Corroon rediscovers life after soccer

Stadium deal lets him catch up on back-burner projects

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon never wanted this: He didn't want to spend the past year solely focused on soccer.

Thanks to a controversial soccer-stadium debate, that's exactly what has happened, and he has had to let other projects fall by the wayside. Those include health insurance for small businesses, the budding Unified Police Department and environmental initiatives.

"Now I'm starting to catch up on things that I wasn't paying as much attention to as before," Corroon said.

Corroon didn't run for office in 2004 as a one-issue mayor. He didn't run to get a soccer stadium built. Instead, he ran on a platform of bringing honor back to the office as he replaced incumbent Nancy Workman's scandal-plagued administration.

Now, nearly two years later, his constituents are questioning that honor, because he made an about-face and gave a thumbs up to public funding earlier this month for a soccer stadium, after twice rejecting earlier stadium bids from the team.

"You lost my vote and confidence that we would see any changes with county government," a man named Jeff Geer wrote in an e-mail to Corroon just days after the mayor endorsed the funding plan. "It is nice to see that the county will pony up to (Real Salt Lake owner Dave) Checketts without any regards to the citizens. Hopefully you will be a 'one-term' mayor!"

Corroon said he did not cave in to Real and that he secured what he calls the best deal possible for residents of Salt Lake County. In exchange for giving up hotel-tax dollars to Real, the team will give the county $27.5 million in cash and in-kind donations. Plus, the county will own $35 million worth of land at the stadium site, which it will always own no matter how successful the team is, Corroon said.

The mayor said other deals he rejected didn't show that great of a return on investment. In fact, a Sandy soccer stadium looked all but dead after Corroon nixed two other funding plans in recent months. But as an Aug. 12 make-or-break deadline loomed, Corroon huddled with other county leaders to hammer out a plan to give the team $55 million in public subsidies.

"I knew that many of the citizens wouldn't be happy with the decision," Corroon said. "Every time I make a decision, I try to remember who I work for. I work for the citizens, not for other elected officials. I try to black out the noise and look at the facts. And the facts show this is a good deal."

The blue-eyed, baby-faced Corroon first came into office in 2005 after a career as a small-business owner working in affordable housing. As mayor, he inherited a slew of high-profile ethical and personnel scandals within county government from Workman's administration, exposed by internal whistle-blowers.

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