KAYSVILLE, Utah – Thursday’s Kaysville City Council meeting became heated during a discussion to censure Mayor Katie Witt.
The council drafted a letter of censure after the mayor tried to bypass the permit process to allow organizers of an outdoor concert to hold the event in the city.
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After a long period of discussion, the council voted unanimously to censure Witt. Following the vote, she expressed her belief that she did nothing wrong.
“I think there is a double standard here,” Witt said at the meeting. “If this request had been from Black Lives Matter, trying to get…”
After she brought up the Black Lives Matter movement, she was interrupted by loud jeers from those in attendance.
When the meeting was brought back to order, Witt added, “Would you demand a 30-day waiting period?”
That comment infuriated council member Michelle Barber.
“After all that. After we had that whole censure, she disappointed me more than anything by comparing a concert to a Black Lives Matter event,” Barber said at the conclusion of the meeting.
Friday, when reached by FOX13 to explain what she meant, Witt said she doesn’t regret the comment and supports the First Amendment rights of all groups.
“I am not going to make a determination on who has the right the peaceably assemble based on what their cause is,” Witt said. “Everybody has a right to peaceably assemble. Everyone. If any group comes to me and is seeking help, I am going to do the same thing, because they have that right.”
Barber believes the comment was an insensitive comparison.
“I thought that was more offensive than anything you put this city through,” Barber said. “There are people out there that have much harder things to deal with than anything we have here.”
The censure of the mayor is a public reprimand that does not impact her official standing.
