SARATOGA SPRINGS -- City politicians and staff showed mixed emotion when they accepted the official resignation of Councilman Jefferson Moss last week. Several Saratoga Springs residents have applied for his position.

"I do expect to be back here soon," Moss said in closing at the meeting. "Thank you very much, it has been an honor serving with you."

Moss had announced his resignation the first week of May, saying he was graduating from BYU with a master's degree in business and taking a position with Credit Suisse in their upper portfolio management division.

He will be required to be in their corporate offices in San Francisco, Switzerland and New York over the next several years, but he plans to return to Utah regularly and hopes to eventually move back to Saratoga Springs.

"The good news is, he has graduated," said Saratoga Springs Mayor Timothy Parker. "The bad news is, that people out there want him to work for them. We are thrilled about that, but not so thrilled you are leaving the City Council."

City Council members are interviewing potential replacements for Moss. More than 20 candidates submitted applications and council members are preparing to interview an undisclosed number of these candidates to fill Moss's seat until the November election when Moss would have faced re-election.

Reading from a plaque presented to Moss, Parker said, "The City of Saratoga Springs appreciates your contributions and service to your local residents and thanks you for the many hours you labored diligently. Given on behalf of the Citizens of Saratoga Springs, this 23rd of June, 2009."

"Thank you very much," Moss said in response. "I just wanted to say it has been an honor and privilege to have been on this council. It is very humbling having people elect you to this position. I hope I have lived up to the expectations you have had.

"I do want to add how grateful I am to our City Council members."

Moss said as a council, they had been through what he said he saw as the most challenging experience of his life last year.

"It was very overwhelming," he said. "I know many of us would have liked to just bowed out and said, 'I didn't want to do this.' It was very difficult. I am grateful as a council we hung in there and we worked through our problems. I think we tried hard to show respect for each other."

He said it was an honor to serve with the city officials and that he was grateful for city staff and the city's residents.