Linton said the council originally was seen by legislators as a way to gain industry input directly rather than through lobbyists. Lockhart said a few lawmakers have questioned the need for a council if all it did was bring up executive-branch issues.

Linton said the council did not want to be perceived as a "child" of the executive branch but has evolved "into a bridge between the legislative and executive branches. I don't think that's a bad thing, but I think we need to maintain our personality in terms of our independence from the executive branch."

Member Michael Paul said the council has not evolved into an "industry leader roundtable" as he had envisioned.

"I hate to see us evolve into simply a service provider to work on one-off projects as delegated to us by the Legislature," Paul said. "I don't think that captures the best value that this council can bring. But, honestly, I don't think that we've ever been fully populated with the right type of people to do the best type of work.

"I really don't have a feel between the executive branch and legislative branch. This thing was an industry body in the first place, but we've never populated it out, we've never pushed on that strategy, we've never really tried to get traction on whether we're reporting to the executive side or legislative side. To me, it doesn't matter. It's just we haven't been able to do the things that I felt like we were engaged to do — not for a lack of effort."

Member Brad Bertoch wants clarity on the council's role.

"I think there's a sense that it ought to be clear: Are we a creature of the executive branch, are we a creature of the Legislature, are we a creature of industry? . . . I think that that, without question, needs to be stated," Bertoch said.

---

E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com