SOUTH SALT LAKE — Police officers will continue to work under the direction of mayor — and acting police chief — Wes Losser for at least another two weeks, if not through the Olympics.
The City Council refused to vote on the approval of the appointment of Joseph Davies as the city's new police chief Wednesday night, essentially eliminating any hope of approval for Davies. The City Council did approve the appointment of David Carlson as city attorney in a 4-3 vote.
The vote on Davies never made it past Councilman Shane Siwik's motion to approve the appointment, which died without a second. Now, the decision about a new police chief returns to Losser, who said he needed to consider whether to push for Davies' appointment or find a new candidate.
The discussion by the council about the two appointments — which Losser made Tuesday after firing city attorney Craig Hall and Police Chief Drew Long — quickly became a heated argument between Losser and council members Bill Anderson, Renee Watts and Doug Moffatt.
When Anderson started the discussion by saying he had some concerns about the qualifications of the appointees, Losser immediately stopped him.
"My responsibility is to do the hiring and firing," he said. "I don't see the sense of you interviewing them again."
Losser said that the City Council's right to advise and consent on appointments meant that council members could question whether a person is morally fit to serve, not decide what qualifications a person must have. For some jobs, such as engineer or attorney, the state already has licensing requirements. Beyond that, it is the mayor's choice.
A focus of the arguments was an ordinance approved by City Council in December that prohibited temporary appointments by the mayor. Because of that, Losser said that he could not even ask an assistant to act as the chief unless the City Council approved it, which meant that he had to run the department until he received council approval.
"It's a dangerous concept for me to make . . . police decisions," he said. "I'm not qualified to do that, but I must."
Anderson disputed Losser's interpretation of the council's role, saying that the council had every right to question the qualifications of a mayoral appointment.
"If we are supposed to provide advice and consent, there have to be some parameters," Anderson said.
Other council members said that regardless of their personal feelings, they had to respect the appointments if the people met the minimum qualifications for the job.
"We may feel they need to have other qualifications, but we can't decide that," Councilman Boyd Marshall said. "That is up to the mayor."
Marshall said that the changes by Losser were to be expected with a new mayor. He compared it to the five appointments made by former Mayor Randy Fitts when he took office in 1993.
"It comes with politics, and it comes with running the city," he said. "It's deja vu . . . we went through this eight years ago."
E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com