For those of us who heard the stories, who knew of the myriad of complaints that had been filed against Ray Utz, the common mantra today has been this…..”Wow, I am shocked but not surprised”
There use to be several women in the Planning dept several years ago, but. one by one they left until there were none. I believe there is now one woman, and she is a secretary. Too many people in leadership positions were aware of these complaints, and yet, nothing was done. All were deemed “unfounded” and so the women left and Ray Utz stayed.
Here is the story from Inside Nova:
Raymond Utz, the second-in-command of the Prince William County Planning Department, has been arrested after police say he exposed himself to women while driving.
Utz, 49, was the county’s assistant planning director since January. Before that, he served 11 years as the county’s chief of long range planning. County spokesman Jason Grant said Utz is no longer employed by Prince William County, but would not comment on whether he was fired or resigned.
Utz was arrested Wednesday, Nov. 19, after two reported incidents of indecent exposure, one in Woodbridge and the other in Lake Ridge.
Just before noon, police were called after a 38-year-old woman reported that a man in a black Honda CRV lowered his passenger side window while both drivers were stopped on Gideon Drive and Smoketown Road.
“At that point, the victim noticed that the driver was exposing himself and making an obscene sexual display,” Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok said.
The victim was able to provide officers with the Honda’s license plate number, which was registered to Utz.
As this story unfolds, I imagine more details will surface regarding these complaints against him, I also imagine some people in leadership positions will need to do some explaining. I read it first on the Derecho blog , and although I am not a fan of the blog VirginiaVirtucon, I saw this old post containing documentation of at least two complaints against Ray Utz. If these current allegations are proven true, given the previous complaints, this is a more serious matter than just Ray Utz and indecent exposure.
So not only was his alleged behavior not thoroughly investigated by the county, he was eventually promoted?
Stay tuned folks.
This is truly appalling. Glad he no longer works for the county
This should be the straw that broke the camel’s back. The PWC Planning Department has been broken for years. There needs to be a complete investigation of county management by an impartial non-county agency, not limited to the Planning Department. The allegations from the various women need to be impartially investigated, along with allegations regarding particular developer favoritism and procedural issues that undermine citizen participation.
This isn’t just a Ray Utz issue, it’s likely much more far-reaching than that and now is the time to get to the bottom of it.
We have been hearing stories of this man’s bullying of county employees, mostly women, for years. He obviously has some women issues… as in he hates them and belittles them from all accounts.
Now he wants to show them his gentleman parts, all on county time. You know, we paid his salary while he was playing show and tell all over the county. How enraging in that??!!!
I am sure all those women he tortured are having the last laugh. It all seems to boil down to one thing…always.
Agreed, but there’s a systemic issue at PWC. If the county exec and Ray’s boss, among others, looked the other way and allowed a toxic environment, they need to be held to account. It may be time to clean house!
And I don’t want to hear from the county that this was all in the past under other managers- it was obviously still an issue. Employees need to be interviewed and facts found. Let the cards fall where they may.
Then there is the issue that upper management does exactly what the BOCS says to do. So who will really be held accountable.
I think perhaps a lawsuit or two or three might be in order. Shot gun the lawsuits and that is how we will tell who is really accountable.
All I know is that for years too many excuses were made for bad behavior. From the stories I have heard, from unrelated people, hostile work environment at best. At worst, who the hell knows what was brushed under the rug. Why was this toad so protected?
Mr. Utz has teenage daughters and a wife- imagine the effect this has on them! Those poor girls will be in therapy for years- whether he’s found guilty or not.
One has to wonder if he is as belittling and dismissive with them as he has been with Prince William women (reportedly).
Middleman,
Totally agree on the toxic environment not only for women working in Planning but for sound land use practices. We all know that Mike LubiLIE gets special treatment from Planning, we’ve known it for years.
Perhaps some folks are wondering why we remained silent on Utz. We have known about his toxic workplace environment for years. However, we don’t personally criticize county employees on this blog, regardless of how dysfunctional and horrible they are.
Why? County employees can’t defend themselves in the public forum. It is a matter of principle with us and you just can’t cherry pick around your principles. However, Mr. Utz is no longer a county employee, therefore he is fair game.
I just thought that should be clarified.
One other thing, it is important to distinguish between sexual harassment ad gender bias that creates a hostile work environment. People kept talking to us about sexual harassment. When we questioned the people further, what they were describing was gender bias and discrimination that created a hostile workplace, not sexual harassment. There really is a huge difference. Both behaviors are obnoxious and should be dealt with but it is also important to be accurate.
This guy sounds a lot like another serial sexual predator, Bill Clinton.
Did you feel the need to say that? Take the Clinton remarks to another blog. I am just not in the mood and he is one of the sacred cows. You might want to review the list of sacred cows.
Part of not going to moderation has been based on good behavior which you have pretty much had. Don’t screw it up by doing sacred cow violation.
Posted under guidelines:
Sacred Cows
We have been accused of having sacred cows on this blog. Absolutely! We sure do:
Bill Clinton
Jon Stewart
Don Richardson
Kim Hosen
Bill Clinton may well be a sexual predator and I won’t defend that, but he sure did, and continues to do, a lot of good for the country and the world. Not saying that makes up for it, but I think it’ll work in his favor with Saint Peter.
Clinton didn’t have to show off “slick willy” to unsuspecting women, he had plenty fawning over him. Clinton was charisma on steroids, even politicians who hated him admired his ability to connect and cajole people.
Those who haven’t met Clinton really have no idea how charismatic the man is. Elena is right, he had and still has women fawning all over him.
I would guess that an unrepentant adulterer needs to worry about someone at a much higher pay grade than St. Peter.
You mean Jonathan Leibowitz is a “sacred cow”? You must be kidding.
Saint Peter is the gatekeeper, according to what I remember from Catechism- although I admit I wasn’t paying close attention, being mad about losing my Saturday mornings and all…
I heard that St. Peter works the gate with an approved entry list passed to him by higher authority. He is merely the purveyor of the final good or bad news, and it is useless to ask him at that point to cut you a break or agree to a do-over.