Jay Evensen
  • Front Page
  • Opinions
  • Second Thoughts
  • Portfolio
  • Awards
  • About

As UTA (and United) knows, reputation can be hard to regain

4/11/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
“A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.” — Joseph Hall, author
 
The Utah Transit Authority is all too aware of what United Airlines seems to be newly discovering. A lifetime of correct choices can’t make up for a few bad ones that get a lot of publicity.
Or, as I’ve asked more than one editor through the years who lectured me over a misspelling, how come you never bothered to compliment me on all the words I got right?

It’s human nature to dwell on misdeeds, which is why we still refer to a miserly person in casual conversation as a “Scrooge,” conveniently ignoring how, by the end of the book, Scrooge is a kind and generous person.

Jerry Benson, the president and CEO of UTA, wondered aloud this week if there is a ratio for determining how many good deeds it takes to overcome a tarnished reputation.

“Is it 10-to-1 you have to earn that back? Probably, at least,” he told the combined editorial boards of KSL and the Deseret News. “It’s going to take demonstrated trustworthiness, over a long period of time, to change that relationship.”

Maybe that and a little more.

The Utah Transit Authority has to get through all the bad news, first. And because people rarely devote the energy necessary to follow what local governments and quasi-governmental organizations do, every piece of bad news reinforces their cynicism.

Deseret News opinion editor Hal Boyd calls this, “reputational inertia.” It’s an inertia UTA will have trouble stemming, at least for a while.

It started in earnest three years ago when a legislative performance audit found all sorts of problems, from failing to collect $10 million owed by a developer to — most important of all for taxpayers — exorbitant salaries and bonuses for top executives.

Board members and managers often voted or took actions on matters that were conflicts of interest, because UTA required them only to self-report these.

Since then, the faces have changed. New policies are in place. Conflicts must be reported and reviewed independently. The agency is more transparent and open about what it does.

And yet the past is not really passed.

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors announced a grand jury had returned a 12-count indictment against former UTA board member Charles Diehl, charging him with filing a false declaration and concealing assets related to UTA when he filed for bankruptcy.

The feds said they won’t prosecute UTA itself, but they will assign a monitor to the agency for at least three years to make sure it is conducting itself properly.

Oh, and the criminal investigation will continue, which means more bad news may be coming.

UTA is trying to put a good face on this. Board Chairman Robert McKinley said the feds’ decision not to prosecute UTA is a “stamp of approval” on the changes it has made. He and others tout UTA as one of the best transit agencies in the country. But progress on this public relations front will be as hard as pulling a train through mud by hand.

Salt Lake County voters rejected a small tax increase in 2015 to build more UTA projects, a sign of how important it is for UTA to overcome the trust deficit.

“I understand this inertia problem with our reputation,” McKinley said. “But what’s interesting to me is, when I sit down and I say to people what is it exactly that you’re concerned about, it’s something that occurred eight years ago, 10 years ago. It’s nothing current, and I wish I knew how to solve that problem.”

While he searches for answers, the United Airlines case offers a bit of perspective. As far as I know, UTA hasn’t dragged a paying customer off an overbooked train for refusing to surrender a seat. But a lot of taxpayers see that as analogous to how they were forced to pay for a portion of the problem years ago.
​
Yes, it will take years to overcome that feeling. In the meantime, other public entities should take note
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Search this site


    Like what you read here?

      Please subscribe below, and we'll let you know when there is a new opinion.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture

    The author

    Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    Campaign 2012
    Congress
    Crime
    Culture
    Iran
    Oil And Gas
    Poverty
    Steroids
    Taxes
    Utah
    Washington
    World Events
    World Events

    Links

    Deseret News
    Newslink
    Marianne Evensen's blog

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.