By Monotreme
The Apr 21 Ogden City Council meeting was pretty much a boring event. Councilmembers Gochnour, Stephens and Stephenson were excused, and the only business accomplished were basically "consent" items, including a resolution to mark Make A Difference Day May 7 and some rezoning requests which seemed non-controversial.
A gaggle of high school age men and women were present, working on school projects.
Some guy Jim Hutchins stood up and addressed the council. (He was kind enough to give me a copy of his remarks, which I reproduce here.) He made a joke about having to give his name and address, when so many anonymous people are circulating in Ogden City these days. He then said:
I would like to respectfully request that the council exert its authority and investigate two recent matters which affect the citizens of Ogden City.His three minutes of righteous indignation then ran out, and he closed there.
The council has the authority to investigate matters pertaining to the welfare of Ogden City. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, 'a deliberative assembly has the inherent right to make and enforce its own laws and punish an offender, the extreme penalty, however, being expulsion from its own body.' Those laws certainly include Ogden City Ordinances.
Further, under the Utah Code, the council in a council-mayor form of government has the right to 'appoint a committee of council members or citizens [emphasis his] to conduct an investigation into: an officer, department, or agency of the municipality; or any other matter relating to the welfare of the municipality; and delegate to an appointed committee powers of inquiry that the council considers necessary.' This right of investigation is also mentioned in the document, “Ogden City Government Structure”, which is distributed by this council.
The first matter has to do with campaign finance ordinances. Ogden City Ordinance 1-8-3, 'Contributions to Candidates', reads, in pertinent part...
B. Anonymous: The acceptance of anonymous contributions is prohibited. Any anonymous contributions received by a candidate or personal campaign committee shall be transmitted to the City Treasurer for deposit in the General Fund.
C. In Name Of Another: No person shall make a contribution in the name of another person or make a contribution with another person's funds in his or her own name, and no candidate, member of a personal campaign committee, or political campaign committee shall knowingly accept a contribution made by one person in the name of another person or made by one person with the funds of another person.
Yet, we have a situation where an organization, Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate, received money ($20,700) from Envision Ogden and paid out the same amount of money (minus $10) to two candidates for office, Councilman Johnson and Mr. Eccles. Yet, no one seems to be able to name any of the people involved with Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate. If no one in the organization has a name, is that not an 'anonymous' organization making an 'anonymous' donation?
Therefore, I am respectfully requesting that at a future meeting, one of the council members introduce a motion creating a committee to investigate whether Envision Ogden, Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate, Councilman Johnson, and Mr. Eccles violated Ogden City Ordinance 1-8-3.
Second, I would respectfully ask the council to consider another committee of inquiry, this one to determine why city funds, taxpayer funds, were used for construction of water tanks on 36th Street."
He told me he is looking for someone to attend future council meetings and make the same request, in their own words, each session until something is done. Volunteers should apply herein.
Neither council nor city administration had any response for the record. The meeting was then adjourned.
Editor's addendum: Scott Schwebke provides his own story on this topic in this morning's Standard-Examiner, which includes remarks by the heretofore elusive Envision Ogden Head Honcho Abe Shreve, who suddenly seems to have come out of hiding:
• Campaign donations under scrutinyReader comments are invited, as always.
