Boss Godfrey henchman squirms at the prospect of refunding a $900 thousand state grant
By Curmudgeon
This morning's Standard Examiner bumps the $900K grant story to the first "Top of Utah" page, promoting it from the side bar of the previous day. And it's also on the free Std-Ex site.
As for the assumption made by some that Ogden will be found in violation and have to repay, the article says this: GOED spokesman Clark Caras told the Std-Ex the fact that the Governor's Office of Economic Development is looking into the matter "doesn't mean GOED suspects the grant funds have been handled improperly." "We haven't seen anything wrong," he said.
Further down, the story quotes Ogden's director of community and economic development, Dave Harmer. He is, he told the Examiner's Scott Schwebke, "confident that plans... to transform the complex into the North American headquarters for Amer Sports Corp. fulfills the intent of the grant."
"The original purpose of the grant," he told Schwebke, "was to help the city save a historic building ... for productive economic use." Harmer also said that "the definition of what constitutes a high-tech center is vague, adding that Amer, which uses cutting edge technology, enables the complex to meet the intent of the agreement."
I don't know if the city's use of the grant followed the terms of the grant or not. But I do know this: the kind of breezy sophistry Mr. Harmer peddled to the Std-Ex is exactly the kind of thing that undercuts public confidence in government --- all government --- and leads to the kind of democracy-crippling cynicism about government I see in students every day.
If Mr. Harmer's view is right, that "high tech center" doesn't really mean "high tech center," that the term is so vague that it can mean virtually anything... or nothing... that "hey, the building will have some machines in it, some of them new. Close enough" is a significant and truthful response to the questions raised, then we have to wonder what the point is of the Governor's Office of Economic Development granting money for any particular purpose at all. It might as well just hand bundles of cash over to cities, regardless of what the cities claim they will do with the money, and say "Here's the loot. Do whatever you like."
Of course, Mr. Harmer may not be entirely objective about all this, since he signed the grant approval when he was working as executive director of the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
Which leaves Harmer in the interesting position of arguing that that Harmer guy working for the state signed a grant so vague and full of terms so ill-defined, that that Harmer guy working as Ogden's director of economic and community development, can recommend the City's doing pretty much anything with the building the grant helped pay for, so long as it has some new machines in it someplace.
Becoming clearer by the day why Mayor Godfrey thought Mr. Harmer would be a good fit for his administrative team.
And in Mayor Godfrey's Ogden City, the beat goes on....
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37 comments:
I've heard companies like AmerSports uses computers for email and designing outdoor clothing using high tech fabrics. They likely use Blackberries for personal communication. Sounds like a "high tech" company
Gee...I hope I can get a diploma in high tech studies from Amer!
That IS what Harmer is saying, isn't it?
Or is that Godfrey? Did I see Harmer sitting on Godfrey's knee while Matt pulled on that little string in the back of Dave's head?
I wonder just exactly why Harmer was fired! from or by the Huntsman administation. I know that there is some incompetence here. This whole issue is about accountability and I think that the godfrey administation is having a bit of trouble coming to grips with accountability.
Heck, I know a rancher who uses a cell phone. Maybe he can cash in on the high-tech gravy train...
See-
Harmer was let go because Huntsman gutted much of the previous administration when he took office. Huntsman had hand selected several people before he even took office, as soon as he was elected and put in office he made the changes, as is fairly typical in government. It had nothing to do w/ Harmer's work on the job. Many people who worked under Harmer thought he was a great leader, some didn't. Overall his performance was on par with others who held that type of position. It is definitely a stretch to call him incompetent. In the end he works for the Mayor. I don't intend to gloss things over nor do I mean to overgeneralize, but I feel that he, like all other skilled professionals working for the city at this point in time, are being stifled by Hizzonah.
Questions:
1. Why would Dorothy Littrell (one of my heroes, by the way) want the 900 grand for the Can Building returned in any case? As long as the state (or the feds) are throwing money out the windows (as they are always doing,) why not try to have as much as possible land here?
2. Whether the land is developed as this or that, as long as it is developed well, what is the problem?
3. Why would anybody mind Harmer or anyone else weaseling money to be spent in Ogden, again, as long as it is spent for something useful?
I have concerns with the tax increment issue with the Can Building, as usual, and relating to yesterday’s thread I despise having Godfrey be the Lord of Ogden saying what can go here and there. After all, he has no qualifications other than having won an election of a small Utah city – some qualification. Why is he telling people who’ve been making money here for decades (chrome and welding) what they can do with their property and treating them as undesirables? Godfrey is the antithesis of what I believe in.
But I don’t get why Ogdenites would want to see the 900 grand returned on the Can Building. I’m not trying to throw rocks, I just don’t get that one.
Good points Danny.
Doesn't Ms. Littrell live in North Ogden? From what I recall, she did not too long ago, anyway. Not that where she lives should discredit her points or her motives. It is worth mentioning at least.
Danny,
First of all, the money of $900,000.00 was brought here under a lie. Godfrey himself was at the legislature pushing for this money. He profoundly said he wanted a high tech center in ogden to bring in much needed high paying jobs. That has been a lie. He announced when he ran for re-election in 03 that the high tech center was on its way. That is a lie. What if I went to you and asked to have some money to rebuild my house and then went off and bought a car with it. wouldn't you be upset.
Jill,
Your info on Dorthy is wrong she lives and owns property here in ogden. so that argument just doesn't fly anymore
Danny:
I don't want Ogden to have to return the money either, Danny. Nevertheless, it is not good for the city to have its Administration playing fast and loose [if that's what they did] with the terms of a significant state grant.
What is really sad is that all of Dave "Full Disclosure" Harmer's tap dancing about the vagueness of "high tech center" was entirely unnecessary. As unnecessary as his refusal to tell the RDA Board [aka the City Council] who was trying to buy RDA land downtown as Bootjack LLC [i.e. the Mayor's associate, Mr. Peterson.]
An administration committed to dealing openly and honestly with the public and press and the Council as a matter of conviction and policy would have, could have, should have, handled it differently.
Here's how such a principled administration might have dealt with the recent SLT and SE stories. The mayor [not Mr. Harmer who is in the awkward position of reviewing and commenting on a decision he himself made when in state government] would have called a press conference and said this:
"My administration applied for the grant to acquire and renovate the American Can building as a high tech center. We tried. We made what any reasonable person would agree was a good faith effort to do that. I can document all the calls I made, the meetings I attended, the trade show presentations I did, trying to attract high-tech firms to make the plan work as proposed. I gave it my best shot and it didn't work. I wish it had, but it didn't.
At that point, we went ahead with a new plan for the building that fulfilled at least a part of the original grant goal [preserving a historic building] and which also, if successful, as it has been, would result in increased business in Ogden, more jobs, and increased tax revenues for the City and the County and the State. Which were also goals of the original grant.
So: we made a good faith effort to fulfill the terms of the grant, and when that failed, we turned to a new plan using the building the grant helped buy, a plan that would fulfill, and has fulfilled, at least some of the original purposes of the grant. I think we met the terms of the grant as best we could, and the state should not, and will not, demand return of the money.
Any questions?
But that's not how the Godfrey administration works. Recall the Mayor's not telling the Council about the alleged "gondola study" he says he's got, but doesn't know who paid for, and the contents of which he won't reveal? Remember the concealing of Peterson's involvement in Bootjack? Remember the handshake golden parachute arranged for Mr. Reid [I think it was] unknown to the Council? The list goes on and on.
And all it would take to end it is a Godfrey administration actually committed to full disclosure, open government and honest communications as a matter of principle.
Don't hold your breath.
On Dorothy L's residence:
It doesn't matter where she lives, or where she owns property or whether she owns any at all. The grant was state money, and so any resident of Utah from any town or city has a perfect right to raise questions about whether the money was spent properly or not.
Jill:
Your comments on Mr. Harmer: you wrote I feel that he, like all other skilled professionals working for the city at this point in time, are being stifled by Hizzonah.
You raise a good and important point, particularly with respect to career city employees [i.e. not "political" appointees]. There are many of them, who serve the city well as administrations come and go, and who are [however much cynics out there doubt it] dedicated to public service, to doing a job for the public and doing it well, and who derive great satisfaction in that. I know some of them.
I can't comment on Mr. Harmer's competence in the area of economic development, nor can I comment on his work in the governor's development office. I really have no information on that [and thanks for the background on his leaving that post; a change of governors usually means significant changes in appointive staff].
Still, we have certainly a right to raise questions about his performance in office in Ogden. And for someone at the level of Mr. Harmer, or Mr. Patterson, I'm not so sure we can draw as clear a distinction between the Mayor and his key advisers as you suggest. For people at that level in city government, I'm not sure "I was just following orders" is a credible defense for their conduct. I'm not sure, to be more specific and in this instance, that Mr. Harmer's tap-dancing around hair-splitting definitions [e.g. what does "high tech center" really mean?] can be fobbed off on following the Mayor's orders. And recall, during the Bootjack fiasco, Mr. Harmer insisted it was his decision, not the Mayor's, to refuse to tell the Council who was actually buying the land.]
There, see what you've done? You've made me type a sentence or two in defense of the Mayor. Put me right of my feed, you have. Stop doing that. [grin]
As I mentioned in my other post, I don't think that where she lives ultimately matters. When people who make claims as she has, here and in other instances, I do like to know a little bit about the person making them, that's all.
How many local governments in Utah are actually committed to full disclosure, open government, honest communication, transparency, blah blah blah? Not many. It is how they should operate, but they don't. Good thing we have the Weber County Forum here to help bring issues to light. It is not just a problem in Ogden. If you think the $900,000 is an issue here, check out the other places money has been granted (from GOED and other sources). See if the stipulations have been met in those cases. If Utah were to rescind the $900,000 in this case, they'll indeed open up a can of worms.
I reaffirm my statements on the last thread:
Aint no way, no how, that the Huntsman administration is going to embarrass the Godfrey administration over a lousy little thing like $900 thousand tax payer bucks that may have been misappropriated.
The Huntsman mouth piece on this issue Clark Caras has already set the stage with his comments to Schwepke: "the fact that the Governor's Office of Economic Development is looking into the matter "doesn't mean GOED suspects the grant funds have been handled improperly." "We haven't seen anything wrong," he said.
Incidently, the Governor didn't only fire Harmer, he got rid of the entire department that was under him. It was quite the fiasco when it happened, with lots of people losing their long held jobs.
Huntsman then appointed his bestest satorial buddy Chris Roybal to take Harmer's place at the public trough and rebuild the department. (It was actually Roybal that wielded the axe!)
Roybal took all kinds of major league hits in the media over various blunders (including the initial firings). He became the administrations whipping boy in the press for a year or so. Since then he has been gagged and put in a dark back room and viola! The press hasn't mentioned him in many longs months now, although I think he is still on the team and manipulating some of those big levers of State Government.
For those of you who don't see a problem with the $900 thousand coming to Ogden in violation of the terms under which it did come, I say it is all about one simple little word that is unknown in the Godfreyite movement - INTEGRITY! In spite of what the little lord claims, there aint none of it any where near him.
Oh, one other thing on this sorry assed subject. If it twernt for the forensic accountant Dorothy and the prodigious energy and personal money she puts in these things, none of the citizens of Ogden would ever even know about these criminal shenanigans that go on in Godfrey's city government.
We all owe her big time.
You want a model of honest open government?
Go to Layton!
Their budget is FIFTY million....NOT 119,000,000. !!
Ogden's population is 78,000...Layton's is 70,000. Not much difference.
The real diffrence is that in Layton, the Council, City Mgr, Mayor, Dept Heads and all employees are working together. No secret handshakes. No political shenanigans. They work for the betterment of Layton...for the citizens.
They take pride in their work. They do what is right..because it's the RIGHT thing to do!
They look after their infrastructure...constantly. They want to stay ahead of the problems..not play catch up.
They have 5 Council members. They don't meet constantly the way Ogden's does. The staff works with and for the Council. The mayor, Council and City Mgr have the same goals: To be honest with the people. SERVE the people. Expect the best from the employees (and they get it!)
It is so refrshing to see this administration without a massive ego among them! NO one person sets him/herself up above anyone else.
No 'hare brained' gondola schemes amd selling our treasured open space! The very thing that helps Ogden be attractive to newcomers must be preserved and protected.
There really are honest persons who still want to be the best they can be and be useful in their city government.
They do that by remembering that they are there for the betterment of their community.
BTW...Layton gives NO tax breaks to any business!!! They do offer clean water, a stable infrastructure, welcoming attitude, fine police dept, fire protection, etc. THAT'S what makes a city an attractive place to do business. Not a goofy gondola scheme and cronyism.
Also, Layton's employees number less than half of Ogden's. Too much pork in Ogden. No large car allowances....very modest ones to the Dept heads who need them for city business.
Oink, Oink.
To Anonymous
We must meet ASAP. I have an Ogden property I want to sell to someone of such great faith.
And Anon, what kind of business are you in that makes every one on this site your "opposition"? The only people in Ogden that look at it that way are dogmatic and mindless Godfreyites!
So instead of your coy little bull shit entries, why don't you just come out and tell us what your big investment in Ogden really is, and while your at it maybe you can tell us all about your "staff and other investors".
Your posts make you sound like a real phony. If that is the case you will fit right in with the rest of the Godfreyites!
What Anon? Did Rudi take him off?
If so, good for you, Rudi.
anyone too dumb to think up a moniker shouldn't be on here.
And the next time Ogden is in competition with other municipalities for one of these grants (or any other grants) what do these shenanigans do to our chances?
I guess that ogdens creditablity goes out the window, with the mayors (higher than anyone in the room) integrity.
Sharon,
Former city manager Robert Hunter said that Ogden is a small city with a big city government.
He seemed to imply that was a problem.
What he didn't say is that it is Ogden's main problem.
Danny:
Which reminds me that Layton has, I think, a city manager form of government, so the comparison with Ogden's mayor/council form of government is a little like comparing apples and oranges... not on all matters, but on some.
I've heard some talk of Ogden returning to the City Manager model. Seems to me either form of city government can work well if good people are put in office, and neither one will work well if good people are not put in office. It's as simple as that, really.
I know it's painful to contemplate, but we get the government we deserve. We elect it.
Sharon...have you been to Layton?
Maybe you should move there and give your wonderful input there. Working together to make a nice Stepford community.
Might want to check your facts on the ol'incentive issue...not sure if they do now, but they have given incentives in the recent past.
Do you believe the growth in the last ten years in Layton was done with clean water, etc. I recall they gave a $1 million incentive to someone in 2003 or so.
But even if they've chosen to ban them now, it is only after they have established a nice tax base.
And while the rest of the state has about a 29% growth rate, Ogden's remains fairly stagnant. So yes, open space attracts just enough people to replace the people who die.
As far your other silly assertions,
Ogden population: 79,576
Layton Population: 64,212
Layton 80% of Ogden basically.
Ogden employees 534
Layton 288
not less than half as you say. Of course Ogden has 10 employees for the Dino Park and an Airport that Layton doesn't have.
How many golf courses does Layton have, cause that is another 22 employees. So selling off a bit your "open space" could cut 11 people from your bloat.
Of course Ogden City has 288 PUBLIC SAFETY EMPLOYEES (what kind of stink would you make if we cut those back, but I'm sure Layton's (190) public safety employees are far superior with lesser numbers for some reason. And their superior performance with all of that good clean water continues attract a lot of business.
Of course we could just market all of the hot air in Ogden. I'm sure there is someone who would move here for that.
I am the product of some fairly sophisticated genetic recombination events, some of which are still not well-understood by medical science.
So, I'm pretty sure anywhere I go is a "high tech" location — with or without my cell phone.
I echo what Curmudgeon has said in the lead and other above posts.
Ogden has an abundance of something Layton has very little....CRIME! The fact that the first Layton Police Officer to ever be involved in a shooting was helping the Ogden Police raid an Ogden drug house should tell you why Ogden has many more Public Safety Officers than Layton!
I want to remind everyone that in the last year there has been six separate shootings involving police officers in Ogden....SIX!
Robberies, Murders, gangs and an abundance of illegal aliens is what Ogden has a lot of. Not to mention the unethical acts its city administration have perpetrated in the last 7 years! Who the hell would want to come to Ogden, live in Ogden and do business in Ogden?
What is the economic effect of a potential business turning away from Ogden because we are once again on the news for some criminal event or some political disaster? While our mayor chases vans, gives public land away and tells everyone that he has more integrity that anyone else, our streets are being overrun with crime and our core business are fleeing. You can offer all the tax breaks or incentives you want but until Ogden gets control of the crime and its government, is anyone going to feel safe doing business in Ogden?
J.C. Penny’s has a long history with Ogden and had deep roots within this community. I see that their new store is being built just outside our city limits in Riverdale! It’s in good company with Sam’s Club as Ogden’s ex-tenants.
The solution starts now with this year’s election. It seems that all of the differing opinions on this blog have a common theme…everyone wants what is best for Ogden. Most agree that a better Ogden cannot be achieved with a third Godfrey term. We must make a concerted effort to give our community back to the people.
OGDEN VS,
Thank you for a reasoned response. Yes, we do want a better Ogden, and that can only happen without Godfrey and with a good housecleaning!
Daps,
I met today with the Layton City Mgr...I asked what kinds of incentives they give to businesses. "ZERO"....they offer police/fire protection, clean water **, stable infrastructure, welcoming attitude, and a friendly administration to newcomers.
They operate their city with fewer employees on the payroll, less 'perks', and a much smaller budget.
They also have employees who are proud of themselves as employees of Layton and who contribute to the city's success.
Get some Ogden employees aside, and out of earshot of the 9th floor big ears, and you'll get a lot of gossip about the arrogance, dirty dealings, etc of Godfrey and his loyals.
Daps, sorry to say it, but you sound like one of the inner circle of Godfrey's sycophants. Do you and your dad sell mittens?
In their form of city mgr/mayor/council gov't...NO one gets to be king!
How refreshing is that?
You sneered, Daps, at clean **water. Ask the hapless residents on the east bench around 23rd---25th how they liked their orange water and the box of bleach the city magnanimously handed them each month?
When the city gives an incentive to a business...they are on the hook to keep doing it.
What happened to American ingenuity and responsibility?
What happened to a business owner going to a lending institution or getting investors on his own, and then opening his business?
Ogden has the most egregious record of 'bribing' developes/business owners to come here than any other town I've seen.
Handing out all these perks makes us look like the ugly girl who thinks the only way to have a date is to give it away.
Maybe Godfrey learned that the only way to be popular was to give gifts to all the kids he wanted to be 'in' with? Still working for him.
Farmington also has an extremely clean, friendly and efficient city government with a relatively low per capita cost of operation.
Both Layton and Farmington, and most Davis and Weber County cities have lots of open lands and a lot of new growth, which of course Ogden doesn't.
They also have a lot less poverty, crime, and most of all their infastructure is infinately newer.
All of this makes for a lot lower per capita cost of running their city governments than Ogden is faced with.
However, the biggest difference is the empire building arrogance that they are lacking and which Ogden has an over abundance of. If the other Utah cities suffered from the incompetence and idiocy of the Godfreyites, they would have the same inefficiency that Ogden government has.
Salt Lake City has the same basic mix of poverty, aging infastructure and crime that Ogden does. However they have been prospering very well economically along with the rest of the state and country during these boom years. The reason of course is that they don't have Godfrey and his circle of incompetent and empty suits that screw up things with their stupid tricks and self serving games that are so devastating to the city treasury. Oh, they also had the forsight to run Stuart Reid out of town a few years ago, and without paying him a big wad of cash out of the public trough as walking money!
Do you wonder why virtually every government in Utah has been doing very well the last few years while Ogden has stagnated or lost ground on all levels at the same time? It's the Godfrey factor that explains it. The little dude is not only arrogant, he is totally worthless as a leader, and he has drug Ogden down like never before in its history.
I am very hopeful that if the voters of Ogden throw the bastards out of city hall come November that the city will finally start to enjoy the economic prosperity that the rest of the state and country has been enjoying for the last few years.
The answers to Ogden's problems are at the ballot box. Vote early and vote often!
Many good points here. I just want to add, if it matters, Chris Roybal no longer serves the Huntsman administration, but is doing something in the private sector. I don't remember what, only that he left.
Say, Mr Oz,
Somebody say Amen!
There are many facets to the understanding of the American Can property maneuverings of property and cash and historical tax credits.
The first place to start is to understand that the Utah State School Board in January, 2004 created the Riverside Technology High School. Due to the 10 month waiting rule Riverside should not have opened until fall 2005.
However, in School Board minutes of May 7, 2004, Rule R277-470-3(D) was waived to permit Da Vinci/Academy of Arts and Science and the Arts (Riverside Technology High School)to open in the fall of 2004.
The $900,000.00 Utah Industrial Assistance Grant Ogden received per the PROJECT DESCRIPTION was, and this is a quote, "to fund 251,000 sq. ft. of both public and private university use and research facilities co-located and co-functional with laboratories, classrooms and offices. The educational center will support 400 students and the research park development will support 1,200 to 2,700 business/researchers with office support staff".
The Riverside Technology Non-Profit Foundation was created by Ogden to own the American Can property. It is a play on the words, Riverside Technology High School. The only reason Ogden received the $900,000.00 grant was for an educational and research facility to be established on the American Can property.
Riverside Technology Non-Profit Foundation never qualified as a true 501(c)3 non-profit with the IRS even though they went under the name Non-Profit.
It is interesting that Scott Brown shows up as being involved in management and setting policy according to school records.
Da Vinci Academy has never owned any property. In fact the school pays around $17,000.00 per month rent which in 2004, 2005 and 2006 went to the Riverside Technology Non-Profit Foundation.
At some point the development company, American Can LLC, comprised of Wadman Historical LLC, Asael Farr & Sons LLC and Riverside Technology Non-Profit Foundation show on deeds as owners of part of the property.
It is important that you understand the $3 million historical income tax credits that
went to Wadman for renovating the structure. Historical tax credits can only be transferred or sold between qualifying non-profit foundations but Ogden had a problem because the Riverside Technology Non-Profit Foundation was not qualified by the IRS to own tax credits.
This is where the Ogden Community Foundation enters the picture because it is a qualified non-profit by the IRS so it can own or transfer historical tax credits.
My position is that the terms of the $900,000.00 Grant have been violated for several reasons.
Two of those reasons are:
The concept for the Ogden High-Tech Center has still not been completed;
the property has been sold several times which is in violation of ARTICLE VIII which states "if Applicant sells the American Can Company property or any part thereof for any purpose other than as a part of development of the Ogden High-Tech Center then all amounts shall be recaptured by the State".
To understand what has been happening with the American Can property you need to be informed about the part Da Vinci Academy plays in the whole picture and also the game of historical tax credits which are very substantial.
My position continues to be that Mayor Godfrey, John Patterson and the Board of the Ogden Community Foundation owe an explanation to us, the taxpayers, of what is going on with this property including the transfer of historical tax credits and IRS deductions for contribution of property.
If they had given me that information in the beginning when I asked for it in January, I would never have done all the research that I have on the $900,000.00 Grant to Ogden City.
The moral here is that Open Government is much better than stonewalling a taxpayer.
Let me post one note in defence of the administration and previous councils: the problems Ogden faced, as some have noted, were not the circumstances Layton faced. What needed to be done here was reversing downtown decline. Ogden was an older industrial city with a declining core and all the attendant problems, which included eroding infrastructure, rising crime, and so on.
We can, and should, question some of the choices they made trying to turn things around --- mortgaging BDO money intended for infrstructure to underwrite speculative developments like the wind tunnel for example; running the city's bonded indebtedness way up for similar reasons, and so on. [The wildly speculative 35 to 50 million dollar tourist sky ride, aka "the gondola." is another example of a very unwise choice which, thankfully, the city has not made, and, if prudence and sanity prevail, won't make. Why the city's leaders would ignore proven technologies with proven track records of generating billions... yes, billions with a "b"... in investment along trolley corridors in favor of a wholly unproven technology like flatland urban gondolas, for example, is a question we need to ask and keep on asking.]
But in fairness, we need to recognize that the problems they [Councils and the Administration] were tackling here were not only not Layton's problems, they were much more difficult ones to remedy. And in fact some of the decisions Ogden has made have been wise. Historic 25th Street is making a comback, it seems. Not all the decisions have been poor ones by any means.
I've watched other mid-sized cities try to bring back ailing downtowns. It can happen. It can work if wise decisions are made, decisions grounded on careful research, the lessons of experience, and the right combination of evidence and common sense. It can also fail if unwise decisions are made instead, if pipe dreams substitute for prudence and speculation for research.
Reversing an industrial city's downtown decline it not an easy thing to pull off. But while "A for Effort" might work on a grade school report card, it has no value whatever to residents of a city if their leaders choose unwisely and the city's residents have to deal with the consequences for decades after.
Dorothy L:
You wrote: The moral here is that Open Government is much better than stonewalling a taxpayer.
I'd only add to your statement this: or Council members or the press.
It's such a simple and obvious lesson: Open Government works better for the people in office as well as for the city in general than the alternative. You'd think after six years in office that even Hizzonah Mayor Godfrey would have figured that out. But apparently, he has not.
By the way, thanks for including the text of the grant terms in your post. That casts Mr. Harmer's sophestry about what "high tech center" meant in bold relief.
Carl, you sound a lot more inner circle than me as it sounds like you have sessions with Layton's Mayor and Ogden employees.
I have nothing to do with the Mayor or mittens. Perhaps if I did I would have heard of all of the business not coming here because of orange water between 23rd & 25th. Thank God I live a block away from there or I'd have to move my business out of town too....hum Layton sounds like a Utopia.
And Layton may not give incentives now, but they have in the past. They don't need to now, they are covered in dining and big box stores. In fact it was Layton City attorney that argued against allowing the state to ban city's form allowing tax incentives in 2004. And the city gave a hotel developer $1mil tax incentive in 2003.
But that is not the point, the point is that, most people just spew facts as if they are true when aren't backed by anything.
So if you are going to blindly compare apples to oranges at least acknowledge you know nothing about fruit as you do it.
Curmudgeon
One little point here. The 25th Street renovation you mention as maybe being an example of "wise" action by the city is not attributable to the Godfreyites as your post could be construed. (I know you didn't actually say that, but thats the impression I got)
The two bit street re-do actually goes back at least 25 years and was led off by Dean Perkins who gave Geiger Sr. his start in the Ski Rag Biz.
Godfrey and his Biz genius guru Reid are responsible however for the Union Station Condo project that cost the tax payers a cool $2 million dollar loss.
The beautiful bldg on the corner of Lincoln with the smoked black windows was started under Mayor Mecham. Its good to finally see some action there with the high end furniture store. They have some really cool stuff in there, and I would highly recommend checking them out. Too bad you can't see in from the street because of the black windows.
Oz:
OK, I wasn't as clear as I should have been. Only point I wanted to make re: Historic 25th Street was that Ogden City Government [city managers and/or mayors and/or councils] had made some decisions over time that had a beneficial impact on the street.
And in the nature of things, no one being perfect, every city manager/mayor/Council necessarily makes a mis-step or two along the way. But the general proposition that local governments can make wise decisions that help re-generate declining city cores is defensible on the evidence, I think. Provided they adopt policies grounded solidly on sound evidence, strong research and which have survived thorough reasoned critiques first from the public first. Well-administered city governments welcome examination and criticism of proposals before the city commits. Badly run cities attempt to trivialize those who ask questions, dismiss those examining proposals critically as nay-sayers, and try to sell their proposals by marketing ploys [lots of city-flag waving. cheer leading, celebrity endorsements, rah rah boosterism and wishful thinking].
Sound familiar?
Daps...still think you are in the know more than you let on...or maybe spouting all your figures means that you hang around Layton a lot. True?
So, are you for or against the way Godfrey does business with your tax dollars (assuming you live in Ogden) and gives the business to those he doesn't think are 'cool and sexy'?
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