Meredith Harker

Source: approved Taylorsville City Council minutes posted on the Utah Public Notice Website, body 720. The text-searchable minutes cover June 2024 through Sept 2026.

Pattern: in every text-searchable set of minutes from June 2024 to Sept 2026, the only non-unanimous council vote was June 5, 2024. That vote was Resolution 24-12 (FY2024-25 budget), which passed 4-1 with Council Member Knudsen voting No (minutes). Every other recorded vote reviewed was unanimous among the members present.

Her role in the record above:

• Moved Res. 24-20 (the 2024 25.05% rate).
• Moved Res. 26-21 (the 2026 5.02% rate).
• Moved one of the Solstice at 54th ordinances.
• Absent June 17, 2026.
• Voted Yes on every recorded tax and budget item where present.

Municipal candidates file with the Taylorsville City Recorder (Utah Code 10-3-208). The council limit is $1,500 per cycle (City Code 2.36.030). Reports are listed on the 2025 candidate statements index (archived).

• Itemized contributions (28-day report):
  • Salt Lake Board of Realtors, $1,500 (3/14/2025). This is the full council per-cycle limit.
  • One individual, $25.25.
  • Candidate's own funds, $1,136.54. Self-funding is exempt from the limit under City Code 2.36.030.
• Headline: about $2.7K raised, of which $1.5K came from the Realtors and about $1.1K was self-funded. About $1.4K was spent before the general election.
• 2017 and 2021 reports: not retrieved.

• 2026 Conflict of Interest Disclosure, signed and received Jan 28, 2026 (doc 11510):
  • Employment: Granite School District, 3rd-grade teacher. Her 2025 voter guide answer gives the school as Calvin Smith Elementary in Taylorsville (guide).
  • Other sections blank.
• 2025 COI disclosure: on file (doc 10226). The full form was not reviewed.

• No lobbyist registration ties found in the public records reviewed.
• Contribution of record from an industry association: Salt Lake Board of Realtors, $1,500 (2025).
• No ethics complaint found in PSERC materials reviewed.
• No recusals were noted in the minutes reviewed.

• Office: Taylorsville City Council, District 4 (nonpartisan) (city council page, archived Jul 8, 2026).
• Current term: January 2026 through early January 2030 (third term). Re-elected Nov 4, 2025 (SLCo 2025); sworn in Jan 7, 2026 (Taylorsville City on X).
• On the council since: January 2018 (first elected 2017).
• Committee liaison assignments: Historic Preservation; Parks & Recreation (council page).
• Next election for this seat: Nov 6, 2029 [COMPUTED].

• Party: The office is nonpartisan, so no party label appears on the ballot. No publicly documented party registration was found.
• Self-description in the 2025 voter guide (City Journals, Oct 7, 2025):
  • "We are a 'pay as you go city' and run a very tight ship when it comes to our budget... We believe in saving up for things we need/want rather than putting the tax payers in debt."
  • Her budget values: "prudence and fiscal responsibility."
  • She did not answer the guide's question on local cooperation with ICE; no response appears in the published guide.
• Stated positions in public meetings: She spoke in support of the 2024 rate increase and moved its adoption (minutes, Aug 21, 2024).
• Organizational support: the Salt Lake Board of Realtors contributed $1,500 in 2025 (see Campaign finance).

• Email: mharker@taylorsvilleut.gov
• Phone: 801-573-6502 (as published on the city council page)
• City Hall: 2600 W Taylorsville Blvd, Taylorsville, UT 84129; main line 801-963-5400
• Campaign site (self-reported): meredithharker.com (2025 voter guide)

Gaps

• Complete 2025 post-general report (doc 11293). Custodian: City Recorder.
• 2017 and 2021 candidate reports, and annual statements. Custodian: City Recorder.
• Full 2025 COI form.
• Approved minutes for Jan–May 2024 are image scans and were not text-searched. Minutes for Aug 20, 2025 and Sept–Dec 2025 were not retrieved, so vote tallies for those meetings, including the Dec 17, 2025 Summit Vista rezone, are unverified. Custodian: Taylorsville City Recorder; also available on PMN.
• Annual March 1 campaign finance statements required by City Code 2.36.040 were not retrieved. Custodian: City Recorder.
• lobbyist.utah.gov was not successfully searched.
• No ethics-complaint records from the city were obtained. Custodian: City Recorder / City Attorney; also the Political Subdivisions Ethics Review Commission.

One of five part-time council members who are Taylorsville's legislative branch: they pass city laws, adopt the budget and set the property tax rate, and oversee (but do not run) city operations.

Role

Legislator for one of five city districts

Hours

Part-time

Pay

$23,029 paid in FY2026; about $23,850 budgeted for FY2027 (estimated), plus partial health and retirement benefits

Typical week

Two Wednesday-evening meetings a month (6:00 p.m. briefing, 6:30 p.m. regular meeting), packet reading, resident calls and emails, community events

Responsibilities and powers

• Taylorsville uses the council-mayor form of government: the council is the legislative branch, enacting ordinances and adopting the annual budget, while the mayor is the chief executive (Taylorsville 2023 financial report transmittal letter; Utah Code 10-3b-201).
• Under state law the council passes ordinances, appropriates funds and reviews municipal administration, and elects one of its members as chair (Utah Code 10-3b-203).
• Limits: council members may not direct hiring or firing (except in writing), interfere with an executive officer's duties, or give orders to the mayor's staff. A member may not hold any other paid job with the city (10-3b-203).
• Checks on the mayor: the mayor's key appointments (city administrator, recorder, treasurer, engineer, attorney) need the council's advice and consent (10-3b-202). The council can override a mayoral veto of an ordinance, tax levy or appropriation with two-thirds of all members (10-3b-204).
• Five members, each elected by district to a four-year, nonpartisan term; terms are staggered (Districts 1–3 next on the ballot Nov 2, 2027 [COMPUTED]; Districts 4–5 in 2029). Candidates must live in their district (Utah Code 20A-9-203).
• Each member files a conflict-of-interest disclosure under Utah Code 10-3-1306.

A typical week

• Meetings: the council "will typically hold its City Council meetings ... on the first and third Wednesdays of each month," with a briefing session at 6:00 p.m. followed by the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers (Room 140), 2600 W Taylorsville Blvd (2026 meeting schedule notice). That is about 24 regular meetings a year, plus occasional special meetings.
• What a meeting looks like: minutes show the mayor, city administrator, city recorder, police chief, city attorney and a Unified Fire representative attending; the briefing reviews the agenda, and the regular meeting covers citizen comment, ordinances, resolutions and contracts (Feb 4, 2026 minutes; Jun 17, 2026 minutes). Agendas and packets are posted on the Utah Public Notice Website (body 720).
• Between meetings [INFERRED]: reading agenda packets, answering district residents' calls and emails, meeting with staff for briefings, and attending city events and community council meetings.
• Seasonal cycle: Taylorsville's fiscal year runs July–June. Budget work peaks in May–June (tentative budget, then adoption). In 2026 the council considered a 5% property tax increase on June 17 (Resolution 26-18) (Jun 17, 2026 minutes) and adopted the final FY2026-27 budget on Aug 12, 2026 after the truth-in-taxation process (Res. 26-21, utah.gov/pmn/files/1467231.pdf).

Time commitment

• Part-time. Roughly 10–20 hours a week [INFERRED: two evening meetings a month of about one to three hours, plus packet preparation, constituent contact and events; heavier in budget season]. Most members hold other jobs.

Staff and budget

• Council members have no personal staff; the City Recorder's office supports the council [INFERRED from meeting minutes listing the recorder as council staff].
• City Council department budget: $206,576 requested for FY2027 (council salaries $119,233, benefits $33,843, plus the city's annual audit, $38,000) (Taylorsville FY27 budget).
• The council oversees a General Fund of about $35.5 million (FY2027 requested), the largest piece being Police at $15.3 million (same source).

Pay

• $23,029 paid in FY2026 (Transparent Utah, Harker and Burgess). The FY2027 budget of $119,233 for five seats works out to about $23,850 each (estimated).
• City code §2.14.040 sets council pay and ties raises to staff general raises. The city also pays half the cheapest single health premium (or that amount to retirement), retirement and life insurance, and reimburses internet and IRS-rate mileage. Benefits paid in FY2026 were about $6,450–$7,110 per member.

Sources

• Utah Code 10-3b-201, -202, -203, -204
• 2026 Taylorsville City Council meeting schedule
• Taylorsville FY2027 budget summary
• Taylorsville code §2.14.040 (council compensation)

Compare with every office →

• city council page, archived Jul 8, 2026 web.archive.org
• SLCo 2025 saltlakecounty.gov
• Taylorsville City on X x.com
• 2025 voter guide taylorsvillecityjournal.com
• minutes, Aug 21, 2024 utah.gov
• 2025 candidate statements index (archived) web.archive.org
• doc 11187 taylorsvilleut.gov
• doc 11239 taylorsvilleut.gov
• doc 11293 taylorsvilleut.gov
• doc 11510 taylorsvilleut.gov
• doc 10226 taylorsvilleut.gov
• Utah Public Notice Website, body 720 utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• resolution utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• notice utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• agenda utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• notice utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• minutes utah.gov
• SLCo 2017 saltlakecounty.gov
• SLCo 2021 saltlakecounty.gov
• PSERC ethics.utah.gov