Another humdinger of a reportorial expose' from Standard-Examiner Ace Reporter Schwebke this morning, with this front page story, reporting that Boss Godfrey is shaking down the city council for $200 thousand, to be applied to Godfrey's crackpot "Fortress of Mayoral Ego Project." We provide Mr. Schwebke's opening paragraphs below:
OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey will use $200,000 in Utah Transit Authority funds to analyze local mass transportation options only if the city council allocates an equal amount for a proposed ice climbing tower, according to a report from the council’s staff.Despite Godfrey's lame attempt to soft-pedal the situation, we believe the Std-Ex gets the essence of the story just right in the article subtitle, which blares: "Godfrey’s deal? Funds for UTA study if ice climbing tower gets money". Frankly, it actually looks a tad like extortion to us. It has that "do this or else" flavor to it, don't you think?
The voluminous report briefly mentions the funding swap as part of an overall proposal to allocate $2.9 million in fiscal 2007 carryover money and Business Depot Ogden lease revenues to finance a variety of projects.
“It appears that the mayor is willing to use the UTA federal funds for the transportation alternatives analysis but only if $200,000 is appropriated for the ice climbing tower,” says the report that will be discussed during a city council work session Tuesday night.
Godfrey said he hasn’t reviewed the report, but he downplayed its mention of trading UTA funds for ice tower money.
“I wouldn’t word it that strong,” he said.
And get this. Godfrey contends, with a completely straight face, that the city council is 100% behind the Ice Tower Boondoggle:
The mayor also said the administration and city council have agreed that a mass transit study and yearround ice tower are vital to the city.It's evident thay your blogmeister isn't the only person whose B.S. Meter jumped completely off-scale upon hearing the details of Godfrey's latest proposed "horse-trade." This morning's story also offers these wonderful observations and comments from Council Chair Amy Wicks:
“We have wanted to study transit corridors,” he said. “We also feel strongly that the ice climbing tower is important to the vision of Ogden.”
However, City Council Chairwoman Amy Wicks said the council hasn’t discussed whether to financially support the tower that would be built at the corner of 25th Street and Kiesel Avenue.We think Amy was just being nice. Loony would be a more accurate description, in our ever-humble view.
She also noted the ice tower didn’t receive Weber County RAMP tax funding earlier this year and questions whether there is enough demand for the structure.
“My concern is, do we spend public dollars on something that has limited interest?” Wicks asked. [...].
Wicks also finds it odd that Godfrey wants to use taxpayer supported UTA funds earmarked for local transportation studies as a bargaining chip to get money from the city council for the ice tower.
“It’s crazy for it (UTA funds) to be used as a negotiation tool,” she said. [Emphasis added.]
And let's not forget that this whole brouhaha is occurring in a greater context. The $200 thousand that Godfrey will be demanding for the ice tower during Tuesday night's work session is only chump-change, compared to the $2.9 million in city funds languishing unspent (and presumably drawing interest) in some Ogden City treasury account. We haven't seen the list of other items on Godfrey's Tuesday night shopping list, but for a Big Spending government bureaucrat like Godfrey, the whole idea of having an unintended reserve fund sitting idly must be driving the poor little guy even more nuts than he already is.
For newcomers to Weber County Forum we also link this interesting article collection, which traces the source of the $200 thousand-plus in UTA funds mentioned in Mr. Schwebke's most excellent morning story.
Nice work, Mr. Schwebke, by the way. Please add another Weber County Forum Tip O' the Hat to your rapidly-filling hat rack.
And what say our gentle readers about all this?
