Tech board agrees to meet in public

The state Technology Advisory Board will be meeting in public after all when it talks about how to consolidate information technology services into a single department.

Board members had voted last month to look for a way to keep potentially controversial discussions — particularly how the new department could affect state employees — behind closed doors.

But, after checking with Rep. Dave Clark, R-St. George whose legislation created the board, the chairman said he now understands the meetings can't be closed.

"We'll make it work," Ed Eckstrom said Monday after an hour-long public meeting. The issue wasn't discussed and only briefly mentioned in an announcement that proper notification of the meeting had been given.

Stephen Fletcher, the state's chief information officer and the head of the new Department of Technology Services, also talked with Clark on behalf of the board. "It was his intent to follow the procedures of open meetings," Fletcher said.

Clark said he told the board it has "a wide playing field" to advise the new department. "I think all of that is part of a very open process," he said, adding that if they have a question or a close call, they should side with openness.

Utah law requires government boards and councils, whether appointed or elected, to conduct business in public. It also allows boards to close a meeting to discuss specified exempted topics such as the character, competency or health of an employee.

Technology board members were concerned that open discussions of how to go about creating the single department could generate conflict among the nearly 1,000 information technology workers scattered throughout state government, who may be worried they'll eventually lose their jobs in the consolidation.

Under Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s plan, beginning July 1, 2006, all will be working under Fletcher, who has said the governor's proposed budget would not call for staff cuts — at least for the first year.

Details of the transition will be outlined in a strategic plan expected to be ready for review by mid-November. The Legislature must approve the shifting of positions between the various state agencies and the new department.

---

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com