October 22, 2017

"...And I think that the "secret sauce" of our success in Utah is really our ability, in fact, to work together." Governor Herbert 

ANNOUNCER: KUED presents "The Governor's Monthly News Conference", an exchange between Utah reporters and Governor Gary Herbert.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Good morning. Great to be with you as always, and thank you for your attendance.

As my opening statement today, let me just remind you of my inaugural speech, my first inauguration, where I talked about the opportunity we had, as a state, to come together in what we called unprecedented partnerships. And if we would do that, the promise was we could have unlimited possibilities of what we could accomplish. As I reflect over these past eight years, I see that vision has become a reality. And I think that the "secret sauce" of our success in Utah is really our ability, in fact, to work together 

I had a report yesterday that just came on the Rio Grande operation, which I think is a great example of us being able to come together and unite and focus on issues of importance. The Rio Grande area, as you all know, had a lot of chaos down there, a lot of crime, our homeless people were being preyed upon by criminals in the drug cartels, and yet, we were able to come together, as a state, as a county, as a city, across agency lines, across political lines, and actually start doing something I think is quite remarkable. As we see the result of the elimination of the criminal element, crime is down, the streets are cleaner. We see those who are homeless out there, they're, for the first time, having access to social needs without fear of intimidation and being preyed upon by others there.

Working with our law enforcement, we hear, now, compliments from the homeless people about the good works being done down there. Again, as to our social workers, they hear the same compliments. Our "Mother Teresa", Pamela Atkinson, who's been involved in the homeless issue for decades, says she hears compliments all the time of the efforts and the work that's been accomplished there in coming together with a united effort, again, state, our office, the legislature and, again, the city and the county. So, I appreciate that good work.

Now, I just want to say this: one, no one is declaring victory. We have a long way to go yet. This is two months into a 24-month operation, and there's still parts of this we're learning about; there's parts we're developing, and parts that haven't been implemented yet. But I think the point is, this is a prime example of us coming together, and the state of Utah coming together in different ways and doing hard things and making hard decisions and getting better results. And I appreciate the fact that we've had great leadership coming out of the legislature, Speaker Greg Hughes, working along with my Lieutenant Governor, Spencer Cox, with the support of the legislature, President Niederhauser and others, the support and collaboration of Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Mayor Ben McAdams, our agencies, the law enforcement people, our public safety people, working with the state agencies as well as the county and the city agencies, that's unprecedented as our collaboration is going on there. Our social services, coming out of our Department of Workforce Services and Jon Pierpont, along with the city and the county services.

So, again, I just think it's a great example of the Utah way, as I call it, of our ability to come together and solve difficult and hard problems. And I would just extend that by saying the reason we're having great success, in many other facets of Utah, our economy comes to mind that we're leading the nation as the most healthy, diverse economy. We're doing a significant improvement in our education achievement, our infrastructure, our roads and transportation, our water, all those are a product of us working together in a collaborative fashion and getting good results.

So, I know there's always a tendency to focus on where we have differences of opinion, where we have some challenges out there, but most of the time, in this state, we all are working together in a very collaborative fashion to get good results and represent the taxpayers as best we can. So, I appreciate and applaud the efforts, and, again, Rio Grande is just a prime example, but it permeates all other aspects of Utah policy. So, with that, I'm happy to take your questions.

JULIA RITCHEY, KUER: Governor, I'm going to start by asking where you're not working well together. The legislature announced plans yesterday to sue the Attorney General's office for his opinion on the third district's special election, and the state records committee also wants that opinion released. Is that something you're going to continue to fight? And if so, why?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, I would suggest to you that doesn't mean we're not working well together. It means we have an honest difference of opinion. And this is kind of a new legal territory that's never been explored before. Let me just tell you, I don't care what's in the opinion. It's just an opinion. It may be good, it may not be good, but what we are concerned about is, under our Constitution, the Attorney General is required to be my legal counsel. And I have to listen to him. And we've worked with this, again, what's prompted this is a special election, because of something that's never happened in our history, a sitting Congressman resigned from office. And so, that's what's prompted it.

We've worked with the Attorney General and our Lieutenant Governor and the elections office, giving counsel. We came to a place where there may be a conflict produced because of the legislature wanting to have an opinion based on a statute they passed. We both want to protect our legal rights under this issue, hence we have a difference of opinion. But we're going to work it out. We're talking, we're discussing how to best resolve this. I think it will help us all, going forward, to have clarity with this thing, and so I expect that'll be worked out fine, it's--

BEN WINSLOW, FOX-13:  How are you going to work it out, in court? Or are you going to work it out in, possibly, a settlement, or what?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, I don't know that we know exactly how to do it. Certainly, going to court, which gives certainty and clarification of the law, is one option. That's not necessarily a bad option. We could probably lock arms and say, hey, court, clarify this conflict that we see out here, this conflict of interest with the Attorney General representing the Executive Branch and the legislature wanting to get an opinion also, where we may have a conflict amongst ourselves on the issue. And that's something that the Attorney General cannot just waive.

Under the professional Code of Conduct, they cannot, in fact, waive conflict. So, there's a legitimate issue here that maybe the courts need to decide. But it might be that we go and get clarification in other ways, and we're having a discussion on that, we'll see what happens. I fully expect this is going to be resolved.

BEN WINSLOW, FOX-13: Governor, this afternoon, the Olympic Exploratory Committee is going to be announced, and should Utah bid for the Olympics, do you think?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, you ought to come to our press conference later today, Ben, and hear what we have to say about that. I think what we probably do know, and I don't want to scoop what we're going to say this afternoon, but what we do know is there's no place better to host a Winter Olympics than here in Utah. We have the venues already built. It would take us a little bit of money to spruce them up and make them kind of Olympic-ready.

We are conveniently located, we've got an expanded international airport, we have hotel rooms. You can get to the venues in an hour once you land here, up and down the Wasatch Front. We have great snow and a great location.

So, contrast that with some of the other locations they may be looking at, like Reno/Tahoe. It'd cost them a billion and a half dollars, probably, to do it. We might have to spend 39 or 40 million dollars to spruce things up, which is not insignificant, but you can see the contrast, so. We are in a good position to host it if we so choose. I don't think there's a better place in the world to host the Winter Olympics than here in Salt Lake City, Utah.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS:  Should taxpayers pick up that 39 plus million dollars it's going to take to, as you say, spruce up the venues the make them Olympic-ready? In the past, when Salt Lake bid and taxpayers invested in those facilities, it was with the agreement that money would be paid back. Do taxpayers need that same kind of guarantee this time around?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: It worked for us, before, to have it funded privately, and not only did we fund it privately, but we made money on the process, which is one of the reasons why our venues are still in good shape. We put a legacy fund together, that money's been used to keep the operations up on these different venues, and so I think that's a good model we've proven to be successful; I think that's the good model for us to go forward.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: So, you would recommend that taxpayers pick up the tab now, knowing that, if we get the Olympics, that money would be paid back that's being invested.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Yes, and again, how we fund it, but clearly, at the end of the day, this, I think, would be more appropriately funded by private money as opposed to taxpayers' dollars. There may need to be some seed money to get it going, but they should be paid back if, in fact, that's what we need to do. It's 39 to 40 million dollars. On the overall spectrum of an Olympics that would cost a billion to a billion and a half dollars to host is really pretty minimal. So, again, I think that's part of the things what we'll explore to see what's feasible and what's not.

LEE DAVIDSON, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Back to the AG's opinion? The legislators are arguing that the Attorney General's office created an ethics wall so that separate attorneys were working for you than the attorneys that were working for them, so there is no conflict. You're disagreeing with that, or...?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: That's an opinion which I don't share. The fact of the matter is, on kind of abnormal times, the Attorney General can represent the Executive Branch and different agencies, and put a wall there. But the Code of Conduct, the Professional Conduct, is clear: you can't represent somebody and then create a conflict with somebody else where you have to serve two masters. And that's the problem as we see it. So, again, we need to see about the clarification of that and see what the answer is, because the truth is, nobody knows for sure until we probably test it in court. But we'll do that; this is not a big issue, this is not a personal vendetta or anything like that on either side. It's a honest difference of opinion, and, again, we don't care what's in the opinion that's being talked about. I don't think anybody's seen it, other than, maybe, the Attorney General, who says it's a draft. But the legal issues are important on both our side of the Executive Branch and on the side of the Legislative Branch.

LEE DAVIDSON, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: There's a poll out today saying 75% of Utahns think Orrin Hatch should not seek re-election. What do you think, and are there people you would like to see run for the Senate, including maybe yourself?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, let me just answer it this way: you know, I think I've mentioned before that Senator Hatch needs to make that decision himself. He's served with distinction for over 40 years, and the longest-serving Republican Senator in American history. He still has been very effective. He's been listed here, just in the last couple of weeks, as the most effective Senator in the body.

Now, maybe in my own opinion, that's a low bar, but I think he's been doing some good things; he certainly has seniority and experience. But I think there's a number of people who are looking to maybe run. I'm thinking it's time to make a change and the Senator has not told us whether he is or is not, so I think people are starting to say, well, if he's not, I'd better start ramping up and preparing as best I can.

 

So I expect there'll be challengers that will be on the horizon that will throw their hat in the ring. Whether Senator Hatch runs again or does not run again. And we'll have to wait and see how that plays out. Senator Hatch is a good friend of mine; he's been a great friend and a great Senator.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: Where would you be on that race, if Senator Hatch does decide to run again, and there are challengers? Would you endorse him as the incumbent, given the things you say he's done for the state, or would you need to see who else is in the race?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, I'm not going to speculate on who's going to get in the race and what I'm going to do. Let's wait and see what happens, and then I'll do what I think's important and necessary. And so, there's a lot of options out there and a lot of different angles, so I won't comment on that right now.

JULIA RITCHEY, KUER: Governor, you haven't wanted to weigh in on any of the ballot initiatives, but your staff has gone to Washington and met with the former Secretary of Health and Human Services. There is a Medicaid expansion ballot initiative. Given that this has been a kind of a ongoing thing, we still haven't gotten the Medicaid waiver, what sort of a future of that for Utah? I mean, is it time for Utah to reconsider expanding Medicaid in some capacity? And what are you going to do with those treatment beds if you don't get that money for the limited expansion?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, one: I think we will get the waiver. We have met, I've talked with the Secretary of Health a number of times, and I think that's going to happen. They're kind of in a transition now with him resigning. But we're working with the staff people that really are the nuts-and-bolts workers on this issue, and I think that we're going to get a waiver of that before the end of the year. So that's good news.

Secondly, I guess we're all frustrated because of the lack of Congress, you know, solving the problem. And we have uncertainty and the lack of predictability and we're losing providers right and left around the country.

In Utah, of our 29 counties, half of them only have one provider now. Some areas of the country have no providers. They're losing money under the current system. So there's a concern for a lot of reasons on what do we do?

Democrats understand there needs to be a fix. As I've met with the leadership of the Democrat party in Congress, they've said, yes, we need to have a fix, it needs to modified and be improved.

Republicans are talking about "repeal and replace". The frustration, to me, is "repeal and replace" with what? Modify-improve to what? Can be very similar ends and results. And if we had some leadership and people willing to work together like we do in Utah, we would solve that problem, I think, in a rapid way.

My belief right now is, the best proposal that's been brought forward is the block grant approach to the states. I'm disappointed because it didn't get approved and that we had a couple of mavericks out there that didn't support it, in particular on the Republican side, which is disappointing.

But imagine if Congress says, we're going to spend X amount of dollars on health care, and no state should be advantaged and no state should be disadvantaged, whatever the amount that we should give to the states to do Medicaid and Medicaid expansion and health care, give it to them. And if Jerry Brown in California wants to have a more liberal approach than we have in Utah, so be it. But everybody has their block of money to spend, based on their demographics, their culture, their politics, whatever factors go into providing a system that respects the taxpayers' dollars and helps the people. It seemed like such a common-sense approach. Maybe that's the problem: it's too common-sense and back in Washington, D.C., because of ideology, common-sense has been the first casualty.

MICHAEL ORTON, UTAHPOLITICALCAPITOL.COM: Governor, given that uncertainty that some people are calling chaos in Washington, I'm sure you're familiar with the Alexander Murray bill that's trying to get a vote today, in Washington, and that there were 10 governors who have signed on to this bipartisan approach, to some sort of stay of execution on the Affordable Care Act, at least to allay any kind of problems for the next couple of years. Where do you stand on that specific issue? And do you think that there's a chance that this will help the situation?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Well, I appreciate the fact that people are not giving up. And I have talked with Senator Alexander and Senator Murray in times past, and they have certainly tried to come together. I know the concern in talking to Senator Alexander in some of the proposals in the past was that the Democrat side was not willing to compromise and give up on anything. Probably felt like they didn't need to. And now, there's at least another attempt. Some governors have been working together in a bipartisan fashion; Governor Kasich from Ohio, John Hickenlooper from Colorado, so I appreciate the fact there's an attempt. Can we come up with a bipartisan way to resolve this and, at least, keep things going, particularly for the CRS, where we have subsidization of some of the premiums, and I think that's something that most people agree has to happen.

I'm not a big guy for subsidizing anything, because I think it distorts the market. But to give some predictability in serving over the next couple of years is probably a good thing to do as we transition into a new, improved repeal-and-replaced Affordable Care Act. So I appreciate the effort, and we need to continue. We can't let this drop, we can't say, well, we've tried and it's all lost. Because what we have now on the books is not sustainable. We need to come up with a sustainable program that's going to cause people to have to compromise.

MICHAEL ORTON, UTAHPOLITICALCAPITOL.COM: Where does the state stand with those 1332 waivers right now? Are those applications still in, or are they pending? What's going on?

GOVERNOR HERBERT: We have requests for a couple of different sets of waivers in, right now, that CMS is reviewing. And, again, as I mentioned earlier, I think we're going to get those waivers, at least the first portion, which will help us with the Rio Grande issue and the homeless issues and some of those things. We've made that proposal to the Secretary and his staff. Speaker Hughes and I were back there together, and they seem to be willing to, in fact, move ahead. So, again, I'm hopeful at least the first part of this, waivers, will be approved before the end of this year.

JUDY FAHYS, KUER: Governor, your office has been in negotiations with the Trump administration over the national monuments. Could you comment on the status of those negotiations, and also comment on the rumor that President Trump is going to come here to announce it sometime soon?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, we have not been really in any negotiations with, since the recommendation from Secretary Zinke was given to the President. And I know about as much about what is in that recommendation as you do, which has been released to the press, and you've seen some of those recommendations as things have been leaked out. Whether the President will act on those recommendations, and, if so, how?

Whether he'll modify them, I don't think anybody knows for sure. Or are these going to come out to Utah, not to announce that, I have no idea. He's not talked to me about it, and so we'll just have to wait and see what he decides to do with the recommendation, which, I hope he makes a decision soon, so we can all get past the uncertainty of it.

JUDY FAHYS, KUER: There was a group, though, that recently sent out a letter to the Trump administration, saying that they want the monuments rescinded, not even just reduced, but rescinded, and they referenced a state report that has arrived in the Trump administration offices on energy development on that land, for the Bears Ears, 330 billion dollars, and that report is supposed to have come out of the Utah Geological Survey. Can you comment on that? Is the state sending material on energy development to the White House?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  If it is, I'm not aware of it. We've talked to Secretary Zinke, we've met with him on a number of occasions. He came out here and visited, as you know, for about three or four days and looked at the Bears Ears, looked at the Grand Staircase Escalante, talked with a number of stakeholders including the Native Americans and others, and he's had his own view, and I think has made his recommendation, based on the input he received from many different sources. 

What's happening after that fact, I'm not aware of. I don't think, personally, from what I understand about the Bears Ears area and region, that it is really a place to develop energy. I don't think there's that much energy down there. And the idea that we have, at least in my view, as I've expressed before, is we have public lands there that ought to be protected and preserved as public lands. Whether that's done with a monument as part of it, whether that's done with just enhanced protections from the BLM, it's public land, they're already doing that, by the way, before the monument was created.

There's no desire on my part, and I think our energy department, to say, hell, let's open this up for energy development; there's no energy there to develop. We also think that there ought to be more authority given to the Native Americans to have management control over the part that they think is their sacred land. And I think the Native Americans would like to have that.

So, again, it's probably a three-fold approach, and we'll have to see what, I guess, the President finally decides to do. I think he wants to make some modification; what that modification's going to be remains to be seen.

JUDY FAHYS, KUER: And I know that the Trump administration hasn't filled a lot of positions in Interior. Is that something that's hindering a final decision on this?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  I would hope not. I think the recommendation, the heavy work, lifting of the work has been done. It's really the President having to come and say, okay, here's the recommendations. What do I want to do? How am I going to act on these recommendations? So I think it's just in his corner, it's on his tabletop, and he's going to get around to it himself.

MICHAEL ORTON, UTAHPOLITICALCAPITOL.COM; You've had certain meetings with some of the tribal leaders, notably Russell Begaye in the southern part of the state, with the Navaho nation. What's your sense of how they're going to let this land? Is it going to be a matter of litigation, or what happens next?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, you know, I hate to speculate about things in the future, because I don't really know. I have had dinner with President Begaye and I've met with the Vice President. I have great admiration for the Navaho nation and the impact they have on our state and the nation, as a sovereign nation. I think there's been poor communications over time with the Native Americans and what we are trying to do, because we actually applaud their need and desire to have more control. And that can only happen legislatively. It has to happen by an act of Congress.

So I think our messaging has not been good, and we need to improve that communications with all Native Americans and respect their land and their viewpoint. Now, for the Native American, all land is sacred, so the challenge, you know, is what should we empower them to do over and above and beyond the reservation? So it's a unique challenge of having a sovereign nation inside sovereign states, inside a sovereign nation. It's a complicated government relationship.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: We're just getting some news that the former Salt Lake County recorder, Gary Ott, has died.

GOVERNOR HERBERT: Oh, my goodness.

LISA RILEY ROCHE, DESERET NEWS: I wonder if you could react to that situation...

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, wow. That's really a sad thing. I've known Gary Ott, it goes back to my days as a county commissioner. And we all know the controversy that's taken place now, but let's do along Gary, the person. He was a diligent public servant. He served to the best of his ability. I know his skills probably diminished because of health concerns over these last couple of years, but he was a good man and worked very hard in his office, and so that's really a sad commentary. I hope his declining years could have been a little more peaceful and restful.

BRADY MCCOMBS, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Going back to President Trump, he's been in office now for about 10 months. What's your assessment so far of his performance?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Erratic. He's done some good things. Some of his appointments he's made, I support his appointment of the Supreme Court of Judge Gorsuch. I appreciate the fact that he's appointed a number of governors to positions. Nikki Haley as ambassador to the United Nations. Rick Perry, energy. Mike Pence, you know, as the Vice President, who's a good friend of mine. Sonny Perdue, in Agriculture; all governors. So I think he's done some good things with his appointments.

He has a hard time, I think, not addressing a thousand issues when he ought to be focused on five. And he gets distracted, I think, with some of the other things that happen, and some of the criticisms. So, from that standpoint, I think he could sharpen his game a little bit, by focusing more on the more important issues and let the other stuff just kind of slide.

So he's done some good things, he's done some things that I think he can improve upon. And, you know, not to give him an excuse, but this is his first time to do this, and running a government is different than running a business. It's nice to have some of those business practices, and understanding of the free market, the capitalistic system we have here in America, that's good news. But it's not a dictatorship. You can be the boss of a company and pretty well what you say, goes. But he's going to get along with some other pretty strong personalities we call the Congress, with states and governors and local government officials as well as the private sector. And that's a thing, I think that's a skill set that he's working on.

BRADY MCCOMBS, ASSOCIATED PRESS:  From what you've seen so far, would you support his bid, a bid, for re-election?

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Well, I don't know who else is going to be running, so it'd be way early to say that. Again, let's see what the results are. I like the fact the stock market's up. I like the fact that we're having, actually, discussions on public lands issues that we were kind of being ignored in times past. And people willing to listen to our concern. I like the fact that the Health Department is looking at, maybe, options that gives more flexibility to the states.

So there's a lot of good things that are coming that are outside, at least, of his immediate purview, but his agencies are working better and more friendly to the states. So there's a lot of things to like. There's things to be concerned about. But I don't know what's going to happen. It's too early, he's only been in office, what, 10 months. And so we'll see how it develops and we'll see what shows up on the horizon for 2020.

JULIA RITCHEY, KUER: Governor, I think that's all the time we have today, but thank you for joining us.

GOVERNOR HERBERT:  Thank you. Great to be with you, as always.

ANNOUNCER: This has been "The Governor's Monthly News Conference". An archive of transcripts, video and audio, is available online. Please visit kued.org. Thanks for joining us.­­

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