Boss Godfrey Pays the Price for Years of Deceit

Gentle Reader George K. lets Godfrey have it on his credibility problem... with both barrels

By George K.

Here is my take on the Matthew Godfrey commentary in the Standard-Examiner this morning, which comes as a response to Tuesday's Std-Ex editorial:

Oh, the shame of it all! Poor Mayor Godfrey has been misunderstood about the golf committee by the Standard-Examiner’s editorial board! How could that happen!? Why Godfrey is such a straight arrow – never does anything underhandedly or behind the Council’s back and ALWAYS tells the truth! Why would anyone suspect that he had stacked the committee or had maneuvered so that Council input was ignored?!

I think that his chickens are coming home to roost – in case some don’t understand what that saying has to do with Godfrey, I’d love to recount just a FEW of his shenanigans that he has pulled on the Council:

1) Let’s start with an incident about two years ago when new Council members asked for information about a new company wanting a great price on prime downtown land, Godfrey told his A-Team not to give it to them (right from the A-Team’s mouths.) Then he misrepresented what they said and the manner in which it was said to the Std-Ex so that the new Council members were blamed for upsetting the CEO and the loss of that company opening in Ogden and also for the critical and unmerciful editorial that followed without doing any research to see if things had transpired as Godfrey had indicated. (There was a CD recording of the meeting which absolved the Council of any wrong doing.)

2) Before that with another Council, he went behind their backs and bought portable bleachers for the amphitheater when they turned down his request.

3) He asked Mark Johnson to draft a bill that proposed that city councils could eliminate the Civil Service Commission that protects firefighters and police officers and gives them a means for appealing actions taken against them. Godfrey’s cousin was recruited to sponsor the bill in the Senate, and the lobbyist who was hired and supposed to be working on legislation that both the Council and Administration wanted, was also told to push the passage of that bill. This was unknown until it was discovered by a Council member and she was told by the lobbyist that he took his orders from the Mayor.

4) When the Administration decided that St. Anne’s needed to move to 12th Street, the Council was told that St. Anne’s Board of Directors wanted to move, but needed help with the funding. The Council was asked to petition the Legislature for $1 million which needed to be done before the session began which allowed only a week or so to do so. The Council sent the petition, but also asked for a letter of confirmation from the Board of Directors. The letter that came stated just the opposite, and the Council looked rather foolish.

5) Shortly after that, the Administration said they had a buyer for the Shupe-Williams property, besides the Union Station Foundation, that they wanted the Council to approve a proclamation for that sale because it would also help them with the river front development. The Council took them at their word and passed the resolution only to find out that the company really didn’t want to purchase the property.

6) Then there was the matter of signing a contract behind the Council’s back with UTA to use federal funds for a gondola corridor study.

I could go on but I think you all get the idea.

Is it any wonder that people now think the worst of Godfrey and don’t believe him? He has conducted business with deceit and lies for years and thinks that he now is being wrongly accused of not working with the Council. Do you really believe he has changed his ways? About as much chance of that as a leopard changing its spots! He is just getting what he has sown – seeds of distrust!