- [Voiceover] PBS Utah presents the Governor's Monthly News Conference, an exchange between Utah reporters and Governor Spencer Cox.

(uplifting instrumental music) - Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

It's great to be back with you again.

I appreciate the members of the media who are joining us today and to all of you who are watching from home.

Earlier this week, I announced a package of initiatives that our administration will be focusing on in the coming months, and these initiatives are focused around service.

Utah leads the nation in service every year and volunteerism and charitable giving, and it's something that we care deeply about and it's something we want to be more intentional about.

I do need to correct the record from something I said earlier.

One of the measures I announced involved an executive order that will encourage each state agency to organize a department-wide service project sometime over the next year.

I said we're giving state employees two hours of administrative leave to participate.

That should have been four hours.

And we're very excited for the opportunities that that will provide 23,000 plus employees in the state to give back to our communities and make our state a better place.

I also, very importantly, issued an executive order, adding a community service requirement for businesses that are seeking economic development incentives from the state.

So if you're a business and you want an incentive from the state, you need to provide at least 20 service hours for each newly created high-paying job per year for the duration of the incentive.

This will help service and volunteerism become an ongoing corporate value for our corporate citizens.

I feel if the citizens of the state of Utah are going to give you something to help your business grow that you need to give something in return.

But the good news is, and our CEOs can thank me later, I know personally that this is really good for business.

It's good for your employees, it's good for your communities, it's good for our state, it's good for our mental health, and of course it's great for the people that we are serving.

In addition, we'll be launching a pilot project with several school districts to get our students involved in giving service as well.

Lieutenant Governor Henderson will be leading those efforts.

We're also convening a community symposium on the science and benefits of volunteerism, and that will happen in January.

We'll have more announcements in the coming week.

All of these efforts, again, are to ensure that service continues to be a core value for Utah and our wonderful citizens.

We have a strong legacy of serving others and giving back in our state.

And as governor, I want volunteerism and service to remain a defining part of Utah culture far into the future.

Just as a side note, we're working on, as you all know, getting the Olympics back to the state of Utah.

We feel very confident that it's likely we'll get an award for the 2034 or possibly the 2030 Olympics coming up.

One of the defining moments of the 2002 Olympics was the incredible amount of volunteers that stepped forward.

We needed over 20,000 volunteers.

We had over 60,000 volunteers apply, and we're going to need you again.

I will not be governor when the Olympics come to Utah again, but I hope to be, I mean, I hope to be first in line when it comes to volunteering for those Olympics.

So with that, I'm happy to take questions.

- Governor, today you're gonna be getting a report from the USU Institute for Land, Water, and Air about the state of Utah's environment.

It found air quality still has problems, is a work in progress.

There's a lot of promise with water conservation.

The big notes being agriculture optimization can result in big water savings, but you've also gotta ensure water gets to the Great Salt Lake to avoid increasing dust problems.

So my question is, are you gonna be budgeting for more things, like agriculture optimization, and what more should be done from your view to actually get water into the Great Salt Lake?

- Sure, yeah, yeah.

Thanks, Ben.

So the answer is I'm looking forward to reading that report.

I actually got a copy yesterday.

I haven't looked through it yet, but I do know some of the high level items and they're exactly what you mentioned.

We do have more work to do on air quality.

We know that and we are moving forward with some efforts around air quality, but getting water to the Great Salt Lake is a major piece of that.

Of course, Brian Steed, he's a director of that Institute and the new director of the Great Salt Lake Initiative.

And so we'll be working very closely with him to make sure that that water gets there.

That's why we created this position.

I suspect that as we're going through the budget process right now, there will be more money budgeted.

We have significant amounts that have been budgeted.

We need to review what's happening with that money, making sure it's being spent appropriately where it needs to.

As you also know, water was sent aside to buy water rights, purchase water rights to get to the Great Salt Lake.

I know that's being worked through right now and we need to get that done.

And so I'll be following up on that as well, but yes, we're not done when it comes to the Great Salt Lakes.

So stay tuned for more.

- The report also says that climate change is making our summers longer and hotter.

So what do you think the state should be doing to mitigate that?

- Well, I think those very things.

The good news about reducing and improving air quality is that it also helps with climate change.

So that's a big piece of that, the emissions piece of it.

We're working on expanding our energy sources across the state.

We've talked a lot about nuclear energy.

That's going to be a big part as we head into the 2030s.

Rocky Mountain Power has announced two nuclear plants that they will put in the Carbon County area.

And so we'll be working very closely with them.

I don't know if they've announced two nuclear plants, but as they decommission two of their coal-fired plants over time, making sure that we have nuclear there as well.

We've been working on a hydrogen project.

Unfortunately, we got some news this week that our four state coalition with New Mexico and Wyoming and Colorado, we were not selected by the administration for a hydrogen hub, but that is not stopping the work.

We are moving forward and we will be working with those four partners.

We believe that hydrogen will be a major advancement as well in helping us with air quality, cleaner air and with carbon emissions.

So all of those things we need to keep doing and expanding on.

- Governor, the cost of expanding I-15 is now projected to be about $4 billion.

Given what you just addressed, is that the best use of our funds?

- Well, we have to be able to get from one place to another as well.

And so I think we can do both of those things.

I will also be, and I've been very, very honest and blunt about this, we can't keep expanding.

We know we have to do this projects.

It matches up with some of the other projects.

It's been planned for a long time, but I want to see more mass transit and I'm hopeful that as it did in 2002, that an Olympic award can set a mark for us to help us work towards, and again, work with our federal partners as we would be representing the United States of America in the Winter Olympics, to give us some clarity on where we need to go with additional mass transit projects, expanding, you know, into Utah County, getting some of those last-mile services available.

And those are things that I think are really important transportation pieces as well.

- Governor, in relation to the story about Tim Ballard, should there be a criminal investigation?

And if so, should the Attorney General's Office appoint a special counsel or deputize an outside prosecutor?

- Yeah, great question.

There has been, at least my understanding is there was a criminal investigation that was going on- - [Brian] OUR.

- Into OUR for sure.

These are obviously new revelations.

I don't think that these, to my understanding, and again, I haven't been privy to any information from the prosecuting attorney that was looking into that in Davis County.

But I do believe that these are new revelations that are now part of the public record.

There is a lawsuit that has been filed.

And so I think, yes, I mean, I think that prosecutors would have a duty to investigate.

Anytime you have, I don't know how many now, six, seven, eight, women who have alleged this type of what appears to be criminal behavior, at least on their face, that there should be an investigation.

Of course, everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

When it comes to the Attorney General's Office, they have the ability of course, to wall off the Attorney General who has a relationship there.

And I would expect that whatever they do, they would make sure that it is done unfairly and without any influence from the Attorney General who has that relationship.

If that means, and they often do this, if that means having a county prosecutor look into it, that's great.

If they, you know, especially...

I don't care how it would be done, but I do think it's important to make sure that justice is served.

- Governor, in the last few years you have reaffirmed Utah's willingness to accept refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

What is your position on receiving Palestinian refugees from Gaza as Israel conducts military operations there in response to Hamas' brutal terrorist attacks in October?

- So we haven't had any conversations about that with the administration.

I don't know what's going to happen there.

I'm very hopeful that those neighboring countries, Egypt and others, will open their doors and make room for those refugees.

Obviously, we care deeply about refugees in this state.

We have a history of taking care of refugees.

There would need to be an extreme vetting process here to make sure that... We are very careful about who comes into our country.

That's always critical.

We would have to work very closely with the Department of Justice and Homeland Security and others who would have the burden of making sure that people who aren't sympathetic to destroying Israel and Jews are coming into our country.

I think that that could be very dangerous, but we'll have those conversations if and when the administration makes a decision if they're going to be allowing refugees into the country.

- I wanna go back to Tim Ballard one other time.

Can the Attorney General's Office, in your view, given the Attorney General's past association and apparent friendship with Ballard, conduct this investigation, if they wall off, you know, the investigation from the Attorney General himself, or must it be or must it go further than that?

- Well, I, again, I think attorneys deal with this all of the time.

This is very normal.

There is a process.

Every attorney general has lots of friends, and every once in a while their friends get investigated by the Attorney General's Office.

There is a process and a procedure.

I don't think it would be fair to malign the, you know, the ability of dozens, hundreds of attorneys in the AG's Office who do this work.

But they have to make that determination and there's a process that they would go through to do that.

The Attorney General has hired some just incredible attorneys in his office, and I trust them to make that decision.

They will know personally if they're too close to the AG and understand that that friendship is too close.

I don't know the extent of that friendship, if it's extended beyond just the AG to his leadership team.

I think those are conversations that will need to be had, but the Attorney General himself might say that for his own benefit, that it might be worth having somebody outside of the office just to kind of avoid any appearance of impropriety.

- Would you be comfortable with it being within the AG'S Office?

- I would be comfortable just because I know those attorneys, I work with them all of the time, and they're incredible professionals, but I understand that there may be a public perception issue that may have to be dealt with there, but I do trust them to make that decision.

- And on that note, what are your thoughts about any pending legislation to make the attorney general appointed?

- Well, look, the way this would work, I've weighed in on this before, many, many years ago when I was in the legislature and we had the investigation into former Attorney General John Swallow.

And what I said then and what I say now was, it's worth looking at what the other options are out there.

Now, I don't have anything to do with that decision.

I would not make that decision.

It would take a constitutional change, which means for those that aren't familiar, the legislature would have to pass a bill with a constitutional majority or a veto proof majority.

The governor does not get to weigh in on constitutional changes.

It's very interesting that way.

If the legislature can get a two-thirds majority, then the voters would get to decide that.

And so I don't...

There are lots of different ways to look at this.

There are some states where an attorney general is appointed.

The question I've always had, and this has nothing to do with our current attorney general.

I have a great relationship with Sean.

This is not in any way focused on him at all.

But when you run for office in the criminal justice system, there is a little bit of a perverse incentive there.

It's why we don't have judges run for office.

In lots of states, judges have to get elected just like governors and mayors and city council members.

But we decided that because you're dealing with criminal justice, you need to make sure that there is no undue influence there.

And so we have a governor that appoints judges, a senate who confirms those judges, and then the judges do stand for election.

It's a retention election, which is different.

The public gets to vote, do we wanna keep that judge or do we wanna get rid of that judge?

So that's a way where the public still has a say.

We're not taking that away from them.

So that's an interesting model.

But I, you know, I haven't made a decision one way or another.

Again, it doesn't matter because ultimately, the legislature would decide and the people of Utah would decide that.

But certainly, again, in the criminal justice area, when somebody has the ability to take away your life literally, right, to seek the death penalty, to lock you up for a period of time and you're running for that position, I always think who are the people that donate to an Attorney General's race?

Like, you know, everyday citizens vote for or donate to a presidential race when it comes to fundraising.

Everyday citizens donate to the mayor, to the governor's race, to city council races.

I don't know many everyday citizens who think, yo, I should donate some money to the attorney general, right?

And so I think it's important to kinda look at those incentives and make sure we're getting the best outcomes.

I honestly, I doubt that anything will change.

It's really hard to get a constitutional majority.

And I doubt the citizens of Utah would want to give up that ability to elect their attorney general.

And so I'm very dubious that just changing to a governor-appointed only attorney general would ever get a constitutional change.

And I don't know that I would support that kind of draconian change either.

- Have you spoken with Attorney General Reyes about his relationship with Tim Ballard at all?

- I haven't spoken directly with him about that relationship, but I mean, we have talked, and he, I mean that relationship is very public.

I don't think that, you know, he's hidden that relationship.

He's talked about it oftentimes in press conferences, he's posted about it on social media, and I know this has been very hard for him, what has happened there.

He talked openly about he was the person he wanted to run for Senator Romney's seat.

And all of these revelations came out afterwards.

And so I'm sure this has been very hard for Sean and his family and we've had a lot of kind of media people and famous people who have talked about how they felt like they were duped.

And that's never an easy thing.

but Sean's and his family are wonderful people and I hope he can get through this difficult situation.

- Speaking of the US Senate race, do you plan on endorsing current House Speaker Brad, Brad Wilson in that race?

You've hosted a fundraiser for him.

- I do, yeah.

- And do you think it's proper for a governor to get involved in a primary race among members of your own party?

- Oh, sure, yeah, yeah.

I think it's very proper.

It happens all the time.

And I've had the opportunity to work with Brad Wilson.

I know Brad as well as just about anybody in this state.

And that's why I feel so confident because I have been able to work with him.

I believe he's one of the best speakers we've ever had in this state.

The things that he's been able to accomplish, he has the most difficult job, politically speaking, in the state of Utah.

As you can see in Washington, D.C. right now, when it comes to finding consensus and leading a large group of independently elected people who have very strong ideas and are passionate and to help navigate that process, I've never seen anybody do it as well as Brad Wilson.

And I think that's the kind of leadership that we need in Washington, D.C. and I'm grateful for the leadership that he's provided Utah.

I'm really mad at him that he's resigned as Speaker and is running for the US Senate, but I think he would be fantastic.

And you know, I don't think most people care about endorsements.

I think we definitely overrate them and the impact that they have on people.

I don't think the average voter cares what the governor thinks.

They'll make those decisions for themselves.

But I can speak to what I know and what I know is that that Speaker Wilson is not just a great human being, but an incredible public servant.

And if we had a hundred Brad Wilson's in the Senate and 435 in the House, our country would be in a much better place.

- You had a major disagreement with him regarding the food tax.

- [Governor Spencer Cox] Yeah.

- And he's still your guy.

- Yeah.

Isn't that amazing that you can disagree with someone and still care about them and still think they're a great leader?

Look, I, you know, my wife and I disagree on lots of things, and we're still together, and I'm grateful for that.

So, yeah.

I would be disappointed if Speaker Wilson and I hadn't had some major disagreements, but I can tell you, and I think you'll see this, those disagreements almost always take place in a respectful way and not out in the public very often.

We try to work through those things ahead of time because I have such an admiration and respect for him and I think he would reciprocate that.

- Governor, about the speaker's race in D.C., so House Republicans have been unable to unite around anyone to fill that top leadership position for the last two weeks.

What would the Utah way look like applied to this situation in the House, and what sense of urgency should lawmakers in the House feel to overcome their differences and get to work?

- Yeah, well, so the sense of urgency should be driving this.

I think there should be an overwhelming sense of urgency.

I think it's an embarrassment to our country.

It's an embarrassment to my party that they can't seek and find some sort of consensus.

You know, the disagree better model of this is what works.

And that is that we sit down together, we try to figure out where the obstacles are, what the disagreements are, and then we find a way forward.

We look for a third way.

Ultimately, that may be how this is solved, a third way that nobody's looking at yet.

And that by third way, I mean probably a candidate that maybe hasn't even had their name mentioned yet, someone that's, you know, where both sides are unhappy, but they realize that because of the pressure, the urgency to actually get something done, we have to move forward.

And I'll tell you what it doesn't look like.

It doesn't look like the eight people who got us into this mess in the first place, without any plan, without working with the other side at all or any side, but themselves to figure out what it would look like to have leadership there.

And that's incredibly frustrating and we're seeing the real world consequences of that play out.

We're now in day, I dunno, 16 or so, and we're moving on.

Also, the way this looks like too is that behind closed doors, the caucus meets, and I served in the legislature and this is what you do.

You come together as a caucus.

You have your arguments, you vote and somebody wins and somebody loses, and then you go out as a caucus and you support the winner.

And that didn't happen with Steve Scalise.

And I think that's a really important distinction, and again, really disappointing.

Yeah, you don't win everything, but your caucus, the party took a position and they should have had unanimous support once they walked out of there.

That's what being a team player is about.

And sadly, that didn't happen.

- There are a couple of issues where questions continue to arise, and these are issues in which the state has been very much involved, homelessness and criminal justice reform.

- [Governor Spencer Cox] Yes.

- Do you see a need... Well, first of all, how do you think both of those programs are working?

- I think there are some real positives that have happened over the past few years.

I think on the criminal justice side, there are some things we've gotten right and some changes that were desperately needed.

I do think though we have not perfected it, and we need to fix some things.

We've been working with CCJJ and other entities, the Board of Pardons and Parole.

You'll notice we added a new commissioner to the board.

We've also made a change in leadership there with the Board now.

And that was very, very intentional and I think important, somebody that has been involved on the public safety side of things, former DPS employee that will take on that role.

And I think Scott will be fantastic in that role.

And on homelessness, we've done some really important things, but we haven't put it all together yet.

And so Brian, what you will see from me and from my administration, we've been working very closely with Mayor Mendenhall, very closely with Mayor Wilson.

We've been working with the courts, we've been working with public safety in the state with DPS and other entities.

We've been working with the business community and the philanthropic community and with the nonprofit community, service providers, churches as well, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and others.

We've been having discussions over the past couple months.

You will see us taking a much more active role as we head into this legislative session to fill some of those gaps that are still missing.

I can give you a couple examples.

One of those is unsanctioned camping.

Like we have to stop unsanctioned camping in our state and in our capital city.

We absolutely have to do that.

And so we'll be working very closely with the mayors, again, with law enforcement to make sure that we can do that.

We need more services for people who are struggling.

We only have 300 state hospital beds, our state mental hospital beds for those who are suffering the most severe forms of mental illness and addiction.

We used to have thousands of those beds and now we only have 300.

And so we know we need to increase that as well.

We'll be working with the legislature and legislative leadership on potential policy changes, but we know that there's a lot more to do on that.

And you'll see us much more engaged and there will be more to come on those issues.

- Would you call it a major overhaul?

- I would call it, I mean, I don't know if a major overhaul is the right term, but it's, again, it's trying to combine all of the pieces that are out there and filling in those gaps.

So we're not changing the direction that we're headed, but it would be certainly additional funding is going to be really important.

It's doing what we know works, but doing a lot more of it, I think is the best way to describe that.

- For people who would say the state has spent tens of millions of dollars- - Yeah, yeah.

- maybe $100 million dollars or more on this, and we're not better off than we were before.

- [Governor Spencer Cox] Yeah.

- How do you answer?

- Yeah, I would say that they're right in some ways.

Now, again, we are a fast-growing state.

One of the big problems we've had is the price of housing, right?

So it's hard to keep up.

If you look at every state in the nation and you look at the price of housing, you can almost guess what their homelessness rate is based on the price of housing.

The more expensive housing is...

It just makes sense, right?

The more expensive housing is, the harder it is, the more people experiencing homelessness you're going to have in your state.

So that's another piece of this.

On the mental health side, this is another huge piece of this that is so critical and we're struggling right now with workforce, so we're gonna need to overhaul the licensure that we do for mental health in this state, making sure that we get more people in these positions right now.

We have bed space at the state hospital, but we can't fill those beds because we don't have enough staff to fill those beds right now.

So we're gonna be working with our universities and others to make sure that we can get more staffing here.

So these are the pieces.

What I would say is it's a much more comprehensive approach, taking the money that we're spending now, making sure it's being spent in the right places, and then filling in those gaps that we know exist.

- Okay, that is all the time we have for our television broadcast.

Thank you so much for joining us for the Governor's Monthly News Conference.

(uplifting instrumental music) - [Voiceover] This (music drowns out voiceover) Governor's Monthly News Conference (music drowns out voiceover) visit pbsutah.org/governor.

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