A day after the Utah State Legislature finished beating up on their city, Salt Lake City Council members said Utah's capital needs to rethink its legislative strategy.

Part of that retooling may be cutting the $50,000 the city spent on its legislative lobbyist, establishing fewer legislative priorities and giving Salt Lake City a new face — one that doesn't look like outspoken Mayor Rocky Anderson.

"There's a different face to Salt Lake City than just Rocky," council member Eric Jergensen said. "There has to be a different face put on these legislative issues."

But Jergensen and other council members noted quickly that Salt Lake City's legislative problems aren't all Anderson's fault. Instead, the fact that Salt Lake City has no Republican lawmakers at the Capitol Hill and that Salt Lake City hasn't witnessed as much population growth as the rest of the state are major factors.

"It would be simplistic to say it was an anti-Rocky session," councilman Dave Buhler said. "I don't think anybody was out to get Salt Lake City or anybody took retribution against us."

In previous sessions, the city had largely relied on Deputy City Attorney Steven Allred to handle most of its legislative business.

Allred quit last year, so the city used both Deputy Attorney Lynn Pace and City Attorney Ed Rutan to work at the Legislature. It also spent $50,000 to hire a pair of lobbyists — Craig Peterson and Ted Wilson — to work on its legislative agenda.

Council members Dave Buhler, a former Republican senator, and Jergensen spent time at the Legislature working on city issues.

At the same time, Anderson was working behind the scenes with the Salt Lake Chamber and others on issues relating to the Salt Palace Convention Center expansion.

Still, all that effort didn't accomplish much.

"Our success was very limited . . . we failed to see that we're very much a minority and we try to push through things that the majority doesn't want to hear," councilman Van Turner said. "When we have our discussion next year, we better get a reality check as to where we stand as a city. I'm not going to be in favor of spending a terrific amount of money with zero result."

Turner said the city needs to have less of a "shotgun" legislative agenda and instead needs to focus in on a few key issues. This year, Turner said, the city invested more resources than it ever had at the Legislature and received one of its worst results.

"This has been a huge effort we put into this," he said.

In November, the mayor rolled out a 10-item legislative agenda he wanted to pursue at the 2005 session. That agenda didn't fair fare too well.