Bluffdale fills key job — or not

BLUFFDALE — Depending on whom you ask, former state Rep. Dave Hogue is either Bluffdale's interim administrative services director or the mayor's pal who's squatting in a city office.

Last week, Mayor Claudia Anderson said she and administrative services director Brent Bluth had reached an agreement in which he would resign and the city would honor a severance package put in place by the previous mayor and City Council. Anderson then appointed Hogue to that post on an interim basis.

Members of the Bluffdale City Council took exception to that action, saying the mayor doesn't have the authority to unilaterally terminate Bluth or appoint an interim replacement.

The City Council reiterated its stance Tuesday night when it unanimously passed a resolution stating it "has not consented and will not consent to the appointment of David Hogue as administrative services director."

"We already have an administrative services director," Councilman Bill Maxwell said at the meeting, "and his name is Brent Bluth."

When or if there is a vacancy in that position, the council will appoint one of its members to fill the role on an interim basis, according to the resolution.

Mayor Anderson is out of town and did not attend Tuesday's meeting.

Speaking on the mayor's behalf, attorney Karra Porter said the mayor has the authority to hire nondepartment-head employees and assign duties to those people, as long as she isn't seeking additional funding. Hogue's appointment is only temporary, Porter said, while a search is done for a permanent replacement.

"(Mayor Anderson) wants to bring in someone with a clean slate who she can be happy with and (the City Council) can be happy with," she said.

Hogue, who has been working as a political adviser to Anderson, said he was hired by Anderson to assume the duties of the administrative services director, though he doesn't know how much he's being paid or where that money is coming from.

"Frankly, I don't care," Hogue said of his salary. "I'm working for the mayor and doing what she wants me to do."

Though Bluth hasn't been to work since Wednesday, Maxwell said the City Council has been in contact with the administrator and reported that he has not agreed to resign. Bluth had minor surgery Thursday and is home recovering, Maxwell said.

"If (Bluth) resigns or he and the mayor work out some kind of an agreement, that would be a different issue," he said. "But for the time being, we have an administrative services director and it's not Dave Hogue."