From Deseret News archives:
Crusader watching Salt Lake County's behavior
Every week she lectures council members about such things as eating candy in meetings and whispering to each other while someone else is talking, but she doesn't seem to make a difference.
Eframo's crusade continued Tuesday, as she scolded a man for putting his feet up on a chair at the county cafeteria.
She was so miffed she forced the man to face sheriff's deputies. The man agreed to follow Eframo from the cafeteria in the South Building. Alas, the man didn't break any laws.
But recently, council members finally heard her through all the static.
Somehow, Eframo persuaded the council to reverse course and change a decision made just an hour earlier.
When Eframo got word that the council gave preliminary approval to raise the fee to copy public records to 50 cents a page, the 75-year-old was outraged. She immediately went to work, sparring with councilmen Jim Bradley and Randy Horiuchi.
Then, a little more than an hour later during the council's official meeting, the council slashed the fee back to 25 cents per copy.
"She made a difference today," Horiuchi said. "She came after me, and it worked."
The council's change of heart is quite a departure from the past, when council members' interactions with the West Jordan woman were less than cordial.
Between shouting matches and a confrontation where Horiuchi said he "dressed her down," Eframo has "become sort of a curiosity around here," Horiuchi said.
But Eframo takes it all in stride.
"I just want to stand for truth. Truth and justice," Eframo said. "And to me, it's just not fair what they are doing."
Fighting the man is nothing new for Eframo.
She made headlines in 2005 when she refused to water her lawn. Eframo said she was establishing her "desert lawn," but neighbors complained she was tanking their property values.
City prosecutors slapped her with citations for violating city codes on landscape plants and ground coverage. Then, the self-proclaimed "Rosa Parks of xeriscaping" fought the misdemeanor charges in court and won when the city's case was dismissed in 2006.
"What can I say, I'm a rebel," said Eframo, who blames her Russian heritage. And after battling health problems and surviving pacemaker surgery, the retired Delta Air Lines employees believes "God kept me alive for a reason."
Councilman Joe Hatch said he appreciates people like Eframo but sometimes her tongue-lashings go a little too far.
Horiuchi said she needs to do her homework before making public accusations lambasting public officials.
