We've just received another press release from the Ogden Sierra Club's Dan Schroeder, containing what we consider to be bunkerbuster information concerning Boss Godfrey's "Secret Gondola Study Saga."
In the interest of inserting this information into the public domain as quickly and efficiently as possible, we incorporate the entire document in full, without analysis or editorial comment:
Dear members of the press:We intend to take Sierra Club Chairman Schroeder up immediately on his gracious offer to provide copies of these documents. If all goes well, we'll be able to expeditiously obtain and upload the most relevant material to our storage site very soon, for our gentle readers' benefit.
In response to a GRAMA request submitted a month ago, I have just received from Ogden City a large stack of documents. Several of these documents contain information that seems newsworthy to me, although they leave many questions unanswered.
The documents center around the "Ogden Gondola Fiscal Impacts Analysis" study performed last year by Lewis Young Robertson & Burningham (LYRB), which was the subject of several news articles last month. Most of the documents are email messages exchanged among various city staff members and UTA staff regarding the arrangements and procedures for paying for the LYRB study. Among other things, the documents reveal the following:
• Whereas UTA was apparently willing to reimburse Ogden City for the cost of the LYRB study, high-level city officials repeatedly insisted that UTA instead pay LYRB directly. For example, a March 23, 2007 email from Ogden CAO John Patterson to Mick Crandall of UTA states that "it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to do so," referring to paying the bill from LYRB.
• In response, Crandall states in an April 2, 2007 email that for UTA to pay contractors directly "would be a violation of our procurement rules and accounting standards and UTA cannot make an exception." Crandall goes on to state that UTA "is very reluctant to interject itself into internal matters of a City" and is therefore requiring a written agreement in part to "ensure that the Mayor and the City Council both would concur at least in the use of these funds..."
• An April 2, 2007 email from Finance Manager John Arrington to Patterson similarly indicates that the administration's concern was to keep the City Council from learning about the payment: "we paid an expense in the past without out [sic] Council knowing and we are still suffering from that decision."
• A May 16, 2007 email from Arrington to Patterson again indicates that the administration was concerned about the City Council: "I hope we can get this done without dual payees (City and UTA) since the Council will be looking for anything running to or through the City. [City Attorney] Gary Williams doesn't like the duel [sic] check either, because it still implicates Ogden City."
• Val Brown of UTA expressed an additional concern in a pair of emails to Arrington on May 10 and May 14, 2007: "Frankly, from past experience we've been a bit disappointed in Ogden City's compliance with requirements ... we have audit reports indicating that in the past there have been some problems."
• Mayor Godfrey was involved in several of these email exchanges. For example, on May 15, 2007 he emailed Patterson asking him to "please work with John [Arrington] on this." On December 22, 2006, Patterson forwarded two of Arrington's emails to Godfrey, adding the comments "Does he have early onset Alzheimer's?" and "AMAZING!!"
• Although the bill from LYRB was for only $16,250, the city administration's intent was for UTA to use the rest of the money freed up by the $247,500 federal earmark to reimburse Chris Peterson for his expenses related to the gondola project. In his May 16, 2007 email to Patterson, Arrington states: "I think [Crandall] would be the one to have Chris work through also in getting his vendors qualified as direct pay providers. I'll be sending him an e-mail with UTA's procurement guidelines and ask that he work through UTA involving us for information purposes to get $231,250 of his expenses covered."
• On June 12, 2007, Mayor Godfrey signed an official memorandum to "waive the competitive selection process" for procurement of the services of LYRB for their study (which was initiated around March, 2006). Such a waiver is apparently required by the Ogden City Code. UTA had previously expressed its concern that the city follow its own procurement procedures in this matter.
• An email from lobbyist Ken Lee to Patterson, dated June 1, 2007, acknowledges his receipt of a copy of the LYRB study. Lee then asks, "Has it been leaked? Is the opposition up in arms yet?" In a second email to Patterson on the same date, also copied to Godfrey, Lee says, "I want to get it in the hands of everyone on the Hill. OK with that?" These emails seem to imply that Lee is engaged in a further lobbying effort on behalf of the Peterson project.
• On another subject (probably unrelated), Mayor Godfrey received an email on May 14, 2007 from Mori and Gadi Leshem, proposing that the Leshems lease a portion of UTA's property near 17th and Wall for use in a development they were planning. Godfrey then forwarded this email to Art Bowen of UTA. I contacted Bowen by phone and he indicated that UTA was not interested in leasing its property. However, the Leshems already own a large amount of property in this area and this email indicates that Godfrey is working with the Leshems on a development proposal of some kind. The City Council recently approved a rezone of the Leshems' property. As far as I'm aware, the public has not been told what sort of development is being contemplated.
Besides the documents provided in response to my GRAMA request, the City Attorney's office has withheld other "draft agreements and correspondence" that are protected because they are drafts or "by attorney-client privilege." Among the protected records is the draft agreement between UTA and the city. I spoke with Crandall by phone and he told me that he expects the agreement to be finalized very soon, and he'll send me a copy as soon as it is.
I would be happy to provide you with copies of any or all of the documents I've received. Alternatively, I'm sure you could easily obtain copies directly from the City Recorder's office. The full collection is probably about 300 pages, although much of it is redundant because of the way email replies usually incorporate the message being replied to.
I hope you can find a way to bring some of these details to the attention of the public. Please let me know if I can help in any way.
Dan Schroeder, Conservation Chair
Ogden Sierra Club
In the meantime, we present this "raw" information immediately -- for the enlightenment of those few remaining gentle readers who still entertain lingering confidence in the trustworthiness of Boss Godfrey -- the man who always "lies whenever his lips are moving" -- yet nevertheless claims to have "higher integrity than anybody in the room."
Update 7/28/07 1:15 p.m. MT: At our request, Chairman Schroeder this morning kindly furnished us a CD, containing electronic versions of the GRAMA-produced documents provided pursuant to the Sierra Club's GRAMA request. In that connection we have uploaded and linked some of these documents, to corroborate the allegations set forth in the forgoing press release.
Update 7/31/07 12:03 p.m. MT: We have now uploaded and linked the data contained in the above-referenced CD. Twenty-nine pages in all, these pages represent the most interesting and relevant material furnished by the Ogden City Mayor's Office, pursuant to the Sierra Club's July GRAMA document production request. You may view the full document collection here.
