By Gentle Curmudgeon
Well, this one takes the cake. I've not been overly impressed by the efficiency and ability of the Godfrey administration overall, as you all know, but I have to admit this one left me speechless. It seems the Godfrey administration successfully convinced the City Council [acting as the RDA board] to sell city property for half a million dollars to a company that didn't want to buy it! A company that is not interested in buying it and has said so flat out. Here's the lede paragraph from Mr. Schwebke's delightful story in this morning's Standard Examiner, Top of Utah front page:
OGDEN — The Ogden Redevelopment Agency agreed Tuesday night to sell a portion of the Shupe-Williams property for $268,142 to enable Chianti Holding LLC, the parent company of Contempo Ceramic Tile Corp. to build a new showroom andBut wait, it gets better. On the Godfrey Administration's recommendation, the RDA board refused to sell the land to the Union Station Foundation, which does want to buy it; and instead, agreed to sell it to the Godfrey-endorsed company which doesn't want the land.
warehouse. There just one problem.
Chianti has no plans to purchase the land that encompasses about an acre on Wall Avenue, according to Richard Pease, president of the company.
“We would like to stay where we are,” said Pease, adding of Contempo Tile is happy with its facility at 1938 Lincoln Ave.
“We are not buying it (the Shupe-Williams) property.”
I am telling you, they couldn't make up stuff this good on Saturday Night Live, the Daily Show or Letterman. [I wonder, is that how Mayor Godfrey earned plaudits as a major mover and shaker by a N. Utah business magazine lately... by offering to sell city land to people who don't want to buy it? Wow! Talk about innovative leadership!]
But wait... it get's even better. Having agreed to sell one parcel of land to a company that doesn't want to buy it, the Godfrey administration also plans to sell a second parcel at the same site to the same company... which doesn't want to buy that parcel either. From the story in this morning's SE: The city also plans to sell a second Shupe-Williams lot to Chianti Holding for about $242,000, said Community and Economic Development Director Dave Harmer.
Harmer seemed taken back when informed Tuesday night by the Standard-Examiner following the RDA vote that Chianti Holding had no plans to buy the properties.
Harmer said he would contact Scott Brown, the city’s business development manager who has been handling the land sale, about the status of the Chainti Holding’s interest in the property. Brown did not return a phone call Tuesday night seeking comment.
This is the administration that wants us all to trust its business expertise and judgement to make the non-existent Peterson Plan a success in Ogden? Yes sirree Bob, I can see businessmen and investers lined up clear to Vernal just waiting for the chance to let Mr. Godfrey, Mr. Harmer and Mr. Brown lead them in investing in Ogden.
Update 12/21/06 6:20 a.m. MT: Scott Schwebke follows up yesterday's Shupe-Williams bungled sales approval story with slightly more information this morning. Chianti Holdings still hasn't actually committed itself to buyng the property, but owner/principle Jan Kucera does at least hedge a little bit, indicating that his company is interested in the property, at least. The main obstacle, it appears, is Boss Godfrey's insistance that Chianti donate all profits (equity)from the sale of its current property to the city, Inasmuch as Chianti says it needs these monies to build-out a new facility, this presents more than a minor obstacle, we would surmise.
And the city council, which is regularly treated by the Godfrey administration as a troublesome and unnecessary "fifth wheel" of city government, appears actually united for once, taking umbrage at being made to "look like a buch of goofballs." As an added bonus, Gang-of-Six holdover Comrade Safsten frankly admits that he is "befuddled" -- something many of our regular readers had long suspected.
Meanwhile, Scott Brown insists it's all but a done deal, notwithstanding the patent denials of Chianti's CEO and controlling shareholder. And Dave Harmer calls it business as usual. And the Shupe-Williams story moves from the realm of the strange, to that of the bizarre.
32 comments:
Curm-
You're right, this is incompetency at its worst, although there are many shining examples in Ogden. I cannot believe Ogden City was going to throw this property away to begin with. With its location abutting the landmark Union Station and its approximity to the Intermodal Hub, can't a better use be put here, especially with all the talk of TODs and Mixed Use in Ogden lately. So now we have a Mayor, City Council, and City Staff (at all levels) who cannot do the right thing for the City. I am flabbergasted.
NEVER FORGET--
The big brains in Ogden's RDA who arranged this land sale deal to a company that never wanted it to start with and who also got the City Council to approve the sale that never did happen -
ALSO-
are the big brains who are building the Ogden City Junction building for Gold's Gym and FatCats on an open ended cost-plus contract with R&O Construction that is supposed to cost in the $20 million plus column.
However, the monthly rent being charged will not cover the debt amortization that taxpayers are being saddled with.
I mean, these people are mathematical geniuses besides not knowing pee-diddle about the law and constitutional issues.
But the irony is that taxpayers and Ogden residents have no recourse for stupidity except at the ballot box and we will be lucky if 10% of the voters will even show up to vote.
This is a prime example of democracy like Bush is trying to sell to the rest of the world.
December 20, 2006 11:05 AM Edit
Anonymous said...
This is more than the story of the day!
You can't blame the City Council for this one. This clearly and squarely rests with the mayor and his people. All of the people involved in this news report were appointed by and report to the mayor. The City Council relies in the administration to have their ducks in a row before these transactions comes to the Council or RDA.
Where are the checks and balances, i.e. who is Mr. Brown's direct report and where was he/she in this process? What communication was going back and forth? Where was the proposed contract between the city and the buyer to evidence the deal and who reviewed that contract? Any one of these steps or review processes would have saved us from this embarrassment, the effort and the possible disastrous results should this have been something much more important to the city. Where are the details of the deal? How can the city operate without a proposed contract on any transaction? Who validates that the deal is good for the city? This is so un-professional and for people that are supposed to be exercising a fiduciary role for the residents of Ogden, this is inexcusable.
The administration should view this as a wake up call and should review its safeguard procedures as it is apparent that what is in place is not adequate. Thank God this wasn’t something much bigger. This latest event just supports those who claim that the city does not have the proper procedures in place nor does it have the right know how to properly review business development projects involving the city.
re: 12:49 anon-
The City Council, in my mind, is to blame in addition to the other mentioned people. I respect their effort and the time they put into their work as councilmen, but they need to start asking more and better questions and start having a real vision for Ogden. Haven't there been a number of iffy staff reports and recommendations lately? If the residents of Ogden can see right through a lot of the BS, they certainly should too.
An additional consequence, per Scott Schwebke
"proceeds from the sale are to be used to fund parking garage and plaza improvements at The Junction being built downtown."
It feels like this house of cards is beginning to crumble. Unfortunately, it's OUR house that WE will be stuck paying for.
By the time these types of transactions get to the City Council they should have already been vetted. It is not the City Council job to micro-manage. Since the people that are to do the vetting all report directly or indirectly to the mayor, that is where the responsibility lies.
Sooooo...the City Council is one big rubber stamp? Makes sense.
That's not what the first ananymous was saying and you know better. If the administrations did the job it was supposed to do or hired people more interested in taking care of business than just staying in lock step with the mayor then this wouldn't be happening.
Do you thinks Curt Geiger looks over the shoulder of the child laborer that sewing his winter leasure suits, i doubt it but he better be watching his sales force or else he'll be out a job. To say that the board od directors of descente is looking at Curt is wrong to, they look to the pres of descente to watch Curt. Same with the city council vs. the mayor.
Don't forget that our recently departed numb skull councilman Glasmann is now Ogden city's real estate guru. He supposedly is the one that puts all the city real estate deals together for the s------ Scott Brown.
So instead of stumbling stupidly through proposals put before the council, Mr. C------- is now responsible for putting stupid proposals before the same council!
Curmudgeon is right, professional comedy writers in Hollywood could not come up with stuff this good.
to benny and the jets,
I really don't know either of the two men that you refer to above. Nor am I impressed with a least one of these two men's attention to detail or the others man's commitment to the city, but please add something objective to the dialog rather then just reveling in this embarrassment to all city residents and please don't make accusations about someone's lifestyle unless you know something for sure. It just detracts from yourself and marginalizes your comments. In the past you've added some valuable observations and interesting perspectives.
Hopefully after the years within the real estate business Mr Glasmann knows how to write a contract.
It isn't that Glasmann doesn't know how to write a contract...it's can he write a contract WITH A PARTY THAT REALLY WANTS TO BE A BUYER???
The Council is going to have to demand that any prospective buyer come before that body and actually declare:...'yep, we really do want to buy that Shupe property...yessiree, we do!'
This should make the news on all the channels...a new feature for all 4 TV channels: "CaN YOU TOP THIS...FROM THE TOP O' UTAH???"
Ratings would climb as viewers tune in for another hearty laugh at the mayoral and minions gaffes in Ogden.
Might even push the drug dealing, spouse abuse, armed robberies, crime sprees that make Ogden so desirable off the lead stories!
What a bunch of bozos.
Rudi:
The unsettling thing is that Mr. Harmer may be right, that this sort of thing is "business as usual" in the Godfrey administration.
Oh come do see the wizard!
The weird wizard of OZ
The wiz, the wiz, that Godfrey boz.....
where every... and everything he duz
turns into a lost coz!
Sing it loudly!
I think that godfree should go back to kissing hands and shaking babies.
opps, i mean shaking hands and kissing babies.
Competent leadership in this city should do three things,
One, it would work with other surrounding cities to come up with a collective mass transit solution to ensure that we get some of this states surplus that appears to be headed toward mass transit. Leadership that would provide a vision of a countywide solution to the mass transit challenges. A vision that would encourage the other community leaders to support and have them encouraging their residents to support our initial leg of a countywide solution. Put the first line in from the Frontrunner to WCU/hospital and then develop connections to these other communities where by they can also access WSU and the hospital.
Two, it would start paying more attention to the city needs from 20th St to 36th St and Wall to Monroe. The city needs to start providing more incentives to home ownership in this part of the city while at the same time discouraging residential rental property. This would be a perfect area for the introduction of a true mixed use zone. Additionally the city needs to increase the police coverage in this part of the city to ensure the success of this transition even if this means hiring more officers at the cost of our city’s business development budget. In the long run a safe, healthy, inviting residential environment surrounding the downtown city will only encourage use of and the desire to live in close proximity to the downtown. This will ensure the financial success of the revitalization of the downtown even more then any other option that the City of Ogden is currently entertaining.
Three, the leadership should be willing to compromise on its grandiose scheme for the city. Good leadership does not herd, it leads. Good leadership brings people together. The majority of the residents do not share the administration’s vision as to what this city should be transformed into. Accept the fact that the residents of Ogden would rather have a Bedford Falls rather than a Potterville and make this city the best example of Bedford Falls that you can.
To all, a safe and very happy holiday season.
Anonymous (the one who posted at 6:54PM on Dec 22nd.)-
If you have any suggestions for a mayoral candidate who could fit these criteria for competent leadership, please don't be shy. What are you doing next November?
Anon:
Nicely put. But hasn't the city taken some steps to encourage home ownership in the mid-city area you identify? And I agree, increased law enforcement protection mid-city is a good idea. It's more than that. It's a necessary step. But, it will mean increased costs, and probably a tax hike to fund it. Do you think voters would approve of an increase in taxes for that purpose? I'd like to think so, but I'm not sure they would. [The "all taxes are bad, no tax increase is ever necessary" strain in Utah is a powerful one.] But then, that's what a real leader could and should do: convince voters of what is needed for the benefit of all, and lead them to do what is necessary to acheive it.
Now all we need to do is find one.
To begin, we first have to deal with Schwebke. Seems like whenever Schwebke writes a pro-Administration story, he's lamblasted, ridiculed and suggested that he's anything but a decent reporter ("Ace" reporter Scott Schwebke; "crack" reporter Schwebke, and so on). But, if he writes a story that is in any way critical of the Administration, he suddenly becomes the equivalent of C. J. Chivers or some other East Coast hot shot, with the WCF "gentle readers" hanging on his every word. You all know the drill and the Shupe Williams/Chianti story jumps right out as a prime example.
That being said, there just might be another way of looking at what happened with that particular transaction, something that I've yet to read or see noted in these many "goofball" posts about the alleged collapse of the Shupe Williams/Contempo Tile deal.
To understand how this all works, one needs to know that Ogden, when it enters into a property transaction, uses the "Option." In that way, with little or no risk to the City, Ogden can tie up a property while it does its due diligence, and then, after the findings, determine whether the transaction is a good one or not. If those involved like the deal, a Purchase Agreement is entered into and away everything goes. Simple but effective stuff.
What I wonder, about the Shupe Wms and Chianti deal, is why the City Council, with a "ready, willing and able" Buyer alread secured by an Option, decided to "table" the transaction for a week, allegedly to allow the Union Depot folks to enter into the transaction?
There were several real estate deals on the RDA table that evening, and all except the Chianti deal sailed through with flying colors. I'm thinking that this "eleventh hour" twist might have been reason enough for Chianti to say "Thanks, but no thanks....we had the makings of a deal, until the CC decided to open the door and allow another player to join the game."
Maybe the CC should do its homework, make an effort to understand how business is done, and then stick to the parameters of the deal, instead of whinning that everything is such a big secret that conflict is just waiting to arise.
Curmudgeon,
The city has taken some steps to encourage home ownership in the mid-city area but not enough steps if the city wants to see any significant amount of change within the next 10 years. In addition, some of the programs that the city has initiated are not being adequately enforced because the city is so top heavy in management and doesn’t have the needed number of people at the ground level to go out and ensure that the programs are being adhered to.
As far as funding, I mentioned in the previous post that the city could divert dollars away from its business development efforts (which by comparison with what other cities spend as a percent of their total budget for business development, is way out of line with other cities, i.e. Ogden spend much more here than its counterparts) and redirect those funds toward our police efforts in this part of the city. But I would agree with you that if that still isn’t enough funding then we would need to look at other sources of funds for this increased law enforcement effort. This morning’s article about the 3 armed robberies that took place in the city in the last two days and the recent police shooting just validate this need.
To possible scenario said…
I am confused by some of your comments. First how does the use of an “Option” to purchase by the city have anything to do with a possible sale by the city? Are you suggesting that the city is giving buyers of city owned property an “Option”?
Secondly, I will admit I wasn’t at the meeting when the decision to table the sale was made but I am sure of two things. One if there was a possible second buyer, we as the city need to know who has the best option and price for the city, so I don’t have a problem with the sale being tabled if that was truly the cause for the delay. It is the City Council’s fiduciary responsibility to look at all deals to ensure that the city receives the best offer. Second, if the purchaser was truly interested and had a legitimate use for the property why wouldn’t he or she have gone through with the transaction at the later date? There was no difference in price so I have a problem understanding your logic. A week or two shouldn't have made that much of a difference in the process.
I suspect that the real reason that the sale wasn’t completed was for the reasons mentioned by the supposed buyer that the city wanted terms that the buyer wasn’t willing to agree to and that there wasn’t any real interest by the supposed buyer to buy the property as the city was presenting it. It should be noted that all the leg work and all of the details of the deal should have already been hammered out before this types of transaction came up before the City Council. Seems to me that the city administration’s people didn’t have their deal done when they forwarded the property sale proposal on to the city council. It is not the City Council’s job to do the homework; it is the city administrations job.
I am less concerned about "goofball" posts pertaining to what has been an apparent break down of city safeguards then I am about "goofball" logic trying to blame the City Council and the “goofball” lack of understanding as to what the City Council’s roles and City Administration’s roles are in the process.
Possible:
Others have replied to your post above, so I'll limit my comments to what you said regarding Mr. Schwebke and [by extension] the Standard Examiner.
Mr. Schwebke is the paper's primary city government reporter. He sometimes writes a good piece, and when he does, seems perfectly reasonably to applaud. And he often writes a thin piece that goes not much beyond press release journalism. And when he does that, seems perfectly reasonable to criticize him for it. The point is, Ogden deserves, and needs a better home town paper than it has, one that encourages its reporters to ask follow up questions, to check what those in office [Mayor or Council or anyone else] say is so to see if it is in fact so. One way to do that is, again, complain and point out failings when the SE staff falls short of the mark, and applaud when they hit it. I see no hipocracy in doing each of those things when appropriate.
Let me add that I'm not among those, some of whom post here, who would like to see the SL Trib become the main paper for Ogdenites. Want to see what Ogden has by way of its unique character and sense of community begin to atrophy until its gone for good? Eliminate its home town paper. The goal, seems to me, is not to replace the SE with the SLTrib because Ogden will, newswise, never be more than a pimple on the backside of SL City news for the Trib. The goal is, I think, to make the SE a better paper than it is now, to encourage it to encourage its reporters to dig beyond the press release, and to reward them when they do it.
I notice Ms. Holly Mullen, regular columnist for the SL Trib has resigned, her departure triggered by her editor's spiking a column she did on an event in China on grounds that local columnists should write about local stuff. Ms. Mullen in general it seems objected to the SL Trib's growing emphasis on local news at the expense of national news and other non-local coverage. I will miss her columns. But I understand the bind the Trib is in, what with 24 hour news on several cable channels and on the internet. The SE made the decision some time ago to focus nearly exclusively on local rather than the national coverage, on matters that readers could not find out about faster on CNN or Fox or CBS or dozens of websites. However, having made the decision [a wise one I think], the SE needs to make a bigger committment to making sure its local coverage is no less excellent than the best of national coverage in the best of national papers [insert whichever national paper you think is best here].
And that, I think, to date, the SE has not done. Or done well enough.
A sidebar to "possible."
"To begin, we first have to deal with Schwebke. "
Schwebke takes his lumps here when he's lazy... reportorially.
He deserves and gets kudos, on the other hand when acts like a real reporter, and breaks JUICY STORIES...
Just as he did here.
Fair is fair.
Funny you fail to grasp that. You must be dumber than a brick. Obviously you know nothing about the newspaper business.
And you have NO CONCEPT AT ALL about how a purchase option works, do you, Glasmann?
An aside to our gentle readers...
The lumpencitizens of Emerald City tremble at the thought that the Godfrey-turncoat numbskull still appears here to post his grotesque illogic.
Worse still, the dope still works as an alleged real estate professional, in the Emerald City Redevelopment Department.
Dang is this city F*%&ed up or what?
We'll fix this problem in November 2007.
Don't think for a minute that the numbskull can't be fired by the new mayor.
We read his post, and it's obvious he is plainly incompetent.
The question was asked of his highness and royal court when Cabela's was announced for Lehi..."Why didn't YOU (Godfrey) go after Cabela's...the usual dead stare was the answer.
You are right, Mono, if we are the ski hub of the Rockies, seems like a Cabela's would be just the right enterprise for Ogden.
Maybe Geiger should have been hired instead of Glasmann.
Well, the people to ask about why the big box sporting goods chain store Cabelas located in Lehi would be... the management of Cabelas, not the Mayor of Ogden. Is there a market in Ogden sufficient to drive the volume sales Cabelas needs to operate profitably? [I don't know.] What did their market research show? Etc. etc. Cabelas opening in Lehi does not necessarily mean Ogden "lost" that store. Ogden may, given what Cabelas' market research showed, may never have been in the running to begin with.
Coupled with this: the arrival of Cabela's in Ogden might mean the several smaller ski/outdoor shops in town would go under [Cabelas being to sports marketing what Wal-Mart is to general marketing].
Might it have been "getable" for Ogden and might it have been a good match? Possibily. All I mean to suggest here is that store locations are decided by owners and management according to, often, a wide variety of criteria, and we do not, I think, know what convinced the Cabelas chain to settle on LeHi for their latest opening.
REI will be coming to the American Can Project soon.
Watch for the announcement after New Years.
Ogden needs to stop relying on companies like the Boyer Company to do all of it's leg work and start doing the work itself.
Ogden continually subs out its most important part of it's business development activity to third parties. This is both costly to the city as these parties are not the United Way when it comes to their compensation that they recieve for their services and limiting to the city in that these companies, like the Boyer Company, send their best prospective stores to where the easiest location is to place them (where they have to do exert the least amount of effort to convince the store that that is the best location for that store relative to the commission that they are going to recieve) or flat out where their commission is the highest (and the city has no ability to see all of the otions that might have been out there nor what the incentive might have had to be to have that store move to our city).
Ogden is using brokers to find clients rather than making all of our highly paid guns that the mayor has hired do their job. If all they can do is wait for the phone to ring or call a broker to do their job then we have the wrong people in the jobs.
Ogden should get away from using the services of brokers or get rid of our highly paid BD guys that are acting more like hourly call center employees.
Interesting piece in this morning's SE to the effect that Utah in general, and Weber County in particular, are apparently very good places [comparatively speaking] for women to start businesses. Successful businesses.
Rudi,
If you are correct that "possible scenario" is indeed "Glasmann" then this is truly insightful as to both the character of the man and of the administration that would continue to have him.
This individual, if it is as you suggest, should know the divisions of responsibilities between the City Council and the Administration, so the comments that were made by this person were clearly made to either deflect responsibility from this FUBR or are an intentional effect to spread mis-information.
In either case, if this individual is as you say and the City Administration is aware of either of these efforts (and we all know the mayor reads this blog), then the administration is derelict in its responsibilities to protect the city’s integrity by not distancing itself from this individual.
Under what circumstances would it be in the city's best interests to grant a buyer of city ownered property an option on the property?
If the city is trying to sell the property and the buyer is trying to buy it, then it would make sense for the buyer to take an option to lock in the deal while said buyer tries to raise financing or package other properties which may be necessary to accomplish his goals. It would be to the city's benefit only if they were having a hard time selling the property otherwise and they didn't want to lose the buyer.
As the seller, the city would not however go around looking for buyers to take options on the property. The option thing is almost always for the convenience of the buyer, not the seller.
Seems to us we've gone off-track with this theoretical "options" discussion.
As we understand it, Chianti holdings neither owns a paid for option, nor have they negotiated for one. Nor do the "genises" of the Ogden City own the same with regard to any Chianti holdings" property.
So somebody please explain why are we wasting our time with this irrelevancy?
Rudi:
Well, for one thing, it generated an explanation of why someone might want, and why a city might grant an option on property it was hoping to sell. Knowing as I do next to nothing about commercial property development, I found "another realtor's" post informative.
Rudi,
You're right, we've gone off track. Bottom line that no one wants to pick up on and run with is that the administration of this city is running amuck and doesn't know what the heck it's doing. If they can't even get a small deal like this right, how in the hell are they going to manage an even bigger project. The city leaders are setting the residents up to have our pants pulled down so we can receive a bare bum spanking of the likes that no one has ever seen. The city needs to stop all forward movement on any and/or all BD projects or land transactions until the administration can assure the residents and the City Council that it has re-established the needed checks and balances. That those checks and balances can be demonstrated to be in place to safely transact business in the name of the city and to the satisfaction of the City Council.
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