A little over a week ago the Standard-Examiner published an article concerning a mysteriously "leaked" email, in which Mayor Godfrey had chastised Emerald City Council Chair Amy Wicks, for refusing to meet with him privately to discuss City Council business behind closed doors.
We followed up this article with our own discussion here, in which we examined Ms. Wicks' conduct and Mayor Godfrey's possible motives, and reached a general consensus among our readers, we believe, that Ms. Wicks' conduct, reflecting her well known commitment to open government, was quite praiseworthy, whereas the quality of Godfrey's behavior was "manipulative," at best.
This morning we now find a follow-up letter in the Standard-Examiner, concisely stating the savvy opinion of at least one reader, Riverdale's Irene Voit, mirroring the conclusions also reached in comments earlier on this blog. It's short, so we'll incorporate its text in full:
The March 1 news article, “A communication battle brewing in Ogden,” reported that Mayor Matthew Godfrey sent City Council Chairwoman Amy Wicks “a blistering e-mail” for refusing to communicate with him in private about “important municipal matters” or “to dialogue on issues.” She was accused of conducting all city business in the open during city council meetings or the twice monthly leadership meetings.If, as we suspect, Mayor Godfrey's motive in leaking the email was to discredit Councilwoman Wicks, we'll chalk up Godfrey's latest sneaky public relations effort as a flat failure in a long line of public relations failures. Kudos to Ms. Voit for seeing through Boss Godfrey's mendacious smoke screen, and for exerting the additional effort to submit her thoughts to the Std-Ex. Thanks also to the Std-Ex for publishing the letter this morning.
Way too often it seems that issues are decided or deals are made behind closed doors in Ogden and other municipalities. City council and planning commission meetings often seem to only serve the purpose of trying to give the appearance of legitimacy to some prearranged deal or decision. City councils and planning commissions were created to represent the interests of their constituents and to provide oversight over specific functions of government.
I commend Council Chairwoman Wicks for traveling the high road. I encourage all city council and commission members to follow her example. They should not meet privately with their mayors, developers or other people who wish to influence government behind closed doors or to “dialogue on issues.” Only in this way can there be the hope of restoring residents’ trust in local government.
Godfrey's most recent public relations ploy has now apparently penetrated the public consciousness; and like most ham-handed attempts on Godfrey's part to manipulate public opinion, the latest effort appears to have backfired.
Comments?
10 comments:
I too sent a letter to the paper on this subject. It was approved last Monday. I don't know why they didn't run it today with the other one on the same subject . Here it is.
This newspaper recently ran a story about Ogden Mayor Matt Godfrey’s claims that Council Chairperson Amy Wicks won’t meet with him privately. Amy’s response was that she meets with him all the time, in regular public meetings.
But the Mayor, for some reason, is obsessed with meeting with her alone. A couple of questions come to mind. First, what does the mayor wish to say to her in private that he doesn’t want heard in public? Second, does the mayor think he is the Godfather, and that all whom he summons must come, under penalty of public pillory if they don’t?
Amy Wicks was recently re-elected by the largest margin of any candidate in the council races. She was immediately elected to be chairperson by the other council members. For those who know her, she is one of the most polite and considerate of persons, keenly interested in the opinions of others and one who fills her public stewardship with both energy and skill. This newspaper endorsed her as well.
The present situation is reminiscent of a few months ago, when the Godfrey administration was attacking Jesse Garcia, who was the council chairman at the time. Garcia was publicly accused of almost every sin and crime imaginable, it seemed.
Now that she is council chairperson, it appears it is now Amy’s turn for this treatment. She ran on a platform of being independent, which she is. I suspect that characteristic is the real problem the mayor has with her.
Good letter, David.
Godfrey wants to get Wicks alone so he can show her his mean little ferret imitation. If he does it in public then more people will know of his true character which he goes to such great lengths to disguise.
Amy definitely has the high road vis-a-vis the Little Lord, I'm proud of her for maintaining it so easily. When it comes to integrity, Amy's got it and Godfrey ain't!
when yea-sayer become nay-sayers.
found it interesting this weekend at snowbasin.
was at the closing ceremonies of xterra and no descente or geigers to be found.
descente and the geigers who are supposedly in support of developing the ogden area as a recreation location i would have thought would of supported others efforts to accomplish the same goal. by the way nice activity but small turnout.
geigers arent in this for anyone but themselves. wolves in sheeps clothing.
Did anyone else see the ominous tease on the front page of today's S-E?
"Ogden mayor wants input on golf course."
Let me be the first. Keep your head down and your eye on the ball, Mayor, and straighten out the left elbow a bit.
Mono, brace yourself, I foresee the coming of a plethora of the most disengenuous mayorial flatulence to ever grace the pages of our local news paper.
Truth be told, he's been solely responsible for the problems the course has suffered over the last eight years. The last four of which he's been running the most negative campain against the place instead of supporting and promoting it, which is what one would believe he should have been doing all along, it is a city asset isn't it?
I might also point out that the City's golf dept. consists of two courses, and like he tries to do with the Council, he's trying to create division. But Just like the leaked e-mail attack on Amy I must ask, is this really such a big deal?
I knew this would be coming, and so should have all other followers of the campains last year. The Standard Examinar is also complicit, beyond their attempts to make news, which is not their calling. Last year their taped candidate interviews included a question about what you'd do about the golf course. Given everything that the community had been through, and after the Mt. Ogden community plan meetings, I thought that was not some huge issue that needed addressing. I would have prefered comment on subsidising Neilson so extravegantly, or the ridiculus overhead the City carries in the economic developement dept. more appropriate. How many employees does it take to create $100 million in debt? Many have just been employed to secure options for an indicted fraud from California, who's ability to close the deal is in serious question.
Bill:
What you wanted, apparently, was the SE board to play "gotcha!" with Godfrey in their interview. While I agree that would have been fun, it's really not what candidate interviews with the EdBoard are about, and if they turned into "gotcha!" sessions, candidates would stop attending them.
The EdBoard did, to a not inconsiderable extent, cripple itself in the interviews by deciding to ask the same set of questions to all the candidates.That I think was a mistake, and while there would certainly be some generic questions it would want to ask all of them, seems to me it would have been wise policy to also have a significant number of questions appropriate to only one of the candidates. A sitting elected official should have been asked, specifically, for example, about his or her record in office. Such questions would not be appropriate for challengers, and so on. I think they kind of straight-jacketed themselves a bit.
But the golf course question seemed appropriate to me.
And Hizzonah seems to have diffused his arrogance sufficiently to start listening to some of his image-crafting handlers. Look how he phrased it this time: "Mayor seeks public input on golf course."Object to that, Bill, and you open yourself to this: "What? You're opposed to the Mayor's asking the public for its views?" See the problem? Hizzonah would do well to park his patented in-your-face-this-is-a-republic-not-a-democracy arrogance and at least strike the pose [however short on fig leaves he might be] of Lady Liberty seeking the guidance of The People.
Given all the hooo-raw the Mayor created with his plan to sell Mt. Ogden Golf Course to his crony for vacation villas for the non-resident rich --- behind gates of course, so the buyers wouldn't have to mix with the rest of us rabble --- asking candidates what, if anything, they'd suggest doing with/to Mt. Ogden Golf Course was a not unreasonable question. The candidates were always free to reply "Nothing. It's a damn fine course and an asset to the community just as it is." The questions you wanted asked would be fine for a town meeting format... a real one, not one rigged so that only the candidate's supporters get invited. But not for EdBoard candidate interviews. At least not phrased as you want them phrased.
One of the suggestions floated with the Mt. Ogden Community Plan was more advertising. Most folks driving around Ogden don't know what a great asset we have in the park and Golf Course. The new folks that have moved here for the high adventure seem to miss some of the hiking trails, and more signage directing then to the park and golf course from downtown hotels, and even along Harrison might help.
I think the Wicks gal ought to meet the little pecker wood in private and kick is skinny little ass.
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