Standard-Examiner: Greiner Severance Package Totals $77,300

Sodden Reader Query: Did the concerted acts of both Greiner and Boss Godfrey paint incoming Mayor Mike Caldwell so deeply into a corner that Caldwell has no alternative but to "go along" with what some might characterise as Greiner's Golden parachute?

This morning's Standard-Examiner is running a story this morning which is bound to give fiscally frugal Ogden City taxpayers heartburn, as Scott Schwebke reports that one of the final acts of the Boss Godfrey administration was the awarding of a $77,300 severance package to Chief Greiner, who was "fired from his job last month because of a federal Hatch Act violation." Here's the lede:

OGDEN -- Former Police Chief Jon Greiner, who was fired from his job last month because of a federal Hatch Act violation, will receive a severance package from the city with a gross value of $77,300.
The package stems from a settlement agreement Greiner and former Mayor Matthew Godfrey signed Dec. 30, according to records obtained by the Standard-Examiner.
The payout equals six months of Greiner's salary and accrued health, dental, vacation, vehicle and retirement benefits.
In exchange for the severance package, Greiner has released the city from any future legal claims.
The severance package given to Greiner is standard for all city department directors, Mayor Mike Caldwell said.

Check out the full story here:

• Greiner severance package totals $77,300

At least one of our WCF readers was earlier wondering why Greiner's involuntary termination might entitle him to a severance pay package, inasmuch as he was "fired for cause," i.e., "because of a federal Hatch Act violation."

Being the curious type, and intrigued by our gentle reader's query, we "googled" the underlying rules, of course.

Turning to the Ogden City Code, we find that the provisions governing Ogden City employee "Classification and Pay Plans" are governed by Ogden City Code Section 2-6-9.

The rules for the denial of of severance pay benefits to "involuntarily terminated" Ogden City employee are spelled out in Subsection F.

It does seem to us that there is one provision within that subsection which might operate to prohibit the payment of a severance package to Chief Greiner, although it's a mite thin, in our view:

3. Prohibition: Severance pay shall not be paid to an otherwise eligible employee who:
a. Has been terminated or requested to resign under bona fide charges of nonfeasance, misfeasance or malfeasance in office

The terms nonfeasance, misfeasance or malfeasance are technical "words of art"of course. Click the links below for some commonly-used general definitions:

• Nonfeasance
• Misfeasance
• Malfeasance

So what about it Gentle readers? When you apply the above general definitions and principles of law to the facts of the Greiner Hatch Act problem, can an valid argument be made that Greiner's severence package is prohibited by the Ogden City Code, due to acts of nonfeasance, misfeasance or malfeasance on Greiner's part? In ignoring the demands of the federal Office of Special Council in 2006 to either drop out of his State Senate race, or alternatively to resign his office as Ogden's Chief of Police, did Greiner wilfully or negligently breach a duty owed to his employer, Ogden City, to refrain from a course of action which would jeopardise Ogden City's federal grant funding? Did Greiner's good-faith exercise of what we've called on WCF the Richard Perkins defense (Ogden's Hatch Act Compliance Program) operate as an excuse for his failure to heed the OSC's warnings? Did Ogden City's failure to fire Greiner early on, and instead to cooperatively join with Greiner in his Hatch Act litigation obviate any argument that Greiner acted in a manner which could deny him a severance package? Is Boss Godfrey's eleventh hour agreement to a severance "payout [which] equals six months of Greiner's salary and accrued health, dental, vacation, vehicle and retirement benefits" anything more than the last minute looting of the Ogden City treasury, or did the concerted acts of both Greiner and Boss Godfrey paint incoming Mayor Mike Caldwell so deeply into a corner that Caldwell has no alternative but to "go along" with what some might characterize as Greiner's Golden Parachute? Is Greiner's severance pay award just another example of Godfrey's fast-collapsing "House of Cards," which we wrote about yesterday?

So many questions... so few answers...

Who'll be the first to toss in their own 2¢?

Nothing better than a little mental exercise to clear out the Monday morning mental cobwebs, right?

Standard-Examiner: Recent Windstorm Blows Ogden Cafe Owner Into a New Life

Sodden query: Will Mayor Caldwell be hog-tied "fighting fires" such as the looming Choo-Choo's Kafe "bailout," as Boss Godfrey's precariously assembled financial "house of cards" finally starts tumbling down?

Disappointing news this morning concerning Choo-Choo’s Kafe, at Ogden's Dining Car/Tourist Welcome Center. As long-term WCF readers will recall, the Tourist Welcome Center project landed the previous mayoral administration in embarrassing political hot water back in 2009, when the Ogden City Council caught the Godfrey Administration red-handed, "[secretly] dipping into an internal services fund account within the city's Fleet and Facilities Department" to the tune of an extra $80 thousand, and spending these funds on Dining Car/Tourist Info Center overages," which jacked up the cost of the project from the originally Council-allocated $34,501 to a whopping $115,000.

Sadly, the cafe's current proprietor, Jeanie Ortiz, is shutting the restaurant down, according to this morning's Wasatch Rambler column:

• Recent windstorm blows Ogden cafe owner into a new life

"Not to worry," columnist Trentelman "hasten[s] to add." "The restaurant will not go away. Pete Buttschardt, owner of Rooster’s and Union Grill, is making extremely positive noises about taking it over," Trentelman reports.

Further down the column, Mr. Trentelman provides this:

Richard Brookins, the city facilities manager, said he’s in active talks with Buttschardt to take over the cafe, “and the city does intend to keep it open in the interim.”

In this connection, WCF reader and frequent contributor Dan S. raises several pertinent questions in the comments section beneath this morning's Trentelman column, relating to this now-floundering Godfrey-legacy city project:

How exactly will the city "keep it open in the interim"? How much will it cost the city, and which department's budget will it come out of?

The "devil's always in the details" of course, isn't it? And frankly, we're more than a mite surprised that the normally perspicacious Mr. Trentelman didn't ask these obvious questions himself.

So what about it, O Gentle Ones? Is the looming Choo-Choo's Kafe "bailout" the first of a long line of financially shaky Godfrey Administration legacy projects which will unduly preoccupy the attention of the City Council and the new Caldwell Mayoral Administration in the days and months to come? Will Mayor Caldwell be in a position to effectively initiate his own agenda, now that he's been sworn in and assumes the reins of city government administration? Or will Mayor Caldwell be hog-tied "fighting fires" such as this, as Boss Godfrey's precariously assembled "house of cards" finally starts tumbling down?

Who'll be the first to throw in their 2¢?