Placid and sometimes plodding, Ralph Becker fulfilled most of the goals he set out in his ambitious "180-day action plan" for his first six months as Salt Lake City's mayor.
For instance, Becker overhauled city planning; hired an environmental guru, trails boss and education czar; tackled Pioneer Park, the Fisher Mansion and a Broadway-class theater for downtown; mended relations with the City Council; worked to broaden green building codes; and fended off the Legislature's right wing to create a domestic-partnership-type registry.
"He's not as bombastic or flamboyant as Rocky Anderson, but I think his policies have gone the same direction," says George Shafer of the west-side Jordan Meadows Community Council. "He's been very quiet."
Pearl Nelson, a former fixture on the Rose Park Community Council, agrees. "He's a great improvement personality-wise, and he seems to be working very fast and very hard."
Critics quietly scold Becker for essentially hiring his campaign to captain City Hall. Some wonder why Democratic insiders outnumber nonpartisan pros. And others gripe that the planning makeover is taking too long. But the new mayor, whose six-month mark arrives Monday, has won universal praise for his steady style, his delegating of duties and - especially for a decadelong state lawmaker - his civic acumen.
"Ralph is unflappable," commends City Councilman Luke Garrott. "He's shown, what do we call that, the patience of a saint."
Becker's mayoral baptism mirrors his machine-like campaign: shredding shoe leather, pumping plenty of hands and listening instead of lecturing.
The mayor also has reached out to groups Anderson alienated (Republican lawmakers, City Council members, Davis County leaders), handled President Bush's visit "like a statesman" (no impeachment rallies this time) and heeded his campaign pledges, according to Kirk Jowers, director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.
"His understated style is absolutely working right now because people see it as so refreshing," Jowers says. "At some point he will probably need to assert himself a little more . . . to get some of his more controversial projects moving."
'Blueprint Man' to do-it man
For the most part, Becker - who dubbed himself "Blueprint Man" during the campaign - has achieved his early goals. Since early January, most of his 24 initiatives either were accomplished or at least launched.
But there are holes. Becker's college-bound scholarship remains a concept. The Downtown Parking Authority isn't a done deal. He has yet to deliver a nondiscrimination ordinance. And the city's retirement policy still does not allow an employee to name a domestic partner as beneficiary. (Becker explains the city belongs to the state's retirement system, which has "severe restrictions" on expanding benefits, but he's looking at "options.")
The new mayor's action plan also included bicycle lockers and rentals at the transit hub and creation of a year-round public market. None exists though all are being negotiated.
Conversely, Becker wasted little time pushing a comprehensive overhaul of the city's embattled planning division after an audit identified a decade of dysfunction. He streamlined permitting. He fired the department head. He ousted the planning czar. A new department director was flown in last month, and a new planning boss soon will be hired.
Still, change in the planning and permitting process cannot come soon enough - or dramatically enough - for many residents. The Greater Avenues Community Council is weighing a formal, no-confidence vote in the planning and business-services divisions along with the City Attorney's Office. Members say the city favors applicants over the greater community and avoids public-notice requirements.
Becker plans to meet with the group this week to address their concerns.
On other fronts, the mayor boosted bucks for more bike lanes, tapped a trails coordinator and made multiple visits to Washington, D.C., to lobby for everything from TRAX funds to money for Jordan River Parkway completion.
He has pushed Downtown Rising projects, including a grand theater, Global Exchange Place and, with Project Universe, the extension of the University of Utah campus to downtown.
On public safety, Becker bulked up Community Emergency Response Training and mobile-watch programs and freed up more cash for cops.
The first-year mayor also toured the city's neighborhoods and huddled with area honchos, including fellow mayors, Davis County leaders and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
And, with his domestic-partnership registry, Becker hit the headlines. After a prolonged fight at the Legislature, Salt Lake City's voluntary index now is available as a means to aid unmarried partners - same-sex or not - in securing hospital visitation rights and insurance benefits from their employers. But it came at a cost. To sound less gay, lawmakers forced a name change - to the mutual-commitment registry.
"In the end, we were able to preserve the registry," Becker says. "It provides important benefits to our community and, I think, sends an important signal about Salt Lake City as a receptive and open and fair community for all."
Momentum ?
A mild-mannered legislator who would rather caucus than cause a ruckus, Becker, some fear, lacks the mettle to conduct the capital. But political foes and friends say he has adjusted well, earned respect - and displayed vision.
"I'm used to somebody in that position . . . who's management style is stronger and overbearing," City Councilman Carlton Christensen says. "It's less political, but in the long term, it's probably a more sustainable model."
Becker brushes off doubts about his toughness. "I don't apologize for being nice," he says.
He points to his penchant for sticking to "principled positions" - and prevailing - as proof of his pluck. Witness his triumph with the mutual-commitment registry, which he says wound up serving as a statewide civic lesson on "basic rights."
This spring, he quietly empowered city staffers to stand strong in requiring Craig Mecham to spruce up a gaping hole left in the heart of Sugar House when the developer's plans stalled. Becker refused to meet with the developer when lobbied. He wanted enforcement decisions to be made by those "closest" to the dispute and to be based on city rules - not political influence, including his own.
He downplays his role as simply following "principles of good governance and good decision-making," but acknowledges that "maybe from the developer's perspective ... it was me being tough."
Jowers argues too much focus is put on a politician's first 100 days. It is smarter, he says, to meet with interested people and lay the groundwork to have a successful year or two years, which he believes Becker has done.
"The stuff that's going to take longer, it seems to me, is in motion," Garrott says.
For instance, the city needs significant zoning reform and the "imagination" to redraw neighborhood lines, Garrott says. He hopes Becker, an urban planner, can take on that task.
"We need some real leadership to transform our huge blocks into pedestrian sections," Garrott says. "Ralph has a lot of ambition in that area. But I'm a bit insecure about how the council and administration will work together in this area."
Pam Pedersen, chairwoman of the East Liberty Park Community Council, says Becker's swift start bodes well. She loves that he blew up planning - fresh leadership is taking hold - puts an emphasis on education and is consistently candid.
"I'm honestly feeling comfortable," she says, "that he's balanced, can see all views and will get things done."
Becker got done a little bit early with most of his 180-day action plan. He spent the past two weeks riding rapids through the Grand Canyon.
Now the vacation and any mayoral honeymoon are over.
Next up: a longer-term agenda, one that he soon will announce covering the next one to three years.
