As a followup to our July 29 and July 31 WCF articles, wherein Dan Schroeder reported on the inexorable progress of the Ogden City Administration toward $18 million in new water and sewer infrastructure bonding, we'll provide a quick heads-up regarding tonight's Ogden City Council work session, where the council will "Discuss Various Options Proposed for Bonding," as more particularly set forth as the last item in tonight's Council Packet. Here's a screenshot of the series of water utility "options" which will be discussed tonight, with the Administration's preference prominently highlighted in yellow, presumably to keep our City Council on the legislative "straight and narrow," we suppose:
And here are the Administration's suggested parameters for the sewer bonding:
So amidst all the talk about financing some portion of our water and sewer utility improvement expenses from the $28 or so million we have sitting in the bank, drawing a measly 1% interest, the Administration continues to push for bonding the "whole $18,921,773 enchilada," at an interest rate which even our esteemed "financial advisor," Lewis, Young, Robertson, and Burningham, "estimates" could be as high as 6%.
Although these proposed bonding matters have indeed been set for additional public discussion for August 20, having observed the council's aggravating pattern of making their decisions at the "work session level," we do express our concern that a council majority will already have their minds made up even before Ogden lumpencitizens have enjoyed the "formal" opportunity to chime in on the issue.
There's no word whether Dan S. will be available for live blogging tonight; but we'll be keeping a close eye on the results of tonight's work session in any event, particularly in view of the ongoing 2013 election, wherein we have the strong sense that the financial prudence of these current bonding proposals could very well develop into an important campaign issue.
Update 8/6/13 5:59 p.m.: Dan Schroeder is now live-blogging from tonight's Ogden City Council Work Session! Click "Comments" to read Dan's real-time posts.
Update 8/7/13 6:30 a.m.: A public hearing on the bonds has been set by the City Council for August 20.
