In the late 1990s, as the Mike Leavitt administration and UDOT started to formulate the specifics regarding Legacy Parkway, Democrats were not included or consulted. In fact, a reporter — seeking a response subsequent to the press conference announcing construction plans for Legacy — asked how then-Minority Leader Dave Jones was apprised of the project. If Jones, Becker and Senate Minority Leader Scott Howell had been included early in the process, they would have provided a valuable insight into anticipated responses by the environmental community. They could have easily worked with the well-respected Davis County Transportation Task Force Chairman Stuart Adams (now a state legislator) and other officials to craft a plan that avoided judicial concerns. Instead, sidelining the Democrats soon resulted in surrender of the construction process to environmental groups and the courts, which cost money and time. Also, Rocky Anderson was given a soapbox to launch frequent and outrageous condemnations of Davis County commuters (negligently forgetting their contribution to the Salt Lake City economy).

Bipartisan participation early in legislative and administrative matters is not some "fuzzy" ideal. It is how most federal programs are created. Leavitt, during his successful first term, was a master of inclusiveness and never worried about partisan attacks. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and other state leaders must remember the lesson of Legacy in future planning: Democrat numbers may be small, but our contributions can be huge.

Webb: Sorry, but Democrats really don't have much to complain about here. As Frank mentioned, Democratic Sen. Ed Mayne was involved in the negotiations. Aside from the negotiating team and leadership, legislators were pretty much kept in the dark about the final provisions of the agreement until the briefings in caucuses.

It would have been good to have a Democratic leader at the press conference announcing the agreement-in-principle, but legislative leaders in general were scarce at the press conference. It was handled by the governor, UDOT, environmental leaders and members of the negotiating team.

The Democrats aren't going to want to go down in history as the voting bloc that scuttled the Legacy Parkway, especially with the concessions that make the highway more environmentally friendly. And their votes may well be needed before this deal is done. There's plenty of grumbling in conservative GOP ranks about caving in to the environmentalists and establishing a bad precedent that encourages obstructionism.

I am an advocate for Republican magnanimity whenever possible. Republicans ought to go out of their way to involve Democrats. They could co-opt a lot of them and build stronger coalitions around issues.

When I worked for Gov. Leavitt, we had what we called the 60-20-20 rule for making big political decisions. The idea was that that only 60 percent of the success of a decision has to do with the actual quality or rightness of the decision. Another 20 percent of the success is determined by whom you involve in helping make the decision (getting their buy-in) and the final 20 percent of success is determined by whom you inform in advance about the decision and whom you invite to help you announce it.

Following the 60-20-20 rule helps smooth even tough, controversial decisions. Not all politicians follow this rule, but they would be wise to do so.