SALT LAKE CITY — In the two weeks since Greg Hughes publicly voiced frustrations over the chaotic and lawless conditions in downtown's Rio Grande neighborhood, the speaker of the Utah House says he has spent nearly every day meeting or talking with homeless stakeholders.

Hughes says these talks with federal drug officials, business owners, homeless advocates and local mayors are meant to prepare for a crucial meeting with Gov. Gary Herbert on Wednesday — a meeting the speaker wants to walk away from with a plan to implement immediate changes in the struggling neighborhood instead of waiting until the downtown shelter closes in 2019.

"I want to have a plan put together. I want to have buy-in from all of the stakeholders when we meet with the governor. I want to leave that meeting knowing what to do next," Hughes said.

"It's my hope we're not just going to continue a macro discussion, that there are action items that come out of that meeting and, really, areas where the governor can join."

Hughes said he's created a "war room" for those meetings — in temporary office space at the heart of the downtown neighborhood — so he can speak with stakeholders in full view of the problems: open-air drug dealing, mental illness and criminals preying on people who have lost their homes.

"I don't think we can have any more meetings in the halls of government where we watch PowerPoints and talk about what's happening down there," he said.

Through those meetings — including talks with federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, local police and the ACLU — Hughes is working to put a plan together that will "deal with particularly the lawlessness."

"That war room — that's ground zero to me," Hughes said. "I would liken it to when Alexander the Great walked on the shores of Persia and the Persian army outnumbered his soldiers. It was pretty daunting, but he said, 'Burn our boats.' They burned their boats because there was no retreat, there was no going back. They were either going to win or they were going to die."

Hughes continued: "I feel like I am down there because I have burned my boats. I am not refortifying. I think we have done all we can do to bring everybody together. We have the army, we have the people, we're engaged and we are going to move forward. I'm being that strident about this situation because, again, I'm not going backward."

Earlier this month, Herbert's spokesman Paul Edwards said the governor welcomes conversations with Hughes, Biskupski and McAdams to perhaps discuss the use of state resources in their struggles to keep the area clean and under control.

"We are very concerned about the failure to enforce things like loitering and camping laws in that part of the city, and what it means for the perpetuation of lawlessness, the drug dealing," Edwards said at the time. "And so if it becomes an issue related to the resources the city and county might need in order to better enforce their own statutes and ordinances, we're very much interested in having a conversation about how those resources can go forward."

According to Herbert's office, more than a dozen stakeholders are invited, including Utah Commissioner of Public Safety Keith Squires, Utah Department of Workforce Services Director Jon Pierpont, Utah Department of Corrections Director Rollin Cook, homeless advocate Pamela Atkinson, Senate President Wayne Neiderhauser, Biskupski, McAdams, Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown, and others.

Hughes hopes the governor's "political influence and sway can bring to bear all the pieces we need."

"We needed something broader than just the city of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County," he said.

Hughes warned that he and other stakeholders might not be able to be "overly forthcoming" with the details of the plan because it might have law enforcement involvement, much like Salt Lake City's Operation Diversion, an effort the public wasn't informed of until after the first sweep.

The speaker's frustrations reached a boiling point after the Fourth of July holiday when Salt Lake City's problems made national news stemming from a homeless man attacking and injuring Las Vegas 51s Triple-A pitcher Joshua Cruz at 500 S. West Temple and a woman crashing into six pedestrians, killing one, on a sidewalk just north of the Road Home's downtown shelter.

Hughes' chief of staff, Greg Hartley, said the speaker has become so frustrated with the situation that he "doesn't want to sit down and wait" for action.

Hartley said Hughes is still "kicking around the concept" of a homeless czar — a point person to better coordinate efforts between the state, county and city — but until the specifics of that position can be sorted out, the speaker is taking matters into his own hands.

"He wants to dedicate time every day to work on this," Hartley said.

Almost every weekday since July 5, Hughes said, he's made a point of driving through the neighborhood — and he's noticed "anonymity" has "allowed for crime to breed."

"I'm told we have about 2,100 people down there right now," he said. "We believe that ascertaining who everyone is will allow us to deliver the help that is needed — because if you're a criminal, you don't want to be known. That anonymity can no longer be the status quo. We cannot just let people mingle and mix among the people that need help".

Hughes also said he hopes to see better "consistency" in enforcing existing laws and camping ordinances, as well as more frequent health department "cleanups."

Biskupski's spokesman, Matthew Rojas, confirmed that Biskupski has spoken with Hughes ahead of the meeting with the governor. He deferred to his comment earlier this month that Biskupski is open to receiving more help from the state.

Salt Lake City is also in the midst of implementing its own short-term action plan, which includes a redesign of the 500 West median.

McAdams' spokeswoman, Alyson Heyrend, said McAdams shares Hughes' frustrations with the area, and when the two talked, they discussed the county's ongoing work to minimize homelessness and how to progress that work so the Rio Grande area will be prepared when the downtown shelter shuts down in 2019.