The rift among members of the scandal-plagued Utah Transit Authority board is getting ugly, with vice chairwoman Sherrie Hall Everett complaining that board member Brent Taylor is ignoring public records requests that may show he is conspiring to sink her Provo mayoral campaign.
Taylor says the requests, under the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA), are overly broad, “ridiculous” and show a vindictiveness and paranoia stemming from his criticisms of the UTA board‘s leaders.
Everett barely survived the primary election in the Provo mayor’s race last month, finishing second behind Michelle Kaufusi.
Taylor is mayor of North Ogden, so Everett and her campaign manager John Bingham have sent GRAMA requests to the city, asking for all correspondence the mayor has had through emails and telephone conversations.
Everett listed a dozen names she suspects have had correspondence with the mayor. Most of them are candidates in Utah County, county officeholders or activists in the Utah County Republican Party, including at least one former party chairman.
Taylor says he has never met or communicated with most of the people on the list and argues that his city is the wrong venue to send GRAMA requests to involving UTA business.
Part of her request asks for correspondence concerning the agency’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Utah County, which has nothing to do with North Ogden, Taylor says.
Taylor, a relatively new UTA board member, has dubbed himself a reformer and has pushed for more transparency from the board. Everett has questioned whether Taylor should be on the board because his father is a driver for UTA’s FrontRunner train, alleging that is a conflict.
The two have publicly feuded for months.
Taylor recently questioned whether Everett has a conflict of interest since she accepted a $10,000 contribution from Sunroc, a construction materials supply company and a wholly owned subsidiary of W.W. Clyde, one of two main contractors on a $200 million Provo-Orem BRT project.
Everett has responded that Sunroc has no current or pending business with Provo or UTA, that she notified UTA’s general counsel about the donation and made sure it was specifically listed on her campaign financial-disclosure form. As a board member, she added, she has no say in any bid awards.
Bingham said the GRAMA requests were initiated in early August and have not been answered after nearly a month.
“He [Taylor] talks about transparency,” Bingham said, “yet he won’t release [the correspondence that was requested].”
North Ogden City Attorney John Call said the city staff has been going through the GRAMA requests to see what can be released. He said much of what has been requested does not constitute a public record under the statute.
Taylor alleges North Ogden employees have been harassed and threatened by the Everett camp in retaliation for his questions regarding the campaign contribution from Sunroc.
Here’s a suggestion: Former UTA board boss Greg Hughes, Utah House speaker, has extensive experience in the boxing world. Perhaps he would be willing to offer his services as a referee during future UTA board meetings.
Speaking of feuds • A little tussle is developing within the Salt Lake County Republican Party between two camps: the pragmatists and the ideologues.
Party Chairman Jake Parkinson has suggested paring the number of county convention delegates from the current 2,600 to 1,500, the level it was four years ago.
That proposal prompted an anonymous email sent to me, presumably from GOP insiders, suggesting it was an attempt to weaken the party and embolden candidates to focus more on signature gathering than on the delegates.
It cited the recent Republican primary in the 3rd Congressional District race.
“With the current uproar on Twitter and other circles over Chris Herrod’s (convention winner) loss to John Curtis (convention loser and signature gatherer), it is interesting that the SL County Republican Party is laying plans to further reduce the influence and voice of delegates by reducing their number by more than a third. Stay tuned,” the email said.
In other words, it’s the Count My Vote fight all over again, with party purists suggesting party leaders are conspiring to neuter the sacred role of the delegates, who know so much more about the virtues of the candidates than the unwashed GOP masses.
The county party boosted the number of delegates from 1,500 to 2,600 four years ago to quell criticism that party nominees were being selected by relatively few people.
Increasing the delegate rolls, the purists said, would show a broad base of support for the eventual winner. No need for those pesky signature gatherers seeking to diminish the sacred role of the delegates.
Parkinson is looking at the issue from a practical point of view.
Candidates for county offices do not have the budgets and resources of, say, congressional candidates. Yet, to be competitive in a Republican convention fight, they must spend the time and money to reach about the same number of delegates as a congressional candidate.
“Someone running for county recorder, or county treasurer, has the same number of delegates [to woo] as Mia Love,” said Parkinson. “Our candidates should be using their campaign funds to defeat Democrats in the general election rather than spending it just to get out of the convention.”