SALT LAKE CITY — Newly sworn-in Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall has appointed a new city attorney.
Mendenhall appointed Katherine Lewis to the post, moving her up from her position as senior city attorney, which she’s held since 2013. The Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday consented to the appointment.
Lewis fills the role left behind by former City Attorney Margaret Plane, who left the city after 12 years last spring for a special counsel position at Park City.
“Katie’s incredible knowledge of and love for the city, as well as her experience counseling elected officials and city employees on complex transactions, litigation and policy, make her a perfect fit for this role,” Mendenhall said in a statement Wednesday. “I have every confidence in Katie’s abilities and know that she will be an outstanding city attorney.”
In Lewis’ prior position as senior attorney, she represented the city’s economic development department, redevelopment agency, real estate division, building services division, and the arts council. Before her time at the city, Lewis spent seven years as a real estate and finance attorney for the firm Parsons Behle & Latimer, where “she built a wealth of knowledge related to real estate and finance transactions, zoning and land use law, and administrative and environmental law,” according to a city news release.
“(Lewis) brings to this position a deep understanding of all functions of the city and has a keen mind for both policy and law,” Mendenhall wrote in a letter to the City Council putting forth Lewis’ appointment. “Perhaps as equally important as Katie’s legal and policy background is the temperament and leadership she will bring to this key appointment. Katie is highly regarded and trusted by her peers and colleagues, and will be a major credit to the city in this role.”
Lewis’ appointment is the latest staffing change Mendenhall has made as part of her administration. Earlier this week, the day of her inauguration, Mendenhall announced her mayor’s office staff.
Among those appointed to Mendenhall’s office include Lisa Shaffer as chief administrative officer, subject to the advice and consent of the City Council. Shaffer has worked for the city for 14 years and is currently director of the public services department. In her new role, she’ll “coordinate the activities of all city departments and help execute the goals and strategies of the administration throughout city operations,” according to a city news release.
Mendenhall has pledged to tear down city department “silos” and create a city government that is more accessible to the average citizen, rather than a large government splintered into dozens of departments.
Mendenhall also appointed Weston Clark as director of community outreach in the mayor’s office. Clark is a new face to the city after working for five years for Salt Lake County as senior policy adviser to then-Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson and then as senior adviser when Wilson became Salt Lake County mayor. For Mendenhall’s administration, Clark will direct and coordinate all public engagement in the mayor’s office and lead a team of community liaisons.
Mendenhall also appointed acting City Attorney Lynn Pace as director of government relationships. Pace has worked for the city since 2005, first as an attorney then as a policy adviser to former Mayors Ralph Becker and Jackie Biskupski. For Mendenhall, he will return to the mayor’s office and lead the city’s legislative efforts and intergovernmental relationship.
Mendenhall also moved Kaletta Lynch, previously an executive assistant in the city’s community and neighborhoods department, to the mayor’s office to serve as legislative executive assistant.
More changes could be coming, as they usually do, with a new mayoral administration — though Mendenhall has said she will not take the same approach Biskupski took when she called for all city department heads’ resignations as part of her process to decide which city employees would stay and which would go. Biskupski would later accept resignations of several longtime city employees, a move some City Council members criticized would lead to a “brain drain” within the city.
“Institutional knowledge and a seamless transition was a priority I set out at the very beginning,” Mendenhall told the Deseret News recently, saying she does not intend to do a “clean sweep of the staff.”
Mendenhall said she plans to soon release a new organizational chart showing some structural changes to positions, but she’ll likely wait until at least budget season before she starts making any “significant changes,” noting “there are a number of interim positions we’re continuing with.” In the meantime, Mendenhall said she and her staff have interviewed and conversed with current city employees.
“There’s a lot of institutional knowledge there that I want to stay and wants to stay,” Mendenhall said.
Asked if she’ll bring back any old faces who were either dismissed or left after Biskupski took office, Mendenhall noted she’s “heard” from some former city employees, but “it’s too soon to say” if any will be returning to City Hall.