Sunday, March 09, 2008

Powder Mountain Update: Three Interesting Letters

Impending Civil War in formerly bucolic Weber County?

Three recent letters from Ogden Valley Forum for our gentle readers' perusal this morning, regarding the impending Powder Mountain corporo-fascist town-grab.

These following two deal with tactics of the fine folks of "Powderville," and Ogden Vally activists in general, regarding the question of how to deal with their overly-aggressive Powder Mountain developer neighbor in the interim post-passage of the non-retroactive HB-164:

3/3/08 letter to the Weber County Commisioners
3/5/08 letter to the Weber County Commissioners

We're hoping the Weber County Commission is listening closely. They have the opportunity this year to either be "heros" or "zeros," by simply considering whether to refuse to certify the "Powderville Petition," on the ground that they are sworn by oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

And somewhat miraculously, Ogden Valley Forum has also heard from one of the "Powderville Petitioners" with this masterpiece of politically-lame stupidity:

3/8/08 letter to the forum from one of the Powder Mountain Town Incorporation petitioners.

We don't know Terri (Theresa) Stearman ourselves, but judging from her letter, we swear she has to be a world-class airhead, with no comprehension of the requirements of democratic American politics. Having read her smarmy missive, we're once again highly sympathetic to the "Powderville" folks' impending plight, as they continue their fight against the prospect of corporate dictatorship.

Remember folks, If "Powderville" achieves incorporation status, it will be appointees like the politically-naive Ms. Stearman who will be adopting "Powderville's" new city code and ordinances (drawn entirely at the whim of a corporate "incorporator"), and it will be appointees like she who'll be taking on the responsibility for the collection of taxes, and spending taxpayer money -- all without ANY input of the citizens who reside in her town. In other words, the citizens of this new company town will be politically-disenfrangised, and will have NO voice in the process of the operation of "their" new municipal government for at least another 1-1/2 years, while appointees like Ms. Stearman sit at the town helm.

Ms. Stearman complains that she might be "shunned" in the community in which she's now chosen to reside, after bouncing around the world for most of her life. Having spent much his own life growing up and living in the area we call "Ogden Valley," your blogmeister assures her that the results of her complicity in this developer endeavor could be even worse than even she now comprehends. Better for her to try to blend into the Ogden Valley community, we think. A word to the wise ought to be sufficient.

A Weber County Forum Tip O" the Hat to OVF reader Edentribe BTW, who kindly throws out the "olive branch" to the poor deluded Ms. Stearman, and also simultaneosly explains the realities of the current predicament:
Terri,
Thank you very much for communicating what you think and how you feel about this issue. I value your thoughts and it helps me to understand you as a human being, instead of just part of the "big, bad corporation".
I still cannot understand how anyone thinks it is okay to take away other people's fundamental rights. If incorporation is such a good idea, then we should ALL have an opportunity to vote on it. And of course we have to elect our officials. I will not be okay with this until I have real representation. I do not mean that the corporation "tells" me they are listening and representing me. I must have an actual democratic process.
Again, it is great that you have opened communication and I thank you for that.
If the Powder Mountain developer is smart, it'll accept Commissioner Dearden's kind suggestion to negotiate, and take the heat out of this problem.

Otherwise, we predict, it'll be Civil War in the formerly bucolic Ogden Valley.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Question: Would private meetings and negotiations between the County Commisssion and the developer violate the Utah Open Meetings Law?

Valley said...

Our guess would be yes, since a meeting of a "quorum" has to be posted and open.

If we are not mistaken, a quorum of WC Commissioners would be just two commissioners. Our bet is that they violate the Sunshine Law(open meetings Law) on a daily or weekly basis.

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