Rocky pledges team play

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson learned some things during his re-election bid — and he's committed to running City Hall a little differently over the next four years.

For starters, the mayor, who won Tuesday with 54 percent of the vote to challenger Frank Pignanelli's 46 percent, is pledging to keep City Council members in the loop.

Instead of presenting his projects to the press, Anderson said he will strive to keep the lid on many initiatives until he first has a chance to run them by City Council members. He also plans for more one-on-one sessions with council members.

"We need to meet more often, and I have to find more time to meet with individual council members," he said during an hour-long meeting with various media outlets Wednesday.

Still, Anderson said he didn't know if he would ever be able to mend his rocky relationship with Councilwoman Nancy Saxton , who was also re-elected to another four years Tuesday.

During his re-election bid, Anderson watched as five of the seven City Council members endorsed Pignanelli, while none endorsed him. Many council members said they were frustrated with Anderson's lack of communication and complained that they often found out about new initiatives or plans through the press.

While Anderson had contended during the campaign that a rift between the mayor's office and City Council was a healthy tension, he seemed eager to forge a better relationship Wednesday.

"It makes me hopeful that he will turn over a new leaf and will make an effort to include us," Councilwoman Jill Remington Love said. "I thought all along he didn't understand the role of the City Council, and it's my hope he will realize we're working on the same issues and we have the same constituents. . . . We all need to make a better effort to partner and make the city better."

Besides working with the council, Anderson announced Wednesday he wants to restructure the Community and Economic Development Department to include a person who focuses solely on economic development. Currently the department deals with various issues including economic development and housing.

During the campaign, Pignanelli had promised to reorganize Community and Economic Development to include more people with specific goals, including one person who would oversee only economic development while another would oversee only housing.

"I would like to meet with the council and find more funding for economic development," Anderson said.

Compared with other cities, Salt Lake City spends few resources on economic development, and that needs to change, he added.