• Consultant to South Salt Lake: Don't Bond For Market StationIt seem a grand development project [mixed condo and retail project --- sound familiar?] planned near a coming street car station has fallen into financial problems. Fortunately for the City of South Salt Lake, the city did not put the taxpayers on the hook as guarantors of the bonds for the project [as Ogden did].
• 'Cats just want a Saturday win at MontanaAs an added bonus, here's the pregame buzz from the Grizzlies' home town newspaper:
• Griz, Wildcats ready to rollSo here we go again, setting up another WSU Wildcats dedicated game day thread, whereby we WCU Wildcats fans can comment while viewing today's game, (which will be broadcast online on the Big Sky TEEVEE around 1:00 p.m.,) or whilst listening via the live audio broadcast from KLO radio, WSU's flagship sports radio station.
• Missoula meltdown / Griz take advantage of Wildcat turnoversFor an excellent writeup on what remain of WSU's hopes for a post-season playoff slot, be sure to check out Mr. Asay's companion story here:
• Wildcats' playoff chances still alive after loss, but margin for error is slim
• OUR VIEW: Dean for Ogden council(Be sure to view the Standard's candidate interview videos, which are embedded in each of the respective pages.)
• OUR VIEW: Garner for Ogden council
Scott Schwebke has augmented yesterday's brief report this morning, concerning Council Seat "B" David Phipps's disqualification from the November 3 election, with a fleshed-out story, reporting that Mr. Phipps may have not have entirely thrown in the towel in this matter, and that he is instead considering scheduling an emergency hearing, seeking a court order overturning his statutorily mandated election disqualification by Ogden City Recorder Cindi Mansell:• Late-filing Ogden candidate David Phipps disqualified, 'embarrassed'Phipps argues that he was confused about the drop-dead Thursday filing deadline, (even though it had already been extended by one full day, and none of the other council candidates seem to have had any trouble making the deadline.) Phipps also readily admits that he's "... struggled with focusing on details," and remarks that explaining to his campaign contributors this latest campaign blunder (in a long string of campaign blunders) "hasn't been an easy thing."
Mike Ostermiller, chief executive officer of the Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors, which gave $1,500 to Phipps' campaign, said he is disappointed Phipps has been disqualified over the missed deadline.For some odd reason, we're conjuring up this psychic image of Mr. Ostermiller and the rest of Mr. Phipps's real estate development donor-friends, gathering together and gently urging Mr. Phipps to "get his head together" and find some way to get his bumbling derriere back into the race:
"I hope he can figure out a way to stay on the ballot," he said Thursday.
• Utah Code, Title 20A -- Election CodeUpdate 10/31/09 11:27 a.m.: A day late and a half-dollar short, the Salt Lake Tribune has now picked up on this story too:
•Phipps disqualified in Ogden Council raceTo the Trib's credit however, this morning's story does however provide this interesting new information:
"After speaking with attorneys, Phipps said there is little chance to appeal the ruling."What the heck. Phipps coulda thrown himself on the mercy of the court, and pleaded the "I'm an Idiot" defense, right?
• Phipps disqualified from Ogden election
OGDEN -- City council candidate David Phipps has been disqualified from Tuesday's general election because he failed to file a campaign finance disclosure statement in on time.J Neil
Phipps, who was running against Bart Blair for the council's At-large Seat B post, told the Standard-Examiner he missed Wednesday's 5 p.m. filing deadline at the city recorder's office by 40 minutes.
Phipps, in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner, congratulated Blair who has effectively secured the council seat.
"Ogden politics is an interesting thing. People are constantly trying to pressure new candidates to one side or the other, and the lines continue to be drawn", Phipps said. "I was excited to show Ogden residents that I was willing to stand up to both sides when I felt they were wrong. I desperately hope that Mr. Blair won't just follow the anti-everything administration camp, but that citizens from both sides will have a voice. I congratulate him on a well- run campaign and I support him in any efforts to bring unity back to Ogden. I love this city and will continue to help in its economic growth downtown so all of us can enjoy our downtown again."
• 2009 Ogden City Municipal Election Cumulative Financial Disclosure ReportsWe've also added these latest reports to the individual candidate pages, which are nested within our Weber County Candidate Roster.
• Government budgets worse than anticipatedFrom the article:
• Conflict between Ogden council, mayor fabricatedAnd Ogden City resident Cathy Gambles nails it, regarding what Godfrey's greed-head real estate developer ticket (Hains , Garner and Phipps) would do, if elected as a controlling majority on the Ogden City Council:
• Vote for Ogden candidates who respect open spaceAnd then there's this... This Council-member Dorrene Jeske reader letter which we neglected to highlight yesterday... mainly because our newly hired SE paper-boy evidently couldn't pry his ass out of bed to deliver yesterday's SE hard-copy edition to our front stoop:
• Van Hooser, Blair merit supportThat's it for now, gentle readers.
Demographers and economists have predicted that many aging baby boomers would opt for smaller, easier-to-manage dwellings once their children left home. Those predictions helped spur a surge in loft and condominium developments in many U.S. cities, as well as efforts to develop so-called walkable communities.The reason it caught my eye is that the master plan for re-developing downtown Ogden, and in particular for The Junction, rested largely on anticipating precisely the "walkable downtown condo living" model that the article says has not materialized nationwide as expected.
So far, the bet hasn't paid off. "The developers that anticipated a big increase in condominium living in center cities are sorely disappointed," says Gary Engelhardt, a professor at Syracuse University who's studied the influence of boomers on the housing market. The housing bust has led many people who might have sold their suburban homes to stay put. But even when the market recovers, Mr. Engelhardt says, "I don't foresee a massive movement back in center cities for older individuals."
• FBI says Ogden crime stats downGodfrey of course denies that the timing of this story has anything at all to do with Tuesday's election, since he's not personally running for re-election this time around. We'll assume of course that his lips were moving when he uttered this denial, and will thus draw all reasonable inferences therefrom.
We should pay heed to Mark Twain and the many others who have pointed out the deceptive use of statistics. A year ago I carefully analyzed Ogden's crime statistics and reported the results here:(Readers who are seriously interested in the topic of Ogden crime statistics from a historic perspective also ought to take a gander at these articles too.)
Ogden Crime Statistics... Without the Godfrey Distortions
There are just too many ways to present the data. Which categories of crimes do you include? Do you weight all crimes equally or does a murder count more than a simple assault? Do you report total crimes, or crimes per person? If the latter, what population data do you use? How far back in time do you go when reporting long-term trends?
In recent years, the Standard-Examiner has left all of these decisions to the politicians.
Getting a quote from a skeptical expert is better than nothing, but a true journalist would do an independent analysis of the data (or hire an independent expert to do such an analysis).
The Standard-Examiner doesn't even seem to notice when the statistics in one article contradict the statistics in an earlier article. In July 2008 the S-E published a similar crime-trend graph with different numbers: 72 (not 77) in 2000, and 77 (not 67) in 2006, for instance. (I think the discrepancy for 2000 is from using different population data, while the discrepancy for 2006 is because the city reported a higher number of crimes and later revised the number downward.) Here's a link to the earlier graph:
More Pro-Godfrey Spin from the Standard-Examiner
During his 2007 campaign, Godfrey claimed that Ogden's crime rate had dropped 23% between 1999 and 2006. The graph in this article shows a 16% drop between those years, while the July 2008 graph shows only a 4% drop. Godfrey also claimed there had been a 43% drop in the sub-category of violent crimes over the same time period, but the officially available statistics show little or no change in the violent crime rate.
According to the FBI web site, "the FBI discourages data users from ranking agencies [e.g., cities] and using the data as a measure of law enforcement effectiveness."
Uniform Crime Reports
A Word About UCR Data
• Ogden lawmaker apologizes for accusations about candidateWe applaud Representative Hansen for taking the ethical high road on this, and for recognising and correcting his own mistake. While we believe Rep. Hansen's action in obtaining and releasing the information that Mr. Phipps had voted in his old Sugarhouse precinct in 2008, (even while claiming simultaneous residency in Ogden) was entirely proper, we also agree that Rep. Hansen is right, and that he may have at least slightly overstepped the bounds of political civility in offering this quote in Mr. Schwebke's Oct 19 2009 Standard-Examiner story:
"There is some dishonesty about his residency and there needs to be some accountability," Hansen said, adding he obtained the records on behalf of a constituent whom he declined to identify."And just to set the record straight, it's the above statement which Rep. Hansen appears to be apologizing about... and we believe that's the only statement he needs to apologize about.
Hansen said in a phone interview Monday it isn't his place to judge whether Phipps is an eligible candidate and hopes an investigation will be launched promptly to sort out his residency.What Rep. Hansen neglects to mention however is the court of public opinion, another legitimate venue to weigh conflicting claims on the eve of a municipal election. While we congratulate Rep. Hansen for his magnanimous gesture in apologising to Mr. Phipps for comments which were arguably excessive, we also doubt that Rep. Hansen would criticise Ogden voters for themselves weighing the facts which Rep. Hansen initially laid out.
"That's between him and the legal system," he said.Hansen said one issue that needs to be sorted out is if Phipps, as he claims, was a resident of Ogden at the time of the 2008 election, was it legal for him to vote in Salt Lake City?Conversely, Hansen said, if Phipps was a legal resident of Salt Lake City, did he meet residency requirements to file for city council?.
In my opinion, a system of checks and balances should be encouraged, not stifled. The members of the city council should challenge and question the administration on controversial issues. Only then can an equitable consensus be reached. The process requires that the mayor demonstrate leadership, not domination.Next, SE reader Catherine Gerwels reminds Ogden voters of Boss Godfrey's not-so-hidden agenda, i.e., breaking his 2007 election promise, and instead bulldozing Ogden's upper east bench. Here's Ms. Gerwels "money quote":
Upon learning the content of the [mayor's golf course] committee's report, I feel almost 100 percent secure in saying that given the opportunity, Mayor Godfrey will break his pre-election promises regarding Mount Ogden Park. That chance will present itself if the city council becomes stacked with rubber-stamp members whose real goal is to use our park land to line the pocket books of their supporters at the expense of the long-term future of Ogden city and the overwhelming majority of its citizens. A city without parkland is not a desirable place to live and certainly not one that can boast about its outdoor recreation and lifestyle.Four years after Boss Godfrey's 2003-05 "Gang of Six" rubber stamp council was unceremoniously ushered out of office by Ogden voters in 2005, Ogden City taxpayers are still suffering the painful economic after-effects. Is it possible, gentle readers, that a now seemingly apathetic Ogden City electorate could allow another Godfrey rubber stamp council to be voted into office again?
Want to know more about the citizen legislative ethics initiative?Utahns for Ethical Government — the initiative sponsors — and legislators who oppose the measure are sparring through online conversations, allegations and responses.This morning's story provides links to two initiative opposition memos, one of which links doesn't work. For the benefit of our gentle readers, here are functioning links to the Hillyard document, and the Fowlkes document respectively. We're sure that those of you with a taste for obtuse legal jargon and chain of of consciousness rambling will find these papers to be much to your liking.
You can read the 25-page petition online at utahethics.org.
At that site you can also read a response from UEG over what it calls "misinformation" that has been "taken out of context" from the petition itself and from seven public hearings held around the state to get residents' input.
Meanwhile, at least two legislators — Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, and Rep. Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, both attorneys — have written their own legal analysis of the initiative, pointing out what they say are numerous unconstitutional, illegal or otherwise problematic elements in the proposed new law.
Joyce Wilson (Weber County)What are we waiting for, WCF readers?
979 27th
Ogden, UT
801-941-1613
Ogden-Weber UniServ (Weber County)
939 25th St
Ogden, UT 84401
801-399-3746
•Wildcats wary of improving N. Colorado.As per usual, we'll once again set up a dedicated thread, where whereby we WCU Wildcats fans can comment during today's game, which will be broadcast on the Alt net TEEVEE network around 130 p.m., also with a live audio broadcast from KLO radio.
• Weber State holds off Northern Colorado 28-20
• Ogden hires lobbyist for $10,000This morning's story also provides a fairly remarkable quote from Ogden City CAO John "Pureheart" Patterson, who swears (cross his heart) that he has no idea at all why the council has found it necessary to employ its own lobbyist:
John Patterson, the city’s chief administrative officer, questioned the council’s need to hire Peterson.Quick reminer to Mr. Patterson, who apparently lives in a world of alternate reality all his own ... It was Godfrey's own sneaky actions which brought on this inevitable consequence.
“At this point in time, given the friction between the city council and administration, it feels like they have to have a lobbyist to keep an eye on our lobbyist,” he said. “It’s unfortunate. Hopefully, we will get on a better track.”
• Phipps buys election influenceMr. Carver launched into a quite savvy discussion of the ethical and legal nuances concerning the placement by property management companies of political lawn signs upon the leaseholds of innocent lessees who may or may not support any particular Ogden City council candidate. He then came through with a sensible tactic for politically-involved renters to combat the overreaching of Ogden's greed-driven real estate property management faction:
I would like to call on local residents who've had Phipps' signs foisted on them to contact Blair's people and get a sign supporting him. Post the sign next to the original to clarify who you support. The people of Ogden must speak out for themselves. Do not let a few people interested in buying up our land have the only say.Thanks to a morning tip from one of our alert readers, it would appear that at least one politically-oppressed Ogden City renter has taken taken up Mr. Carver on his suggestion, adopted Mr. Carver's tactic and decided to fight back (click to enlarge image):
• Ogden City Council At-Large Seat AWe encourage our readers to follow these links over to the SE site of course, to lodge your ever-savvy comments.
• Ogden City Council At-Large Seat B
• Ogden City Council Ward 1
• Ogden City Council Ward 3
• Hatch Act hearing puts senator/Ogden police chief's future on the lineCuriously, and despite the Godfrey administration's otherwise scrupulous efforts to distance Chief Greiner from any official acts related to application, management or disposition of federal grant funds, Mr. Schwebke's morning story reveals that the administration may have nevertheless clownishly dropped the ball, by allowing Chief Greiner to affix his signature and/or initials to a number of grant applications and/or other grant-related documents. This slip-up of course thus provides the federal Office of Special Counsel a seemingly significant angle of attack -- a circumstance which could have been easily avoided. In that connection, it seems to us that it it would have made better sense for the administration to have required Ogden CAO John Patterson or Assistant Chief Tarwater to have signed off on these documents. Why they committed this particular bone-headed blunder we'll never know, although we will snarkily suggest that it does seem consistent with the general level of incompetence we've come to expect from "Boss Godfrey's Gang that Can't Shoot Straight."
• Outlet stores in downtown Ogden? Mayor says deal could be announced in NovemberFrom the story:
The city expects to announce an agreement next month with one or more companies to establish retail outlet operations in three vacant buildings on the east side of Washington Boulevard, says Mayor Matthew Godfrey. Godfrey declined to identify the companies the city is negotiating with.... A terraced parking structure could eventually be built behind the outlet operation depending on customer demand, said Godfrey, who hopes other retail businesses will also open along the east side of Washington Boulevard.And he expects to make the announcement in November. Isn't there an election coming in November? Why, it seems there is! Imagine that.
"Scott, call the Mayor's office and tell them if they won't name the companies they say they're close to signing, so we can check the story out, we're not going with this. Without the names, this is not news we can verify, and we're not running it two weeks before the Council election. Tell him when he can give us a date certain on which a company he can name is going to sign a lease, to call us back and we'll print it. That the Mayor hopes business on Washington will pick up isn't news. We're not that desperate for copy. I'll print a lost dog story first."Sadly, that's not what happened.
Thank you for all of your support. We've received $150 in the last 48 hours in just online donations. We're well on our way to our goal of $800. This is just half of the $1,500 my opponent has received from The Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors, a special interest group wanting to get supporters in the council to do work for Ogden's Real Estate and not Ogden's Citizens. Our grassroots campaign is going strong and would thrive greatly with your support. There's no contribution too small, if you could spare $10 that would be greatly appreciated. Please visit my website for more info.If you haven't yet coughed up at least a few shekels to help out with Susie's campaign, why not amble over to her campaign website, click the donation button and make a contribution right now?
Fun is fun, gentle readers; but we want to give the man a completely fair shake. So being the curious type, we accordingly contacted Patrick Dean by telephone, and requested that he send us some info -- something to let our readers know what he and his campaign are all about. Mr. Dean cordially agreed to do so; and here's the information he promptly sent:Patrick “Invisible Man” Dean
I’ve never met this guy. I’ve never seen him, and I don’t know anybody who can describe anything about him. The people who finance me apparently found him someplace, and got him to run by telling him the job pays several hundred dollars a month. They assure me he’ll do what I tell him to do. This is exactly the kind of visionary, forward-looking candidate we need more of in Ogden.
• Patrick Dean - A Few Words About Myself.....,In speaking with Mr. Dean, we were also delighted to learn that he has a fairly information-rich (although still "under construction") campaign website:
• Vote Pat DeanAs we know, there are numerous readers among us who are not completely satisfied with Councilman Doug Stephens' somewhat unpredictable council performance; and even one or two readers (or more) have come out and suggested they like Mr. Dean as their preferred candidate. We're thus shining a little brighter spotlight on the other Ward 3 alternative.
• Mighty motivationWeber State University will be playing Sacramento State at home in Stewart Stadium this very afternoon. Kickoff is @ 1:30 p.m., to be exact. We can always hope, with a homecoming game going on, that otherwise distracted, but actual WSU students who are turned on by the "Homecoming Atmosphere" will rally up, to put themselves and their fannies and into stadium seats, and actually pack the stadium for at least a couple of quarters.
• Homecoming Bliss - Jason AsayAnd here's the post-game story from the perspective of the Hornets' home town newspaper, the Sacramento Bee:
• Halftime momentum pays off - Jason Asay
• I's Toone time at Weber St. - Jim Burton
• Hornets' winning streak is historyGreat to see our Wildcats hitting on all cylinders, no?
Take the mayor's problem with council chairman Amy Wicks. She’s a woman, but she acts like a man, by having her own opinions on things. One day he started to give her a piece of my mind, and one of his people took this picture. You can see in his eyes that he doesn't like women to ignore him.
You probably remember the new committee that I talked about in the primary: the “Supreme Committee of Real Estate Workers – United.” Hains is in charge of this committee now since the mayor's other candidate lost out in the primary.
This is the woman who ran against the mayor in his last election for mayor. His lawyers intimidated the county elections director (another woman) into throwing out enough ballots to barely make the mayor the winner. It’s seems easier for him nowadays to intimidate some women into doing what he wants. If only he could take that ability and go back in time to High School.
I still think the campaign portrait the mayor had done for Phipps is a near perfect likeness.
Bart Blair’s family business has been in Ogden for over 50 years – Blair’s Service. Those who are familiar with it know it is a clean place that does an honest business in good times and bad. People trust him and come back again and again.
Garner looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy. At least I guess he does. I’ve never met him.
Garcia gets in the mayor's way. The mayor has tried to kill Union Station and he stopped it. The mayor tried to close the Marshall White Center, and Garcia blocked it. He lives in a district full of lower and middle income people. So why do they need any public facilities – they’re poor, right? I thought those people were supposed to entertain themselves by dancing or something. The mayor needs money for his failing projects downtown and since people in Garcia’s district rarely vote, the mayor decided he can axe all the stuff in their neighborhoods and get the money he needs. But Garcia keeps getting in his way. He’s the mayor's #1 target in this election.
I’ve never met this guy. I’ve never seen him, and I don’t know anybody who can describe anything about him. The people who finance the mayor apparently found him someplace, and got him to run by telling him the job pays several hundred dollars a month. They assure the mayor he’ll do what he tells him to do. This is exactly the kind of visionary, forward-looking candidate we need more of in Ogden.
Stephens is the incumbent. He votes with the mayor sometimes, but the mayor still has to talk him into things. And for some reason, he seems to like to hear other opinions as well. The mayor is tired of this guy and needs somebody who is easier to work with.
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