The $16,000-a-month mobile telephone bill the state incurs is well worth the expense, Utah bureaucrats say, because mobile phones save time through better and more efficient sched-uling of workers' time.
A Deseret News check of the 300-plus mobile telephones used by state executives and midlevel managers shows the highest monthly bill comes from the Utah Tax Commission - $3,290.98 for March.The state contracts with Cellular One for mobile telephone service. Cellular One outbid the only other mobile supplier in Utah - US WEST.
Cellular One charges the state 24 cents per minute for 0 to 120 minutes at peak calling time (7 a.m. to 5:59 p.m.), 17 cents per minute from 6 p.m. to midnight and 14 cents per minute from midnight to 7 a.m.
Bud Scruggs, chief of staff to Gov. Norm Bangerter, says the state's policies regarding who gets mobile telephones and how the phones are used will be reexamined to make sure each phone is justified and properly used.
In questioning the executive directors of the state agencies that use mobile phones most of-ten, the Deseret News heard over and over that the phones save more money than they cost by keeping key officials in touch with their offices and supervisors.
"When we have someone going on the road, we want to make sure we can get in touch with them," said Richard Strong, collections division director of the State Tax Commission. "What we've done is create what we call rolling offices."
A rolling office, Tax Commission-style, is a state car equipped with a mobile telephone. All of the commission's 30 field officers have mobile phones and all but a few have state cars assigned to them 24 hours a day.
"A telephone here buys us three hours a day," said Clyde Nichols, executive director of the Tax Commission, explaining that more time in the field means more delinquent taxes being collected.
How much more? Maybe more than $1 million annually. "We can't say how much is coming directly from the telephones. We can say it's increasing 15 to 18 percent a year," Nichols said.
Tax Commission officials don't apologize for spending more money on mobile telephone calls than other state agencies. Besides having the highest bill for March, the agency ties with the state Department of Corrections for having the most mobile telephones - 46.
"I'm not apologizing. I'm bragging about it," Nichols said, calling the use of mobile telephones for the past three years innovative. "They (taxpayers) are getting their money's worth several times over."
Tax Commissioner Roger Tew, who uses a mobile phone to keep in touch with the office during the Legislature, said their increased use is a good example of government following the example set by private enterprise.
"A common statement is that government needs to act more like a business. This is how business is acting," Tew said.
Some agencies - like the Public Safety Department - declined to say exactly how their mobile phones are used. "Mostly, the phones are in the investigation units," said Gary Whitney, public safety spokesman. "The commissioner (Douglas Bodrero) doesn't want to detail where the phones are assigned. He doesn't want a drug dealer seeing a guy talking on a mobile phone in some bar to think that that guy might be a state narcotics officer."
Public Safety has 45 cellular phones and a phone bill of $1,709.58 for March.
All department directors questioned said their offices get a detailed, phone-call-by-phone-call billing from Cellular One. "We match up the numbers each phone has called to make sure it's state business," said Dave Buhler, executive director of the Commerce Department. "I have a mobile phone. On the rare occasions where I make a personal call, I list that on my monthly bill and pay for it myself."