This morning's Standard Examiner edition features two articles we think to be worthy of special note.
First, on the front page is this Scott Schwebke story, reporting on the the city administration's response to a formal inquiry on Gondola project expenditures, (requested by Councilwoman Wicks to the Mayor's office a full two months ago.) Aside from the fact that obtaining this information was apparently the governmental equivalent of pulling teeth, Councilwoman Wicks remarks that the information provided by the uber-secret Boss Godfrey is woefully incomplete. As to the the specific deficiencies that Councilwoman Wicks mentions, Ace reporter Schwebke of course offers his readers no clue.
Being the curious type, your blogmeister dialed out to Ms. Wicks this morning, in an attempt to fill in some of reporter Schwebke's "loose ends."
According to Ms. Wicks, Boss Godfrey's belated response falls short in the following general respects:
- It reports only "hard expenditures," i.e. cash outlays expended in the select areas Mr. Schwebke's story mentions;
- Neglects to report "soft expenditures," such as city staff monies expended in pursuit of the select items that are addressed;
- Entirely ignores expenditures releted to gondola promotions on the city website and television station;
- Fails to specify expenditures for the gondola propaganda recently incuded with city water bills;
- Omits any information on the Boss Godfrey's recent Washington, D.C. junket, wherein he visited with members of Utah's congressional delegation, in the company of gondolist Curt Geiger;
- Fails to apportion expenditures of the recently-completed "corrider study" which were directed toward the study of gondolas;
- Neglects to take into account portions of city staff expenditures related to the scores of private meetings and public events that were recently conducted to promote the gondola scheme.
Readers should also find mirth and amusement in Boss Godfrey's typical paranoic pronouncement:
"It’s clear Amy Wicks is against the proposal and what she is doing evidently is trying to build a case with the spending that is going on," he said.
While this may be "clear" to our highly visionary Boss Godfrey, who always operates in a world of his own, the always-wry Councilwoman Wicks' retort makes short work of the poor little guy:
Wicks said she is offended by Godfrey’s remarks. "We (the City Council) have yet to receive a proposal, and I’ve never voiced opposition to the project," she said. "If asking questions is problematic, then why do we have a system of checks and balances?"
And for our added intellectual consumption, this morning's Std-Ex serves up this thoughtful Gretchen Fluhart Guest Commentary. With Frontrunner Commuter Rail coming to town in 2008, she asks, what's the big rush to grant Chris Peterson first rights to our treasured Mt. Ogden Parkland? She proposes that future development be handled prudently and sequentially, once we've had a chance to assess the impact of our new commuter rail system.
We have to concur with Gretchen on this for the most part, inasmuch as none of us can accurately predict the economic impact Frontrunner will have on our city.
And although Ms. Fluhart's article brims with optimism about the arrival of Frontrunner commuter rail in our town, we must also offer a cautionary note.
Like many citizens of Junction City, Ms. Fluhart predicates much of her exhilaration about pending economic development on statistics compiled in connection with urban light rail , such as San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit sytem. Light rail systems like BART, which operate on extended schedules, with multiple stops during the operational day are very different from commuter rails systems like Frontrunner, of course, whose schedules are focused on providing service mainly during normal commuter hours.
In this connection we are linking this excellent Wilf Sommerkorn article, wherein he analyzes some of the rosy assumptions of folks who believe that Frontrunner commuter rail will be the next best thing to the "coming of the railroad" in 1869.
Alright, gentle readers. We now turn the floor over to you.
Who will be the first to launch the comments that will take us into the coming weekend?
Trivia Update 7/15/06 1:23 p.m. MT -- Q: What world-famous Emerald City climbing celebrity is the older brother of Gretchen Fluhart?
Stumped? Click here to find out.
