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City attorney: mayor may not hold closed-door council meetings to discuss the budget
Summary
Roy's city attorney told the council at the Feb. 18 work session that under state law budget discussions must occur in public forums and the mayor cannot call a closed-door meeting to discuss budget matters with council members.
At the start of the Feb. 18, 2025 Roy City special work session the mayor asked City Attorney Matt Wilson whether the mayor could call a closed-door meeting with council members to discuss the budget.
Matt Wilson answered succinctly and then explained: “No,” followed by a clarification that state open-meetings law limits the subjects that may be discussed in a closed session and that budget discussions are not a listed reason for taking the council behind closed doors. Wilson told the room the council must discuss budget matters in a public work session or public meeting.
The mayor acknowledged the legal restriction while describing why executives sometimes prefer closed sessions for sensitive staffing or budget scenarios. He said he understood the law and emphasized staff and employees will hear public discussions and that the council must be conscious not to “spook the herd.” The mayor said he would not attempt to hold a closed-door budget discussion because “I can't do that legally.”
Why it matters: The attorney’s ruling framed how the council must handle budget deliberations going forward and underscored that personnel- or budget-related tradeoffs must be discussed in public forums. Council members subsequently proceeded with the public budget work session with the attorney’s guidance in mind.
Provenance: The exchange occurred in the meeting’s opening minutes when the mayor posed the question and Matt Wilson responded with the legal interpretation; the mayor then elaborated about public messaging and employee impacts.
No formal policy change was adopted at the session; the attorney’s public advisory framed the remainder of the meeting’s budget deliberations.
