SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Transit Authority Board of Trustees is facing a challenge from within, as North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor calls for the resignation of the Board chair, Robert Mckinley and co-vice chair Sherrie Hall Everett after a Facebook post.
UTA Trustee and North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor said a post by Vice Chair Sherrie Everett, that has since been deleted, "attacked" him over Facebook after the Salt Lake Tribune article called Taylor a "reformer" for UTA.
According to Taylor, Everett said in a Facebook post:
"...It is truly annoying that someone who has been there such a short time (3-4 months) is touting himself as the ONLY reformer at UTA...and now a VICTIM...I can guarantee there are 16 reformers on the UTA Board and they were doing the work for years before Brent Taylor came to the agency. So what's the agenda here? And why does he think he is the only white knight to sweep in? Unless of course, he is the one who is demanding credit?"
"....The other day before the Board meeting, I observed Trustee Taylor handing Lee Davidson a letter. As soon as we descended the stairs he ran back to the parking lot to 'get something'. So Trustee...if you really want to be transparent here...what's the game? What are you trying to do?....Sorry, I'm calling...the emporer (sic) has no clothes here. So what's your game? Because those who know me KNOW that I am also a REFORMER. I just believe in doing it with integrity, transparency and respect. And I really believe that you can get better results building coalitions of respect and support and culture than trying to play the rogue...."
Taylor said he never meant to be in the spotlight, that as long as the job gets done, he's happy. He defended the meeting with Salt Lake Tribune reporter Lee Davidson as "pure coincidence," and that his job has nothing to do with secrecy or going "rogue."
But according to Taylor, the Board has never been on his side.
"My introduction to the board were very negative from the get go," Taylor told Fox 13.
The controversy was sparked by board members' objection to Taylor taking a seat on the board because Taylor's father works for the agency as a Frontrunner operator.
On April 26th, the Board voted to update their nepotism policy to make it against the rules for future trustees to be related to an employee. If the trustee were to take a seat on the board, UTA would fire the employee.
Taylor says the new policy is aimed at him and is indicative of problems in the agency's culture.
"I think the UTA, as an organization, is very reactionary and self-destructively so. It's not healthy for an organization to react so badly to criticism to outside voices. that causes people to wonder more what do you have to hide," Taylor said.
Now Taylor is calling for Everett's resignation as co-vice chair and says chair Robert Mckinley should also resign.
"I think it's time for some new leadership in the board," Taylor said.
Fox 13 requested interviews with Everett and Mckinley for this story but did not hear back.
