Dayton reassures his staff

Fixing a broken phone, watching a computer die and training a new administrative assistant were not tasks Salt Lake County's new acting mayor planned to do during his first day.

Not that Alan Dayton planned to do anything as acting mayor, because he never wanted to be acting mayor. Especially not the way it happened, replacing Mayor Nancy Workman after felony charges forced County Council members to put her on paid administrative leave.

Along with technology problems, Dayton had more daunting tasks to tackle Wednesday. As one of his first acts, he placed Geraldine Shaw, Workman's chief operating officer, on administrative leave, a decision he detailed in a memo to Cabinet members.

"As you know, Gerrie Shaw is Mayor Workman's closest adviser. Following the County Council's action yesterday to place Mayor Workman on administrative leave, it became apparent to me that in order to effectively allow a smooth administrative transition and continue to carry forward the remaining services and policies that it would be in the best interests of the county for this change to be made," he wrote in the memo.

Dayton also met with his Cabinet — which is the same as Workman's, with the addition of interim auditor Sean Thomas and Deputy District Attorney Gavin Anderson — and department heads Wednesday afternoon. Although they all know him, he wanted to instill in them confidence about the county's immediate future.

Despite a change in leadership, Dayton said there will not be a change in management style. Chief Administrative Officer David Marshall will continue to handle many of the day-to-day duties, while the department heads will focus on keeping their departments on track.

"There's been a lot of chaos, but we all know how to do our jobs," Dayton said. "The county will be just fine."

At the same time, he remained supportive of Workman and hoped that her Cabinet members, staff and the general public would give her a fair hearing before passing judgement. "Nancy has a duty to defend herself aggressively, and she has the right to a presumption of innocence," he said. "She has a great record that is being overshadowed by this, and the public should give her the benefit of the doubt."

Marshall said he expects the county to continue operating fine and doubted that the change in leadership would impact the governmental inner workings. By meeting with the Cabinet and directors, he said that Dayton "helped them understand what is taking place" and earned their trust.

"I have all of the confidence in the world that Alan can do the job," Marshall said. "We also have good people in all of the departments."

Chris Crowley, director of the county Center for the Arts, said Dayton already had the respect of county employees, and that the meeting was important only to answer lingering questions.

"Most folks consider Alan knowledgable about what is going on in Salt Lake County," he said. "Nobody doubts that his judgment and understanding is strong."

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com

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