The Standard-Examiner provides the latest information on the simmering Powderville Town incorporation fiasco in this morning's edition. A group of Powderville incorporation opponents got some "face time" with Lt. Gary Herbert yesterday, according to this morning's Charles Trentelman story. For the benefit of those unfortunates who don't have a Std-Ex hard-copy readily at hand, here's the story lede:SALT LAKE CITY — A group of Ogden Valley residents hoping to find a way to stop an independent township from being formed around Powder Mountain Ski Resort got little consolation Monday from Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert.Unfortunately for the folks of Powderville, Mr. Zini is entirely correct. Under the provisions of SB 466 as originally enacted, both the Weber County Commission and the Lieutenant Governor are deprived of any discretion in the matter. Language in the now-grandfathered statute contains the word "shall," which renders approval of a properly prepared township petition a mandatory "ministerial act" on their part. Provided the petitioners have dotted all their i's and crossed all their t's, Powderville Town will become a reality, unless judicial action is initiated in a timely manner.
“This group of folks is clearly very passionate about this,” Herbert’s spokesman, Joe Demma, said after the meeting.
“They didn’t really ask Gary to do anything other than listen and understand their concerns and maybe help dialogue and conversation. “He did inform them there’s nothing he could do administratively to stop this action.” Finding some way to stop the proposed town is the goal of the residents of Ogden Valley.
Larry Zini, spokesman for the dozens of families that found themselves involuntarily included in the proposed Powder Mountain Town, said they are frustrated that nobody seems able to stop the township from being formed.
If worse comes to worse, Zini said Monday, “the next step for us is a federal lawsuit.”
There are many who are familiar with this case who believe SB466 is susceptible to an "equal protection" constitutional challenge under Article 14 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides in pertinent part: "no state shall… deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The prospective citizens of Powder Mountain Town stand to be imminently stripped of their voting rights, rights which are otherwise enjoyed by all other similarly-situated citizens of Utah. There are other constitutional issues involved too, we have been told. The time is ripe, we think, to put these constitutional principles to the judicial test.
Although it's indeed unfortunate that our cowardly state legislature (the governmental body who created the problem in the first place) dropped the ball into the Ogden Valley Lumpencitizens' lap, we'll point out that this is sometime how it works out in America, a nation which operates under the rule of law. The benefits of citizenship sometimes impose upon aggrieved citizens the burden of asserting own rights against oppressive acts of their own government, often at their own expense.
As an aside, today's article mentions ongoing negotiations between the Powder Mountain petitioners and the Weber County Commission. While some observers still nurture hope that an informal resolution will emerge as a result of such discussions, we believe that our County Commissioners actually have very little leverage in this situation. As set forth in the subtitle to today's article, "Powder Mountain holds all the cards;" which is essentially true. The Powder Mountain principals have played hardball so far. Judging from past performance, we believe its unlikely they'll be amenable to any significant compromise, absent major concessions which would be unacceptable to the citizens of Ogden Valley.
As we've noted before, we believe the citizen-activists of Ogden Valley are an exceptionally committed and resourceful lot. They've already lawyered-up, according to our understanding. Let the games begin, if necessary, we say.
And what say our gentle readers about this?
Update 4/28/08 12:31 p.m. MT: It's just now come to our attention that Ogden Valley Forum, our comrade-in-arms in the ongoing battle for the right of the citizens of Weber County to have their say in the destinies of their own communities, has just published a new article, fleshing out details about yesterday's meeting with Lt. Governor Herbert, his staff, and one lawyer from the Attorney General's office. Be sure to check out OVF's new article here.
To the surprise of nobody with functioning grey matter (Gentle Reader Monotreme , the neuroscienist, is the board expert on grey matter, BTW... and he can give you all the minute details,) The Powder Mountain people responded to the County Commission's negotiation overtures, by upping the ante from the initially-proposed 3700 units at Powder Mountain to 9000 units. So much for "good faith bargaining," we snarkily observe.
