Monday, August 23, 2010

Standard-Examiner: Ogden to Decide on Donation of Land for Shelter

A pattern of back room decision-making with our current council which resembles that of the infamous Gang of Six Council of 2005?

The Standard-Examiner reports this morning on the latest development in the St.Anne's Shelter standoff. Here's the story lede:

OGDEN -- The city council may decide Tuesday night whether it's in the public's best interest to donate about five acres of municipal property to St. Anne's Center for construction of a multimillion-dollar homeless shelter.
Last week Mayor Matthew Godfrey agreed to convey land at 33rd Street and Pacific Avenue to St. Anne's, contingent on the city council determination that the donation serves the public.
Read the full story here:
Ogden to decide on donation of land for shelter
Interesting case of mission creep here. Whereas St. Anne's and the Administration were talking about a "land swap" a little more than a year ago, this project has now morphed into a "land grant," whereby the five acre 33rd Street and Pacific Avenue target property would be transferred free and clear by the Ogden City taxpayers to St. Anne's via a charitable donation. Under terms of the agreement spelled out in this morning's Scott Schwebke story, St. Anne's will hold onto the old Wall Avenue property, and lease it out to provide further St. Anne's revenue.

Gotta hand it to the St. Anne's Board of Directors, who've apparently cut a sweet deal which even puts Friend of Matt Gadi Leshem to shame. Looks like its a done deal with the city council too, if we are to believe council spokesman Janene Eller-Smith:

The City council supports the donation to St. Annes's, said Janene Eller-Smith, a council analyst.
We don't know whether this arrangement is a good idea or not; but we will express our displeasure with the city council, which appears to have signed onto this plan without any public comment or deliberation. Maybe its just us, but we'd like to register our concern that we may be seeing a pattern of back room decision-making with our current council which resembles that of the infamous Gang of Six Council of 2005. That council operated with limited transparency and thus produced results that didn't work out well. We thus hope we're not seeing a true recurrence of that pattern here.

6 comments:

ozboy said...

Given Godfrey's long time MO of doing everything he can to hassle and harass the poor folks of Ogden I am very sceptical of his motives with this one. It is sad that he is so sleazy that even a potentially good thing like this is suspicious.

This could be the first time that his back room dealings actually benefited a segment of Ogden's citizens other than his cronies.

Danny said...

From the code book,

"Every sale, lease, encumbrance, or other conveyance of city
owned real property shall be made by the mayor, or under the
mayor's express written authority."

They still haven't fixed it. He can sell what he wants, when he wants.

The city council's ignoring this issue is the height of irresponsibility, given this mayor's un-trustworthiness.

And Oz, is right. Watch for R&O, Wadman, Kier, or some other crony to land the inside track on the cash from this deal.

Dave said...

Danny

You are right, and it was the city council that gave him this power several years ago. What the council giveth the council can taketh back, if they had the guts to, but they don't so they won't.

cronies said...

Dig danny dig.....its there.

prophecy said...

Mayor Godfrey can do anything he wants to do. He has been commanded through divine revelation. The council is nothing but a bunch of part time puppets.

And Ogden shall be cleansed by fire in the river project.

godfrey is a buffoon said...

I heard that slug Patterson after meeting some of the homeless, turned on the waterwoks and tried to appear humbled and empathetic. Knowing this guy and bet it was all for show and instant gratification. Beware of both that reside on the 9th floor!

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