Boss Godfrey makes mince-meat of the American principle of open government
By Curmudgeon
Well, Godfrey's consistent if nothing else. I'll give him that. He conceals from the Council the buyer in the Bootjack matter. He won't tell the Council or public what the city lobbyist is doing. He hides the fact that the city was acting as purchasing agent for Mr. Lesham in acquiring options in the River Project RDA area. And now he's spending thousands in court to try to prevent records showing the extent to which his administration was involved in the push for a flatland gondola from downtown to WSU, and the amount the city spent on that push, from becoming public. He must have gotten his ideas on what the public should be permitted to know from his good friend V. Southwick.
The Standard-Examiner has a story today reporting on the lawsuit the Sierra Club brought against the Administration after the city refused, repeatedly, to make public documents and other records under the GRAMA act, which was designed to provide public access to public records. The story discusses the presentations at a recent hearing held in the Second District Court before judge W.B. West. The judge's decision is pending.
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13 comments:
Thanks, Curm.
There's also a shorter story in the trib.
You go, Dan.
Like Dorothy Littrell, Dan Schroeder is a hero for whom I'm grateful. But like Dorothy, I wonder if he gets off target sometimes.
I suspect Dorothy was right in her lawsuit, but where was it trying to go?
Ditto this one of Dan's. Is the gondola not dead? If so, why this lawsuit? If the gondola might still be alive the lawsuit would be worthwhile. I just wonder where Dan is going.
You have to aim and hit the target, and choose your battles. Otherwise you expend yourself on minor skirmishes, leaving yourself weakened for the more important battles.
Well, two points:
First, the Mayor says the gondola is not dead. When asked at a work session with the council some weeks ago, by Councilwoman Jeske, if the gondola was now dead, he replied: "I hope not."
Second, there is much more involved in the Sierra Club suit than just gondola dox. If the Administrations very expansive definition of what constitutes "protected" documents that it does not have to make available under GRAMA rules prevails, it can... and it will... hide from citizens, from newspapers, from all of us public documents about its future actions on a variety of issues.
So, even if the flatland gondola was dead as a doornail, which the Mayor insists it is not, it would still be worth pursuing the suit to challenge the City's very expansive definition of "protected" documents.
Curm,
. . . but to what end? Surely this is not a crusade.
Is the goal to uncover the corrupt Ogden Foundation? To expose the tit-for-tat between Godfrey and his cronies? To show money laundering? To show the money Godfrey took to sell Southwick's investment cons to Godfrey's own family members?
Are we going somewhere with this? I hope so.
Danny:
To what end? To the end of having the court establish that the kind of records the SC asked for under the GRAMA act are not "protected" records which the city does not have to disclose. To the end of preventing the city in the future from simply declaring anything in the record the administration finds embarrassing or awkward a "protected" record it can refuse to reveal. Those are important ends in themselves for future attempts that may occur to learn what the city is doing via GRAMA requests.
Danny:
To curmudgeon's responses I would add three points.
First, we don't know what's in the secret documents. So we can't possibly predict, as you seem to be insisting, what "end" will come from their disclosure. We're operating at a higher level here, sticking up for the principle that open government is a good thing in itself.
Second, when people naively say "the gondola is dead", they're not only ignoring recent public statements on the mayor's part; they're also ignoring the fact that "gondola" is shorthand for a whole array of projects including the sale and development of public land in Ogden's foothills and the development of a resort in Malan's Basin (with severe impacts on adjacent National Forest lands). Chris Peterson still owns the Malan's Basin property. The mayor's father in law, an advocate of the sale of WSU lands for private development, is running for the legislative seat that represents the WSU area. The mayor is currently pushing for a major redesign of Mt. Ogden Golf Course to accommodate relocation of the clubhouse closer to the WSU property. You can bet that some sort of "gondola" proposal will be coming back in full force before the mayor's current term is over. If we can establish better access to public records now, it will be much easier to keep the public informed as the mayor develops his next round of proposals.
Finally, I take issue with any comparison to the Littrell lawsuit. Littrell asked the court to remove Mayor Godfrey from the ballot, even though he had received more votes in the primary than any other candidate. Even if her allegations had been substantiated, the requested remedy was far out of proportion to the alleged procedural irregularities. In our lawsuit we're simply asking for a list of the withheld documents that explains why each of them is being withheld, and for disclosure of the documents themselves, to the extent that the law requires their disclosure. We're not trying to undo an election or remove anyone from office. We're just insisting on open, democratic government. If this falls short of the radical change you would like to see, all I can say is that perhaps it's a step in the right direction, putting us (and others) in a better position to fight the larger battles that undoubtedly lie ahead.
Danny;
If somebody is guilty of a crime and there is evidence to proof it then it should be brought forward.
And to ask "to what end". What does all this Godfrey bashing accomplish? "to what end" does all the name calling, i.e. potatoe nose, accomplish?
One day in court, with evidence, is worth more than 100 years of talking #@$% on the internet!!!
What's all this "we" talk anyway. Are you a member of the Sierra Club? Are you actively protesting the Godfrey Administration? If so I've not seen the banners/people downtown.
Put up or shut up! Go Sierra Club!
Short-deck:
It's Potato Nose, Dan Quayle. Have a good day and sell many jackets; don't get too caught up daydreaming about THE GONDOLA and Wayne Peterson's 'resort' in Malan's Basin. As your not-even-close-to-being-literate note above suggests, it's counterproductive.
THE SKI IS BEAUTIFUL BLUE
To answer Danny’s question about the gondola: the Council held a work session with the Administration on March 20th to set a joint mission statement, a vision statement and joint goals for the City. The Administration’s #1 goal was the gondola. We met for five hours, but there was not a satisfactory resolution because the Mayor is determined to have his gondola and enough members of the Council are not willing to support it. Now you know one of his reasons for covertly taking the RDA Board’s power. I also think that he intends to sell the golf course even though he has promised he would not.
Curmudgeon posted “If the Administrations very expansive definition of what constitutes "protected" documents that it does not have to make available under GRAMA rules prevails, it can... and it will... hide from citizens, from newspapers, from all of us public documents about its future actions on a variety of issues.” I, as a Council member, asked for more information on a retention pond that was listed with several other retention ponds on some information that Bill Cook had passed on to the Council last fall. That information indicated that the property for that particular retention pond was obtained in 2003 by eminent domain. According to the Administration now, there is no record of it, so that retention pond must not have been developed. I find that very puzzling when a federal grant was obtained to help finance the pond. Maybe I should file a GRAMA request to see where that federal money was spent. It is a very sad day for Ogden when an ELECTED OFFICIAL cannot obtain a copy of “public documents.” It definitely makes one wonder what the Administration is hiding.
If the Administration thinks that any of the issues mentioned in this thread are "dead", they're sorely mistaken.
Those who disagree with the Mayor's "hide the salami" philosophy have not given up, and will not give up. Once the edifice of horse poop created by the Mayor starts to show cracks, you can bet the whole thing will crumble relatively rapidly.
dorrene:
Thanks for the pond information.
Hey, maybe the pond disappeared into the same administrative black hole as the 275 public parking places Mr. Harmer still, so far as I know, can't locate.
Maybe Godfrey is missing a marketing chance here, to promote Ogden as the new Bermuda Triangle... he could call it "The Ogden Triangle" maybe. A place where things... really big things... like 275 parking places and impoundment ponds are there one minute and --- poof! --- are gone the next!
OK. Good points. Go Dan.
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