Looking at the list of priorities for either the mayor or City Council, two measures succeeded and four times as many failed.

The city's biggest defeats: A bill hampering its ability to help build a Major League Soccer stadium for Real Salt Lake. And while city officials say a bill enabling them to expand the Salt Palace is a victory, the state put them on the hook for more money than they want to spend.

Some blame Mayor Rocky Anderson and the distaste Utah's conservative lawmakers have for him.

"It was a difficult session for Salt Lake City. Yes, there was some retribution," said City Councilman Eric Jergensen, referring to how Anderson angered lawmakers when he criticized Davis County drivers over the Legacy Highway. "I don't call the whole session punishment."

Councilman Dave Buhler, a former GOP legislator, noted the city has little political clout on Capitol Hill. All the city's state lawmakers are Democrats - and then there's Anderson.

"The mayor's comments in the State of the City [speech] were totally unnecessary and counterproductive," Buhler said Thursday. "I don't feel like there was an effort to punish us per se, but it's still not helpful."

Anderson said there were disappointments this session, but he doesn't believe the city was punished, noting that in 2003 lawmakers did exact a toll by temporarily holding up sales tax money owed to the city. Then, he had to promise to forgo future Legacy Highway lawsuits.

Two city-supported bills did pass. One requires that drivers stay 3 feet away when passing bicyclists. The other makes technical changes to the state's law on access to government records.

But the list of failures is much longer. PhotoCop flopped, though lawmakers historically have steered clear of it. Anderson wanted to ban smoking in private clubs, but bar owners balked. The mayor said there is momentum to pass them next session.

Two bills to bolster the city's west side received scant discussion. One would have moved a tire-recycling plant and the other would have encouraged the federal government to give money for removing freight trains from a neighborhood.

"There may be some bad feelings on the part of the legislators toward Rocky Anderson," said Poplar Grove resident Edie Trimmer. But "basically those [west-side bills] failed because legislators did not understand the issues."

A measure that would have allowed some public schools to be located near bars - legislation Anderson supported because it would permit schools downtown - was never debated because the LDS Church and others opposed it.

Some of Anderson's initiatives were nonstarters no matter who backed them: Allowing unmarried couples, including gays, to adopt; reversing the abstinence-only policy in sex education; enacting more gun control; and approving a hate-crimes bill.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, sponsored the one bill aimed directly at Salt Lake City: to prevent it from granting preferences to contractors who pay their employees a "living wage" - or double the $5.15 an hour minimum wage. Stephenson said Thursday he wanted to rein in Anderson, not as punishment, but to make the city comply with a state law banning living-wage requirements. Anderson had found a loophole that Stephenson wanted to close.

"There's a lot more rhetoric about so-called Rocky bashing than there is substance," Stephenson said.

Lawmakers frequently picked on Anderson during the 45-day session, but Stephenson said the mayor provides "comic relief" during a stressful, intense session. "I don't feel there's anything personal about it. There's a lot of respect for Rocky and the Salt Lake City administration."

City lobbyists - hired for $40,000 - spent most of their time on redevelopment-agency issues and the Salt Palace.

Jergensen says the bill banning the use of redevelopment money for a soccer stadium targeted the city. He and Buhler say the Salt Palace bill could have been worse. For instance, the state could have been more restrictive on how the city pays for the Salt Palace. For now, it has room to negotiate. Neither the city nor Salt Lake County was able to persuade the state to kick in money for the expansion.

hmay@sltrib.com