Hooper mayor keeps powers after divided council vote

HOOPER, Utah (ABC4) — After months of consideration and tabling the issues, Hooper city council voted to allow Mayor Sheri Bingham to keep her powers as mayor.

The motion made by Councilmember Bryce Wilcox had to be unanimous. It by a vote of 3 to 2. Council members Wilcox, Dale Fowers, and Debra Marigoni voted to strip the mayor’s powers. Council members Ryan Hill and Lisa Northrup voted against.

The proposed ordinance would have stripped the mayor of her powers to only become a “ceremonial head” for the city and chair of council but not have the power to set agendas or veto. This was last brought up in a meeting in February where council decided to table the issue. Back then, council called the change of powers necessary in order to “promote fairness, accountability, and effective governance.”

Councilmember Hill tabled the voted back in February in order to have a closed door meeting to discuss the issues preventing the council and Mayor Bingham from working together. Those discussions aren’t allowed to be public. Hill revealed though, that in order to add transparency to the city finances that he would be added as another check signer and there would be check records released to council regularly. He added that Councilmember Fowler would be included in prospective employee interviews for the city.

At Thursday nights meeting, Councilmember Wilcox read a statement as to why he believed Mayor Bingham still needed to have her powers stripped. Wilcox claimed she has violated 67 codes, 36 city codes and 31 Utah state codes. He did not go into detail what those violations are.

Mayor Bingham responded to the allegations saying, “I honestly don’t even know what they’re talking about as far as that. It’s disturbing to me when they throw out accusations that I feel are unfounded or I’m not even aware of.”

On voting for the motion, Councilmember Marigoni said this has been a problem for over a year and a half and the council needed to act. She explained, “When it gets to a point where you need to step back and say something else needs to happen. You have to have the strength to do that.”

Councilmember Hill said he believed the closed door meeting saw some progress and it was time for the council to work together. He expressed, “If we can’t figure out how to work together to set our personal issues aside, whatever they may be, then we need to excuse ourselves from this council.”

Wilcox disagreed, adding, “But still, between that time frame and now, there was still some inappropriate, extremely inappropriate behavior that I know about. And that’s not in that 67, and it’s pretty disturbing.”

As for how she’ll move forward in working with council in the future, Bingham said, “I have been friends with everybody sitting up there for years and years when you live in a small community. That’s the case. You are friends. You are neighbors. It’s understandable that people have differences of opinions. But I feel like now we can move on. And that’s what I’m really hoping and I think we will.”