From Deseret News archives:
Rocky names senior adviser as RDA chief
Anderson's longtime senior adviser, D.J. Baxter, will take the reins of the agency pending the approval of the City Council, which acts as the RDA's board of directors. The council is expected to interview Baxter and vote to confirm his appointment at a council meeting Tuesday.
Baxter has been the mayor's adviser for about seven years.
"He thinks a lot like the mayor," Anderson's chief of staff, Sam Guevara, said Thursday. "He's very, very qualified."
Baxter's chief duty as adviser has been to work on transportation issues involving the mayor's office. That has included efforts to expand TRAX lines in the city and working with the Utah Transit Authority, Union Pacific and west-side landowners to realign Union Pacific tracks, allowing trains to run through the city without blowing their noisy whistles.
He also has worked on many other issues. "If you think of anything that's involved the mayor's office, his fingerprints have probably been on it," Guevara said.
Baxter replaces Dave Oka, who quit in September to take a redevelopment job in North Las Vegas.
The RDA, using projections of tax revenue, takes control of blighted or rundown areas of the city and guides their redevelopment. It operates the Gallivan Center, low-income housing on State Street and several other projects.
Baxter's replacement has already been hired. Community activist Janneke House will be Anderson's new senior adviser, Guevara said. House has a master's degree in city planning. In 2005, she ran to represent District 3 in the City Council but was defeated by incumbent Eric Jergensen.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com
