Makeover for community agency

The move of state tourism and economic development activities into the governor's office has garnered a lot of attention, but the remaining portions of the current Department of Community and Economic Development also are undergoing a makeover.

The surviving divisions and offices in the department are "on track" as they transition to becoming the Department of Community and Culture on July 1, the department's executive director, Yvette Diaz, told the Legislature's Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Interim Committee on Wednesday.

DCED's tourism and economic development divisions, including the Utah Office of Tourism, will move July 1 to the newly created Governor's Office of Economic Development.

The new Department of Community and Culture will have several entities under its umbrella: the Utah Arts Council, the Office of Ethnic Affairs, the Division of Indian Affairs, the State Library Division, the Division of State History and the Division of Housing and Community Develop- ment.

Diaz said the Indian affairs and ethnic affairs offices later this month will have 100-day plans prepared, and the arts council will speak with people throughout the state about "what arts is to them."

"We really feel strongly that all of the entities in the department need to have responsibilities of economic development, and one of their long-range goals is to do another economic development study like they did in '99 to determine the impact that the arts have on our economy," Diaz said.

The new department will provide human resources and information technology services to the governor's economic development office and is continuing to look for internal efficiencies, she said. Its goal is to make the department both efficient "and as lean as possible" while ensuring that each office maintains its independence but nonetheless "leverages resources and promotes synergies" with the others.

"The idea is to be functioning more as a team and not just separate divisions," Diaz said.

One challenge is that the divisions and offices are spread out at several downtown Salt Lake locations.

Many of the department's structural changes are complete. The ethnic affairs office was pulled from the housing and community development division and will serve as "less of ombudsmen and more of consultants" to other state agencies, she said.