Becker active at start of term

The Salt Lake City-County building hasn't been remodeled in the six months Mayor Ralph Becker has been in office.

The mayor's office is still located at the south end of the hall on the third floor, and the offices of the City Council remain at the north end.

There's still as much physical distance between the two branches of Salt Lake City government as in years past, though those who occupy the offices these days don't seem to notice.

"Every time I leave Mayor Becker's office, having met with either the mayor or someone on his staff, I'm struck with how different it feels," said Jill Remington Love, a second-term city councilwoman. "It feels like we're all on the same team, and we have the same goals we're trying to accomplish."

The way Becker has gone about building — and in some cases repairing — relationships inside City Hall and beyond its walls ranks among the mayor's greatest accomplishments in his first 180 days in office, Love said.

"I cannot say enough about how collaborative this mayor is," she said.

Similar comments can be heard a mile-and-a-half to the north at the state Capitol.

"I have enjoyed my working relationship with Mayor Becker and have appreciated his efforts to be more collaborative with the Legislature," Speaker of the House Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said.

Becker was aware during his mayoral campaign that, if elected, he would inherit an office decorated in hostility by his predecessor, Rocky Anderson.

Always opinionated and often controversial, Anderson was a popular mayor among a progressive base of Salt Lake residents. But he often butted heads with a moderate City Council, and he made plenty of enemies in the conservative state Legislature.

With that in mind, Becker included coalition- and consensus-building — particularly with the Legislature and neighboring communities — in the "180-Day Action Plan" he presented shortly after advancing in the primary election.

The plan outlined five E's — education, environment, equality, engaging the community and excitement downtown — that he said would "serve as the foundation and starting point of the Becker administration."

A review of the objectives Becker listed during that October news conference indicates that the mayor has made at least some progress toward all of them.