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Utah County Commissioners Amelia Powers Gardner and Brandon Gordon meet at the Utah County Administration Building on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, to discuss the upcoming budget.

Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald

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Utah County Commissioner Tom Sakievich speaks during a meeting at the Utah County Administration Building in Provo on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald file photo

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Utah County Commission Chair Brandon Gordon is calling on fellow Commissioner Tom Sakievich to resign because of the official’s extended absence due to health reasons.

Sakievich, who has been on the commission for one term, first announced in January he would not be running for reelection due to health issues.

Gordon said that while he is empathic and wants Sakievich to focus on healing, Sakievich’s prolonged absence has left the three-person commission struggling to keep up and complete essential work. Sakiveich hasn’t attended a commission meeting in person since Jan. 17 and has missed three meetings since then.

“I really can’t stress enough, I want him to focus on recovery and getting healthy and being with his family,” Gordon said.

Gordon said he is asking for Sakievich to either resign or “give me a plan” on coming back to work. Sakievich was not available for an interview Tuesday.

Gordon said he sent an email to the commission and county administrator last week to schedule a meeting to discuss his concerns and address them.

In the email, Gordon said they had received multiple complaints about a lack of engagement from Sakievich’s office in portfolio and board assignments. He further charged that Sakievich’s policy advisor, Lisa Shepherd, also has been absent from meetings and has failed to communicate properly, causing “additional challenges.”

“Departments within his (Sakievich’s) portfolio are not receiving the necessary assistance, and organizations are experiencing difficulties in obtaining responses from his office,” Gordon wrote in the email.

Fellow Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner said she believes Gordon’s request is “incredibly reasonable.”

“You have a lot of sympathy for somebody, but ultimately, our job is to serve the people in Utah County and to run the government of Utah County,” she said. “And that’s not happening right now.”

Having a third commissioner absent can delay voting or decision making if Gordon and Powers Gardner disagree and don’t have a tie-breaker, something that already has happened.

During a recent commission meeting, Powers Gardner and Gordon disagreed on an issue related to insurance for two local events and had to push the vote to the following week. Sakievich was present at the next meeting and was able to vote.

“We’re at the point now where we can’t record ordinances,” Powers Gardner said. “We don’t have a tie-breaking vote. We have a third of our departments that don’t have representation from a portfolio commissioner.”

After KSL TV aired a story about Gordon’s request Monday, Gordon said he and Powers Gardner received an email from Sakievich that night saying he has no intention of resigning.

With a three-person commission, Sakievich’s assignments put him over about a third of county business, with him having specific assignments over the county attorney’s office, the children’s justice center, public defenders and more.

Powers Gardner said they are in the middle of negotiating a contract with the Public Defenders Association and had to take Sakievich off the assignment. Gordon also took over handling the county’s winter homeless response, another one of Sakievich’s assignments.

If Sakievich were to resign, delegates for the Utah County Republican Party would vote on a replacement who would sit on the commission until the November election. In the upcoming election, five Republicans and one United Utah candidate have filed to run for the open commission seat.

Gordon said this isn’t him trying to make the issue “political” but is just about wanting a “third commissioner to help us do our job,” pointing to statements Shepherd, Sakievich’s policy advisor, made to KSL about the other commissioners making the issue political. Shepherd is currently a candidate for the Utah Legislature.

“When it comes down to it, we have sympathy and we have empathy and we want Commissioner Sakievich to take care of his health,” Powers Gardner said, but added that the commission still has a county to serve.

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