"We're lean and mean," the new Democratic mayor says.

But the County Council - eager to assert its influence after a string of scandals - is getting fat.

Is the power shifting?

Doug Willmore, Corroon's chief administrative officer, says yes. He has watched the council stack its plate with enough Cabinet positions - including a new full-time budget job - to make the new administration vomit.

Willmore suspects the "naked power grab" is less about post-Nancy Workman hysteria than polished politicos - even fellow Democrats - taking advantage of the new guy. There "definitely" are members of the council looking for more control, he says.

"It's easy to think [Corroon's] a pushover. But he's rock solid," Willmore says. "He gets to the point where he's not going to budge."

Consider this week. Corroon has threatened to veto - possibly today - a proposal by Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch to shift the administrator of the Zoo, Arts and Parks program from the mayor's office to the council.

The bold move has Democrats buzzing.

"What a mess to have this as his first veto," says Democratic Councilman Jim Bradley.

Fellow Democrat Randy Horiuchi sees Corroon's threat as too drastic, especially when Workman, a Republican, wielded the veto only once in her four years as mayor.

"You don't cavalierly use these kinds of gadgets without having some serious negotiations with us," says Horiuchi, who calls the executive tool a "neutron bomb." "You only use it when you absolutely, positively can't work something out."

Or when you have the votes.

Corroon's office says it has enough support to sustain a veto - from council Republicans.

"It's full of irony," Willmore concedes.

Corroon's choppy start with more-seasoned Democrats can be attributed to the 40-year-old's lack of government sea legs, according to Horiuchi, noting the first-time officeholder has been on the job only six weeks.

But more waves are on the horizon.

Corroon criticizes the council's new budgetary analyst position as "excessive." He fears the legislative liaison slot, recently plucked from the mayor's purview, "will overlap when it's not necessary." And he frets about whether the council uses existing aides to the fullest.

"We're trying to run an efficient operation, and we'd hope the council will try to do the same," Corroon says. "At this point, we're not seeing that."

Hatch says the mayor was right to deflate Workman's "bloated" budget, but calls Corroon's missive against the council "kind of knee-jerk."

"That's shortsighted on his part," Hatch says. "The council budget was lean and mean for many years, and perhaps too lean."

Hatch says he won't budge on his plan to transfer the ZAP boss to the council. "I'm not going to change my views on that subject just because someone from my own party is mayor."

Meantime, Republican Councilman David Wilde is maneuvering to restrict the mayor's staff.

He is crafting an ordinance that allows the council to dictate which positions would make up the mayor's Cabinet and obligate them to hold open meetings under Utah's sunshine laws.

"It's something our ethics committee has talked about," he says. "It's a good thing."

Wilde wants the director of the county health department, for example, to be a member of Corroon's Cabinet.

If that had been mandated, Wilde says, "maybe this little scandal that developed that led to the [hiring] scandal against Nancy Workman would have been averted."

GOP Councilman Mark Crockett says it's natural for the council and mayor to tussle over balance - particularly after a Workman administration many considered one-sided.

"It's high time that we're having those conversations," Crockett says.

To that end, Corroon plans to stage quarterly meetings with the council's executive committee.

But Bradley says even more can be accomplished.

Corroon "needs to get his feet wet a little more," Bradley says. "We're all feeling our way in terms of the relationships."

Bradley and Horiuchi say the veto threat is only a "hiccup" in the bigger picture of county government. But if Corroon starts exercising line-item vetoes during the budget, Bradley notes, "I see that as the first potential conflict."

Horiuchi doesn't want to see the council, particularly Corroon's fellow Democrats, get brushed aside.

"The guys that fund this thing," he says, "actually have to be involved."

djensen@sltrib.com