Rocky's decision a win-win

Two years ago — almost to the day — we opined about the leadership style of Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. At the time we said, "Rocky Anderson is a leader. He is the kind of leader who stands before his troops, shouts 'Follow me!' then leads the charge." We also said it was an approach that did not always lend itself to governing a city.

Politics is the art of the possible. Anderson has tended to see politics as an avenue to an ideal. And such a stance has often produced more conflict than consensus.

Now the mayor has announced he will not seek a third term but will be taking his energy, education and force of will to the national arena where he will advocate for worthy causes.

We think the mayor, the city and the causes he chooses to trumpet will all come out ahead for his choice. In the parlance of the corporate headhunters, Anderson's "skill set" was always a tough fit at City Hall. His love of diversity, the environment and his concern for public health and safety will be part of his legacy, of course. But in the more sweeping concerns, his combative nature has tended to backfire. A great metropolis demands a captain on the bridge, not a sergeant in the trenches.

In the newspaper game, people like Anderson are called "tire biters" — bulldogs who pursue their goals like hounds nipping at the wheels of a car. Ironically — after all his skirmishes with the local media — Anderson, in another life, might have been a crackerjack reporter, unearthing secrets and tugging skeletons from corporate closets. His admiration for journalist Seymour Hersh shows he relates to such tenacity.

But Anderson chose another road, and that has made all the difference. Now he's at another crossroads.

It doesn't take an investigative journalist to see the itch to move along has been gnawing at him in recent months. Eventually, whatever causes he embraces — global warming, Latin American liberation, child labor —will undoubtedly be spurred ahead by his fiery, relentless style.

Until then, however, we simply ask he hold to his oath of office and make sure Salt Lake City gets turned over to the next chief executive in good shape — with the budget in good shape, all loose ends tied down and the humdrum needs of its citizens taken care of.