"Works for me!" a City Council member will say. "He can travel all he wants 'cause when he's gone, he's not here."

"I thought about starting a campaign to get The Acting Mayor impeached," another council member would add, "but, hey, what's the difference?"

Anderson announced last July he would not seek a third term, explaining he wanted to devote the rest of his life to human-rights and global-warming causes.

Apparently, he is getting an early start on the rest of his life.

According to a newspaper story, the mayor was out of town 73 days between March 2005 and March 2006, including 53 weekdays. Ten of the mayor's 16 trips were for environmental causes.

"Rescuing the world is a full-time job," the mayor would say. "Somebody's got to do it."

Fortunately, Salt Lake City has no problems whatsoever that would require a mayor to be on the job 40 hours a week. There are no potholes to fill, no large downtown renovations to oversee, no highways to stop, no protest zones to protect.

"We are thinking of making the mayor's job a part-time position," a council member will say, finally. "Or maybe just eliminate it altogether. Mayor, Schmayor, who needs one. Rocky has shown us that the mayor's job is not really necessary. We could put this city on autopilot."

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Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. E-mail drob@desnews.com.