The security guard who stood back during the chest-bumping tussle between Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and developer Dell Loy Hansen won't be watching over City Hall anymore.
He has been reassigned.
City contractor CBI Security wouldn't say much about its employee, only that he still has a job . . . somewhere.
But it seems the guard's standoffish approach to the skirmish at City Hall may have led to his exile. Facilities Manager Alden Breinholt said CBI has assigned someone new to the shift.
The guard's reassignment appears to be the final fallout from a highly publicized fracas between the mayor and Wasatch Property Management's CEO.
The pair nearly came to fisticuffs after Anderson urged the city's Redevelopment Agency in June to reconsider lending Hansen an extra $1 million for a downtown high-rise.
Anderson tried to land a final punch - through the legal system - but prosecutors determined the squabble didn't merit criminal charges.
The only loser, it appears, was the security guard.
With liberty and ethics for . . . all?
For many of the Davis County Commission meetings - the elected trio convenes at the Farmington Courthouse at 10 a.m. almost every Tuesday like clockwork - no residents show up to listen or sound off.
But four reporters, from three dailies and one weekly paper, generally populate the sparse audience, with the intent to keep readers informed and act in their traditional roles as government watchdogs.
In June, a couple of reporters were listed by name on two consecutive meeting agendas to lead attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance. They agreed and did just fine with the task.
Davis County Clerk-Auditor Steve Rawlings said that the newly elected commissioners thought it would be a nice touch to ask people who attend consistently to perform that function.
The Tribune was next to invite, but declined in advance, citing the paper's policies and standard journalistic ethics that bar reporters from participating in stories they cover.
Jailhouse rocked
Perhaps politics and practicality have collided in Salt Lake County, where Sheriff Jim Winder finds himself releasing inmates before their time's up.
The first-year sheriff doesn't like it. He's tired of taking the heat for a county vision that favors options outside of jail time.
"If they are trying to prove a point," he said, "the point has been made."
The County Council did some unexpected back-patting Tuesday when news broke about the jail releasing more than a dozen female inmates because of overcrowding.
Instead of lamenting, Councilman Mark Crockett said the county may have achieved a philosophical success. After all, officials restricted the jail population in the first place to promote alternatives to incarceration - such as drug rehab, day-reporting centers and ankle monitors.
Overcrowding really isn't about money, officials say, it's about ideology. The jail's got plenty of beds - if the council would let jailers use them.
But, for now, officials seem willing to catch and release the least scary offenders - those convicted of drug possession, driving on a suspended license and . . . uh . . . simple assault - to pressure prosecutors, judges and other stakeholders to think creatively about cutting the jail population.
Winder isn't interested in talking politics. He told Council members curtly that the jail cannot afford to wait for a summit of politicos; not when the jail has to resort to revolving-door justice.
The sheriff has a practical idea: Open more cell space. But, philosophically, the early exits have given the Council some aces to force stakeholders to the table. So who wins? Who knows?
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* Have a tip? Contact DEREK P. JENSEN at djensen@sltrib.com, 801-257-8785; CATHY MCKITRICK at cmckitrick @sltrib.com, 801-257-8778; ROSEMARY WINTERS at rwinters@sltrib.com, 257-8737; KRISTEN MOULTON at kmoulton@sltrib.com, 831-0467; JEREMIAH STETTLER at jstettler@sltrib.com, 801-257-8755.
