But those efforts, many people say, have sometimes made him seem like more of a mayor to the world than a fix-the-potholes, sweep-the-sidewalks business-booster for this city of 180,000 people.

And in pursuing those political interests with the same confrontational style that he has brought to the fight for impeachment in recent months, Anderson has left burned bridges behind him the way other people leave fingerprints.

"What he's doing lets people know that free speech is alive and well in Salt Lake City," said K. Eric Jergensen, a member of the City Council, which, like the mayor's office, is formally nonpartisan, though Jergensen described himself as a Republican.

"But it seems we've lost our ability to sit down amicably and discuss things," Jergensen added. "When we step to the rhetorical sidelines and all we do is spit venom and fire, it isn't effective."

Anderson, who described himself as an exacting boss — others say workaholic micromanager — has gone through City Hall employees with blazing regularity, including at least five chiefs of staff.

In 2001, he alienated the Republican-controlled Legislature by joining with environmentalists and mass-transit advocates in a lawsuit to block a major north-south highway project that Anderson said would harm air quality and wetlands near the Great Salt Lake.

He rarely went to the Capitol after that to lobby on the city's behalf, City Council members and former staff members said, because everybody knew it would be counterproductive.

"That probably created more hatred toward me outside Salt Lake City than any other issue," Anderson said of the highway fight. "A lot of people, if they're stuck in traffic, don't think about moving closer to work, or what they might do, like car pooling — they just want more lanes of asphalt."

Even some fellow Democrats say the city probably suffered from the anti-Rocky backlash.

"He is one of those politicians who people love to hate, and sometimes he gave the Legislature a great excuse not to do their jobs where Salt Lake City was concerned," said Nancy Saxton, a Democrat and City Council member who is running for mayor in the November election.

Anderson announced last July that he would not seek a third term, saying he wanted to devote the rest of his life to grass-roots organizing efforts involving human rights and global warming. He said in the interview that he had not yet made any specific plans.

One of the mayor's former chiefs of staff, Deeda Seed, who was fired in 2005, described her former boss this way: "I used to be good friends with him. He's incredibly intelligent. He is delightful to talk to. He can be a really, really good friend. He could just benefit from a little therapy."