It seems ridiculous that we should entertain the idea of closing the pool. I see it as devaluing city assets.
Amy Wicks, Ogden City Council Chair
Ogden's City Council funds community center; mayor hints he's not done fighting
June 19, 2009
He [Godfrey] doesn't want low-income people to survive in this community. He should be fighting for it, not trying to get rid of it.
Joyce Frye, MWC supporter
Ogden's City Council funds community center; mayor hints he's not done fighting
June 19, 2009
The Salt Lake Tribune has now (at long last) picked up on the Marshall White Center story, and reports in this morning's Chris Smart story that Ogden council leadership expects Boss Godfrey to exercise his line item veto power, to strike MWC funding from the FY2010 budget, along with the council's carefully crafted public policy statement. Curiously, this result would leave Marshall White in precisely the same predicament which Godfrey intended from the outset, zeroed out of the budget and left entirely unfunded.
At some point it would probably make sense for Councilman Doug Stephens's Municipal Ward 3 constituents to begin the lobbying process, as he would be the logical swing vote to enable the council to override Godfrey's expected veto. Doug has demonstrated in the past his receptiveness to citizen input; and there's no reason to believe the same would not be true in this case. It goes without saying that Boss Godfrey will be predictably putting on the full court press himself, of course. Nevertheless, Doug has also proven in the past that he's fair and independent, and far from susceptible to being "played" as a Godfrey pawn. Above all, we believe, Doug Stephens has a strong dedication to doing what's morally and ethically "right." Doug can be contacted via the info on this page:
• Councilman Doug Stephens - Municipal Ward 3It also goes without saying that any citizen contact should be decorous and logical ... (not that any of our gentle readers would ever behave any other way.) Doug is of course a no-nonsense guy, with an exceedingly low tolerance for rudeness and/or buffoonery.
If you do decide to contact Doug, be sure to include your true name, address and any other necessary contact information. That way Doug can be sure he's taking the pulse of the citizens whom he represents.
(And by the way... the developing reader discussion under the above-linked SLTrib article is becoming a mite lop-sided. Why not leave your own comments there, just to set the record straight?)
Have at it, O Gentle Ones.
29 comments:
Well, well, well.... So the SLTrib finally noticed that something was going on up here in Ft. Ogden on the what Trib evidently considers the far frontier of its beat. And only three days after the first story [of two] appeared in the Standard Examiner.
Imagine that.
I think Mr. Petersen would most like to hear from those living east of Taylor; looking at his district boundaries, one guesses that a substantial portion of his constituency uses the center on a weekly basis, and he is aware of the importance of an inexpensive recreation option for single parents, renters, and the income-stressed.
Either that or hang some rope swings out on the river, put some old couches under the trees, and ask Joe the Excellent Drifter to teach your kids to swim.
Rudi, Doug Stevens was lock step with most of the Council in the study session prior to the meeting, his vote changed when similar wording was attached and adopted for the Lorin Farr pool as well.
Despite anything Stevens said as his reason for changing his mind, here's the truth in a nutshell.
Days of 47, yup, the rodeo and the New Foundation that's now in charge.
Please recall last year during the rodeo hoopla, the gondola examiner had some articles on the foundation and quoted lying little matty often. Among his stated objectives to recieve support and City funding was a museum and a western, cowboy themed eatery right on the Ogden River.
Well the only location on the river that isn't residential,(remember the un-holy Ballentynes live directly west of the rodeo grounds and are among lying little matty's most ardent supporters) is the Lorin Farr Pool.
Someone needs to impress on Stevens that his selfishness regarding the rodeo has clouded his better judgement.
His vote not to overide a veto would be based solely on a hollow hypothetical godfrey promise, unlikely to ever come to fruition and to the detriment of the neediest of Ogdens population.
Somehow Godfrey came off as a little less "whiny" in this morning's story than yesterday's. Maybe his "meds" are finally taking hold.
Gawd knows he needs them!
I think the big story, if the mayor does veto this ordinance, will be how he has millions and millions of the public's money dedicated to the Solomon deal and a bunch of other things geared toward more well off people - including a lot of money going to his insider clique - vs - not a penny to the poor, disenfranchised and mostly darker skinned folks who make up a very large percentage of the city's population.
The elements are there for a big national story which could cancel all the "good" press the city has received in the last few years. Press that Mr. Godfrey takes great pride in. He is so full of himself and so self righteous that I doubt his hubris would ever let him consider the horrid PR picture he could create with a veto.
I believe this episode could do more for defining the mayor for what he truly is more than all the things he may or may not have done in his entire ride on the 9th floor.
His legacy just may end up being close to his own truth! Ahh sweet justice if it pans out that way.
St. Stephen:
It's "Stephens," and NOT "Petersen"
Not a minor mistake.
Try to keep up.
My apologies to Messrs Rosenstern and Guildencrantz.
I did not mean to offend.
Sorry. I meant, of course, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
So are you an advocate of of the closeted and dagger borne backstabbing activites of Mssrs Rosenncrantz and Guildensterne in what's arguably Shakespere's greatest play ever?
Don't give us any crap here. Stephen.
You're obviously a young kid with a lot to be learned.
Hey, at least I understand that using tax dollars to support a swimming hole for kids holds more importance to the long term viability of upright civilization, marking moral compass, than sluicing golf courses and funding studies for excellent ideas such as the !ADVENTURE OGDEN! EXTREME HUMAN CATAPULT(tm).
Sorry to say, it seems some elected officials might fell differently.
Mr. Doug Stephens is often hard to get hold of by phone so either email or leave a note at his home. Here is his phone number, address and email address. The information is posted on the city’s website.
Council Member Doug Stephens
1131 16th St.
Ogden, Utah 84404
Municipal Ward 3
Home Phone: 801-393-9796
Council Office: 801-629-8153
Email: dougstephens@ogdencity.com
Why is the Trib so far behind the S-E on the Marshall White Center story? You would have thought its reporter Chris Smart could have found a new twist to report than what has already been covered in the S-E. Does he think that people who live south of North Salt Lake have no clue about what's going on in Ogden so that anything he writes is new news? The S-E has owned this story from the outset.
Woodstein
Mr. Smart, while the brohaha was exploding at the Ogden City Council meeting, was off in Blanding, I think, covering that town's interesting Hatch and Bennett supported notion that theft is a crime, unless people from Blanding are doing it, in which case it's a harmless charming local custom which the Federal government should ignore on pain of drifting toward fascism if it doesn't.
From the Trib's coverage [politely so called] of Ft. Ogden happenings in the last half year or so, I'd say it has all but conceded reporting on Davis/Weber and points north to the SE. Every now and then it will do a fig-leaf story to cover [barely] its naked abandonment of northern Utah. But that's all. [Gory car crashes excepted, of course.]
Right on, Curm.
Judging from Mr. Smart's recent reporting, Ms. Moulton will continue to be much missed.
A newspaper in this day of dying newspapers has to pick and choose which territory to defend. The Tribune is having a hard enough time eking out a living with its dwindling reader base in Salt Lake. It is after all the Salt Lake Tribune. Their position is made even more precarious by the ass whuppin they received at the hands of the KSL free classified section, which by the way has created havoc with all of the news papers in the state. KSL sort of snuck in and stole most of the meat off the table when all the nabobs in the news paper game were snoozing. They also clipped most of the frosting off the cake while they were at it.
Oz:
I understand their problems and their cutting staff [which inevitably leads to cutting coverage: poor Mr. Smart could not be in Blanding and Ogden at the same time, after all.] And I agree Ogden is primarily the SE's beat and should be [even if the SE tries hard to pretend it's not an Ogden paper].
The problem for me with the Trib's walking away, mostly, from Ogden news is that Ogden is within the news shadow of the SLC tv stations. We have no local news station, and the SLC tv news shows usually ignore Ogden more than the Trib does [gory car crashes of course excepted]. Given that, it really is important that there be a second source for Ogden news besides the SE. If Ogden had a couple of non-SE owned TV stations with local news, I'd worry about it less.
But single source news is not good for democracy. It's just not healthy. And as the Trib withdraws from Ogden coverage, single source news is pretty much what we're left with. [Gory car crashes excepted, of course. ]
Curm
It is too bad that the Ogden and SLC newspapers cannot come together on one juicy story that involves a gory car crash involving the mayor, one that nobody walked away from.
Anonymity, wow; and for this speech they also died.
Rather than being such SMARTASSES with regard to when Mr. Smart wrote his SL TRIBUNE article on the MWC funding, why now post more comments on HIS article in the SL TRIBUNE.
On 6.17.09 I wrote the following email to Mr. Smart, rounding up the current news articles. To include the FB MWC group.
6.17.2009
Dear Mr. Smart;
Thank you for writing about the battle over funding for the Marshall White Center in Ogden. Last night, by a 4 to 2 vote, funding for the Marshall White Center was approved by the Ogden City Council.
Mayor Godfrey, whose approval rating has slipped to an all time low of 13, threatens to veto this funding approval by the Council. Several local online reports weighed in. However, the comment section of each is better than most of the articles:
DES NEWS
Ogden Council fully funds Marshall White Community Center, expects veto
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705311011/Ogden-Council-fully-funds-Marshall-White-Community-Center-expects-veto.html
WEBER COUNTY FORUM
Council Approves FY2010 Budget With Specific Earmarks For the Marshall White Center and Lorin Farr Swimming Pools
http://wcforum.blogspot.com/2009/06/council-approves-fy2010-budget-with.html
STANDARD EXAMINER
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 | 16 Comments [ View ]
Godfrey: Council on collision course / OWCAP to manage Marshall White, to receive $337,450 from Ogden
http://www.standard.net/live/news/176173/
FACE BOOK/ group
Save Funding for Marshall White Center
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=95321503693
Any time you want to write your version, don't be shy. Ogden politics are heating up!
Curm: Why are you such an apologist for "poor Mr. Smart?" I really feel for the poor Trib with a newsroom of more than 120 journalists. The S-E with a staff of 60 regularly kicks the Trib's ass in Weber and Davis counties as it should. You would think if the poor, unfortunate Trib considered the Marshall White Center story important it could break away one reporter to cover it. And when it does write a story it's just a rehash of what's already been written. A good journalist would find a new angle and not just take the lazy way out. So you apologize for the bloated Trib but if the understaffed S-E doesn't cover a story or write it the way people on this blog want it, it's caving into the mayor and administration. Could it be that the Trib pulled out of Ogden because it knows it does have a chance here?
Hey Bat Girl, where did you get that high water mark for the mayor? 13?
That number sounds a bit high considering all the gaff in just this year alone. Even the gondola examiner has reported bits of most of them.
Maybe folks are right about their circulation dropping? I wonder if the folks have had it with the papers handlers approach to determining what is and what is not news, and total lack of follow up on the small bits they do print.
When you consider the reporting and comments posted here, on WCF, on MWC and all other issues, do you or any one else really give a K-RAP what the SL TRIB writes, as far as independent investigative journalism articles on OGDEN/ WEBER is concerned??
I wrote to Mr. Smith, only to get ANYTHING written in the SL TRIB on MWC. When you consider the online/ on the spot reporting DAN S is doing here on WCF with his laptop, at Council meetings etc., does it really matter what the SL TRIB publishes on OGDEN? And in what time frame??
Online news blogs like this one are taking over anyway, when it comes to important political issues. CNN etc. has been totally dependent on TWITTER since the IRAN elections. THEY STILL ARE.
Hopefully ST Stephen will get the rest of his Ogden/ Weber FaceBOOK friend list to start reading and commenting on WCF too. So thank you, St. Stephen. I enjoyed what you wrote, each time. And no, I will not lift your TM above.Good Idea...........though.
Hi Bill C.
You are right. 13??? Dan S. probably told me that. Last year.
Woodstein:
Apologist for the Trib? Moi? Hardly. You did notice my post was critical of the Trib's coverage, such as it is, of Ogden affairs, didn't you?
As for Mr. Smart: "poor" because he's taking the rap for the Trib's being a day late [two actually] and a dollar short on the Ogden Council/Mayor matter [see Rudi's post way above]. He's really not responsible for his editors sending him to cover Blanding's quaint local custom --- thievery --- instead of to the Ogden Council meeting. On this one, the Trib assignment editors fell short, I think, not Mr. Smart.
A word of caution: you start saying things that could be interpreted as nice about the SE in these parts, you're going to draw some flak. Trust me on this. [grin]
Last year a group from Ogden, including some elected officials, visited with all of the Editors of the SL Tribune in an effort to get them to expand their presence and reporting in Ogden and on the goings on withing the Godfreyite movement. They said they would consider it and actually did increase their efforts here a little bit for a little while.
Their problem, as they told the group, was basically that they did not have very wide distribution in Ogden, and what they did have was pretty much centered on the south east bench - rich white folks who historically have backed Godfrey.
On the other hand the Standard's problem when it comes to more coverage of Ogden City affairs is that their reader base is no longer centered in the city itself but in the suburbs that surround it, including its major growth area - Davis County.
Both papers, especially in these lean times for dead tree purveyors, have to focus on their core readers and their interests. Those interests for the most part do not include the nefarious dealings of Lord Mayor Godfrey of Ogden and his followers.
For most of its existence, and its glory days, the paper was named "The Ogden Standard Examiner". It dropped the "Ogden" out of its name many years ago to reflect the migration of its readers out of Ogden city and into the burbs.
I believe the Godfreyite movement and the mayor would have never been able to get away with their horrid governance and corrupt ways during the time the Standard was in its glory and wasn't afraid of local politicians like they are now.
For someone who remembers The Ogden Standard Examiner and Abe Glasmann, the fearless owner from those years, it is truly sad to see how wimpy the paper has become. It is just a mere shadow of its former self.
Another slow news day, so maybe there'll be space to look at a few of the SE's Sunday Morning hits and misses.
1. Hit: The long and photo-rich stand-alone section on Hill AFB, past and present. Nice job. The SE free on-line site has a long intro article by Mr. Trentelman, but you'll have to spring for the print edition to read the many many other articles in the Hill AFB section. It's worth it.
2. Miss [a little one]: On p. 10 of the Hill section ["The Sky's The Limit"] there's a photo of a six engine B-36 . The caption reads: "A B-36 Peacemaker sits at Hill AFB." Well, there is a word they use in the Air Force to describe what the B-36 is doing in that picture [look at the shadow on the ground beneath it.] It's a technical term, but I'm sure the SE could have found a retired flier to help them out. The term is called "flying." It's in the air, guys. Landing but still airborne. "Sits?"
3. Hit: front page article headlined: Admiral: It's Fantastic Here --- Mountains Lure Veterans to Retire in Utah Sans Tax Breaks. Well worth a read, and it highlights something I've wondered about for years [and mentioned a time or two here]: why the devil isn't Ogden promoted as a prime -- and I do mean prime --- retirement area? There are people who dream of spending their retirement sweltering in places where the season barely changes and for whom shuffleboard is their idea of getting exercise. There is a place for such people. It's called Florida. But for those who like their seasons to come in fours, who are looking for reasonable housing costs, small city environment, big city amenities close by and scenery and outdoor activities year round that just cannot be beat? There's a place for such people. It's called Ogden, Utah. I'm all for promoting Ogden as an outdoor adventure base camp for visitors. But we're missing a beat not promoting it as well as a retirement mecca, I think. As the admiral in the story says, there are those mountains....
4. Miss: the SE ran today a letter to the editor by one George F. Fleming of Farr West. Here is how it begins:
"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it. --- Barack Hussein Obama."
Mr. Fleming then goes off on a rambling attack on President Obama for having said that. Problem is, President Obama did not say that. The alleged quote was made up by a reporter satirizing both Obama and McCain as they campaigned, praising the US and calling for change in the speeches both gave. The quote then was picked up by right wing bloggers talk show hosts, attribued exclusively to President Obama. [ Snopes has the story here. ]
Recently, Mr. Trentelman has written on why blogs are not news sources as papers are, and one his reasons was that all sorts of false information gets onto blogs without anyone bother to fact check. My my my. And here the SE prints a phony presidential quote without the slightest indication that it's not true. Evidently, no one on the editorial page staff bother to see if President Obama had in fact said what the letter quoted him as saying. [Doesn't anyone in the SE editorial offices know how to google something?] Nor did they ask Mr. Fleming to provide a source for the quote he insists is from President Obama --- before the paper printed it. Seems like some of the slipshod practices Mr. Trentelman finds in blogs have worked their way into the SE's offices as well. Not good.
Curm:
"......Evidently, no one on the editorial page staff bothered to see if President Obama had in fact said what the letter quoted him as saying. [Doesn't anyone in the SE editorial offices know how to google something?]..."
In the last week I have heard from different people around Ogden/ Weber that the SE is loosing AD revenue. Which means less STAFF on the editorial page to check facts of all kinds. Unless those of you who have been reading the SE for the last 20 yrs. think this is a well-established SE edit standard.
Curm:
".............3. Hit: front page article headlined: Admiral: It's Fantastic Here --- Mountains Lure Veterans to Retire in Utah Sans Tax Breaks. Well worth a read, and it highlights something I've wondered about for years [and mentioned a time or two here]: why the devil isn't Ogden promoted as a prime -- and I do mean prime --- retirement area?......."
I realize promoting Ogden/ Weber is not your day job. But it is mine. Since 3.2007, in various iterations. Yes, I meta tag and market for Ogden/ Weber relocation and Ogden/Weber retirement. Check out my side bars:
EnvisionOGDEN/ Weber outDOORS @ characters welcome
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasmann/3553701475/
All of you who teach @ WSU are part of my marketing strategy for OGDEN/ Weber. So thanks to the teaching staff of WSU for all your hard work!:
Outdoor Recreation and Environmental Stewardship Panel @ WSU
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasmann/3353968265/in/photostream/
It is MUCH easier to market a small metro area like greater OGDEN (85,000 on this side of the mountains +/-) when there is easy access to a 4SEASON outdoor facility like OGDEN VALLEY. As I sold AD SPACE for OGDEN INDEPENDENT to WolfCreekUtah.com resorts yesterday, even in the rain, I can see why Wolf Creek has sold so many condos to former residents of MICHIGAN, for example.
The OGDEN/ Weber.cvb has been marketing Ogden/ Weber for relocation, tourism, retirement AND CONVENTIONS for years. Just ask them.
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