More news this morning about Boss Godfrey's least favorite Emerald City amenity, the Marshall White Center. Ace Reporter Schwebke informs us this morning that negotiations are in progress with the Ogden-Weber Community Action Partnership nonprofit, whom Godfrey hopes will enter into an agreement to take over responsibility for operation and management of the center. The fly in the ointment? The ever-optimistic Mayor Godfrey, apparently operating in his usual "count the chickens before they are hatched" mode, has already removed MWC funding from his proposed 2010 budget, even in the absense of a binding OWCAP/Ogden City management agreement. Read Mr. Schwebke's illuminating morning writeup here:
• Garcia: Save Marshall White/Ogden councilman asks to restore funding for centerWe'll offer our own take on this; and we'll be brief: Unless and until a firm and binding agreement is reached with OWCAP, with iron-clad provisions which precisely define OWCAP's rights and obligations, it would be the height of irresponsibility for the council to allow MWC funding to fall off-budget. Councilman Garcia is already complaining that the council is out of the loop regarding the ongoing OWCAP negotiations. Just imagine the possibilities for Godfrey chicanery if non-budgeted MWC funding decisions were left to the sole discretion of the Mayor's office, with necessary operational funds "sequestered" and disbursed, without council control, from another Godfrey "slush fund," at Godfrey's whim.
Among the items up on the Std-Ex website this morning is a plaintive 5/13/09 email letter addressed to the city of Ogden City, the text of which we'll incorporate here:
To the citizens of Ogden:We're confident our gentle readers will know what to do... and they can do it here:
City funding for the Marshal White Center is at risk. The budget that has been proposed by Mayor Godfrey eliminates all City funding for the Center.
I requested information form Mayor Godfrey about his intentions for the Marshal White Center' future and have received no response from him. Then the budget came to the Council with no funding after the Mayor told citizen's in a Council meeting that it would remain open.
I am going too ask the Council to restore the funding for the Marshal White Center. Financial support for the Center from the City is critical to ensure that it remains open and continues to provide all of the current services to our community.
I urge all concerned citizens to let the Council know your opinion. Two public hearings will be held on the city's budget on May 25th and June 9th.
Jesse M. Garcia
Ogden City Councilmember
Municipal Ward 1
• Ogden City ouncil Contact InformationBefore closing, we'll also make note of one unresolved bone of contention which is lightly mentioned in Mr. Schwebke's writeup. The MWC operates a swimming pool, which is currently used for a variety of existing MWC programs. The Godfrey administration is however strangely non-committal about future pool operations under prospective OWCAP management; and Patterson declines to say whether OWCAP would keep the center's pool open. In this connection we note that this morning's story reveals that OWCAP would like to add six to eight classrooms to its current MWC operation. For those who are familiar with the MWC layout, take a wild guess where those classrooms would be built. This is of course merely one of the issues which we believe ought to be resolved by written agreement, before the council agrees to alter the MWC status quo in any manner.
Don't let the cat get your tongues, O gentle ones.
