noted at the meeting include staff drafting an interim legal-services contract for council review, proposals due March 5, and a council review of RFP applicants targeted for March 20.
