As a followup to Friday's City Council meeting heads-up, we'll post another reminder of tonight's City Council/RDA sessions, wherein our city legislative body appears poised to consider and/or approve the following actions, among other things:
- Sell developer Kevin Garn 1.75 acres of prime downtown property for $750,000, a significant discount to its actual value.
- Give him $550,000 (in the form of a grant), thereby reducing the developer's cost to only $200,000.
- Finance both his purchase price on the property and provide him with some $350,000 of start-up capital, by lending him $550,000 at a low 4% interest.
- Help him secure federal loans to develop the hotel, all at low interest rates and possibly with on-recourse to developer.
- Appoint a new Chief Administrative Officer to replace John Patterson, under circumstances which would entitle the appointee to six months severance pay if the future mayor wants to hire someone else instead.
- Formalize the "sweetheart deal" turnover of the 21st Street pond, under circumstances that reek of cronyism.
- 08/02 City Council Work Session
- 08/02 City Council Regular Session
- 08/02 City Council-RDA Special Session
"Anyone on the City Council that goes along with this deal deserves to be removed from office at the next election and certainly should not be considered for the office of mayor," Gentle Reader Disgusted aptly suggests.
We'll have to concede that regular contributor Disgusted makes a very good point. It seems to us too, that in the waning days of the Godfrey Administration, city funds and property are flying out the door to administration cronies at astonishing bargain basement rates and prices. At the very least, it seems to us, we would hope that all council members will give each of these proposals serious deliberation, in the context of determining whether these proposals are in the best interests of Ogden City.
We'll leave the lights on for any WCF readers who might plan to attend tonight's meetings, of course, to provide our readers a narrative of tonight's Council/RDA antics.
Update 8/3/11 7:40 a.m.: The Standard carries a post-meeting story this morning, focusing upon Goode Ski Company's so-called "stewardship" of the 21st Street Pond:
No word yet on the Kevin Garn "Hot Tub Hotel" development agreement/financing outcome. Perhaps one of our readers can soon provide the low-down on that.
Update 8/3/11 2:00 p.m.: Lo and behold, and in answer to our above question... we just talked with one trusted Emerald City City Hall insider; and we are now informed that the fiscally-conservative Amy Wicks was the only City Council member who drew a line in the sand, and voted against the ridiculous Kevin Garn Hot Tub Hotel "giveaway," which was otherwise approved by the Godfrey-compliant council with an exceedingly disappointing 6-1 vote.
Update 8/4/11 9:18 a.m. (per Dan S.): Here's the S-E's article on the Johnson confirmation:
Of course, the paper made no attempt to determine how much latitude the council had in this decision, e.g., whether an interim appointment would have been possible.
The council vote was unanimous, by the way.
Update 8/4/11 3:25 p.m. (per Bob Becker): "There is an interesting discussion of the CAO appointment going on over on the SE site, with Councilwoman Wicks participating":
