By Rudizink
Weber County Forum regulars will recall a discussion held here a couple of months ago, wherein your humble blogmeister gave our gentle readers a rare homework assignment. Thinking at the time that "it would be a fine idea to set up a separate thread to document in one place the variey of lies and tall tales that have recently appeared in glossy brochures, crazed Lift Ogden spam emails, and even our beloved newspaper of record, the Substandard-Exaggerator," we elicited a spirited series of reader comments, with the ultimate intention of compiling them all on one of our archives pages with some clever title, such as "Emerald City Gondolist Tall-Tales," or something equally catchy.
Alas, like many projects of such grand scale, this project soon found its way to the back-burner (the back-back-burner actually;) and we never quite got around to creating our own tall tale compendium, despite our best intentions.
It's in that connection that we spotlight an article which we received last night from one of our gentle readers. It seems that one of our readers has not only continued diligently working on this homework project, but has in fact also completed your blogmeister's portion of the assignment as well.
We are thus delighted to be able to put the Weber County Forum spotlight on the following Dan Schroeder piece, which lists in meticulous detail the most "significant and documented factual deceptions committed by the principal gondolists...".
Entitled The Peterson Proposal: A Chronicle of Deception," this article is a scholarly masterwork, we believe. As set forth in the author's own disclaimer, the list is not comprehensive, but is limited to those items considered "significant and well-documented." Yes, gentle readers, there's much more.
We invite our gentle readers to give this article a good long read. We urge you to print it out and send it to all your friends and neighbors. We even suggest that you email it to everyone in your email address books. What the heck! Frame it and hang it on your living room wall.
A Weber County Forum "tip o' the hat" to Dan Schroeder for putting this all together. The gentle townsfolk of Emerald City refuse to be hoodwinked and befuddled, and we thank Mr. Schroeder for helping us keep the facts straight.
We'll be adding this article to our right sidebar later today. You'll be able to find it in our upcoming "crime & ethics" module.
Comments, anyone?
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
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18 comments:
Dan
Thank you! It’s great to see all the fiction vs. facts finally collected into one informative read!
I think the most egregious part is that a lot of this mis-information is being propagated, spread, and reinforced by our own city government – an entity which should be neutral, unbiased, and working toward the greater good of the community!
It’s like the administration and LO think that if they keep repeating the same line(s) long enough that somehow it(they) will become true (like Wikipedia or the Bush administration).
On Dan's Excellent work:
Very good to have the deceptions...yes, deceptions... of the Mayor and others not only conveniently collected in one place, but also documented. It is sad that Mr. Schroeder ended up doing the fact-checking that the news staff of the SE ought to have been doing all along.
And kudos to Rudi for posting the Dan's piece, "A Chronicle of Deception."
Dan,
Great job, thank you for your efforts.
Putting together a list of the major fabrications, inconsistencies and twisting of facts together in one article. We all know that projects evolve over time and as such, aspects change. That’s one thing, but the points that you bring out in your article are not of that nature. These are intentional efforts to sway people with disinformation of facts in order to keep their project alive. It’s too bad that the actual facts can’t and won’t support this project (or else why won’t they provide them) and that we have people in our community that would lie to us to further their own causes at our expense.
Relative to risk, I thought that Peterson's attorney was also asking Ogden City to provide bonding for this project. If I heard this right, this is not only a subtle transference of a huge amount of the risk to the project to Ogden City, but it also increases our financial contribution.
What about handing out copies outside the City Council meeting? Wasn't LO permitted to distribute their propaganda there?
Better yet, have the City include it with our monthly water bills?
Great format and organization to see all the info at once like that. I didn't happen to see the Snow Basin connection mistruth on there. I am sure there are more and it should just keep ongoing.
It would be good if Weber State just told Peterson that they would not sell the land. It would change everything. Peterson has said that it is all or nothing. If WSU spoke up now there would sure be a lot of time not wasted.
City Planning Commission could also put a stop to all this if the findings are that we are under on need of Ogden's open space in their study and research. That alone will put a block on the project by NOT ammending the General Plan. It is not zoned to sell. City Council would have to look at that recommendation from City Planning seriously.
All the details of what they say and what lies/mistruths/exagerations they tell would not even be relevent if WSU just said NO!
Great work. Amazing how facts vs. fiction, truth vs. lies tell it all. Thanks for the info so organized.
yes, the planning commission could put a stop to this. too bad that at lease 3 of the memeber (yes three now that ron wheelwhright has tendered his resignation) will be nothing but mayoral/LO pawns!
Lil Lisa...
Actually that is not a fact yet about the Mayor getting three people into City Planning Commission. Dustin Chapman is still waiting to be interviewed by City Council before they decide if he is even appointed. Lets hope not. That will be for September's meeting agenda. It is not too late to let them know your thoughts on that by email or phone. The other appointment has not been made yet and I would find it bold and foolish for the Mayor to nominate another obvious Lift Ogden person especially after all the press, feedback and reactions he got from the community over Chapman's nomination. He was caught and I doubt he would stir that hornets nest again now that the people are aware and awake on that subject. That nomination still remains to be made by him. Keep an iii on this as it will be interesting. So there is hope. He did get one Lift Ogden person in. Janith Wright slid in undetected but she says she will be open and neutrel. We shall see.
convict matt godfrey
Well, let's all hope that the city council will not approve DC's nomination, and seriously scrutinize any other appointments the mayor puts forth.
Although, there are plenty of LO supportors who haven't been quite so vocal. Since the Mayor is the one who makes the reccomendations, I serously doubt that we will get anyone who is truly unbiased in this matter.
Dan! A masterful work!!!
Thank you so much. It is a sordid story of deception and chicanery so blatantly pepetrated on the citizens. You've made it so easy for us to understand and I've emailed it to several people already. Some don't live here but have repeatedly asked me about 'your mayor and his gondola'.
Interesting and embarrassing at the same time.
This is a keeper. Send it to the Council...and the mayor. Urge your friends to email it also.
Thanx, Rudi, for making this possible to read.
Seems the brothers Cannon
Need a good hide tannin'
Chris givin' Joe favors galore
Giving away the Federal store
Next time 'round..let's ban 'em!
Ogden iii,
Problem is, both the WSU President and the Commissioner of Higher Education stated in an Op-Ed piece in the Oct 15 2005 Standard-Examiner that there can be no up-or-down decision on the land sale until they have an actual proposal on the table.
The land actually belongs to the people of the State of Utah, held for them and controlled by the Board of Regents, and as a responsible government entity, the Board can't act on anything unless it has a proposal.
Great work, Dan.
I see. It seems everybody involved is waiting for a proposal from Peterson rather then just a lot of hot air. City Council, City Planning and the WSU Board of Regents. What is amazing is how much time and energy has been spent and wasted on this "plan" that has no plan by the city and the community. Nobody has seen anything solid and all the city depts are busy doing work for it as if it were already presented to us. How have we come so far without a single plan? Just alot of lip service and the LO folks talk as if there is a solid plan. There is not. If and when he puts up a plan, perhaps we can actually take action and really know what he has in mind and the facts of it all.
I was forwarded an email by a friend who somehow got on the Lift Ogden email mailing list from Bob Geiger telling of all the locations they have had signs. It included a map showing pin marks of where they had them all and stating that he was writing to squash a rumor that the reason is because they were embarrassed of how few they had out. He also states that their job is done because City Council has begun discussions. I sure dont see how that is true. This is not going to the public vote so nothing has changed. I know they were wanting to rally up support from the community to have folks join their group. They also asked that Smartgrowth remove their signs too for the same reason. That is nonsense. Now is the time to put more signs up staing: Ask Questions. Just because they have started discussions is more reason to have the signs up and ask questions.
Also the Mayors office sent an email press release to this same friend who sent it to me telling of the Lift Ogden signs being removed. Like it is City official business.
The saga continues....
Two Bits says that if WSU turns the Peterson deal down Peterson and the Little Lord will sharpen their pencils and come up with a new plan that doesn't require the College participation.
Even tho it has been stated by the LO PR machine time and again that the College land is absolutely necessary for this scheme to proceed, the fact remains that this group of sharpies is very flexible and adaptable. Nothing is ever exactly as they portray it.
So if the College says no, the LL and LO will double their efforts of getting the city lands on the cheap with a new and revised plan "B". or is it "F" or "G"?
The way I see it is as a race to the finish line. The finish line will be the election of Nov 07. Just a little more than a year out. We must remove the LL from office once and for all. Sort of the stake through the heart kind of idea. Till then this gondola monster could raise its ugly head and bite us squarely in our tax paying asses - big time.
If the arrogant little dude can possibly jamb this obscene gondola scheme down the tax payer's throats before then, he will surely do so.
Agree with you, Ozboy...that it won't be over til it's over.
More signs from SmartGrowth...
That 'resort' and gondola to Malan's ain't never gonna happen...cuz that isn't what CP really wants. That was the carrot he thot the bunnies down here would bite.
What's going on with Matt Jones????
Matt Jones is still being held hostage to the morally bankrupt Chief and his inner henchmen who are doing the alledged "internal investigation"
They will take their time to see if the story dies down and then they may very well quitely fire him for these trumped up charges.
Hopefully Jones will be well lawyered up and jamb it down Godfrey's and Greiner's throats.
The two G's really ought to pay the price for this horrid behaviour they are demonstrating toward the citizens of Ogden, and for their flagrant abuse of their Constitutional rights.
FREE MATT JONES
Let's not let it die down! Let's keep maligned Matt Jones in the public eye.
What happened with the 'gentle reader' who had his signs stolen?
Did he put up another? Where?
Is the ACLU taking Matt's cse? If so, when can we hear something?
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