A boycott of one of Utah's most prominent car dealers remains in place for now, in spite of what both sides described Thursday as an amicable and productive face-to-face meeting aimed at resolving it.
John Garff, president of Salt Lake City-based Ken Garff Automotive Group, and Fred Karger, head of Californians Against Hate, both said a resolution to the conflict was in the works, after a two-hour meeting on Wednesday.
The California group has called for a boycott of 53 Garff dealerships across six states, including California and Utah, in retaliation for a $100,000 campaign donation made by Katharine Garff, matriarch of the Garff family, in support of Proposition 8, last year's successful initiative to ban same-sex marriage.
Katharine Garff, who was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment, is company president John Garff's mother. She made the donation to the pro-Prop 8 group ProtectMarriage.com, a week before the Nov. 4 election, according to filings with the California Secretary of State.
Karger and John Garff said they had agreed to keep the substance of their settlement discussions confidential for now, but both confirmed that Karger was drafting a proposal for steps the company might take to resolve the boycott, following the pair's meeting late Wednesday at Garff offices.
"Fred and I focused on common ground, and there is plenty of common ground,'' Garff said of their meeting, adding that the exchange included details of the company's extensive history of support for Utah's gay and lesbian community.
Karger called the meeting with Garff "a good healthy dialogue" and said he hoped his call for customers to stay away from Garff dealerships could be withdrawn soon, though he refused to be specific about a time frame.
Karger said the group's Internet site, boycottkengarffautomotive.com, and other Internet-based efforts would remain active until final details of the settlement were worked out.
"This is a civil rights issue," Karger said.
In addition to having a nondiscriminatory policy on hiring and employment, Garff Automotive is an annual donor to the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign and has donated vehicles to the Utah Pride parade, along with a range of other diversity-promoting causes, Garff said.
"Fred learned some things I don't think he knew," Garff said.
Jerry Rapier, Utah's representative on the Human Rights Campaign's national board of governors, confirmed that annual donations from the Garff company made up a sizable share of corporate largess for the group's banquet and silent auction.
Noting that he was expressing his personal view, Rapier said the boycott call "offends me and seems shortsighted."
Garff and his father, former Utah House Speaker and Salt Lake Olympic organizer Bob Garff, have both characterized Katharine Garff's donation to Prop 8 -- the fifth-largest made by any Utahn -- as a personal gesture, unrelated to the company.
"We are a politically neutral company and we always have been," John Garff said.
