Emerald City Council Hoodwinked Again

SE Scores Scoop on St. Anne's Story

By Curmudgeon

Now this is a newspaper hitting on all eight cylinders. The Standard-Examiner has a front page story by Scott Schwebke revealing that the St. Anne's board is "not on board" with the move, that it has not told the Godfrey administration that it favors the move or even that it can carry it out successfully, and that it has pretty much been caught off guard by the city's asking for a $1 million state subsidy to pay for part of the move.

Two passages are particularly telling. Here's one: "The council placed the request on the list after being assured by Ogden Chief Administrative Officer John Patterson that the St. Anne's board is supportive of the building project."

Here's the other: "City Councilwoman Amy Wicks, who has asked Patterson several times for guarantees that St. Anne's board supports the project, said the proposal may have to be removed from the city's legislative wish list."

One of the St. Anne's people noted that there is as yet nothing for the board to indicate it favors, since there is as yet "no proposal" on the table. [Hmmmm... sound familiar? The administration claiming support for and asking for action on a proposal that does not yet exist...? Imagine that.]

Looks like Mr. Patterson and the Godfrey administration [aka The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight] has managed to reprise its stirling performance in the Shupe-Williams property sale matter, where it assured the Council the sale was a done deal, the Council approved the sale only to discover the the people the council had approved selling to didn't want to buy the property. And now, the Godfrey administration has assured the Council the St. Anne's board is fully on board and committed to the move, the Council on that assurance adds a million dollar grant to it's lobbyist's want list at the legislature, only to discover that what the administration had told it is not so.

We have to start wondering, and I hope the members of the Council are now wonder, how many times the Godfrey administration is going to hang them out to dry, is going to assure them of "facts" that are not facts, to give them guarantees as a means of urging the council to action that turn out to be worthless. Why would anyone take the Godfrey administration's word, delivered through its spokesmen like Mr. Patterson, as good any more?

Finally, kudos to the SE and Mr. Schwebke for this morning's story. Damn fine work, seems to me. Damn fine work.