Robin Arnold-Williams recovered beautifully.
The director of Utah's Department of Human Services was half-way through a presentation on welfare reform when her chair splintered, cracked, then crumbled beneath her.Before a full audience and legislative leaders who make up the Joint Executive Appropriations Committee, Arnold-Williams locked her elbows to the table top and hung there momentarily while audience members scurried to get the damaged chair out from underneath her and another centered.
Lawmakers blushed. People winced. "Ugh," a woman groaned. "These chairs."
The bulk of legislative business gets done in the committee rooms that frame the upper floors of the state Capitol. Lawmakers talk about issues, department officials pitch programs, residents give passionate pleas about policy.
It should be one of the state's most esteemed settings. But during the past few years, the chairs upon which members of the audience sit frequently have made a mockery of the formal atmosphere.
They look sturdy enough: cherrywood-like frames with a pleasing leaf-patterned blend of rust, gray, dusty green and muted mauve tones. They complement the decor and don't look commercial next to the leather-topped, high-back chairs in which lawmakers sit.
But it appears they pull apart at the seams.
They break. On any day when lawmakers meet, one or two are turned over outside committee rooms or set aside in the halls. Visitors' chairs literally fall out from under them.
Arnold-Williams can chuckle about her near-tumble now. It caught her by surprise, but she doesn't blame anyone. It was one of those things.
But yes, it was embarrassing, she said.
"It's a formal setting, one where you try to maintain a formal image. There's an air of extra respect for the legislators," she said. "This is not something you expect."
Regulars on the Hill know the problem and watch out for each other, pointing out a half-inch gap in an arm here, an unnatural tilt there. Occasionally, there's an audible grimace when an unknowing soul happily plops his or her full body weight onto the chair.
Someone chose this model several years ago because it looked nice and could stack and move easily, said David McKay, architect for Facilities and Construction Management. Unfortunately, stack-ability requires less support underneath, he said.
Although the decision was made before he took the position, McKay gets all the calls from people who tell him all the ways the chairs are wrong.
He notes that the state took the lowest bid but admits "we definitely had the wrong chair."
It's a problem that has plagued state Capitol staff since the chairs first arrived six years ago.
The state compromised with manufacturer Indiana Cabinet Co. of Jasper, Ind., when the problem first came up. The company paid for repairs for two years. But there were questions about how the chairs were glued back together, and when the state took over repair costs, fixes were as expensive as new furniture, he said.
It was hopeless, McKay said. About a year ago, the state began replacing the broken ones with a new style.
McKay hasn't been immune. Sitting in on a recent meeting, his chair gave way. "I started over, but caught myself. Everybody smiled like, `There's true revenge.' "
The problem will soon be solved. Staff has replaced a few already, but in early November, 400 fancy, falling-apart audience chairs will be carried out and smaller, sturdier - albeit aesthetically disadvantaged - chairs will be moved in.
The new, safer seating will cost $58,000. The old chairs will be transferred to a lighter use in the Governor's Mansion on South Temple.
Come early November, when new chairs are in place for the next legislative Interim Committee meetings, the chair issue will be mostly resolved. But lawmakers recently have complained about their sturdy but unwieldly high-back chairs, McKay said.
They're so big they don't slide close to the table, leaving little room to maneuver behind them.
They also aren't comfortable, according to the lawmakers who've called McKay. "We don't pretend that these are ergonomically perfect, they're meant to be traditional."