Boss Godfrey Seeks Blanket Executive Carte Blanche to Spend Grants and Donations

We'll predict that the Council can iron it all out in about two minutes

If this was a dictatorship it would be a heck of a lot easier ... just as long as I am the dictator.

President George Bush
Bush "Dictator" Gaffe
October 29, 2002

Earlier this morning we received a comment from Dan S., which has stimulated some interest in one of our earlier lower comment sections. Here's the observation we received from Dan:

"Sound the alarms. According to today's S-E, Godfrey now wants the authority to spend grants and donations on projects of his choice with zero council oversight."

Here's the Standard-Examiner story, where the issue is buried beneath this headline:

• Ogden pickleball courts have to clear a hurdle

The "problem" involves a $40,000 John Gullo donation, for the construction of four "pickleball courts" at Mt. Ogden Park. It seems that such a donation requires a formal council amendment of Ogden City's Capital Improvement Plan, which is apparently making our ever-petulant Emerald City Mayor mighty sore. Lord knows he hates to lower himself to what he probably percieves as groveling before the Council for even the slightest and most reasonable concessions.

And here's the paragraph which evidently caught Dan's attention:

There have been several instances where playground equipment valued at more than $10,000 has been donated to city parks without a CIP amendment, Godfrey said. He would like to see the CIP amendment ordinance changed so individuals don't encounter bureaucratic red tape when they make donations.

Uh-oh...

The article goes on to say that "The city council is discussing the possibility of changing the parameters for donations requiring a CIP amendment," According to Council Director Bill Cook.

We'll go on record as opposing any grant of authority to bypass existing procedures regarding the disbursement of donations and grants, regardless of the source or intent. As everybody knows, when you're dealing with man like Godfrey, "give him an inch and he'll take an mile," as the old saying goes.

There's nothing wrong with having Godfrey present this problem at the next regularly scheduled Council meeting, in our view. We'll predict that the Council can iron it all out in about two minutes, without ceding unnecessarily broad discretionary spending authority to Godfrey.

Checks and balances, folks. That's what American government is supposed to be all about.

The floor is open for any readers who'd like to engage in some late discussion of this extremely fascinating issue.