Much has been said concerning a proposed gondola, resort, and hillside development in Ogden over the last several months. Although no official proposal has come before the City Council, the public has requested information and voiced opinions of both support and opposition. To ensure that the public’s ideas are taken into account and that all the necessary information is considered, the Council adopted a resolution on April 18, 2006, directing that a comprehensive public process be developed by Council staff. The Council directed that the process include development of the Mt. Ogden Community Plan, possible updating of the Ogden/Weber Transit Corridor Study, and other aspects of a public process conducive to this proposal. The Council also directed staff to meet with other decision-making entities to learn their decision points and public processes. The Council is determined to “gather facts, receive public input, and collect data consistent with the Council’s due diligence prior to making any decisions on this far-reaching and very important proposal” (City Council Resolution 2006-13).Pursuant to this resolution, The Ogden City Council staff has set to work, and has been diligently compiling the data necessary to fulfill the objects of this resolution (according to our always reliable sources;) and is in middle of the complex process of making the contacts, having the meetings and collecting the preliminary data which would logically precede the public input and deliberative portions of the process.
Apparently the "brain trust" in the mayor's office doesn't believe the council staff is moving fast enough though, notwithstanding the fact that these hard-working people are only a little less than five weeks into the process.
"If it isn't done yesterday, it's being done too slowly." That's the attitude of The Blessed but Perpetually-petulant Egomaniac on Nine.
The Mayor's office has thus taken the matter into its own hands, decided to do an end-run around the council, and has now scheduled a series of its own non-council-sanctioned public input sessions. "The Council be damned," sez the mayor of us all.
In that connection, we are linking this important "public notice," which was transmitted to us this morning by one of our attentive and gentle readers: Public Open House.
Our readers should carefully note that two separate events are being "noticed" by the mayor's office in the preceding announcement. The first of these, scheduled for June 13, 2006 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., is intended for citizens residing between 26th-36th Streets East of Harrison Boulevard. The second event, intended for those citizens living south of 30th Street to 36th Street will be held the following night on June 14, 2006.
Affix these dates to your calendars with a giant magic marker, people. "Snoozers wil be losers," as the old saying goes.
We believe that all Ogden citizens who are concerned about another of the mayor's hare-brained schemes being summarily shoved down our public throats should attend these meetings, and do so in force, notwithstanding the fact that these meeting are are entirely premature and non-council-sanctioned.
A failure of interested citizens to show up in significant numbers at each of these events will be inevitably interpreted by the city administration as a lack of interest on our part. Blessed Matthew Godfrey has a sordid history of doing just that.
And when we do attend, we should forcefully voice our objections, not only on the merits of the proposal itself (or the lack thereof,) but to the ham-handed manner in which the mayor is choreographing his version of the process -- putting the cart before the horse -- inviting public comments before the council is even midway into the fact-gathering process.
We're also wondering: "So what the rush?" Chris Peterson has been dawdling about the details of his so-called proposal for over a year now. He hasn't even told us how much he's willing to offer for the Mt. Ogden Parkland property, let alone put a formal purchase offer on the table. We're not laboring under any obvious impending deadline. So where's the fire, anyway? we ask.
And what are your comments on this, O gentle and perceptive ones?
