Utah Gov. Gary Herbert appointed five experienced cost-cutters to try to root out inefficiencies in government Thursday, an effort to cope with a looming $700 million budget shortfall.

"This is not designed to be a slash-and-burn and cut-through-the-bone advisory group. This really is something that ought to be done and I would say ought to be done even when we were running surpluses," Herbert said.

The commission will take 10 to 12 weeks to formulate its first round of recommended efficiency measures, a tight time frame aimed at helping Herbert formulate his first budget recommendations, due to the Legislature by December.

The second phase will take a longer-term look at how government functions and make recommendations in November 2010.

"The fact that we are in an economic downturn right now ... probably makes this timely, but it is probably something we ought to be doing even when we're running a $700 million surplus," Herbert said.

Nothing will be off the table, Herbert said, including public education, which takes up about half of the state budget, but technically is outside of the governor's control. He also hopes for cooperation from the Legislature and judiciary.

Herbert said he wants the panel to be open, and encouraged input from residents. However, the group's work will be done exclusively in closed meetings, a spokeswoman said, and only the final recommendations will be public.

The panel will have as its chairman former Gov. Norm Bangerter, a two-term Republican who served from 1985 to 1993.

"Now is the time to look at everything, in absolute detail as best we can, to kind of check the oil ... open the hood, kick the tires and see if there are things we can do that will help us do an even better job than we have in the past," Bangerter said.

It will have three co-chairmen: Fraser Bullock, the chief operating officer of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee; Nolan Karras, a business consultant, former House speaker and partner in a property management company; and Charlie Johnson, the former chief of staff to Gov. Mike Leavitt, former chief financial officer of the Environmental Protection Agency and acting secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Both Bullock and Karras have significant experience streamlining private businesses. Bullock, a former managing partner of Mitt Romney's at Bain Capital, said the approach will be similar to what he did in the private sector, relying on practical measurements of effectiveness and cost of the services provided.

Two legislators will serve as liaisons to the committee and seven other people with governmental experience will serve on the panel, including Pamela Atkinson, an outspoken advocate for the poor; former state budget director Lynne Ward; and developer Ellis Ivory, whom Herbert praised for his work helping to privatize This Is The Place State Park when it was beset with management problems.

Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones, D-Holladay, who learned about the panel from The Tribune , will appoint one member, as will House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake City. Jones said she has asked Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake City, to serve, but expressed doubts about how much the panel can trim after legislators cut roughly $1 billion during the last session.

"I think the low hanging fruit has been plucked. Now are talking about services and peoples salaries and peoples jobs and teachers. That's really what we're talking about," she said. "I think they'll have a difficult time finding big pots of money."

Past administrations have taken similar measures to try to pare back government, dating back to 1935, according to records in the Utah State Archives. Gov. Cal Rampton established a "Little Hoover Commission" that consolidated state agencies, and Bangerter and Leavitt made comparable efforts.