August 26, 1999

The state has made an estimate of all the damage we have sustained, both in the context of public buildings and our efforts to clean up, recover and protect.

Reporters (in order of appearance):

KEN VERDOIA, KUED
JUDY FAYHS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
RAY FRIESS, KALL / K-NEWS
ROBERT GERHKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
LUCINDA DILLON, DESERET NEWS
MIKE WEIBEL, HERALD-JOURNAL
TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS
LEE AUSTIN, KUSU
BOB WARD, STANDARD-EXAMINER

Transcript:

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, thanks for joining us today. As we meet on this Thursday morning, Salt Lake City officials are scheduling an opportunity to discuss the current best estimates of the damage caused by the tornado on August 11, and the estimates we're hearing range up to $170 million. Even with federal assistance it's clear that local and state government will face some substantial expenses. What do you propose as the state's financial participation in the recovery efforts?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Perhaps I could answer that in the context of how the system works. The state has made an estimate of all the damage we have sustained, both in the context of public buildings and our efforts to clean up, recover and protect. That bill will be submitted to FEMA and they've agreed to pay it as a part of their emergency management plan for us - and I must say that FEMA has responded extradordinarily well in my mind - in addition to that there may be expenses that are losses damage sustained by others, private parties in particular. Their first line of defense is insurance, as is the state's. To the extent that they're uninsured they're elligible for FEMA participation. FEMA pays 75 percent. The state is supposed to pay 25 percent. The 25 percent, however, can be made up with the additional expenses the states has incurred over and above the amount that FEMA reimburses. So we don't expect that out 25 percent - that we will be required to put out of pocket - other than what we have for cleanup, and that's been handled within existing budgets or covered insurance.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: What about helping Salt Lake City with damage in areas such as Memory Grove where there's been extraordinary landscape damages that may not be covered or may require self-insurance?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: That issue has come up and we've told FEMA and the city that to the extent that the state has additional expenditures that could be credited against their share, we're very happy for those to be credited against their share. Obvioiusly the state government's obligation is to first cover its own and if we have obligations above that, and if FEMA will accept it, we're very happy to have it accepted by them as participation by Salt Lake City or any other city for that matter.

JUDY FAYHS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, are the state's estimates around the same figure as the city's or are they lower?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I don't have any numbers to share with you today. I've heard the city's numbers in public communications as somewhere between $150 and $170 (million). I'm not in a position to dispute that. I would point out that most of that would be covered by private insurance, and to the extent that it's not the FEMA will step in. Seventy five percent will be provided. FEMA's set up opportunities for people to make application. I hope those who sustained damage will do so.

RAY FRIESS, KALL / K-NEWS: Governor, there's been quite a fire storm the last week around the refusal of George W. Bush to answer questions about past drug use, if any. We know that you have advised him on certain issues, and he's a close friend of yours. What's your take on this, and should he come right out and answer the question, instead of back pedaling, as some people are accusing him of?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: George Bush has said that 25 years ago he made some foolish mistakes and he learned from them. I understand the fact that he made the mistakes, I believe the fact that he has learned from them, he said he just doesn't want to talk about it, I respect that.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Is it a legitimate issue in a presidential campaign?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I think that there are - I think the larger issue that we all ought to be asking ourselves is what extent do we go back into the private lives of people and make an accounting of everything that they've done? I'm not certain there's an absolute answer to this, but do we believe in repentance in this country? Can people make mistakes, and can change? How do we judge them? I've watched George Bush closely as a friend and as a colleague. When he says that he made mistakes, I understand that. And that has he learned from them. Every evidence I would have is that that's true. The fact that he just doesn't want to talk about them, I don't think there's a person in this room who doesn't understand that. If it were something that he'd done yesterday I think that might be different. I'm not here to render judgment. Everyone in this country is involved in this debate now. I would say it seems to me there are some things we ought to be holding George Bush accountable for. One of them being his position on issues. He's got to put forward an agenda and a vision for the country, and I'm that hopeful at some point very soon the debate will turn to that, and that we'll be able to begin a grand debate that will reshape the 21st century in this country.

JUDY FAYHS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Also, talk about your thoughts about the remarks that Senator Bennett and Senator Hatch have been apologizing for this week. What do you think about those, and the situation that presidential candidates and public figures find themselves in when they say things along those lines?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, anyone who has served in public office, and when you deal with people who write down every word you say or record, and you're accountable in ways you may not even have intended it to be has made a mistake like that. I saw Bob Bennett yesterday, I told him that I was sympathetic to his situation. I know Bob Bennett well, I don't think there's a racist bone in Bob Bennett's body. I think he's a good man who tried to express himself in a way that turned out to be inartful. We've all made a mistake like that. I told him if there was any, if it made him feel any better I didn't think his comments were even in the same league, as far as a mistake, as using the word polygamy and First Amendment in the same paragraph. (laughter)

ROBERT GERHKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Do you see George Bush's position as hurting him politically?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I don't see any evidence that it is at this point. I think the fact that he has come forward and said, "I made a mistake - I made mistakes, I've learned from them." He's admitted that, and I must tell you that I think one of the most important things he said is if you - this is the feeling I had - this is my position: "If you don't like who I am, if you don't like the way I'm handling it, find another candidate." And I don't have any insight into this. All I know is I sat on the back of a bus with George Bush for several hours in November, and watched him wrestle with the process of deciding to run for the presidency. It was pretty clear to me that while there's a big momentum and a lot of people working, he had not committed himself yet. And as I listened to him talk, one of the things that, not this specific question necessarily, but the whole question of, "Do you want to subject yourself to this?" And he made a decision. He told me his decision was, "I'm prepared to go out and face the American people and if they'll take me I'll serve." But my impression is George Bush is among the few people in the world who run for the presidency who really, emotionally doesn't need to be president. He wants to be, and he's willing to serve, and he's put himself out there on the line and he's said, "Look, I've made mistakes. I'll tell you up front I've made mistakes, they were a long time ago. I've repented of them, I've learned from them, I've confessed them," I'm sure, to the people who matter most in his life, but everyone thinks he should answer these questions yes or no. I bet Laura Bush knows, and that's the person who ought to know. He made that decision and said, "If you can't accept that, find yourself another candidate." I think what it raises in this question, in this context, is a very good question. Where are we going with this? What do we want out of public servants? Should we disqualify a person from public service because they made a mistake 15, 20, 25 years ago that they learned from? You know the people in this room, I don't think for a minute haven't made mistakes, including myself. You're journalists, you likely wouldn't want to run for public office, but some of you would be pretty good at it, quite honestly, if you choose to do it. Do we exclude people who have made mistakes? I know people who would run for office if they weren't afraid of the fact that some mistake they made twenty years ago would come up in a way that would be hurtful to them and their families. It's not just George Bush in this situation, it's his family, it's his children, everybody else. I don't know what he's told his children. I'm not trying to give you commentary on this - George Bush specifically - but I am asking the question, how intrusive in a person's distant past is

ROBERT GERHKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Does it cross the line into being too intrusive? I mean is it a legitimate question to ask somebody who's supposed to be the moral and political leader of the country if they've used cocaine?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, again, I think George Bush has answered that for himself. He has said he personally has made mistakes, and the fact that he is willing to stand up and say that, I certainly understand. I believe him when he says he's learned from it, and I respect the fact that he's made a decision and he's not going to talk about it. And he's obviously willing to take the political consequence, whatever it is.

LUCINDA DILLON, DESERET NEWS: Is it appropriate for reporters, though, to ask the question and then he said in this case that Texas has this very hard line on drug abuse, you know, I don't know how many people, but many people are in prison, poor people are in prison, and is it okay for someone of his stature, with his background and his income and so forth to say, "Well, I made a mistake," when, in fact, he's, you know, supporting a lot of initiatives that say we aren't taking, we're taking a hard line on drug abuse? At what point is it acceptable for people to ask those kind of questions and make those kind of ironies known?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: That's the debate we're in.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Let me focus on a broader issue then that involves the media and its coverage. This is often attributed to the role of the watch dog of the media, and it seems like we praise the watch dog when it chases away the scoundrel, and then we condemn the watch dog when it turns on our person. Are you comfortable with what is this evolving nature of journalism in this country, that seems to be dedicated to rooting out the maximum possible on candidates for public office? Do you feel the institution of the media is going too far?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I think the institution of the media has a very important role, and they play it. But any role that's played to an extreme ultimately becomes and extreme and cease to be productive and become destructive. I think these are all legitimate questions. I think that George Bush's position has been made abundantly clear, and I think people are going to have to make a judgment, now, based on what they've heard him say, and he himself laid this criteria out. "If you can't accept me the way I am, if you can't accept the fact that I've made mistakes and won't talk about it, don't vote for me," and people will make that judgement. Now if the media continues over the next 30, 60, 90, 120 days to make this the issue of a campaign, do I think they would have gone too far? Yes, I think they will have gone too far and I think they will have done a serious disservice to the political process, because there are other issues. This one, I think we're getting this one fleshed out pretty well.

JUDY FAYHS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, speaking of other issues, school's starting, and you did not get your special session, and you did not get some of the gun protections you had hoped for. How do you see yourself, how do you see the state responding to the issue of cracking down on crime involving guns, and also making schools safer?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I believe that school safety will be a topic that's visited by the legislature in the general session, it will need to be. Whether or not weapons being removed from schools is a matter of, whether that will be part of that agenda, I don't think we yet know. But I do think that there will be a commitment on the part of the legislature to deal with the issue of school safety.

RAY FRIESS, KALL / K-NEWS: Governor, it sounded like, from comments that I heard you make earlier this morning, that you've now decided what you would like to do with Utah's share of the tobacco money.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I have some pretty good instincts. I'm not prepared to announce them publicly because I want to work with the legislature in being able to draft a proposal. I think they have ideas, I have ideas. What I said this morning was, that I really would like to see the area of substance abuse generally dealt with aggressively - because I think it not only provides a tremendous social good, but it's a very good investment for the state. I'd like to see us focus on at least three populations. One would be our young people. Two would be those who are incarcerated. A high percentage of them are there because of drug problems, and they'll come back again and we'll continue to pay $18-19,000 a year to house them, and that's a very expensive proposition, not to mention a waste of their lives. And third would be those who are on public assistance. Many of them end up on public assistance because they have drug problems, and I'd like to see us attack this problem aggressively so that over a time period, over the 25 years, say, of the tobacco settlement, we're able to make a serious dent, maybe even cut it in half. If we would, it would have a substantial impact on state budgets, it would make people's lives a whole lot happier.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, we'll turn our attention now to our location in Logan and a question from Mike Weibel. Mike?

MIKE WEIBEL: Hi, Governor. A couple of months ago when you were considering calling a special session, the media, a lot of the attention was drawn to gun control. But you also mentioned you wanted to call a special session so the use of the tobacco funds could be pulled out of the regular budgetary process. Whatever happened to that idea?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I would have preferred that to be the case, but we spent two months talking about guns, and whether we'd have a special session, and frankly, the legislature was not able to discuss or get down to the business of discussion. Those discussions are starting, I've been working for the last several months to formulate my own ideas, and I'm going to be working jointly with legislators. I think they'll have ideas, and I'm hopeful that sometime in the next 60, 90, 120 days that we'll be able to come up with a joint proposal with the leadership of the legislature that will move us forward. This is an exciting opportunity, one that will likely not come again in anyone's - who is now serving - political lifetime, so we need to use it well and make certain that the resources are devoted to a good purpose.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, you've taken over the chairmanship, now, of the National Governor's Association, and in announcing that chairmanship there was an extended release of initiatives that you seek to advance during your year of chairmanship. Since there are no clear lines of authority associated with the NGA, who do you hope to use this organization as in terms of advancing those initiatives?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I have twelve months, and I intend to aggressively work within the theme of strengthening the American state in a new global economy. It will take, really, two forms. One, strengthening the state itself. One of the things that I announced was that in February at our annual winter meeting, we will have what I believe will be a historic and rather significant meeting with all 50 of the governors, we'll meet collectively with, hopefully, all 100 senators. I guess we'll have a few that are missing, but that's never happened. And yet members of the U.S. Senate have a Constitutional responsibility to represent the views of states, as do the governors. And I'm hopeful that that symbolic move will move us forward and we'll have discussions, and we'll talk about what is the role of the state in the next century. Secondly, I'd like to create an aggressive agenda for the states, with respect to what they must do to prepare for this new environment we're operating in. We can no longer have industries that have to deal, in some cases, with fifty separate bureaucracies. The friction that that creates in terms of competing with international competitors, that friction makes them non-competitive, and we'll begin to lose economic prosperity. So how do we guard prosperity? Secondly, how do we create it? Those are the two things I'll be focusing on, strengthening the states and creating an agenda for states and a whole series of projects within that, but that's the broad theme.

ROBERT GERHKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Governor, have you been contacted by the Justice Department on the Olympic investigation, and if so, what did you tell them?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I have not.

TOM JORDAN, METRO NETWORKS: In September you're taking your whole cabinet to southern Utah, the capitol on tour as it were, culminating in a public land use summit. There have been several moves just recently out of the rural county commissions to try to scuttle the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, and I was wondering what - do you hope to defuse some of that? There was a move this week out of Escalante to make a very vivid statement on that involving what appeared to be some civil rights violations. Do you hope to change their minds? It doesn't seem appropriate at this point to be spending state money on a lawsuit which is not going to do anything but be obstructionist.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I am very optimistic about this taking the capitol out to rural Utah. We're literally going to be taking the entire cabinet and the governor's office, and we're going to get on a bus and we're going to go to Richfield and to Panguitch and to Kanab and St. George and Cedar City, and we'll be meeting with schools and others all around, and all the cabinet officers will be meeting with constituents who have individual interests. I think it'll be an opportunity for me to hear a lot of Utahns, and hopefully solve some problems. I will have a couple of major announcements that I'll be making while I'm there that I think will be of interest to rural Utah in particular all Utahns in general. I will be meeting in town meetings in Garfield and Kane counties that I expect will be very well attended. I know there's a lot of folks who have things they'd like to say to me in those areas, and I think I'll bring some ideas to them that might provide them with some optimism, and hope. There are difficult issues related to the Grand Staircase that still need to be resolved, and I need to be party to that, the state needs to be a party to finding solutions and working in harmony and partnership to the degree we can with the federal government. And to the extent we can't, then we have to stand up for our position.

RAY FRIESS, KALL / K-NEWS: Talking about the monument, Governor, Federal Judge, I believe Dee Benson seemed to surprise everyone, and maybe signal his position on that recently when he indicated that it appeared that both the President as well as Congress may have acted unconstitutionally in the way that they dealt with the monument. Do you have any thoughts on that?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: It's not any surprise to any of you that I thought the way the monument was created was absolutely wrong. Not only wrong, unfair. I think I used words such as really an abuse of executive power. So, we considered very closely whether or not we could win a lawsuit on that basis, and concluded the state would not engage. And frankly, if they won their lawsuit I think it would be a great thing. I don't think that, just from a Constitutional standpoint, I don't share their optimism, but it would be nice if they did because that's a position I believe.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, back one final time to our microwave location in Logan, and a question from Lee Austin at KUSU. Lee?

LEE AUSTIN, KUSU: Thank you. In light of the recent Salt Lake tornado, and the more recent earthquake in Turkey, and the massive loss of life and property damage, and recriminations over buildings that weren't built to code, have you given any new thought to this state's preparation for the likelihood of a large earthquake, and whether public officials will be apologizing for loss of life because of buildings that were inadequate to the seismic hazard?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I frankly worry about that a lot. For one reason, I work in a building that's inadequately prepared, and I can't tell you that I didn't think about the fact that if I had been in the capitol and my colleagues and staff and friends had been in the capitol and that tornado hadn't taken a hard right turn when it got to the capitol, we could have had serious injury and damage, because, frankly, the capitol building itself was built at a time when they didn't prepare for those kinds of structural stresses. There are other buildings. My children go to a school that I worry about the same thing. The cost is so high to make retrofit to be earthquake proof or to be earthquake resistant to every public building, to every private building, that it's just not possible. So what we do is we do them as we can. The capitol building, I believe in the next five years will need to go through an extensive renovation. It will begin sometime in the next five years. We ought to deal with the earthquake problem when we do that. When the fire occurred at the mansion, we took care of the mansion, for example. Other public buildings, such as the Veteran's Hospital, that's been done, and we're slowly seeing this, this happen, and we're changing as we go, and I hope we'll be able to take care of it before we have such an incident. In the meantime, I can tell you on the list of things I pray for, it is that we don't have an earthquake.

BOB WARD, STANDARD-EXAMINER: Back during the time when a special session was still on the table you were talking with law makers about a state wide referendum on a guns in school ban. Is that still on the table in your view?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: That was one of the options that we spent some time talking about, and I think there is a large group made up of the PTA and church organizations and hospitals and others who I'm told are organizing an initiative. I suspect that may be the most likely way that that would be put before the people.

BOB WARD, STANDARD-EXAMINER: Are you personally working on anything with the legislature perhaps to put together any language for a ballot initiative?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: That was one of the options they talked about. I have not heard that spoken of as a high priority right now for them. We've not had, in the last two or three weeks, a lot of new debate on the gun issue. Once the special session was resolved we've moved to over things, as frankly I think it was time.

BOB WARD, STANDARD-EXAMINER: Any decisions on your politcal future at this point?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: My position is the same. I'm preparing as though I'll run for a third term, and I'll go through kind of a final gut check when I get to the end of the year, make sure I still have the energy that I need to do this, to make certain that I feel like people will receive my service properly and I still am seeing problems in a fresh way. If I am, I really enjoy what I'm doing, and if people seem to feel like they would support me again, I'll do it. But I'll make that assessment right at end of the year.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, that concludes our time for the day. Thanks for joining us for the Governor's Monthly News Conference on KUED. Hope to see you again next month. Good evening.

Recorded: August 26, 1999, 10:00 a.m. Eccles Broadcast Center
Broadcast: August 26, 1999, 7:00 p.m. KUED-Channel 7

 

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