The Summit County Council is threatening to withdraw its membership — and dues — from the Utah Association of Counties after a council member said she was bullied for her Democratic politics at a recent meeting.
In an Oct. 23 letter to the Utah Association of Counties, or UAC, the Summit County Council said that a county commissioner was inappropriately allowed to disrupt a September meeting on public lands to promote President Donald Trump and lobby attendees to sign an op-ed opposing the House impeachment inquiry.
During the commissioner’s presentation, the Summit County letter states, Councilwoman Kim Carson was singled out, humiliated “and essentially bullied” for her perceived political leanings.
“Summit County sees the value in participating in the association,” the letter states, “but we are at the point where we can no longer tolerate this treatment, which we feel is entrenched in the UAC culture.”
The council members wrote that while Carson’s treatment was “a blatant and serious example,” it is not the first time that UAC members have been singled out and bullied due to their gender, political affiliation or socioeconomic status.
“We expect to see action taken in November to ensure all members and invited guests who participate in UAC meetings and events can do so without fear of harassment,” the letter states. “If no action is pursued, we will consider withdrawing our membership and the associated dues from UAC.”
Carson told The Salt Lake Tribune that the meeting occurred shortly after House Democrats formally launched their impeachment inquiry into Trump, stemming from a phone call in which the president urged his Ukrainian counterpart to launch an investigation into one of Trump’s political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Carson declined to name the commissioner but said he represents a “southeastern county” and that he began his presentation by talking about the importance of public lands before pivoting to his plans for an opinion piece supporting the president.
“Before he even started talking about the public land issue, he said, ‘Now we’re all friends here’ and then points to me,” Carson said. “And I was, I believe, the only Democrat in the room out of about 100 [people]. So it was kind of obvious to me that he was going to be bringing up something political in nature."
Carson said it’s natural for members of UAC bring their political backgrounds and biases to discussions on policy. But it is inappropriate and frustrating, she said, when members try to use the nonpartisan association as a forum for direct, partisan political activity.
“It happens a lot,” she said. “I just felt like it was time that we addressed it with UAC leadership.”
She also said that she has overheard inappropriate comments based of gender — but declined to elaborate — and that she’s often introduced with qualifiers like “our lone Democrat friend” and with comments that suggest she and her constituents are all wealthy.
Brandy Grace, CEO of the Utah Association of Counties, said association leadership has been reviewing its bylaws and governing documents, and that the Summit County letter highlights an issue where there is a lack of clear rules.
“We are a nonpartisan organization, and there are conversations that just shouldn’t take place,” Grace said. “But we also need to provide some guidance to our committee chairs who are running those meetings so that they know what is appropriate and how to handle situations.”
Grace confirmed that the commissioner’s presentation cited in the Summit County letter was not on the agenda for the September Public Lands Committee. She said she was in the room at the time but was reviewing her notes for an upcoming presentation and didn’t hear the full exchange alluded to in the Summit County complaint.
“What caught my attention was when I heard council member Carson say, ‘Why are you looking at me?’ " Grace said. “Whatever the situation may be, we certainly want all of our members to feel welcome and not bullied as was referred to in the letter.”
A report by the Park Record identified Garfield County Commission Chairman Leland Pollock as the UAC member who praised Trump during the September meeting. But Pollock denied mentioning or encouraging his colleagues to sign a pro-Trump op-ed.
"I didn’t bring up an [opinion piece], that’s why I’m so shocked about this,” Pollock told the Park Record. “I just said there’s a couple of commissioners that’s going to speak out in favor of Donald Trump and this administration because of what he’s done for us in public lands.”
Pollock told The Tribune on Tuesday that he did not bully anyone at any point during the September meeting.
“I did not mention any person in that room by name,” he said. “If I looked in a certain direction — you have to look around a room when you’re speaking to people.”
Pollock said he appreciates his friendships with both Republican and Democratic members of the UAC, and that he tries to be approachable. He said he had not been contacted by anyone from Summit County, and suggested the council’s complaint was reflective of other issues with the association, rather than his remarks on public lands.
“If we need to fix those issues, let’s get them fixed,” he said.
Earlier this month, Pollock joined 40 Utah leaders — mostly rural county commissioners as well as several state lawmakers — in signing a letter to members of the state’s federal delegation, urging them to oppose the impeachment inquiry and defend Trump.
A version of the letter had also been submitted to The Tribune as an op-ed but was denied for publication, according to Piute County Commissioner Darin Bushman.
“We feel like we have an administration, for the first time in history, that’s actually listening to rural counties,” Bushman said.
The letter to the delegation includes a number of false and misleading statements, such as the suggestion that a vote of the House is required to launch an impeachment inquiry, that Trump must have engaged in an overt quid pro quo to face accusations of an impeachable offense, and that Democratic leaders had coordinated with the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment controversy.
The letter also describes the impeachment inquiry as a “deep state/media cabal” and states that words cannot describe the dismay that patriotic Americans and Utahns feel.
“This is an outrage of historic proportion playing out before our eyes,” the letter states.
The Utah Association of Counties has faced internal strife over the representation of its members, with critics arguing that rural counties hold outsized power within the organization compared with their urban counterparts who represent more populous areas of the state.
Salt Lake County withheld roughly $60,000 in UAC dues earlier this year — which has since been paid — while Utah County has continued to withhold its annual membership payment. One Utah County commissioner has also proposed that UAC look into weighting the voting power of member counties to reflect population and financial support.
