Pen table priority

I have a mixed use of 2004 and XM users using the same set of standards.
Our pen table includes the following:
Element Selection Criteria: levels E_PROF_Grid & E_PROF_GridMin. These levels are the grid on a cross section sheet and there actual color is set to 0 per a dgn library.
Element Output Actions: Priority = -9 and color rgb = 170,170,170 (gray).
Later in the pen table I have set:
Element Selection Criteria: levels color 0-135,137-158,160-174,176-255. These levels are the grid on a cross section sheet.
Element Output Actions: Priority = 1 and color = rgb 0,0,0 (black)

The resulting output shows the grid (gray) on top of the other elements (black). The opposite is wanted. It seems like the pentable is taking applying the priority=1 to my Grid & GridMin levels.

The same pentable seems to work ok in XM. Why does it apply the priority to grid? Why would it not then apply the priority and rgb=0,0,0 to grid? Why would this happen in 2004 and XM?

MS 8.5, MS8.9.4.51