August 28, 2003

Out of respect for the Senate and their process it's appropriate that I not respond to questions related to Environmental Protection Agency, my nomination, or my thoughts about the future.

Reporters (in order of appearance):

KEN VERDOIA, KUED
JENNY BRUNDIN, KUER
BEVERLY AMSLER, METRO NETWORKS
KIRSTEN STEWART, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
DONNA KEMP SPANGLER, DESERET NEWS
LEE AUSTIN, UTAH PUBLIC RADIO
JOHN DALEY, KSL
JANICE PERRY GULLY, KCPW

Transcript:

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, thanks for joining us today. Clearly topic number one for much media interest is your nomination by President Bush to serve as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a confirmation process that is yet to formally begin. People are trying to sound you out on your perspectives on this very controversial agency and there are some critics that maintain that the Bush Administration has not put the environmental protection very high on its agenda, whether for cause or perhaps neglect. How do you view the administration's emphasis on environmental protection, must it be sustained or must it be modified?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Ken, I'm sure you and your colleagues will appreciate the fact that I am currently in the beginning stages of the confirmation process. Out of respect for the Senate and their process it's appropriate that I not respond to questions related to Environmental Protection Agency, my nomination, or my thoughts about the future. That's not a comfortable position for me to be in, nor for you. But nevertheless, over the course of the next several weeks that's where I'll be, and I appreciate your understanding.

JENNY BRUNDIN, KUER: Governor, I have a question, then, about Utah's record. Some citizens groups say the record here in terms of enforcing pollution laws is weak, and they point to Magcorp, the Phillips 66 refinery, and the trash incinerator in Davis County, and the latter two examples EPA actually had to step in to issue fines, and citizens groups say that they've been exposed to years of unhealthy pollutants. These problems have been taken care of now, but they say the state was really weak in enforcing those laws. How do you respond to those charges?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I'm not responding to them at this point. As I suggest, I'm in the midst of this confirmation process, and it's a respectful thing for me to answer those questions when they're directed to me by the Senate. There are many who are able to respond now, and I would refer you to them, and I'm sure they'll be able to respond. The state's, the record is fairly clear and lots of progress has been made in the last decade, and I'm proud of it.

BEVERLY AMSLER, METRO NETWORKS: Governor, if you are confirmed, what legacy would you hope to leave for the people of Utah?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I began my service more than a decade ago with five goals in mind. The first was to assure that we had quality jobs, second was quality education, and the third was to improve the quality of life. The fourth was to take care of the state's truly needy, and to foster a sense of self-reliance. The last one was to conduct government in a more efficient way, and to assure that government didn't grow as fast as the private sector grows. And all five of those goals have been met.

I look back over the last more than a decade, and one in four jobs that exists in the state today have been created during the last decade. Not only have we created as a state more than 250,000 more jobs, but they're better jobs. Wages are up, wages are not just up, but they're up against inflation. First time that's happened in several decades. So good economic progress. We've seen, I think a dramatic shift in the state's economy. It's diversified, it's gone away from some of our more traditional natural resource industries and we have become a capital for high-tech investment, employment, and entrepreneurship.

The state's education system has improved. We've changed it fundamentally. I'm very hopeful that in the middle of October we'll see the State School Board adopt a competency-based standard for our schools, the first in the country to adopt that kind of a standard. We've seen our colleges and universities grow and prosper. We've doubled the amount of funding, we've reduced class sizes. We've hit on some hard times the last couple of years, just like every state has. But overall I feel a sense a real confidence that the state's school system is better by a significant piece than it was before. Still a lot of work to do there, I might add.

In terms of the third part, which was being able to increase the quality of life. Our air is cleaner, our water's more pure, our land is better cared for, our citizens are more safe. I feel a sense of real satisfaction about the way our highways have been built, rebuilt, completely. The way we have trails within 30, 15-minute car drive of every Utah citizen. I feel a sense of satisfaction for what we've done with respect to fly fishing and all of the -or fishing and all of the areas of the state with respect to recreation.

Our welfare population has diminished from 19,000 at one point down to 7,000. It's increased now up to 9,000, and I'm glad to know that because it means that our system is in place to help people when they are truly needy. Our health care system is substantially better. Utah citizens continue to have among the lowest cost health care in the world, and we have increased, we've increased the number of people who are insured in the state by nearly 400,000 during the course of that time, and nearly every child in Utah now has a place where they can acquire health insurance.

And we're operating government today on a substantially, on substantially less money per thousand dollars of personal income than we were when I became governor. So there's still lots of work to do. I'm not suggesting it's been perfect, but I look back at the goals that I set forward, I feel a real sense of satisfaction that I'm leaving it a better place than I found it if I'm confirmed by the Senate, that we've planted seeds, as I've said many times, for a future generation, and the one thing I can say is that I've given it every ounce of effort I have, and I'll continue to, whether it's 40 days or 400, that I serve.

KIRSTEN STEWART, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor, in the major overhaul of EPA air pollution goals of the Bush administration yesterday made it easier for older power plants and refineries to avoid installing costly clean air controls. I'm not going to ask you whether or not you're going to, when you get to Washington call back and rework the regulation as environmentalists have suggested, but this is an issue that, you know, involved a decade of contentious and as yet unsettled debates among states and environmentalists and oil and utility companies, and it seems a perfect test case for your Enlibra principles. I'm wondering if you could at least discuss how Enlibra might apply to the situation.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Again, I know the day will come when I'll have a chance to talk about it. Today isn't that day. I'm serving as the governor of Utah, it's my intention to serve with every ounce of energy I have, whether it's 40 or 400 days. I recognize these are interesting issues, and there'll be a day when I can talk about them openly and freely with you, and I will.

DONNA KEMP SPANGLER, DESERET NEWS: Governor, your final days in office, whether it's 40 or 400, do you have a list of priorities of things that you would like to accomplish before you leave?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Yes. My primary focus is to work with the state school board to adopt rules to move the entire system to a competency-measured system. This is a profound shift. As I said in my last State of the State Address, this is not tinkering around the edges, it's a big change. It will happen slowly, but it's a big change. We're going from a system that simply measures how much time students spend, to a system that measures how much students learn. It goes, we're going from a system ultimately that will invest its money, proportionate or the most part, but some portion of it going to help children who are lacking in competency to have special help. Those are profoundly important changes that need to be made, and I hope that before my service is complete that I can witness the adoption of those standards. I will also say on a personal level that I intend to pass the highway patrol's physical training exam, which I've been working on for two years, and I'm not leaving until I do.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, one of the issues that's associated with education reform, the concern of many educators, the substantial price tag associated with it. Is this state, with its economic tight budgets right now, in a position to begin undertaking the required expense associated with the shift to a new focus?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: This shift to a new focus, I think, isn't going to cost more money, though we need to invest more money in our education system. I think this may be an example of where a system like ours is under such significant pressure that we may be forced to do something really smart. And by smart, I mean starting to measure competency instead of time. That will focus the resources that we have on assuring that what's ultimately important is accomplished. Let me give you examples. There's lots of talk, I've talked a lot about the senior year of high school. Many of our seniors have one, two graduation credits, and yet they attend an entire year and they think it's their, one of my children says that it's sort of their right to chill, which he suggests means that he has to get his English credit done but he can do lots of easy classes and have a good time. Well, there's a lot of seniors that feel that way.

That's not a good use of resources. When you just measure time, there are times when the schools are able to take minutes off the beginning of a day, they can have a little shorter lunch period and have entire days eliminated to add three-day weekends. I'm not being critical here, I'm just saying it's not a good system that measures time as opposed to the outcome and result. Once we begin to change what we measure the dollars that we have will be used more efficiently.
Now, this is not an insignificant change. We've all become quite comfortable with the credit system. Mothers know what it takes to make certain that their child graduates. Seniors know what it takes to game the system. We've all become quite comfortable with this. And so one of the major things I'll be accomplishing over the next 30 days is a series of public hearings and meetings with the education community throughout the state to talk about this competency change.
This is going to challenge us but it will improve us, and I'm quite optimistic that when we look back it will have been a very important adjustment that the system has made.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: We are going to shift our attention now to Logan where we have a question from our microwave location, and Lee Austin is standing by. Lee?

LEE AUSTIN, UTAH PUBLIC RADIO: Thank you. Actually I'd like to follow up on the question of funding for this initiative. The people in the education community are very explicit about additional money being needed to enact these kinds of reforms, and your position is that's not necessarily true. Are they just misinformed or wrong?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Lee, I'm glad that you allowed me to clarify that. I think the system needs more investment. And I think there are new demands being placed on the system from a lot of different angles. No Child Left Behind, for example, is another demand that's occurring. We have a change happening among our, in our demographics that's putting, we're seeing far more students with language demands. All of those are part of it. We're seeing more students. Over the course of the next several years we'll see substantially more students entering the system. All of those are things that add more financial stress to the system. I think that the need for us to say to a child, "You lack competence, here's some help," will add additional money to it. And I don't think we'll be able to finance all of it at the same time. We won't implement it all of it at the same time. But it is going to require more money, and we do have to step up to it or the system won't be an improvement. And I'm optimistic that over time we'll be able to do that.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Lee, let's go back to Lee for a follow-up.

LEE AUSTIN, UTAH PUBLIC RADIO: And you may have more freedom to talk about this sort of thing now that you are likely to be leaving for EPA. When you look at how we finance public education, the mix of taxes, is there any adjustment that you would favor to that? People are talking about the exemption for dependent children is one place to look at.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, the proper place for me to make any expression like that would be in the form of my budget, and I am working on a budget right now. We're going to have to prioritize very, very carefully, and it's not inconceivable that over time the state legislature may see the need to make adjustments in the way that we approach our taxation system. I'm not prepared to announce any today, but it's possible, I suppose, that the next couple of years we'll see that.

JOHN DALEY, KSL: Governor, can you explain your thinking on, back to the EPA, on not wanting to answer questions about that? Wouldn't it be better for the public to, whether it's you or any other person who has to go before the Senate, wouldn't it be better for them to hear from the nominee in advance, and give you a chance to discuss your thoughts on various issues before the confirmation process? I mean it seems like the public's kind of getting cut out here from the discussion.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, it's a long-standing, I don't know if it's tradition, or if it's a request, but when a person has been nominated, or has been announced that he or she will be nominated, the committee in the Senate that is to hear their confirmation likes to hear it first, needs to hear it first, deserves to hear it first. They're obviously very important conversations, and I have great respect for that process, and intend to conduct myself in that way.

JOHN DALEY, KSL: This is nothing new? Other nominees have taken the same
approach?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: This is part of the process that every nominee for a major position, whether it's a judge or cabinet post, goes through this window of time when they have to be quite circumspect in the way they comment publicly. There's obviously lots of attention, but this is a matter now between the Senate of the United States, and for them to consider, and I intend to conduct myself in a way that's fitting, befitting that relationship.

JANICE PERRY GULLY, KCPW: Governor, I'd like to ask you a question about the next governor of Utah. If you're confirmed, Olene Walker, the attorney general says, will become the governor. How do you see- - Do you see her as being a caretaker governor during the remainder of your term? What kind of role do you think she's going to play?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: When Olene Walker was selected as lieutenant governor eleven, nearly eleven years ago, very careful criteria was used. I selected her on the basis, first of all, that she could be governor if the circumstances ever presented themselves. I did so with the confidence that she had experience as a former legislator, legislative leader, she led a department of government, she has a Ph.D. in education, she's an advocate for many, many worthy purposes, including housing, the state's housing fund is named after her, Olene Walker Housing Fund. She's a very able woman. I must tell you that it was not without some thought, when I made the decision to offer myself as the administrator of the EPA, that we have not had a woman governor. As I searched history, and thought to myself, who better deserves that opportunity, both by her capability and by her previous service, than Olene Walker? She is more than able. She is
extraordinary, and I believe that there are things that she can accomplish to both complete the agenda that we mutually laid out and have carried out the next eleven years, but my sense is she'll have unique contributions to make that will mark her place in history.

KIRSTEN STEWART, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Governor on that subject with the budget and the lieutenant governor, you've been working on the budget, and I wonder, given the fact that the budget is sort of where the rubber meets the road in terms of policy making, shouldn't the lieutenant governor, your successor, have some input in that?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: She's actually been involved in the preparation of every budget that we have offered. She's an integral part of the team, she takes place - -part in every strategy session. She has such experience in the legislature, she's on the floor working with members of the legislature on an ongoing basis. She's not as well known publicly as she will become if the confirmation takes place. But people will be not just pleasantly surprised to know how capable she is, they will come to know her as a figure of great significance in the state already. She's- - She makes a great contribution every day in the office, and has for eleven years.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, you have been, or will soon be asked to sign an extradition request to the governor of Idaho to return a Utah father who was arrested in Idaho for taking his son out of this state to avoid medical treatment that doctors and a Utah state agency deemed essential to the well-being of the boy. Will you sign the request, have you signed the request? And how does this reflect your views of the role of the state in intervening in a family's life?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Extradition is essentially an administrative process that the governor's office conducts at the request of prosecutors, and in this case the courts. We handle about 400 of them a year. This case involves some very difficult and sensitive cases, or circumstances, involving the health and well-being of a child. There are a number of circumstances that are legal, lots of questions that are ideological, all of which are now being sorted out by the courts. And for the protection of the child, and in his best interest, that's the place it ought to be, and I'm optimistic that they will act in a way that will be in the best interest of the child.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Let me ask you, then, have you signed the extradition request?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: The extradition request has been processed in the way that they normally have, and it has been completed.

JOHN DALEY, KSL: Governor, let me ask you about, the Attorney General was here the other day talking about the war on terror. You've traveled around the state, met with military families. Are we winning the war on terror? And if you were in a position to advise the President about how to proceed in Iraq, if he were to include the larger cabinet in that discussion, what would you tell him?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I believe we are winning the war on terror. It's a different kind of war than we have ever fought before. There are 6,000 Utah soldiers who are engaged in one fashion or another. We owe them a debt - -a great debt of gratitude. War is always a testing, difficult time for a nation or for a leader, and I think we're moving forward in a way that is steady, and in a way that ultimately will produce the right result, not just in terms of our protection of the Iraqi people, but also in the cause of freedom around the world.

JOHN DALEY, KSL: Should we send more troops over there? There's some who have been calling for that.

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I don't have an opinion of that, I'm not in a position to know or have information to make that judgment.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, we're going to return once again to our microwave site in Logan and another question from Lee Austin. Lee, go ahead.

LEE AUSTIN, UTAH PUBLIC RADIO: Governor, before the EPA nomination the biggest question we were waiting for you to answer was whether you'd seek another term, and you promised an announcement by Monday. Two parts. Can you give us any insights on how that announcement might have gone, and have you given any advice to Olene Walker as to whether she should seek an election term?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I've not spoken with the Lieutenant Governor about that. If she is, if she becomes governor by virtue of my confirmation, that's a decision she will have to make, and those are difficult decisions. I did wrestle with that decision for a long time, and as I was closing in on a decision, events passed it by, and I've concluded that there's probably no reason to revisit it.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: Governor, internal state politics of any state generally fail to make national news unless the state is California, and some of the issues and some of the players are, if you will, larger than life. California now closing in on a recall election. I wonder, as a chief executive, your views on the recall process. Not when the charges brought against the person being recalled involved criminal conduct, but bad decisions and what some are saying failed leadership issues. Is this an appropriate exercise of that recall ability within the body politic?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well, I think that what we've witnessed in the last month or two will define itself. I think the question, the jury's still out, so to speak, on that one. I don't think that we are seeing the ultimate result yet. I think that referendums like that tend to define themselves in the last two or three weeks. And I think there's a lot of people in California that will begin to ask the question that you asked. Is this a good process? And I would just predict this. That before it's over, the process will be the issue.

JOHN DALEY: Governor, another issue from a little bit farther afield. In Alabama recently they had the big ten commandments dispute. We've had some battles about that here in Utah. Do you think the court there made the right decision in ordering the monument removed?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: Well I won't weigh in on the legal question. I will just say that, as a person, I find that God should not, and public discussion should not necessarily be, have to be separated. And I think it's unfortunate that we have to spend as much time on that kind of an issue. I have strong feelings, personally, about deity. I feel them intuitively, and feel like it's my right to feel that.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: We move now to the final two minutes, I guess, being the pessimist inherently that I am, one must assume that this could be a final exchange. Can you take- -

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I never thought of that as a pessimistic view.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: But in these final two minutes, certainly very few public figures have had the length of opportunity to interact with a press corps the way you have in this position. Reflections on the high points and perhaps the low points, as you've sat in this chair over the years, and interacted with Utah's journalism community?

GOVERNOR LEAVITT: I was thinking as we drove today, we clearly have been together more than a hundred times, maybe 130 times, I have to go back and count. I feel like I've always been treated fairly, and that we've had what this is billed, an unedited exchange. There have been times when I felt like I expressed myself well, there have been times when I felt I was misunderstood, but if you assume that you have 60 or 80 hours of exchanges between yourself and others, that that's bound to happen. I will tell you that I've enjoyed every one of them. I can't think of one, even when the outcomes weren't exactly what I would hope, that I haven't enjoyed. I think it's a great forum, it's a long tradition, I hope it continues for decades to come.

KEN VERDOIA, KUED: And on that note, the assurance is that the Governor's Monthly News Conference will return next month at this same time. We hope you will join us at that period of time to see who will be in this chair. Until then, I'm Ken Verdoia, good evening.

 

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