In violation of city policy, Mayor Rocky Anderson used Salt Lake City tax dollars to pay a $457.88 bar tab last month.

That bar tab — accrued during a late night at the posh Grand America Hotel's lobby lounge — followed another of Anderson's pub tabs, one for $175.86, which city taxpayers paid for a few days earlier.

And while Anderson defended the bills this week as necessary functions of his job, both bills put him in violation of city policy, which forbids using city funds to purchase alcoholic beverages.

The mayor described the policy as ludicrous and said his job requires some wining and dining to dispel the myths people have about the city's culture.

"Is coffee included in the policy?" Anderson asked. "If there is such a policy, it's insane."

The mayor said he will consider changing the policy, which was adopted by former Mayor Deedee Corradini's administration in 1995.

The bar tabs came in July as Anderson wined and dined Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival musicians and other mayors visiting for the Sundance Summit — A Mayor's Gathering on Climate Protection, which Anderson and Robert Redford helped organize.

Both bills were paid after midnight, following festival events the mayor attended. Anderson, as he has in the past, maintains he is one of the nation's most frugal mayors. He noted he often pays for concert or play tickets even if he is attending the event on city business. In other cities, when he is a guest, mayors treat him like royalty and nobody makes a fuss, he said.

"When I go to Chicago, Mayor (Richard) Daley rolls out the red carpet," Anderson said. "It's amazing. The dinners, the receptions, the bars that are set up, the parties that are thrown."

Anderson said he's positive he's not the city's first employee to violate the alcohol policy.

"I can promise you it's been violated time and time again," he said. "You don't think Mayor Corradini bought drinks for IOC members?"

A City Hall source notified the Deseret Morning News of Anderson's expenditures because that source had concerns the mayor was inappropriately spending city tax dollars. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Anderson's nights out had little to do with city business and more to do with the mayor going out for a good time. The source felt the mayor shouldn't have made taxpayers pay those bills and noted the city policy on alcohol purchases. The Morning News received copies of Anderson's bar tabs following a Government Records Access and Management Act request.

Countering the criticism, Anderson said it's more than reasonable to expect taxpayers to pick up those tabs.

The mayor said he was promoting Salt Lake City by entertaining visiting mayors and notable jazz musicians — many of whom had never been to Salt Lake City. It is in the taxpayers' interest that these visitors walk away from the city with a good experience and a knowledge that the city has a nightlife, Anderson said.