It took several months and some very rancorous meetings for the Salt Lake City Council to come up an antidiscrimination ordinance dealing with homosexuality.
It took Mayor Rocky Anderson a stroke of the pen.Tuesday Anderson signed an executive order specifically prohibiting discrimination against city employees based on sexual orientation, effectively reversing the ordinance. He also signed executive orders tightening rules governing acceptance of gifts and mandating diversity in city hiring.
The words "sexual orientation" caused the City Council fits two years ago when it passed, and then repealed, a city nondiscrimination ordinance referring specifically to homosexuals. Anderson's order reinstates the more specific ordinance.
Many council members disapproved of Anderson's action because it was taken without consulting or even informing them.
"I think all of us were a little blindsided," Councilwoman Nancy Saxton said. "I'm still bewildered why he chooses to operate in a vacuum and hand down edicts instead of working with the elected body."
For his part, Anderson says no one should be surprised. At various times during his campaign he vowed he would execute such an order, which is within his authority as mayor as it impacts only internal city policy.
"This is something I feel very strongly that we need to do . . . ," he said. "It carries a more general and, I think in this instance, a very important message about what our values are."
Carol Gnade, president of the Utah chapter of the ACLU, applauded the action. "Rocky was elected because those of us who voted for him believed he would do the right thing," she said. "He has followed through with his campaign promise."
Anderson's predecessor, Deedee Corradini, took a low profile during the debate that raged for the better part of 1998. Politically, it was a hot potato and Corradini chose to stay out of it.
Tuesday Anderson also signed an order prohibiting city employees' acceptance of gifts. That was another issue that tied the council up in knots after it was revealed in November 1996 that Corradini had accepted $231,000 in gifts and loans.
After many months of debate, the council ultimately adopted an ordinance stating that any gift over $50 was prohibited, with certain exceptions. With a few exceptions, Anderson's executive order goes further by prohibiting gifts of any value, "anything that might be perceived as influencing the way in which city business is conducted.
"The ordinance says you can take a gift under $50 even if it's a payback for something you have done or even if it influences you," he said. "As elected officials we should just plain stop taking gifts."
Since being elected Anderson himself has adhered to a "not even a free cup of coffee" policy, something he admits has been awkward at times. "A lot of people have been taken aback, and I can see them shaking their heads saying, 'There goes Rocky again,' " he said.
The timing of Anderson's order mandating diversity in hiring city employees is ironic, since the mayor has been attacked by some Hispanic leaders for the recent departure of senior assistant Mike Melendez and community and minority affairs director Frances Gomez.
Council members Saxton and Carlton Christensen have also criticized the mayor's recent nominations for appointment to the airport board, which they say should include more women. Anderson defends the nominations, saying his generally has been more diverse than "any other administration in the history of this city."
The executive orders -- drafted by the mayor's staff, not the city attorney -- may be legally questionable because of, among other things, vagueness. They are short, common-sense statements, generally free of precise legal language.
Nevertheless, Anderson said, they send a message. "They state extremely important principles."