This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Rocky Anderson enjoys lunches and dinners at the New Yorker while on city business. He likes to grab breakfast at Lamb's Grill Cafe or The Other Place Restaurant. National chain restaurants are virtually banned from the menu. But wherever he goes, he usually tips 20 percent.
Those are some of the tidbits to be gleaned from Anderson's city credit card statements during most of his tenure as mayor. Anderson announced Friday that he will make public those and other records detailing city-paid expenses since he took office in 2000.
It will take some time for the information to be posted on the city's Web site. The Salt Lake Tribune already has most of it, recently obtained through an open-records request.
The records show the mayor has charged more than $21,000 on his city credit card from June 2000 to August 2005. More than $16,000 of that total paid for some of Anderson's travel - flights, hotel rooms, meals and taxis taken while at city-related conferences.
The rest was spent locally - literally. We already knew Anderson prefers locally owned stores; his disdain for the Wal-Marts of the world is old news and he has instituted a policy that gives Utah businesses high marks during the city bidding process.
Now we know the mayor apparently takes his local-first mantra to heart when choosing where to dine on the taxpayer dime. There have been slips. He has been to the national chain P.F. Chang's. The few other chains he has visited are locally owned, like the Gastronomy restaurants.
Speaking of Gastronomy, its restaurants have received $1,679 in taxpayer funds through the mayor, and its New Yorker is a preferred spot. Anderson's statements show he has been there nine times and charged $1,456 - the most for any restaurant found on Anderson's credit card statements. The New Yorker has hosted Anderson's meals with developers to talk about "downtown commerce," the Brooks Arcade building and the Winter Olympics Medals Plaza.
The Other Place Restaurant has seen the most visits, 11, from the mayor. It was fit for meeting with an Alphagraphics executive and for breakfast with University of Utah President Michael Young.
But does the mayor eat the pot pie or rice pudding when he goes to Lamb's (he has been nine times)? Anderson's receipts don't show what he bought. It is even difficult to tell whom he met with because his handwriting is not always legible.
But sometimes it is. He took two city employees to the now-closed Zephyr Club to chat about downtown development. He also talked police union negotiations with the union leader at the Orbit Cafe.
After his re-election, when Anderson pledged to mend fences with City Council members, he took Councilman Dave Buhler to the Rio Grande Cafe and ate at Lamb's with Councilman Carlton Christensen. Earlier this year, the mayor talked with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. about a Major League Soccer stadium over Mexican food at the Red Iguana.
It's hard to say if Anderson is a big spender. Few, if any, other Utah politicians' credit card statements have been publicly analyzed, so the mayor's expenses can't be readily compared. And Anderson's allotted budget for meals and entertainment wasn't available Monday.
His tab for local meals and entertainment averages a little less than $25 a week.
It doesn't sound out of line to government watchdog Claire Geddes, though she noted she hasn't seen other politicians' tabs. Even in tip-stingy Utah, 20 percent sounds right to her. "That's what I tip."
Anderson's meal bill could be less, but the mayor has banned city employees from taking gifts, including food.
Bravo, says Geddes, who would rather taxpayers cover Anderson's meals than lobbyists. "There is influence when somebody else buys your lunch. A lobbyist who wants to talk - they're looking for something," she said.
Geddes said Anderson's new disclosure policy will be good for the public and for the politician. Anderson, along with most other city employees whose expenses also will be posted online, will be more likely to stop and think before they hand over their city credit card, she said.
"People would be much more careful, I'm sure, about what they spend."