Former Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini is looking to return to Utah from South Carolina, where she moved with her new husband after deciding not to seek a third term in 1999.
"I feel as though I never left," Corradini — still comfortable being called "mayor" — said during a visit to Salt Lake City. "I love this city. I've always loved this city. . . . The fact that I'm not mayor, I have moments of missing it. But they're moments."
Even though Corradini, 56, wants to reclaim Utah as her primary residence, she said she has no plans to get back into politics. These days, she said, she's happiest helping her husband, John Huebner, with his lighting company, as well as teaching — and contributing to the Olympics.
Huebner's company, Mor-Lite Inc., which specializes in energy-efficient products, is about to relocate from Greenville, S.C., to the West. Corradini said she hopes the new headquarters will be in Salt Lake City.
She's stayed involved in the Olympic movement, serving on a U.S. Olympic Committee panel that will meet shortly to recommend whether Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Tampa or Washington, D.C., should carry the American bid for the 2012 Summer Games.
Corradini also has been named a distinguished teaching fellow in urban affairs at Furman University, a liberal arts school in Greenville. She'll teach a seminar this fall in city politics and administration and organize a conference on women, politics and public leadership.
There's no date set yet for the couple's move from Greenville, but Corradini said they're shopping for a new home in Park City. They already have a condo in the Millcreek Canyon area that she visits regularly.
Corradini, who became a grandmother three months ago, said she's enjoying private life.
"It's wonderful being anonymous. It really is," she said. "When I was mayor, people used to stop me, some just to chat, some because they needed something fixed."
What's most difficult, she said, is knowing she won't be mayor during the 2002 Winter Games.
"I had so much joy out of the Olympics for so many years. I was there to sign the papers when we got it. I was there to bring the (Olympic) flag home. Those were two high points. I'll be here to share the joy, so it's OK."
She may also have to share in the embarrassment associated with the bribery scandal surrounding Salt Lake's successful Olympic bid. Corradini is a possible witness if Tom Welch and Dave Johnson go to trial.
The bid leaders face federal fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with the more than $1 million in cash, gifts, trips and scholarships given to members of the International Olympic Committee to influence their voting in selecting a Winter Games host city.
Four of the 15 charges originally filed against the pair have been dropped, and a hearing is pending on a motion to dismiss the rest. The trial, originally scheduled to begin in July, has been indefinitely postponed.
Corradini had no comment when asked whether she had been called to testify at the trial by either side. She also had little to say about the government's prosecution of the bid leaders.
"I don't want to think about it. It may or may not even happen. . . ," Corradini said.
"This is the time to be super positive about these Games that are coming," she said. "I don't want to detract from that in any way," Corradini said. "Why dwell on something that may not even happen?"
She'd much rather talk about her administration's accomplishments. A few weeks ago, Corradini said she spent two hours driving around the city, checking the progress of her pet projects, including light rail.
"Every time I see a light rail car go down Main Street, my heart gets full with this wonderful, happy feeling," she said. Her greatest legacy, she believes, is the Gateway shopping and entertainment complex under construction west of the Delta Center.
Last week, Corradini toured the site, set to open in early November.
"Wow. Fabulous," she said.
Corradini was less enthusiastic about discussing current Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. "He's different than I am in his perspectives and what he's trying to accomplish. But he was elected and he has every right to run his administration the way he wants."
The two haven't talked since Anderson took office, except, he said, for brief conversations about what information was — and wasn't — left behind by the previous administration. That's just fine with Corradini, who said the new mayor "deserves to do his own thing."
But Anderson said he'd have welcomed some advice.
"Is that the way it ought to be? I don't think so, not at all," he said. "We probably didn't get off to a great start because I had hoped during the transition to have more input and more help."
Anderson wasn't concerned that Corradini might change her mind about staying out of politics.
"Some of the issues that arose during her terms in office would present tremendous obstacles for her," he said.
Those issues include the federal government's fraud prosecutions related to the bankruptcy of Bonneville Pacific, an alternative energy company she helped found. Corradini and her then-husband, Yan Ross, settled with the bankruptcy trustee for $800,000.
As mayor, she accepted some $231,000 in personal gifts and loans, much of it from influential residents who had dealings with the city. The "Giftgate" scandal was investigated by the district attorney, who declined to prosecute.
Former Salt Lake Mayor Ted Wilson, director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, said he expects Corradini to play some role in public life if she returns to Utah. That may or may not include seeking elected office, Wilson said.
"Knowing Deedee, I don't think she'd be able to contain herself as a private citizen," Wilson said. "She loves being out there in the limelight." He predicted she would be welcomed back by most Utahns.
"There'll be those who'll be critical, but she'll be welcomed back generally," he said. "She's had her problems, but I think people are generally willing to let bygones be bygones."
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com