Eight days after Emerald City municipal election polling, the election post-mortem examination finally begins in the Standard-Examiner. According the the official results, published on the Weber County Website late yesterday afternoon, Boss Godfrey escaped the political hangman by a 449 votes, with a mere 51.40% of the 14,043 valid ballots cast.
As our gentle readers have observed in our lower threads, Godfrey's slim margin of victory hardly qualifies as a voter mandate. Judging from this morning's Std-Ex editorial, our home-town newspaper agrees with us:
It wasn’t exactly by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin, but incumbent Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey won a narrow victory when provisional and absentee ballots were finally counted Tuesday. By anyone’s definition, it was not a mandate.The gist of the editorial is that our beloved Emerald City remains bitterly split down the middle, and that we should now all kiss and make up. Whether that's possible is anybody's guess, given the harshness that's characterized Emerald City politics over the past two years. Some folks, we're sure, believe there are scores still to be settled.
Significantly, the editorial drills down to the single issue which has placed our citizens at each others' throats. You got it, folks: the Std-Ex editors opine that it's the Gondola/Peterson Landgrab debacle is the problem which nearly cost Godfrey his re-election:
As for the Malan’s Basin resort and associated land sale proposals, it can be better analyzed by splitting the issue in two. Most people are generally supportive of landowner Chris Peterson’s right to build a four-season resort on his property. If he can obtain the permits from county or city planning commissions, he should be able to pursue his dream.We think the Standard-Examiner properly identifies Godfrey's key policy gaffe in its above paragraphs; and we also agree that it's clearly time for Godfrey (and a few others) to mend fences. Whether our mayoral one-trick pony has the capacity to grasp this simple concept remains doubtful however, in view of today's Scott Schwebke piece.
But the mayor misjudged public animosity regarding his enthusiastic support for Peterson’s desire to purchase the Mount Ogden Golf Course and 150 acres of university land on which to build homes to finance construction of his resort. It placed Godfrey in the odd position of promoting Ogden as an outdoor “hub” close to open space and unsurpassed recreational opportunities, while at the same time advocating the building of more rooftops on some of that prime open space. That part of the plan never clicked with most Ogdenites, and Godfrey waited so long to bail on the plan that it nearly cost him re-election.
Even though Godfrey has since pledged not to sell the golf course and surrounding city-owned park lands and trails, there remains an oozing wound associated with the two-year battle over the Malan’s Basin resort and proposed downtown-to-Weber State gondola, which was to have been funded in part by the sale of the golf course. Critics of the project — and even those undecided — were attacked by a cadre of gondola/resort fans. Contrary to common sense and principles of free speech, they urged revocation of tenure for WSU professors who would not support the sale of land or the urban gondola, and accused others who withheld judgment until a detailed plan was offered of being anti-Ogden. It was ridiculous.
That, in turn, prompted gondola/resort opponents to respond in kind with all manner of accusations about conflicts of interest and corruption, none of which ever were substantiated.
It was an especially odd battle, since no detailed plan ever has been presented to the city or county — to this day. All the animosity and name-calling was for nothing, it turns out. But the damage was real, and repairing it will be a slow and difficult process.
That’s the considerable task now facing Godfrey and the Ogden City Council: To continue moving the city forward, but in a more harmonious fashion. What good will it do to finish resurrecting Ogden from its doldrums if the city’s residents are still at each other’s throats?
Examining his electoral close call, Boss Godfrey chalks it all up to this:
"Godfrey said he expected a slim margin of victory because he has made some controversial decisions to improve Ogden, such as stepped-up code enforcement."
Welcome to the twilight zone of MattGodfreyWorld, folks, where our newly re-elected mayor dwells in a universe of alternate reality, believing his massive unpopularity is the mere result of agressive code enforcement.
But who knows, folks, perhaps Boss Godfrey will soon come to his senses. And if he does, we have a few off the cuff suggestions about the manner by which Godfrey can help "Suture Ogden's Wounds."
1) Godfrey can begin by making a concerted effort to involve our elected city council in all future projects, from initial planning to final execution. While we believe the current council has been generally cooperative and compliant with respect to Godfrey's projects, he's gotten himself into serious trouble with council relations blunders, such as his Secret Gondola Study and Bootjack.
2) Godfrey should disband or disassociate himself from his Sturmentruppen, the unofficial unelected political arm of his administration. In our opinion these people bear major responsibility for the rancor that continues to divide our community. For the life of us, we can't imagine why any responsible elected official would provide these thugs keys to the executive washroom.
3) Godfrey should immediately settle the latest lawsuit, which is reported in this morning's Standard-Examiner. Godfrey should immediately release the documents that the Sierra Club has been requesting, and demonstrate a new commitment to open government.
4) And if Godfrey expects to get along with the 48.21% of angry citizens who showed up at the polls on Novermber 6, pitchforks and torches in hand, to choreograph his political demise, we think that Boss Godfrey should slide that obnoxious desktop engraved brass plaque clean off his desk and into the nearest trash can. (Click image to enlarge):
We're sure none of you will let the cat get your tongues, right?Update 11/15/07 3:53 a.m. MT: We have just received word from the South Ogden Justice Court, to the effect that Obersturmbannführer Bobby Geiger, of the Boss Godfrey lawn sign Sturmabteilung, has been charged with two counts of criminal mischief as a result of this campaign lawn sign vandalism incident... and this.
South Ogden Case #07-2271
Next appearance date: Pretrial conference - 1/07/07
Keep your eyes on this site, gentle readers. We'll definitely be following up on this.
