Ogden Administration Uses Tax Dollars to Deceive Citizens

Yet another commentary that the Standard-Examiner refused to print

By Dan Schroeder

This month marks the third anniversary of an audacious fraud carried out by the Ogden City administration, paid for by Ogden City taxpayers.

In July 2007, the administration published and mailed a utility bill insert with an article loudly proclaiming that The Junction was “a good investment”. That’s a matter of opinion, of course, but the article based its claim on a fraudulent statement of the facts.

The article said the city’s “original investment” in The Junction was merely the $6 million purchase price for the property, never mentioning the additional costs of tearing down the old mall, building the Salomon Center, and so on. In fact, the city had to borrow nearly $40 million to finance The Junction, and will eventually have to pay back all of that, plus interest.

The article also “projected” that The Junction would generate over $2 million in property tax during 2007, when in fact it generated less than $150,000. This factor-of-14 error was not mere over-optimism. By July 2007 the assessed values of all the Junction parcels were known, and the actual 2007 property tax could easily have been calculated.

Finally, the article projected more than $3.2 million in Junction property tax for 2010. The actual property tax this year will be very close to $1 million. Basically, the article’s unnamed author assumed that the two undeveloped parcels at The Junction would each end up being worth as much as all the rest of The Junction put together. Even in the best economic times, that never would have happened.

A similar article making some of the same outrageous claims was published as a taxpayer-funded advertisement in the Standard-Examiner on May 31, 2007.

Again, whether The Junction is actually a good investment is a matter of opinion. Perhaps it has increased the values of nearby properties, or perhaps its intangible benefits outweigh its high cost. But the numbers that the administration used to make its case were fraudulent.

Unfortunately, this is not the only example of the administration’s use of publicly funded communications to deceive citizens.

Just two months later, in September 2007, the administration published a utility bill insert claiming that Ogden’s violent crime rate had decreased 43% between 1999 and 2006. The same claim appeared in a taxpayer-funded Standard-Examiner advertisement on August 30. When the state and federal governments later published statistics that were supposedly based on the same data, they showed no significant change in the violent crime rate.

We eventually learned the reasons for the discrepancy. First, the administration was inflating the 1999 crime rate by using an absurdly low population estimate, left over from the 1990 census. And second, the administration had inexplicably stopped including some categories of crimes in the statistics starting in 2005, even though those categories were included through 2004.

It can hardly be a coincidence that all of these dishonest communications appeared during Mayor Godfrey’s 2007 reelection campaign. And in fact, some of the same deceptions were copied directly into the mayor’s campaign mailings. Sadly, Americans have grown accustomed to politicians telling lies in campaign advertisements. But it’s a much bigger problem when they spend public tax dollars to broadcast those lies on the government’s behalf.

During the 2009 election season we saw more inappropriate uses of taxpayer-funded communications for electioneering. First the administration used the city’s public web site to prominently broadcast a verbal attack by the mayor on an incumbent City Council member who was running for reelection. Then the mayor’s office attempted to use Channel 17 to dictate the time, place, and format of a series of debates between City Council candidates.

State and local laws prohibit government officials from using public resources for political purposes. Whether these laws apply to the cases I’ve described, however, is probably open to interpretation. It’s up to the city attorney to interpret such laws, and the city attorney answers to the mayor. In fact, Ogden’s city attorney has repeatedly interpreted these very same laws to the mayor’s advantage, and to the disadvantage of his opponents.

Could the laws be clarified to reduce the city attorney’s discretion? Perhaps this type of abuse will eventually get the Utah Legislature’s attention, but I’m not holding my breath.

A better law at the local level might seem easier, but it may not be. Ogden’s City Council has adopted procedures that make it virtually impossible to pass an ordinance without the blessing of the city attorney. Again, the city attorney answers to the mayor.

The 2011 campaign season is now only a year away. If we want better laws, now is the time to pass them--before we know who the candidates will be. I hope the Ogden City Council will make this issue a priority and crack down on the unethical use of taxpayer-funded communications.

Addendum: This commentary was submitted to the Standard-Examiner earlier this month. A few days later I received a response from editorial page editor Doug Gibson indicating that it would not be published, but inviting me to submit a much shorter version as a letter to the editor. In response to a further inquiry, Mr. Gibson explained: “I don’t think the topic is fresh enough. It has been rehashed many times, including on your blog.”

How are we to interpret Mr. Gibson’s explanation? True, the topics in my commentary have been discussed many times here on Weber County Forum, and even mentioned in passing on my personal blog. But the majority of this content has never been mentioned at all in the Standard-Examiner. Are we to understand that thoroughly discussing a topic on a blog disqualifies that topic from being discussed in any detail in the local newspaper? That seems to be what Mr. Gibson is saying.

But I don’t think he’s telling the whole truth. Before 2007, the Standard-Examiner printed every guest commentary I submitted (I think there were about four). Yet during the last three years I’ve submitted seven guest commentaries, and they’ve rejected all but two. The two that they printed steered clear of any direct statements about Mayor Godfrey; the five that they rejected all pointed out facts about the mayor that the Standard-Examiner has downplayed or ignored.

Added Addendum: Now that the 2010 property assessments are available, here’s an updated version of the Junction property tax graph that I published last year:

Standard-Examiner: Candidates' Final Reports Filed

One regular WCF contributor aptly suggests that the morning's Std-Ex lead "misses the point"

The Standard-Examiner reports this morning that the final 2009 Ogden City Municipal Election financial disclosure reports are now on file with the City Recorder's Office:

• Candidates' financial reports filed

For those readers who'd like to fully peruse these newly submitted (12/3/09) campaign finance disclosure statements, we've consolidated them with all previously filed statements for permanent online display here:

• 2009 Ogden City Municipal Election Financial Disclosure Reports

To kickstart this morning's discussion, we'll incorporate some additional material submitted to us by regular Weber County Forum contributor Dan Schroeder earlier this morning, including the following thoughtful analysis, which nicely puts these campaign disclosure statements into real-world context:

LEDE MISSES THE POINT

The lede for this story should have been that none of the candidates had large funding advantages over their opponents. This is news because it's a radical change from just two years ago, when the Lifty candidates (Godfrey, Johnson, Eccles, and Petersen) out-raised and out-spent their opponents by factors ranging from 2 to 6. This year the Lifties couldn't rely so much on the Godfrey machine to raise their campaign funds, as Envision Ogden did for Johnson and Eccles in 2007. Moreover, they couldn't rely too heavily on any of their deep-pocket contributors, since contributions are now limited to $1500 per donor. The Smarties, for their part, seem to have finally realized that it takes $10k to run a serious at-large Ogden City Council campaign; the days when you could win without even putting up yard signs are long gone.

The article does point out several of the interesting details of the candidates' finances. Most remarkable is the Hains $5650 deficit, which is presumably just another way of saying that he donated (or loaned) that much to his own campaign. The various contributions from PACs, corporations, and elected officials are also noteworthy.

But the article is curiously inconsistent about whose large contributions are mentioned and whose aren't. The two significant omissions are Hains and Phipps. (Dean received no new large contributions since his last report.) Hains received $1500 from The Boyer Company, $1479 from a new PAC called Forward Ogden (operated by Blain Johnson and Royal Eccles, according to the Lt. Governor's web site), and $500 from the Utah Apartment Association. Hains also received $1500 from the Utah Association of Realtors which he disclosed in late October, but which the Standard-Examiner has yet to report; this contribution is especially newsworthy because Hains had already received $1500 from the UAR's local affiliate so it was a likely violation of the $1500 per-donor limit. Phipps received $1500 from Steve Waldrip of Eden, which he should have disclosed before the election but apparently didn't.

Other noteworthy details: Dean's campaign was funded mostly by Dean himself. Garcia and Garner each spent over $14 per vote, thanks to the low voter turnout in their ward.

As an added bonus, Dan has compiled and submitted this handy table, to conveniently allow our readers to make quick comparisons at a glance. (Click to enlarge image):


A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat to Professor Schroeder for his special effort in assisting in the interpretion of the consolidated campaign financial disclosure data this morning.

All other WCF readers are invited to chime in with their own observations, theories and interpretations, of course.

Ooops! 3 Vacant Ogden Buildings NOT Ready

Let us hope that at least the news editors of the SE understand now just how easily they were played by the administration last month

By Curmudgeon

Have to hand it to the Standard-Examiner for putting on public display today the extent to which it got royally played by the Godfrey administration last month. You'd think the editors would be embarrassed:

• 3 vacant Ogden buildings not ready

If you recall, a couple of weeks before the Council election [in which Mayor Godfrey was strongly backing two candidates for open seats], the SE reported that the Mayor had announced that in a month or so [after the election] he hoped to announce that three new manufacturers' outlet stores would open on Washington Blvd. just across from The Junction. Or maybe only one. In any case, the city said it would not name the companies. This the SE inexplicably treated as a major news story, not as the Administration's attempt to run up support for its candidates in the approaching election. There really was no actual news in the story at all [Mayor announcing that he hoped to announce later three stores, or maybe one, none of which he would name, were coming to Ogden.]

Almost a month has now passed. The election is over. And do we see this morning that the mayor has announced what the SE dutifully reported three weeks ago that he announced that he hoped to announce?

Ah.... no. Today Mr. Schwebke reports there will be no announcement about three companies ---or maybe one --- opening outlet stores on Washington this year. Because the buildings the city is rehabbing for them won't be ready. We're told by administration sporkesmen that the Mayor's office had hoped the stores would be open for the Christmas shopping season, but, sadly, the buildings won't be ready in time.

So, we're supposed to believe that four weeks ago, the Administration expected the stores to be leased, stocked and open for the Christmas selling season [which begins in two weeks], but that now, only four weeks later, the administration has suddenly realized that not only will the stores not be leased and open for the Christmas selling season, they won't be ready for occupancy until sometime next year. Oooops! Sorry 'bout that.

Well, is the Godfrey administration at least willing tell us what stores have not signed the leases we were told the Mayor hoped to announce had been signed by now? Ah... no. In fact, now we're told there's no rush to sign leases or to announce the companies [allegedly] involved since the stores won't be ready for occupancy until sometime next year anyway. Maybe.

Let us hope that at least the news editors of the SE understand now just how easily they were played by the administration last month, and that they will be reluctant to run "Mayor announces he expects to announce" stories in the future.

Tuesday Morning Emerald City News Roundup

More on Friday's Powdervillian fundraiser, a post-election editorial critique, and a Standard-Examiner website outage update

Three Standard-Examiner items worthy of note this morning. We'll briefly reel them off one by one:

1) Last week we provided a heads-up about the latest development in the Powder Mountain standoff, a fundraising event (music, dinner and melodrama) at Ogden's Union Station for this coming Friday, November 13. This morning, the SE generously carries its own promotional writeup too:

• Event to benefit resort town fight

Interestingly, the SE's Di Lewis reports that "more than a third of those who've already bought tickets actually can't attend, so they redonated the tickets to be sold again." In this connection we do hope a few of our readers will have the available time on their calenders to make this event. If not however, why not throw in a donation via the contact info supplied in this morning's story?

Donations may be made or tickets purchased from Chelse Maughan at (801) 745-4627 or chelse21@hotmail.com, or from Valley Market and Eden Coffee and Cocoa.

2) Apparently we're not the only ones who believe the taxpayer's of Ogden got burned when we farmed out the counting of last Tuesday's 2009 municipal election ballots to the Weber County Election Department for a tidy $60 thousand fee. From this morning's SE editorial:

But then we come to Ogden, where slightly more than 6,200 ballots were cast for four city council seats. They were high-profile races. Eager for the results we waited ... and waited ... and waited ... and waited ... and waited ... On Wednesday, around 2:30 a.m. the city was finally able to post results. That's just pathetic. Unfortunately, it's not the first time Ogden election counting has trailed most of the Top of Utah. We hope this isn't a trend. [...]
Frankly, a few pairs of eyes might have counted 6,232 ballots before the county released results. The county needs to deliver quality service to Ogden, and on election night it didn't.

Check out the full editorial here:

• OUR VIEW: Election counting follies

3) And for those who've been frustrated during the past week over the poor performance of the SE's Live! website, the Standard-Examiner provides this:

• Hardware failure caused StandardNet Web site outage

As the SE editors remarked in connection with item #2 above, "we hope this isn't a trend."

That's it for now gentle readers, such as it is. Spout off on any of the topics above... or treat this as an open topic thread.

Special Notice to the Voters of Ogden's Ward 1

Two days remain to validate twelve Ward 1 provisional ballots

This morning we have a quick heads-up for the voters in Ogden City Ward 1. As everyone knows, council incumbent Jesse Garcia was narrowly edged out by Godfreyite challenger Neil Garner by a preliminary vote tally of 381-363, with 12 provisional ballots still remaining uncounted. With the slim existing margin of 18 votes, Councilman Garcia could force a mandatory full vote recount, if he can pick up at least 10 of the provisionals. In view of the comedy of errors reportedly occurring in the election counting room during the wee hours of Wednesday morning, common sense would demand a courtesy recount; but unfortunately The Law demands neither common sense nor courtesy.

If you are a Ward 1 voter who was issued a provisional ballot on election day, we'd like to remind each of you to get down to the City Recorder's office within the next two days, to furnish the recorder with proper proof of residency, in order to validate your provisional ballot. If you know another voter in Ward 1 who was issued a provisional ballot, please pass this information and reminder on to them.

These ballots will be tossed out uncounted on November 12, if the they're not properly validated prior to the November 12 deadline.

As one gentle reader remarked in one eye opening down-page article comment, "If Garner's lead holds, it's a sad day for the people of Ward 1 and for Ogden."

Yeah, we know its a long shot, with an 18 vote gap, and only 12 provisionals remaining uncounted. On the bright side, however, we'll note that there remain twelve Ward 1 voters who pack a heck of a lot of political clout at this juncture. These folks already made the effort to travel to their polling places to cast their votes; and we hope they'll also exert whatever extra effort is necessary to ensure that the ballots they cast are actually counted.

Thursday Morning Open Topic Thread

A couple of non-red meat items to kick off the day's discussion

There's not much in the way of "red meat" news in Emerald City this morning, so we thought it might be a good idea to set up an open topic thread. But first, here are a couple of "white meat" items worthy of note, hopefully to get some reader discussion going:

1) Gentle reader OgdenLover helpfully shines the spotlight on Kevin Baumgartner's online letter to the Standard-Examiner editors in a comment section down below, wherein Mr. Baumgartner calls upon Boss Godfrey "to make room for new volunteers, fresh ideas, and give everyone an opportunity to serve our community..." and to tender his resignation... as Godfrey enters his tenth year of "service" to our community:

• Mayor Godfrey has been here a long time

What's good for the goose is good for the gander... right? Still... we guess that we're not going to hold our breath for a man like Godfrey -- a man of highly questionable public morals and ethics -- to abide by his own self-professed principles, such as they are.

2) For those who aren't thoroughly burned out on discussion of our 2009 Emerald City election, this morning's Standard-Examiner focuses of one remaining loose end, the Ward 1 Council race. With 18 votes separating incumbent councilman Garcia and the interim top vote getter Neil Garner, this item was the headline story in the top of the "Top of Utah Section" this morning:

• Garcia not ready to concede

We can't say we blame Garcia for his unwillingness to summarily throw in the towel. With 12 ballots still uncounted, a mere 8 more votes would force a complete recount in that Ward. And judging from the comedy of errors reportedly occurring in the Weber County election office counting room on Wednesday morning, a full recount, both on general principles, and under the particular circumstances, looks like a complete "no-brainer" to us.

In this connection a couple of tangential practical questions leap out at us:

For instance, how long would it take and how much would it cost to employ, say three human beings, to do a manual recount of 741 Ward 1 votes?

And here's something to ponder, we think: Have we as a society become over-reliant on machines? With a reported $60 thousand fee to machine-count 6,000 or so ballots for the full election, did the citizens of Ogden even come close to getting their money's worth? We're betting we could have hired May Smith's fourth grade class to have done the whole job for as little as a dime per ballot.

The obvious answers to our queries also leap out at us.

Discuss the above suggested topics, or bring up a subject all your own. It matters not what we discuss here on Weber County Forum for the rest of the day, but for heck's sake, let's get on-board and discuss something.

The near dead silence on this morning's board is getting on our nerves, dang it!

2009 Ogden City Municipal Election Results

Real-time vote tallies delivered to our readers through the technological marvel of electrons zipping along through little wires

As promised in today's earlier article, and as we've done every year since the founding of Weber County Forum in 2005, we're once again delighted to provide a real-time feed from the Ogden City Recorder's ballot counting room, through the modern technological marvel of electrons zipping along through little wires. In that connection, Here's the link to the Ogden City Recorder's most excellent online election results reporting site:

• 2009 Municipal General Election Real-time Tally

Expect this feature to be at least semi-functional upon closure of Ogden polling places around 8:00 p.m., although as we learned during the reporting on last September's Primary Election, the so-called "live" vote tallies may be subject to annoying human-caused lags and delays.

Once again, we've set up this link to open a new browser window, thus enabling our readers to click back and forth between the Ogden IT Department's most excellent IT work product... and the ever-savvy remarks which we expect to emerge in the comments section beneath this article.

While we're waiting for Ogden City Recorder Cindi Mansell's real-time/online scoreboard to light up, we'll invite our ever savvy readers to indulge in a little WCF style pre-vote-count palaver.

The floor's open O Gentle Ones.

Exciting, ainnit?

Who will be the first to comment?

Update 11/4/09 2:44 a.m.: Here's the final tally and a thumbnail analysis per gentle reader night owl, who stayed up late to compile the important data:

All districts have reported and the results are:

Van Hooser 3577
Hains 2551

Stephens 808
Dean 561

Garner 381
Garcia 363

Blair 4670

Can't tell whether these numbers might still change tonight, but the only outcome that seems potentially in doubt is the Garner-Garcia race.

So what say our other WCF readers about all this?

2009 Ogden Municipal Election post-count aftermath(?):

Remember the old ax... "a picture is worth a thousand words..."

Once again we pose the query: What say our other WCF readers about all this?

Election Day: The Polls Are Open

A rare opportunity to elect a veto-proof majority of fiscally conservative council grownups

Here we go folks. Our sidebar countdown clock has clicked down to zero. The glorious day we've all been anxiously awaiting has now arrived. Your neighborhood polling places will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; and with a little diligence on our part... and if all goes well, we Emerald City lumpencitizens will show up en masse, repeat the same type of grass roots sweep we accomplished in the last non-mayoral municipal election in 2005, and elect a new slate of fiscally conservative grownups to reinforce the sensible council majority we already have.

With strong independent candidates like Bart Blair, Jesse Garcia, Doug Stephens and Susan Van Hooser on the ballot, we have an opportunity for the first time ever to elect a veto-proof majority to our already strong council. This is something we'll definitely need during the next two years, as our Big Spending Mayoral Administration cranks up its anticipated full court press to implement the long list of yet-undelivered projects Boss Godfrey promised his cash contributor cronies since at least as far back as 2007.

Once again, we strongly endorse Blair, Garcia, Stephens and Van Hooser. With community-minded citizens like these on the council, there's little danger that our wonderful town will be sold down the river to the greed-minded, fly-by-night real estate development hustlers, who've once again invested so many thousands of dollars in Boss Godfrey's "Bulldoze the Golf Course and Turn Ogden into a Giant Kiddie Amusement Park Ticket."

In closing, we'll highlight a fantastic photo sent to us yesterday by one our gentle readers. It shows an Ogden City-situated campaign lawnsign planted in the yard of one of our more creative Ogden neighbors. As you head off to the polls this morning (torches and pitchforks in hand,) we hope you'll all etch this image indelibly into your minds:


We'll keep this thread open through the day folks, for election day news and other election-topical updates. If problems arise during today's balloting, we hope our readers will check in with their real-time comments and reports. During the last election, Weber County Forum served as an online clearing-house for information relating to the dirty tricks which were being perpetrated by Godfrey campaign operatives; and we'll be happy to serve the same function again, if necessary, during today's election.

The polls are now open, people!

VOTE!

We'll also set up a separate thread later this evening, by the way (we've preset it to automatically post @ 7:30 p.m.) , with a link to Ogden City Recorder's Office live online vote tallies. In the meantime... the floor is open for your intra-day election comments.

A Few Back-burner Items in Advance of Tomorrow's Municipal Election

The results of our online website ratings poll; and some belated info from Ward 3 candidate Stephens

OK folks. Now that we're on the threshold of tomorrow's critical municipal election, wherein the Emerald City Lumpencitizens are once again compelled to stand up for their conservative fiscal values and important institutions of our community, against an onslaught of greed-head real estate agents, developers, Godfrey Administration BIG SPENDERS and other filthy politico-corporatist trash, there are a few back-burner items that we need to bring to the forefront.

First, we're delighted to release the final result of that "Best Ogden Campaign Website Poll" which we put up in our WCF right sidebar a couple of weeks ago, Here we go:

Here are the final tallies, with 52 votes logged, in voter preference order:

Bart Blair 16 votes (overall vote percentage: 30%)
Jesse Garcia also 16 votes (overall vote percentage: 30%)
Susan Van Hooser 9 votes (overall vote percentage: 17%)
Patrick Dean 7 votes (overall vote percentage: 13%)
Doug Stephens 2 votes (overall vote percentage: 4%)
David Phipps (who's now disqualified) 2 votes (overall vote percentage: 4%)
Neil Garner 1 vote (overall vote percentage: 2%)
Mark "Stinky" Hains 1 vote (overall vote percentage: 2%)

It'll be interesting to correlate tomorrow's actual voter tallies with our readers' ratings of each candidate's website, we think.

And here's something equally interesting. Both Doug Stephens and Neil Garner each received at least one first place vote for their website, even though neither of then actually has a campaign site on the web. In that connection, we contacted Doug Stephens. He confirmed he has NO website, but he did send us this info, which we've incorporated into Doug's WCF Candidate Roster page:

• Information about Doug Stephens Candidate for Ogden City Ward #3

Pretty good informational stuff, we think, from our seasoned Ward 3 incumbent candidate, whom we're strongly endorsing for tomorrow's election.

Two More Strong Election-Oriented Editorial Pieces From the Standard-Examiner

The SE advances a plan to get out the vote; and a regular SE guest contributor delivers a helpful civics lesson

There are two strong editorial pieces in this morning's Standard-Examiner, each of them propounding the laudable theme of "getting out the vote" for tomorrow's Emerald City Municipal Election.

First, the SE editors bemoan the low turnout in last September's northern Utah municipal primary elections, singling out the city of Layton, which generated a turnout "well below 10%." Ogden City voters did even worse, of course, with turnout of only a measly 9%:

• OUR VIEW: Urge others to vote

Yes, fellow lumpencitizens, we can and should do much better than that.

So the Standard has come up with a great idea, we think, an old-fashioned election day phone tree.

Not a bad idea indeed. Yes, gentle readers; we do recommend that you take a little time out of your busy election day tomorrow, to contact your friends and neighbors. And we don't care who these folks vote for, so long as it's Bart Blair, Jesse Garcia, Doug Stephens and Susan Van Hooser.

This morning's SE also features another most excellent "Top of Utah Voices" guest commentary from the ever-savvy Allison Barlow-Hess:

• Vote, but don't forget your identification

Ms. Barlow-Hess has whipped together a fine civics lesson on the importance of participating in the local election process, and for good measure puts the focus on the ethic of regarding the voting franchise as a civic duty rather than a right. But Ogden voters must not skip over this important nuts-and-bolts admonition, offered by Ms. Barlow-Hess:

... "don't forget your identification!"

With our 2007 general election still fresh in our minds, Ogden voters are all still stinging from the memory of the Matthew Godfrey campaign's November 4, 2007 election day dirty tricks, whereby (among other things,) Boss Godfrey operatives submitted blanket voter challenge lists and engaged in other voter suppression efforts which resulted in the issuance of an astounding 700 provisional ballots. Who among our gentle readers can forget the travails of Dorothy Littrell on election day 2007, who was required to make three separate trips to her polling place to finally obtain the issuance of her provisional ballot? We're sure there were others in similar predicaments, of course, who didn't receive publicity; and nobody can be sure either whether Ms. Littrell's vote ever got counted, or how many challenged voters simply walked away from their neighborhood polling-places without voting at all.

In the end, and after a lengthy investigation, the Utah ACLU issued this press release and this blistering 17-page report, with findings that the misconduct of Godfrey's operatives had indeed "marred the 2007 municipal election." Of course by that time the damage had been irreparably done, and there were in truth no available post-election remedies.

Let's play it smart this go-round, Emerald City lumpencitizens. When you show up at the polls tomorrow, (torches and pitchforks in hand,) be sure to be "packing" two forms of ID... at least one with your picture on it.

A word to the wise ought to be sufficient.

Who will be the first to comment?

One Standard-Examiner Editorial Page Our WCF Readers Won't Want to Miss

If we didn't know better, we'd swear the Standard-Examiner is finally in touch with the true sentiments of the lumpencitizens of Emerald City

Fantastic Standard-Examiner editorial page today. We'll award today's editorial page effort a solid "A" grade. On second thought... let's make it an A+:

First, the editorial board rebounds from yesterday's disappointing performance and issues glowing recommendations for the two hands-down best qualified candidates for the two open At-large council seats:

• OUR VIEW: Blair for Ogden council
• OUR VIEW: Van Hooser for Ogden council

Next, the Standard carries this smashingly on-point guest commentary from outgoing Council At-large seat incumbent Dorrene Jeske. Ms. Jeske pulls no punches this morning, lambastes the big spending tendencies of Boss Godfrey and lays blame for council/administration problems (overblown as they are) exactly where it belongs... squarely in the secretive and uncommunicative Godfrey administration's lap:

• Retiring councilwoman: Ogden needs a strong city council

Next in order, well shine the light on these two reader letters, which we'd swear (if we didn't know better) would demonstrate that the SE editorial board is truly in touch with the sentiments of the average Joes and Jills whose taxes pay Emerald City's bills:

Ogden resident Carolyn Becker capably expands upon Councilwoman Jeske's discussion of the bogus "lack of communication" issue, and then makes a strong pitch for the election of independent-minded council candidates:

• Vote for Garcia, Blair and Van Hooser

And WCF readers won't want to miss Ogden resident Harland L. Genta's letter, which draws a strong contrast between the responsiveness of council incumbent Jesse Garcia, and his missing-in-action opponent Neil Garner, with respect to one recent Ward 1 neighborhood incident. Once again Councilman Garcia demonstrates (as he's done so many times in the past) his commitment to dealing with Ward 1 problems directly and decisively, whereas challenger Garner couldn't even be bothered to respond:

• Garcia works to make neighborhood safe

We'd been wondering what kind of Ward 1 councilman Mr. Garner would make; and we do believe SE reader Harland Genta has helpfully provided us a most revealing forecast.

A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat to the Standard-Examiner, for putting together this great editorial page, for publication on the biggest circulation day remaining before Tuesday's election.

That's it for now.

Who will be the first to comment?

Consultant to South Salt Lake: Don't Bond For Market Station -- A Lesson For Ogden City Voters Too

Keeping Ogden from sinking deeper into the debt hole the Godfrey administration has dug for it will depend on the independence of the Council members we elect Tuesday

By Curmudgeon

The SL Trib has a story up this morning which is well worthy of a good close look, as Ogden voters stand poised on the eve of Tuesday's municipal election:

• Consultant to South Salt Lake: Don't Bond For Market Station

It seem a grand development project [mixed condo and retail project --- sound familiar?] planned near a coming street car station has fallen into financial problems. Fortunately for the City of South Salt Lake, the city did not put the taxpayers on the hook as guarantors of the bonds for the project [as Ogden did].

The developer has now asked South Salt Lake to float a $9.5 million dollar bond to buy land from him at the site in order to allow him to pay off most of a $10.5 million dollar debt to America First Credit Union, which is about to foreclose on the loan.

And what did South Salt Lake do? It hired a consultant. [Ogden voters please note: its consultant was not the developer.] And South Salt Lake's independent consultant has told the city not to go into millions in debt to bail out the developer.

The story is well worth reading as an illustration of how competently managed cities handle development without putting the taxpayers' on the hook for millions. And it offers, I think, a good example of why it is important on Tuesday to elect independent council members for whom fiscal responsibility and fiscal conservatism are not empty phrases to be trotted out at election time and then forgotten.

The administration's bad judgment, endorsed by a rubber stamp council six years ago has loaded Ogden down with millions in new debt to bankroll privately owned commercial developments --- we're paying $750,000 a year right now to service the bonds the Mayor assured his rubber-stamp Council the city would never have to pay --- and the Administration wants to offer millions more in public funds to help bankroll a new hotel project at the Junction. Given that, electing council members of proven independence who will not simply become yes-men for the administration's latest multi million dollar obsession is important.

Ms. Van Hooser has proven her independence during her two years previously on the Council. [Her opponent, Mr. Hains, is yet another realtor PAC "yes man" for the Godfrey Gaggle, it seems.] Mr. Garcia has proven his independence in office as well. Mr. Stephens too on key votes has shown the kind of independent judgment Ogden needs on the Council, and he's also demonstrated throughout his tenure a commitment to finding middle ground and workable compromises when such are possible. [They aren't always.]

Keeping Ogden from sinking deeper into the debt hole the Godfrey administration has dug for it will depend on the independence of the Council members we elect Tuesday. I hope voters will keep that firmly in mind on election day.

Once again, take a look at the Trib story here. There is much to be learned from it, I think.

The Gondola-Examiner Issues Its First Two Emerald City Council Endorsements

What a shame that the lumpencitzens can't vote at regular intervals to fill the Standard-Examiner publisher's seat

Three days before the 2009 Ogden City Municipal Election, just as earlier threatened, the Gondola-Examiner finally comes out this morning with its first two Ogden City Council endorsements. It appears to us that the core pro-Godfrey management faction at the Godfrey House Propaganda Organ of old remains alive and well:

• OUR VIEW: Dean for Ogden council
• OUR VIEW: Garner for Ogden council

(Be sure to view the Standard's candidate interview videos, which are embedded in each of the respective pages.)

In making these endorsements, and rejecting two seasoned sitting council incumbents, the Standard appears to be engaging in its own political crapshoot, preferring the "devils they don't know," over the the "devils they do." These endorsements come as no surprise of course. Councilmen Jesse Garcia and Doug Stephens are two conscientious council members who've fairly consistently voted as members of the fiscally conservative council majority. These two have always been an anathema to publisher Lee Carter, and the carpetbagging Suits from Sanduskey, who'd prefer a council majority which would borrow and spend the taxpayers of Ogden into economic oblivion.

What a shame it is, we believe, that the lumpencitzens can't vote at regular intervals to fill the Standard-Examiner publisher's seat. Alas, that's not how the system works.

That's it for now, gentle readers.

Who will be the first to comment?

Is At-Large Seat "A" Council Candidate Mark Hains in Violation Of Ogden City Campaign Finance Disclosure Ordinances?

Hains's own campaign finance reports reveal $3000 in donations from a single political action committee entity

by Dan Schroeder

Lest Mr. Phipps grab all our attention...

There's a very interesting entry in the disclosure form just filed by Mark Hains, a candidate for the Ogden City Council At-large "A" Seat. He reports receiving a $1500 contribution from the Utah Association of Realtors (UAR).

The problem is, he already received $1500 in August from the Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors (NWAR). And according NWAR's own disclosure statement (available from the Lt. Governor's web site), NWAR received 100% of its money from UAR. In other words, NWAR is not an independent organization--it's just the local arm of UAR.

In my opinion, this means that Mr. Hains has actually received $3000 from UAR, in violation of the $1500 contribution limit, Per Ogden City Code Section 1-8-3.

The remedy for such a violation is for Mr. Hains to return the additional money and file an amended disclosure statement. (Please, let's not demand that he be disqualified.)

2009 Emerald City Election Update: A Thoroughly Embarrassed David Phipps Speaks With the Press

Phipps hints he may seek emergency relief from his election disqualification through the courts

Scott Schwebke has augmented yesterday's brief report this morning, concerning Council Seat "B" David Phipps's disqualification from the November 3 election, with a fleshed-out story, reporting that Mr. Phipps may have not have entirely thrown in the towel in this matter, and that he is instead considering scheduling an emergency hearing, seeking a court order overturning his statutorily mandated election disqualification by Ogden City Recorder Cindi Mansell:

• Late-filing Ogden candidate David Phipps disqualified, 'embarrassed'

Phipps argues that he was confused about the drop-dead Thursday filing deadline, (even though it had already been extended by one full day, and none of the other council candidates seem to have had any trouble making the deadline.) Phipps also readily admits that he's "... struggled with focusing on details," and remarks that explaining to his campaign contributors this latest campaign blunder (in a long string of campaign blunders) "hasn't been an easy thing."

Notably, Mr. Schwebke contacted one of Mr. Phipps's most generous campaign donors and elicited this delicious quote. Let's just say that Mr. Ostermiller is a true master of understatement:

Mike Ostermiller, chief executive officer of the Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors, which gave $1,500 to Phipps' campaign, said he is disappointed Phipps has been disqualified over the missed deadline.
"I hope he can figure out a way to stay on the ballot," he said Thursday.

For some odd reason, we're conjuring up this psychic image of Mr. Ostermiller and the rest of Mr. Phipps's real estate development donor-friends, gathering together and gently urging Mr. Phipps to "get his head together" and find some way to get his bumbling derriere back into the race:


We'll be standing by watching for the latest effort of the ever-inept Mr. Phipps to again make a comic public spectacle of himself.

Rules? Rules are only meant to only apply to the little people. As everyone ought to know by now, all loyal Godfreyites are exempt from the rules.

And the beat goes on...

Update 10/30/09 10:03 a.m.: For the benefit of our gentle readers, Elected Official has submitted a comment and a statutory citation to applicable provisions of the Utah Code:

• Utah Code, Title 20A -- Election Code

Update 10/31/09 11:27 a.m.: A day late and a half-dollar short, the Salt Lake Tribune has now picked up on this story too:

•Phipps disqualified in Ogden Council race

To the Trib's credit however, this morning's story does however provide this interesting new information:

"After speaking with attorneys, Phipps said there is little chance to appeal the ruling."

What the heck. Phipps coulda thrown himself on the mercy of the court, and pleaded the "I'm an Idiot" defense, right?

And so ends the short political career of perhaps the greatest political screw-up in Ogden history.

Breaking: Boss Godfrey's Hand-Picked Realtor Carpetbagger Ejected from the City Council Race

2009 Ogden Municipal Election ALERT!

By Jennifer Neil

This just in:

• Phipps disqualified from Ogden election

OGDEN -- City council candidate David Phipps has been disqualified from Tuesday's general election because he failed to file a campaign finance disclosure statement in on time.
Phipps, who was running against Bart Blair for the council's At-large Seat B post, told the Standard-Examiner he missed Wednesday's 5 p.m. filing deadline at the city recorder's office by 40 minutes.
Phipps, in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner, congratulated Blair who has effectively secured the council seat.
"Ogden politics is an interesting thing. People are constantly trying to pressure new candidates to one side or the other, and the lines continue to be drawn", Phipps said. "I was excited to show Ogden residents that I was willing to stand up to both sides when I felt they were wrong. I desperately hope that Mr. Blair won't just follow the anti-everything administration camp, but that citizens from both sides will have a voice. I congratulate him on a well- run campaign and I support him in any efforts to bring unity back to Ogden. I love this city and will continue to help in its economic growth downtown so all of us can enjoy our downtown again."

J Neil

The Third Set Of Emerald City Council Candidate Financial Disclosure Reports Are Now On File

Seven out of eight of them, anyhow

Let us point out this timely 2009 Ogden municipal election story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, reporting on the third set of council candidate financial disclosure statements which were due for filing in the city recorder's office by 5:00 p.m. yesterday. According to Mr. Schwebke's story, all council candidates confidently met yesterday's extended 5:00 p.m. deadline; but we're not so sure of that. According to one of the deputy clerks with whom we spoke this morning, only seven of the necessary eight financial reports were on file as of 9:05 this morning; and one conspicuously failed to make the deadline. We don't know who the recalcitrant candidate is. We didn't ask... although we have heard unconfirmed rumors.

Adding insult to injury, of the seven candidate statements who did actually meet the filing deadline, only four are as yet displayed on the city website.

Undaunted, we'll move on. And in that connection we'll do what we intended to do when we first snatched up our SE hard-copy edition from our front porch early this morning, and pored over Mr. Schwebke's story. For those who've been following our WCF Council Candidate Roster pages, btw, here are the latest updates:

• 2009 Ogden City Municipal Election Cumulative Financial Disclosure Reports

We've also added these latest reports to the individual candidate pages, which are nested within our Weber County Candidate Roster.

There you have it folks; short and sweet. We'll of course continue to update these pages as additional reports come online. Although we're not happy to release data that's still half-baked, we're tired of sitting on our thumbs this morning, waiting for Boss Godfrey's IP people to do their jobs.

That's it for now folks.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Standard-Examiner: FBI says Ogden Crime Stats Down -- UPDATED

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Regular as clock work, and on the eve of a pivotal Ogden City municipal election, wherein control of the majority of Ogden City Council seats is up for grabs, the Standard-Examiner comes through with another Godfrey administration tout piece, announcing once again that Boss Godfrey has his hands firmly placed on all the right levers and dials, making Ogden City one of the most crime-free towns in the Beehive State. Most of this stuff comes straight out of the mouth of Boss Godfrey of course, so as all WCF readers know, it has to be all true:

• FBI says Ogden crime stats down

Godfrey of course denies that the timing of this story has anything at all to do with Tuesday's election, since he's not personally running for re-election this time around. We'll assume of course that his lips were moving when he uttered this denial, and will thus draw all reasonable inferences therefrom.

Just to kick-start the morning discussion, we'll shamelessly incorporate Dan S.' most cogent comment from the above SE story's comment section, rather than spend another hour or two trying to piece together our own infallible analysis:

We should pay heed to Mark Twain and the many others who have pointed out the deceptive use of statistics. A year ago I carefully analyzed Ogden's crime statistics and reported the results here:

Ogden Crime Statistics... Without the Godfrey Distortions

There are just too many ways to present the data. Which categories of crimes do you include? Do you weight all crimes equally or does a murder count more than a simple assault? Do you report total crimes, or crimes per person? If the latter, what population data do you use? How far back in time do you go when reporting long-term trends?
In recent years, the Standard-Examiner has left all of these decisions to the politicians.
Getting a quote from a skeptical expert is better than nothing, but a true journalist would do an independent analysis of the data (or hire an independent expert to do such an analysis).
The Standard-Examiner doesn't even seem to notice when the statistics in one article contradict the statistics in an earlier article. In July 2008 the S-E published a similar crime-trend graph with different numbers: 72 (not 77) in 2000, and 77 (not 67) in 2006, for instance. (I think the discrepancy for 2000 is from using different population data, while the discrepancy for 2006 is because the city reported a higher number of crimes and later revised the number downward.) Here's a link to the earlier graph:

More Pro-Godfrey Spin from the Standard-Examiner

During his 2007 campaign, Godfrey claimed that Ogden's crime rate had dropped 23% between 1999 and 2006. The graph in this article shows a 16% drop between those years, while the July 2008 graph shows only a 4% drop. Godfrey also claimed there had been a 43% drop in the sub-category of violent crimes over the same time period, but the officially available statistics show little or no change in the violent crime rate.
According to the FBI web site, "the FBI discourages data users from ranking agencies [e.g., cities] and using the data as a measure of law enforcement effectiveness."

Uniform Crime Reports
A Word About UCR Data

(Readers who are seriously interested in the topic of Ogden crime statistics from a historic perspective also ought to take a gander at these articles too.)

So what about it gentle readers? Has Boss Godfrey at last embraced his primary and fundamental mayoral role as a zealot for public safety? Is Godfrey the Crime Fighter truly taking a bite out of crime? Or is it the same old story all over again, with Godfrey once again fiddling with the numbers?

Have at it, O Gentle Ones.

Update 10/28/09 10:02 a.m.: Godfrey's Mormon friends at KSL News are covering this story too, and savvy KSL viewers are all taking Godfrey's "eminations" with a grain of salt... shall we say?

Too funny.

Rep. Hansen Apologizes to Phipps

Let's not over-focus on the technicalities surrounding Mr. Phipps's residency

Fascinating story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, wherein Scott Schwebke reports that House District 9 Representative Neil Hansen has graciously issued an unsolicited apology to Ogden City Council Seat "B" Candidate David Phipps, for his perceived overreaction to information he received from the Salt Lake County Elections Office on or about October 14. This information of course launched a Weber County Forum article on the subject the following day, and provoked a most robust discussion in our lower comments section. Read this morning's full Scott Schwebke story here:

• Ogden lawmaker apologizes for accusations about candidate

We applaud Representative Hansen for taking the ethical high road on this, and for recognising and correcting his own mistake. While we believe Rep. Hansen's action in obtaining and releasing the information that Mr. Phipps had voted in his old Sugarhouse precinct in 2008, (even while claiming simultaneous residency in Ogden) was entirely proper, we also agree that Rep. Hansen is right, and that he may have at least slightly overstepped the bounds of political civility in offering this quote in Mr. Schwebke's Oct 19 2009 Standard-Examiner story:

"There is some dishonesty about his residency and there needs to be some accountability," Hansen said, adding he obtained the records on behalf of a constituent whom he declined to identify."

And just to set the record straight, it's the above statement which Rep. Hansen appears to be apologizing about... and we believe that's the only statement he needs to apologize about.

Rep. Hansen has plenty of political juice in Ogden, and we congratulate him for recognizing that drawing ultimate conclusions about Mr. Phipps's honesty or lack thereof is not his proper role, and that the opinion of a politically-influential state legislator, if left un-retracted, could carry undue weight. The role of determining ultimate legal culpability is reserved for the proper legal authorities of course, as Rep. Hansen remarks in today's SE story:

Hansen said in a phone interview Monday it isn't his place to judge whether Phipps is an eligible candidate and hopes an investigation will be launched promptly to sort out his residency.
"That's between him and the legal system," he said.Hansen said one issue that needs to be sorted out is if Phipps, as he claims, was a resident of Ogden at the time of the 2008 election, was it legal for him to vote in Salt Lake City?Conversely, Hansen said, if Phipps was a legal resident of Salt Lake City, did he meet residency requirements to file for city council?.

What Rep. Hansen neglects to mention however is the court of public opinion, another legitimate venue to weigh conflicting claims on the eve of a municipal election. While we congratulate Rep. Hansen for his magnanimous gesture in apologising to Mr. Phipps for comments which were arguably excessive, we also doubt that Rep. Hansen would criticise Ogden voters for themselves weighing the facts which Rep. Hansen initially laid out.

And in that connection we do believe questions regarding Mr. Phipps's residency are crying out to be resolved. And we do believe the circumstances surrounding Mr. Phipps's November 4, 2008 Salt Lake County vote reflect on Mr. Phipps's character and fitness for office. The citizens of Ogden are certainly entitled to weigh the facts on their own, without resorting to the the opinions of any State Legislator, although we'd also view it as advisable to avoid drawing any firm conclusions until all the evidence is in.

Having said that, we'll issue a caveat: Let's not go overboard on this. The issues regarding Mr. Phipps's residency will ultimately be resolved. As Mr. Schwebke reports in this morning's story, third-place seat "B" candidate Jennifer Neil has already filed a complaint in this matter; and during the course of the proceedings which will result from this procedural step, we recommend that we all stand back... and let the wheels of justice grind on. The residency issues will all get sorted out, one way or the other, we believe.

And in the same connection we'll refer to a Dan Schroeder comment lodged under the above-linked Oct 19 2009 SE story. Remember, there are plenty of other troubling issues surrounding Mr. Phipps's candidacy:

For the time being at least, let's not over-focus on the technicalities surrounding Mr. Phipps's residency.

There are plenty of other fish to fry, no?

Monday Morning Standard-Examiner Mailbag

Spotlight on two thoughtful and timely SE reader submissions

To kick off this morning's discussion, we'll highlight a couple of this morning's hard-copy edition letters to the Standard-Examiner which are particularly timely today, as we stand poised on the brink of our 2009 Emerald City Municipal Election, which looms a little more than seven days hence.

First, SE reader Dennis J. Hogge thoughtfully adopts a theme from Doris Kearns Goodwin's Abraham Lincoln biography, "Team of Rivals; The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," i.e., that "an administration that lacks diversity of opinion may not be the most productive or safest," and then offers this savvy observation:

In my opinion, a system of checks and balances should be encouraged, not stifled. The members of the city council should challenge and question the administration on controversial issues. Only then can an equitable consensus be reached. The process requires that the mayor demonstrate leadership, not domination.

Next, SE reader Catherine Gerwels reminds Ogden voters of Boss Godfrey's not-so-hidden agenda, i.e., breaking his 2007 election promise, and instead bulldozing Ogden's upper east bench. Here's Ms. Gerwels "money quote":

Upon learning the content of the [mayor's golf course] committee's report, I feel almost 100 percent secure in saying that given the opportunity, Mayor Godfrey will break his pre-election promises regarding Mount Ogden Park. That chance will present itself if the city council becomes stacked with rubber-stamp members whose real goal is to use our park land to line the pocket books of their supporters at the expense of the long-term future of Ogden city and the overwhelming majority of its citizens. A city without parkland is not a desirable place to live and certainly not one that can boast about its outdoor recreation and lifestyle.

Four years after Boss Godfrey's 2003-05 "Gang of Six" rubber stamp council was unceremoniously ushered out of office by Ogden voters in 2005, Ogden City taxpayers are still suffering the painful economic after-effects. Is it possible, gentle readers, that a now seemingly apathetic Ogden City electorate could allow another Godfrey rubber stamp council to be voted into office again?

Several more powerful arguments, we believe, to to show up in force at the polls on November 3, (torches and pitchforks in hand) and vote for independent thinkers like Bart Blair, Jesse Garcia and Susan Van Hooser.

And what say our readers about all this?