Although we've been preoccupied all day with real life business, we didn't want the day to slip by without at least mentioning today's Standard-Examiner story, in which it's reported that Emerald City council chairwoman Amy Wicks refuses to meet with His Corrupt Little Mayoral Ass, Boss Godfrey, one-on-one, in private consultations behind closed doors. So irate was the Little Emperor on Nine that Wicks wouldn't obey the imperial command to meet with him "privately," to receive the usual rubber-hose beating that he usually inflicts on people dumb enough to meet with him alone in his 9th floor throne-room, that he wrote a blistering email, and then promptly leaked it to the The Godfrey House Proganda Organ's Ace Reporter Schwebke, who, as per usual, gave the story a disgusting and slavish pro-Godfrey spin.
Our initial impression of Schwebke's "tattletale" story was completely right we think. And here are our first initial objections:
1) It's not right for the highly-abusive Boss Godfrey to insist that ANY woman on the city council meet with the "visionary" Him privately at all. From the last reports we've heard, the last female city councilwoman who tried that, left the meeting in tears. Good for our very classy and alert current council chair in this instance, we think, How many of our gentle readers, we ask, would like their female mothers, sisters, daughters and cousins -- and elected female council reps (nice women like Amy Wicks) -- to meet meet alone alone with the slobberingly aggressive Attack Dog Boss Godfrey in private session?
2) We also believe Councilwoman Wicks was entirely correct when she made her most recent public statement as quoted in today's article. The City Council is Emerald City's independant and co-equal legislative deliberative body. Read what Chairwoman Amy Wicks actually said:
"Wicks also said she prefers to discuss issues with Godfrey during the city council and administration’s joint leadership meetings held twice a month.Right on, Amy! It's about time we had somebody with some "sack" sitting in the Council Chair position, we say. And it's time Boss Godfrey got called on his 8-year pattern of sidetracking independent and legitimate city council deliberations, and arm-twisting Emerald City council people in Boss Godfrey's back room. We certainly got no complaint about that with outgoing council chair Jesse during his two years as Emerald City council Chair, BTW. Let's just say that we consider Council Chair Wicks to be a breath of fresh air.
“The leadership meetings have a set time and agenda,” she said. “The more people you keep in the loop, the better.” 'Wicks also said she prefers to discuss issues with Godfrey during the city council and administration’s joint leadership meetings held twice a month.
“The leadership meetings have a set time and agenda,” she said. “The more people you keep in the loop, the better.”
And what say our gentle readers about all this?
16 comments:
It's damn good thing she wont meet with the little fu^%$#*. He would probably set her up for some type of a credibility scam if she did meet with him.
. . . with some "sack"?
I can think of two slang meanings for that. One is male, and the other derisive (a sad sack).
No offense. But please illuminate, or perhaps I could suggest another term like: "sand", "brass", "salt" etc.
Just a thought . . .
If one wishes to be complimentary along these lines to a woman, without regard to sensitivities, one might say she has "iron tits".
But Amy, I would never say you had "sack" complimentary or otherwise.
I think the meaning is pretty clear for those who understand recent "street vernacular," Danny.
I'm gonna ssume you don't get out much... at least not recently.
A couple of points:
If the Mayor wants more communication with the Council, he might have shown up more during Council meetings during the election. The Mayor's chair at Council meetings then was often empty. He was out campaigning, while the Council members were doing their jobs.
That aside, we might note that the Mayor's interest in communications with the Council seems to be, at best, intermittent. We all recall his refusal to provide Council members with information they asked for about Ernest Co., leaving them no option but to request the information directly from the Company. And we all recall the Mayor's refusal to tell the Council, when it asked, who he wanted to sell the Bootjack property to... an offense so gross that the Council unanimously chided him for it and changed the RDA rules so he could not do it again.
If the Mayor were sincerely interested in improving communications, and relations, with the Council, he would not have done so by blanket letter/email and public pronouncements. But then, his purpose is not to improve communications with the Council. It is to sow discontent and division on the Council so as to render it less able to do its job of overseeing Administration policies.
As for private meetings: two points. First, the Mayor is employing, or trying to, an old tactic, and an effective one. Meet with many councilors one on one. Say something slightly different to each, and create confusion and get them arguing with each other about what the Administration said. It works well, if the Councilors let it. When there is little trust between members and the Mayor, communications via leadership meetings, other group meetings and public meetings, and in writing is the best way to proceed with the public's business with minimum confusion and greatest efficiency.
Finally, the Mayor needs to remember that Couuncilwoman Wicks is as much an elected representative of the people of Ogden as he is. He is Mayor. He is not Lord Mayor and it is not within his power to command a council members presence at his pleasure. He also needs to remember that while his job is full time and amply rewarded, Council members hold their seats only as part time jobs. They, many of them, work full time at regular full-time jobs as well. While any Council member who wishes to meet privately, behind closed doors, with the Mayor, is certainly free to do so, those who choose not to, and who prefer to communicate with the Administration by the means and in the manor set up by the city's plan of government certainly shouldn't be criticized for choosing to do that.
The main purpose of Hizzonah going public with his complaints, and his demanding private tete-a-tetes with Council members is to so dissension and disagreements among the members. After all, if he can't do that, his dream of Paris Hilton and her entourage flying into Salt Lake to take the Frontrunner to Ogden so they can ride a flatland gondola to WSU so they can take another gondola to a vest-pocket mini-ski resort might have to be put off for yet another election.
When I read this morning's article, I was taken back to high school, which for me was a long, long time ago.
1. It is unprofessional and childish to send an email such as that quoted in the S-E, assuming it was accurately represented. In any business enterprise, if I got such a missive from a co-worker, I'd be visiting HR for a little chat.
2. It's even more childish and puerile to leak the email to your high school newspaper.
3. It's triple childish to get the paper to reprint the musings of your BFF, "he's really a great guy but misunderstood."
I don't blame Councilwoman Wicks for not meeting with him privately. If I had a female co-worker who did not want to meet with me in my office, for whatever reason, I would certainly respect her wishes and not try to browbeat her into submission.
In fact, if I did that, I bet my organization would take that as prima facie evidence that I was, indeed, an abusive and mean-spirited little cad.
For someone who repeatedly claimed to be the CEO of a $200 million business (to the point of becoming tiresome), he sure doesn't act like any businessman I've ever dealt with, except perhaps for the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert.
talk about open communication. how long did it take the council to finally get a cost breakdown on the junction.
the council never did get a full accounting for the dollars spent on the malan basin development either.
isnt city government supposed to be open government and nor behind closed door government.
curm is correct in his divide and conquer scenario.
where does the mayor come off refering to ogden city as a 200 million dollar business.
city revenues are only a third of that amount.
Amy's position on this one is right on the mark. Public business should be done in the open, in fact if it's not happening all ready, there should be minutes taken at their leadership meetings as well. If it's only to protect all partiesby having a record of what's been said.
Why would the mayor desire private meetings with individual council members? Seems a waste of valuable time to lobby each one separately, when if his point has merit he could express it once in front of all of them and the public.
Amy's approach goes a long way towards eliminating what we call back room dealing and corruption, lying little matty will be hard pressed to find high ground on this one, all the other Council members should follow her lead. Even Braindead Stephenson, lying little matty's personal myna bird and boot licker. I'm sure his pathetic website, visions of gondola salvation et.al. is a direct byproduct of these one on one consultations.
I couldn't resist, Anally Stephenson, aka Braindead Stephenson/ munincipal ward 2 website remains unchanged. He still passionately endorses royal $20 plus thousand election loser eccles, and the complete urban gondola, golf course land grab, mini malans basin yurt hot dog stand part time ski hill and all.
Time for an update Braindead.
Amy should meet with the Republican Mayor in private.
So she can kick the shit out him!
Maybe Chief Greiner can turn that over to South Ogden and Schwebkee can report "Mayor Godfrey was abused by mean Wicks."
Been ruminating on all this for a while now. Had hoped, after the election, Mayor Godfrey would try to mend relations with the Council. But his going public, with a mass email to all council members attacking Councilwoman Wicks for refusing to meet privately with him makes it plain, sadly, that he thinks he has more to gain from continued confrontation than from conciliation.
Actually, he may, if he succeeds in undermining the Council Chair's authority by means of private whisper sessions with the other members, and public attacks.
But though confrontation rather than conciliation may serve the Mayor well, it will not serve Ogden well. So long as the Mayor makes it plain that confrontation is his choice, I think Councilwoman Wicks... and others on the Council... would be wise to play things straight down the middle of the fairway, and to rely on communicating with the Mayor in the normal ways provided for in Ogden City Government. That means either on the record in public forums [like Council meetings] or in meetings at which more members are present than one [like the bi-weekly Council leadership meetings with the Mayor].
Let us hope a majority of the members, and especially the new ones, understand that private whisper sessions with the Mayor, one on one, provide a means of sowing discontent and division among the Council members. Surely no one believes a Godfrey/Stephenson whisper meeting would involve the same "information" being provided to the Councilman that a Godfrey/Wicks or Godfrey/Garcia private whisper session would. Let's hope that the new members understand that while such private whisper sessions may serve the Mayor's personal interests, they will not serve the interests of Ogden City.
Off on a tangent,
I don’t know if anyone was listening to KLS radio this morning about 9:00 AM or not but they had a news story on the radio that mentioned the Midtown Development Company was suspending their development of high end condos in Orem due to weak demand.
They stated that their demand for the condos had not met the needed levels for them to proceed with the project due to a weak economy.
This is the same group that our administration got in bed with on 23rd and Washington. This is the same group that our mayor sold that location of ground to. This is the same group that’s only been in existence for about 3 years. This is the same group that wants the city to fund $18 million dollars of their development and touted the success of their Orem location as an example of their astute ability to read the demand for their product in the marketplace.
Seems to me, that our City Council should refer to the manuals provided to them when they took office. The council needs to review these guidelines which provide a logical process and a responsible path that any person in a fiduciary role should follow, change them where needed to fit the current application and then vote these guidelines into ordinances. They need to start following those guidelines on how the city should evaluate developments within our community when the city is considering participation, i.e. thru the RDA involvement or thru Special Assessments or thru the city itself. Per those guide lines, the Council members need to start requiring the administration to allow the Council to hire third party consultants that specialize in specific types of projects, projects similar to the ones being considered, to do an independent analysis on any major project that the city contemplates being involved with. Investigations that should take place prior to any type of city financial commitment or property sale.
Seems to me that the city may have just barely missed a near disaster but the jury may still be out, in that the developer, I believe, now own the land. Land that could sit idle for some time. Council should act now to convert what are now only guidelines into ordinances. Ordinances that will give the Council adequate oversight to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities of office.
Congratulations, Ogden Resident! You've just latched onto what was planned to be tomorrow morning's lead WCF story. There's much to discuss on this topic. We consider it to be real red meat news. We'll have lots to talk about re this tomorrow morning.
OR, I'll wait for tomorrows thread to get into details, but the development agreement was never approved, no money ever changed hands, I'm not so sure the future bankrupt Midtown Developement has a valid claim to any property in Ogden.
If they do it was a gift,(literally) from lying little matty, that be in someone elses possesion pretty soon. Which will be like a gift to them cause they won't have to pay for it untill, or if they ever build a wading pool with a gondola view.
Rudi:
Can't help but wonder if the financial problems of the developer are the real reason the Development Agreement for the Ogden project was pulled from the agenda of the Ogden RDA Board 72 hours before it was slated for a vote, and expected to be approved. The reason the crack Godfrey Development Team gave, through Mr. Harmer, at the time, was that somehow 275 city-owned parking places due to be leased to the development company for hotel use had been... well, misplaced.
Not even I believe that the Godfrey administration could misplace 275 parking spaces, and I wondered at the time what the hell was really going on. Given the story Ogden Resident tumbled to on KSL radio, I wonder if the real reason the development agreement was pulled from the agenda was that the problems of the developer came to light. And the lost parking place story was cobbled together to cover the real reason: that the city was about to guarantee millions in subsidies, and interest free loans not to be repaid until the project was completed, to developers who were in so much trouble in another similar Utah project that they suspended construction. That makes a lot more sense to me than the sudden disappearance of 275 parking places. If that's so, then our new Council members are getting... I hope... a crash course in the reliability --- politely so called --- of the Godfrey team.
Curiouser and curiouser....
Bill C and Curm,
I’m not suggesting that the developer is in financial trouble though you have to wonder considering it’s limited existence in these types of developments but that the project was ill conceived in like of the state of the economy. Not only is it important that any major project be scrutinized with a financial feasibility and demographic study of the project before any financial commitment is made but also timing within economic cycles needs to be considered. This is the reason that the City Council needs to perform a study prior to any financial commitment by the city.
As for the land sale, I think the sale has gone through as the Council apparently does not feel that they have the right (which I disagree with) to stop the mayor from selling property.
And as for the 275 parking stalls, the developer may very well have used that retraction within the offer by the city as an excuse to politely bow out of their commitment to the development in Ogden, particularly considering their potential over exposure in Orem. Over riding all this though is the fact that this whole project should be viewed as a private development that offers, at best, suspect accretive value to the city and that if ever developed, does not warrant any type of city subsidy.
The City Council clearly needs to set up (for their own protection if not for the residents), or needs to convert current guidelines into enforceable ordinances that will outline the required process steps by which the city follows in determining how the city approves any project that seeks financial support of the city. Current process guide lines are not bad but they do need to be updated and they do need to be converted into ordinances.
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