Weber County Forum offers a hearty tip of the hat to the Standard-Examiner, for a danged fine editorial appearing in this morning's edition. Don Porter hammers some of the points our readers have argued here on this blog, and raises some interesting new issues as well. It's a relatively short article, so we'll incorporate it in full, for the benefit of those who don't have a hard-copy subscription:
Midway through his second term as Ogden's mayor, Matthew Godfrey still has a lot to learn about consensus building.
No rational observer, we believe, could honestly accuse him of not wanting good things for his city. But he's so clumsy in the way he goes about making things happen that he invariably undercuts whatever public support he might otherwise have achieved.
His latest belly-flop-in-the-making is a hush-hush deal with Malan's basin owner Chris Peterson. Peterson has for the better part of a year teased about releasing plans for a west-facing four-season resort above Weber State University and the Mt. Ogden Golf Course, but whatever details there are have never been made public.
Fine. As others have noted, nobody elected Peterson to public office, and he can remain as cryptic and mysterious as he likes for as long as he wants to.
Godfrey, however, is an elected public official, beholden to the public. He's been quite open about his yearning for an intra-city gondola running between the Intermodal Transportation Hub and Weber State University. But lately he's retreated back into the mists, holding private meetings with other public officials, private business leaders and people he imagines to be opinion leaders inthe community.
It's been said that he's offering details of a plan that may or may not include the sale of the golf course to Peterson to help finance the gondola, and trading or buying land with Weber State University to facilitate Peterson's plans for luxury homes in the area.
Most distressing, though, was Godfrey's attempt to meet out of public view to brief members of the City Council on the whole gondola-golf course-Weber State scenario. He aparently wasn't paying attention to the Ogden School Board's carefully arranged closed meetings to discuss the public's business concerning a bond election.
Also troubling was Godfrey's recent trip to Italy and Austria with Peterson, where he accepted lodging and meals from gondola manufacturers. He didn't tell members of the City COuncil -- or at least not all of them -- beforehand.
We're on record supporting the notion of a privately financed gondola -- emphasis on the "privately financed" part. Others are, too, but the mayor's behavior of late is a legitimate cause for concern.
Godfrey hasn't asked for our opinion, but we'll give it to him anyway -- in public, where he should be dealing.
- Before he left, he should have notified members of the City Council about his overseas trip. He should have solicited their support, and asked if they had questions or information he could retrieve from the gondola manufacturers. Then they might have supported a fact-finding trip, and encouraged him to use city funds to pay for his trip. Now, having accepted food and lodging from the gondola manufacturers, if one of them ever gets the contract to build Ogden's equipment, conflict-of-interest concerns could surface.
- secrecy equals suspicion. Only talking to monied movers and shakers, and other Ogden elites, gives weight to oft-stated public fears that his plan is designed primarily to enrich those already blessed with wealth.
- When discussing the sale of public land -- especially the vast acreage of a city golf course on the east bench -- it would seem prudent to put that land on the public auction block, where it goes to the highest bidder. (Ask the Weber County Commission about that one.)
- There is also the question of selling off a public recreation asset like Mt. Ogden Golf Course. What about the trails and public access around the course? Will access be preserved?
And what say our gentle readers about all this?
