There's eye-opening news in this morning's Standard-Examiner, wherein Scott Schwbeke reports the departure from Ogden City of yet a third Ogden City department manager. On the heels of last week's announcement that Community & Economic Development Department Director Scott Waterfall and Public Works Department director George Benford had tendered their resignations, we now learn this morning that Community Development Manager Keith Morey has also "jumped ship":
• Community development manager leaves OgdenOver the 10-year course of Boss Godfrey's municipal governance, we've seen department heads retire from time to time... but now we mark three such departures within the period of a single week; and we therefore can't help but wonder whether there may be some hidden significance in this remarkable cluster of top executive resignations.
Mere serendipitous coincidence? Or are the metaphorical "rats" leaving the sinking Godfrey ship? Are the wheels finally falling off the Boss Godfrey Wienermobile?
We of course encourage our readers to chime in on this otherwise slow news day with your comments, to help us decipher the true meaning of all this.
24 comments:
Ozboy once said it would be fitting for Godfrey to serve a third term only so he could be at the wheel when the plane flies into the cliff. It looks like the fat cats in city government are donning the parachutes.
My take is now that the borrow and spend binge is ending, more and more of the Godfrey leeches will be leaving town. Soon we will once again be the quiet, small town perpetually saddled with too much government that we have always been, but with $100 million in new RDA debt.
Yes, the future is the past.
This just opens up high paying jobs to the mayors friends and supporters.
Geigers, Tom Moore, and the losers that ran for office.
Ogdenite writes, "the borrow and spend binge is ending, more and more of the Godfrey leeches will be leaving town. Soon we will once again be the quiet, small town perpetually saddled with too much government that we have always been, but with $100 million in new RDA debt."
Damned Democrats!
It's about time Ogden City and Weber County elected God-fearing, honest Republicans to get their fiscal house in order.
(Smirk.)
Ogdenite:
A little trip down memory lane
Moroni McConkie said...
When FDR ran for a third term, H. L. Mencken joked that he supported FDR's reelection. "He ought to be made to bury his own dead horse," Mencken cracked. "It would be cruel and unusual punishment to permit anyone else to take over the autopsy."
Mencken's words came to mind as I read Ed Allen's Flowers-&-Darts paean to primogeniture. Ed's justification for a third Godfrey monarchy? "It basically boiled down to a desire to continue the momentum, maintain the powerful team he has recruited and finish what he refers to as 'a good start.'"
No thanks, Doc. Another four years and that dead horse will be us, buried deep in tetrachloroethylene-tainted native soil.
Simply beauteous.
Although I don't view people like Waterfall, Benford or Morey as rat verimin, I do believe they know they're fleeing a sinking ship
Nice metaphor, Rudi
I again ask what the "total compensatation" package is for these soon to be vacant positions? Certain city officals gave a "total compensation" package cost for positions in the fire department and police department as an excuse for low salaries. Are these jobs to be listed with only a salary total or will the cost of the "total compensation" cost be listed?
Boss Godfrey is going down. Each and every one of his department heads know this.
A link to this ad for an Ogden City Director was found in the SE sidebar next to Letters to the Editor.
"Manager, CED Director. Ogden City, a growing vibrant community, is seeking a visionary with demonstrated entrepreneurial abilities in bridging the gaps necessary to drive a real estate development concept to reality. As hands on manager; plans, directs, manages and oversees the activities and operations of the Community & Economic Development Department. Candidate must understand government and real estate development. For complete information please visit www.ogdencity.com or 2549 Washington Blvd., Suite 220. Position closes Jan. 8, 2010. AA/EOE/ADA.
If we MUST have managers, how about some who are less "visionary" and more practical.
Stand by for Michael Ostermiller. President of the Northern Utah Realtor Association. OH, he is already on the Davis County Economic Development Committee. Maybe Gage Froerer will apply. Real Estate is sagging and the commissions are low right now in a stagnant housing market.
I had hoped and assumed that indeed, these departures were leeches leaving the dead carcass of Godfreyism to go in search of a new host.
Now I fear it may be as the poster said - Godfrey is simply throwing people overboard so he can take on more of his own cronies - people who are even more reflexively obedient and worshipful of him than those they will replace.
But either way, the peace and quiet of perpetual government-caused decay will go on.
Of course, there is one thing in Ogden that is never allowed to adjust to its true economic level - the government subsidized construction industry.
RDA bonds, Tax Increment, Water Tanks for Crony Cash.
A few leeches always seem to have a trough to drink from as our blood is supplied to the Real Estate, Government, Contractor iron triangle.
My money is on one or more of the Geigers getting hired for one or more of these jobs. If not the Geigers, you can bet your bibby that whoever gets hired will be Godfreyite cronies.
I will also give 100 million to 1 odds that the new managers will not be me, Rudi, Mr. Curmudgeon, or any of the other people in town who have the punk's number.
Interesting that in this weak economy that so many people that work at Ogden City would abandon ship. Rather telling I would say!
What the city should do is NOT replace any of these individuals but rather reduce the size of the BD department and reduce the scope of the city's involvement in projects that should be developed by the private sector with private sector money.
You could still make a Cecil B DeMille gladiator movie with the number of people still in that department.
Don't know the man leaving, or the job he's done. Wish him well wherever he goes.
What I find a little disturbing is the ad OL dug up. Doesn't seem to me that Community Development should be defined nearly exclusively as real estate development. I'd think the concept, and so the job and the skills needed to do it well, would involve a great deal more than putting together real estate deals, que no? Is that really all there is to "community development?"
I've never worked for a city, so it's possible that the term means "the city's real estate guy" and everyone in the biz understands that that's what it means. But to this outsider, it seems like a very limited definition of the term.
I only hope that if more Geigers are taken into city positions, the city council will eliminate those positions in the January budget discussions.
With the emphasis on real estate and the slow real estate economy, another possibility is one or more position is being opened for Sue Wilkerson to keep her afloat.
Ogdenite:
Sorry, but I think you're wrong to suggest that if "more Geigers" are hired by the City, or Ms. Wilkerson is [and we have no indication that any of those people have applied for a city job], the jobs should be eliminated by the Council in the next budget.
If the jobs involved are superfluous or redundant or the city simply can't afford them any more in its current reduced circumstances, then that's something the Council might legitimately look at. But to suggest eliminating the jobs because of who is appointed to them is wrong. Just plain wrong.
City job elimination should never be done as a way to target any particular individual or group of individuals. No, not even FOMs. Doing that would be a good example of bad public administration, which, I trust, the incoming Council would not engage in.
When making city policy becomes a game of Gotcha!, bad government results. Very nearly every time.
Wow! The numerous similarities between George W. Bush and Matthew Godfrey are striking.
Just as Georgie steered the U.S. off the cliff, Godfrey seems to insist on taking Ogden over the edge too.
At least Georgie is no longer at the U.S.' helm. Ogden has years left of Godfrey.
Hire people like Libby Norvell and Bonnie Gailbraith. Maybe then the city will run like it should. Bring some knowledgeable people in.
Hire:
"Knowledgeable people" (especially of the female gender) and Mayor Matthew "Just A Parody" Godfrey are like matter and antimatter.
If Godfrey has any caonies, He would should every one that he can work with anyone, that would be that he could hire Rep. Neil Hansen and show that he has no vendetta against him. But even if he did that I wonder if Hansen would even entertain the idea of working for the Godfrey admin. This would bring some balance to Ogden city government.
LOL, GWB:
My guess is that if Hansen would sign up to clear out the mess in Ogden during what remains of the flagging Godfrey administration, sat as C&ED manager, for instance, he'd demand, and possibly deserve a "no cut contract," along with plenty of executive latitude in that position.
Frankly, in the wake of the most recent Department head resignations, it ought to be apparent that these three dedicated long-term guys (except for Waterfall, of course) who left Ogden last week, were pushed by Godfrey from their top executive positions.
Remember, people, it was only a little under two years ago that Godfrey canned all experienced volunteers from various volunteer committes.
Wake up everyone. Electing a mainly citizen-friendly council in November is not the end of the fight to prevent Godfrey from transforming Ogden into a develper-driven Northern Utah amusement park.
We must all continue to remain vigilant.
Remember... Godfrey went in to politics to "get rich."
And don't count on Neil Hansen being offered a high-profile job from Godfrey.
Curm,
You miss the point.
Appointment of more incompetent Godfrey cronies into city positions is PROOF those positions are redundant.
As if we needed proof. Eliminate the whole econ development department. Godfrey's job description should be proof of how far he deviates from legitimate government vis-a vis servitude and subsidy for crony contractors.
Rudi: Interesting observation, that Godfrey went into politics to get rich.
It's not inconsistent with his life's trajectory. Even before he went into politics (with the Ogden electorate as his co-dependents), he married money.
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