Mt. Ogden Community Plan Set for Approval Tonight

And a few words about an ill-timed post council meeting event

Tonight's the night gentle readers. Tonight's 6:00 p.m. city council agenda includes approval of the long awaited Mt. Ogden Community Plan. This document, which will be incorporated into Ogden City's General Plan, marks an important milestone in planning for the future of this important Emerald City east bench neighborhood.

Among other things, this plan, which we assume will be adopted tonight, includes protection of our "crown jewel" Mt. Ogden Parklands, and will present in the future a legal deterrent to the efforts of ambitious developers, who would like nothing more than to pave over our open space in asphalt, and cover it with cookie-cutter McMansions.

Approval of this plan, which will be the culmination of thousands of hours of citizen involvement, is a cause for celebration in our community, We therefore hope all community-minded citizens will be in attendance, to pat each other on the back, and congratulate themselves for a job well done.

Unlike many meetings in the past, we won't be recommending the usual stage props of pitchforks and torches, but rather suggest bottles of sparking cider and party hats.

Unfortunately for at least one council member and the mayor, there won't be much time for post-meeting celebration, due to a potentially conflicting event. For reasons which are not entirely clear to us, several non-profit volunteer groups in Ogden have scheduled a 7:30 p.m. mayoral election oriented "meet the candidate’s night," at the Bertha Eccles Art Center, a mere 1-1/2 hours following council chairman Garcia's opening gavel.

Somewhere along the line this event has strangely morphed into a purported "debate," -- at least that was the terminology used in yesterday's Standard-Examiner announcement. And in that connection we link here the written rules and format of tonight's post council meeting event, which should make it clear that this will be conducted in the format of a "question and answer session," and not formal candidate debate.

Last night in the lower article comments section, one not-so-gentle reader (a Godfreyite, no doubt) breathlessly announced that mayoral candidate Van Hooser had "backed out of" tonight's "debate." This launched a short flurry of accusatory comments directed at Van Hooser.

Accordingly, we contacted the Van Hooser organization last night, and received assurances that candidate Van Hooser will indeed appear at the "meet the candidates" event as planned -- directly after the scheduled council meeting adjourns. According to Van Hooser campaign sources, this was the original agreement made with the event promoters.

What's important for our readers to understand regarding this latter event, gentle readers, is that Ms. Van Hooser, unlike her opponent the mayor, considers attendance at council meetings to be her primary obligation. Whereas Ms. Van Hooser's council attendance has been near perfect during the past two months, Boss Godfrey has reportedly attended a grand total of one council meeting during the same period, according to sources outside the Van Hooser organization. Our mayor, it would seem, has his priorities reversed, and shows no hesitation in "blowing off" his legally-mandatory attendance at council meetings, while he's pursuing what he seems to consider his primary obligation -- campaigning.

In saying this, we do hope that Mayor Godfrey will find the time this evening to attend the council meeting, even though he probably doesn't consider the adoption of the Mt. Ogden Community Plan to be "his" victory. Perhaps, though, he and Ms. Van Hooser can car-pool over to the Bertha Eccles Arts Center after the council meeting adjourns, yes?

And as an off-topic aside, we link to this brief Curmudgeon submission, which provides a light-hearted yet pithy discussion of today's excellent Std-Ex Op-ed piece.