7/11/ City Council Notes -- Business, Bombshells, and an Apology

By Dian Woodhouse

City Council: 7.11.06

If tonight had been a theatrical performance, the reviewer would have said, "...before a small, but attentively appreciative audience." There weren't too many people in attendance tonight, but those there saw a few firsts, for sure.

The Council unanimously passed Ordinance 2006-47, changing the business license procedures in Ogden City. Instead of having all licenses due and payable at the first of the year, all new business licenses will be renewable one year from the date of filing the application. That is the big change.

4,200 business license holders will be unaffected by this--I presume because they are now renewing at the first of the year and will continue to do so.

3,500 rental licenses will be "extended one month." Meaning here is that holders of these will be billed in January and pay in February.

Ogden City, it was said, gets 1.000 new license applications received each year.

Councilman Stephens asked what the delinquent fees were, and the answer was, first 25% of the total license fee, then, if one hasn't paid in 60 days, 75%, and then it continues to go up. Between 15% and 20% of the business license holders are delinquent, and there is an appeals process.

Councilman Stephens then suggested that a sort of customer service letter be sent out with the renewal notices. Business owners could fill these out and critique the process.

In response to some input by Councilman Safsten, the process itself was then gone into. Everything must be done online, and the city staff has run into some problems because of this. The city still sends out a hard copy letter, a 7700 notice, I believe it was called, alerting people of the need to renew, but they are then directed to do this online. This year, about 1,000 people went to the municipal building to renew, being unwilling or unable to do the online process, swamping the staff, and possibly leading to this proposed change.

If one has a computer and printer, but does not wish to pay online, one can print out the remittance page and mail it in with a check. But those who have no printer, for instance, must go to the municipal building. There are computers there one can use, in a sort of pay online on site process. Staff is also there to help out. And they are also thinking about setting up a phone bank, to enable people to renew that way. "Make it simple--make it quick," is what they're trying to accomplish with this.

The motion to approve was made by Councilman Glasmann, and seconded by Councilwoman Jeske.

Then came public comments. Rulon Yorgason spoke first, and first commended the council for passing the business license ordinance. Then, he read a statement, which began:

“Two weeks ago,. our mayor inpugned the integrity of all persons in this council chamber except himself and his staff. In doing so, he bragged that his integrity was virtually unassailable. His diatribe insulted all other persons in the room, including all the members of the council.

Now to the point--The mayor has many choices to try to rectify his enormous blunder.

And three of these choices were: To apologize, to submit to a vote of censure by the council, or to "respect the voters and taxpayers who are really your bosses and resign immediately."

There was of course an anticipatory hush here, but as the council meeting process would not allow apologies, censure, resignation, or anything dealing with this question at this point, the next speaker came to the podium.

This was Sharon Beech, who asked some very timely and pertinent questions, but first----

Mrs. Beech read into the record a post from the Weber County Forum. Yes. A post from Weber County Forum is now in the official record of the Ogden City Council proceedings.

This post was the one by one of our many anonymi that detailed city employees being asked to place Lift Ogden Signs on their lawns. Ms. Beech asked that this be addressed. She also asked:

If Councilwoman Wicks had received the information she had requested pertaining to the amount of money Ogden City had spent on promoting the gondola etc. idea.

How many city employees have memberships in Gold's Gym with the fees being paid by Ogden City?

Where is Larry Miller? Did he sign a contract, and is he going to have a cineplex in downtown Ogden?

Are you working with Utah Power to get West Liberty foods in Ogden?

We were left with yet another cliffhanger, as none of this could be addressed at this point either, and the next speaker approached the podium. This was Virginia Hernandez, who began by commending the City for making the business license process easier, since this had been a problem for some of the people she works with. Ms Hernandez then went on to discuss the question of committee appointments and reappointments.

"I'm not focusing on a certain individual," she began, and went on to say that there are many committees in the city, and the council makes a lot of appointments, and she wished to know why the council continues to put the same individuals in year after year. Is it because of a lack of interest in serving on committees on the part of the public, or is it because the people who are reappointed are doing an exceptional job? "My experience has been that these people do not interact with the community," Ms. Hernandez said, and asked that the practice of reappointing the same people over and over be looked into.

Then came Administrative Comments, and Mayor Godfrey began. He began by apologizing, first to the council, and then to the people in the room. It was not, he said, his wish to offend anyone. He would never wish to do so, and therefore, "I will ask your forgiveness if I have done that."

Then he addressed the WCF post, by stating that "We would not ask city staff (to put up lawn signs.) Said that it did not happen.

(My thought here was that that really wasn't the question, and that some department head could have done this without the Mayor's knowledge--I mean, it would be difficult to know for sure that that did not happen.) Be that as it may...

He then responded to the Gold's gym membership question, and again, did not answer explicitly, (of course, having those numbers present in the forefront of the mind would be difficult and should not have been expected,) but did explain the memberships as being part of the City's "Employee Wellness Program." Participants in this program do not have to go solely to Gold's Gym, either. They can go to Lil Audrey's, or Curves, or wherever they want to go, and it seems that, because of this program, the city does pick up the tab.

Regarding committee appointments, the mayor stated that tonight, in fact, they were making a new one.

Regarding the West Liberty foods question, he stated that actually there were two companies wanting to come in. Efforts had been made to place them at BDO--however, both of them wanted to own their buildings, not lease them.

Regarding Larry Miller, one can drive by the mall site and see crews building on the Larry Miller site.

Then came Council Comments:

Councilman Stephens remarked that in his opinion, there was some public apathy as to serving on committees.

Councilwoman Wicks responded to Sharon Beech's question: "I did receive the answers to my questions this afternoon, but they're incomplete."

Councilwoman Jeske addressed the question of reappointments by stating that the council had recently approved two, and one person had served for nineteen years and the other for twenty-one. She stated that she was considering bringing up in a council work session the possibility that term limits could be imposed on these appointments, because there are many people qualified to serve.

Councilman Glasmann said: "I would be very skeptical of putting too much credence in somebody under the veil of anonymity on a blog."

The Council then went into Closed Executive Session to discuss and presumably make appointments and reappointments.

As always, those of you who were there, please feel free to add or correct. Especially in the case of the Mayor's comments, because there was a bit of crosstalk going on there.

And those of you who weren't there--what can I say? You missed a good one.