September 29, 2011

“…on-line education is certainly a part of the future and will be a bigger and growing part of the future.” –Gov. Herbert

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Good morning everyone.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-TV: Good morning Governor. Thanks for joining us today. The legislative redistricting process is nearing culmination, the so-called “Pizza Slice” plan is drawing a great deal of criticism, that clearly this is a legislative function, but in this setting of the past, you said the most important priorities to be served were the principles of fairness and what’s in the best interest of the state of Utah. So against those rather simple standards, do you believe the process, as it’s going forward, is indicative of being fair and in the best interests of the state?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, you mentioned the word culmination. I think we’re a far cry from having it finished. And I think the process is gone forward well. We’ve had many public hearings and I think they’ve tried to get input. As we all know, it’s a difficult process. And as we look at the growth of that has taken place, this is a thing, an issue that should have taken place ten years ago. We should have had a fourth district ten years ago, so we’ve got that increased population that’s been, I think, dramatic. Each congressional district, for example, is having to give up over two hundred thousand people to form a fourth district. So, I understand the difficulty. We’ve advocated, at least as my role, as the governor, that we understand the legislature, by constitution, has to draw the lines, but we have encouraged them to make sure that it is a fair and balanced approach, that’s defendable. We’ve also advocated, we think there should be in that balanced approach, rural and urban mix. I think that’s served us well in the past and I think it will serve us well in the future. Now, we’re a far cry from the end of this, I know that there’s committee meetings taking place as we speak. There will be the special session next year and at least if history is any guide, whatever has come out of the committee will be modified and changed before it’s adopted by the legislature.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Are there any circumstances under which you would veto a redistricting bill?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I’m sure there are. That’s part of the role I have the ability to play but I’m expecting that they’ll come up with something that’s fair and that everybody can kind of feel pretty good about it. I expect it will be compromise by republicans as well as within the republican party as well as with democrats. So, I’m not expecting a veto. I encourage them to make sure they do things in a principled way. We ought to have principle stand above politics.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Have you asked for any specific changes to the map or the philosophical changes, perhaps?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I’ve just encouraged them as I’ve looked at some of the maps and of course things have been changed and been modified. I’ve not sat down and with anybody and said here, let’s draw a map together. That’s not in purview. But I have indicated the need to have an urban/rural mix, meaning that there ought to be people that have to be concerned about the public lands and rural economic development and energy and those kinds of things. Again, I think it’s served us well in the past and we’ve had really good outcomes in Utah and a good, I think, united voice with our congressional delegation. So, I think that should be a model for us going forward.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Does splitting the rural vote four ways dilute their voice in representation?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: No, I think, in fact, having four voices for rural Utah gives you four voices for rural Utah. There needs to be some accountability and you know, I think the dividing of different areas and having more people speak for you is probably could be identified as a good thing.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Have you spoken to members in the legislature, specifically, about the district that Jim Matheson would be given and asked for them to be given, asked for them to give him a district that might be less republican than- -

GOVERNOR HERBERT: You know, I’ve had conversations with different legislators, republican and democrat, people talk to me. Again they’ve asked my opinion on the principles. Again, my emphasis has been on a reiteration of fair, balanced, in the best interest long term of the people of the people of Utah and that there should be a rural and urban mix. That’s my position. I’ve not tried to identify any specific individual. I don’t think districts should be drawn for anybody or against anybody. I think they should be based on principle.

CHRIS VANOCUR, ABC4: Governor, a different topic. Two weeks ago, the DABC closed its meeting because the intercom was accidently left on, we heard the first ten minuets of that meeting. What we heard, in our opinion, violated Utah’s open meeting law. Do you think that the DABC should’ve closed that meeting?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I’ve heard that maybe, Chris, you’re the one that turned the switch on. Is that right? I’ve, I would say it this way: they have legal counsel to guide them in their responsibilities. I expect they’ve looked at legal counsel as they made decisions. That being said, if there’s questions, I would certainly err on the side of openness. I know that Francine Giani, the person that I put there, wanted to have it open. And I think she had good cause for asking for that. But that’s a decision they made based on legal counsel. If there’s a question, it should have been open.

CHRIS VANOCUR, ABC4: Governor, you may also be aware ABC 4 has filed a complaint with the Attorney General's office about the closing of that meeting. Do you support that complaint or do you think this is something that should be looked into?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: You know, the fact that you raised the issue gives me pause and I think it should be looked into. Hey, let’s eliminate the confusion. If they’ve done something wrong, they ought to be noticed about it and we ought to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Again, the reason we have legal counsel to advise these groups is to make sure that they follow the law specifically. And if they haven’t in this instance, then they need to be told about it.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-TV: Governor, one aspect of that exchange behind closed doors is fairly well publicized and there was criticism by some members of the commission of the way that Francine Giani was selected as the interim director. They felt that they were left out of the process. They were sharply critical of her performance in the first few days. I’m asking you for your opinion of Francine Giani's performance in that difficult position and whether you think you did, in fact, leave them out of the loop in making the selection?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I don’t think we left them out of the loop in making the selection. It was a responsibility that I had to take immediately because of the circumstances we found ourselves in. We did then contact the chairman and talked with him and let them know why we did what we were doing so that they understood the motivation and the urgency. I do support Francine Giani. I think she’s doing a wonderful job in the department of commerce as our director there and she takes those same skill sets as an interim director with Alcohol Beverage Control and I think she’s done an outstanding job. I since have met with the chairman and Francine and feel good about their relationship. I know it’s been a little bit rocky for probably a number of reasons; poor communication in some instances and maybe people feeling like their territory has been encroached upon. But it’s kind of like an inner family squabble that happens occasionally. They both are motivated to make sure that what happens out at ABC is right and correct according to the law and I expect that when the audit is over, we’ll have recommendations that come forward.

CHRIS VANOCUR, ABC4: Did you suggest to Chairman Sperry and Director Giani that they ‘make nice’?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I don’t know if it was ‘make nice’ it was show a deference and respect. Both of them are motivated by good principles. They want to, in fact, make sure that if there is any inappropriate activity out there that that’s found out and corrective action is taken place and so my comments to them are if we keep our eye on the ball and not worry about some kind of territorial turf battle, we will, in fact, get the right outcome. And, again, I think they recognize that Francine is there as a temporary director. We’re going to, in fact, starting a search for a permanent director. The audit will come out. It will give us information. With that information they will be able to react and make some recommendations going forward. I don’t want to presuppose what the audit is going to show until I see the audit.

BRIAN MULLAHY, KUTV-2: Governor, on health care. You have a health care summit bringing business people together. Curious what you think of the way that the Utah Health Exchange has worked ? How well do you think it’s worked?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I think it’s worked well from the standpoint that it just started and opened up to the community the first of this year. And we have about forty-five hundred people that are now covered with the health exchange. We have about a hundred and thirty or forty different programs and a hundred and fifty some odd companies have signed up in some form or fashion. It’s allowed about twenty five percent of those that are covered now, through the health exchange, to be covered that didn’t have coverage before. So, it’s improved accessibility, it’s given predictability to these small businesses, identified as fifty employees or less, they’re able to keep that benefit package or add the benefit package of health care that they couldn’t do before. So, I think principally it’s going the right direction. I would, we’re being kind of slow about it, we’re limiting the numbers of people that can join, we’re not really promoting it too aggressively to make sure we’ve got a solid foundation and footing.

BRIAN MULLAHY, KUTV-2: Are you too slow, with it?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: That would be a criticism. I would like to see it kind of grow a little more aggressively. But I’ll just give you this example. We had, earlier this year, a conference on exchanges and we’ve had a lot of inquiries about how are you doing it in Utah. You’re one of two and we like your approach which doesn’t have a mandate and is a lot less expensive, more of a free market approach. We have thirty two states sign up to come here and we had to turn some away. So there’s a lot of interest in the Utah model. Again, I’m one that believes states ought to be taking a lead on health care reform and we’ll learn from each other as these laboratories of democracy. And we’ll have some successes and we’ll have some failures but we learn from that. So I feel good about the direction that we’re going. I hope that it catches a little more aggressive expansion here over the next twelve months.

BRIAN MULLAHY, KUTV-2: And who’s responsibility would it be? Is it the states responsibility to give it the lift that you think it needs or- -

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I think that there’s some opportunities we can do by expanding who’s eligible, meaning larger companies. Again, we don’t want to be inundated with companies trying to sign up that we can’t handle the service. This is designed to start a model that will eventually be handed off to the private sector, not a government run program. So, we’re being careful about that and but I think that as we find solid footing and this is working. Smart companies will open it up to larger companies. I think that will happen with the help of the legislature probably in the upcoming legislative session, so probably some acceleration on this in 2012.

BRIAN MULLAHY, KUTV-2: You do think it’s moving too slowly at the current time.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I’d like to see it move a little more rapidly but I would rather do it right than do it quick. I’d rather have a solid foundation, something that we can in fact service appropriately, as opposed to something we get a little bit ahead of ourselves and cause problems down the road.

JOHN DALEY, KSL-5: Governor, last week we learned that there’s a former UTA board member who profited, perhaps, in the millions, up to twenty-four million dollars on a land deal next to Front Runner line while he was on the board of UTA. Are you troubled by that, by that news?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Like any taxpayer, that would cause me grave concern if what you’ve said is true. And, again, it’s an independent board, it’s not really a state run function. It’s a special service district that has it’s own board. I’ve had conversations with the chairman, representative Greg Hughes. I’ve told him that in times past and reiterated again, we need to make sure that we are open and transparent in what takes place there so the public knows what’s going on. There ought not to be the appearance of anything that would be a conflict of interest. I think that would have helped him. He is, in fact, advocating we’ve taken corrective action. We have more open meetings, we’re going to make sure that the salaries and other issues that have been a controversy in the past, that how we come up with those conclusions and make those decisions is more open and transparent for the public. So, ya, I’m concerned. I’m a tax payer just like you are. And, if in fact, somebody’s profiting inappropriately, that’s causes me grave concern. And I think that the board understands that and hopefully they are, in fact, have taken corrective action so it won’t happen and wouldn’t happen in the future. That being said, again, I know these are suppositions and allegations and whether they’re true or not regarding former board member, you know, I don’t know.

JOHN DALEY, KSL-5: Are you pleased that the GA is looking into that?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Absolutely.

JOHN DALEY, KSL-5: And would, and did you express your displeasure to Chairman Hughes about that? That situation?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Not on this specific issue, because it’s a little more recent so I haven’t had a chance to talk to him specifically. I’ve talked with him previously about the need to change the approach that UTA takes and I said as the new chairman, you can make that change. You have the ability to make it better, where the public has better confidence in how you process. And I think he’s trying to do that, frankly. So, we’ll have to wait and see what the AG’s investigation shows about the conflict and the potential profiteering made by former board member. But I think it’s appropriate for the AG to investigate. We need to bring some kind of understanding and guilt or innocence. Let’s find out what it is.

DAN BAMMES, KUER: Governor, Utah’s congressional delegation has unanimously introduced a bill to remove endangered species protection from the Utah prairie dog for a couple of spots in Iron County, the Paragonah cemetery and Parowan airport. But in a broader sense, is there an effort to weaken the endangered species act in the west and how do you feel about that?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I don’t think that there’s an attempt to weaken the endangered species. I think people understand there’s a need for protection for species out there. I think the concern is that the pendulum has swung a little bit too far in one direction that belies common sense. The prairie dog is probably a good example of that. If you’ve been down to Iron County, where at once it just proliferated and decimated a golf course, it’s now going into significant private property areas and subdivisions causing millions and millions of dollars of damage. There’s been an ongoing effort down in Iron County with the our local government officials and business people as well as working with our congressional delegation saying: wait a minute, we’ve got to find a solution to this problem and I think that’s just caused a lot of frustration.

REPORTER: Governor- -

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Let me just finish. I say that I think that the intent is to bring some balance here where there’s a de-listing of wolves, which has an impact on our domestic flocks in Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. There are deer herds or elk management or those kind of things. Like most things, though, I advocate for appropriate balance. I think that’s what they’re asking for in Iron County with the prairie dog.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: If I could ask you a political question. We asked you this a few months ago. But since then Florida and then a couple of other states are looking at moving up their primaries. Utah is still looking at a June primary. Is that where it’s going to be? Is that where you think it should be or do you think Utah needs to move up and be a player in this process?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: You know, if you want my editorial opinion, I can tell you, I think the presidential primary system we have in America stinks. I think that we need to have rotating regional primaries. It baffles my imagination to see that we have pundits out there that say it’s a two man race already. We haven’t had any votes. You know, why do we have to go to Iowa or New Hampshire the very first. Why do they get the privilege of winnowing out the presidential field? The Lieutenant Governor’s Association, I think the State Legislatures Association, the Governors Associations have come to the point of saying: you know what? Let’s rotate the primaries. Let’s have a regional rotation. You could do it in four months, you’d have every candidate concentrate on that region. And you could divide the country into four regions. It would be less expensive, the public would have better opportunity to understand the issues and the candidates and make a decision. I think we’d get a better outcome. And it would be more fair for the candidates. So, you know, I think the whole system needs to be revised and people trying to get ahead of each other to get at the front of the line is indicative of the fact that the system that we have is broken.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-TV: Governor, what’s your reaction to members of your party nationally, continually looking to the horizon for another candidate to come rising up and deliver the party in unity to the 2012 election. They turned with great anticipation to Governor Perry, then they turned in great anticipation to Governor Christie, both colleagues of yours. What’s your read of this situation?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, at, as in most cases, it’s hard to find the perfect politician, the perfect candidate, and we always search for that, we’re looking for Sir Galahad to ride in on his white horse and say: I’m the one. Let me go out and do the jousting and I’ll bring back the crown. That’s what’s happened here. I think that there’s a lot of frustration. I think that on the republican side, for example, I think they look and see that the sitting president is vulnerable. So, let’s not muff it up. Let’s not waste this opportunity. Who’s the right person to make sure we win this battle. And that’s what’s taking place and there’s a lot of great personalities out there and I know most all of them. And we’ve got great candidates out there on the republican side. I’m very comfortable. You’re always looking for something better and to get a better edge but I’m very comfortable with the current slate of candidates as it’s constituted.

BRIAN MULLAHY, KUTV2: Do you think Mitt Romney is vulnerable?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, as I mentioned, nobody’s perfect. We all have out Achilles tendon somewhere. And where we have the challenge, you know, where we have a weakness. But I would certainly advocate that Mitt Romney is very strong in virtually most of the areas. Particularly as we look at the number one issue for America today is jobs and economic growth, he is somebody that has actually been in the private sector, having to do battle with taxes and regulations and coming up with a profitable bottom line, keeping, protecting and expanding jobs. So I think that he brings a significant cachet to the office of running for president that would be very welcome in the oval office. We’ve seen what’s happened in the last with somebody that has no experience. President Obama is a wonderful guy and I think he’s a great personality and very smart. His, in my opinion, I disagree with some of his ideology but the biggest deficit, I think, is the lack of experience in the private sector.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Governor, you signed this SB-65 change in the online school. What was wrong with the existing system and what do you find good about the new one?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I, I, you’d have to remind me, John, what the online- -

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Basically, on line system changes how kids are able to get education on line and what the legislators have said: well we want more private providers. The current system seemed to be working. The question is: why did we need to change it?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I think the simple answer for that is that the legislature wants to and I concur, give more choice. The more options you have in the market place the better it is for the consumer and the consumer is the students and their parents. We certainly believe and I tell you, it’s becoming very clear, if we want to have better educational experiences, new technology has got to be utilized. They can’t be just the same old same old. So on-line education is certainly a part of the future and will be a bigger and growing part of the future. So on-line education, particularly is now going into more concurrent enrollment where you can get on-line classes for high school graduation, gives you flexibility, you also can get on-line courses for the general courses necessary to get into your freshman year of college. So we will have more production in shorter periods of time for the student. Our country, frankly is falling behind the world and it’s a global marketplace so we’ve got to figure ways to compete and on-line is one way to do it and giving more choice to parents and students is a good thing.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: The current bill limits the choices for students right now.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, that’s new to me then, John. I think that what we’ve tried to do is expand. We can’t do too much. We can only do what we can afford. We have now on-line courses for high school. We have on-line courses for college.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-TV: Governor, at this point, let me jump in on the theme of education. This week you announced the initiative regarding the women’s college task force. Can you tell us what your purpose and design is in that?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, again, as you all probably know, we’ve set a goal out of our education in excellence commission to have two-thirds of our adult population to have some kind of post high school certification or degree by 2020. That’s a challenging goal but it is something that we need to do so that we can, in fact, have a labor force that matches up with the demands of the marketplace. Proper alignment is really a key issue for us if we’re going to have long term sustained economic growth. Well, we have found out that we don’t have enough women participating in college and post high school education. We had a survey done by Utah Valley University that showed that thirty-nine percent of our population in Utah don’t believe it’s important or necessary for women to have a college degree. I find that really disheartening. We can’t reach our goal if we don’t have a half of our population participating on the female side of the agenda. So we’re trying to do everything that we can to change the mindset, the culture, to have our women understand it is important that you have some kind of post high school education, work on getting a college degree. You’ll be better and whatever it is you want to be in life. Economic opportunity, better mothers, better wives, better role models for your children, you’ll participate in civic affairs better. College education improves your quality of life and we want to make sure that Utah doesn’t fall behind. We’re right now dead last in a gap between men who get a college degree and women who get a college degree in America. That needs to change and we’re taking steps to change that.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Minorities have a less participation rate than women. What do you, what would you be doing for minorities?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Same kind of thing. Again, it’s a cultural issue. We need to work with families. We need to get more parental involvement and change the mindset. We have found right now that, in fact, that clearly, if you want to have a good job, get a good education. We have folks that are struggling out there but right now, even as we’re coming through this, what we call the great recession, the worst economic time since the great depression, if you have a college degree, right now, your unemployment rate is only four percent in this country. If you have only a high school diploma, it’s about nine point seven percent unemployment. Less than a high school is fifteen percent. You want a good job, get a good education. We’re going to emphasize education to make sure that our labor force can not only compete but can win in a global economy. And that includes minorities and anybody else. It’s really for all of us.

JOHN FLOREZ, DESERET NEWS: Will you have a minority summit similar to the women’s summit?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: You know that’s certainly something we could take a look at. It will come out of our education in excellence commission and we’ll see if that’s something we want to do. It’s certainly something we’re cognizant of. We’ve got early intervention that’s really targeted, extended all day kindergarten for those who are at risk students. A lot of those are minorities, so were trying to get early help to make sure that that’s probably an area where we have good bang for the buck, to make sure that they get their education, get a high school diploma. We have a high rate of graduation. We’re about the fifth or sixth highest in America. Eighty-eight percent of our people graduate. We need to make sure that we’re not having minorities fall back. Part of that’s a cultural thing. But we can do more there and we’re going to make an effort.

ROBERT GEHRKE, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, last week there was a report out from one of the national laboratories that the voting machines similar to the ones Utah’s using can be hacked with a few dollars of equipment bought from a Radio Shack. These are the machines, that as Lieutenant Governor you selected. Are you confident that these machines that the Utah voters vote on are secure and or do they need to be reassessed?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: I am confident, again, that was the same accusation that was made five, six years ago. And at least it hasn’t happened with the machines that we’ve got on, available here in Utah. Again, it’s not only the kind of machine but how you store it, how you program it, what you do to take care of it, keep it in secure facilities. I’m here to tell you, any system is probably got some fallibility to it. Even paper can be hacked, you know, and we have people stuffing the ballots, we’ve known that since the time immemorial. I’m here to tell you the system that we have right now, is in fact, very user friendly for the voter and a secure system. Does it mean we have to continue to maintain vigilance? Absolutely. Technology evolves and changes. But I have all the confidence of the world of our Lieutenant Governor’s office and what they’re doing and just as importantly our clerks in the counties who actually run the elections here in the state.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED-TV: Governor, we’re at that in between time, not enough time to ask you another question so let me just remind the viewing audience the transcripts and streaming video of every edition of The Governor’s New Conference is available on line so visit us at KUED.org . This is the Governor’s monthly new conference and find the back stories from previous new conferences as conveyed both in transcript form and for streaming availability. Until the next time we meet in, that should be October, for the news conference, we’ll see you then. Thanks for joining us today.

Return to home page