For those of us who have remained in doubt whether Boss Godfrey's third administration will be more "kind and gentle" than his last two administrations, all doubt seems to have been removed this morning, with this morning's Ace Reporter Schwebke story, "Godfrey seeks new faces on committees." In his typically ham-handed manner, Boss Godfrey announced in a press release yesterday that heads will roll within the numerous volunteer advisory boards, committees and commissions which attend to a myriad of details throughout Emerald City, such as arts, multicultural affairs and historic preservation. We incorporate below pertinent paragraphs from Mr. Schwebke's story:
OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey plans to replace members of city advisory committees who have served for a decade or more, to open the door for a new crop of volunteers.The obvious end result, assuming Godfrey follows through with this plan, will be the loss to Emerald City of the most experienced citizen volunteers from a variety of voluntary advisory boards. Dedicated Ogden city citizens who have mastered the steep learning curves that go along with the missions of these boards, committees and commissions -- will be replaced by malleable new volunteers, with philosophies more amenable to Boss Godfrey's own "visions," shall we say, ever so politely.
Godfrey hopes to have new committee members in place in January. Committee appointments recommended by Godfrey must be approved by the city council.
Godfrey estimated Tuesday night that about a dozen committee members will be replaced.
We've had animated discussions over the past few hours with some of the folks who will be adversely affected by Boss Godfrey's latest power grab/purge. The question has arisen whether Godfrey has the legal authority to remove long-time board members midway through their terms of office.
The answer, folks, seems to be that Boss Godfrey does indeed have the power to do this, in which connection we cite Ogden City Code Section 3-2-1. We've highlighted the operative provisions in red, and set forth the most important statutory language below:
"... J.Removal From Office: Board members may be removed from office at any time by the mayor, without cause."
Buckle up lumpencitizens of Emerald City. It's obviously going to be a long and rocky four years.
On another note, we'll highlight this morning another story from the Std-Ex "Outdoors Section," which observes the January opening of Weber State University's new indoor "climbing wall." Salomon Center master tenant Gary Nielson (Gold's Gym) is obviously not happy about this development; and grouses mightily about government entities who compete with "private businesses" like his. Be sure to read this delightful article, gentle readers, in which Utah GOP Senator and Utah Taxpayers' Association watchdog Howard Stephensen gives Mr. Nielsen a well-justified comeuppance.
“It’s the People’s Republic of Ogden,” says Stephenson.
Dang do we ever love the politics of Emerald City. Nobody could make this stuff up.
In closing, we'll apologize for the late posting of today's article. The Std-Ex digital edition website experienced some apparent problems this morning, and came back on line only a few minutes ago.
The floor is now open for your gentle comments.
