Download Zipped File WP 6.1 0926SAOM.ZIP 7,533 Bytes

Utah Sports Advisory Committee



MINUTES OF

SPORTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Thursday, September 26, 1997 - 1:00 p.m. - Room 405, State Capitol



    Members Present:                     Members Absent:
    Sen. Alarik Myrin, Senate Chair     Rep. Jordan Tanner, House Chair     Sen. Scott Howell
    Sen. L. Alma Mansell
    Rep. Neal B. Hendrickson
    Mr. Lewis Billings
    Ms. Lou Mueller
    Ms. JoAnn Seghini
    Comm'r. James Soter
    Mr. Hugh Daniels
    Mayor Max Hogan
    Mr. David Winder
    Ms. Sidney Fonnesbeck


     Rep. Brian Allen
    Comm'r. Brent Overson
    
     Staff Present:
    Mr. Brian Allred,
        Research Analyst    
    Ms. Patricia Owen,
        Associate General Counsel
    Ms. Beverlee LeCheminant,
        Legislative Secretary



    Note: Copies of materials distributed in the meeting are on file
in the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel.

1.     Call to Order - Approval of minutes of July 17, 1997 -

    
Sen. Myrin called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.

     MOTION: Mr. Soter moved to approve the minutes of July 17, 1997. The motion passed unanimously. Sen. Howell, Mr. Billings, and Ms. Seghini were absent for the vote.

2.    Introduction and Report of State Olympic Coordinator - Chair Myrin welcomed Mr. Frank Joklik of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) and asked him to make some remarks to the committee.

    Mr. Joklik shared his conception of the job to be done by the SLOC. He indicated that the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 are a partnership between the people of Utah and the International Olympic Committee. The term partnership can also be used to describe the relationship between state government, the Legislature, and SLOC. He stated that the SLOC is still in transition from a bid group to an organizing group and still has a lot to do to bring that change about. The SLOC has begun the effort to construct a budget for the games that will be based on local conditions and assets and hopes to complete the budget in the next eight to nine months. He indicated that on the revenue side of the budget, television contracts have been negotiated, scheduled sponsorships are well

underway, and ticket sales can be estimated. It is the SLOC's intent to collaborate fully with the state and see that the Olympic Games will be a wonderful experience for the people of the state, the visitors, and everyone involved.

    Rep. Tanner asked Mr. Joklik what the SLOC is going to do to rebuild public confidence, in the SLOC and the 2002 Olympic Games.

    Mr. Joklik said he is aware of the negative feelings and the distrust that many people have. He indicated that in repairing the vision of the Olympic Games, there are two issues involved. One is that the SLOC has to give to the people of Utah assurance that the people involved in the Olympic Games are stewards hired for their jobs after careful scrutiny. The other issue is that the SLOC has not been good at communicating to the people of the state the benefits of hosting the Olympic Games. He told the committee that the SLOC needs to put in place a good communications team which will communicate with the people of the state about the Olympic Games in a way that some of these negative feelings and distrust will be disposed of.

    Ms. Mueller asked Mr. Joklik if the SLOC is putting steps into place to make its meetings more open and better advertised and if the meetings will be in facilities and locations that the public has the right to attend.

    Mr. Joklik explained that the by-laws prescribe that the meetings of the board are open to the public and are duly advertised. Ms. Mueller asked if that would include the executive committee meetings. Mr. Joklik said the executive committee meetings are not open to the public according to the by-laws, but the board meetings are. Ms. Mueller said she would take issue with all executive committee meetings being closed. She would assume that there are a number of business dealings taking place in executive committee meetings that should be in the public forum.

    Ms. Patricia Owen, Associate General Counsel, clarified statutory requirements applicable to SLOC board meetings.

    Mr. Kelly Flint, General Counsel, explained that the way the by-laws are constructed, the governor and the mayor have discretion in the appointments to the executive committee. The executive committee is a discussion body and the decision-making authority is in the board. The executive committee makes recommendations to the board and all votes, including the votes on contracts, have to be taken in open meetings.

    Ms. Mueller thanked them for the clarification, but she reiterated that her concern is that there is a fair process in executive committee meetings.

3.    Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOC) Bank Line of Credit and Schedule for Reimbursement of Sales Tax Diversion to State and Local Governments - Mr. Brian Allred,

Research Analyst, distributed and reviewed a Timeline of the Olympic Winter Games from June 1989 to May 2002. He indicated that Mr. Crabtree has been in negotiations with banks regarding the line of credit that is needed and he will present information regarding that negotiation, the revenues that are coming in, and what kind of expenditures are going to be required.

    Mr. Gordon Crabtree distributed and explained the basis of SLOC's revenue and expenditure numbers. He outlined the major funding sources for the Olympic Games, the major uses of the funds, the SLOC Budget Policy, the SLOC bank line of credit, the SLOC "Line of Credit" general bank terms, and the impact of not matching the payment to the state with SLOC revenues. He indicated that he would hope the committee would consider sponsoring some legislation for the 1998 General Session that would allow the payment date to match the revenue stream of the organizing committee.

4.    Budgetary Procedures Related to State Services for 2002 Olympic Winter Games -Ms. Patricia Owen, Associate General Counsel, reminded the committee that at the last meeting various agencies discussed potential impacts of providing services related to the games and potential budgetary issues connected to those services. She gave a brief overview of the budgetary processes and procedures that could be used in payment of the state services related to the games and provided the committee with copies of her remarks.

    Mr. John Massey, Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst, discussed the budget process and some general ideas of what the Fiscal Analyst's Office could do in terms of quantifying the impact on state agencies. He stated that the role of the Fiscal Analyst's Office now would be to encourage the agencies to: 1) start to plan for their needs; 2) decide what those fiscal impacts are going to be on their budgets; and 3) start to include those needs as part of their request to the governor in their regular budget process.

    Ms. Lynne Koga, Director, Governor's Office of Planning and Budget (OPB), said that in terms of the revenue side of the budget, OPB did an economic analysis in 1994 indicating that over the ten-year period from 1992 to 2002, state and local government positive revenue impact was about $108 million. Some of the $108 million OPB would have already recognized because of the economic impact of the construction of the Winter Sports Park. She indicated that what OPB will have to do when they update the economic analysis is to quantify how much of the $108 million has already been realized. She indicated that the latest estimates for sales tax diversion collection are between $65 and $69 million.

    Ms. Koga stated that there would potentially be four sources of funding for agencies: 1) the agencies' existing base budget; 2) the appropriation out of sources that have been discussed; 3) federal grants; and 4) actual contracts with the Olympic Committee.


    Mr. Gordon Crabtree stated that some of the key partners that are involved in the entire Olympic event are the federal government; the corporate community; and the SLOC. He also indicated that finding out how to allocate all the resources appropriately is still a challenge that the SLOC has ahead of them.
    
5.    Community Involvement in Sports Programs - Mr. Randy Montgomery, Executive Director, Utah Sports Authority, said that Salt Lake City is fortunate to be just one of four cities currently to enjoy funding from the U.S. Olympic Committee to aid in athlete development and that implementation of this program begins with broad-based community support. He indicated that the community involvement in sports programs covers five topical areas: 1) general public programs; 2) Utah Winter Games; 3) community-based clubs, teams, and programs; 4) community Olympic Development Program; and 5) National Governing Body Programs. He urged the committee to not lose focus of the athlete part of the equation. He distributed some information on the Community Olympic Development Program and the Community Involvement in Sports Programs.

    Mr. Michael Spencer, Utah Winter Games, said the Utah Winter Games Committee has come up with a theme of "Educate, Experience, and Excellence" because it is trying to generate the grass root programs by generating awareness and getting people involved in these programs so that the winter sports program will continue to grow. He indicated that a lot of their awareness comes from Channel 4, newspapers, magazines, and web sites. What they are trying to do this year with the new program is to generate an interest with young individuals. Their whole vision is an introduction to winter sports and to creating something for the public to be interested in, not just for the Olympics, but before and after. He distributed the 1997 Utah Winter Games Mission and the 1997 Utah Winter Games pamphlet.
    
    Ms. Rebecca Bateman, Sports Education and Values Foundation, stated that in 1996 Steve Young of the San Francisco 49er's founded the Sports Education and Values Foundation to educate the community, especially the youth, about the values and ideals of olympism and from that they produced a curriculum guide and a video called "Olympism, Lighting the Way to a Legacy of Peace." This curriculum guide was given to every school in the state and it incorporates the ideals of Olympism into every subject in school. She informed the committee that the other project where they are influencing the community is the Youth Ambassador Program and this program will be accessible to every school in the state and every student who wants to participate will be able to.

    Mr. Shane McAffee, Director, Uintah Recreation District, said that the recreation district is excited that the Olympics are coming to Utah and for all they are going to do for the state both economically and in developing facilities. He stated that the people in rural Utah want to be an active part of the Olympics in any way they can. The Uintah Basin, as well as other parts of the state, are interested in developing economically and in obtaining some physical facilities for their residents. They feel they have supported and hope to continue to support the Olympic movement and hope that can be reciprocated in some way. He indicated that the Uintah Basin would support

and appreciate any kind of policy or legislation that the Legislature could pass in helping rural Utah in the future as they look towards planning and making advancements.

    Ms. Mary Alice Page, Uintah County Planner, indicated that the community support in the rural areas is very broad-based, but their problem is that they are far away from a lot of the infrastructure and they look at different things to support their winter activities. The rural areas expect and hope to be positively impacted and to benefit through their area's association with the 2002 Olympics in the winter sports usage of their area. She also told the committee not to forget the rural areas of Utah in their legislative actions. She distributed a Winter Sports Study for Daggett, Duchesne, and Uintah Counties.

    Sen. Myrin explained that this committee is advisory to the Sports Authority and the Sports Authority is given the charge to develop sports statewide, not just winter sports. The Sports Authority's focus now is on the Olympics, but there are programs statewide that the Sport Authority needs to be involved with in the future.

6.    Adjourn -

    It was decided by the committee to hold its next meeting at 1:00 p.m on November 21st.

     MOTION: Mr. Winder moved to adjourn the meeting at 4:05 p.m. The motion passed unanimously.




[Back to the Interim Directory][Back to the Monthly Schedule][Back to the Committee Listing] Utah State Legislature