Rocky blasts 'extremist' GOP

Published: Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 12:06 a.m. MST
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The fallout over Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's State of the City speech continued Thursday when a City Council member criticized the mayor and Anderson denounced Utah's "extremist Republican Party."

On Tuesday, in his State of the City speech, the mayor complained about Davis County commuters and leaders who push the Legacy Parkway, which Anderson maintains will cause more pollution and sprawl.

Thursday's rebuke of the mayor came from council member Dave Buhler. During the city's Redevelopment Agency Board meeting, city leaders discussed the need to fight many of the potential anti-RDA bills at the state Legislature this year.

Buhler noted the city would need allies in the fight, saying it is too bad the mayor's speech had "alienated many of the people we are now going to need to ask for support."

That comment didn't sit well with Anderson.

The mayor told Buhler: "You and others in this state have failed to provide any direct leadership in this state."

"I'm not going to stop talking about these things, because you and others are too cowardly to stand up," he said.

The mayor, turning to the entire City Council, asked Buhler: "What have you done, or frankly anybody on this council done, to clean up the air in this city?"

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Next, he moved on to the Legislature, saying he sees "a lot of horse trading" at Capitol Hill where lawmakers who suggest new ideas receive negative comments from the conservative establishment, which the mayor dubbed Utah's "extremist Republican Party."

"The truth needs to be told about the abuse by the majority party in this state and the ways they seek to punish those who try to seek change," Anderson said.

Buhler said it was "comical" for the mayor to accuse him of creating more air pollution. The mayor, by attacking potential allies and pursuing his "own personal agenda," hurts Utah's capital city, Buhler said.

"You hurt the very city that you and all of us were elected to represent," Buhler said.

Councilwoman Jill Remington Love made a similar charge in November when the mayor proposed to lobby for a liberal agenda that she felt wouldn't sit well with state lawmakers.

"At times, you can be a lightning rod in the community," she said. "Maybe having you up there fighting for some of these causes would do more harm than good."

In Davis County, Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said Anderson's State of the City speech "does strain relationships" with state lawmakers and with Davis County leaders.

In that speech Anderson took on Davis County's planned Legacy Parkway, once again saying it would increase sprawl and air pollution.

"We want our friends from the north to come to Salt Lake City," he said. "We just don't want them to increase our city's traffic, further foul our air, undermine the quality of our lives and make us sick simply because of the choices they make about where they live and how they get around."

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