I love the GRAMA law.

While flipping through what JM Bell calls the “Deseret Morning Republican Party Newsletter” about one month ago, I read a story about a letter that Salt Lake City Mayor Anderson sent to Councilperson Nancy Saxton. It was interesting, but, it read kind of hinky. I mean, right there in the headline it says that Rocky “flays” Saxton in a letter and then, in the body of the article, there is no flaying to be found. I bookmarked the ARTICLE and forgot about it.

Last week, while cleaning up the infinite number of bookmarks in Internet Explorer, I read the article again. I popped over to the SLTrib and noodled around but couldn’t find that they’d even done a story about it. I called over to the mayor’s office and was told that I needed to supply a GRAMA request to get a copy of the letter and so I did.

Here is the letter:

 ROSS C. “ROCKY” ANDERSON
MAYOR
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

September 7, 2007

Nancy Saxton
Salt Lake City Council
451 South State Street, Room 304
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Dear Councilmember Saxton:

I recently became aware that you contacted the City’s Building Official, Orion Goff, regarding an unfinished dwelling in your district, against which the City has issued and maintained a stop work order.

Despite the fact that a mediated settlement agreement concerning the dwelling is in force, under which the stop work order may be lifted according to a clearly specified set of conditions, you demanded that Orion apply the “harshest punishment” possible to the property owner before allowing construction on the dwelling to continue.

In instructing a City official to treat a permit matter in a punitive, prejudicial manner, you clearly attempted to improperly influence the building permit process. The approval process for building permits and licenses is designed to be objective and impartial, for the benefit of all City residents. Your interference with administrative personnel and your request for a City official to ignore our permit procedures and a legally binding mediated settlement agreement, as well as your inappropriate demand that administrative staff treat this individual homeowner differently based on your personal opinion, clearly violated the design and intent of the City’s permit process, and is deeply contrary to the City’s core values.

No elected official-whether City Councilmember or Mayor should attempt to influence the permitting and licensing process for the benefit or to the detriment of an individual applicant, so long as there is compliance with ordinances, for which you and other Council Members are responsible. Improper interference in City permitting processes can only serve to undermine public confidence in the impartiality and fairness of City procedures.

Your continued demands for meetings with administrative staff, and your efforts to instruct them as to their duties, will not be tolerated. You are a member of the Council, which is responsible for setting policy. You are not responsible for, and have no authority over, administrative functions.

In the future, if you want to meet with administrative staff, first contact Lyn Creswell or Sam. Guevara and they will make arrangements, as appropriate.

Ross C. Anderson
Mayor

Nancy, you’re acting like a Republican. And not the good kind of rational, thoughtful Republican, like Goldwater, but a rabid, revenge driven Republican like Greg Curtis or Newt Gingrich.

I saw the picture of the house, and while I admit that it is one of the ugliest structures I’ve ever seen, it seems to me that the guy is doing the best that can in life. You ride in, full of designer pretensions and decide, after everything is cleared up, that you want to kick him again on his way out the door.

I get it, constituents complained, but you need to do the part of your job that sometimes makes constituents a little angry: Obey the policies that govern the governmental apparatus that you’ve been elected to. You share, in my mind, some of the same behavioral tendencies that I dislike about Dave Buhler: namely, that you feel the need to attack when you possibly shouldn’t; that you make personal attacks that are overly juvenile; that you spout, shiver and shout when people disagree with you and, lastly, that you feel the need to blame Rocky for every bad thing in your life, much like the folks in Salem did to all the pretty girls in the Witch Trials. Rocky gives me plenty of headaches, but, you know, for a screaming blue liberal tree hugger, he’s not all that bad.

Click here for Luke Garrett’s website

Casually Yours,

Jack Allen, III