Bluffdale feud burns funds

BLUFFDALE — An ongoing feud between the mayor and City Council is taking a toll on residents of this southwest Salt Lake County city.

Bluffdale has racked up more than $60,000 in legal bills for the City Council to defend itself in a pair of lawsuits filed by Mayor Claudia Anderson. The mayor lost both legal challenges, but residents say they were the real losers.

"We've been trying to get roads paved here in Bluffdale for many years," said Vickie Empey, a Bluffdale resident. "To see this much money spent on something so frivolous and ridiculous — it really aggravates a lot of people."

The City Council is preparing to reopen the budget for fiscal year 2006-07 to cover the increased legal costs. When bills from the most recent round of legal action come in, Bluffdale's total legal costs for the fiscal year are expected to exceed $240,000 — about $82,000 more than the city budgeted, according to city council members and documents obtained through a Government Records Access and Management Act request.

Residents say the legal costs stemming from the feud between the council and mayor are unnecessary in a city that has spent nearly $530,000 since 2004 on a legal fight to keep 4,000 acres from disconnecting from the city. City officials and landowners are waiting to hear if the Utah Supreme Court upholds a ruling to allow landowners to disconnect their property from Bluffdale and ultimately annex into Herriman.

In a statement read at Tuesday's City Council meeting and mailed to Bluffdale residents this week, Anderson criticized the City Council for using taxpayer funds to pay the legal fees.

"I used my own personal funds (to file the lawsuits)," the mayor said.

Members of the City Council have lashed out at the mayor, too, saying her financial status as the founder of a multimillion-dollar company allows her to run to the courts anytime she doesn't like action taken by the council.

Several residents contacted this week said they don't want to see taxpayer money used on the legal squabbling, but they don't blame members of the City Council for that money being spent.

The first lawsuit Anderson filed against the City Council challenged the September 2005 action in which the council enacted a city-manager form of government by ordinance, stripping the mayor of her administrative powers. The court ruled that the City Council was within its legal right to take such action.

Enough signatures were collected on referendum petitions to restore the previous form of government in January, pending the outcome of a special election on the issue June 26.

Bluffdale resident Herb C. Flower said he believes the mayor was justified in taking the matter to court.