Why? He's changing the policy.

Anderson said his staff is rewriting the rules to ax the prohibition against purchasing alcoholic beverages.

"It's better to have a policy that really means something than to have one in place that's been repeatedly violated," he said Wednesday.

The mayor charged the city $633.74 for food and drinks at Squatters and Grand America during the city's International Jazz Festival in July while entertaining visiting mayors and musicians. The receipts weren't itemized, so it's unclear what food or drinks the mayor put on the city tab.

Right now, city policy says tax money can be spent on "reasonable food and refreshments for city business meetings with guests," but not on alcohol.

Anderson said Wednesday he has "proof" that during the 2002 Winter Olympics the city paid for alcohol, which was consumed at City Hall, in the presence of City Council members. He didn't know the costs.

Under the policy change, there won't be specific guidelines on when it's appropriate for city employees to buy alcohol on the city dime, but Anderson said that doesn't mean employees can have a beer at lunch.

"We expect people to be as reasonable with that as in buying meals," he said. "If we see abuses with people buying expensive filet mignon, then we would discuss it. But if somebody buys a glass of wine and it's a reasonable cost, there's no more reason to limit that than to limit high-fat-content desserts" - an indulgence he does think should be prohibited if paid for by tax money.

State officials couldn't readily say if state policy forbids alcohol expenses. Salt Lake County does ban taxpayer-funded booze, said Jim Braden, spokesman for County Mayor Peter Corroon.

"We have been told we can't pick up the bar tab. Our conflict-of-interest rules are so tight, it's just not happening."

City Attorney Ed Rutan said the city's policy - even as now written - isn't binding.

The mayor is "authorized to make exceptions to the policy," Rutan said. "It's a management issue. The mayor's the ultimate manager of city affairs."

Anderson said he didn't know about the alcohol ban until this week. Human Resource Director Brenda Hancock said she is "pretty sure" Anderson was told when he took office in 2000 where to find the policies - if he wasn't given copies.

While Anderson guessed former Mayor Deedee Corradini spent tax money wining and dining International Olympic Committee members while seeking the 2002 Winter Games, Corradini said Wednesday she never used city money to pay for alcohol.

"I just felt that alcohol was something that the taxpayer shouldn't be burdened with. That's kind of an extra," she said.

Corradini said she had a fund filled with private donations that paid for certain entertainment or travel expenses that she didn't want to assess the city. When she held a party as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, she said the wine was donated.

The anti-alcohol policy was at least in place in 1995 - at the end of Corradini's first term - though she suspects it might have been in place during her first term as well.

Some City Council members don't have heartburn over the mayor's change.

"Sometimes it [alcohol] is an appropriate entertainment hosting matter," said Council Chairman Dale Lambert, though he wishes the mayor would use a more "refined" approach to the policy to ensure against abuses.

Councilman Carlton Christensen, noting he never has bought alcohol, said he recognizes the policy needs flexibility. "That doesn't mean I like alcohol. I recognize if you really do have guests, it's probably part of that business."

hmay@sltrib.com