Late last week we reported that Boss Godfrey's Crackpot Ice Tower Project had gotten the City Council ax, and been removed from the Ogden Capital Improvements Plan "wish list." In the course of our report we asked this question, "Will Godfrey crony John Gullo be demanding his $63 thousand donation/bailout back?"
Thanks to Ace Reporter Schwebke, we now have the answer to our query; and the answer is a resounding "No":
• Ice tower donation won't be returnedStrangely however, Mr. Schwebke allows his reporting to wander off-track. Oddly, this morning's story provides this off-tangent quote from Mr. Gullo, which would likely lead casual Std-Ex readers to believe that his generous July 29, 2009 donation was designed to help an ailing Jeff Lowe extricate himself from a troubling financial scrape:
Gullo said Monday he never expected to get reimbursed for the donation.In point of fact however, anyone who followed this story in 2009 knows that Mr. Gullo's donation didn't benefit Mr. Lowe at all, inasmuch as Mr. Lowe never had any financial skin in the game to start with. Rather, Mr. Gullo's funding was used to replenish Ogden City's Capital Improvements Account, from which Boss Godfrey had
He donated the money to take the financial burden off Lowe, who has multiple system atrophy, a neurodegenerative disorder.
"I did this for Jeff, and I wasn't approached by the city to do it," he said. "It was gesture on my part because I believe I need to do stuff like that."
For reasons unknown, Mr. Schwebke entirely left that part out.
As Scott Schwebke stories go, we're sorry to say this isn't Mr. Schwebke's greatest journalistic moment.
