Tour de Drome Follow-Up

Released documents reveal planning details, future plans, and more mayoral travels.

By Dan Schroeder

Two months ago, as the date for the Tour de Drome bike ride approached, I got curious and submitted a GRAMA request asking the city for all records related to the event. A week later I received a copy of the city’s $5,000 contract with event organizer Cindy Yorgason. But it took several follow-up requests, and another six weeks, before the city finished responding to my request.

The remainder of the city’s response consisted of a thick stack of printed email messages and their attachments. From these, I’ve selected and uploaded a small selection that seem reasonably interesting:

• Press release
• Special event application
• Meeting notes
• Contact list
• Emails

The documents paint a fairly complete picture of how the Tour de Drome event was planned, what kinds of expenses it incurred, and who was involved. They also include a few tidbits about the velodrome project itself, the mayor’s velodrome-related travels, and future fundraising plans.

Most obviously, these documents highlight the depth of Ogden City’s involvement with the Tour de Drome event. It was the city that hired Yorgason. Planning meetings were held in the Municipal Building, and Yorgason regularly reported her activities to CAO John Patterson and several other city staff. In fact, eleven city employees are included on the list of contacts that Yorgason circulated, and several others are named in emails due to their peripheral involvement. The required Special Event Application names Patterson and Events Coordinator Carolyn Brierley, in addition to Yorgason, as the responsible parties. The official press release begins with the words “Ogden City presents...”.

Nevertheless, it is equally clear that most of the money involved with this event was laundered through the Ogden Community Foundation. Although the city handled some of the money, especially during the early planning, OCF was brought in at the beginning of April and invoices for expenses were then redirected to them. This means we’ll probably never know exactly how much was spent on the event, or exactly how much money was raised. But in all likelihood, the total expenses were less than the initial budget of $10,000, while the total revenue was not much over $5000. Whether OCF will absorb the net loss is unclear.

An obvious next question is whether this arrangement with OCF was legal. Or more generally, is it legal for a city to put on a fundraising event for the benefit of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit? I suspect that the answer is no, but higher authorities are unlikely to get involved this time, given that the event actually lost money.

However, this event isn’t the end of the story. The same people are continuing to hold regular meetings, planning for another, bigger velodrome fundraising event in October. Presumably the proceeds from that event will also go to the Ogden Community Foundation.

And finally, it’s always interesting to learn about Mayor Godfrey’s globe-trotting adventures. Yorgason told me on May 1 that she had accompanied Godfrey and Patterson on a recent trip to see the Los Angeles velodrome. But now it appears that the mayor may have since taken a much longer trip, to Switzerland, to visit a velodrome located there. Let’s hope that a real reporter will dig up the details on these trips and tell us how much we’re paying for them.

State Audit Reveals Ogden Administration Improprieties

Auditor finds Boss Godfrey's Ogden Community Foundation routinely and wilfully violated its own bylaws

By Curmudgeon

A couple of interesting items in today's Standard-Examiner.

First is the article by Scott Schwebke, heading the Top of Utah section. Here's headline: Agency –– government or private? Ogden Community Foundation won’t have to return funds; still under scrutiny

Here are the opening graphs:

OGDEN — The city has made a “good faith effort” to comply with the terms of a $900,000 grant awarded in 2002 to purchase the former American Can Co. complex and won’t have to repay the funds, according to a state audit released Monday. The audit was conducted at the request of state Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, and other individuals. They questioned whether it was proper for the Ogden Redevelopment Agency to use a $900,000 state grant to purchase the American Can Co. complex to house a high-tech center.

That was, of course, good news for the Godfrey administration and [in my view] good news for Ogden. But the good news for Godfrey ends right there, and the rest of the story and the state audit cannot have pleased him. From the story:

The office of the state auditor determined the Ogden Community Foundation, which acquired the complex in 2006 from the city’s RDA, has deviated significantly from its original articles of incorporation. As a result, there are inconsistencies as to whether the foundation is part of city government or a private organization, the six-page audit says.

The foundation’s original incorporation papers, which say board members are to be selected from a list of approved candidates appointed by Ogden’s mayor, require that the organization be included in the city’s financial statements because it’s considered a “government entity,” the audit says. However, the foundation has deviated from that practice and chooses new board members on its own without making selections based on a list from the mayor, says the audit.

And...

The audit also questioned the city’s decision to withhold information from individuals who submitted public record requests regarding the Ogden Community Foundation. “We believe that public officials have a responsibility to provide for open government,” the audit says. “In this situation, the city allowed the property to be sold into private hands where it no longer controlled the flow of information. While the city may have complied with the letter of the law, it certainly did not comply with the spirit of the law, which includes providing citizens with answers to their questions about the use of their tax dollars.”

The audit recommends that the city work with the foundation to amend the organization’s articles of incorporation to clarify its operating procedures and tax status. The foundation should also comply with state public records law if it is determined by legal counsel that the organization is a governmental entity, says the audit.

Godfrey said the foundation’s bylaws have been amended to demonstrate that the organization is separate from the city and shouldn’t be part of its financial reporting..

So, let's reduce that to basics:

(a) the Ogden City Foundation began life as a public body which, as such, was required to include its activities in the city's annual financial report.

(b)For some unexplained reason, however, it operated instead and in violation of its own founding by-laws, as if it were a private not a public entity, and it refused therefor to makes its records of its activities [which involved the transfer of public property to private entities] public when asked.

(c) The Mayor now says the by-laws have been changed to make the Foundation an exclusively private entity apparently so that it it can keep from having to explain its activities to the public.

(d) The state auditor finds such behavior on the part of the Godfrey administration to be, at the least, unethical, if not illegal.

Next, there is an interesting editorial on the newly announced crime-control steps, and their relation to the campaign. The editorial notes that crime control is shaping up to be a major issue for both mayoral candidates. It implies [faintly, but the implication is there] that Mayor Godfrey's --- who seems to have been asleep at the switch regarding gang violence in Ogden for seven long years until he realized his re-election was in jeopardy --- sudden interest in the topic is to no small extent campaign-motivated. Which raises of course this question: how long will his interest in controlling gang violence survive the closing of the polls on election day this November?

Additional reader comments are invited, of course.

Update 9/18/07 12:16 p.m. MT: For the benefit of our detail-oriented readers, we've obtained and uploaded to our storage site a full-text pdf version of the above State Auditor's Report, which can be viewed here.

Godfrey Opposes People Asking Questions About Ogden City Hall

Shadowy secret Godfrey-controlled "private foundation" fails the "duck test" - "Quack"

By Curmudgeon

No, that wasn't the headline on the front page lead story in the Standard Examiner. But it could, and maybe should, have been. The headline actually is "Foundation, City too close?"

From the story by Mr. Schwebke:

OGDEN — A local foundation is being scrutinized by the state because a lawmaker who is also a mayoral candidate believes it may be too closely tied to the city.
State Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, questions whether the Ogden Community Foundation’s February sale of the American Can complex in downtown Ogden was appropriate. He has asked for a state audit of the $3 million sale to Colorado developer Jon Peddie and investors.
Hansen is also questioning whether the foundation is a quasi-branch of city government, since five municipal officials, including Godfrey, serve on its 13-member board....
"There is nothing nefarious going on," he said. "It’s a separate legal entity." However, Hansen believes the city and foundation enjoy a much closer relationship. He questioned why the foundation’s articles of incorporation filed with the state in 2003 list its address as Godfrey’s office at 2549 Washington Blvd., Suite 910.
"If it’s run out of the mayor’s office, then it should be a public foundation and its financial books should be open so the public can see how money is being spent," he said.
Godfrey said the use of his office in the incorporation filing was a formality to get the foundation registered.
The foundation also seems to be a public entity because its bylaws require the mayor and city council chairman to serve on its board, Hansen said.
City Council Chairman Jesse Garcia said he doesn’t sit on the board and wouldn’t serve if asked because elected officials and municipal employees shouldn’t be involved. “I don’t think it’s right,” he said.
Johnson said the foundation is in the process of changing the makeup of its board and hasn’t closely followed some provisions of its bylaws.

Several things worthy of note in all that. First, that the Mayor has not denied that the official address of the supposedly "separate legal entity" is his office in the Municipal Building. Second, the Mayor's staff has admitted that the Foundation has... well, has not followed its own bylaws. Third: well, yes, the Mayor is required by the by-laws to be the Foundation's head, and yes, the chair of the Council is required to be on the board, and yes, a handful of other Godfrey administration officials are on the board as well. But no, it's not a public body?

This fails the duck test. [If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck... it's a duck.]

Note also the Mayor's response to a state representative simply asking questions about how the city used state granted funds, and whether the matter was handled properly: the Mayor charges political motives. Hell, the Mayor always charges political motives. As I recall, that was part of his [you should excuse the expression] "defense" when he was nabbed following a city employee's wife around downtown to learn if her husband was involved in opposing his policies. "Political motivation" is the perennial claim of elected officials who are caught with their hands in the public's cookie jar. [Charges against Congressman Duke Cunningham --- now a guest of the public in a federal penitentiary --- were called, by him, politically motivated at first. Former Rep. Ney of Ohio --- now a guest of the public in a federal penitentiary as well --- claimed charges against him were "politically motivated" too....]

A mayor with nothing to hide would have replied: "I welcome Rep. Hansen's questions and the State Auditor's audit. We've done nothing wrong and I'll be glad to have this cleared up once and for all."

But he didn't. Instead he began whining immediately "it's politically motivated." Seems Our Mayor thinks it is not fair or reasonable for people to ask questions about how he has acted in office. Apparently he wishes us to accept as a given that "the mayor can do no wrong." We used to live under a government based on the premise that "the king can do no wrong." But in most places, Americans believe we threw that system over in 1776. But then, most Americans don't live in Ogden.

The Mayor does have, however, I think one legitimate complaint, though not against Rep. Hansen, but against the Standard Examiner. In Calvin Grondahl's political cartoon this morning, the Mayor is depicted on the right identified as a wing nut, with that bit of hardware on his head as a hat. I'd be miffed about that too if I were mayor. [Sorry Mr. Grondahl. Couldn't resist....]

Finally, this morning's Std-Ex has a lead editorial explaining that the Std-Ex will, this election, break with tradition and recommend specific candidates, by name, in various races. The editors seem to think this will be a controversial decision. Can't understand why. Most major newspaper endorse candidates at election time. Looks to me like the Std-Ex simply catching up, at last, with the competition. For whatever reason, a good decision.

Boss Godfrey Reveals Pending State Audit

Nary a day goes by without another Boss Godfrey blunder

Ace Reporter Schwebke contributes an interesting news tidbit this morning, with a story reporting that the State Auditor's Office is in the process of conducting an audit of the American Can transaction:

OGDEN — A request from Ogden mayoral candidate Rep. Neil Hansen, R-Ogden,has prompted the state Auditor’s Office to investigate the city’s use of a
$900,000 state grant in 2002 to purchase the former American Can Co. complex.

Mayor Matthew Godfrey, who is seeking a third term in November’s general election, said the audit request is a political move designed to discredit him.

"The intent is to make me look bad," Godfrey said.

For those readers, by the way, who find it strange that Boss Godfrey has the capacity to unilaterally determine true "intent": Remember, Godfrey is a "visionary." He hears "voices."

We believe the most striking oddity in this story is Boss Godfrey's paranoid delusion that an audit of this sort is somehow intended to cast him in a bad light. The State Auditor's office conducts audits of municipal transactions constantly and routinely. Doing such audits is the State Auditor's job. Frankly, we find it find it astonishing that Boss Godfrey is complaining about this at all.

Further down in the article Godfrey tells our favorite Ace Reporter that "the city will cooperate with state auditors. 'We have nothing to hide,' he said."

And we think that's the whole point. If indeed the American Can transaction was on the financial "up and up," we don't understand why Boss Godfrey is grousing about it. If State Representative Hansen received constituent complaints about the tranasaction, it was of course his duty to pass them on to the Auditor's office, just as it's the State Auditor's duty to follow up with an audit, when the same citizen queries wind up on his desk. Surely even Boss Godfrey must understand this simple government 101 concept.

And we're wondering about one more thing: If Boss Godfrey is so terribly concerned that the pendency of this audit will somehow damage him politically, why did the normally-secretive Boss of Us All find it necessary or prudent to squawk to the Standard-Examiner about it?

While skeptics might leap to the conclusion that Boss Godfrey has gone public with this story to cultivate sympathetic political effect, we know that Dear Leader would never do anything like that. Boss Godfrey has more integrity than anyone in the room, as we all know. We therefore believe we can put any suggestions of disingenuousness quickly to rest.

And one more thing: Ace reporter Schwebke got this story almost completely wrong, from the article headline to the closing paragraph. This audit plainly has little to do with the $900,000 grant. The State Attorney General's Office has already resolved questions about the legal propriety of the application of the original grant funds, of course.

Assistant Attorney General Loos provides a hint of that in this paragraph:

"Loos said Thursday that while his opinion centered on Ogden’s compliance with the grant contract, the state audit will likely examine how the funds were used."

What the State Auditor's office will be doing in this audit, we believe, is to track the money trail in the transaction from the federal and state grants which seeded the original purchase, to the entities who wound up with the sale proceeds.

Among those entities is the mysterious Ogden Community Foundation, a shadowy and purportedly private entity operated from an office in city hall, chaired by The Little Lord Mayor himself, and populated by many of his Godfreyite henchmen. Our insider sources reveal that some within the State Auditor's Office suspect that this entity may in fact be a quasi-public, alter-ego subdivision of the city administration, subject under Utah law to audit by their office.

Now that the story has been taken public, it will indeed be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

And now for the Big News aspect of this morning's story. We were pleased to read this morning that Representative Hansen has quietly switched political affiliations, and is now a Republican State Representative. If you don't believe it (and we know this revelation will be particularly crushing to "yellow dog Democrat" gentle Curmudgeon,) go back and read Ace Reporter Schwebke's first paragraph.

It must be true; we read it in the paper.

Welcome to the Grand Old Party, Representative Hansen! With your constant fiscal conservatism, and love of open, honest government, we think you're a natural for the party of Abraham Lincoln.

Please don't all speak up at once, gentle readers.

Update 7/17/07 4:12 a.m. MT: Boss Godfrey now has two newspapers digging into the facts surrounding the American Can transaction. Check out yesterday morning's Kathy McKitrick story, in which Godfrey is quoted at his snarkiest.

Why Boss Godfrey won't just shut up about this, and let the audit run its course we do not know.

Perhaps it's because he has "more integrity than anyone in the room."