This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It's not unusual that Salt Lake City's well traveled Mayor Ralph Becker is not in attendance at weekly City Council meetings. But it is out of the ordinary that a spokesman for the mayor would say Becker was out due to a bad case of jet lag.
Something of a deligator by nature, Becker usually sends his chief of staff, David Everitt, to council meetings.
But at the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, an item posted on the agenda — "council questions to the mayor" — left the impression that Becker would be in attendance.
When that item came up and the mayor was not in his seat, a council member asked why.
Everitt answered that his boss was suffering from jet lag after a long flight returning from a holiday vacation.
— Christopher Smart