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In that connection we'll cut straight to the chase, and incorporate Ms. Francis' eye-opening prefatory lead paragraphs. Read up, folks:
Please read the attached. I was troubled to learn yesterday that the Weber County Commissioners are wrapping up negotiations with Summit to float a $17 million bond to pay for water and road infrastructure for Summit. They have been proceeding with these plans during closed door meetings.You can dive into OVF's full expose' "attachment" here:
I would ask the county put these plans on hold until the details can be viewed and discussed publically, though, legally, from what Commissioner Zogmaister reported to me, there is no requirement for the county to consider public input.
Please help in stopping these plans until they can be adequately aired and analyzed.
I am hoping that adequate public calls and clamor for a hold on these plans would be effective in derailing the bond agreement between Summit and the County, again, at least until details can be publically scrutinized, since the tax payers are ultimately liable for the repayment of the $17 million.
- Shanna
What the Summit people and our County Commissioners seem to have "quietly" cobbled together is a plan for the issuance of a revenue bond, (procedurally distinguishable from a general obligation [GO] bond ), in which former circumstance, and unlike a GO Bond transaction, the County Commission would neither be legally obligated to hold any public hearings nor to put the question to a public vote, as Ms. Zogmaister less than skillfully tried to explain in Ms. Francis' article above.
While we don't yet know enough about this proposed action to reasonably conclude that this proposal would necessarily be a bad deal for Weber County taxpayers, we are concerned about the speed and stealth by which our elected Weber County Commission representatives are ushering this matter to the Commission front-burner, without even so much as a murmur of public input. Therefore we're going to go along with Ms. Francis' reasonable suggestion, and will strongly urge our Weber County Forum readers to contact our County Commissioners, to politely request that they voluntarily schedule at least one formal public information session in the Commission Chamber, and to accordingly put the ultimate decision on this matter over on the Commission calender for at least a few more weeks.
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| Bell, Zogmaister & Gibson |
"Sunshine is the best disinfectant for the infection of secretive Big Government," as the old saying goes; so we strongly urge our readers to contact Commissioners Bell, Gibson and Zogmeister and ask that they peel back the commission cloak of secrecy and arrogance and do what in their hearts they have to know is right, i.e., "let the cleansing sunshine in."
In that connection, here's our handy-dandy County Commission contact link:
Please don't dally on this, O Gentle Readers, as this matter comes up on the Commission agenda for 10:00 a.m. this coming Tuesday, March 26:
Why not click the link, compose a [polite] note and press "send," folks? Can't hurt; might even help.
P.S.: A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat to Ogden Valley Forum for flushing out and single-handedly bringing this story right out in the open.
Update 3/24/13 5:05 p.m.: There's more information breaking in this fast-developing story, whereby Ogden Vally Forum an hour ago provided some interesting new information about the exact nature of the proposed new bonding, along with an announcement that the Summit owner/developer group has now scheduled a public Town Meeting, at Pineview Lodge for 7 p.m. tomorrow, Monday, March 25:
By way of overview, it turns out that the proposed bonding will involve assessment bonds, a subset of the general term revenue bonds, which we discussed above.
We won't speculate as to whether the purpose of this meeting is to merely clarify bonding proposal details, apply a last-minute citizen sales pitch, something in-between, or "all of the above." But one thing's for certain: we'd love to find out what does transpire at that meeting. So we'll accordingly offer our invitation to anyone who sits in on this public event, to visit WCF after adjournment, and chime in with the full lowdown.
