Boss Godfrey's Council Smear Campaign Rolls On

Another Godfreyite nasty anti-council hit piece

Last Tuesday, we posted an article spotlighting this Standard-Examiner story, which reported that Councilwoman Gochnour had thrown out an olive branch to the Landmarks Commission. Ms. Gochnour had graciously apologized to the Landmarks Commission for some ill-considered work session remarks. As our readers will recall, Ms. Gochnour had obliquely suggested that the Commission had "succumbed to threats that forced it to support" a proposed Godfrey administration zoning amendment, which would have broadly ceded council zoning approval authority to the Landmarks and Planning Commissions, within Ogden's Historic 25th Street District. The controversial Boss Godfrey proposal was of course ultimately defeated by a 5-2 council vote.

As long-time Godfrey watchers, we predicted that Ms. Gochnour's display of good manners would result in immediate Godfreyite payback, and that we expected to see "the usual flurry of letters to the Standard-Examiner," blaming the council for the failure of the Windsor Hotel project.

Just like clockwork, we saw the first such predicted Godfreyite attack last week, with this Tami Crowley guest commentary, (which gentle reader Curmudgeon thoroughly shredded in a followup Weber County Forum article.)

And true to form, this morning's Standard-Examiner carries a second Godfreyite broadside, with a thoroughly hyperbolic and truly nasty David Willis letter, illustrating exactly why it's never a good idea for anyone on the City Council ever to apologise to Boss Godfrey or his minions:

Gochnour owes mayor an apology

As all Godfrey watchers know, the general rules of gracious and civil intra-government social behavior have been long suspended by Boss Godfrey during the 8-1/2 years of his administration. Just as we predicted, Ms. Gochnour's gracious apology has been thoroughly misinterpreted and twisted for political purposes this morning. The Godfreyites' council smear campaign rolls on, full steam ahead.

What a shame it is, we think, that our nice little Utah town remains governed by a completely botched little Harrisville feller who never learned how to play well with others.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Update 10/6/08 7:39 p.m. MT: Thanks to the efforts of attentive reader googleboy, we're now informed that the crabby author of the above letter, David Willis, is actually a friggin' real estate agent from the G-Train's Terra Ventures real estate office.

Sheesh! We swear nobody could make this stuff up.