The Plot Sickens

Ace Reporter Schwebke digs out further details about Boss Godfrey's secret $200 thousand gondola study

By Curmudgeon

This morning's Standard-Examiner has a front page above the fold banner headlined story about the pending UTA-funded feasibility study of Mayor Godfrey's flatland tourist sky ride to Weber State, which has been the main Weber County Forum topic of discussion, for nearly the entire week.

It is very interesting. Among other things, it confirms that the new feasibility study will be a kind of do-over for the Mayor of the feasibility study already paid for and done, minus looking at the only two options the previous study identified as viable mass transit options for Ogden. UTA told Schewbke that the new study will examine [among other things], the gondola's "financial feasibility" and "potential ridership" along with its "environmental impact." Though of course the UTA has allocated no funds to study the environmental impact of a street car line [the recommended transit option of the earlier study], or of a BRT system [the second choice of the previous study]. So: a partially UTA funded study recommends streetcar first, BRT second, gondola not recommended at all, and what happens? UTA allocates money to re-study the financial feasibility fo the gondola, and its environmental impact, and no money [so far] to study the impact of streetcar or BRT... which environmental study must be done before federal funding can be accessed. But to be fair, so far as we know, the Mayor has not asked for a dime to study the envrionmental impact of the options the earlier study endorsed. He's only asked for money to study, again, the feasibility and impact of the option the earlier study rejected: the sky ride. The question is, what in the world possessed UTA to agree to give it to him?

The new UTA funded study is on life support at the moment, UTA says, because the city hasn't submitted an acceptable management plan for the study it wants UTA to pay for. The Mayor says he hasn't done that because he's trying to "clarify" its management role. Been trying, apparently, for about a year now, when a preliminary agreement with UTA was reached.

The story reveals that Godfry already has "gondola data" from a "preliminary financial analysis" done by the SL City consulting firm of Lewis, Young, Robertson and Burningham. "Godfrey declined to provide a copy of the report to the Standard Examiner because, he said, it is a draft document."

"Draft document" is beginning to look like Godfrey-speak for "the results came out wrong, and we're not going to release it until its re-done so the results come out the way I want them to."

The Std-Ex is filing a GRAMA request for the information Godfrey is refusing to release. Godfrey also claims he "doesn't know" who paid for the report he has but won't release. We are to believe a study of the financial feasibility arrives in the mayor's lap and he has no idea who commissioned it? The consulting firm that did the study isn't returning phone calls on the matter, it seems. And, according to the Standard Examiner, "Chris Peterson... did not respond to an e-mail seeking information on whether he financed the consultant's study."

The Mayor's not talking, Chris Peterson's not talking, the consulting firm's not talking. Thus are public affairs conducted in Mayor Godfrey's Ogden

Kudos to the Std-Ex for staying on the story.

Update 5/24/07 8:59 a.m. MT: One of our gentle and attentive readers has transmitted to us a letter, which we speculate might provide the basis for Boss Godfrey's bizarre contention that he has some kind of an "agreement" for UTA funding of his secret gondola study.

Our quick perusal reveals that UTA's contingencies are quite clear, and that the UTA placed a number of serious hurdles in Boss Godfrey's funding path from the outset. It would seem that UTA at least a year ago shared most of the concerns which have been also been registered here at WCF during the last year or so, and it is evident that the UTA has been anticipating the same competent level of feasibility analysis that many of our gentle readers have been consistently demanding from the Boss Godfrey administration.

What say our gentle readers?