Standard-Examiner: Two Ogden City Council Candidates Disqualified

Councilman Bart Blair: The "luckiest man in Ogden City politics"

For the sake of Ogden City political wonks who haven't yet heard the disturbing news, we'll kickstart today's discussion with a short report on yesterday's blockbuster development, which has tipped Tuesday's 2013 Ogden Municipal election on its ear. In a City election race which had so far been uncharacteristically quiet, wherein the only palpable issue dividing council candidates seemed to revolve around whether Ogden residents ought to be permitted to raise chickens in their back yards, the Standard-Examiner suddenly upset the apple-cart early yesterday afternoon, with this blockbuster breaking story, which is sure to send the tongues of Ogden lumpencitizens wagging for the remaining three days remaining prior to Tuesday's election, and probably far beyond:

• Two Ogden city council candidates disqualified

That's right, folks. Muncipal Ward 1 council candidate Pamela Shupe Stevens and At-large Seat "B" candidate Courtney Jon White have been disqualified from their respective races, due to their failures to file their third set of financial disclosures with the Ogden City Recorders Office by the required October 29, 2013 5:00 p.m. deadline. Barring last-minute legal action by either of these candidates (and Mr. White informed your blogmeister yesterday afternoon that he planned to take no such action),  each of these candidates will have their names removed from your Tuesday ballots, and any votes that have been already cast either by early voting, or via absentee ballots, will remain uncounted.

As a result,  Muncipal Ward1 incumbent Neil K. Garner and At-large "B" incumbent Bart Blair will cruise to easy Tuesday victories by default, thanks to an Ogden City administrative decision to enforce the applicable requirements of Utah statutory and "controlling" case law, which, read together, require strict adherence to the financial disclosure reporting deadlines provided under the Utah Municipal Code:

• Title 10 Chapter 3 Section 208 - Campaign finance disclosure in municipal election
• PUGH v. DRAPER CITY - Utah Suprem Court (2005)

This outcome makes incumbent Bart Blair the "luckiest man in Ogden City politics," of course, as he follows up his 2009 "default" council race victory over the bumbling David Phipps, with a 2013 default victory over this year's nominee for the title "unluckiet man in Ogden politics," i.e., Courtney White.

And this outcome does not bode well for our Ogden City Council for the upcoming 2014-16 Council wethinks, as these two council incumbents again effortlessly accede to the council dais, whilst owing their very offices to the Mike Caldwell administration, the same administration who'll be seeking their support for the next two years or more.  Whether the Caldwell administration had any actual legal discretion in enforcing the applicable rules we won't speculate, although we will conjecture that this current unfortunate situation will not enhance the trust of the Ogden lumpencitizens for a council which is suspected by some disgruntled Ogden citizens of already being overly deferential (shall we say?) to the Mayor's Office.

That's the story as it stands this morning, O Gentle Ones.

Special thanks to WCF readers Dan S. and  Actuary321 for helping us round up the above-linked Utah  statutory and court citations.

So who'll be the first to offer their thoughts on "the meaning of all this?"