Well, it's Tuesday morning and we hope all our gentle readers survived another Christmas holiday relatively intact. For our part, we spent a wonderful day or three basically goofing off with family and friends. In short, our Christmas weekend was near-completely relaxing and enjoyable, with the exception of a few hours on Saturday, when we "joyfully" engaged for a couple of hours in our time-honored and traditional Christmas pastime -- frenzied last minute "full contact" Christmas shopping. As for goofing off, we definitely intend to do lots more of that, between now and the first of the year.
Still, we realize that we owe some obligation to those gentle readers who've become hooked on blogging at this site. And in that connection we set up yet another open thread for those gentle readers' out-pourings. Cold turkey will not be served up here, especially for gentle readers who may have found a new computer "under the tree" yesterday morning.
And to get the discussion going, we throw out two Standard-Examiner pieces, and one from New West Magazine. In keeping with our observation of the long Christmas-New Years holiday season, a couple of them even relate loosely to the extended holiday theme:
First, weight loss is a constant post-Christmas holiday topic, of course. And on that subject, what better place to look than MattGodfreyWorld for leadership? Boss Godfrey is of course the ultimate mayoral lightweight, a great source for guidance on the subject. So don't miss this Scott Schwebke front-page article explaining Boss Godfrey's program for whittling his minions and underlings down to size, and fattening their wallets in the process. Emerald City, you see, is not merely a municipal corporation that performs governmental functions -- it's also a Municipal Fat Farm, offering substantial year-end cash prizes. The photo of the elvin John Patterson removing his footwear for his weekly weigh-in is worth the price of the mouse-click, we think. We swear it's the very first time we've ever spotted him NOT text-messaging on his trusty Blackberry device
Then here's a great story of local interest -- A Hometown Boy: Ignored -- by WSU Provost Mike Vaughan. Thanks to professor Vaughan we learn that a couple of the weirdest films of all time were directed by an unsung Ogden native, film director Hal Ashby. (Ever hear of him? Us neither.) Unsung and weird; imagine that. Ignore Emerald City "homeys" at your peril, is something we ALWAYS say.
Last but nt least we link the obligatory (New-Years' oriented) locally-written piece, complaining about the dearth of State Liquor Store outlets here in the Land of Zion.
"Shop early and often" seems to be message we get from this article, as if we didn't already know that.
The floor is open. And we know the above isn't exactly the kind of "red meat political news" we like to discuss here at Weber County Forum. Still, we'll take what we can get.
At the very least, feel free to test out your new computer equipment here.
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33 comments:
HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all!
Wow...Mark Johnson has shed 70 pounds! Awesome, dude. No wonder I haven't recognized him of late. Kudos to him and everyone who sets and attains a goal.
Now that I know who Hal Ashby is, I'm gonna rent a movie or two of his. I think The Egyptian should erect a plaque to honor his accomplishments and the fact that he's a 'hometown boy'. When the Film Festival is in full swing I think it would be nice to screen a few of Ashby's movies. BTW, I hope PUBLICITY will be given to the Festival this year. We attended two indie showings. One was superb. However, Mitch Moyes, out of pocket, printed and distributed over 200 flyers downtown encouraging folks to attend the Film Festival. THAT should not have been necessary. The theatre was less than 1/3 full when we were there.
I note with sadness the passing of James Brown. I LOVE "I FEEL GOOD", as only he sang it. A most colorful guy and superb entertainer.
How sad it is that Ogden does not honor someone of such stature. I have seen all of Hal Ashby's films. Being There and The Last Detail are on my all time favorite list.
Don't forget to make your appointment to be heard by the Grand Jury Panel made up of 5 District Court judges convening at the Brigham City court house at 9:00 a.m. on January 11.
You will have 30 minutes to present your facts and proof of Ogden City's malfeasance or any other dire deed per their press release.
This is the place of last resort for the Utah taxpayer and voter to present proof of wrong doing by elected officials.
Much respected longtime 2nd District Judge Stanton Taylor of Ogden is one of the 5 Judges on the panel. The January session is the last for Judge Taylor who is now retired. Judge Taylor's retirement left a big hole in the 2nd District Court panel of judges.
The newspaper article in the Standard on December 25th states that the Panel will hear requests for a grand jury to investigate complaints of criminal behavior or malfeasance.
Webster's dictionary explains malfeasance as wrongdoing or misconduct esp. by a public official.
However, the Panel of Judges does not hear charges of malfeasance. They hear only complaints of criminal nature or felonies.
The Panel refuses to hear charges of civil misconduct by elected officials. This means that there is no recourse for a citizen to get justice when an elected official violates the Civil Statutes.
Please help me convince the legislature in the next session to pass legislation giving the Grand Jury Panel authority to convene a Grand Jury to investigate civil abuse by elected officials.
All it will take is an amendment to the Grand Jury Statutes providing power for a Grand Jury to be convened to hear matters of civil abuse.
Under present law there is no place for a citizen to turn for help against elected officials who violate Utah Statutes unless that citizen has the resources to hire their own private attorney or the knowledge to file a case pro se.
Elected officials know that under present Utah law they can do as they damn well please and that we, the citizen, is whistling in the dark to try to get our elected representatives to represent us properly as they have sworn to do.
The Grand Jury Panel will tell you that we do have recourse and that it is the County Attorney and the Utah Attorney General route.
That is the biggest joke of all because the County Attorney and the Utah Attorney General take the attitude that they are there to protect the government officials.
Please make a New Year's Resolution to use whatever influence you have with your state senator or representative to ask for help in amending the Grand Jury law to give us recourse against elected officials violating the constitution and the Utah Statutes.
I applaud Dorothy's efforts to get justice in Utah against elected representatives to force them to comply with the law and to quit building little empires in all the little towns around with their redevelopment ploys..
Anyone with info for the Grand Jury Panel should call Mark Jones at 578-3800 who is the Clerk for the Courts in Salt Lake to schedule an appointment on January 11.
Here is the chance to tell it like it is against the Lord Mayor.
Whatever became of Mitch Moyes?
he teaches spelling...care to sign up?
I'll give em hell the likes of Dorothy Littrell that is. I am going to use every influence I have to make sure liitle ladies living outside the city of ogden who represent the thoughts of less than 1% of the people change the laws because she does not happen to agree with them. Pathetic I tell ya.
Hate to rain on your parade, actual resident, but Ms. Littrell now resides in Ogden City.
It is people of low intellect like the above "actual resident" that enable corrupt politicians to do their self serving dirty work that Dorothy speaks of and fights against.
This "1%" written above is simply silly. A figure pulled from his hat, the same hat that normally covers his empty pin head.
Our society is far better off because of Dorothy and the others in Ogden who continue to point out that the emperor has no clothes.
People like "actual resident" are leeches who benefit from the brave ones who work for honesty in government, yet they never get off their lazy asses and try to make a difference.
My guess is that "actual resident" is a Godfrey sycophant, perhaps slopping from the public trough, who thinks it is perfectly OK for the little emperor to routinely break the law and disrespect the citizens of Ogden. As long as it doesn't hurt him directly it is fine that our rights and tax monies are defiled like they are in Ogden.
Go Dorothy! there are many people in Ogden that admire and respect what you do and what you stand for.
Actual:
Without addressing the particular merits of Ms. Littrell's presentation to the judges in this particular instance, let me point out that the tri-annual tour of the justices to hear citizen pleas for action, like hers, is a very good idea. It offers an opportunity for aggrieved citizens who believe they have not had their reports of criminal conduct or malfeasance taken seriously a chance to make their case before a panel of judges. And I note that sometimes... rarely, true, but sometimes... the judges agree that an investigation needs to be conducted, or even [still more rarely, but sometimes] that a grand jury needs to be impaneled to look into something citizens have brought before the circuit-riding judges.
I also note that bills of rights in the national, and Utah, constitutions exist primarily not protect the rights of the majority [in democracies it is generally presumed that majorities can protect their own rights and interests through the electoral process]. Bills of rights exist to protect the rights of minorities against the occasional "tyranny of the majority."
So the fact that Ms. Littrell's views in this matter might reflect the wishes of only 1% of the electorate... or even fewer... is irrelevant. If she can establish, to the satisfaction of the judges, the probability that criminal conduct has occurred or malfeasance in office by public officials, and that no public official has been or is likely to act on her complaints, the judges will act on her behalf. That is as it should be.
I don't know of any other state that has a procedure like this one. [There may be some, even many. I just don't know of any.] I rather like it since elected officials and their cronies in the corridors of power are notoriously unenthusiastic about investigations of their own conduct and notoriously prone to throttle such investigations, or shunt them into the hands of colleagues, allies and friends. This tri-annual circuit-riding appeals process strikes me as a very good idea.
Since so few of the citizen appeals result in actions by the judge, it is clear they set, as they should, a high bar a citizen complainant must clear before they are willing to act. But just as evidently, occasionally, they find merit in a complaint and order an investigation.
If Ms. Littrel can convince the justices of the validity of her complaint, it would not, and should not, matter at all if she was the only person in the state who thought as she did.
By the way, if she truly represents the will of only 1% of the electorate there is zero chance of her having a law changed to suit her. Your fears on that score seem wildly unrealistic.
Hard to see what you're objecting to, the more I think about it.
Right on Life long and Cumudgeon!
My take on the "actual resident" poster is that the 1% he/she wrote about is actually his/her IQ.
I believe that in the case of Ogden it is the majority that is suffering under the tyranny of the minority. Most everthing in Ogden has been backward since we have been subjected to the tyranny of Mayor Godfrey and his cabal that has taken over city government.
Ya, Ogden wasn't ass backwards before Godfrey took office in 2000. We all know that in 1999 Ogden just had way to many classy motels on Washington, and was so full of life. "Also a resident" your need to blame everything on peewee himself casts a murky cloud and siphons your argument.
in north ogden city, home of steve hunstman's home schooling center. A quick online property search shows Mrs. littrell living in north ogden and her piece of vacant land on Reeves Ave. she purchased to justify to herself for meddling into another cities affairs.
why have we heard nothing out of Tom Owens regarding Farmington's Massive concessions to an out of state developer for the 97 acre project at their new commuter rail line stop. Stay in davis county you hack.
On Ms. Littrell's residence.
Don't know. Don't care. Doesn't matter. She is a property owner in Ogden and as such has as much right to raise questions about malfeasance in Ogden governance as any other property owner [resident or non -resident] in the city. And presumably the circuit-riding justices to whom she will make her case will be either convinced to act, or not to act, by the evidence she presents to support her case. So long as she is a property owner in Ogden, seems to me she has standing to bring her complaints to the panel. Where she hangs up her Christmas stocking by the chimney with care doesn't matter a hill of beans. What matters... only thing that matters, really... is whether the case she will make before the circuit-riders has merit in their eyes or not. And on that issue, not knowing what evidence she will present, I wouldn't presume to say.
I think there are several people that should go to the Grand Jury Panel made up of 5 District Court judges convening at the Brigham City court house at 9:00 a.m. on January 11.
Any person that has witnessed the mayor saying one thing and yet doing something completely different should point this out (for example, his comments to the Sierra Club just before the last election, when asked about his intentions for developing the foothills and his subsequent actions), or where he has told one group of people that the gondola is a mass transit solution and another group of people that it’s a marketing tool, not meant for mass transit. These comments will help illustrate the lack of integrity and validate the malfeasance.
Any individual, organization or even the City Council who has filed a GRAMMA request with the administration of Ogden City and have to this point only received a partial response to their request, have received a superficial response or have been out right ignored by the City Administration should bring this up to the judges. Outstanding GRAMMA issues that I’ve heard of are, the accounting of the use of funds and the mortgage attributed to the Mt. Ogden Golf Course, the total dollars used by the city to promote the gondola scheme and an accounting of the dollars spent to date on the mall development and any cost over runs to date.
These are just a few examples of relevant issues that come to mind when dealing with this administration that should be brought forward. Remember the old adage of “the straw that broke the camel back”. Don’t be bashful.
Resident:
If I misread the intent of your post, I apologize.
I guess it is better to not own any property in ogden and just have the mayor give you a gondola to make all your money with. after all chris peterson doesn't own any property in ogden but the mayor is going to give away the farm to him. at least dorothy is tring to better our city by paying property tax. that is more than chris peterson is doing!
Yikes...some potty mouth has intruded on what sensibilities we still have.
Too often we posters get all up in arms over something and vow to attend the CC meeting and tell it like it is. Who shows up?? Me! And maybe Dan Schroeder.
Now, y'all with REAL facts abut the corruption, vengeful retaliation against employees who don't play along, malfeasance of any stripe have an opportunity, and dare I say..OBLIGATION to attend the Grand Jury meeting on Jan 11.
How many erudite, disgruntled and 'in the know' posters will actually go?
Hi Sharon,
Always an honor to be mentioned in one of your posts, but I can hardly take credit for showing up often at City Council meetings. Others are far more dedicated than I, in this respect.
Sharon and Anon:
Well, afraid we'll have to disagree again. First of all, as I understand it, presentations to the circuit-riders will not be done in public session. It's not a specator event. Second: an elected official reneging on a campaign promise does not constitue either criminal conduct or malfeasance in office. An elected official changing his mind, or adopting a policy that turns out to be either unwise or unpopular or both does not in itself constitute either criminal conduct or malfeasance in office. Being really really mad at the mayor and telling the justices that will not, I suspect, aid any claim of his having acted illegally or his being guilty of malfeasance in office. Nor is all unethical conduct illegal nor does it necessarily constitute malfeasance in office.
Unless people have what they consider to be hard and fast evidence that the present administration in Ogden has intentionally committed illegal acts or has failed to carry out the responsibilities it is by law obligated to carry out, I doubt testifying before the justices will do any good, and might in fact weaken whatever "case" others might bring before the justices regarding the Mayor.
In short, if the collective testimony regarding the Mayor's administration begins to look to the justices like a political vendetta rather than the careful, considered presentation of evidence establishing the reasonable probability of either intentional illegal actions or malfeasance in office, I doubt the justices will take any action at all.
But we shall see.
To Curmudeon,
I agree with some of what you say but I also believe that where there's smoke, there's fire. If enough people bring question as to the Administration's credibility and integity it will support a less founded but acurate claim of malfeasance. It will assist in creating "reasonable doubt".
I also feel that those individuals, organizations or even the City Council that have not had their GRAMMA requests answered by the Administration have reason to voice their concerns to the District Court judges as these are representative of government actions that are contrary to what is mandated by law.
Anon:
I would not disagree at all about the GRAMMA requests matter, though the GRAMMA requirements are often pretty vague. For example, a city government must respond to a GRAMMA request within a set period of time [ten days?], but that response can be "it's taking a lot of time to fill your request. We're working on it." Still, a pattern of unjustified delay and, more particularly, a demonstrated failure to provide materials that should have been provided but were not, are certainly matters that might be of interest to the circuit-riders.
As for the rest, we'll have to agree to disagree. "Reasonable doubt" is a standard for aquital in criminal cases, not I think the standard for impanelling a grand jury. I am not really well-versed in the standard the circuit-riders apply in these matters, but I think it's probably closer to the "preponderance of evidence" standard applied in civil matters. What that means, simply, is that something is, on the basis of the evidence, more likely than not to be true. Creating "reasonable doubt" about whether a crime has been committed or whether an official is guilty of malfeasance may not be enough to trigger a grand jury or an investigation. It may be necessary to establish that it is more likely than not that a crime has been commited or that malfeasance has occurred. But perhaps not. Perhaps the standard to trigger an investigation is lower. It could be much looser; for example, the judges just concluding on whatever grounds they personally find convincing that something needs looking into, in which case your point about evidence of lack of integrity etc. may be right on the money.
If anyone out there is familiar with the circuit-riders' tri-annual sessions, and the law regarding them, be interesting to hear from them about exactly what standard a citizen has to meet before the judges to trigger action on their part. Anyone know for sure?
This practice of circuit-riding judges hearing evidence directly from citizens is really interesting. Back in the colonial and early national period in some of the colonies and then states, like South Carolina, a similar system existed. Grand juries were at times elected by citizens of a county, and annually, usually the chief justice of the colony's supreme court came to each county to here the presentations of the grand jury, which usually consisted of a list of grievances. ["We find it a grievance that...."]. The Grand Jury of each county would then sound off on a list of things they did not like. Usually it was a way of bringing local concerns both to judicial notice and to the notice of the governor, the council [what we'd call a senate] and the elected house of representatives. It's a function of a grand jury that I thought had died out in the US centuries ago.
Then I moved to Utah and suddenly learn about its circuit-riding judges, hearing complaints directly from citizens about alleged crimes or malfeasance ignored by authorities. This is one interesting state, compadre... and getting more so every day.
The Judges do not hear cases of malfeasance..they hear only cases of crime or felonies.
They refuse to hear civil law violations.
It is a very lopsided waste of their time because most of the dirty stuff is done by the elected officials spending taxpayer funds or creating debt for taxpayers to pay.
To 'scuse me',
Refuse civil law violations, most likely but necessarily besides some people may infact have evidence of criminal acts.
In Dorothy Littrell post, her effort was to gather support for an amendment to Grand Jury law to incorporated civil law violations. It was her reading of an article in the newspaper that suggested that the panel of judges would listen to civil law violations. I quote her below,
"The newspaper article in the Standard on December 25th states that the Panel will hear requests for a grand jury to investigate complaints of criminal behavior or malfeasance.
Webster's dictionary explains malfeasance as wrongdoing or misconduct esp. by a public official.
However, the Panel of Judges does not hear charges of malfeasance. They hear only complaints of criminal nature or felonies.
The Panel refuses to hear charges of civil misconduct by elected officials. This means that there is no recourse for a citizen to get justice when an elected official violates the Civil Statutes.
Please help me convince the legislature in the next session to pass legislation giving the Grand Jury Panel authority to convene a Grand Jury to investigate civil abuse by elected officials.
All it will take is an amendment to the Grand Jury Statutes providing power for a Grand Jury to be convened to hear matters of civil abuse."
But since the paper did bring it up and because of all of the accusations that have been swirling around in Ogden, they may be willing to listen (just for curiosity sake) to civil law violations if it helps them to understand the need for these violations to be addressed in some form or fashion. The possibility of garnering their support of an amendment as suggested by Dorothy shouldn't be discounted. When and if we could get State Senators or Representatives to consider an amendment to include civil law, the opinions of the current and past panel of judges would have a strong influence on those elected officials.
We need to support those efforts to amend legislation to allow the Grand Jury to include the investigation of civil law violations.
I think that anyone that feels that the law has been broken or has seen the law manipulated in a way other than what it was intended, needs to bring these violations to the attention of the Grand Jury. Let them decide what is civil and what is criminal. If the panel decides not to listen to your concerns, no big deal but if they grant you an audience then it because they feel you may be aware of something that needs to be addressed.
Just to clarify:
Here is what the original SE story said: "The five-member panel of current and former state district judges will be available all day Jan. 18 to listen to citizen requests for a grand jury to investigate complaints of criminal behavior or malfeasance.
So unless the SE got it wrong, charges of malfeasance on the part of public officials are within the panel's purview.
Curm,
You included me in your rebuttal to Anon...I didn't come up with any of the so-called 'charges' you mention.
I only encouraged those with FACTS of wrong doing to get on the 'docket' and speak up!
Thank you
Sharon:
OK. Sorry. Sometimes trying to juggle all the "anons" posting, I guess I lose sight of who exactly said what and do more lumping together than I should. Again, my apologies.
Bottom line, if anyone knows of any wrong doing or thinks they know of any wrong doing with regards to the current city administration of Ogden, please contact the Grand Jury to find out if the panel of judges will hear your observation or experience. If you don't get in touch with the Grand Jury ahead of time then just go there in person and see if they will listen to you without a formal appointment. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
To 'scuse me:" You stated, "They refuse to hear civil law violations.
It is a very lopsided waste of their time because most of the dirty stuff is done by the elected officials spending taxpayer funds or creating debt for taxpayers to pay."
I agree that they should hear violations of civil law as well as criminal acts, but I would not call the Grand Jury a waste of taxpayer monies. I have written to the Attorney General's office of possible criminal action on Godfrey's part and heard nothing from them nor seen any indication that my complaint was even addressed. I know of people who have filed complaints on other matters that possibly were criminal or at the very least unethical and probably were acts of malfeasance with the Weber County District Attorney with no response or results. That is why Grand Juries are formed and NEEDED.
Citizens need somewhere to turn for help in fighting inappropriate and corrupt actions of elected officials.
We should take advantage of this effort to demand honesty and integrity of our elected officials.
Rudi, please remove the very offensive 27 Dec. posting of "actual resident." I would hope that you would keep this blog site free of "gutter" and trashy language. We should not have to read and debase ourselves to the level of this poster. It is an infringement on my rights and sensibilities to be subjected to such language.
I apologize to "actual resident." The offensive poster is "resident" when I just checked to make sure who posted that offensive post.
Thanks for the heads-up, proper party. We're afraid that's one useless flame we missed the first go-round. We do our level best to run a family-friendly board here at Weber County Forum, but once in a while something like that slips through the cracks.
The most effective method to complain about an objectionable comment, BTW, is to use the email link at the top of the page. Your blogmeister doesn't carefully scrutinize every post; and email missives go straight to our taskbar.
Mark Johnson is so hot!
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