Thanks to Friday's timely heads up from former Ogden City Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske, we were forewarned that a Standard-Examiner Godfrey Administration "retrospective" was coming up; and lo and behold, it's right there at the top of the S-E front page, under Mr. Schwebke's byline this morning:
We'd expected a whitewash; and it's a whitewash that we got. File this story under "Puff Pieces" or "Alternate Reality Department," folks.
Although we hardly know where to start, we'll hit a few of the low points:
1) The Gondola(s)/ Mt. Ogden Park Fiasco. Weber County Forum political wonks will well remember the five year municipal "civil war" over Boss Godfrey's gondola obsession, which split our community down the middle, over Godfrey's plan to sell our crown jewel Mt. Ogden Park to finance a couple of gondolas to serve Mr. Peterson's hopelessly ill-conceived (proposed) Malan's Basin Ski Resort. In a marvel of historical revisionism, Mr. Schwebke spruces up Ogden City history this morning and lets Godfrey get away with this throwaway quote: "When it became apparent there was not going to be a proposal from him (Peterson), we backed away." WCF readers will of course not need to be reminded of the true reasons that Godfrey at least publicly dumped his gondola obsession on the eve of the 2007 Municipal Election campaign kickoff, i.e., flagging job approval numbers and a gondola project which was politically toxic in and of itself.
2) The Junction Money Pit. In truly mind numbing disregard for the truth, Schwebke allows Mr. Godfrey to "re-frame" the downtown Junction Project, a boondoggle which required a full bond re-financing in 2009, but which even today costs the Ogden taxpayers upwards of $600 grand per year in public subsidies. This project was originally billed as one which "wouldn't cost the taxpayers a red cent," we note in retrospect. In any scenario other than the upside-down alternate Godfreyite universe, this project would be recognized for exactly what it is, a gigantic economic flop.
3) The 2007 Ogden Municipal Election. Mr. Schwebke breezes through Godfrey's 2007 re-election with this: "In 2007, running on a platform of reduced crime and increased economic development, Godfrey won a third term by defeating challenger City Councilwoman Susan Van Hooser." That's it.
And here's at least some of what Mr. Schwebke leaves out, concerning the totally messed up 2007 election:
- The Envision Ogden scandal, which exposed levels of political corruption heretofore never seen in Ogden politics, including The Ogden Salomon Center 2007 "Sneak Preview" event, which was largely instrumental in generating sufficient Godfreyite "under the table" political slush funds to bankroll a whole separate political scandal, i.e., The FNURE money laundering scandal, the acrid smoke from which still hasn't cleared yet.
- The Godfreyite 2007 voter suppression effort, conducted by Godfrey acolyte Blake Fowers, who gummed up the 2007 election works by issuing a "blanket" challenge to "140-odd" Ogden voters. This one got so bad that even the normally gutless Utah ACLU chimed in with a report stating that Godfreyite misconduct "marred" the 2007 mayoral election.
- And who among our gentle readers can forget the sheer idiocy of the 2007 Lawn Sign Wars, which ultimately resulted in Godfrey Lieutenent Bobby "Short Deck" Geiger's criminal conviction?
4) Godfrey's Secret Gondola Study. And in closing, here's another memorable Godfrey administration moment in time, (which Mr. Schwebke also forgot to mention), which nicely illustrates Boss Godfrey's mendacity and complete disregard for our City Council's role as the City's co-equal government branch. Take a little trip down memory lane folks, and recall the time Godfrey tried to hide and misappropriate a $250 thousand Federal Transportation grant from the Ogden City Council, and then got caught red-handed in a highly-incriminating GRAMA produced email paper trail, like the proverbial kid with his hand in the cookie jar.
That's it for now, O Gentle Ones, although we do realize we haven't even scratched the surface in our own Boss Godfrey Retrospective.
Time's a ticking however, WCF readers, so we'll hit the "publish" button now, and rely upon our Gentle WCF Readers to fill in the other parts that we left out.
