The lumpencitizens of Emerald City are treated to a virtual feast of red-meat political news in this morning's Standard-Examiner and Salt Lake Tribune. We hardly know where to start.
First on the menu we suppose, however, is this morning's Scott Schwebke story, wherein our suddenly Pulitzer Prize-material Ace Investigative Reporter relates the fireworks that occurred at last night's city council meeting:
OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey accused Ogden City Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske Tuesday night of trying to tarnish the administration’s reputation over a fiscal impact study for a gondola resort project.The article goes on in some detail; but there's one element that Scott Schwebke neglected to fully report: Bad Public Behavior by our two favorite local nitwit ski haberdashers. We got this via email just a few minutes ago, from an Emerald City citizen who attended last night's council meeting:
Godfrey questioned a comment Jeske made Monday to the Standard-Examiner in which she likened him to a “pot calling the kettle black.”
The comment was in reference to Godfrey taking the council to task for failing to give him advance notice about their concerns regarding the study.
Godfrey said in a letter to the council he is disappointed the concerns weren’t raised during a meeting he attended Thursday with the council’s leadership just an hour before the questions were released to the Standard-Examiner.
Jeske told the Standard-Examiner that Godfrey had no right to criticize the council because he didn’t inform them of the study’s existence after it was completed in November 2006.
Godfrey asked Jeske during the council meeting to clarify her comments to the newspaper.
The council wasn’t informed about the study because it told the administration it didn’t want piece-mealed information about the gondola project, Godfrey said [with a completely straight face.]
Therefore, Jeske shouldn’t accuse the administration of withholding information, Godfrey said. “You can’t have it both ways,” he told her. Jeske responded that Godfrey seems to have a track record of keeping the council in the dark on important projects.
“There have been several times since I’ve been on the council that we haven’t been given information,” she said. “The study started a year ago. We knew nothing about it.”
City Council Chairman Jesse Garcia interrupted Godfrey and Jeske telling them they would have to continue their discussion after the meeting.
They did [for a little while, at least.]
Tonight was “Beat on Councilmember Jeske night." Bobby Geiger got up during “Public Comments” and accused the Council of trying to prevent the City from moving forward. Councilwoman Wicks answered his comments and so did Councilmembers Garcia, Jeske and Stephenson – all of them stating that the Council did not go to the State to snitch about Godfrey's $900,000 American Can bait-and-switch.We could be wrong on this, but perhaps the Geiger boys need to take a little "structured" vacation time. Thorazine might be a useful medication at a nice palm-draped spa in the Caribbean. Father-son lobotomies perhaps? Mebbe these boys ought to find a "hobby" a little less stressful than politics.
Then the Mayor said that he had only one comment for Councilmember Jeske – he wanted to know why she would refer to him as “the pot calling the kettle
black." Jeske answered him the same way as she did to Schwebke. Godfrey started to retort, but Garcia cut him off and told him to talk about it later.
When the meeting was over, Curt Geiger came up to Jeske and tried to start an argument by telling her that she had a moral obligation [we are not making this up] -- to contradict or stop Sharon Beech from saying the mean things that she does on "The Blog" [WCF, we suppose.] Then the Mayor came over and picked up his old argument. This went on for 5 – 10 minutes, and by then Little Bobby had come over to join in. He and Curt started in again and got so loud that I thought Officer Gardiner was going to come over and break it up. So Jeske then just graciously walked away – she apparently didn’t want to put Gardiner in an awkward situation.
Next in order of importance, we guess, is a story probably a little more hum-drum, at least from the point of view of jaded Emerald City citizens who've grown accustomed to being mired in expensive and un-necessary lawsuits over the past seven years.
Boss Godfrey has predictably gotten us into another legal mess, according to this morning's second Ace Reporter Schwebke story:
OGDEN — Former Ogden Human Resource Manager Dean Martinez is suing three of the city’s top administrators, alleging racial discrimination contributed to hisSchwebke says Martinez's prayer for damages is unspecified. Kristen Moulton however informs us this morning that Mr. Martinez is suing for at least a cool $.5 million.
firing last year.
Defendants named in the 17-page lawsuit filed in 2nd District Court include the city, Chief Administrative Officer John Patterson, Management Services Director Mark Johnson, and City Attorney Gary Williams.
Martinez, who is black, alleges actions by Patterson, Johnson and Williams resulted in 10 offenses including defamation, infliction of emotional distress, free speech violations and wrongful termination.
Martinez is seeking reinstatement to his former position with the city and unspecified damages for lost wages and emotional distress and suffering. He contends in the lawsuit his annual salary of $63,136 was less than that paid to white managers who worked for the city with similar responsibilities.
And it's not that we haven't already had a heads-up on this. We warned about this probable consequence way back in December.
And what the hell! The 500 grand that Mr. Martinez seeks as compensation is mere chump-change to a big-shot like Boss Godfrey. The important thing is that Boss Godfrey proved why they call him "The Boss."
And why should Boss Godfrey worry about it anyway?
It's merely the taxpayers' money, afterall.
A Weber County Forum Tip O'the Hat to the very tenacious Dean Martinez for sticking to his guns.
We need more stiff-spined people like Mr. Martinez here in Emerald City.
He obviously ain't intimidated by narrow-minded and inexperienced Harrisville "plastic people."
("Harrisville... a real nice place to raise your kids up. Harrisville it's really neat! Churches... Churches... And liquor stores...")
And two more things before we turn the floor over to ya's. One of our gentle readers sent us copies of the two letters referenced in Ace Reporter Schwebke's recent articles. Check out the council's original Secret Gondola Study inquiry letter here. And you can find Boss Godfrey's insolent and juvenile response at this link.
And whatever you do... Don't let the cat get your tongues, gentle readers.
