S.L. community development is getting new chief

Salt Lake City is gaining its fourth director of community development in the past 13 months.

Louis Zunguze, who formerly served as planning director, will replace outgoing community development director David Dobbins, who held the position for five months after taking over for Lee Martinez in October.

Martinez, a former City Council member, spent only nine months on the job after he replaced Alison Weyher, who resigned in January of last year.

Shortly after winning re-election, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson gutted the Community and Economic Development Department, taking economic development into the mayor's office and leaving community development in a separate department.

Since the move, it has been difficult to keep the position filled. The department oversees transportation, planning, zoning, business licensing, building permits and neighborhood development issues in Salt Lake City.

Zunguze will make $103,000, the same salary Dobbins made. As planning director, he made $88,000.

Anderson's spokeswoman, Deeda Seed, said the city will undergo a nationwide search for a new planning director to replace Zunguze.

During Anderson's 2003 re-election campaign, the mayor was criticized because so many of his employees had left City Hall. Challenger Frank Pignanelli maintained the high turnover rate among mayoral appointments in the first 3 1/2 years of Anderson's administration fostered distrust in city government.

According to Government Records Access Management Act requests, 24 of Anderson's own appointees left or were fired in that time frame. By comparison, only one of former Mayor Palmer DePaulis' appointees left or was fired, and only five of former Mayor Deedee Corradini's appointees left or were fired.

While Anderson agreed he had some high turnover early in his administration, he argued during the campaign that he now had a solid staff that was committed to the city.

Dobbins is the eighth mayoral appointee to leave the city following the election.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com