Agency: Environmental Quality

Line Item: Executive Director's Office

Function

The DEQ Executive Director's Office provides administrative direction to the entire department. Included in its functions are the following:

• directing planning and policy development within the department;
• directing implementation of state and federal environmental laws and regulations;
• maintaining state primacy in federal programs;
• providing public information and implementing stakeholder outreach programs;
• coordinating department planning functions;
• providing administrative program support;
• coordinating department programs with local health departments;
• providing general services support;
• managing budget and financial accounting support;
• coordinating purchasing;
• directing human resource management;
• directing process improvement activities;
• supporting information technology; and,
• providing web services and general business assistance.

Intent Language

The Legislature intends that the Department of Environmental Quality adjust ongoing spending to achieve the following reductions: a General Fund reduction of $132,300 from Division of Environmental Response and Remediation; a General Fund reduction of $49,500 from the Division of Air Quality; and a General Fund reduction of $47,000 from the Division of Water Quality.

Under the terms of 63J-1-603 of the Utah Code, the Legislature intends that appropriations provided for Executive Director's Office in Item 20, Chapter 6, Laws of Utah 2012, shall not lapse at the close of FY 2013. Expenditures of these funds are limited to high level nuclear waste opposition $129,100; capital improvements for the proposed DEQ Technical Support Center $450,000; administrative law judge $150,000.

Performance

UCA code 63-2 requires that requests from the public to view records be responded to within 10 days. DEQ places a high priority on assisting the public and assuring that this deadline is met. In FY 2010, DEQ moved offices, therefore for one month, file retrieval was more difficult, bringing the percentage down that year.

DEQ is committed to actively look for and implement process improvements to ensure the efficient use of public dollars and to maximize the use of staff resources. Internal and external stakeholders are involved in these projects. The first process improvement project under this model began in FY 2011, therefore the actual versus target numbers look a bit skewed.

DEQ leadership and succession planning occurs in two parts: a mentoring program and leadership skills training. The people in the mentoring program are nominated annually for the two year program. One person from each division is nominated. The leadership skills training is open to all employees. The drop in FY 2010 and FY 2011 were due to other priorities within the department. Starting in FY 2012, the leadership development training was actively promoted.

Funding Detail

For more detail about a particular source of finance or organizational unit, click a linked entry in the left column of the table(s) below.