Mayor's airport parking draws fire
He takes advantage of perk for a personal trip
But most travelers aren't the mayor of Salt Lake City. When Mayor Rocky Anderson flew to watch his son graduate from New York University, he paid nothing for using the prime spot for a week, even though his vacation was for mostly personal, not city, business.
"It's obviously inappropriate," said Anthony Musci, director of Common Cause of Utah. "It's a perk that has nothing to do with conducting the business of the city."
And the mayor is not alone. Several City Council members and other elected officials often use their free parking perks at the airport when taking personal vacations.
In his latest free parking usage, Anderson parked his natural gas Honda Civic on the front row of the airport's short-term parking lot, right next to the terminal he needed to access for his flight. The car sat there for eight days, from May 6-13.
Most fliers on weeklong vacations use the long-term lots, where the daily rate is $6 instead of $19. Those lots force fliers to schlep their bags across long distances of asphalt and catch a bus to the terminal.
Normally an eight-day parking bill in the covered short-term structure would have hit $152, but Anderson used his free-parking pass supplied by the city.
Anderson's spokeswoman Deeda Seed defended the perk, saying that Anderson hadn't taken a food allowance when traveling and that past mayors and other public officials have also enjoyed free parking. Also, Seed noted, the mayor did do some minimal business on the eight-day vacation.
Anderson attended a climate change meeting in Washington, D.C., on one morning of the vacation and went to the New York Yacht Club to watch the city's Olympic message head across the Atlantic to Torino, Italy.
"I did do city business," Anderson said, noting that "the city didn't pay for any of my flight or hotel."
Anderson has banned Salt Lake City employees from accepting any gifts as public employees. Musci's watchdog group says free parking is just as bad as Salt Lake County's guzzle-gate scandal.
"I don't think it's any different than being given a county vehicle and taking it to Lake Powell for a family vacation," Musci said. "Wrong is wrong."
Last year, as part of several ethics scandals that rocked Salt Lake County government, then-chief financial officer Randy Allen took his county-owned vehicle on a family vacation to Lake Powell. Allen resigned and was later rehired at a lower position.
It's misguided to think that free parking isn't as bad, Musci said.
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