Salt Lake City is throwing a party on the grounds of the City & County Building this Saturday to help Olympic organizers recruit volunteers for the 2002 Winter Games.
There hasn't been a Salt Lake Organizing Committee event for the general public at City Hall in some time — this is the first since Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson, whose campaign pledged no Olympic debt, took office in January.
The event, set for 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., will feature Anderson leading residents around the grounds on a "Gold Medal Mile" walk as well as live music, Olympic pin trading, Games merchandise and sports activities.
"Maybe it's the timing now, maybe because it's getting so close," said Dianne Hesleph, who left SLOC earlier this year to join the new mayor's administration as director of Olympic opportunities.
Hesleph said there's a "good feeling" between the city and the organizing committee. "Just one small example of that is what we're doing Saturday, everybody pulling together to make it just a real fun event. . . . Isn't that kind of the way it should be?"
It hasn't always been that way, with the city and SLOC experiencing some friction in the past. City Council members, particularly, have often complained that they have been left out of the loop in decision making.
During Deedee Corradini's administration, the city and SLOC butted heads over the location of the medals plaza, the site where winning athletes will receive their gold, silver and bronze awards in special nightly ceremonies open to the public.
City officials had long wanted the plaza at City Hall. But SLOC President Mitt Romney instead made a deal with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use a parking lot near the Delta Center for the ceremonies and is negotiating with the city for the necessary permits.
For his part, Anderson made it clear throughout his campaign that if he was elected, he wouldn't let Olympic organizers leave behind a debt for city taxpayers.
After he won, SLOC pushed through legislation that guaranteed the city wouldn't have to pay for public safety and other service costs associated with the Games. The money will come instead from sales taxes collected on Olympic tickets and the federal government.
Despite the difficulties, Olympic organizers say they've always had a good relationship with the city. "It's not kind of us and them at all. Jointly, we want to do a great job," said Fraser Bullock, SLOC's chief operating officer.
"What we recognize here as SLOC is that it takes everyone to put on great Games. . . . Salt Lake as the host city is crucial in that," Bullock said. "We're doing a lot of things with them behind the scenes that perhaps the public doesn't see."
Helping to get those things done is having Hesleph, a former SLOC volunteer training director, at the city, and Roger Black, a former city management services director, at SLOC overseeing relations with Salt Lake City and other communities affected by the Games.
Salt Lake's former Olympic director, Renee Tanner, went to work for a longtime international-level sponsor of the Games, VISA. Tanner is the Utah sales and event manager for the credit company.
Salt Lake is stepping up into its role as the host city of the Games, Hesleph said. "We want to be good hosts. We want to encourage our citizens to have a personal experience with the Games. One way, obviously, they can do that is by becoming a volunteer."
Salt Lake is investing an estimated $800 in the sign-up effort, mostly to pay the Stoddard Brothers/Slickrock Gypsies to perform. Other costs include producing special pins for 100 of the walk participants as well as a tent and fencing.
Saturday's event is only the first that the city will sponsor between now and 2002. "It's going to be one of a number of activities that we're going to plan to begin to celebrate the winter Olympic and Paralympic Games coming."
Deseret News staff writer Alan Edwards contributed to this story.