Attention Ogden City citizens. Here's a heads-up concerning possibly the most important Ogden City Council meeting yet this year, about which we provide the following information gleaned from this February 29, 2012 News Advisory, which is posted on the Ogden City website:
On Tuesday, March 6, 2012, the Ogden City Council will hold a Fact Finding Work Session to discuss the water and sewer utility rate study that is currently underway.View Tuesday evening's full Council Packet here:
This Fact Finding session is designed as a forum for education and public input. Three presentations will be given to provide background information and describe the considerations being made as part of this study:At the conclusion of the presentations, citizens will have the opportunity to express their ideas and views, with comments being limited to three (3) minutes. Comment cards will also be available, [Emphasis added].
- Jay Lowder, Ogden City Public Services Director, and Justin Anderson, Ogden City Engineer, will describe completed and future projects that address the City’s water and sewer infrastructure needs
- Cody Deeter of Lewis, Young, Robertson & Burningham, will provide a brief overview of the guiding financial principles for the rate study
- Glenn Symes, Ogden City Council Policy Analyst, will discuss the results of the preliminary survey and policy considerations related to the study
Having reviewed the packet, we're uneasy about one element of Tuesday night's discussion which seems to have been "glossed over":
February 21, 2012Specifically, this item appears to refer to proposed water infrastructure improvements and an associated 55% water rate increase which we discussed here on Weber County Forum on 2/22/12:
A work session was held to review preliminary analysis of revenue sufficiency for the water utility. Several general scenarios were presented to the Council for the funding of capital projects included in the proposed capital improvements plan and the proposed culinary water master plan.
As Ogden City water users are well aware, Ogden's water rates are already higher than those of virtually all other northern Utah cities; and now our water consultants are setting the stage to soak water rate payers even more?
As one wary WCF reader commented beneath the upper-linked WCF story, which pretty much dropped in outta the blue...
Just a year ago, the city had lots of extra money on this water bonding fiasco, due to falling interest rates.We're not sure the situation's quite so dire as that... but on the other hand, with Ogden City BIG GUMMINT, you really never do know exactly what Boss Godfrey's residual "A" Team has up its sleeve, until you find out "the hard way," no?
Today, they need twice as much money, according to their corrupt consultants.
It's the developers who are driving this show.
They want the pipes and tanks laid in, so the bench can be bulldozed and condo'd out on the cheap.
Simple.
Although it's been relatively quiet on the Ogden City government front since our new mayoral administration was installed, now's no time for we fiscally-prudent Ogden City lumpencitizens to let down our guard, don'tcha think?
With that in mind we encourage all steely-eyed Ogden City citizens to mark their calendars and show up at Tuesday night's meeting, trusty torches and pitchforks in hand.
It ain't every day that the Council gives Council Work Session attendees three minutes of "floor time." Let's not let 'em down folks. Let's pack the council chambers and give our city government elected representatives a real ear-full.
Beleguered Ogden water rate payers "petition" their governmentThe Meeting starts at 6:00 sharp. Hoping to see you all there and then.
We'll leave the lower comments section open of course, for anyone who'd like to comment, before, during or after Tuesday night's meeting.
Update 3/6/12 6:05 p.m.: Dan Schroeder is now live blogging from tonight's Council Work Session.
Update 3/7/12 7:02 a.m.: The Standard is carrying a story this morning on this topic, with this Mitch Shaw piece, reporting that "water rates could increase by as much as 45 percent over the next 10 years and 22 percent in the next three years, to pay for bonds issued to fund the needed water and sewer infrastructure projects":
Mr. Shaw needs to check his math, btw. Doing the calculations, the proposed water rates increase actually works out at the originally stated 55%, taking into account compounding interest, which is an element that Mr. Shaw apparently neglected.
Just to be sure we've touched all the bases, here are some helpful graphs, prepared earlier by Dan Schroeder, and used in last night's 3-minute Council presentation:
That's it for now, folks.
