Provo council hires budget officer

PROVO — The power struggle between Provo's mayor and City Council reached a new level Thursday when the council hired its own budget officer.

The council named Utah State University assistant provost Dirk Anderson to the position. Anderson will start Feb. 23 helping the council analyze Provo's $147 million annual budget.

Mayor Lewis Billings questioned the added position at a time when he is making budget cuts and consolidating jobs in the city through attrition. The council also has its own attorney. Both positions are rare in Utah, but so is Provo's strong-mayor form of government, which pits the mayor and the council as checks and balances against each other.

Council members benefited from the budget expertise of former Mayor George Stewart when he joined the council three years ago. The former businessman was adept at analyzing budgets. Stewart resigned and left earlier this month on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Anderson specialized in regional campuses and distance education at USU, but he also worked in the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. He worked in the California Governor's Department of Finance on a $999 million combined budget for the California secretary of state and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Provo's government gives the mayor control of the administration, which proposes the annual budget. The council has the sole power to approve the budget.

While Billings objected to adding another city employee, Council Chairwoman Cynthia Dayton said the new position was made more critical by the recession.

E-MAIL: twalch@desnews.com