We'll lead off today with a three more excellent election-oriented citizen letters in this morning's Standard-Examiner, each of them offering analysis based on Boss Godfrey's proven performance, during his last four-year mayoral term. We'll then follow up briefly with a few other items.
Marian Evans puts the spotlight upon Godfrey's cronyism, reciting a list of incidences where Boss Godfrey has given special treatment to his special friends, then summarizing Godfrey's litany of publicly-observed misdeeds in her final paragraph: "It appears that Ogden is for sale to the highest bidder, as long as they are friends of the mayor."
Long-time civic activist Rulon Yorgason scores a two-bagger, drilling down on the mayor's thoroughly bogus "Godfrey the Crime-fighter" theme, and then picking up on the Friends of Matt (FOM) topic where Ms. Evans left off, noting the strong correlation between FOMs who have received special favors from Boss Godfrey, and the names appearing on his campaign
Jackie Piper Slaughter takes us back to Boss Godfrey's secret gondola study debacle, which ultimately became the subject of a scathing Standard-Examiner editorial, strongly criticizing Boss Godfrey and his administration for the secretive and dishonorable behavior revealed in the 29-page series of GRAMA-produced emails, originally obtained by the Ogden Sierra Club's Dan Schroeder and later posted right here on this blog.
It's always a pleasure to read the letters from Std-Ex readers around election time, when thoughtful Emerald City citizens demonstrate themselves not to be the dumb and forgetful pack of sheep that Boss Godfrey and his pack of henchmen and cronies presume them to be.
On the other side of the coin, we find this Godfrey Campaign Letter Mill knock-off, where another Godfrey shill once again thoughtlessly hammers out the preposterous Godfreyite "debt is not debt" theme, with the once again repeated assertion that the Ogden City's Redevelopment Agency debt is really not Ogden City's responsibility.
In that connection we invite the sadly misinformed Mr. Ricardo Robles to read the material in Ogden City's own "Comprehensive Annual Financial Report," which reveals Emerald City's true level of debt, as of June of 2006. This material is of course written by Ogden City's "bean counters," and not Godfrey's paid campaign management team, leaving no doubt which information source we'll choose to believe. Within that report Mr. Robles will find this highly instructive language:
"OGDEN CITY, UTAH NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - Year Ended June 30, 2006 - NOTE 1. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES - "The accompanying financial statements include all activities of the City and Ogden Redevelopment Agency (RDA)....We suppose Mr. Robles's letter reveals something about certain less thoughtful other Ogden City folks: Godfreyite lemmings will attach their good names to dang near anything Boss Godfrey sticks under their noses for signature, so long as they can remain within the Godfrey inner circle.
"The RDA was included because the separate governing bodies of both entities are comprised of the same individuals and the City is financially accountable for the RDA."....
"C. Other organizations that, because of the nature and significance of their relationship with the primary government, exclusion from the reporting entity would render the financial statements misleading or incomplete... (Page 50) .
"Total Ogden City Outstanding Debt Last Three Fiscal Years (2004-06): $52,489,706, $56,467,598, $93,029,566" (Page 124) [emphasis added].
In another letter, Boss Godfrey's Mt. Ogden Golf Course manager does an obvious campaign favor for his Boss, and reports that Boss Godfrey promises (scout's honor) NOT to sell the golf course. What he doesn't talk about, of course, is the acreage surrounding the course perimeter.
And we'll close up today's letters segment with an outstanding missive from mayoral candidate Neil Hansen's son Trever, who offers real life insight into why recently-reported lawn sign vandalism is not a trivial matter, at least from the point of view of campaign workers who expend great amounts of volunteer time and effort to help their candidates participate in our system of democratic elections.
There's also a Std-Ex campaign 2007 article of note. Thanks to the efforts of Dorothy Littrell (and Weber County Forum,) Boss Godfrey has apparently become aware of the legal requirement that he account for the $37 thousand and change left over from his 2003 campaign. His already-bloated $100,000 campaign war chest has thus swelled to an obscene $138 thousand -- three times greater than all other candidates combined -- which no doubt explains the forest of lawnsigns which are cluttering up neighborhoods from Harrisville to South Ogden. Enough with the lawnsigns already, Boss Godfrey. We get the point that you think you can buy this election.
Don't let the cat get yer tongues.
