By Ray
The Standard Examiner features this Top of Utah section story today:
• Godfrey trip yields connectionsFirst, I doubt this 5 day trip only cost $2000 in public money. Second, how does bringing cheap Chinese toys help Ogden? Stocking stimulus funded Outlet Stores on Washington Blvd? Yeah, that will put Ogden on the map. Just like the unnamed potential outlet store businesses, the Chinese connections are Godfrey's secret. These "free market" Utah politicians (like Godfrey) sure like to use taxpayer funded junkets and stimulus dollars to pump up their supporters while whining about "socialist health care" for US citizens.
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36 comments:
Reposted from lower thread.
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Now the S-E has done an about face and is glowing with pride that our Mayor went to China (and yes, Blackrulon, came back, as well).
Oddly, he declined to identify his potential trading partner in China.
He did mention that his next trip is to Mexico. Might I (dis)respectfully suggest that he catch a show called "Ramona and Her Trained Burro Bob" while he's in Tijuana? My father was a Navy man and he spoke glowingly of it.
It might be something to set up at The Malfunction Junction in the space about to be vacated by the iFly. I notice the iFly people are now selling time at a deep discount. I predict they won't be here much longer, and until Ramona gets here, we can amuse ourselves flinging cheap cadmium-laden Chinese toys into the airstream at $50/min.
(Since making the original post, I discovered that Ramona and Bob actually hail from Park City, not Tijuana, which makes a certain kind of sense, I suppose.
The city has money to send the mayor all over the world but last week one of our stations went without heat to half of the building for three days because the city wanted to make sure the $1500 bid for a new furnace was the lowest they could get.
Headline:
Godfrey Looks in Mirror. Sees a Wonderful Mayor
Headline should be:
Standard Examiner Puts Glass in Belly Button, Can Now See Godfrey Clearly With Head Up Butt
Can you say cheap garbage flea market?
Lets see import a bunch of shit from foreign countries, instead of promoting Home businesses producing items and jobs right here at home.
Godfrey took a page out of the Descente business plan.
Dont we already have enough Dollar stores in Ogden?
Confuscious say screw off Matty
Matty going through airport sideways, going to Bangcock.
Some quotes from the article.
"At least one Chinese exporter, whom Godfrey did not identify, has expressed strong interest in shipping goods, such as toys, jewelry and gift items..."
"The event featured several thousand vendors, who sold virtually everything: electronics, watches, children's furniture, toys, outdoor play equipment, jewelry and clothing accessories."
"China is a major (retail) player in the world," said Godfrey, explaining why he decided to go there. "There are a lot of factories in a small area."
"Godfrey said that in most of the factories he visited, different products were manufactured on each floor by just a few employees."
Gee, so let see. China makes stuff. And they want to sell it.
Really?
Thank you city council, for funding this silly mayor to waste money on this crap. Thank you for funding this man to make this city look like a pack of fools.
And thank you Standard Examiner for paying Scott Schwebke to tell us that the mayor discovered the Chinese sell things, and that Doug Stephens never knew that before
Is there no end to this little man's hubris?
First he positions himself as an expert who will turn Ogden into a first rate high tech mecca - which effort failed miserably. Then he decides he is a world class developer and drives the tax payer's of Ogden into the biggest and most dangerous financial hole of any government agency in Utah's history with brilliant ideas of remaking the down town into a high adventure center with a day glow bowling alley and a penney arcade as the anchor - all on tax payer money of course. Now he is posing as a world class merchant on yet another tax payer funded boondoggle to bring still more cheap Chinese junk to Ogden's main street. The line from the article: "his recent whirlwind visit to China will bring quality products to Ogden", pretty much says it all. Talk about an oxymoron - using China and high quality products in the same sentence!
Any one with an iota of intelligence could have saved the city tax payers the cost of this dumb trip by simply going down to one of the ubiquitous WallMarts and checking out the cheap Chinese junk that is available. If the mayor didn't have enough sense to do this, he could have at least checked out what was available over the internet. A simple google search using the key words - "Cheap Chinese junk" would have given him all the leads he needs.
How long will Ogden have to suffer the costs and embarrassment that comes along with his tenancy on the ninth floor? Will the city even survive the horrible financial blows incurred by this totally incompetent and dishonest wizard of Ogden?
So our Mayor supports Human Rights violations, abuse of employees, and importation of toxic materials into the US.
Uncle Joe:
Yes, but they're high tech toxic materials.
May Smith is back.
Can Ogden Business be far behind? Probably not.
Discovery of China's cadmium trinkets sheds light on prevalence of poison in children's toy
READ NORE!
Cadmium poisoning: What you need to know
Toxic Chinese Jewelry Poisons NY Children
Toxic Metal Cadmium Found in Chinese Made Kid's Jewelry
U.S. must end import of tainted products
On the Mayor's China Trip:
Here's what I don't understand. Why is the Mayor of Ogden going to China or to Mexico or anywhere else looking for products to be sold in Ogden, unless Ogden itself intends to import the items for sale [which I assume it is not]? The trip would make some sense if the Mayor was acting as a purchasing agent for an Ogden company, but if that were so, the trip would have been paid for by the company, not the taxpayers. Why is the Mayor scouting Asia and next Mexico for products for a merchant [or merchants] here, as yet un-named, to sell? That makes no sense to me.
And one of the products the Mayor was looking at in China for sale in Ogden [by who, we don't know] in city-refurbished Washington Blvd "outlet" stores was jewelry. Well, mere yards away from those Ogden City subsidized Washington Blvd. stores is Farr's Jewelry. It's a locally owned shop, and has been in business downtown for a very long time. I wonder what the owners think about the Mayor, on taxpayer money, going to China to locate jewelry to be sold in a city-subsidized store mere yards down the block from Farr's. [If it were, me, I'd be furious.] I wonder too what the Chamber of Commerce about all this? Are its members comfortable with the Mayor on public funds searching the world for products for as yet un-named competitors to sell in city-subsidized stores in Ogden?
What business has the Mayor... has any mayor of any city... traveling around the world on the public's dime seeking out products to be sold by merchants in his city? Shouldn't business owners be searching out their own products to sell? How can that possibly be a proper mayoral function?
I am not now nor have I ever been in business, but I found the Mayor's going off on a product hunting trip that I asked someone who was in retail for decades if it made sense to them. They didn't understand it either.
I hope the SE will ask a few questions this time, and go beyond simply reporting the Mayor's rave review of his own trip.
Mono:
You wrote: Now the S-E has done an about face and is glowing with pride that our Mayor went to China .
Sorry, Mono, but I don't see it. The story reported the Mayor's statements about his trip, and Councilman Stephen's unfortunate and nearly meaningless blather. But the paper itself did not, so far as I can see, suggest it is "glowing with pride" about the trip. Mayor Godfrey's self-serving statement, complete with the usual un-namable business connections he says he's made, glows with self-serving pride. But that's his opinion, duly reported, not the paper's, so far as we know.
I agree that the SE needs to go beyond the Mayor's vague statement about "connections" he can't name, and "products" he looked at being produced in "multilevel factories" [huh?]. It needs to ask first and foremost, why is the Mayor on the public's money scouting for products for someone else to sell in Ogden? Beats me. If there's an explanation, I'd truly like to hear it, and I'd like to know what Ogden merchants think about the Mayor scouting out product for a competitor to sell in a city subsidized store. There's a lot of digging the SE should do on this, beyond the Mayor's press release and Councilman Stephens vapid blather.
But I don't think the story today reflected the paper's glowing with pride about the trip.
Mr. Curmudgeon
Well, for starters no one in the merchant class has near as much knowledge and experience as a merchandise buyer as our dear leader Goidfrey - late of the Han tribe.
Secondly, the fine mayor has the fine city of Ogden so finely tuned that he really doesn't have anything to do anymore as far as administrating. So would you just have him sitting around kissing babies, or would you prefer to see him using his vast, and perhaps half vast, powers as a merchandising super star to further the interests of all Ogden citizens who obviously, to the alert anyway, yearn for more Chinese stuff to make our otherwise dismal lives meaningful.
And thirdly, do you really think it necessary for the Standard to actually ask questions of such a retail wizard? Common, you don't expect the Standard to show public doubt about anything their idol and master does or says? Do you expect the Standard to violate it's very own long standing tradition of mediocracy and lack of curiousity when it comes to Ogden political reporting?
Shame on you for being such a naysayer and mayoral doubter with apparent commie leanings. The little big man is a genius and it is only a matter of time until you recognize this basic truth.
Oz:
Yeah, Oz, I do expect the SE to ask questions about the trip and its purpose beyond printing the "news" that Mayor is well pleased with himself. It's my home town paper. I expect a lot from it. I expect it to be, at a minimum, good, and often very good, and sometimes excellent. But at a minimum, good. And letting self-serving statements such as it reported today [and should have reported] stand wholly unexamined would not be good work for a good paper.
Oz, rumor has it you've been in business a time or two. In all seriousness, is there a legitimate reason the mayor of a city, any city [leave Hizzonah aside for the moment] to be searching overseas for products for merchants to sell in his city? Isn't that the merchants' job --- deciding what they want to sell and locating suppliers?
Mr. Godfrey, with this latest incident, seems to cement his position as a good example of the "Dunning Kruger effect" that was discussed here a couple of days ago.
The core of it - "the super incompetent are so bad at what they are doing, they don't even realize it and assume they are amazing"
He really does seem to be completely clueless as to his own incompetence and lack of integrity.
A Gentle reminder...
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
HAHAHAHA!
What makes you think that the mayor is not representing some secret business persons he intends on renting the scratch and dent stores to? He does seem to do a lot of things in secret and he does have a record of bending the rules to accommodate and enrich his supporters.
There is also the very real possibility that the mayor will in fact lead the city into the retail trade as well. After all, he already broke all past precedence and turned the city into a high risk venture capital firm and major league developer, even though those efforts appear to be complete failures. I just hope that Wallmart doesn't sue the city for infringing on their cheap Chinese junk turf.
Quality well-made products that are necessary to the buyer, or nothing at all; this is the mantra of the new century.
Crass consumerism, as an excuse to keep from developing a heart, spirit and mind, was a fad from the past 2 centuries.
The last thing this country needs is more stuff. What it needs is more savings.
Most consumer crap costs more in global transportation, storage and brokerage/tariff fees than the child-labor assembled products are really worth.
It makes me sick.
Fireman Joe:
would that furnace be tagged to go into station 2 (the one on 3rd Street), by any chance?
TLJ
Colin,
Your post regarding the "Dunning Kruger effect" has my vote for the post of the month.
Danny Donner
The artickle said godfrey attended the China Sourcing Fair: which is reported to be held on January 13, 14 & 15th in Shanghai, and is targeted for "importers, volume buyers and purchasing managers who want to source direct from competitive suppliers from China and Asia. The show serves buying professionals who are looking for the latest products in the fashion accessories industry."
Also says there were baby products, but didn't say anything about gifts or jewelry - just fashion accessories.
Hmmmm. What is Godfrey going on about and can we see his tickets?
TLJ
THIS is one he should have considered going to, if at all ... DUH -- Dunning Kruger, Indeed HaHa
stupid dummy
TLJ
JN:
I'm still looking for a reason a mayor would be traveling on public funds half way around the world to attend a trade show intended for importers or retail goods looking for product. Not being in business, I concede there may be a sound reason, but I've yet to hear one. Any ideas?
Curm:
He made connections. Try to keep up.
Mono:
Connections. Right. Dozens of them, none of which he will name, all of them apparently offering goods they are eager to have someone sell in Ogden. Or maybe not, since a little later in the story we learn that the number is only "at least one" [who the Mayor won't name] who is interested in shipping goods to Ogden for sale by... well, by we don't know who. The Mayor can't, or won't, say. Presumably by one of the "outlet stores" the Mayor told us he hoped would open by Christmas in the city subsidized shops on Washington. Which outlet stores he, of course, could not name then and still can't, or won't name now.
And I notice the "outlet stores" he was promising just before the Council vote have morphed in the latest telling to "retail outlets," which are not the same things at all as "outlet stores." [I presume the SE news editors realized a while ago how they got played by Hizzonah on that "outlet stores coming to Washington Blvd" story during the election. Today's story should make it even plainer to the red-faced news editors how badly they got played. At least I hope they're red-faced. They should be.]
If the SE has a good business reporter, it ought to let him [or her] loose on this story. Now.
All lies all the time. that's Fox news. Oh, hell wait aminute, it's Godfrey..
Utah Code 10-3-1304 (2): It is an offense for an elected or appointed officer or municipal employee ... to ...
(b) use or attempt to use the officer's or employee's official position to:
(ii) secure special privileges for the officer or employee or for others ...
10-3-1310: ... any person who knowingly and intentionally violates this part ... shall be dismissed from employment or removed from office and is guilty of:
(1) a felony of the second degree if the total value of the compensation, conflict of interest, or assistance exceeds $1,000 ...
You guys really want to know what it was that Godfrey went to china for????? Well here is the answer. I wanted to see if was taller then all the Chinese people. But he wasn't, so the next thing was to see if he could find the ancient Chinese secret to calgon but he could not. then he look for lead to bring back so that he could say that he was actually there. But he could lift it up, it was to heavy. Then he decided to see all those toys that he didn't get when he was a kid and Santa Claus would not bring to him. The last thing was when we was in the restaurant he order another coke and some more ice and they brought him out another coke and a bowl of some more rice.
Jennifer, yes station 3 at 340 Washington. A building from the 30's, half the furnaces gone for three days in the winter, think the city gives a shit? Hey we've got Chinese imports to worry about.
... what SMC said ...
Curm:
Dunning Kruger explained it all for us already.
TLJ
Mr. Curmudgeon
To answer your question from your January 23, 2010 5:01 PM comment on this thread:
Although I have been involved in a number of ways in various business, my retail experience is limited. However, I do not recall ever having heard of such a blatant misuse of a mayor's time and tax payer money as this Chinese boondoggle represents.
I do believe it is fairly common for a mayor or other politician to organize, support and/or go on trade missions with business people from their constituency (usually paid for by the business involved), but I never heard of one going solo as a purchasing agent for a business - real or imagined.
My guess is that Godfrey has a secret plan to add retail to Ogden's half vast business portfolio.
How will the Mayors visit to China (or proposed visit to Mexico) bring high paying jobs to Ogden or any noticeable increase in jobs to the area? I would think that retail sales jobs or warehousing jobs are toward the lower end of the pay scale.
He's going to bring Donkey acts from Mexico to the winter festivities here in Ogden. Or was that a dog and pony show?
Flights alone RT = 1433 to 2980+ from SLC to Shanghai & back (and that's coach)
hotels for a week: $222 per night x 7 nights = 1500+
so, $3000 to $4500+
js
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