Just Another Humble Servant
After reading the article in yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune “Ogden Fire Department hopes demographics will loosen feds purse strings” I have been doing some lamenting about the actual conditions and the commitment of the Ogden City administration to public safety.
The article explains that Ogden is placing hope on the federal lottery crap shoot that they will receive federal grants to help replace aging fire apparatus, and staffing. The grants are a help to the fire departments across the country, however it is luck of the draw to receive the grants. Ogden Fire Department in my opinion has been lucky so far given the fact that the apparatus and staffing levels are below national NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) standards.
The apparatus (Fire Engines) that are currently in use in the Ogden Fire Department, according to the recent Citygate Associates studies commissioned by the City Council at a cost of approximately $53,000.00, are old and have high mileage. Consequently, Ogden cannot ensure safe functional vehicles to respond to emergency situations.
I know first hand that many times the apparatus have not been able to respond due to mechanical problems, or if they do happen to arrive on scene often times they cannot pump water, that’s assuming a reliable water supply is available. There are several times that during a fire some of the engines would just stop pumping water. The mechanical problems are only compounded by the fact that the City’s fleet department has no certified mechanics to work on fire apparatus.
The audit also points out that the staffing is “very thin” to guarantee strong firefighting response during periods when medical calls for service are high.
There are four ambulances, three Paramedic units in Ogden City; the fire department provides medical service to a large portion of Weber County. When these medical units are in service on medical calls it places a strain on staffing for firefighting operations. If all of the medical units are busy, approximately half of the on duty firefighters will not be available to respond to perform necessary functions on a fire ground.
The Fire engines are staffed with three firefighters excluding engine four in west Ogden which is staffed with two firefighters, The NFPA standards require four firefighters per engine.
Many of the fire hydrants in the city are not reliable, either broken or not accessible for use at a fire scene. Testing and maintenance of the hydrants have been neglected because of staffing and funding short falls in the water works department.
Also in the report from Citygate is the ability to attract, retain and train firefighters, the audit also added “the entry-level turnover" is indicative of something seriously wrong with the management, leadership and/or hiring practices of the city and department.
The Fire Department has one of the most stringent requirements that a new hire candidate must meet before applying and testing with the fire department. Certifications include Utah State firefighter 1 & 2, Utah State EMT Basic, Haz-mat ops & awareness. The certifications are good, but many times the candidates are not experienced in the fire service, they are placed “on the line” without any training in Ogden’s procedures and equipment. The audit also recommends a full time training and safety officer be added to the department.
The fire stations are mentioned as being tired and worn needing many repairs, with the suggestion of replacement of station 3 on 3rd and Washington, as being cramped and old recommending replacement and remodel of other stations.
I wonder why the Standard-Examiner has not picked up on the report that is not really news; the report has been completed since spring of this year. Could it be that with the endorsement of the incumbent by the Standard-Examiner, they don’t want any more egg on their faces? I believe that the conditions of the Ogden Fire Department are something that the public needs to know about. In my opinion the fire department is in no better condition than the infrastructure of the city because of years of neglect by the Godfrey administration. Mayor Godfrey feels that the City should be run like a business, but he fails to realize that public safety is part of the City’s business; I guess it’s just not cool and sexy to spend money on public safety.
Is it any wonder why the firefighters have not endorsed Mayor Godfrey’s election bids, when he has neglected the fire department for so many years?
The Firefighters of Ogden City will continue to perform their duties to the best of their abilities in a professional manor with the limited resources provided by the City Administration. My only hope is that our luck does not run out, my prayers are with my brothers and sisters in the fire department and the citizens that they serve and protect.
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26 comments:
Maybe we could ask Gadi Lesham to make a donation? Or will he just be re-selling the land he's been "given" by Godfrey. If the City had sold that land openly for what it will be worth, we might have money for infrastructure.
I can't help suspecting that Godfrey's neglect of the Fire Department is in part a result of Firefighters refusing to flog his gondola proposal two years ago. I'm sure that after their public support of Van Hooser they will get even less consideration from City Hall.
Is this something the City Council can deal with? We need a major shift in budget priorities and we need it now.
Nice piece, JAHS. Thanks.
The problem in dealing with matters like this... or problems, in Ogden's case... are two. First, money. To staff and equip a first rate fire department takes money. Municipal money. And that comes mostly from taxes. We'd have to pay more, and while I agree it would be well worth it, here in the Reddest of the Red States, raising taxes to pay for public services [yes, even fire protection] is a difficult thing to arrange.
The second problem, more particular to Ogden, stems from the first: from what I've been able to see, Ogden's city government [mayors and councils and schoolboards] have for long time preferred to shove maintenance and improvement generally way off into the future in order to preserve lower tax rates before the next election... and there is always a next election no more than two years away. Maintenance and replacement delayed always means spending more in the end when some council and mayor, finally, have to act. We've seen this over and over again.
We're seeing it now with the water projects the Council is putting forward... at last. Instead of having had previous councils and mayors raise the funds necessary to maintain the system and replace and upgrade over time, they let it all ride [previous mayors too], and now that the Feds have said Ogden must repair and replace, we're facing a huge bill over the relatively short term.
We saw the same with Ogden schools. Maintenance and replacement delayed for decades, and then s huge expenditure over screaming voter protests to begin replacing and repairing.
I suspect it's been exactly the same with the fire department. Delay, put off so the taxes won't rise, then do nothing but the bare minimum, then because another election was coming, put off and delay again. And again. And again.
To be a good council member, or mayor [or state legislator or congressman] takes the courage sometimes to stand up to say "we're going to raise taxes or fees because the public good requires it, because otherwise we can't provide the services the city's residents need and expect." Ogden over the previous two decades seems to have been sadly lacking in such courageous political leaders. And we're all paying the price now, in terms of degraded public services [ancient fire trucks, slowed response times, thin staffing etc.] and huge increases in various rates to try to do now and quickly what should have been done slowly and consistently over time but wasn't [the water system rebuilding e.g.]
One other thing to keep in mind in re: upgrading the fire department. The insurance industry rates fire departments and fire protection, and the higher a city's rating, the lower premiums are on home insurance. Over time, those lowered premiums can make a significant difference. So homeowners have something to gain from Ogden's achieving and maintaining the highest fire protection ratings.
[Full Disclosure: over a year or so ago when I got run down in a crosswalk on Harrison Blvd., it was an Ogden Fire Department EMS unit that arrived on scene just minutes after the accident, peeled me off the pavement with a busted leg and banged up head, and had me off to MacKay Dee quickly. Fast, efficient and I was damn glad they were there when I needed them.]
And talking about public safety, will our streets possibly be a little safer now that the nefarious and notorious one man crime wave Bobby Geiger is being hauled before the bar of justice?
Read about the little hit man's four class "B" misdemeanor charges here in the Tribune - thanks to Kristen Moulton:
Tight race settled, but sign tension persists
My comment, admittedly, is of a piece with that immortal ONION headline, "Nations' Educators Alarmed at Poor Quality of Teen Suicide Notes."
There you go again, Curm, adding a superfluous "A," this time to McKay-Dee. Sigh. How am I to reach this son of New Yourke?
Mayor Godfrey did well with the voters on the east side of Ogden, these areas are covered 3 engines. Engine 5 has the frame welds breaking apart along with many other problems. Engine 2 leaks 150-200 gallons a day of water from the tank and also leaks air from the brake system-if the air is low the truck cannot move until is filled, so the engine may get there late and with nearly half of it's water supply missing. Engine 3 has had times where it will not pump any water, temperatures in the cab during the summer frequently hit 130 degrees. The engines are owned by the city fleet department and are maintained by them also, the city will not part with the money to train someone to work on the engines.
The audit also contains a picture of the sagging floor at station 3 being propped up with 4x4's. The repair is not up to code. This must not be as important as the 1200 code violation tickets issued to the citizens every year because the fines from the citizens can be as much as $500 a day.
MM:
You meant, I'm sure, "son of Olde Brooklyn."
Anon Firefighter:
What may well happen is, there will be a bad fire some day at which one or more of the dilapidated engines will fail for the reasons you cite. More buildings will burn, or perhaps lives will be lost that should not have been lost. And then there will be a public outcry demanding to know how this could have happened, why the engines didn't work, and who is to blame. And then we will, I'm afraid, spend more time trying to assign blame than we will trying to fix the problem to make sure it never happens again.
Another story in the SL Trib deals with a topic oft discussed on WCF: municipal justice courts as city cash cows, and a legislative plan to deal with the problem. From the story:
Criticisms that municipal justice court judges are more concerned with collecting fines than with dispensing justice could become a thing of the past if a state courts study group gets its way.
Under a plan revealed Monday that will be pitched to lawmakers in January, justice court judges would become state employees selected by a 10-member committee composed of residents, city and county officials and the presiding justice court judge in the district. "My sense is if we increase the judges' independence, a judge is going to be at liberty to not be driven by budgetary concerns," said Utah Supreme Court Justice Ronald Nehring, who headed the study group.
Justice court fines and forfeitures raise millions of dollars that go directly into city coffers. A 2004 study commissioned by the Salt Lake County Justice Advisory Council found that rather than impose such alternative punishments as community service, municipal judges are more likely to impose fines backed by the threat of jail terms. The courts study group wants all justice court judges to be full-time employees with college educations who would serve six-year terms and earn 90 percent of a district court judge's salary. All justice court judges would stand for retention election.
Comments:
Since Ogden provides medical, ambulance, or fire service to the county, does the county pay for it? It is inconceivable the answer would be "no", but if it is, we should change it.
I would appreciate knowing upcoming times for Bob Geiger's trial. I know people who want to go. It should be hilarious.
As to the legislature considering making municipal courts independent, I can only observe this is yet another time the legislature has to act to stop Ogden from doing what it is doing.
Yesiree, Curm. Boss Godfrey's twin-pronged justice court/ticket quota ripoff is under attack on at least both fronts, 1) with the state courts study group, (which you cited) working to release justice court judges from local government dominance, and 2) citizen-friendly legislators like Neil Hansen working to abolish traffic citation quota systems entirely.
If all goes well, tyrants like Godfrey will be deprived of their revenue "cash cow,", which is designed to prey upon locaL citizens who drive cars.... and local justice courts will start trying to behave like real courts as opposed to city revenue cash generating monsters.
We particularly like the proposed provision, wherein appointed justice court judges will have to endure, and be held accountable. like all other Utah Judges for their demonstrated behavior "on the judicial bench."
"All justice court judges would stand for retention election."
This proposed provision should appeal to all Emerald City citizens, we think.
In a nutshell it means that only we lumpencitizens, and not Boss Godfrewy, will be able to fire a justice court judge who's gone haywire.
To nobody's surprise, your blogmeister will be following these stories carefully, of course.
From the above mentioned SL Trib article concerning Bobby G's legal troubles:
"Wicks said she was driving down Polk Avenue in early September when she saw Geiger with one of her signs in his hands. She asked him what he was doing, and he responded that it had fallen and he was putting it back up." I can't help it. Sounds like the response the Grinch gave to Cindy-loo Hoo when he was taking the Hoo's Christmas Tree, don't it?
A $1,000.00 fine and 6 months in jail sounds like a great idea for Bob Geiger.
Even better if that is the penalty for each count of criminal mischief.
Maybe we should turn over the election fraud in Ogden to South Ogden's prosecutor to settle also.
It doesn't look like Weber County Attorney Mark de Caria is exactly chomping on the bit to get started on the investigation of that fiasco.
Is there a side betting pool on whether he ever opens that investigation?
Mark DeCaria doesn't have the balls or integrity to open any case against any elected official regardless of the high crimes and misdemeanors they commit. He is a complete phony when it comes to being an effective or competent prosecutor. Besides, he is not very smart and his dog is very ugly.
Curm,
Hate to disagree with you BUT Ogden wouldn’t have to raise taxes for these types of city needs (buying fire engines or building fire stations) if it would cut back its business development budget to even just levels that other cities spend on BD activities.
Ogden is spending 30% of its budget on BD, other cities spend about 10%. Our city budget is about $60 million, that means (30% vs.10% = 20% difference) and 20% of $60 million is $12 million. These dollars could be used to help fund all sorts of deficiencies in the services provided by the city.
That said, it’s not enough to solve our sewer and water system infra-structure needs which will require bonding and debt service but it would be a better use of the funds for the residents of Ogden than what the mayor is currently using the funds for (i.e. developer slush funds).
He’s more concerned with lining the pockets of his friends than he is in our well being.
Mayor Godfrey is just like Rudi Giuliani, I'm sorry top say this but it is true.
Just watch and see for yourself, this is about educating the public of the real things that happened during the 9/11 incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCYEEO-58I
Just Another:
You wrote: A $1,000.00 fine and 6 months in jail sounds like a great idea for Bob Geiger. Even better if that is the penalty for each count of criminal mischief.
If this goes as far as a judgment... big if... I expect the outcome will be a smallish fine, maybe a few hours community service. Nobody's going to jail for six months, much less 24, and I doubt the fine on whatever counts get as far as a judgment will be a K. This is pretty small potatoes as far as crime goes. He'll either plea it out, and take a small fine on one or two counts, or force it to judgment and walk, or get a smallish fine and some community service time. Nobody's going to jail, I'd be willing to wager.
Concerned Resident:
While I agree the Mayor and Council have allocated revenues... like money from BDO... to business development and RDA bond support that might better in some instances have been allocated elsewhere, when you add up the total diversions, you have to subtract the additional tax revenues that come in as a result of the businesses that have gotten the property tax breaks. The owners, e.g. of the Union Square Condos pay property taxes, for example. Some sales taxes generated by say movie tickets at the Junction theaters go to city use, I think. And the salaries and wages of people coming in to work for the news businesses [Salomon employees, etc. etc. ] get spent to some extent in the city, generating more revenues. All of it adds up.
No, not enough to make up all the tax revenues that have been encumbered by RDA tax increment bonding. But not an insignificant amount either. So while I agree in general with your point, I don't think when everything is totaled up, the "losses" to the city are as large as you suggest. Too high, but not that high.
The thing is Curmudgeon - we'll never really know. The Little Lord intentionally keeps the city books so convoluted and secret that nobody but him and his inner circle of henchmen can figure out the real financial picture. He doesn't want any one to know the true story of how much money his various scams are losing.
Take for instance the Union Station condos that you mentioned. By any business measure the place is a loser. The midget calls it a winner because the new owners are paying property taxes. The question is how long will it take for the city's portion of those property taxes to make up for the two million the midget and his idiots lost on the deal to begin with as well as the huge pile of money the city lost by subsidizing those new owners? In addition, all that new property tax money that the lying bastard claims is coming in, is not going to the city anyway. Not for twenty five years at least. Meanwhile those "new" tax dollars are really being channeled into the greedy pockets of his developer buddies through the magic of TIF scams that this gang looks at as free money. All that extra and new tax money is going to pay off the bonds that his cronies floated and used on the construction and to line their pockets. In other words, the property taxes they are paying is being used to pay off their construction loans and infrastructure costs that otherwise would have come out of their own pockets. It is like you being able to pay off your house mortgage with your property tax payments. Nice deal if you happen to be a crony of the ethically challenged Little Lord.
So these "successful" condos have added to the financial burden of the city but do not return one thin dime more to the city than the property did before any thing was done on it. All of the people of Ogden are paying through the nose for this so called "success".
Any circle of empty suits like Godfrey surrounds himself with can look brilliant if they are not measured by normal business criteria, and if their staggering multi million dollar losses are constantly covered by the unknowing tax payers. Godfrey and his whole team are losers of the first order.
If you added up all the salaries and perks of these incompetents that he surrounds himself with, people like Harmer, Patterson, Johnson, etc, you would see that in addition to the staggering losses with the deals themselves, it costs the tax payers of Ogden at least a million dollars a year that goes into their pockets. This money comes right out of the general fund and could go toward numerous things the city needs if it were not being squandered on this herd of his swine friends slopping out of the public trough.
There isn't one of these morons that could hold the jock of the average middle level manager at the average "C" store in Ogden. The people of Ogden will eventually take it in the shorts for over a hundred million dollars before this gang that can't shoot straight are through plundering our city treasury. Meanwhile the city infrastructure is crumbling while every penny and every thing the city owns is pledged to Boyer and PeeWee's playhouse. This of course includes the only verifiable winner the city owns, the BDO.
Curm,
You're a little right in some of what you point out but much less than what you suggest. That is the same logic Godfrey is using to justify his actions but it isn't financially contributing as much, nor will it ever, as he or you suggest. Another example of the trickle down theory.
I don't have the time this morning to point out the illogic in your response at this time but I'll try to respond this evening.
Bottom line thou is that Godgrey is spending dollars in larger amounts than needed, where its really not needed and at the expense of city services that effect the standard of living of the city's resident. A quality standard of living will permanently attract far more people to Ogden than our Rec Center.
Current Resident:
Again, I agree with the substance of what you say, but trying to determine the "cost" of over-investment of public funds [tax revenues] without considering the increase in public funds generated by that development is not wise. Public policy ought always to be made on the basis of the fullest and most accurate information possible. That's all. There is an upside to the business development expenditures. Not nearly enough of one to compensate for the decades of surrendered property tax revenues and bond payments the city may be on the hook for, but an upside none the less. Not taking the plus figures into account simply leaves critiques of the city's policies open to charges of bias and cherry picking. The Mayor and his development team do more than enough of that already. The other side shouldn't be doing the same. That's all I argued.
As for this.... A quality standard of living will permanently attract far more people to Ogden than our Rec Center..... Well of course. No sensible person would argue against that statement, and I certainly am not. However, what constitutes or helps bring about a "quality standard of living" is another matter about which I suspect there is considerable disagreement. Those who advocate pouring 30% of the city's expenditures into business development [to use your figure] would doubtless argue that bringing in companies as a result of those expenditures that create jobs paying well above the county average necessarily increases the opportunities for a "quality lifestyle" in Ogden... more restaurants, more recreational-oriented businesses can survive and prosper, more tax revenues for city services and so on. These are not trivial arguments and not to be dismissed out of hand, I think.
On the other hand, when business development morphs into "sell the parks on the bench lands; pave over and build on every square foot; a downtown Wal Mart will fit Ogden's image as an outdoor sports destination resort, and the city should guarantee the bonds for building a private health club downtown" we've reached la-la-land in the other direction.
As for "trickle down" theory... well, we all know what that really means under Republican governance [city, state or nation] is that "a rising tide lifts all yachts."
According to a a front page story in the SE this morning, looks like the stone-walling under way in the County Clerk's Office is continuing unabated. Apparently the little bird singing to Rudi isn't singing to Weber County Clerk McEwan. He's continuing to refuse to discuss the voter rolls/provisional ballots mess in the recent Ogden city election. He's continuing to claim he's stonewalling out of concern for the public's money, not wishing to devote any of his or his staff's paid time to answering questions about that election. Here's how he put it in a written statement last week:
McEwan said his office doesn’t intend “to expend further county resources and taxpayer dollars to appease a very few disgruntled people who have their own agendas or selfserving issues.”
And so the ACLU is now going to file a GRAMA request for the public records the clerk is refusing to discuss or make available. If he refuses the GRAMA requests, the Clerk may find himself expending public money to fight a law suit seeking access to the records he's apparently now desperately trying to keep hidden. [Who's advising him on this? Mayor Godfrey?]
The story also reports that the ACLU has now received 20 complaints about election skullduggery at the polls [the number was previously reported as three].
Clerk McEwan dismisses all this, of course, as the complaining of "a very few disgruntled people who have their own agendas or selfserving issues." Issues like demanding they be allowed to vote as their right entitles them to? Self-serving issues like not being arbitrarily made to fill out extra forms to get provisional ballots and risk having their votes discarded for the most trivial of errors on those forms, merely because the Clerk [or the Lt. Governor's office] can't manage to keep the voter rolls current? Those kinds of "own agendas and self-serving issues" Mr. McEwan?
Here's what I'd expect from a County Clerk who understood that he was a public servant: a statement something like this:
"At the recent election, there was an extraordinary number of provisional ballots issued. And there have been some complaints that those provisional ballots were not handled properly and some voters ballots were discarded as a result. There have also been some complaints of electioneering at the polls by either poll watchers or poll workers. I do not yet know what, if anything, happened. But I intend to find out, and quickly. If any voter was denied a ballot or forced to vote provisionally without good reason or had his provision ballot mis-handled or faced electioneering by poll workers or watchers, that is unacceptable and I will find out about it. And I will take whatever steps are necessary to make certain this does not happen in the future. One legitimate voter denied a vote, one ballot improperly discarded, one voter harassed at the polls... by anybody... is unacceptable. And by this time next week, I will have a preliminary report for the public concerning what I've found out. "
Instead, we got stonewalling.
Maybe Republican Mayor Godfrey is advising Weber County Clerk McEwan. Or maybe Republican County Commissioner Zogmiester is. Or maybe both of them.
Imagine that....
This is the crucial point in the play-down where the Weber County Attorney comes out of his bunker and does his job.
At least that is what is supposed to happen everywhere but in Weber County.
Ozboy: Youse guys and New Yourkers are always trashing Union Square after my bedtime so's I can't leap into the fray.
While Union Square may not have paid for itself yet, were you including in your calculations the purchase price of each unit? Those are a matter of public record. Some cash came back to the city with each sale, don't forget. Nor must you omit the sales taxes generated by residents of 25th Street themselves (including Mr. Muhlstein of the Standard) when they shop and dine along the street, as well as their visitors from outside the city -- which, if visitor parking is any indication, is considerable traffic. And which will continue year after year. These things have to looked at with the future in mind.
Also, Ozboy, please use the Weber County Parcel Search website to check the property tax records of all Union Square parcels. For the past two years the tax has been double what it was before the units were sold; so much for "not return[ing] one thin dime more to the city than the property did before any thing was done on it."
MM:
You wrote: Ozboy: Youse guys and New Yourkers Now you've got it. Can't trust them NYers. Yankee fans, the lot of 'em. The good and decent folk of Brooklyn have know they're not to be trusted for a long time. Happy to see you've figured it out too now.
Why, those damn NYers actually tell people that the name of the Los Angeles National League Major League Baseball Organization is "the Dodgers." That is believed, of course, only by the depraved, the deluded and the badly brought up. The Dodgers, of course are in Brooklyn still, lost in the caverns of the BMT from which they shall someday emerge and return to their people, for yea verily, I say unto you of Ebbitts Field, if we rebuild it, they will come.
But you just can't trust them NYers. Everyone knows this. Or should.
Moroni
The Union Station Condo's cost the city $4 million to build. This money came from several different sources including the TIF bonds and a couple of different Federal Grants and some other misc dough that Godfrey scammed from the city treasury.
The project was in trouble from the get go and the city ended up losing $2 million when it went broke. The place was sold off to a friend of Matt's for the other $2 million (including the sold units). I think there were half a dozen or so units that had been sold prior to this. In any event the city got $ 2 million back for the $ 4 million in tax payer money that was spent on the deal. That means the tax payers of Ogden lost $ 2 million on the deal. In the middle of it all, Godfrey arrogantly screwed a few unpaid contractors who then filed a law suit against the city. This is in addition to the original developer also suing the city over Godfrey's lies and manipulations.
The buddy of Matt's who bought the whole deal out is the one who has received the money from any subsequent sales. He is the only one who made any money, and that was only because he paid half price for the failed project. Of course the original hustlers of the deal made out like the bandits they are thanks to the magic of TIF funding. They took the money and ran - so to speak.
And yes, the taxes paid now are twice, or whatever they were on the property before all of this, but none of the increased taxes are going to the city. It is all going to pay off those infernal TIF bonds that only benefited the aforementioned buddies of Godfrey.
The sales taxes generated by the people living there and eating in the local restaurants is chump change in comparison to the millions the tax payers of Ogden lost on the deal. If that is the reward for the city tax payers takin it in the shorts for $ 2 million bucks, then it is just another average Godfrey masterpiece that will never pay off.
Bottom line is that I'm sticking with my estimation that the city has not, and will not in our lifetimes, see one friggen red cent from this boondoggle!
And as for all this restaurant biz that is generating all this sales tax, just where the hell is it? They must be making it off the lunch crowd cause every time I go down there in the evening the place is a ghost town with all the joints either empty or shut down for the night. Except for the biker joints and beer bars that is. So does this Mulstien character you referred to drive back from BDO every day for lunch in order to make this whole scam successful?
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