Huntsman goes a step above 'kitchen Cabinet'

When Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. wants advice on, say, improving the efficiency of state government, he turns to his own nonprofit organization that has an annual budget of $150,000 a year.

The Utah Policy Partnership, formed by the governor with business and community leaders from his transition team, includes Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller, community advocate Pamela Atkinson and former U.S. Sen. Jake Garn.

But unlike the informal groups of advisers past governors have relied on — often referred to as a "kitchen Cabinet" — Huntsman's organization has a consulting group on the payroll.

That group, Farbman Hopkins & Associates, earns $7,000 a month to manage the partnership, according to Steve Starks, the partnership's managing director. Starks, who works for Farbman Hopkins & Associates, is considered the partnership's only paid employee.

Funding comes from private donations, including services worth an estimated $8,000 from Miller. Huntsman himself has not contributed any of his own money, but his spokeswoman, Tammy Kikuchi, said the GOP leader expects to at some point in the future.

The total collected to date is $75,000. Topping the list of the cash contributors is HNTB Corp., a national transportation company that gave $25,000 and is working on the expansion of the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Huntsman describes the partnership as "more of a policy planning staff than it is a think tank. This is more hands-on. It allows us at a moment's notice to put together a group of experts . . . to give us their best practices as they see them to be on a particular issue."

That's important to his administration, the governor said, "because you have quick turnaround if you want to talk about anything from telephone use within state government to the bigger issues of economic development."

He acknowledged his organization is unique. "I think it's relatively new and novel," Huntsman said. "I don't think this approach has been used before."

Greg Hopkins, who, along with his partner Max Farbman, has the management contract, said a "kitchen Cabinet" wouldn't be enough help to the governor. "It's frankly too informal to get anything of substance done," Hopkins said.

Suggestions from informal advisers seldom get implemented, he said. "What the governor really wanted was to bring business people with business experience and people from academia with that experience into the process."

Miller, who is chairman of the five-member board of directors that oversees the partnership's work, said the governor is "really trying to do the right thing the right way and not just do stuff because that's the way it's always been done."