Believing they've been ignored by state bureaucrats and so-called "independent" agencies, legislators will write a law that says any state employee leasing or constructing a "palatial" building to house state offices can be fired.
Tough talk is needed, believes Senate President Lane Beattie, because some groups aren't anxious to follow state building guidelines.Beattie, R-West Bountiful, and other members of the Legislative Process Committee heard reports Wednesday that the Board of Regents has not adopted state leasing guidelines. That didn't please the lawmakers.
They also reviewed a proposed bill, which for technical reasons failed to pass the 1994 Legislature, that would bring states colleges and universities and the judicial branch of government into such compliance.
Beattie said, "We have some state bureaucrats not following state law; they say `sorry, we disagree with the supreme brilliance of the Legislature.' We need a law saying they can be dismissed. They can just go into private business and do there whatever they want."
Don Carpenter, associate commissioner of higher education for planning and facilities, told legislators that the Board of Regents - the appointed citizen group that oversees public universities - is willing to incorporate the state building/leasing guidelines into board policies.
"That's good," said Beattie as other legislators smiled. For in fact, while the Division of Facilities, Construction and Management could order the board and college administrators to do just that, the board is made up of such powerful political appointees that state building officials didn't want to order them.
Beattie and legislators have no such qualms.
Carpenter said 90 percent of leases entered into by college administrators involve "non-state monies." That is, the lease payments are coming from grants research professors get; from con-tinuing education programs, which pay for themselves; from federal monies and other sources. Lawmakers weren't impressed. Public colleges are expected to follow state law, regardless of where monies come from.
But the proposed leasing law also exempts the legislative and judicial branches of government from following state building guidelines on space allocation - and committee members didn't like that.
"We shouldn't be exempting ourselves," said Sen. Haven Barlow, R-Layton, even though the Legislature leases no office space at all. Judges - who are asking lawmakers to build a $300 million-plus courts complex in downtown Salt Lake City, the most expensive building the state has ever constructed - also shouldn't be exempt from building and lease requirements.
The judicial branch will comply with the leasing/building requirements, lawmakers were told. However, "in deference" to another branch of government, instead of DFCM overseeing the building standards, the Judicial Council will approve such leases, state building officials said.
Key to Beattie's complaint is what happened several years ago in the State Retirement Office. Retirement officials constructed two office buildings - one which houses them, another next door which is leased - like the "Taj Mahal," said Beattie.
The neighboring office building had a handball court that retirement managers could use. One top retirement official took early retirement over the matter, another lost his job in the reshuffling. Even with that experience, Beattie believes some state bureaucrats aren't getting the message, and he also wants college administrators and judges to hear it.
"We understand (the judiciary) is a separate branch of government," said Barlow. "But the Legislature holds the purse strings and we won't fund" buildings or leases that don't meet state law standards.