The Summit County Attorney’s Office on Thursday criminally charged a member of the Park City Council in a case stemming from a confrontation in late December between the elected official and cross-country skiers.
Prosecutors filed a count of disorderly conduct against Jeremy Rubell, 42. The charge is a class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $750. An arraignment is scheduled in Summit County Justice Court on Feb. 27.
Rubell is a first-term member of the City Council who took office in early 2022.
Prosecutors in a two-page charging document described a verbal exchange that quickly escalated at about noon on Dec. 29. The prosecutors said a White Pine Touring ski instructor was teaching three residents of Park City — a husband and wife and their teenaged daughter — how to cross-country ski on a section of the track at the No. 1 tee of the Park City Golf Club, which operates on the same land in the summer and fall.
Rubell, who lives on nearby Thaynes Canyon Drive, was blowing snow from the back deck of his residence at the time of the cross-country skiing instruction, the charging document says. The prosecution says the ski instructor claimed Rubell and he exchanged obscene gestures and the city councilor “immediately lost his cool and launched into a profanity-laden tirade.”
The cross-country skiing students reported Rubell cursed and yelled, and they “thought it was a joke at first” but it “became clear that it was not,” the prosecutors say, adding the students described Rubell as “out of control” and that the ski instructor “apologized numerous times” to them.
The husband “reported that Mr. Rubell was cursing and dropping f-bombs and that his conduct was ‘a little uncomfortable’ and ‘unfortunate,'” the prosecution says, describing the incident as lasting for four or five minutes. The wife claimed Rubell “started cursing and saying ‘f-this and f-that’ in reference to cross-country skiers and golfers,” the charging document says, adding there were others nearby and Rubell’s voice was “loud enough for everyone to hear him.” The teenage daughter “reported that Mr. Rubell ‘got very vulgar very quickly,’ ‘very angry’ and was ‘cussing’ the ski instructor,” it says.
Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson on Thursday declined to comment about the charge, indicating she could not make a public statement about a pending case.
Rubell on Thursday afternoon said the case will not prompt his resignation from the City Council.
“And, in fact, it motivates me further. I will not bow to intimidation,” he said.
Rubell said “their version of the events are absolutely false.”
Rubell won a seat on the City Council in the 2021 election. He was a newcomer to Park City politics at the start of the campaign and took the seat in an election that swung against incumbents. Rubell and others are pressing the protection of Park City neighborhoods amid concerns about the impact of the tourism industry on the community.
Rubell in late December released a one-page statement regarding the confrontation, claiming a ski instructor made an obscene gesture toward him and screamed at him. The city councilor eventually contacted the Park City Police Department.