Four-Day Workweek Concerns Legislature

Aug 21, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) The governor's Working 4 Utah initiative was one of the issues that kept Senate Republicans in a three-hour-long caucus on Wednesday. Senate President John Valentine says the unusually long meeting was necessary to discuss several "festering" issues that surfaced during the legislature's July holiday. Senate leadership will forward lawmakers' concerns to the governor, but Valentine says the Legislature might need to do more.

"Legislation may be necessary to solve the problems of the statutory holidays, the filing deadlines, the level of services," Valentine says. "Those may require legislation, we just don't know at this point."

The state's new four-ten work week was also discussed in the Government Operations Interim Committee yesterday afternoon. Lawmakers grilled Jeff Herring of the Department of Human Resource Management about the impacts of the change, how the executive branch plans to measure the anticipated $3 million in energy savings and whether public service will decline.

At the meeting, Representative Lorie Fowlke asked Herring why the Legislature wasn't included in the decision-making process. Without responding directly to the question, Herring seemed to imply it's the governor's prerogative to make such decisions.

"We're looking at putting metrics in place, doing the research that we have to. We're working with the executive branch to ensure the public is served," Herring says. "But I think we've done the job we needed to do in taking a look at that and monitoring the process."

However, Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble insists this is not a turf war between the legislative and executive branch. He says lawmakers are simply concerned there might be statutory changes needed to address some unexpected consequences.

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