We've previously remarked here on Weber County Forum about the current Standard-Examiner misinformation campaign -- ongoing for almost a month -- whereby our monopoly newspaper of record has shamelessly maligned and slandered members of the new city council/RDA board, accusing them of "overly-aggressive" questioning of Ernest Health Inc.'s Darby Brockette. The Standard-Examiner editors have published articles almost daily, reinforcing what has become a constant Std-Ex "letters section" "Shame on the New Council" meme:
"Ernest Health packed its bags and broke off negotiations," we've been repeatedly told, "because some City Council members aggressively questioned the company's officials about its finances." The Std-Ex hammered this false meme again this morning, in the latest Scott Schwebke story.
Now, as we've said before, nobody who actually attended the January 10 session seemed to regard the RDA Board/Council as particularly aggressive or unkind. In fact, most of us who bothered to be in actual attendance that night applauded the Board/Council for its newfound "functionality" and common sense.
Nevertheless, the Standard-Examiner has persisted in its effort to mischaracterise the new council's behavior as "hostile and aggressive." One notably hyperbolic and over-quoted recent council election also-ran even ranted contrarily, notwithstanding the objective facts, that the event had been the equivalent of a public "strip search."
Well the wait is over, gentle friends. Our gentle readers no longer need to depend on ill-motivated second-hand reports, sour-grapes council-election losers, or neoCON carpetbagger newspapermen from Sandusky for an accurate rendition of the truth. After some gentle nudging of Council Director Bill Cook's office by your humble blogmaster this morning, the gnomes of the Ogden City IT department have this afternoon uploaded the full audio of the January 10 RDA Board meeting to the Ogden City website.
We're furnishing a direct link here, so that you'll no longer have to rely on hearsay reports and neoCON fantasy. Here it is, folks...
The full 1/10/06 Ogden RDA Board Audio.
The raw truth will now come out!
Listen for yourselves, gentle readers. Did the new council behave offensively? Were they rude to Mr. Brockette? Were they merely discharging their sworn obligations as Ogden City Councilpersons, in the most gracious manner possible under the circumstances, to obtain necessary and fundamental information that had been previously denied them by the Administration? Did the RDA Board session really have the qualities of a public "strip search?
As the Fox Cable talking heads constantly say... LISTEN... AND YOU DECIDE!
You already know what we think. What we'd like to know is what YOU think about all this.
We're looking forward to our gentle readers' comments.
Update 2/8/06 12:41 p.m. MT: Our own board "regular," and frequent contributor, Dian Woodhouse, has an excellent guest commentary appearing on the Standard-Examiner website this morning, wherein she offers her own very thorough analysis on this topic. Be sure to check it out. A severely shortened version appeared in the Std-Ex hard-copy "letters to editor" section this morning, too. Hard-copy subscribers without web access truly have no idea what they're missing.
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48 comments:
Don't bug out after constant complainer yorgensen takes the mike. The best part is at the end, when Jeske scolds Mayor PeeWee, like a mother scolds her child, and tells him he won't get his supper unless he completes his homework assignment before bedtime.
I'd already listened to the cd version, which has been circulationg around the activist community for a few days.
Take my word for it. You should listen to the audio.
An interesting side note: this CD is the only CD that has not been put on the Ogden City website. All others have. The problem, THEY say, was with the IT people.
Right.
Give it a listen. The CD speaks for itself. A specail invitation is given to Jim Stavrakakis. Hope he has enough time to listen to balance rather than just the Standard's hyperbole.
Rudi, your efforts in making this link available to the public are appreciated. Time and time again, we've seen that one Rudi is worth 100 Standard-Examiners.
Count me among those who are disgusted with our absurd newspaper's preposterous characterization of the new council's actions as bullying Ernest. (And a pox on Grondahl for goose-stepping along with the editorial board.) What kind of girlie organization is Ernest, anyway, for screeching "Council Brutality"?
Wow... Typical we cant wait horse shit from the 9th floor.
I didnt dectect any hostilities from the new council members, however, I do detect that the Mayors Office didnt provide informations.
Shades of the last Council when Mary Hall and Ken Alvord was on the Council.
Matt's is the usual DICK, and the Standard is Reporting the same biased information. I'll bet that they are glad that Kathy McKitrick is not around to kick them in the Balls anymore.
I listened to it. I had no problem with anything the RDA board members asked. In fact, the whole thing is full of mutual assurances from both sides that due diligence is appreciated and that the need to perform it is understood. By everyone.
Rudi,
Thanx so much for making this available. I'll make sure those nay sayers who've been maligning the council..AND WEREM'T THERE and also ME, forpetessake! as if I made the council be so 'brutal' are invited to take advantage of this!
Did you catch the cheerleading for bus riding in the SE? How it isn't only "low and middle income" riders enjoying the bus?? Now, why do you think the SE would find this fascinating enuf for it's pablum-fed readership? Would Jeff Boothe's recent visit have anything to do with it? Hmmm?
Nice kudo to Dorrene. Get some more flashlite batteries....y'all are keeping the lite on that gang of 'dealers in the dark'!
The SubStandard IS NOT printing letters to the editor that do not agree with their propoganda on this Ernest fiasco. I know of 4 letters that have been submitted that take exception to their reporting on this event. I wrote two myself. They are only printing letters from the Godfrey crowd that support this hatchet job they are attempting to do on the new council.
The up side is that fewer and fewer people are reading this rag every day. They are on the brink of extinction. Well deserved if you ask me. For a daily paper to have a hack like Don Porter as their editorial guru is very telling. This Schlepsky guy is also a big joke for a reporter. He writes repeatedly about this meeting and apparently he wasn't even there!
The so called news paper is in bed with Godfrey and have been every since he engineered the sweet heart deal with their new facility at BDO wherein the Suits of Sandusky made out like bandits on the backs of Ogden's tax payers.
It is truly despicable the way the Standard Examiner maligned the new Council Members in their reporting and in the irresponsible flawed editorial by Don Porter, mentioning them by name with such blatant lies! I have nothing but contempt for the SubStandard after listening to that audio! I am cancelling my subscription to the paper. YOU SURE AS HELL CAN'T BELIEVE A THING THEY PRINT, SO WHY TAKE IT?! I hope the people of Ogden can see what a trashy rag the Standard Ex has become! It's only fit to wipe your ass.
What I'd like to know is where did Scott Schwebke get the story he reported the next morning? My guess is that he called the Mayor's office to find out what happened, and the Mayor burning from the scolding that Jeske gave him and his department heads for their failure to provide the necessary information to make an informed decision, decided to get even with them (just like the spoiled little brat he is) and embarrass them by telling lies that he knew the substandard would print without question. Has anyone ever wondered why only one side of the story was ever printed in the paper. That's what I call stinkin' thinkin' reporting -- don't get both sides of the issue! Substandard! Substandard! Substandard!
Thanks, Rudizink for shedding some light on a travesty! It's time the people knew the whole story and the truth! Imagine what those new Council members have suffered because of the lies printed about them! Day after day, because people were so gullible that they believed the LIES the Standard printed.
Wish I'd thought of this in time, but the name we really deserve at the new mall is SANDUSKY STATION.
Two points:
I stand second to few in my criticism of the SE as a house organ of the Godfrey administration [particularly its shameful editorial on the Ernest Council meeting]. And I am as delighted as the rest of us that a recording of the meeting is now, finally, available.
But... let us not forget that a miniscule fraction of the electorate is likely to log on to listen to that recording. It's good that it's out there, but I would not wager much on its changing many minds about what happened.
Second, to dear Sharon: I found the SE story on UTC bus ridership in N. Utah both interesting and informative. The general conclusion I drew was that public transportation is significantly on the rise in North Utah, and conditions making it so are likely to intensify over time, not recede. And whether you [or I] like it or not, there is a fairly widespread assumption about [particular among folks who moved here from cities with large African American populations] that riding public buses is something po'folk do, not rich folk or the middle classes. It's different here in Utah, and UTA's making the point in the story was, I thought, a good idea. [BTW, I ride the bus in Ogden to work very nearly every day.]
Sadly, I've lived in a place where, when someone said they "took the bus in today," another person asked [once the bus rider left] "is he having money problems?"
Public transit and its growth in N. Utah matters for a whole market basket of important reasons. Breaking a public perception that buses --- an important part of the mix, even after commuter rail arrives, and after the new trolley system in Ogden starts running --- are only for the poor is not an unimportant thing to try to do. Much depends, in the long run, on a broader swipe of Ogden's population accepting the idea that using public transportation of all sorts is the smart thing for all kinds of people to do.
I'm glad that the WCF has come to Bill Glassmann's aid! Keep scolding the Mayor, and keeping him in check. The Stadard Examiner is a bunch of Liars, and the Mayor is a Liar! The only thing left to understand is why Ernest allowed itself to be quoted as saying that they felt that the city council was hostile. They must be politicing liars too!
No need to appologize new Council. You did the right thing. Keep up your dukes.
Hats off to Curmudgeon both for his thoughtful post and wise reliance on public transporation. I'll look forward to tipping my hat to you as our gondola cars pass each other!
But seriously, I wish our citizens could be convinced that every tank of gas fattens and emboldens our worst enemies in Al Qaeda, Iran, et al.
Listening to this tape only reinforces my opinion that the Little Lord Mayor and HIS SubStandard Exaggerator (SE) are both corrupt, disingenuous and morally bankrupt.
Unfortuantely, by Ernest playing along with this big lie, it also tells us this is not a company that we would want in our town. They are obviously as corrupt as Godfrey.
The Sentinel News editorial, out this week, openly calls the Std-Ex editors liberal media socialists.
Political correctness becoming secular humanism
Anyone think the Std-Ex will defend itself because Mackley just hit the nail on the head?
In Re: Anon.'s latest.
Any journal whose editorial page believes the Godfrey Administration's house organ [aka he Ogden Standard Examiner] is part of the right-wing's favorite imaginary ogre, the liberal media, is in worse editorial shape than the SE. Difficult though that is to conceive of.
The tape doesn't lie! Glassman clearly is the smartest man in Ogden and should run for governor in 3 years. Stephens and Jeske should go make the money they deserve and put their well spoken, diplomatic and eloquent talents to work in the private sector (in 4 years that is)! Godfrey should resign now and let this able bodied (minus stephenson and Saffston) council steer the ship. We can't afford to let these evil, money grubbing businesses, sink their blood soaked tenticles in to our great city. I say grab your damn torches and let's run the rest of these satanic beasts out of our town!
Welcome back Good in Ogden blog, it's about time you got your teenage, hip, pie in the sky blog back up and running...what happened did mommy change your internet password again? It's good to see we have a place to go for our daily humor when we need a break from what's really happening in Ogden. Like the Mayor destroying it!
Ernest - We don't want'm here....we don't need'm here! Good work Bill G. Sad that some in this town are givin you a hard time for doing the right thing as soon as you got in office---kicking their but back to New Mexico, Provo or Layton.
they should go back to the original plan and put a grocery store there
Anon said [of Ernest Co.} "We don't want'm here....we don't need'm here!"
I think it's amusing when someone billing himself as "Anonymous" claims to speak for and represent the opinion of Ogden. "WE don't want'm here.... WE don't need'm here."
Unless Anon is really the mayor [which, somehow, I doubt] or one of our at-large council members, and since, so far as I can tell, none of our elected officials have said that they don't want Ernest here or that the company's locating one of its hospitals here would be bad for the city, it seems evident that what Anonymous is expressing is the opinion of... Anonymous. Which he [or she] has every right to do. But perhaps his [or her] argument would carry a little more weight with the rest of us minus the arrogance of claiming to speak --- anonymously of course --- for the whole people of Ogden.
Well I think Anon spoke well in his or her assertion that WE don't want Ernest. I say good the hell ridence with that outfit!
Out with Ernest and any other outtatown big wig who has set his eyes on squeezing the last dime out of Ogden and all of it's elderly! That's precisely what they want to do...move in and steal all our retirement with their ee-mail and interweb scams and all that stuff.
I say take your web addresses and surfing the world spider web and shove it all where the sun don't shine!
A consideration regarding Ernest and its apparent decision to pull the plug: the helath care industry's services are most often paid by Medicare and Medicaid, both which are taking a severe "hit" governmentwise. That, coupled with the downtown location and anchor tenancy was most likely the reason Ernest so abruptly flew South. I doubt that the council's questions had much to do with it, especially in light that Ernest would have to answer those SAME questions when applying for State Licensing.
Hang in there council....you did just what we elected you to do, you ASKED QUESTIONS!
Finally, a Letter To the Editor that makes some sense about the Ernest deal and tells it like IT IS. Way to go Dian. Coming from you, and knowing about your objectivity and passion to a subject, leaves no doubt in my mind that your premise is absolutley correct and that the new council was "railroaded" for simply doing their job.
There's no inkly of sense to imagine that bbBrockette would pull the plug on a deal he's worked over a year on, and has the earmarkings of millions of dollars that would go into Ernest's bank account, because a couple of people asked a couple of questions. Comon, Brockette's a big boy and this is big business; it's not a Junior High Social Club we're talking about here.
Dian,
Who did the editing to get you opinion piece into a letter to the editor? While the letter was good, it really didn't do justice to the larger guest editorial.
At least in the paper they did say there was a longer article on the web.
This is slightly off topic, but here's a heartwarming NYT story mentioning a blogger you've probably never heard of, who did his part to expose another lie:
A Young Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA
Dian
Can you post your SE letter to the editor here? I don't take the rag, and of course they do not allow free internet access anymore. The only paper in Utah incidently with this incredible backward policy.
I posted it as an update to the main article about an hour ago, Bunnie.
Dian,
I had one other question. The open meetings law is quite specific about the reasons that a public body can go into executive session. I don't think that the reasons you gave would qualify. The law is 52-4-5 and here it is:
(1) (a) A closed meeting may be held pursuant to Section 52-4-4 for any of the following purposes:
(i) discussion of the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual;
(ii) strategy sessions to discuss collective bargaining;
(iii) strategy sessions to discuss pending or reasonably imminent litigation;
(iv) strategy sessions to discuss the purchase, exchange, or lease of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms;
(v) strategy sessions to discuss the sale of real property when:
(A) public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms;
(B) the public body had previously given public notice that the property would be offered for sale; and
(C) the terms of the sale are publicly disclosed before the public body approves the sale;
(vi) discussion regarding deployment of security personnel, devices, or systems;
(vii) investigative proceedings regarding allegations of criminal misconduct; and
(viii) discussion by a county legislative body of commercial information as defined in Section 59-1-404.
(b) A public body may not interview a person applying to fill an elected position in a closed meeting.
(c) Nothing in this section may be construed to require any public body to approve the purchase, sale, exchange, or lease of real property if that public body is not required to approve the purchase, sale, exchange, or lease of real property under other laws.
Also, from my understanding, to have a closed meeting you have to give notice, in the notice for the open meeting when the closed meeting is to be held, that a closed meeting may be held and the reason for the closed meeting (ie. what reason from the law you are closing it for).
I'm sick and tired of all these young, wide eyed, hatemongers always sticking up for the mayor and his secret agents. Especially when they wont even take the time to attend the city council meeting. Steve Prisby was the only one of their group there the other night and he was 17 minutes late. Before you can talk issues you need to attend the damn meetings.
Again,
Ernest must be incredibly sick and twisted to allow themselves to be quoted as feeling a sense of hostility from the city council. Its a conspiracy by the Mayor, Ernest, the Standard Examiner and the business community to put Bill Glassmann in his place. They are threatened by the new city council's common sense approach to leadership, and why I ask? Because they see a threat to their ability to suckle from the tax coffers! Run'm out! Honest businesses are what we need. Honest leaders are what we need. Honest developments are what we need. Criminals!
It isn't just Bill Glasmann the Godfreyites are bitching about.
Godfrey and his priestly minions, including the whole Std-Ex editorial staff, drew a bead on the WHOLE new city council.
Don't think for a minute the Ogden socialist neoCONS, either in the administration, or their lackey socialist newspaper, were just picking on Glasmann. The whole new coucil was in their right-wing, Trotskeyite commie sights.
Good point about the "closed sessions," ARCritic. Like you, I'm not sure the Ogden Counci/Board can simply declare them "at will. There are objective standards, after all.
Jesse Garcia is going to have to "bone up" on procedure, for sure, now that he's the council chair.
Testosterone injections might be a good thing for him too, now that he's the head of a new council that would like to assert itself as a state-ordained co-equal branch of municipal government.
arcritic, thanks for the law. In answer to your questions, first-----
I did the editing on the letter. There. It's out.
I had written the larger piece for consideration for an opinion column in the StdEx, and Don Porter informed me that he would be happy to publish the large piece online, but if I wanted anything in print in the hard copy edition of the paper, he was limiting submissions on this particular subject to letters of 250 words or less.
I was wondering, in fact, if what I have read from people on this forum about letters not getting in was because they were longer than the 250 words. The readership for the print edition is, I think, larger than for the online ones and I did want something in print about the other side of this question.
About the law---What I wrote was:
"...if, at any time during that meeting anyone felt that questions and comments were inappropriate, it would have been perfectly appropriate for a member of the RDA Board or its Director to inform Chairman Garcia that perhaps these topics would be better suited to a Closed Executive Session of the RDA, and someone could have made a motion to that effect, or the Chairman himself could have established parameters for allowable discussion."
Let it be made clear that at no time during that meeting did RDA members demand they be supplied on the spot with financial particulars, or proprietary information, which would, in my opinion, have been information relating to the real property and its projected use and therefore be closed exec material. They simply made it clear that they would like to see it, and the Ernest executive said that he understood the need for due diligence.
The RDA did not demand information of a proprietary nature be divulged right then, but this information and it being supplied by Ernest was one of the topics of discussion. If, during that discussion, anyone had felt that the questions or comments were getting too close to protected areas, on either side, he or she could have said so.
That's what I was referring to, and perhaps I should have qualified it by saying "inappropriate for open meeting discussion," or something referring to these protected areas. The word "inappropriate" has become a catch-all for negative behaviors, I agree, and I also agree with you that the phrase "inappropriate comments", used in that sense, are certainly not grounds for a closed meeting.
That's sort of funny, actually.
But since much of the criticism surrounding that meeting has had as its subject the opinion that the request for financial information from Ernest made by the RDA was somehow "inappropriate," that was what I was referring to in those lines.
Scott Schmuckske should be fired.
Bring back Buchta, McKittrick and Wright.
Bring back the Glasmann family to local pubishing.
Ride the Sanduskey, Ohio, Standard-Examiner publishers (and little napoleon) out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered, just like the golden days in Ogden istory.
YES! Let's remember our HISTORY!
Dian:
Read the long version over at the SE site. Excellent. Thank you.
Rudi
It is Bonnie, not Bunnie, you libertarian pig!
Bunnie is that slut you've been sleeping with lately.
And don't be lyin and saying you haven't. We have our sources.
Very good Op-Ed piece (long and short versions) by Dian. She does seem to smarten up this blog somewhat.
Incidently, this is Porter's MO. He prints these long form pieces by the Mayor or other supporters of the Administration as well as several supporting letters to the editor. Then when someone writes a rebuttal he says that they are too long, or the subject has been covered too much, or people outside of Ogden, but in their circulation area, are not interested, or any number of other lame excuses.
The real reason is that he is a firm supporter and defender of all things Godfrey, yet he continues to pretend that he is an unbiased professional newpaper man. I personally think he is a disengenuous and untalented hack. He would never make it at a decent newspaper.
anon., welcome to the new century. People can listen to the meetings via this new fad called the inter-a-net. Ever heard of it? Do you know what TiVO is? How about an I-Pod? We now live in an on-demand society. Just because Prisbrey was the "only one," whatever that means, there doesn't mean that everybody doesn't or won't get the info.
There are many, many other sources of info besides sitting in a stuffy room with you. I will listen to meetings at my leisure and digest the them piece by piece.
I'm just glad Dian set the record straight. Swebske, the Mayor and Ernest were all in kahoots to railroad Glassmann. John Wright is a God and Scott Swebske is a corrupt blow hard who tows the B.S. party line of Pee Wee G! The fact that Ernest left town is of not consequence here. The real issue here is whether or not the blame rests with the Mayor or the City Council! Based on this evidence, it is clear, yet again, that the Mayor is a political criminal.
Nobody should be fooled! The daydreaming mayor NEVER wanted a hospital here in Ogden! Are you kidding me? He only wants Disney rides and Ski companies like Geiger's to come in and squeeze out the poor and middle class so he his secret agents can feed off the rich who will move in to replace them.
The mayor set up Glassman so the blame would fall on him instead of the mayor. He doesn't want a hospital here that will help the elderly live longer. He wants a new, neocon, suit wearind, latte sipping, gondola riding, WHITE SKINNED, hip Ogden.
Come on. Do you really think that Mayor Godfrey spent months courting a hospital in anticipation of Glassmann winning an election that Godfrey had no idea Glassmann would enter? You're nuts. He wanted the Hospital. When the deal started going south though, he conspired with Ernest and the Standard to stick it to Glassmann. It doesn't make sense that he never wanted a hospital.
Godfrey may be a loose cannon with our city and our tax dollars, but I don't think he can read the future. Glassmann was the unfortunate victim of being the wrong guy in the wrong place. Glasmann to the fall for Godfrey's failure to close the deal. Good riddens anyway....Who needs a company in this town that would collaborate with a mayor to politically smear someone? They belong in a different city than Ogden. We may not have much, but we have our integrity!
I hope Bush isn't listening in on this, I'm sure he's hunting down bastions of truth one by one and killing us all off so that he and Godfrey can rule the world.
The only one that's nuts is anyone who don't believe godfrey has set up a gustopo type government here in Ogden where people dissapeer off the face of the earth if they question him. My neighbor hates godfrey and I haven't seen her in weeks!
Bonnie - that "Bunnie" may have just been a typo.
Frederic Forest -
That happened to you too. My neighbor left to Bear Lake recently, and she hasn't returned either. Just the night before, we had a phone con where she told me that she wasn't too fond of the mayor. President Bush must have given Godfrey some sort of special clearance to wire tap more Mrs. Smith. I'm sure that she wasn't a terrorist either. She's in the relief society for heck sakes! (For all you non-Mormons out there, the Relief Society is a wonderful place where nice ladies get together to make quilts and do nice things for people in the neighborhood.)
A request to anon. posters:
Could you guys [and/or gals as the case may be] pick posting nicknames? Please? Even Anon1, Anon2, etc would do. There are so many anon. posts now, it's hard to figure out who is posting what. Do us all a favor. Pick a nic. You will still be anonymous. If you call yourself Rosebud or DaisyMae or Turtle, no one will know who you are, but we can keep who is posting what straight if we want to reply. So help us out, anons. Pick a nic.
Thank you.
Anonymous
The Relief Society does a lot more than " get together to make quilts and do nice things for people in the neighborhood."
They are a charity organization that goes back to the earliest days of the Church. Joe Smith hisself organized them in Nauvoo in 1842.
The Relief Society is the official women's organization in the Mormon church. Theoretically they are equal to the priesthood as a "companion" organization. However, the priests make all the real decisions as high priest leader Godfrey can attest..
Their motto is: "Charity never faileth".
They have a long and honorable history of giving to the poor, establishing hospitals and health clinics, saving souls, making cloths for the Lamanites (Indians), raising money to train doctors, campaigned for women's right to vote, supporting national women's sufferage, teaching mothering classes, establishing wheat storage programs during the world wars, establishing welfare organizations during the depression, initiating blood drives, and organizing relief efforts for post war Europe and Japan.
In addition to all of that they prepare and serve meals after funerals. In that capacity they are world famous for their "funeral potatoes" the most fatening and delicious pile of grease known to man. I went to so many funerals one year that I gained 15 pounds! In fact when ever I read the obituaries I can't help but think of that wonderful concoction of potatoes soaked in animal fat and cheese.
Oh, and one more thing pertinent to this thread. They do not tell vicous lies about stuff that went on in RDA board meetings - like some high priests we know.
Ozboy--
See what I mean. My neighbor was part of all that do-gooding and she was snatched up never to return. I'm positive that Godfrey has her chained up in some cave some place trying to wring out all of her informants. I'm just sick over it. No kidding. I'm really worried about her. I haven't seen her for days.
Thanks for the thorough description of the Relief Society and the hierarchical layout of the Mormon Church.
You've lent some serious credibility to my concerns over how ruthless the Godfrey regime is.
Maybe that neighbor lady ended up in the funeral potatoe's? I thought the last batch I ate tasted a little funny.
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