This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. hired his closest staff with a few general principles in mind:
Scour private businesses for possible employees.
Pay them as close to their previous salary as possible, given limited government resources.
Keep them on staff for two years.
Repeat.
Since state wages generally lag behind those in the private sector, Huntsman's strategy has resulted in a sizable pay bump for the average Governor's Office worker, according to a Salt Lake Tribune review of salary breakdowns.
The average salary of a Huntsman staffer is about $10,000 more than what was offered by former Gov. Olene Walker and $13,000 more than the average pay in former Gov. Mike Leavitt's office. These average salaries only count employees paid by the Governor's Office or those who work for the lieutenant governor.
In total, Huntsman has increased the payroll by 30 percent. Leavitt's 2004 payroll for 28 workers totalled $1.2 million. Walker's 27 employees earned $1.3 million last year. Not factoring in $100,000 Huntsman saved by closing the state's Washington, D.C., office, the governor's enlarged salaries for 29 staffers have increased his payroll to $1.7 million.
Some of that growth is due to annual cost-of-living raises. The governor also argues that state government is much more complex - noting the budget has grown from $7 billion to $9 billion since Leavitt's administration. There are "a lot more moving parts, a larger population base," Huntsman said.
Some government observers say Huntsman's philosophy over-emphasizes private sector experience and could unnecessarily encourage government expansion.
"The only way that this could be justified is if these new people generate some serious and quantifiable improvements in how the state operates," said Mike Jerman, vice president of the business-backed Utah Taxpayers Association. "Justifying salaries based on the size of government is a built-in incentive to grow government."
On his first official day in office, as his staff huddled around, the new governor bluntly told his key advisers they were servants of the taxpayers - and none of them was indispensable.
Mike Mower, now deputy chief of staff, said Huntsman stressed "we are temporary custodians of our position and it is an honor and a privilege to serve the state."
Huntsman said this week that his staffers, especially his senior advisers, are sacrificing, even though his office has three times as many $100,000 salaries than Walker or Leavitt offered.
"Everyone took a pay cut coming on board. Even the governor took a pay cut," said Huntsman, who on top of his $104,100 salary earned $24 million this year when his father's family-owned chemical company became publicly traded.
Mower later clarified that "a majority" of employees took a pay cut to work for Huntsman, saying some like Chief of Staff Neil Ashdown and Communications Director Tammy Kikuchi actually are paid more than they earned in their previous jobs.
"The attempt was to basically try to get them as close as I could to whatever their private sector salary was, knowing there would still be a significant gap in compensation," Huntsman said.
The governor said he would push for raises for rank-and-file state employees who are paid less than their counterparts in the private sector as part of his annual budget to be released in December.
During the transition last fall, former Chief of Staff Jason Chaffetz said he and Huntsman decided a core group of Governor's Office staffers should be paid in the same range. All make at least $100,000, and Chris Roybal, the governor's economic development adviser, is paid most, making almost $130,000.
Despite that, the governor insisted he is being frugal. "We came in relying on the tried and true idea of doing more with less - run a tight ship," he was quoted in an April Deseret Morning News article.
Huntsman General Counsel Mike Lee is the most dramatic example of the governor tying government salaries to past private-sector income. Lee joined the Huntsman administration with a salary of $90,000, comparable with the salaries paid the previous two governors' attorneys.
But in June, Huntsman gave him a 21 percent raise, and in July, he received the standard cost-of-living increase given to all state employees. He is now making slightly more than $112,000. Huntsman said Lee previously earned three times that amount as an attorney in Washington, D.C.
"I made the salary adjustment to keep him and I fully expect that I won't be able to keep people like Mike for more than a year or two," Huntsman said.
One of Lee's predecessors, Gary Doxey, says he was satisfied with his $92,478 Governor's Office salary. Doxey left a job teaching history at Brigham Young University to be Leavitt's legal adviser. He was Walker's chief of staff in 2004.
"I compared myself to other state employees," Doxey said. "I was always satisfied that there were other hard workers making less than I was. There's a significant amount of sacrifice in public service. You have to make the decision about whether it's worth it to you."
Kikuchi also makes significantly more than her predecessors. Leavitt spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour was paid $77,500 in 2004. Walker Spokeswoman Amanda Covington earned $71,200. Kikuchi, former communications director for West Valley City, is paid $103,000. Kikuchi notes that her assistant, Lindsay Mueller, is paid $37,000, $3,000 less than Covington's assistant and $17,500 less than Gochnour's. And Mower points out that Kikuchi has declined medical benefits.
The governor still argues his higher salaries are a good deal for taxpayers. "I feel very comfortable that we have a lean staff, given the many responsibilities that we have," he said. "I can't imagine the rates of our compensation or . . . the number of state employees would be out of kilter."
But Jerman questions the signal Huntsman's generous salaries send.
"The issue isn't whether or not these people worked in the private sector," he said. "The issue is 'What do taxpayers need to pay to get a certain level of results?'
"The people the governor has now are not the only people who could do this work."
While he pays his staff more, Huntsman also expects many of them to work in the Governor's Office only a short time - in part because they can make more money working for private businesses. In an interview last week, Huntsman said he expects his office to turn over at the same rate as the federal government - something like the 18-month tenure of senior appointees. "And I think in a senior position within state government that probably is not too far off the mark," Huntsman said. "It would be unusual for a high-powered person to stay on beyond two years; that would be a real commitment."
Chaffetz was the first senior official to leave. He had worked less than a year when he departed Friday.
Some question the effectiveness of such rapid turnover.
Covington, who served as Walker's spokeswoman, said she relished the experience of people like Doxey. "That institutional knowledge was very helpful for me in my job."
To keep some sort of continuity during a time of transition, Huntsman asked former Lt. Gov. Gayle McKeachnie to stay on as his rural affairs adviser. He gave McKeachnie a one-year $80,000 contract and now hopes to offer him a position in another department where he could focus on rural economic development. But Huntsman said McKeachnie's influence extended far beyond rural issues.
"It was important for me to have someone during the transitional phase who had some gray hair," Huntsman said. "He offered very wise and sage advice on executive branch manage- ment."
Doxey is sympathetic to the governor's arguments. He says new blood is not necessarily a bad thing, when balanced with other long-term staffers. "I'm not in a position to judge whether [Huntsman's staffers] are qualified," he said. "I hope they're a lot better than we were."