OGDEN — A report card issued Monday by the Ogden Sierra Club gives Mayor Matthew Godfrey a D+ based on his overall environmental record during nearly two terms in office.Demonstrating remarkable pre-holiday journalistic initiative, Ace Reporter Schwebke interviewed Boss Godfrey on each of the ratings categories point-by-point, and furnishes an article filled with delightful Godfreyesque quotes like this:
Sierra Club leaders reached a consensus regarding the grade after evaluating Godfrey’s performance over the last 7-1/2 years in nine categories, said Dan Schroeder, the club’s conservation chairman.
The categories are sprawl and Legacy Highway, mass transit, bike routes, pedestrian-friendly development, trails, open space, wilderness protection, city utility services and municipal energy use.
"My goal isn’t to please Dan Schroeder — it’s to do what’s right for Ogden," he said. Seldom, we suggest, has Boss Godfrey snarkiness ever been better captured in the public press.
And we find within Mr. Schwebke's article this noteworthy example of the Boss Godfrey alternate reality, wherein the same fellow who tormented our community for two years over a proposal to commit hundreds of acres of Emerald City foothill open space to residential development, now poses as the most open space-friendly mayor in sixty years:
The Sierra Club gave Godfrey an F in the open-space category because of his “high-profile campaign” to advocate the sale and development of 175 acres of city-owned park land, including Mount Ogden Golf Course, and 60 acres of adjoining undeveloped property to developer Chris Peterson....Hoo-boy! Never let it be said that our little mayor is lacking in the chutzpah category.
Godfrey said the city has acquired more than 60 acres of open space during his time in office. That is more than any administration in six decades, he said.
In the interest of providing our readers some additional background on the factors contributing to the Sierra Club's scorecard revision, we also link yesterday's short press release here.
And while we're on the subject of Boss Godfrey, we're going to throw in an added bonus item, which has been sitting on the Weber County Forum back-burner for the last few days. Most of you will remember the classic Scott Schwebke article series, in which our favorite Std-Ex reporter exposed Boss Godfrey's "Secret Gondola Study Scheme," whereby Boss Godfrey obtained and then attempted to conceal from the city council $247 thousand in federal transportation money, which would have been secretly applied to Godfrey's apparently incurable Gondola Obsession.
In a nutshell, Boss Godfrey's Washington lobbyist had secured a federal grant for study of gondolas as a transportation alternative. Boss Godfrey hid the information on this cash grant from the city council for almost six months, then told the council one of his typical "tall tales" when confronted on the subject.
For a true life audio expose on how Boss Godfrey actually operates in real life, be sure to check out this reader-submitted text/audio combo link.
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32 comments:
Thanks, Rudi, for the additional publicity.
I should point out that after reading the mayor's responses in the paper this morning, I made a few changes to the scorecard document. For example, I added that he now denies ever saying that he opposed bringing the Legacy Highway into Weber County.
His most substantive response concerns the 60 acres of open space apparently acquired by the city since he took office. We were unaware of this when we prepared the scorecard. I've sent an inquiry to the planning department asking for details about this open space, but of course I won't get a reply today. I suspect that it will be appropriate to raise the open space grade somewhat. Meanwhile I've added a note in that item.
I can provide more details on most of the grade categories if readers have questions.
Our pleasure, Dan.
"His most substantive response concerns the 60 acres of open space apparently acquired by the city since he took office."
Once again the journalistically-improving Ace Reporter inexplicably fails to ask the obvious follow-up question.
I've talked to the Mayoral Candidate Rep. Neil Hansen. He shares the same vision as Ogden Sierra Club. I like him more and more, as I hear and see him.
He has gone to bat for us cops and firefighters. I know he will go to bat for Ogden’s Sierra Club too.
He’s the only Mayoral Candidate that has the vision, experience and integrity to look after the interest of us. In the most cost effective way.
just a cop,
The Sierra Club is not yet prepared to comment on the other mayoral candidates. We're somewhat familiar with Hansen's record in the legislature and Van Hooser's on the city council, but neither of these records is sufficient for us to prepare a comprehensive scorecard on local issues as we did for Godfrey. The other two mayoral candidates have no prior records at all (as far as I know).
We're currently drafting a questionnaire to be sent to all candidates for Ogden mayor and city council. It may be a few weeks before we're ready to release any of the results.
What strikes me as sad about all of this is that, absent the Mayor's obsession with the gondola/gondola sell-the-park-to-his-crony scheme, I think he would have come out fairly well on the ratings, and certainly a lot better than he did. Under his leadership, the City has done some good things for trails, particularly via cooperative projects like some with Weber Pathways for example. And the city's supported some new trail development, like the Birdsong trail. And has staffed out long range trail planning for the future. It could have been a pretty good record.
But after his last election, the gondola/gondola park sale obsession kicked in. And the Mayor actively opposed, I think, the designation of a wilderness area on forest service lands above Ogden... for fear that that might impede a potential gondola route. He actively impeded street car transit plans, out of fear that if a street car line was funded, his gondola/gondola scheme would not be. He pushed endlessly for sale of the Mt. Ogden park lands and about 60 acres of adjacent city-owned parklands above the golf course so it could be developed as a gated subdivision of up-scale homes, thus destroying one of the most heavily used and popular trail systems in Ogden City --- unless you consider walking down a side-walk in an up-scale subdivision being "on the trail."
But for the gondola/gondola obsession and what followed from it, his record [and grade] would have been I think substantially higher. But that's a pretty big "but for" --- right up there with "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"
One of the good things Mayor Godfrey has done recently is to appoint a Sustainable Ogden Committee and name Mr. Art Roscoe to chair it. Good idea, and from what I know of Mr. Roscoe, good appointment. [Mr. Roscoe told the SE that "he is impressed with Godfrey’s willingness to protect the city’s water and air" and that he's "seen nothing to indicate that he is anything but supportive” on "green" issues (broadly defined)]. I'd be willing to grant the Mayor extra points for creating the committee if I could shake my belief that forming the committee was an election-driven 11th hour attempt to freshen up his "green" credentials. Or, to use a phrase the Mayor likes to use these days, that it was "politically motivated." But I can't.
Which illustrates another of the Mayor's self-inflected wounds. He has engaged in double-speak and dissembling so often in the past three years that many people, myself among them, can no longer give him the benefit of the doubt --- can no longer trust him to say what he means, and to keep promises made under the pressure of an approaching election.
Someone once quipped "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest of these are it might have been." When I look back on what a Godfrey administration might have been and done but for the gondola obsession... well, it's all very sad.
curm,
Yeah, I was struck by the same thing as I looked down the list. The "gondola project" has extended its tentacles in many directions, and influenced about half of the nine separate ratings. One could even speculate that the mayor's support for spending half a billion dollars on the Legacy Highway has been motivated, at least in part, by his desire to divert transportation funding away from the streetcar and to win the favor of other elected officials when gondola-related votes come up at the Weber Area Council of Governments. (I hasten to repeat that this is speculation. I have no idea whether this is his motivation for supporting the Legacy Highway. But when I asked him in April, on the way out of a WACOG meeting, whether everything for him revolves around the gondola, he proceeded to tell me why.)
But I disagree with your characterization of the time frame of the mayor's gondola obsession. As the Sierra Club has documented, the mayor and Chris Peterson were plotting gondola schemes as early as April of 2000, less than four months after Godfrey first took office. Their original idea was to get Taylor Canyon pulled from the Snowbasin land exchange and put the gondola there. After this attempt failed the work went under-cover for a few years until Godfrey was reelected.
I just added the % of Hansen's record and it avg. 72% but dan you left out years 1999,2000,2001 and 2005. It looks like he is very much in your corner. depending what those years look like.
Dan:
OK. Maybe I should have said "visibly kicked in." As I recall he was assuring people before the last election, SC included, that he opposed selling off any city owned land in the foothills for development. His flipping on that shortly after re-election is just an example of what I meant about dissembling being the reason we can no give him the benefit of the doubt.
Whenever the obsession began, it did, as you note, spread its tentacles in many directions.
trees,
I'm sorry that the Utah Sierra Club doesn't seem to have legislative scorecards for all of the years Hansen has been in office. I have nothing to do with compiling these scorecards, by the way; they're done by our chapter political committee out of Salt Lake.
Looking only at the numbers, Hansen's percentages were 100% (with a couple of absences) in '02 and '03, 88% in '04, 29% in '06, and 43% in '07. So the average is quite good but the trend over time is a bit troubling. More importantly, Hansen has no voting record on some of the local issues that matter most for Ogden City. So we'll give him (and the other candidates) a chance to answer our questionnaire before we say any more.
My only thought in reading this morning's paper was, But pleasing Dan Schroeder is what's best for Ogden, isn't it?
I'm just sayin'.
Dan S.-
We native naves are very much looking forward to the full accounting of an addition of 60 acres to the open space budget of Ogden City. If fully accounted for this would reduce the proposed NET LOSS of open space to 115, or so, acres. A marked improvement indeed.
Please do keep us apprised of this open space accounting you are sure to recieve from the Boss' Uncle (Montgomery) shortly.
It's interesting lately, what happens when Godfrey proposes initiatives.
Godfrey proposed using a minuscule $150K a year to "pay off" the city's massive debt. After that, the reality of the city's debt load came out.
Then he started buying a few watts worth of wind power to show how environmental he is. After that, the Sierra Club reviewed his record, and gave him a D+.
To show he was for open space, he proposed the largest destruction of prime open space in city history.
To show he is for public transportation, he proposed a system that is not public transportation.
Perhaps next, he will propose reducing cronyism in government.
I might be best not to contemplate the meaning were he to propose a program to reduce wife beating or child molestation.
While Godfrey hardly seems a friend of the Sierra Club, the D+ seems a bit harsh. What if he and Peterson actually built the gondola with a road to a mountain resort in addition to selling a public park? I assume he would have received an F -- not much worse than the D+ he received. His poor marks seem based on a ill-fated project (actually you can't even call it a project, since no details were ever released) that he finally decided to scrap.
The criticisms of the Mayor seem fair enough, but the grading system appears in need of repair. Unfortunately, this grade seems less an honest attempt to rate the mayor and more an attempt to score political points as there appears to be a real disconnect between what is written in the scorecard and the final grades. Does the Sierra Club use a rubric, or is it more ad hoc?
monotreme,
Thanks for your kind words. I suppose I agree, though pleasing Dan Schroeder is not (as the mayor implies) always the same thing as pleasing the Sierra Club. I actually disagree with the Club's official positions on a few issues, but I ain't sayin' what those issues are.
danny,
You just implied that Godfrey might beat his wife or molest children if he were to come out and speak against it. Hey, I get it. He does the opposite of what he says or claims to believe in. The biggest hypocrite in all of Weber County.
I'm just sayin that's extreme. It's like, over the top. I think he's a lying hypocrite too, but ... well, I wouldn't make a suggestion like that. That's all I'm sayin.
Brutus:
Just two points. First, there is a very large difference between a D plus and an F. At least on campus.
Second: remember the "grading" was done before Hizzonah took the park sale and public-financed gondola "off the table" recently.
Native:
I agree. We ought to leave families out of this, even by implication. And alleging that kind of conduct, even to illustrate a point, seems uncalled for to me too.
brutus,
You've got a point: The grading scale that we used doesn't really leave room for someone who's absolutely atrocious on environmental issues, or, for that matter, for someone who's absolutely outstanding. The same is true of the grading scale that I use in my day job as a professor at WSU. But politicians (and students) who are that extreme are quite rare.
I would maintain that there's quite a difference between a D+ and an F. If you prefer, you can use numbers, where an A is 4, B is 3, and so on down to 0 for and F. Then the average of our nine grades comes to 1.44 (a high D+), which differs quite a bit from zero.
These days, with grade inflation, I know many people consider even a C to be a failing grade. If you're in this category, then I can see how you would think there's a disconnect between the verbal assessments and the letter grades. Otherwise, I hope you'll explain in more detail, with an example or two.
The purpose of the scorecard was to highlight Godfrey's record and to encourage discussion of the issues. The grades themselves are a convenient communication tool that everyone can understand. If grabbing peoples' attention is what you mean by scoring "political points," then yeah, the grades are intended for that purpose.
curm:
Although the scorecard was originally drafted before the mayor's announcement that the golf course was off the hook, it was revised before Schwebke wrote his article. Unfortunately, the revision was hampered by our continuing confusion over whether the adjacent open space and trails are truly off the hook as well. Until we have a clearer, written statement from the mayor to that effect, I'm assuming the worst. The grades themselves happen to be the same as before the announcement, but they could change if we learn more.
brutus,
Let me give an example to illustrate the point about the grading scale not really accommodating extremes.
We gave Godfrey a B on municipal energy use, for his recent programs to purchase renewable energy and hybrid cars. These programs are now a couple of months old. If these programs had begun a few years ago (say, when the Sierra Club endorsed the Blue Sky program and when the hybrid Escape first became available), with modest increases since then, we would probably have given Godfrey an A in this category.
But if you think about it, even then we could wish for a lot more. The city is buying renewable energy credits for only 19% of its electricity use, and has purchased only four hybrid vehicles among dozens of others. If we mapped these percentages onto letter grades, then the city's current efforts would earn it a D, at best.
Assigning grades is as much an art as a science. Call it "ad hoc" if you will, but there's really no other good option. In the scorecard we tried to apply standards that would seem reasonable to most members of our community, knowing that these standards couldn't possibly please everyone.
Dan S.-
Can you please explain to me why Godfrey doesn't see the low grade from the SIERRA CLUB as a GOOD thing. I say this with respect to the fact that this is UTAH.
Look, I'm an ORV-driving (yes I go slow and stay on the designated trails with a well-muffled 4-cycle engine) and I own and shoot guns (sometimes on BLM land). I'm a native Ogden REDNECK. But I'm a relatively progressive redneck, at least compared to some of my friends who HATE the Sierra Club. I swear Dude, some of these guys will vote for Godfrey just to vote against the Sierra Club.
Do you know what I'm saying? The goal here is to get Godfrey OUT of office. Is this fallacious calculus?
Rudi's link,UTA it's not our money is just another day in the life of lying little matty(gondola still) pinnoccio peccary godfrey.
Honesty F, Integrety F, Fiduciary responsability F, Judgement F, this lying little scumbag deserves an F in every catagory with the exception of, narcissm A, pathological lying A, immorality A, this was once again the City Council, the whole city should be required to listen to that one.
Did I mention that a peccary is a little pig, with a white collar?
OUST LYING LITTLE MATTY GONDOLA GODFREY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
native,
In some respects, Godfrey probably does see his low grade as a good thing. For instance, he seems to be perfectly happy with his low grade in the Sprawl and Legacy Highway category, despite the fact that highways in west Weber County will suck investment out of central Ogden.
But mostly, for the last few months, Godfrey has been trying to present himself as an environmentalist. This image is really a necessary part of his whole "vision" of Ogden as a haven for (certain types of) outdoor recreation. The biggest supporter of the mayor's new efforts has been Amer Sports, and Godfrey wants to attract more companies like that. See also Peter Metcalf's recent commentary.
So we thought it was important to ask whether Godfrey's record as a whole supports the image that he's recently been trying to create for himself. In some ways it does, but in many ways it doesn't.
Unfortunately for you and other rednecks, Godfrey's new vision for Ogden doesn't really include guns and ORV's. Of course, the vision is based on stereotypes, and I'll be the first to argue that these particular stereotypes often don't reflect reality. There's no inherent contradiction between environmental protection and enjoying guns and ORV's. Most hunters, for instance, are genuine environmentalists who want to protect natural places. And when used responsibly, an ORV is no more damaging than an automobile.
The Sierra Club's goal is to protect the environment--not to get rid of Godfrey. We're hoping that the scorecard will push both Godfrey and his challengers toward pro-environment positions. So whether Godfrey wins or loses the election, we'll have made progress.
Dan
Thanks for the response and thanks for putting out the scorecard -- it is very helpful. I can't wait to see scorecard on the other candidates.
As someone in academia, I certain understand the idea of grading as an art (especially since I am in the social sciences!)
Here is one example that drew my initial attention: the trails. I walk the new Birdsong trail a few times a week, and I figured that the creation of a brand new trail is a pretty impressive (and not all that common) accomplishment --understand that I know that mayor was hardly the only one involved). All else equal, the creation of this trail and the the expansion of the parkway would seem to warrant an A. He should be dinged for thinking about messing with Mount Ogden, giving him a B/B+, whatever. A C would be reserved for some who did nothing positive at all.
Again, this is all subjective. I appreciate your attempts to quantify his record, I just seems that the entire grade is colored by the Gondola scheme which is now off the table.
Brutus,
Is the gondola scheme off the table?
What makes you think this?
Only the golf course sale has been taken off the table but even the language surrounding it leaves questions and plenty of room for Godfrey to maneuver.
You conveniently diverge from his derailing our transit initiatives as though they are just an aside. Transit is what this is all about and Godfrey has shown little or no leadership in Transit.
Well, since we are on environmental matters, broadly speaking, and since Congressman Rob "The Lemming" Bishop --- so named for his eager-beaver willingness to follow his party leadership blindly over cliff after cliff after cliff [e.g. the Bridge to Nowhere; suspending his own party's house rules to permit Tom Delay to stay in the leadership after being indicted for corruption; voting for huge domestic spending increases in the name of "fiscal conservatism" and so on] --- is Ogden's very own U.S. Congressman, maybe this isn't too far off topic.
In this morning's SE, Scott Schwebke has a story about global warming. Here's how it opens:
How hot is it in Utah? Four of the state’s 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000, according to a 55-page global warming report issued Tuesday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, a citizen-based environmental organization in Washington, D.C.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
[Note to Mr. Schwebke: that's nice... four hottest years the "tip of the iceberg." He he he. Really nice. Loved it.]
Mr. Bishop's office issued a reply on his behalf that began “This so-called report...."
Huh? This so-called report...?
Mr. Bishop is entitled to reject the findings of the report, to question its evidence if he wishes of course. But to doubt that the report is a report?
But at least we can expect Mr. Bishop to be consistent, and so we can expect to hear from his office about "the so-called National Intelligence Estimate President Bush released" and the "so-called report on the Federal deficit from the OMB" and come this September, no doubt Mr. Bishop's office will comment on "Gen. Petraeus's so-called report on progress in Iraq."
Right?
Dear Little Bill G. (aka Polster [sic], Forecaster and Poster):
It has come to my attention that you are a fervent and unabashed member of Wayne Peterson's famed Squirrel Patrol, and you have duly taken your orders from Captain Geiger, engaging in Internet subterfuge and impugning me and our common friend, Bill, who has volunteered thousands of hours the past two years trying to protect our publicly held land and assets in the wake of Lying Little Matty Gondola Godfrey's malfeasance and tyranny. No wonder you think I'm short; you haven't seen me in 19 years. I haven't seen much of you either since you took my vote and squandered it like so much of your trust fund, joining Lying Little Matty Gondola Godfrey's cabal of semi-literate and unqualified employment pool of liars, cheats, and porn addicts. I think you are spending too much time across the street at Squirrel Patrol central. Are you now going to take it upon yourself to call people who write letters to the editor and harass them about their views? Are you going to pose as a newspaper employee in order to retrieve people's work numbers and harass them there? Are you going to attempt to get people fired for calling you an assclown? Maybe I should call your boss and tell him that you shouldn't waste company time and money blogging, but then you work for Lying Little Matty Gondola Godfrey and Dave Harmer, so they probably encourage such behavior. I can't believe you've sunken to such depths. My enmity for you as an elected official who threw dirt on his constituents in no way changes my affection for your son, whom I've always considered one of my favorite people in the world. I wish you and your family well in your personal life, but don't piss on me and other people you've known for 40 years because you drank Lying Little Matty Gondola Godfrey's Kool-Aid, donned a Patagonia vest, eaten some onion rolls and now think we're enemies of your hometown, clown, because we're protectors of it. Have a good day, and give my regards to the captain of the Squirrel Patrol, of whom you're apparently more fond than lifelong OTown and MOGC homies.
brutus,
I've been on the Ogden City trails committee for 13 years, and during that time we've built lots of new trails in the foothills. So the Birdsong Trail, lovely though it is, seemed a natural extension of what we were already doing--nothing out of the ordinary. The extension of the Ogden River Parkway was a much more difficult (and expensive) task, though again it was a natural continuation of what had gone on before.
Overall I'd say that the efforts of our committee have gotten about as much support under the Godfrey administration as under the Mecham administration. In most respects the level of support is very good. Under both mayors we were the last to be consulted about the big potential impacts, such as the tram (under Mecham) and the gondola (under Godfrey). And there have been chronic difficulties with funding and staffing for routine trail maintenance.
Of course, both mayors deserve credit for even having a trails committee. And I suppose Godfrey deserves some credit for not ousting his enemies (on the gondola issue) from the committee and stacking it with his supporters. On the other hand, Godfrey did oust Shalae Larson from the Planning Commission, and she was the PC's liason to the trails committee. After a hiatus of nearly a year, she's now been replaced in this capacity by Iain Hueton. Godfrey has also formed a separate "High Adventure" committee with hiking and biking subcommittees, which seems to be infringing on some of the turf of the trails committee. Whereas the trails committee was formed by ordinance, with oversight (approval of appointments) from the City Council, the High Adventure committee is a creation of Godfrey alone, with no council oversight. I don't mean to imply that they're doing bad things--only that Godfrey likes to do things his own way, with total control.
Another trail-related detail that would have taken too long to explain in the scorecard: It's probable that the public has a legal right to use the major trails on the Malan's Basin property, due to many decades of continuous, open use. But shortly after Peterson purchased the property, the mayor tried to enter into an agreement with him that would have made this use subject to Peterson's approval.
If the whole gondola scheme were now off the table, our grade on trails definitely would have been higher. But Godfrey has made it clear that the gondola is not off the table, and has even alluded to building houses somewhere in the foothills other than the golf course. This makes it sound like some of the trails are still in jeopardy. We gave him every opportunity to clarify his new position regarding the trails, and so far he hasn't. Moreover, Godfrey has a long record of making misleading statements on such matters. So as I said to curm, for now I'm assuming the worst.
"Ken Lee didn't lobby for money at all!"
from the lips of
Matt Godfrey
Hasn't the mayor said at other times and other places that in fact Ken Lee did lobby for money in D.C.?
Our Mayor wouldn't lie, would he?
Dan,
Thanks for the added details concerning the trails, it definitely clarifies your scorecard.
Mary lou, lying little matty is consistant when it comes to his penchant for putting tax dollars into the hands of his buddies. This represents another fine example, Ogden City pays a lobbyist to go to D.C. and secure funding to aid Chris Peterson in developing his proposal. What, if anything was in it for Ogden? Had lying little matty's plan succeeded, it would have amounted to damn near $300,000.00 tax dollars afforded another buddy of lying little matty gondola still godfrey,head peccary. A peccary is a little pig with a white collar.
Brutus, so you think that the Mayor should only be "dinged" re: his grade on trails "for thinking about messing with Mt Ogden." First of all, an interesting use of words to describe what has been pretty much an obsession with the mayor - and I don't think selling the course and adjoing trails to Peterson so that homes can be built on them constitutes simply "messing with ..." He was openly advocating the destruction of several miles of some of Ogden's most used trails. yes, I know he claimed that Peterson was going to keep some trail access - trails through a gated housing development don't measure up at all to what we currently have. Pushing for this (not just thinking about it) deserves much more than a "ding," don't you think?
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