Keep the Fires Burning, Joe

We find two stories this morning in our home-town newspaper which ought to be of interest to our gentle readers.

First in immediate importance, Scott Schwebke reports that our Emerald City RDA is taking immediate remedial action to prevent further occurrences of Boss Godfrey insider dealing:

OGDEN — The Ogden Redevelopment Agency is considering a new policy to require “full disclosures” from property buyers before it approves future land sales.
The RDA, made up of the city council, may vote to adopt the policy on March 6. The proposed policy changes follow complaints from the RDA that it was not notified by Community and Economic Development Director Dave Harmer that would-be developer Chris Peterson owns Bootjack LLC, which has been granted an option to purchase three RDA parcels downtown.
The proposed policy change comes on the heels of the community and economic development director’s failure to voluntarily divulge the name of the principals of Bootjack LLC in spite of the obvious public significance and interest to the board of this fact,” the RDA said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

We're thrilled that the RDA board seems disinclined to just let this matter pass. And we're encouraged by this Council Chair Garcia quote:

“The board needs to ensure there is full disclosure of who is involved when the RDA is selling property,” Garcia said in a prepared statement.
“The board desires to have a cooperative, trusting and open relationship with those city employees who provide services to the RDA. The lack of communication in this case (the land sale involving Bootjack) does not foster this type of relationship.”

Boss Godfrey needed to be called on the carpet, and it appears the RDA Board is doing just that.

We would further suggest the RDA Board also look into implementing policy to provide adequate public notice to all potential buyers whenever RDA properties are to be sold. In a comment in a lower thread, Curmudgeon suggested a 30-day public notice period whereby outside offers would be publicly solicited and entertained any time an RDA property had received a single purchase offer. Not a bad idea, we think, although we believe a 90 day MLS listing would be a better solution. RDA policy should require that "surplus" properties always be advertised publicly. Implementation of such a procedure would allow the free market to peg the true fair market value, and would eliminate criticism that properties were sold at below-market prices.

Secondly, Utah has again joined the ranks of states which permit condemnation and seizure of private property for economic development purposes. House Bill 365 sailed through the Senate in the final day of the legislative session with a unanimous 26-0 vote yesterday, we learn from this morning's Jeff DeMoss story.

A room-ful of grinning Utah senators yesterday applauded the legislature's latest foray into communalist practices. The new legislation of course has a gimmicky majoritarian twist. From now on, individual proprty rights will exist subject to the whims of neighborhood apparatchiks:

Unlike a previous law that was repealed in 2005, where a single property owner could hold up an entire project, HB 365 requires an 80 percent majority of residential owners or 75 percent of commercial owners in a project area to give approval in petition form before redevelopment authorities can exercise eminent domain.
A project could also be cleared with approvals representing the equivalent of 70 percent of total residential property value or 60 percent of commercial value in the area.

The bill's sponsor, Comrade Senator Scott Jenkins, uttered an odd comment upon passage of the bill yesterday:

“What ends up happening a lot of times is the minority ends up trumping the majority,” Jenkins said.
“You end up in a situation where one person can make it so the rest can’t get rid of their property. This sets a very, very high standard for the majority.”

Some of us were heretofore unfamiliar with the notion that individual property rights ought to be subject to the whims of the majority in America. And since when is it the proper role of government to help dissatisfied property owners "get rid of their properties, we ask?

Somewhere in a warm very warm place down near the earth's core, Old Joe Stalin has to be smiling.

"Keep the fires burning, Joe," we muse. "Comrade Senator Jenkins will be joining you down there one day soon."

The floor is open.