Double-header Tonight

By Rudizink

Thanks to reporter Brandy A. Lee's morning story, the Deseret Morning News provides us a partial preview of tonight's council double-header, during which the city council will address the two hottest political issues that have been recently boiling, here in the Land of Oz:

• The proposed Dustin Chapman Planning Commission Nomination
  
• Public Safety Officer Pay

In that connection we offer the these select exerpts from tonight's council agenda, which is available in full on Emerald City's most excellent website:

1. Planning Commission Appointment. Consideration of the appointment of Dustin Chapman to the Planning Commission. (Approve/not approve appointment – roll call vote)
   
2. Employee Negotiation Review Workgroup. Proposed Resolution 2006-22 proposing an Employee Negotiation Review Workgroup. (Adopt/not adopt resolution – roll call vote)
   
3. Pay Standards. Proposed Ordinance 2006-51 amending Section 2-6-9 to amend the pay standards by rescinding the new standards recently adopted for classified employees and readopting the previously applicable standards; and providing that the ordinance will be retroactive to July 1, 2006. (Adopt/not adopt ordinance – roll call vote)
   
4. Salary Schedule. Proposed Ordinance 2006-52 adopting new salary schedules for all members of the classified service; and providing that the ordinance will be retroactive to July 1, 2006. (Adopt/not adopt ordinance – roll call vote)

We believe tonight's agenda presents the ideal opportunity for our new council, which has been floundering a bit of late, to finally stand up and assert itself, and to correct some of the errors and bad management practices of the current mayoral administration, which have caused Emerald city considerable recent embarrassment.

We've already had plenty of discussion on both these issues, so we won't delve further into the merits here.

Instead, we call upon the handicappers amongst our gentle readership to predict how tonight's vote will shake out. Will Boss Godfrey's radical young pro-gondola accolyte land a seat on the counsel, despite strong evidence of personal bias and deceptive conduct? Will the council vote unanimously to correct the pay plan inequity which was the real core issue about which our public safety officers had rightfully complained? Will the council demonstrate a commitment to the highest ethical standards, and reject the "power politics" of the past? Will the council "choose the right?"

And one other thing. If any one of you has forgotten to contact the council, to register your own opinion on either of these topics, we are pleased to inform you that council contact information is just as close as this link.

Both Dian and your humble blogmeister expect to be in attendance at tonight's meeting, and we'll post a report as soon as we can.

In the meantime, let us hear your predictions. How do our gentle readers predict each individual member will vote?

Oh. One other thing -- and this on an entirely different topic. One of our gentle readers, the owner of a prominent downtown business, spent some time last night googling and burning the midnight oil, and compiled and submitted this wonderful digest of articles, relevant to the still-mysterious Chris Peterson project. Perhaps we can all stew on this material, while we breathlessly await tonight's council meeting results.

The floor is open, gentle readers.

Please don't let the cat get your tongues.

Update 8/15/06 9:55 p.m. MT: For those gentle readers sitting on the edges of their seats, awaiting the score from tonight's council double-header... we post this brief update:

• Police and firefighter corrective ordinances: All three ordinances passed.
• Dustin Chapman Nomination: Continued two weeks, while the council gathers more information and conducts an interview with the candidate.

Stay tuned for Dian's full write-up.