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PROVO — A Utah advocacy group on Tuesday again repeated its call for embattled Utah County Commissioner Greg Graves' resignation.
This time, Graves stayed to listen.
Last week, when an Alliance for a Better Utah representative attended the County Commission's public meeting to renew the group's call for his resignation, the commissioner slipped out a back door before the public comment period.
"Perhaps Commissioner Graves believes that this scandal is something that will simply blow over and that everyone will eventually overlook his actions," Katie Matheson, spokeswoman for Alliance for a Better Utah, said Tuesday. "We are here to remind Commissioner Graves that we have not forgotten and that the public will no longer tolerate workplace harassment from our elected officials."
As Matheson spoke, Graves sat quietly in his seat behind the commissioner's table. He did not address any of Matheson's comments.
Graves has been accused of sexual harassment by a county employee and creating a hostile work environment in Utah County.
An investigator's report late last year detailed findings that while an investigator did not corroborate allegations of sexual harassment, he did conclude based on interviews with 14 other employees that Graves is "widely viewed as a 'workplace bully,' 'dishonest,' 'demeaning,' 'intimidating,' 'threatening,' explosive' and someone with whom personal interaction is to be avoided as much as possible."
Since then, more than a dozen Utah County elected officials have demanded Graves' resignation. Graves has said he won't seek re-election but plans to serve out his term, which ends at the end of 2018.
"By refusing to step down from office, Commissioner Graves continues to display a contempt for the dignity of his position as a public servant, the victims of his harassment and all of his constituents he was elected to represent, " Matheson said.
Graves didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Ever since insisting in December that the investigative report would clear him of wrongdoing "100 percent," Graves has not returned multiple requests for comment.
Matheson pointed out that Graves' salary — which was $120,000 in 2016, not including benefits, according to Utah's transparency website — is more than double the household median income in Utah County.
"Given the allegations of sexual harassment and bullying against Commissioner Graves, it is completely inappropriate to spend taxpayer dollars to fund a hostile work environment," Matheson said. "Utah County deserves much better than this."
