Parowan (Utah) City Council minutes, 1887-

These minutes document all regular and special meetings of the Parowan city council. The council is the chief governing and legislative body of the municipality and consists of the mayor and council members (Utah Legislature. Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials, 1870, Ch. 11; UCA, 1953, 10-6-3, 10-6-5). The minutes reflect the activities of the council in the performance of its various duties. The council is responsible for managing all aspects of city government including conducting elections, creating municipal offices and departments, appointing public officials, setting salaries, and controlling city finances. The council regulates the activities of its inhabitants, resident businesses and organizations, and provides and maintains a variety of public services for the community. The regulation of domestic animals, liquor sales, traffic, and other domestic, commercial, and professional activities constitutes a large portion of the council's documented functions, as does the maintenanceof public health, management of the community's natural resources, and the administration of various public utilities such as electrical, telephone, water, gas, and sewer systems. In 1907, Parowan built a hydro-electrical generating plant on Center Creek in nearby Parowan Canyon and since that time the city has been an operator and persistent advocate of publicly-owned electrical power systems. Parowan has been a prominent member of several public power cooperatives including the Intermountain Consumer Power Association, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (2215), and the Intermountain Power Association (2073). Besides minutes, this series also includes correspondence, resolutions, and ordinances inserted within and between the minutes at various points. After 1989 a number of related records accompany the minutes in addition to those mentioned above including agendas, agreements, public notices, and a miscellany of records relevant to specific projects such as maps, proposals,reports, and advertisements.

Notable events documented in the minutes include a political crisis in the city's highest public offices engendered by the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1917-1918; a 1981 conflict between the city and a Paiute tribe over the transfer of some forest lands in Parowan Canyon to that tribe; and the preservation and development of the Parowan Gap in 1993, an archaeological site west of the city, in which the Parowan city council played a prominent role.