Thursday, April 24, 2008

Powder Mountain Update: Ogden Valley Citizens Push for a Conflict of Interest Investigation

Meanwhile, Weber County Attorney Decaria considers planning commissioner Lythgoe's questionable conduct to be "moot"

This morning's Standard-Examiner provides an interesting Marshall Thompson story, regarding a still-simmering issue relative to the ongoing Powder Mountain town incorporation dispute. Specifically, residents of Ogden Valley remain steamed about the conduct of of Ogden Valley Planning Commission member Jamie Lythgoe, who continued to participate in Powder Mountain rezoning discussions and deliberations, even as she was quietly preparing to join in as a Powder Mountain town incorporation petitioner, and notwithstanding the existence of personal interests which arguably smacked of direct conflict with her role as a commissioner.

This morning's Std-Ex article, which reports that County Attorney DeCaria now regards Ms. Lythgoe's planning commission activities as moot, provoked the inevitable response from our friends at Ogden Valley Forum. In the interest of keeping our Weber County Forum readers informed of "Powderville" developments, we incorporate the lead paragraphs from this morning's scathing OVF article below:

Where is our County leadership?

In today's Examiner, Mark De Caria remarks leave us dumbfounded. He says the issue on the Lythgoe conflict of interest is a moot point. I guess that he doesn't realize the incorporation is not an accomplished fact as of this date and Lythgoe is still sitting on the OVPC after her disingenuous duplicity regarding the Powder Mountain incorporation petition. If in fact it is a moot point, you would think that our elected County Attorney would still want to examine the recent activities of Lythoge because of the obvious public facts that have surfaced about her actions.

It is clear the County Commissioners do not want to face the music on Lythgoe's conflict of interest actions, since they are the people that appointed her. Her actions of participating with the other OVPC commissioners on the conditions for the Powder Mountain rezone and at the same time being involved with the clandestine preparation of the incorporation petition for a Powder Mountain town is an obvious example of conflict of interest by an appointee in the County. Add to that mix, that she and her family stand to benefit by any large development at Powder Mountain, makes it obvious that this was the intent by Lythgoe from the start. [...].
Read the full OVF article here.

We'll resist adding our further editorial comment, except to note that once again, as we lumpencitizens of Emerald City have observed in the recent past, County Attorney DeCaria demonstrates a remarkable propensity to tip-toe around any and all legal disputes which have political implications. For the sole Democrat occupying elective office in all of Weber County government, discretion becomes the better part of valor -- we suppose.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with a major stakeholder sitting in position to grant herself her wish?

Anonymous said...

Hail Bill C.!

What indeed? Imagine what the property values at the launching pad of THE GONDOLA (owned by a short-man's-disease-complexed Israeli, who is the famed developer of the West Bank's only failed honey-cured ham outlet; imagine that; Mazeltov!) will do when Wayne Peterson and his Famed Squirrel Patrol come through with their gilded conveyance to nowhere! Oooops, 36th Street! A GONDOLA station and shit orb repository! BWWWAHAHHHAHHAHAHHAA! GONDOLAs!

Anonymous said...

Decaria and his office did not know about nor were they "invited" to participate in Gov. Huntsman's announced Statewide Mortgage Fruad Task Force, or so he and his office claimed.

Yet the hottest real estate market in the State and with the accompaning most mortgage fraud was and has been occurring in the Ogden Valley.

Decaria is either incompetent or a part of the scheme and therefore under investigation hopefully by Federal and State authorities.

But considering the State Attorney General and his complicity in graft and corruption, by taking gifts and bribes, (re Dubjanivic interview) I don't think any of us should hold our breath.

And I don't think any of us should forget either come election time.

Anonymous said...

(Culture of Corruption).

"Never heard of it."

Anonymous said...

De Caria's approach appears to be if the crime or malfeasance has already happened, it is a moot point. There is no point in investigating a County official that may be corrupt unless you catch them in the act. This is the kind of elected official we have in Weber County. Their creed is don't get involved unless you are forced to.

Caesare

Anonymous said...

Ah, yes, but we DID catch her in the act.
It is not only a potential conflict of interest, it is now PROVEN.
Sharon Holmstrom's article on the OV blog points out that Jamie is STILL in the position to hand out favors and make decisions that will help her business, family, cohorts...
You can't remove her for an apparent COI, and you can't remove her after a successful COI?!
By the way, Powder Mountain has not yet been incorporated. It is not a done deal and "moot".

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