Centerville City Council member Cheylynn Hayman is directly challenging Rep. Trevor Lee’s HB77, which became law last year, by displaying a pride flag on the dais inside the building where the Centerville City Council meets.

Lee told the Standard-Examiner in April that the bill was intended “to ban any flag that had any political leaning or ability to say you’re aligning with something that’s not either the American flag or the state flag” from government property.

In an interview Tuesday with the Standard-Examiner, Lee said that Hayman’s actions are “exactly what” is trying to be prevented and highlighted that it involves the dais inside the city council chambers.

“That’s not a private office,” he said.

Lee said Hayman is conflating her First Amendment rights with being a public figure, and specifically, someone who’s elected to represent the people.

“She can go do whatever she wants on her private property, but within the chamber, she needs to make sure she’s being politically neutral as it pertains to what she’s representing or what flag she’s flying,” he said. “I mean, the law is very, very clear on this. And, of course, it makes sense that she’s also the one who sits on the Judicial Conduct Commission and we just seemed to have this huge problem with our judiciary believing they’re above the law.”

Lee rejected Hayman’s defense that she’s doing this in her individual capacity.

“Yeah, we’re all individuals,” he said. “Here she is just trying to twist the words of the law. We’re all individuals. Yes. But when she is in the chamber, she is acting in the capacity as someone that is an employee. She gets paid in the chamber on the dime of the taxpayer when she’s representing the city of Centerville on the council. You can’t just do whatever you want when you’re on the clock. There are restrictions to that.”

He said he can’t do whatever he wants in the chamber in the Legislature or he would be kicked out.

“This is no different,” he said.

When asked if Hayman’s argument meant that MAGA flags were suddenly allowed on the dais by city council members or mayors, Lee said the point of the law was to prevent all political flags.

“The law was to say, ‘Look, if you’re on the taxpayer dime and you are representing that entity, you can’t just do whatever you want.’ … In that capacity, you’re acting as an employee, and we want to prevent people from making political statements on the taxpayer dime,” he said. “That’s what we want to prevent from happening. And so she’s going to lose her election for this, which she probably doesn’t care. She thinks she’s going to become a champion of this issue, but so be it. I mean, I believe she’ll lose, and all it’s going to do is have more people get angry and have distrust in their government officials because of it.”

Lee said that he thinks the law is clear enough that it doesn’t need to be amended.

“But what I think we need to do is we need to make the penalty more harsh,” he said. “It’s got to be something that is painful enough that people aren’t willing to just lackadaisically break the law. I think that’s one thing we need to change.”

Lee said that Hayman’s willingness to continue to fight against removal of the flag is a signal that “maybe she knows something that we don’t because she knows the judges that might overhear these cases.” He said “it might just lead to more judicial reform … because the law is very clear on this.”

Lee said if Hayman wants to continue to fight the issue, it’s a “waste” of taxpayer money. He said this is an issue that has been going on for over a year and there is a $500 per day fine because he said Hayman has been warned.

“And then if she wants to go to court over this, then it’s the attorney for Centerville that will represent her, and it will be against the state of Utah,” he said. “And so taxpayers are going to get drilled on this in many directions, and if that’s a fight she wants to take on, it shows what her priorities are. If she really wants to make a statement, then make your statement at home. Do it in your front yard. Do it on your own time. But in the chamber, you don’t see other people making statements like this.”

Contact Standard-Examiner editor Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.