For those who follow ongoing events in the Ogden City Council, we have Dian Woodhouse's latest report of last night's council meeting:
We have offered her a long-term contract to provide weekly reports from here on out as a percentage share of the gross revenue from our ubiquitous "google ads." According to our calculations, that would work out to a fat 2 cents per week, more or less, which would take a big bite out of the WCF budget. Fortunately for all of us though, she's VERY community-minded, and has donated this latest fine report complimentarily, and will thus not bust this week's blog finances with this excellent example of great journalistic work-product:
“We Are Happy There.”
Click our Weber County Forum google ads now and often. We'd like to "sweeten the pot," and put this fine and dedicated local professional writer into a binding contract soon, at something like three cents/week, before "The Good in Ogden" grabs her up and puts her under contract, heheheh.
In the meantime...read her fine & detailed article.
Comments?
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10 comments:
Only one comment:
With all due respect and thanks to Dian for performing the public service of taking notes on the Council meetings, and to Rudizink for providing a venue for their posting, permit me to say that all this should not be necessary. There is no reason that I can see why Ogden does not do as other towns and cities across the land do: air its City Council meetings on what passes hereabouts for a City-owned and operated cable channel [Channel 17]. Airing the meetings live, and re-airing them on tape delay two or three times in the ensuing week would ensure that nearly all interested in Council proceedings would have an opportunity to see them on TV in the comfort of their own homes.
I note the Council is now in the process of doing the budget for the coming year. This would be a good time, using the budget as a club if need be [it should have to be used that way, but they are dealing with the Godfrey administration after all] to insist that the current Godfrey/Geiger Ego Channel [falsely called the Ogden City Channel] be redesigned so that it airs City Council Meetings and School Board meetings, at least. Absent that kind of reform, I see no reason why City tax payers should continue to pick up half the cost of the station's operations via taxes, and the other half via a fee paid to the cable company.
I will be writing to City Council members along these lines shortly. If you agree, I'd appreciate back up on the matter. Write the Council and, politely, let them know you think the City channel should air Council and School Board meetings regularly.
Well, Curm,
This issue and request is brought up, usually by me, almost every week. I asked for Ch 17 to be airing the Council meetings again last night.
Thanx for your support.
I'm happy to report that the PUBLIC Coucncil meetings will begin at 6 pm...starting in April. Thus more people will be able to attend.
Another request made repeatedly by many of us. So, bravo to the Council for the change.
Sharon:
Excellent. I didn't know you were working the same side of the street and raising the matter regularly. I talked to several council member candidates [successful ones] about it during their campaigns, and they seemed receptive.
Happy to enlist as a spear-carrier in your campaign on this. Keep asking. I will write and try to get others to chime in as well.
I have a correction here---the Salvation Army property that would be assumed by the city is on Grant, not Washington. 2615 Grant is the address.
Just a couple of notes here:
1. The Council/RDA meetings will be at 6 PM starting April 11th. We love to have you attend, so I don't want anyone to come on the 4th at 6 PM and miss the Council meeting.
2. Curm and Sharon, before I took office, I met with the Mayor and suggested to him that Channel 17 would be a great way to communicate with the community about issues and upcoming projects. I also said that I thought it would serve the community well to televise the Council meetings. He agreed with the first suggestion, but said that it would be quite costly to air the Council meetings. But this may be a subject that the Council can look into during the budget process.
I do appreciate reading your concerns and suggestions for making Ogden better. Thanks, Rudi, for providing a forum on which we can have this exchange of ideas and information.
Thanks, Dian, for a great job of writing about our Council meetings. I've been a secretary for several organizations and taken the minutes, and I know it isn't easy to keep up with all the comments, so I resorted to using a tape recorder. (I had a bad habit of getting too involved in the meetings and would forget to take notes.) You do an amazing job of relaying all the information.
An item of interest: Chris Peterson announced tonight at the Lift Ogden meeting that he is planning to go public with his plans for Ogden April 19th at an Open House at WSU.
Jennifer:
Fair enough, but I suspect readership of WCFORUM is [unaccountably] fairly limited. The amount of public access provided by cablecast would be vastly greater, and I suspect folks with computer hookups enabling them to read WCF at home probably also have cable. But in any case, airing meetings in no way precludes continuing posts/summaries [and discussions] here.
Dear Councilwoman Jeske:
Thanks for the reply.
I am not a techie and the Mayor's point about excessive cost may be valid, though it needs to be looked into as do all cost/benefit statements coming from the Mayor's office.
But, presuming he has a point, there may be a low tech/low cost workaround that will achieve much the same results as live airing. I notice when I attend Council meetings that there is already in place a TV system. The meetings are put up on large TV sets around the room while they are going on. Meaning cameras and a taping system are already in place. Given that, I wonder why video tapes [or dvds or whatever recording system is used] could not simply be carried over to Channel 17 site and aired, via the tape, the next day and several times during the week before the next Council session.
After all, we know Channel 17 has the ability to play recorded material since it has re-aired the Geiger Gondola interview dozens of times.
If the tape-delay airing of tapes taken off the existing Council TV monitor system would get the meetings on Channel 17, starting the day after they are held, at virtually no cost, I see little reason for not doing that.
Perhaps you could look into this as a cost-effective alternative to live airing. [Would the same work for School Board meetings as well? I don't think anything engages voter interest in city governance more than school matters.]
Thanks again for your reply.
Curmudgeon is of course right, as usual.
Even if it did cost a few bucks, it would still be a hell of a lot cheaper than a plane ticket to Italy!
The bottom line is that the little lord does not want the people of Ogden to see what goes on in city government. He is the master of the secret behind closed doors manipulations of the public trust. He is in fact the wizard behind the curtain pulling the levers of government. This is after all the land of Oz!
First for Dian, from the online Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Main Entry: 1va·ca·tion
Pronunciation: vA-'kA-sh&n, v&-
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English vacacioun, from Middle French vacation, from Latin vacation-, vacatio freedom, exemption, from vacare
1 : a respite or a time of respite from something : INTERMISSION
2 a : a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended b : a period of exemption from work granted to an employee for rest and relaxation
3 : a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation (had a restful vacation at the beach)
4 : an act or an instance of vacating
This is often used in government.
Next I agree with curm, sharon and ozboy, I think government should use every opportunity to allow the public to see and hear what is going on. Channel 17 is a required service of the cable company as a condition of having a franchise. Having gone to a Ogden council meeting I too don't understand what the excess cost would be to record what is put up on the monitors to be rebroadcast in that station.
There is one thing to consider though, many people now have satilite TV though Dish or DirecTV and channel 17 is not available to them. I wish there was a way to get it there.
I would like to see the other cities in Weber County get together with the county and the Weber School District and do a channel 17 for them.
Curm - I (a F O R M E R republican) have decided that you are to be the next mayor!
Yes, I am serio.us
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