Here are some post-election thoughts about the future of Salt Lake City government. None of them, thankfully, has to do with Bonneville Pacific.
With Deeda Seed having unseated incumbent Alan Hardman in the City Council's downtown district, has the city become the first in America with a Deedee and a Deeda in elected office? I'll admit the combination has a certain lyrical quality. Say them together quickly and they sound like Morse code or, with the right voice inflection, the first measures to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. (Dee-dee-dee-da.)But what kind of music will the council and mayor be making now that three new people have been elected (Seed and Joanne Milner on the west side, and Bryce Jolley on the east side)?
The answer likely is that both Seed and Milner, a former legislator who unseated incumbent Paul Hutchison, likely will be closely aligned with Corradini, and councilman Stuart Reid, on a number of issues having to do with revitalizing the city's poorer areas.
Seed, in particular, represents a constituency - low-income single women with children - that hasn't had much voice in city government. She was aligned with a group known as the JEDI Women, an acronym that stands for Justice, Education, Dignity and Independence, and has a reputation as a strong activist for low-income housing.
The addition of strong, outspoken personalities promises to make council meetings worth watching.
Other questions resulting from the election are more difficult to answer, such as: How will Corradini get along with the county after a race in which County Commissioner Randy Horiuchi campaigned hard for her defeat?
On Sept. 27, Horiuchi called reporters together to announce his support for Rich McKeown. While he was at it, he brought his dislike for Corradini from a slow boil to an over-the-top pot buster. The city and county were able to consolidate several services before she became mayor, he said. But since her election, nothing.
No one should have been surprised. Despite both being Democrats, the two politicians have clashed often in the last four years.
But now that Corradini is back for another four years, voters must be feeling like that famous American with a royal-sounding surname who once asked rioting Californians, "Can't we all get along?"
The truth is the city and county have been getting along fairly well under the surface. They communicate well one level below the politicians. And, contrary to Horiuchi's assertion, the two governments have accomplished some things during the last four years.
Franklin Quest Field was built in part with county funds. The city even decided to build on the county's favorite location. The city, meanwhile, contributed $15 million to the construction of the new Salt Palace Convention Center, a county project.
The county agreed to donate land along the banks of the Jordan River to the city to develop trails and parks. Both governments cooperated to move the Forest Service building off Guardsman Way to allow for a University of Utah baseball diamond.
Most recently, they cooperated to write a proposed incorporation law that will allow for a smoother, fairer transition for unincorporated areas. Last week's election itself was a shared service. The county elections clerk (a former Horiuchi campaign worker, by the way) counted ballots for all cities within the county's borders - a first.
The list goes on and is longer than this column will allow.
Of course, the governments remain far apart on consolidating police and fire services, the big ones most people associate with shared services. But that is not a problem peculiar to this set of politicians.
Expect cooperation to continue - but expect it to remain beneath the surface.
Best blooper of the campaign: The award goes to Corradini, who made her point about the need for jail space by saying, "We must find more beds for prostitutes!" then wondered why everyone started laughing.