There's semi-encouraging news from the Standard-Examiner this morning, with the following Scott Schwebke story, which reports that our City Council has reached some kind of consensus with respect to improvements and debt paydown for the Mt. Ogden Golf Course (MOGC):
• Goals set to make Mt. Ogden course more playable, profitable(The headline in today's SE print edition is slightly more tentative however, and ends with a question mark: "Pay-as-you-go flaw fixes ahead?")
If it is true that a majority of the council has at least informally agreed to avoid massive borrowing, fix up the course and pay down current golf course debt, that's good news indeed for the taxpayers of Ogden City, we believe. Yet today's story does contain a statement from Ogden City CAO John "Pureheart" Patterson which does cause us some heartburn (justifiably, we believe):
Patterson said he appreciates the city council's desire to make needed improvements at the course without borrowing more money. However, the city has only a limited amount of funds for a variety of pressing projects, he said."Reading between the lines, we'll take Patterson's comment as an early indication that the administration may be preparing to drag its feet, or stonewall a council-backed "pay-as-you-go" plan altogether.
There are many priorities for available financial resources," he said. "Many (of those projects) stand in front of the golf course."
Thus we'll be watching closely as the Council and Administration move forward on the FY2011 "budget setting" process over the next 3 months, in wary anticipation of another possible Council-Administration battle royal over MOGC funding, reminiscent of the knock-down, drag-out Marshall White budget slug-out of last spring and summer.
Will it be necessary for the council to invoke its statutory "policy making power" once again this year, and instruct Boss Godfrey to get onboard the Council's percipient "pay-as-you go" plan, by way of another budget ordinance "policy statement?"
One thing we do know about Boss Godfrey: He's stubborn as hell. So we do hope the Council is ready for battle this year.
There are also two other items we've found this morning which relate to the pending 2011 fiscal year MOGC budget setting process and plans for the MOGC in general, so we'll throw them out to expand the discussion:
1) Ogden City activist David Smith provides a letter to the editor on the SE website which ought to remind everyone, that despite any MOGC consensus which the Council "thinks" it may have reached, the ever-conniving Boss Godfrey still has a whole set of plans all his own:
• Godfrey to turn virgin east bench in mini-mansion-ville2) And please don't neglect to check out the savvy SE reader comment linked below, wherein SE board regular "Ole" urges a full accounting of the MOGC books, as a preliminary prerequisite to ANY further Council action:
• Is this another Godfrey scam?We haven't talked about the MOGC situation in quite a long while here at Weber County Forum; although we all knew a new discussion would be coming up soon.
So who will be the first to comment about these latest new developments, now that the MOGC topic is finally back on the Emerald City news front-burner?
9 comments:
Follow the money, follow the money...why hasn't the MOGC books been accouted for?
How were the costs arrived at?...and why are out of area and out of state firms working on the redesign?.... (Richfield-based Jones & DeMille Engineering Inc., and Jon Garner, a senior design associate with Nicklaus Design, headquartered in North Palm Beach, Fla.) Typical....high priced out of towners deciding what is best for us....
What plans are being formulated to make the Junction profitable? It is a bigger money pit than the alleged negative cash flow at MOGC. I would be interested in hearing the plans, if any, advanced by the mayor and his supporters to stem losses at he junction. In light of the claimed loss of revenue at the golf course will the mayor still attempt to pay any resulting penalties if Jon Greiner chooses to remain as chief of police? What has it cost the taxpayers to fight the Hatch Act ruling and how many appeals are we going to fund?
Oh yes, and Mayor Godfrey is promising city employees a raise this year even though the city has a 2 million dollar tax revenue short fall.
How can he do that when no one is getting raises, and especially when years past no raises were given in not so tough times?
As Godfrey's puppet Patterson said, money is limited and our priorities are ahead of a golf course and our greatest assets...our employees!
Blackrulon:
Word is that John "Pureheart-not-counting-getting-fired-from-his-last-job-over-his-mistress" Patterson has plans to make the Salomon Center more "playable".
They are going to have some of Godfrey's cronies do some studies to see how much money they can shovel at R&O, Keir, and Wadman to address the well known "deficiencies". The study will help overcome the Salomon Center annual deficit, which is 10 times the golf course's, and generate campaign cash for Boss Godfrey from the usual cronies.
The city funds to be used will all be borrowed, of course.
The mistakes in design and decisions made on the construction of the Salomon Center were made, not by the engineers, but rather Scott Brown, under Reid and Godfrey. Mr. Know It All forced us engineers out and now take a look at it. Who knew that sheet rock needed to be waterproof?
How about another "Doh! on having waterproof walls in a environment with moisture....Listening to and obeying the advice of Scott Brown regarding construction techiques or costs is like sitting on a campfire...you will get burned.
Why in the hell doesn't Ogden City apply for RAMP funds for the improvements on the MOGC? That is after all what the RAMP tax is for.
g.g.
RAMP is an acronym for Recreation, Arts, Museums and Parks, I think..?
Although, I guess the "Recreation" part could be stretched to include municipal golf courses, I would not think that would qualify.
But, considering that $225,000 of RAMP funds were diverted for use on the intercomm system at the Washington Terrace Library, and another considerable sum was dedicated to the old Kilm restoration in Ogden Canyon (a Park?, an Art?, a recreation?, Museum?) who knows what these unaccountable and unelected fungoes who make RAMP expenditure decisions are thinking?
Are there any minutes of their meetings publicly posted on-line? Anywhere? Are we allowed to know their thought processes or justifications?
It's only millions of our money they are spreading out.
Maybe "Godfrey-Daniels"! will twist some of the WACOG (Weber Area Council of Governments) arms for RAMP money for all his ill advised ventures...
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