Standard-Examiner: Snowbasin Resort Development Plan Moves Ahead in Morgan County

Will Godfrey's heretofore un-sated Gondola passion be finally quenched?

Gondola???

Interesting story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, reporting that "the Morgan County Council will vote Oct. 1 on a proposed Snowbasin resort plan that a local planner says will eventually double the number of dwelling units in the county":

• Snowbasin resort development plan moves ahead in Morgan County

Remember, folks, Morgan County economic development is now former Ogden Mayor Matthew "Gondola Boy" Godfrey's private sector consulting turf.

So what about it, O Gentle Ones?  Gaze into your ever-infallible crystal balls. Will the proposed public financing and construction of a multi-millon dollar gondola be the next hot issue dividing Morgan County lumpencitizens?

Will Godfrey's heretofore un-sated Gondola passion be finally quenched?

Standard-Examiner: Smith’s Plans Expansion

A duck is a duck is a duck....

By: Smaatguy

Well, well, well...looks like North Ogden is coughing money up to Smiths...you telling me they wouldn't have done that new store without the freebies from the City...

• Smith’s plans expansion

And there is Matthew Godfrey right in the middle...acting as if HE made this happen... BS.... and now talking about RDA funds... gee, makes you wonder if there are some fees for him in that plan.... Smith's sees the opportunity and the $$$$ they will make in the project.... they would have done this without taxpayer dollars... to say they are not giving Smith's money is hogwash.... they are just basically taking the fees they would already get and using about half to build infrastructure... a duck is a duck is a duck...

Adventures of Matthew Godfrey: Better Cities "Ups the Ante" On Morgan County - Updated

Yep, Godfrey's an economic development wizard alright; and we'll all be standing by, to observe the Morgan County Council's next "move."

Lost or Otherwise Misplaced

Fascinating story in the morning's Standard, reporting on the latest efforts of Ogden City mayoral alumnus Matthew Godfrey, as he works his economic development magic on his new private sector clients, the lumpenitizens of Morgan County, specfically.  Seems that his Better Cities, Inc. crack team of industry professionals have run into a major log-jam in Morgan County.  Much to Godfrey's consternation, the "embarrassed city planners" of this quint little rural county have somehow lost or otherwise misplaced their water and sewer infrastructure maps:

• Godfrey calls Morgan County’s infrastructure an ‘embarrassment’

Here's Godfrey's  setup:

 “We had no idea, when we started, that nobody knew what the infrastructure was,” Godfrey said. “We came in and asked the planning department for the maps with the water, sewer, storm sewer, telephone, telecommunications, power. We asked for all that data and we were able to get the telecom and the power, but nobody knows where the water and sewer is.” 

And here's the "kicker":

Godfrey also said he wouldn’t be able to recruit businesses to Morgan County until the layout of the infrastructure was known.

Morgan County Council:
Totally Flummoxed

No problemo, however folks, in the context of this morning's report that "Morgan County [has already] entered into a month-to-month agreement with Better City toward the beginning of this year and that payment to Better City is performance-based with a maximum payment of $3,500 per month." This whole problem can nevertheless be solved, Godfrey says, (menacingly), by simply "doubling down": 

“It would allow you to take the existing money that is already allocated for economic development, that’s paying us, and to double it”

So what about it folks?  How would you characterize Godfrey's "closing" tactic in re this matter?

• The "Embarrassment" Close?
• The "Emotion" Close?
• The "Shame" Close?
• The "Ultimatum" Close?

Yep, Godfrey's an economic development wizard alright... for the benefit of  his private company's own economic development, that is.  And we'll all be standing by, with abated breath, of course, to observe the Morgan County Council's next "move," now that they've been deftly and craftily painted into the corner.

Update 8/22/13 1:40 p.m: Here's a  screenshot of Godfrey's new "Porsche ride."  It's 1979-era water cooled 280Z knockoff,  which some Porsche fanciers say ain't a REAL Porsche at all.

Godfrey's 924 Porsche

We'll check in later, once that Godfrey has "cleaned out" his "urban leadership clients"sufficiently to buy some real exotic German Iron, of course:

Porsche Boxter $

Needless to say, we'll be following up on this aspect of today's WCF story with the utmost vigor.

Boss Godfrey Post-Public Sector Retirement Update

Great to see that Godfrey is letting no grass grow under his feet

By: Fly on the Wall

Looks like former Mayor Matthew "Boss" Godfrey , who set up shop in the private sector in 2012, has been busy with a project in Price City, the county seat of Utah's Carbon County:

• Carbon Commission Holding Public Discussion Concerning the Future Use of Courthouse Building
• Carbon County and Better City want your input

Expanding his reach to locations outside of Utah, and leaving no stone unturned, Godfrey appears to be likewise bending the eager ears of city planners in East Liverpool, Ohio, of all places:

At the helm for 15 years?

Over a period of 15 years, with Godfrey at the helm, [Ogden] was revitalized and when he decided to rejoin the private sector, officials from other communities began asking Godfrey for his expertise in revitalizing their towns, leading to formation of Better City, LLC.

• Company may help revitalize

An Ogden Restaurant that employs 750 people?

Another blighted building was transformed into a restaurant that now employs 750 people, and an area that Godfrey said once was "the place you went of you were homeless, looking for a prostitute or a fight" is now filled with boutiques, restaurants and residences:

• The right track?

A concept with a familiar ring: "What you need is a fieldhouse":

"It is the direction of successful, innovative education around the nation," Godfrey said. "That's why the federal government is funding it so heavily." "In addition to gaining what he says could be a model school in the region, the district would gain an attractive venue to draw sporting events and other productions. The fieldhouse, when not in use by the school or hosting an event, could also be open to members of the greater community as a practice field or for league sports," he said:

• School board hears proposal for charter development

"Partnering" with local educational institutions:

Specifically, Godfrey said, he wants to build upon an education "cluster" that already exists in the city, with Kent State University, the active high school alumni association, the online school and another post-secondary school looking at locating downtown:

• Firm shares city revitalization plans with BOE

Great to see that Godfrey is exploiting the "expertise" he developed during three terms of office at the "helm of Ogden City government," touting his legendary "job creation skills", and letting "no grass grow under his feet," no?

So who'll be the first to lodge an ever-savvy comment?

Ferris?

John "Pureheart" Patterson Ogden Alum Career Update

Tough luck for "Pureheart John," we'll observe... It'll be interesting to find out whether he'll be soon carrying out another "city manager job search"

In our never ending quest to follow the careers of our most favorite Ogden City government alumnus, we're pleased to bring to you the latest news concerning John "Pureheart" Patterson, former Ogden CAO, who in 2011 bolted to Casper, Wyoming in search of "greener pastures,"  landing a plush six-figure job as as Casper's City Manager. The last time we discussed Patterson, he'd found himself in "hot water", when somebody in Casper discovered (by googling, we'll guess) that his hand-selected "development coordinator" (none other than fellow Ogden government alum Boss Godfrey)  "is a former mayor of Ogden, Utah, who was reprimanded by that state’s auditor for failing to comply with city and state laws."

Despite this embarrassing setback, Patterson had moved forward on his latest croney capitalist grand scheme nevertheless, i.e., the bulldozing of a portion of downtown Casper and the proposed construction of a multimillion-dollar convention center, complete with (what else?) an adjacent multi-million dollar downtown hotel. After a spirited intra-city discussion however, it turns out that Patterson's conference center/hotel brainchild,  highly reminiscent of Patterson schemes in his Ogden heyday,  is sadly not to become a Casper reality, due to the efforts of a seeming horde of Casper lumpencitizen "obstructionists" and the election of a "non visionary" new city council who appear to be a "mite tighter" with Casper lumpencitizens' public money than were their council predecessors, those who hired Patterson in the first place: 

• Casper drops plan for downtown conference center

"I was never in favor of the large amounts of public money that were going to be a part of this proposal," newly-elected Councilmember Keith Goodenough said Thursday.

Patterson called the council's mixed enthusiasm for the city-sponsored conference center a "worst case for a city manager."

Tough luck for "Pureheart John," we'll observe. It'll be interesting to find out whether he'll be soon carrying out another "city manager" job search. For whatever he does in the future however, we of course wish our old crony-capitalist buddy the very best, of course.

Casper Star-Tribune: Casper Downtown Plans May Include Former Ogden Mayor Reprimanded by State Auditor

Didn't take John "Pureheart" Patterson long to get in hot water with the lumpencitizens of Casper, did it?

Tantalizing December 13, 2012 story from the Casper (Wyoming) Star Tribune, which we stumbled upon this morning whilst Googling.  Here's the lede: 

The Downtown Development Authority’s current preference for development coordinator is a former mayor of Ogden, Utah, who was reprimanded by that state’s auditor for failing to comply with city and state laws.
Matthew Godfrey, current president of the Better City consulting group, served as mayor in Ogden from 1999 to 2011. John Patterson was Ogden’s chief administrative officer from 2005 to 2011, when he became Casper’s city manager.
In a report released last summer, the Utah State Auditor’s Office found the city administration failed to receive City Council approval for expenditures on three projects. City administration improperly spent $434,000 between 2007 and 2009 for an ice climbing tower, rail car renovation and river restoration projects, according to the report.
“We are concerned about the Administration’s attitude toward the importance of the City Council’s approval,” the document states. [Links added].

Check out the full story here:

• Casper downtown plans may include former Ogden mayor reprimanded by state auditor

Here's the referenced Utah State Auditor's  August 18, 2011 report:

• Finding and Recommendation For the Period June 2007 through October 2009

No surprises here, we guess.  It didn't take John "Pureheart" Patterson long to get in hot water with the lumpenctizens of Casper, did it?

Be sure to check out the Star-Trib's reader comments section, folks, where one Star-Trib reader sez, "Come on now, the citizens of Casper are not illiterate hicks. We even know about the Internet and we know how to use the search engine Google."

Looks like the cat's outta the bag, alright.

We'll keep ya'll all posted, of course, as this fascinating story develops.

Standard-Examiner: Brigham City Residents Have Plenty of Questions at Forum

"A fool and his money are soon parted," according to the old folk ax

I’d like him to tell me why it cost $100,000 to do this study. What’s the deal?

DeLoy Mecham, Brigham City resident
Brigham City residents have plenty of questions at forum
December 2, 2012

In this forum, everybody gets a different answer to the same question.

Ron Germer, Brigham City resident
Brigham City residents have plenty of questions at forum
December 2, 2012

The Standard provides a brief report this morning, concerning Wednesday night's Matthew Godfrey public Dog & Pony Show. Surprise of surprises. When Brigham City residents showed up to ask hard questions and express their concerns, all they apparently got for their effort was a canned Godfrey sales pitch:

• Brigham City residents have plenty of questions at forum

It should come as no surprise to Ogden lumpencitizens, that Ms. Hyatt's Standard-Examiner story reports that "unasked questions" left Brigham City residents "disappointed' and  that "residents weren’t allowed to speak publicly." These "public forum" tactics come straight from the well-practiced Godfrey playbook, of course. It's "deja vu all over again," we swear.

Brigham City residents and elected officials had better wake up fast, and learn from the painful experience of Ogden City residents, wethinks.

"A fool and his money are soon parted," according to the old folk ax.

"$100,000 to analyze economic clusters, or groups of related businesses in specific industries whose collective experience and collaboration can provide a competitive business edge" ? What gibberish! Give the Brigham City lumpencitizens a friggin' break! 

Standard-Examiner: Brigham City Seeks Public's Opinions at Special Forum

Hold on tight and wait for the "developers in the wings but we cant tell you who" line of buffalo chips.

By Smaatguy

Anyone else nauseated by the article today on ole Matt taking the fine folks and taxpayers of Brigham City to the cleaners to the tune of $100 k?

• Brigham City seeks public's opinions at special forum

Sounds like a re-run of  North Ogden, Morgan and Ogden.

Hold on tight, Brigham City residents and wait for the "developers in the wings but we cant tell you who" line of buffalo chips.

Looking at the bright side, it appears that a few Brigham City residents are already "onto" Godfrey's heavy-handed, developer-friendly ways, such as  Becky Maddox, Deanna Hardy and Sherry Phipps, the latter of  whom points out that the constitution “doesn’t give government the right to pick and choose businesses.”

Interesting sidenote: Godfrey's original private sector entity, American Municipal Consultants, has now vanished from the web.

Standard-Examiner: North Ogden Hires Godfrey’s Firm for New Economic Development Plan

Conflict of interest? You be the judge

Just as gentle reader Smaatguy earlier predicted here at Weber County Forum, the Standard-Examiner reports this morning that North Ogden City has hired Boss Godfrey's whiz-bang, private economic development consulting firm, Better Cities, to "help vitalize the commercial district in North Ogden" at a cost to the North Ogden taxpayers of $38,000 over the next year:

• North Ogden hires Godfrey’s firm for new economic development plan

“I told them I would play Santa Claus and to give me their wish list, and we would see what we could do,” Godfrey said, possibly confusing the issue of who's truly acting the part of the real Santa Claus in this new scenario.

Earlier this month, the Standard revealed (and we reported), that Better Cities had reached a similar agreement with North Ogden's neighbor to the north, Box Elder County, once again provoking the ethical question which we raised in our 8//12 article update, "Under what circumstances, if any, would Godfrey's representation of multiple municipalities (or local government entities) along the Wasatch Front constitute a conflict of interest?"

 Conflict of  interest? You be the judge.

So what about it O Gentle Ones?  Is there an aspiring business ethics expert in the house?

Wednesday Morning Ogden City News Roundup - Updated

Ogden City weirdly gets set to ban profane language; and Box Elder County "ponies up" for its new "heretofore secret jobs creation weapon"

Amidst what we'd otherwise characterize as yet another slow news day, we'll shine the spotlight on a couple of news interesting items appearing in this morning's Standard-Examiner which nevertheless believe to be at least somewhat worthy of note:

1) Under a banner headline on the S-E front page this morning, we're greeted with this interesting story, indicating that our Ogden Recreation Division, perhaps feeling a mite under-utilized since the January departure of administrative department slave-driver Mayor Boss Godfrey, is setting forth on an ambitious project of its own, i.e., to clean up the "potty mouth" in Ogden City-owned parks, playgrounds or other recreational facilities:

• Use of profane language could soon be against the law at Ogden parks

Implementing such an ordinance will be easier said than done of course, inasmuch as any attempt by City Public Services Director Jay Lowder to regulate free speech runs the risk of stepping on the pesky  First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly "prohibits the making of any law...abridging the freedom of speech."  So in our never ending effort to keep our WCF readers informed of the operative issues, we'll present a couple of background First Amendement legal online resources which frame somewhat neatly what the Ogden City Council might -- and might not be able to lawfully do in the realm of anti-profanity legislation:

• Profanity & the First Amendment
• Federal judge: State can prohibit profanity on public highways

We'll be following this story as it develops, and wish the language-prudish  Mr. Lowder luck, noting the broad operative rule in American constitutional jurisprudence, that "[o]n its face, profane language is generally not a punishable form of speech. The exceptions discussed above are narrow in scope."

2) As a followup to Saturday's WCF article, which we characterized a "bad news for the Northern Utah jobs picture," the Standard carries another related story this morning, reporting on the bleak "jobs crisis" in Box Elder County, which had already "lost nearly 1,000 manufacturing jobs and about 300 public-sector jobs," even prior to last week's devastating ATK Space Systems NASA contract snub.

Not to worry, lumpencitizens of  Box Elder County.  Help is on the way.  According to this morning's S-E story, Box Elder County officials have appropriated a fair-sized wad of dough... and to top it all off, they have a heretofore secret jobs creation weapon!  Click the link below to learn all about it:

• $100,000 initiative started to bring jobs to Box Elder County

Yesiree folks! Looks like former Ogden Mayor Boss Godfrey has finally landed a lucrative public sector project, under the moniker Better Cities, now that he's all fully set up as a consultant in the private sector:

• bettercity.us - Solving problems. Creating opportunity.

Bonus question: Whatever happened to Godfrey's other company, American Municipal Consultants, which he formed a mere six or so months ago? It had an awfully short shelf life, or so it seems to us.

The floor's open for any WCF readers who'd like to help us out with any of the above.

Update 8/9/12 7:48 a.m.: One sharp-eyed reader informs us privately that Godfrey is beefing up his staff, and that he's also taken his his Bozo Act to Provo City:

• Job opportunity - Economic Development Consultant
• PROCEEDINGS OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL WORK SESSION 2 JUNE 5, 2012

Plainly said, now that Godfrey's "entered the private sector,"he's not letting any grass grow under his "tiny size 4-aaa feet."

Sodden query: Under what circumstances, if any, would Godfrey's representation of multiple municipalities along the Wasatch Front constitute a conflict of interest?

Standard-Examiner: Former Ogden Mayor to Help Morgan Lure a Hotel, "Boost" Economy

“He has the expertise to pull everything together and bring a hotel to town. He’s done it.”

On the heels of January's news that Matthew Godfrey has set up shop in the private sector with a private municipal consulting service, the Standard now announces that Godfry has booked his first paying gig:

• Former Ogden mayor to help Morgan lure a hotel, boost economy

“He has the expertise to pull everything together and bring a hotel to town. He’s done it,” sez Morgan City Councilman Ray Little (with a completely straight face).

Hold on tight to your wallets, Morgan City lumpencitizens. Your local economy is about to be boosted!

Godfrey and Reid Cash in With a Brand-new Business

Godfrey and Reid line up to "make hay"

Hey folks! Do you reside in a Utah community with a slightly embarrassing downtown retail area? Are you a small-town city official who's concerned that,"you know what we mean," that your town features some things definitely VERY embarrassing vistas, like a boring Main Street "style retail area" like this?

• Prairie Town

Thanks to a solid tip from yet another sharp-eyed and alert WCF reader, we're now in possession of some truly dynamite-like info about which we're just "champin' at the bit" to reveal...

Okay, here it is. Here's a link to Matthew Godfrey's new Miracle Business Consultation Website, wherein Ogden's little Ogden City Mayoral "shite" tries to cash in on his "lessons learned," whilst having screwed over the citizens of Ogden City for twelve friggin' years:

• Godfrey's American Municipal Consultants

And here's the added bonus if you sign up for Godfrey's "miracle" consultation site:

As night ineluctably follows the day, it seems Godfrey's old pal and mentor, the well-connected and politically powerful Senator Stuart Reid, is officially on Godfrey's payroll, according to Godfrey's website, apparently meaning that Godfrey's saying that "you can get anything you want," including a bought-and-paid-for Utah State Senator like Reid, at Matthew Godfrey's new "political consulting company."