When Is Enough Enough?

Wanted: A mayor willing to spend more time administering his city than putting it "on the map"

This morning's Standard-Examiner letters section includes a reader letter, framing a thought that has rattled through the brain of many an Ogdenite in recent years:

It's time Ogden addresses safety issues

I would like to congratulate Mayor Godfrey on the new downtown developments. Now, if it just felt safe to leave my house.

Jay Hartwell
Ogden

The spate of recent Emerald City gang violence has many of the lumpencitizens scratching their heads, wondering how it was possible for Boss Godfrey to have so casually neglected the festering criminal culture which appears to have arisen in our city during his 7-1/2 year administration.

During the years the Ogden Police were screaming for more funds and manpower to fight our city's looming crime problems, Boss Godfrey responded by doubling personnel in the Traffic Division. As it became obvious to every "street cop" in Ogden that our OPD Patrol Division, Narcotic Unit, Gang Unit and the Detective Division were laughably understaffed and underpaid, Boss Godfrey misapplied police manpower to the writing of traffic citations.

And now that our city has arrived in the unenviable position of arguably becoming the violent crime capitol of Utah, the citizens of Ogden are falling back on quick-but-cheap solutions:

• Last Wednesday, Boss Godfrey held a press conference to announce an eleventh-hour administration "War on Gangs," an obvious band-aid approach, which boils down to adding a mere two OPD vehicle patrol units to the thousands of miles of Emerald City streets.

• Today, the Std-Ex breathlessly announces the arrival in Emerald City of New York City's famous "Guardian Angels." We'll assume that this is a purely citizen-initiated, do-it-yourself approach, inasmuch as Boss Godfrey held no press conference.

And yet even now, Boss Godfrey has announced no comprehensive plan to seriously beef up the OPD division that is charged with the duty of patrolling Ogden City's thousands of miles of streets, nor to provide direly-needed funding to the Gang Unit or other sub-divisions in the Ogden City Police Department whose missions are to fight actual crime.

Somehow, in our blindness, we citizens of Emerald City allowed ourselves to twice elect to the mayoral office a man whose priorities are obsessively focused on building monuments to himself, and always giving a friendly helping hand to his crony friends. During nearly eight years in office, Boss Godfrey has evidenced neither the interest nor the inclination to devote himself to the fundamental tasks of administering our city. Our public safety is of little concern to a man who considers the city that he governs to be his personal monopoly board.

At this point we're going to segue to an article appearing in yesterday's Salt Lake City Weekly, about the City of Murray, a Utah blue-collar town with demographics quite similar to ours. And from that article -- we'll extract what we believe to be some very wise observations:

It depends on what you’re looking for, but for smart residents of the area, Murray fits the bill as the valley’s top city. Murray has a mayor who spends more time administering his city than trying to put it “on the map.” Murray has its own cops and fire department. It has its own school district, its own water and its own electricity. Murray has everything any decent taxpayer could want from Little Leagues to fine parks and recreation centers to decent roads and safe streets. Murray has its own parades, fireworks and picnics. Yet two things clearly stand out in Murray’s favor: lots of bars and low taxes.

Tax appraisals and assessments were recently sent to area homeowners. As folks opened those letters, slight registries were made at the University of Utah’s seismic center as one person after the other fainted and fell to ground. Blip. Blip. Blip. Many of them got up and sent bitchy letters to the editor to local newspapers. As if that would help—criminy, people, the local papers want land values to go up! A depressed community can’t support crappy newspapers! Have you missed all those glowing reports of how fast our homes are accelerating in value? Weren’t you pleased to read about that and then nearly spending your newfound riches? Only to find that there are not enough qualified buyers or Californians to go around? But your appraisals and associated taxes went up anyway?

I opened my appraisal letter and saw that Salt Lake County claims my home is far more valuable than I thought. They have it increasing dramatically over the prior year, like homes across the valley. Then I looked at the next line that says how much tax I have to pay this year on my home. I live in Murray. What, me worry? Nope. My property taxes went down around 10 percent from the year prior.

What Mr. Salas doesn't tell us is that, although his Murray property values "went up," ("dramatically" he says,) they obviously didn't "go up" nearly as dramatically as those of his neighbors in other communities in Salt Lake County -- communities who aggressively (and blindly, we think) continue to pursue the government-driven economic development siren-call. Thus Mr. Salas's tax bill actually declined, even though his property value had risen. In the final analysis, his increased property value apparently represented a smaller slice of the tax assessment pie than that of like-situated taxpayers in neighboring communities.

Food for thought for the Emerald City lumpencitizens, we think. What true value do citizens of a stable community place on increased property values anyway, unless they're planning to sell their properties, or buy new toys through financially imprudent, equity-gobbling second mortgages?

As the September 11 municipal primary approaches, perhaps it's time we gave a thought to our priorities as a community. How much aggressive government-driven development is enough, we ask? Will we ever know when we've had enough?

Is it time for the residents of Emerald City to elect a mayor who spends more time administering his city than trying to put it “on the map?” Is it time to once again rely primarily on the time-tested forces of the free market? Isn't it time to insist that Boss Godfrey play the game of "Monopoly" with somebody else's "Monopoly Board?" And what about public safety? How long can this city keep it on the back-burner?

We wonder what our gentle readers think about all this.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.