Ogden Election Primary Post-mortem: Ya Gotta Love Dan Schroeder

Here's a great pre-primary analysis, via  Dan Schroeder, a semi-regular WCF contributor over the years, Let's just call this our Ogden City Primary Election post-mortem:

Ogden voters: Primary Election Day is Tuesday the 13th, and we have four candidates for mayor. Following the money, I've downloaded their campaign finance disclosure reports from the city's web site (https://ogdencity.com/208/Election-Information). Here are some details that I found notable. 

Incumbent Mike Caldwell began with nearly $20k left over from previous campaigns, and has raised an additional $15k. His largest contributors this year are the Northern Utah Realtors Association, R&O Construction, Robert Bolar, The McEntee Group, Jeanne Hall, and Kevin Garn. Contributions made through business entities are business-as-usual here in Utah but they raise ethical concerns: Are the donors committing tax fraud by writing off their political contributions as business expenses? And what favors do they expect from the mayor in return? Garn, meanwhile, is the confessed pedophile and disgraced ex-legislator from Davis County who developed Ogden’s Hilton Garden Inn (under a deal made with former mayor Godfrey), sub-contracting the concrete work to FLDS child abusers; what favors he may be seeking from the current mayor are anyone’s guess.

Challenger Angel Castillo has raised a little over $13k for her campaign. Of this, $4k came from Ogden restaurant owner Bec Sato, and another $2.7k came from 2015 mayoral candidate Sebastian Benitez, through his business (Intermountain Property Cleaning Service). The remainder came from a long list of smaller donors, some local but most from out of state--especially from Los Angeles, where Castillo herself lived until a year and a half ago. Perhaps the most interesting of her contributions was $100 from Chris Peterson, who set off the Ogden Gondola War of 2006 by proposing to acquire foothill property from the city and WSU, and to build a resort in Malan’s Basin. The address that Peterson provided is of a rented private mailbox in Evanston, Wyoming.

Challenger Daniel Tabish has been the biggest campaign spender so far: nearly $14k. But his $16k in contributions have come from only nine different individuals. More than $11k came from John, Johnny, and Dalton Gullo (all using the same address in Wyoming), obviously divided among the three of them to evade the $5000 individual contribution limit. John Gullo is a former Burger King franchise owner with a long history of local philanthropic activity, but apparently had a falling out with the current administration a few years ago. Tabish also received $2k from major gondola proponent Curt Geiger, and $1k each from David Stevenson and Dan Musgrave. Stevenson’s address is illegally omitted from Tabish’s disclosure form but he is probably the David Stevenson who practices law with former Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith. Musgrave is the former head of Downtown Ogden Inc. (the contractor that used to run downtown events for the city), and also owns a downtown reception center and a local Subway franchise. Perhaps I should also mention that Tabish has been endorsed by the notorious John Patterson, who served several years as Mayor Godfrey’s unscrupulous chief administrative officer.

Perennial candidate John Thompson has received no campaign contributions at all, but has spent $400 of his own money on advertising in the Standard-Examiner.

Pretty good eh?

Standard-Examiner: Caldwell, Castillo Come Away with the Most Votes in Ogden's Mayoral Primary

Keep your eyes on this space, Gentle Readers. 

Well... we've cleared the 2019 Ogden City primary, Ogden peeps, and the Standard-Examiner has the full story:  Read up, folks!

OGDEN — The race for mayor in Ogden was likely whittled to two candidates Tuesday night. Incumbent Mike Caldwell and challenger Angel Castillo took home and 44.7% and 28.34% of the vote respectively, according to unofficial results from the Weber County Elections Office. Tuesday night's results are still considered preliminary. The county says a results update will be posted Aug. 16 and official results will be presented by cities during their respective board of canvass meetings.If the results hold, candidates Daniel Tabish and John Thompson are out of the contest, after receiving 22.16% and 4.79% of the total votes, respectively. As of Tuesday night, 7,364 votes were cast in the mayor's race. Read the full story, peeps:

• Caldwell, Castillo come away with the most votes in Ogden's mayoral primary

Keep your eyes on this space, Gentle Readers.  We'll be closely following this exciting race into November of course.

2015 Ogden Municipal Election: Financial Disclosure Statements First Set

Here's hoping that the below information will be helpful to WCF political wonks who haven't alreaded submitted their mail-in ballots

With a little under five days running until the 2015 Ogden City Primary Election, we're delighted to provide the below linked financial disclosure statements, which were timely filed with the Ogden City election office on or about the below-indicated dates

Council Municipal Ward 4
Daniel Gladwell 08/04/15
Dori Mosher 08/04/15
Ben Nadolski 08/03/15
JH Thompson 08/03/15

Council At-Large Seat “C”
Eric Holmes 08/04/15
Vance Jay Jackson 08/04/15
Luis Lopez 08/03/15
John Ogden 08/03/15
Virginia Hernandez Reza 08/04/15

Please make note that the other candidates, Richard Hyer, Mike Caldwell, and Sebastian Benitez, do not have a primary race; therefore, they are not required to submit financial reports until August 31, 2015

Here's hoping that the above information will be helpful to WCF political wonks who haven't alreaded submitted their mail-in ballots.

We've already added these documents to our 2015 Candidate Roster, of course.

2015 Ogden City Municipal Election Special

The Race is on!.

We're happy this morning to provide, via the Ogden City Election website, the full list of Ogden City candidate hopefuls who've declared their candidacies for the 2015 Ogden City Municipal election races. Three of four open seats will be contested, and only one cansidate will walk onto the Ogden City Council by default. Even Mayor Mike will face a challenger:

Council Member – Municipal Ward 2
Richard Hyer - Unopposed
984 East 950 North
Ogden, UT 84404
801‐782‐2865 rich@hyerfamily.net

Council Member – Municipal Ward 4
Dori Stauffer Mosher
2459 Tyler Avenue
Ogden, UT 84401
801‐725‐4185 Dori4ogden@gmail.com

Ben Nadolski
3211 Taylor Avenue
Ogden, UT 84403
801‐643‐4953 ben4ogden@gmail.com

John H. Thompson
1506 24th Street
Ogden, UT 84401‐2906
801‐621‐1809 johnhthompson@aol.com

Daniel Gladwell
1330 Boughton Street
Ogden, UT 84403
801‐644‐7396 Daniel.gladwell@gmail.com

Council Member– At Large Seat C
Eric Holmes
2916 Brinker Avenue
Ogden, UT 84403
801‐540‐0079 ebholmesy@yahoo.com

Vance Jay Jackson
678 31st Street
Ogden, UT 84403
801‐989‐6309 vance.j.jackson@gmail.com

Luis Lopez
1110 Suncrest Drive
Ogden, UT 84404
801‐686‐5685 luislopezforcitycouncil@gmail.com

Virginia Hernandez Reza
2427 Jefferson Avenue
Ogden, UT 84401
801‐686‐4077 ogdenites2005@hotmail.com

John Ogden
4155 Edgehill Drive
Ogden, UT 84403
801‐458‐3948 john.ogden@dla.mil

Mayor
Mike Caldwell
1664 Cherokee Circle
Ogden, UT 84403
801‐689‐2675 mikecaldwell@hotmail.com

Sebastian Benitez
3310 Taylor Avenue
Ogden, UT 84403
801‐334‐0492 Sebasalicia@msn.com

Primary Election to be held August 11, 2015

General Election to be held November 3, 2015

Candidates listed in order according to the Master Ballot Position List as established by the Lt.Governor

Keep your eyes on Weber County Forum as the campaign season has now been launched. As per usual, we're fully resolved to provide the most robust 2015 Municipal Election coverage in the whole danged webosphere.

For more detailed information on these candidates, check out our "enhanced" 2015 Ogden Municipal Election Roster, which is also embedded in our right blog sidebar.Special thanks to Ogden City Recorder Tracy Hansen, for furnishing each candidate's Declaration of Candidacy, which documents are linked within this election sidebar feature.

Standard-Examiner Editorial - Our View: Keep Education Compulsory - Updated

"Making education for children an elective is dumb public policy," says the Standard-Examiner.

As a followup to our min-rant of July 14, wherein we slammed certain "right wing Utah hippie fruitcakes," who've been recently floating the idea of  "making Utah schools voluntary rather than compulsory," the Standard-Examiner carries a strong editorial in this morning's hard-copy edition, giving this knuckle-headed idea a no-nonsense thumbs-down: 

• Our View: Keep education compulsory

Coincidentally and parenthetically, The Salt Lake Tribune also chimes in this morning with a similar take:

• Not optional

Of course in our view, the Standard and the Trib editorial boards get it pretty much exactly right.

As Ogden City Council candidate Stephen Thompson succinctly opined during last Wednesday night 's Meet the Candidates event, abandoning compulsory education would be a sure-fire way to turn the U.S.A. into a "third world country," a sentiment with which we also heartily agree.

As an added bonus, here's a rippingly-good Youtube video, provided by yet another sharp-eyed and alert WCF reader, who helpfully furnishes this introduction: "Best argument for compulsory education yet. Every student returning to school should watch this motivating video, along with every tax payer that is paying for that education. Thanks John Green. Not only a great author, but a philosopher and poet as well":


"Making education for children an elective is one of those ideas that is great fodder for a several-hour bull session with other political junkies. But it’s dumb public policy, and we trust that the vast majority of Utah Legislature are wise enough to deflate this balloon," says the Standard-Examiner.

We couldn't be more in agreement.

So what about it, O Gentle Readers?  Is Utah Senator Aaron Osmond simply "batshit crazy," or is he merely trying to start an intelligent discussion, as the Trib half-heartedly suggests?

Update 7/22/13 8:43 a.m.:  Another humdinger of a story from the Trib this morning. Senator Osmond, "like his predecessor Chris Buttars, he has become a tool for the Utah Eagle Forum and like-minded extremists," reports blue-chip columnist Paul Rolly:

• Rolly: Sen. Aaron Osmond has drunk the Kool-Aid

A Weber Count Forum Tip O' The Hat to the ever-savvy WCF Reader Lisa, who made the inititial call.

Salt Lake Tribune: Ogden’s 8 Mayoral Hopefuls Vary Widely in Donor Dollars - Updated

For more detail, be sure to check out our brand spankin' new 2011 Ogden Municipal Election campaign financial disclosure page

For those who might have been unaware of today's important Ogden City Municipal Election deadline, we'll inform you that the first set of Mayoral and Council Campaign Financial Disclosure Statements were due for filing by 5:00 this afternoon. In that connection, The Salt Lake Tribune's Cathy McKitrick has been doing some fancy reportorial footwork, obtained a full set of these duly-filed documents from Cindi Mansell's Ogden City Recorder's Office, and appears to be the first Ogden Political Beat reporter already out of the chute and providing informative reporting and analysis on the subject:

• Ogden’s 8 mayoral hopefuls vary widely in donor dollars

The Tribune also provides a handy summary in The Trib's left sidebar:

Campaign cash: how the dollars stack up in Ogden’s mayoral race:
Jonny Ballard » Not yet posted on the city’s website.
Mike Caldwell » Received $45,414, spent $20,302, cash on hand $25,211
Jason Goddard » Received $13,400, spent $9,376, cash on hand $4,074
Neil Hansen » Received $6,395, spent $6,221, cash on hand $174.30
Brandon Stephenson » Received $19,450, spent $16,659, cash on hand $2,791
John H. Thompson » Received $0, spent $2,333
Susie Van Hooser » Received $10,035, spent $6,213, cash on hand $3,941
Steven Van Wagoner » Received $2,702, spent $1,614, cash on hand $1,088

But for those readers who'd like to submit the full array of this afternoon's newly filed Candidate Financial Disclosure Statements (both mayoral and city council) to a little more detailed and careful scrutiny, check out our brand spankin' new 2011 Ogden Municipal Election campaign financial disclosure page to find out, among other things, who the heck paid for that mind-boggling multitude of Mike Caldwell lawn signs which have recently popped up all over Ogden City:

• 2011 Ogden Municipal Election Contribution and Expenditure Forms - All Offices

We've also placed these forms in our right sidebar election module (and within each candidate's individual WCF candidate information page) for your convenient future reference, folks. Cathy McKitrick's not the only one who's worked their fingers to the bone to promptly get you the information you need regarding today's campaign finance disclosure documents... of that, we can assure you.

That's it for now folks.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

9/8/11 8:11 a.m.: The Standard is now carrying Scott Schwebke's writeup:

• Ogden mayoral candidates file campaign finance reports

2011 Ogden City Municipal Primary Voting Guide

Weber County Forum Special Guest Commentary
Giving a voice to Northern Utah’s diverse community

I know all the “Godfrey Voters” are out there waiting for our mayor to write in and tell them who to vote for. Well, since Godfrey dropped out this year, our ruling elite decided to get somebody a little smarter to do the job, namely me.

Let me introduce myself: My name is Chester Hop-a-long, and I have only recently assumed the stool of leadership of Ogden’s oligarch elite, known as the Government Business Partnership, or GBP.

For 12 years, we, your leaders, have suckled at the taxpayer teat provided so willingly and energetically by our beloved benefactor, the otherwise incompetent Matthew Godfrey. But with the coming election, this teat could be yanked away, just like my mother’s was all those years ago. So yes, if I look serious and sound crabby, it’s because I am. Yet, we must find a way to survive this brush fire. This election is for all the coconuts, so let’s all grab a vine, and swing right into the candidates. There are a lot of them, so we’ll have to pick through a lot of fur to find the best nits this year.

Jonny “The Bureaucrat” Ballard

If you don’t understand what “tax increment” is, let me explain it to you. Let’s say you fix up a property. After that, you pay more property tax on it, right? Now let’s say, I fix up a property. What the city does in MY case, is they add up how much my extra property tax will be for the next 20 years. Then they borrow the full amount from a bank, and GIVE the money to ME! Instead of going to the city, county, and schools, all that tax money for 20 years goes straight into MY pocket UP FRONT! Sweet! Even better, these insider deals generate money for city bureaucrats who grease the whole thing up so the public will swallow it! Now guess who one of those bureaucrats is! That’s right, Jonny “The Bureaucrat” Ballard. Hey, listen to this guy describe tax increment sometime, and he’ll make you think it’s as wholesome as HE LOOKS! This guy is smooth, and slicker than 10 miles of black ice! You want to make me happy? Vote for this guy! Make my day! Then check out his website. If you can decipher what this guy stands for, give my tail a little yank and let me know. He’s a platitude machine. And check out the Burt Reynolds impersonation he does all the time. It’s awesome!

Mike “Committee” Caldwell

Mike looks like the “chairman of the board”, doesn’t he? And he’s a dead ringer for this drill sergeant, huh? “Committee Caldwell” is very smooth, except when somebody tries to pin him down on issues, which makes him uncomfortable. But the naysayers did just that at a recent debate, making him answer yes/no questions. A lot of them didn’t like his answers too much. But since nobody on this blog will vote for him anyway, I might as well let the cat out of the bag. “Committee Caldwell” is our stealth candidate this year. Check it out. He’s on practically every crony committee in the city (thus his nickname) and he likes tax increment financing. And he works for the county. Go to his website and you’ll see another list of non-specific feel good platitudes written by our cronies. Then ask yourself whether he’ll be listening to YOUR input, or whether being on all those committees with my cronies, he’ll be listening to OURS. You want input? I don’t NEED no stinking input!

Jason “Elmer” Goddard

Let’s be honest. Is this guy a “Jason”, or is he an “Elmer”? Am I right? Next time you see him, call him “Elmer” and see what he does.
And remember what I said about platitudes? Check out this guy’s website. His website is pure, distilled boredom, and long winded to boot. And check out how many of these geniuses want to fix “education” even thought the mayor has NOTHING TO DO with education. For instance, read this, from Elmer’s campaign page: “What about our schools? Isn’t that outside the realm of a mayor? Shouldn’t that be the responsibility of the School Board? Does not an educated workforce positively correlate with economic development? All three answers are ‘yes.’”

So far so good, right? Then Elmer says this, “The time has come to sit down with our educators to create a plan to elevate our schools.” There you have it. Elmer sounded clued in, then clued out, right in the same paragraph. This guy should debate HIMSELF more often! On the other hand, he’s also for tax increment. Hey, dummies! It looks like we got this race covered!

Neil “Jake” Hansen

Moviegoers will remember when Neil played Jake Blues, in the 70’s movie The Blues Brothers, under his stage name “John Belushi”. (Just kidding.) Seriously though, Neil was a state representative who introduced some popular, public-minded legislation before his constituents voted him out. And Neil has run for Ogden mayor more times than Oprah has gone on a new diet. And just like Oprah, it never works. Here’s to you, Neil. Good luck next time, and next, and next…..

Brandon “Mini Matt” Stephenson

Anybody else thinks Brandon looks like “George”, the neurotic loser from television’s Seinfeld? People say that to me about Brandon all the time. But that’s not important. What is important is that YOU MUST VOTE FOR BRANDON!


We call him “Mini Matt”, because in 12 years of Godfrey, Brandon has voted with him something like 99.9999% of the time. This guy is closer to Godfrey than Godfrey’s underwear. He’s like a balder, taller, dumber, less energetic version of our beloved mayor. And do stop by his website. The only thing he does to let on that he’s our guy, is to say he wants “partnering with business” – sweet, sweet words to my furry ears. It means taxpayers provide cash and take risk, while cronies lap up any profits. I love Mini Matt. I would personally get down and beg you to vote for this man if I was in front of you, which of course, I’m not.

John “CC” Thompson

You’ve theorized. You’ve wondered. And you’ve asked. Now you KNOW. Yes! Ogden is where Santa Claus lives in the off season! His friends call him Chris, as in Cringle, or just “CC” for short. But seriously, if you want to run for mayor, maybe look the part, maybe, I don’t know, cut off the 30 years of hair growth from when you first went into the cave? I’m sure he’s a great guy. Who needs to look like you’re running for mayor? Just pay the 25 bucks and put your name in, right? But do talk to him sometime. He wants to leave all decision making up to the city council. Here’s an idea “CC” – how about if we leave the decision making up to somebody else, by just electing somebody else?

Susie “Sunburn” VanHooser

And now, without further ado, we get to the first of the “Vans”, with Susan VanHooser. I will make very little commentary on this appalling woman. I merely quote, verbatim, from her website. “We must protect our open space and I will not encourage additional housing projects in our foothills. In fact I will oppose any. This open space has been a major reason we are the gateway to Wasatch Front. It is a major economic draw and I think working with foundations and others, it is in the best interest of the city to ensure this area is purchased from private landowners and preserved through some trust or foundation.” And then this, “Our most successful downtown business core however, is built around 25th and Union Station! We didn’t need a lot of tax dollars to make this area work and local business paid for most of it. The rest came from a special improvement district.”

Let me ask a question: So then how can we develop our economy if she won’t let us rape the mountains, or the taxpayers??? So then who, exactly, CAN we rape? Hmmmm? No answer? Is that crickets I hear chirping? If this woman won’t rape the land or the taxpayers, it’s “game over” for us cronies. She talks about “foundations”. Who does she think is the “foundation” of our economy? Godfrey knew. Everyone knows. The crony network is the foundation!! WE ARE the foundation! If this woman will stop us from raping, then SHE must be stopped! And one more vital point: The woman clearly has a sunburn in this picture. Do you really want someone with a sunburn as mayor? I didn’t think so.

Steven “Stevie V” Van Wagoner

What need I say about this guy? Go to his campaign site and read some of it. He hangs himself. Again, I need only quote, “It is time to stop government competition with locally owned businesses. Our city must end participation in countless projects where we have no business spending tax dollars or focusing government efforts. Our city must stop the practices adopted as of recent of being the Real Estate Agent, Land Developer, and guarantor of leases and loans for private businesses to take risk at the expense of the community. No government at any level has ever been successful at picking winners and losers in a free market system. Artificial economic growth is neither smart nor sustainable. We need to let our free market take the natural course where the winners will be rewarded based on good old fashioned hard work and not an association to certain clicks (sic).”

I was flinging my own feces around in my cage for a full 15 minutes when I read that paragraph. How do you expect me, and my cronies on the GBP, to thrive if we have to compete in a free market? And if we don’t survive, where will you find your natural born leaders? On the other hand, if you ask Stevie V in person, it turns out he’s actually FOR a lot of government projects. In fact, most of his positions, if you ask him, involve the government spending more and doing more. We are confident this wet-behind-the-ears mayoral wannabe – Stevie V – will do what he’s told, if the time comes. Hey that’s catchy: “Stevie V – mayor wannabe.” I’m a genius.

In Summary

Just remember one thing: I’m telling you to vote for Brandon Stephenson! If not him, then go with Jonny Ballard. Hey, I may be rich, but I gotta keep my gravy train running, you know? Either of these guys will take your open space and your tax dollars, funnel both to me and my cronies, and make me feel as good as I do after a Sunday afternoon tick shampoo and blow dry. Ahhhh …. so gooood.

And now I see one of my girls is coming in to comb me, so I don’t have time to talk about the city council candidates except to say this: whatever you do, don’t vote for Jennifer Neil or Amy Wicks. These are independent minded people, just what I don’t need. And now, dear friends, they’ve changed the paper in my cage and so I think I’ll take a little nap. The primary is September 13, 2011. Get out and vote, you naysayers. And do as you’re told for once, okay?

All Eight Ogden Mayoral Candidates To Participate In August 24 Forum

For Immediate Release -- 18 August 2011
Contact: Dan Schroeder 801-xxx-xxxx

ALL EIGHT OGDEN MAYORAL CANDIDATES TO PARTICIPATE IN AUGUST 24 FORUM

All eight of Ogden’s candidates for mayor will participate in a public forum to be held Wednesday, August 24, beginning at 6:30 pm in the Browning Auditorium at Ogden’s historic Union Station. Everyone is invited to attend. After a half hour of informal mingling with the public, the candidates will address the assembly and answer moderated questions from 7:00 until 8:30.

The Browning Auditorium is located at the north end of Union Station, on Wall Avenue at 25th Street.

Kimbal Wheatley, a professional facilitator who lives in Ogden Valley, will moderate the forum.

The event is sponsored by the Ogden Ethics Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes better ethics in Ogden City government. At the forum, candidates will have a chance to express their views not only on ethics but also on the full range of issues that concern Ogden citizens: taxes and fees, debt reduction, downtown development, job creation, transportation, recreation, land use, public safety, and more.

The event’s organizers are compiling a list of prepared questions for the candidates, with input from a wide spectrum of community organizations and stakeholders. Audience members at the event will also have a chance to submit questions.

The eight candidates for Mayor of Ogden are Jonny Ballard, Mike Caldwell, Jason Goddard, Neil Hansen, Brandon Stephenson, John H. Thompson, Susan "Susie" Van Hooser, and Steven Van Wagoner. Basic information about the candidates is summarized in the program for Wednesday's forum, available at http://ogdenethics.org/campaign2011/MayorForumProgram.pdf

A similar forum for Ogden city council candidates will be held one week later, August 31, at the same place and time.

To learn more about the Ogden Ethics Project, please visit www.ogdenethics.org

Salt Lake Tribune: Some Object to Candidate-sponsored Forums

Five mayoral candidates have said they either cannot or will not attend tomorrow night's candidate debate

By Curmudgeon

The Salt Lake Tribune has a story up this morning reporting that five of the candidates for mayor will not attend tomorrow night's candidate debate, organized by Candidate Wagoner. Who will be there? From the story:

Ogden resident John Thompson, along with former state Rep. Neil Hansen, plans to join Van Wagoner for Thursday’s forum. "Regardless of who’s sponsoring the forum, we have an obligation to be there and speak to the voters," Hansen said.

Link here:

• Some object to candidate-sponsored forums

Three Ogden City Mayoral Candidate Debates Coming Up Prior To The 9/13/11 Primary - Updated

Plenty of chances for Ogden political wonks to take a good long look at all eight Ogden City mayoral candidates prior to the September 13 primary

In connection with our ongoing 2011 Ogden City Municipal Election, we're pleased to post this press release, which we received from mayoral candidate Steve Van Wagoner's campaign this morning, concerning the scheduling of three pre-primary election mayoral candidate debates, the first of which is set for Thursday, August 11, 2011:

Ogden City “First Mayoral Debate”

Ogden, Utah (August 03, 2011) –After the success of the last event “Meet your next Mayor”, held on July 28, 2011, a second event was agreed to by the seven candidates in attendance and on August 11th the candidates will meet again. Save the date because you will not want to miss this first election debate.

Thursday August 11, 2011 from 5:30 -7:30 PM the “First Mayoral Debate” will be held in the Lecture Hall in the Business Building, Room #BU162 at OWATC located at 200 North Washington Blvd, Ogden, UT 84404. The candidates will meet again for the “First Mayoral Debate” organized by the Vote Van Wagoner campaign. It will be an informal setting for the citizens to have their questions answered by all of the candidates. Once again we have invited all registered candidates and the community to come and meet the candidate(s) for the Ogden City Mayoral election scheduled for September 13, 2011.

Questions will be presented by the community and asked through a neutral moderator from out of the area. Each candidate will be given a one minute opportunity to answer the questions. The goal is for the citizens to ask the important questions that they want to know about and the focus will be on every aspect of Ogden City.

We look forward to full participation with the community, the candidates, and the press. The following candidates confirmed on July 28 that they would be willing to participate: Brandon Stephenson, Neil Hansen, Mike Caldwell, Susan Van Hooser, Jason Goddard, John Thompson, and Steven Van Wagoner.

You will also want to save the date of August 24, 2011 for the second debate organized by the Ogden Ethics Project. This debate will be held in the Browning Theater at Union Station from 6:30-8:30 PM.

We would also like to ask any willing organizations and citizens within Ogden City to help by sponsoring and/or hosting the third debate tentatively scheduled for September 01, 2011. We seek public input. The date may change but we hope this will help make all candidates feel comfortable and get everyone in Ogden City involved in our democracy.

Once again join the candidates on August 11, 2011 for the first Ogden City mayoral debate.

Steven Van Wagoner
Candidate for Mayor of Ogden City
(801)414-5773
www.voteVanWagoner.com

Be sure to mark your calenders, folks. It appears that Ogden City political wonks will have plenty of chances prior to the September 13 primary election to take a good long look at all eight Ogden City mayoral candidates.
Update 8/6/11 10:21 a.m.: Oops! Looks like it might be "back to the drawing board" for Steve Van Wagoner's August 11 debate event. Per the ever-alert Dan S.: "Looks like only half the candidates will be at the August 11 debate:

• Ogden mayoral candidates object to debate

Of course candidate squabbles over Ogden Municipal Election debate sponsorship, rules and format are really nothing new. In the interest of maximizing the number of opportunities for Emerald City voters to observe mayoral candidates to "strut their stuff" however, we'd hoped all candidates would ignore any irregularities and just go along with a sponsorship which candidate Neil Hansen rightly refers to as "unusual." Alas, it appears Ogden voters will have no such luck, and that at least four candidates will "play it by the standard candidate strategy book."

Update 8/10/11 9:00 a.m.: the SL Trib has a story up this reporting that five of the candidates for mayor will not attend the candidate forum organized by Candidate Waggoner. Who will be there? here's the story:

• Some object to candidate-sponsored forums

Veterans Day Special

Whatever you do today, please at least take a moment to thank those who have served... and be sure to fly your flag

It's Veterans Day 2010, folks, so we'll post a couple Veteran's Day topical items from the Standard-Examiner, just to set the proper celebratory tone.

The Standard has a fine editorial up this morning, calling upon all of us "to remember [not only today but every day] the sacrifices our veterans have made for us and those sacrifices that our soldiers are enduring today":

• OUR VIEW: Honoring our veterans

And here's a truly stirring morning guest commentary piece from your blogmeister's old friend, the inimitable former U.S. Marine John Thompson:

• Appreciating honor

If you're looking for something memorable to do this afternoon, by the way, in honor of our local veterans, why not drive out to the George E. Wahlen Ogden Veterans Home this p.m. (as the Standard editorial suggests) to participate in the dedication of the newly installed "Veterans Tribute Clock/Bell Tower":

• Clock tower at Ogden nursing home to be dedicated on Veterans Day

But whatever you do today, please at least take a moment to thank those who have served... and be sure to fly your flag, along with some fantastic pics.

Update 11/12/10 9:30 a.m.: For those who missed yesterday's George E. Wahlen Ogden Veterans Home bell tower dedication, here's the post-event story from the Standard-Examiner, which also includes some pretty fine pics.

• Veterans clock tower dedicated

Weber County 9/12 Project "Meet the Candidates Night" Set for 9/22/10

This event is open to the public and is the first of at least three scheduled to occur prior to the November 2nd elections

By Clark Roberts

The Weber County 9/12 Project is pleased to host a Meet the Candidate Night for all candidates running for Weber County Offices:

When: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 7:00 PM
Where: Christian Heritage High School, 5120 South 1050 West, Riverdale, UT 84405

This "Meet The Candidate Night" is open to the public and is the first of at least three scheduled to occur prior to the November 2nd elections.

This first Meet the Candidate Night will give you the chance to meet those individuals running for Weber County offices. Each Candidate will be given the opportunity to speak briefly (4 minutes each) to the audience and when everyone has finished, you can mingle and greet the candidates as you see fit. The following candidates will be represented:

John B. Bond (Republican) – County Treasurer
Kerry W. Gibson (Republican) - County Commissioner, Seat B
Debbie A. Hansen (Democratic) – County Recorder/Surveyor
Ricky Hatch (Republican) – County Clerk/Auditor
Drew Johnson (unaffiliated) – County Commissioner, Seat A
T.R. Morgan (Democratic) - County Commissioner, Seat A
Ernest D. Rowley (Republican) – County Recorder/Surveyor
Terry L. Thompson (Republican) – County Sheriff
John Ulibarri (Republican) – County Assessor
Teresa Yorgason (Democratic) – County Clerk/Auditor
Jan M. Zogmaister (Republican) - County Commissioner, Seat A
Amy L. Wicks (Democratic) - County Commissioner, Seat B.

Gary Haws (Democratic) - County Sheriff was extended the invitation to participate, but he was not able to do so.
Dee Smith (Democratic) - County Attorney was extended the invitation to participate, but he was not able to do so.

While you may attend without an RSVP, an RSVP is appreciated to ensure that we can accommodate all who wish to participate. You may RSVP to this Meetup: W912 Meet The Candidate Night

Future Meet The Candidate Nights will focus on candidates for State of Utah offices and candidates for US Congressional offices.

You can learn more about Weber County 9/12 Project and upcoming events at our website: www.weber912.com.

Weber County Forum 10/7/10 Jackass Writeup

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

W.B. Yeats
THE SECOND COMING
(1865-1939)

Sorry folks. Your blogmeister took the day off today to do three daytrades, which netted him a tidy profit, in the wake of yesterday's Stock Market Klusterfluck.

Anyway, your blogmeister is back now, with a news roundup of a few of the totally weird stories which were posted on the internet today, whilst your blogmeister was busy trading in the Wall Street Casino. As my old pal Hunter S. Thompson used to say: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

Here is one of a few of the odditities your blogmeister found today, for starters, after making three day-trading "killings" in today's and yesterday's "disarrayed" market trading:

1) You gotta love this racist asshole. He goes off on a complete racist rant, and then turns pale, realizing he forgot to breathe while his buddies were taping his too long prolonged B.S.:

• America Treats Americans Like Crap...

Whew! Scary, no?

2) This one definitely scares the crap outta us:

• Copy Machines, a Security Risk?

Crush your old copy machines, people. If you fail to do this, they will no doubt snitch on you.

3) Hyperbolic? We're not entirely sure, based on the recent mal-performance of world financial markets:

• John Williams: A Hyper-Inflationary Great Depression Is Coming

We dunno, people... but we'll say again that we believe that perhaps all we good LDS people should take a second and more serious look at long-term food storage... you know...just in case...

There's even more possibly to come, shortly. Be sure to check back for further updates.

Let's just say that we're now on a roll.

Standard-Examiner: Jon Greiner/Hatch Act Redux

Plenty of good lumpencitizen common sense is displayed on the SE editorial pages this morning

The problem was that if you take, use, oversee, and deal with federal dollars, the feds get to make the rules. If you don't want those dollars, the rules don't apply. You do want them, you have to follow the rules, especially if you're a chief of a police department.

Standard-Examiner Guest Commentary
Column on Hatch Act was off the mark
May 2, 2010

This appeal will further waste money, which Ogden really can not afford and it ranks with the passage this year of several bills by the state legislature that will end up in the courts, and which the state of Utah will lose. As much as we don't like it, federal law trumps state law, and it would be much more realistic and economical to grasp that point sooner rather than later.

Standard-Examiner Reader Letter
Appeal of Hatch Act ruling will further waste money
May 2, 2010

Sensible John Thompson guest editorial this morning, springboarding off last Tuesday's guest commentary, wherein regular Standard-Examiner guest contributor Neil Humphrey had groused about the federal Office of Special Council's recently zealous Hatch Act enforcement in the Jon Greiner matter:

• Column on Hatch Act was off the mark

One thing we really appreciate in Emerald City's perennial political candidate, John Thompson... his uncanny ability to drill down the the essential facts and principles, and to not allow himself to get distracted by the collateral B.S.

And while we're on the topic of Jon Greiner and the Hatch Act, here's another sensible SE reader letter with a similar argument, which also appears on this morning's editorial page:

• Appeal of Hatch Act ruling will further waste money

Plenty of good lumpencitizen common sense is displayed on the SE editorial pages this morning.

What a shame that we find none of this in Ogden City Hall.

Standard-Examiner: OUR VIEW: Mayor's Salary Not Top Priority

Your WCF blogmeister admits he's stumped, and poses a sincere reader query

Interesting example of how something which we believe was really a non-story has proliferated out of all reasonable proportion on the pages of the Standard-Examiner (and elsewhere) during the past week.

Last Sunday the SE published this story, reporting that four so-called Ogden "business leaders," (all FOM's*) were floating an informal trial balloon, seeking to raise the mayor's salary to attract high-caliber candidates for the 2011 election.

In the ensuing few days this story provoked this Cindy Hellewell letter to the editor and this John Thompson guest commentary, not to mention this WCF article, which itself generated 44 reader comments. Thanks to the Standard-Examiner's original story, what started out as a fairly feeble proposal built up quite a head of steam.

And this morning, the Standard-Examiner perpetuates the discussion and carries the below-linked lead editorial, reiterating some of the arguments of the above two SE reader-contributors, and making a few additional points of its own. But in the end, the Standard-Examiner editorial board urges everyone to place this issue squarely where we believe it belongs -- well back on the Emerald City political priority back burner:

• OUR VIEW: Mayor's salary not top priority

So in the wake of a week's worth of sturm and drang, we're still scratching our heads wondering why this story commanded the SE's attention in the first place, inasmuch as Boss Godfrey plainly admits he's not seeking a pay raise. Here's the money quote, by the way, as set forth in the original 11/14/09 SE article:

Mayor Matthew Godfrey, who is in his third term, said if he decides to run again in 2011 and is re-elected, he would refuse a pay raise and instead keep his current $80,294 annual salary."
I knew what the salary would be (when first elected in 1999) and don't think it's right to get a pay raise," he said.

In the interest of promoting a little Sunday reader discussion, we'll admit we're stumped, and ask the question again: What was it about this story that generated so much SE ink and SE/WCF reader attention?

The floor's yours, O Gentle Ones.

Who will be the first to comment?

-----
*Friends of Matt

Powder Mountain Development Update: Is Legislative Leadership Dragging its Feet?

The clock keeps ticking while remedial legislation reportedly gathers dust on some lawyer's desk

The Powder Mountain town incorporation story is once again on the Standard-Examiner front page this morning, with a well-crafted article by Marshall Thompson, providing updated information on the heroic effort of our Weber County neighbors in Ogden Valley to prevent a fair sized portion portion of the area's unincorporated neighborhood from being gobbled up by Utah's newest developer-controlled company town.

Today's article emphasises the tight timeline now bearing down upon these valiant folks. While the Powder Mountain developer still remains optomistic that town incorporation could be achieved within two weeks' time, the two remedial bills which would thwart the develeloper's backhanded efforts have more or less stalled in the legislature. The Ogden Valley citizen activists grow suspicious:

“I think it’s being held up, and it’s moving slower than it should,” said Richard Sorensen, a Huntsville Town Council member who helped pass a resolution opposing the massive development last year.

And those suspicions are certainly NOT unfounded:

One unforeseen problem was that Senate President John L. Valentine, R-Orem, and Speaker of the House Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, both described the proposed amendments as unfair to developers and pledged to delay their passage. [Emphasis ours].

While "freshman" House District 8 state representative Froerer attributes the legislative delays to to the tight scrutiny being given to the text of the two bills by the legislature's legislative attorney staff, we're not quite sure we're ready to swallow that entirely.

Speaker Curtis "declared in January that he has a conflict of interest when it comes to land issues because his law firm represents several developers." So why, we ask, does he seem to be dragging his feet? Why hasn't he handed it off to somebody else in House leadership who doesn't have a conflict? Our BS-O-Meter is jumping off-scale even as we feverishly post his blog entry on our keybord. Somebody needs to build a fire under his and President Valentine's feet.

One possible way to do that, we think, is to sign the petition, folks.

In the event you haven't done that already... you can find it here. As mentioned in today's Std-Ex article, over 300 Utah residents have already jumped aboard (339, to be exact, as of the time of this posting). And for the most up-to-date news on this topic, we remind you to check out Ogden Valley Forum. Lots of good information on this subject there.

On the other hand... if you'd like to see Ogden Valley become the next Park City... ignore this article (and the petition) entirely.

Comments, anyone?

Update 2/14/08 9:55 a.m. MT: Whilst reading through some of the excellent material on Ogden Valley Forum this morning we stumbled upon this wonderful article, reporting on one of the developer's "sales meetings" which are being held to beat down small groups of Ogden Valley residents one by one. The article provides some good analysis and also provides at least a glimpse of the aggressive evil corporate foe that Ogden Valley residents are up against. We're pretty sure the author won't mind our taking this liberty. (The article was "broken at the fold," and difficult to link, so we just unceremoniously copied it to our own storage site.) Read up, gentle readers. You won't believe your own eyes at the audacity of these Powder Mountain development folks.

We'll also note that we've now added a direct graphic link to the Powder Mountain petition in our right sidebar.

Don't Get Your Panties in a Bunch

An admonition against knee-jerk reactions

We find three very interesting items in this morning's Standard-Examiner, the most interesting of which by far is this morning's Ace Reporter Schwebke story, reporting that the Utah ACLU is in the process of preparing a GRAMA documents production request, in connection with its ongoing investigation of voting irregularities in last month's mayoral election. We incorporate here the lead paragraphs of this morning's story:

OGDEN — The ACLU says it will file a public records request in the next several days because its attempt to investigate complaints of voting irregularities in last month’s Ogden mayoral election has been rebuffed by the Weber County Clerk’s Office.
The records request will be made to obtain information from Weber County Clerk/Auditor Alan D. McEwan, who has "refused" to meet with ACLU officials until mid-December, said Marina Lowe, staff attorney for the ACLU of Utah, based in Salt Lake City.
McEwan’s apparent unwillingness to talk with the ACLU about the integrity of the election is perplexing, Lowe said.
“I’m surprised he’s not willing to have a forthright discussion with us,” she said in a Tuesday phone interview.
McEwan could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Schwebke's article goes on to extract language from Mr. McEwan's November 20 press statement, which could lead the cynical among us to conclude that Mr. McEwan's office is stonewalling the ACLU:

However, in a written statement issued on issued last week, McEwan said his office doesn’t intend 'to expend further county resources and taxpayer dollars to appease a very few disgruntled people who have their own agendas or selfserving issues.'

We live in a political climate, gentle readers, wherein it seems we're all inclined to project the most sinister possible motives upon any public official who doesn't immediately come forth to demonstrate a commitment to open and transparent government. We're usually well aboard that bandwagon ourselves. In this instance however, we'll urge our readers to avoid drawing negative conclusions regarding this story until all facts are out in the open -- which they will be very soon. All we can say at this time is that we are in possession of information, obtained confidentially, which will make Mr. McEwan's knee-jerk detractors feel pretty silly once the true facts are revealed. For now you'll have to take our word for it, and we therefore urge you all to try to avoid "getting your panties in a bunch."

We'll also briefly highlight a story from the Std-Ex "Outdoors" section, entitled "Ogden Ice Tower plans taking shape," wherein Robert Johnson reports "somebody" (the Std-Ex doesn't precisely specify whom) will soon be erecting a giant freezer building on the corner of 25th and Kiesel avenue, to enclose Jeff Lowe's giant one of a kind Ice Tower. From this article we get these perplexing and paradoxical quotes:

“On all sides, except for fundraising, things are going well,” Ogden Chief Administrative Officer John Patterson said.
The final cost for the tower is still to be determined, but is estimated to be just more than $1 million. RAMP funds will contribute $200,000, but must be used within one year of the date issued unless an extension is granted.
Private donations from Lowe total about $100,000, according to Patterson. Ogden City is contributing $50,000 and an unnamed foundation may offer $250,000, although the foundation has not yet committed, according to Patterson.
Patterson is not worried about the progress of the tower and is confident that it will be built.
“It is going to go up. It will be built,” Patterson said. “It has the ability to pay for itself.”

From the forgoing it seems quite clear to us that this project bears the stamp of the always-optimistic Boss Godfrey Administration. These jokers have no clear idea how much it will cost or where the funding will come from... yet people like John Patterson are confident it will "pay for itself." And we're also wondering aloud: How did $200,000 in RAMP funds get committed to this project?

Hooboy.

Finally, we'll briefly put the spotlight on this morning's Std-Ex article, wherein Marshall Thompson reports that the Powder Mountain expansion project, a project designed to build out the largest ski area in America, has temporarily stalled. And while the folks in Weber and Cache counties debate the merits of another mega-ski area, we in Ogden City will soon be focused again on our own home town "rinky-dink" resort.

Yes gentle readers, we are informed this morning by several reliable sources that Boss Godfrey has put Chris Peterson's "Malan's Basin" project (and his accompanying gondola systems) "back on the table." According to reliable sources, Boss Godfrey broke this good news to council chairman Garcia earlier this week, and Garcia passed this information on the council last night.

Perhaps that would explain the helicopters which have been buzzing around Malan's Peak for the past couple of days, with a passenger, plainly identifiable in the passengers' seat, wearing a Patagonia vest.

Update 11/29/07 10:16 a.m. MT: Ace reporter Schwebke this morning corroborates yesterday's report, i.e., that Boss Godfrey's Malan's Basin Resort/Gondola obsession still remains on the table -- we think. Strangely, Boss Godfrey admits that "the gondola" is still "on the radar," but denies he ever had a conversation on the subject with council chair Garcia. Is Godfrey suggesting Garcia made the whole thing up? Weird -- even for the sometimes "reality-challenged" Boss Godfrey.

Three Interesting Stories for an Emerald City Sunday Afternoon

Plus a few words about the Utah GOP's weird "Voucher Obsession."

Although we'd planned to lazily cruise through the whole weekend on the strength of yesterday's open thread, the hard-working crews on the top three three northern Utah newspapers wouldn't permit that. We thus link today's three breaking Emerald-City-significant stories below:

1) This from our lower article comments section, courtesy of gentle reader Ogden Lover: "Wow! Rebecca Walsh has done a superlative analysis of our Mayoral election in today's SL Trib. Standard Examiner, this is what you should be doing!"

We thank OgdenLover for the story tip. As Emerald City post election 2007 articles go, we consider Ms. Walsh's piece to be the Gold Standard so far.

2) Gentle reader Sharon tips us off to this morning's Deseret News Godfrey fluff masterpiece, in which the "thrifty" little bounder who drives the '92 Nissan overcompensates for his personal financial prudence, by spending the taxpayers' money (other peoples' money) like a drunken sailor. Perhaps the amateur psychologists in our midst will step up today and explain Boss Godfrey's possibly "schizoid" behavior.

3) For those readers still fixated on the nuts-and bolt errors in our November 6 election, DO NOT MISS this fantastic Marshall Thompson piece, in which Std-Ex reporter Thompson digs in, interviews experts, cross compares the statements of folks from the Governor's office down to regular street folks, and provides a wonderful overview of the series of glitches which, operating in conjunction, transformed Election 2007 into one of the most strange in Weber County history.

4) And as an added bonus we'll highlight this morning's Standard-Examiner editorial, in which Lee Carter's paid editorial mouthpieces get closer to the truth than they have in any editorial in the weeks, from which we incorporate a few pertinent paragraphs below:

Eight days. That’s how long it took for ham-handed voucher supporters in the Legislature to strike back after their 63 percent to 37 percent flaying at the polls on Election Day. They’ve resurrected last year’s defeated effort to nearly double the size of the State School Board and require its members to run as partisan political candidates — in other words, to make them answerable to the GOP instead of students and parents.

No, no, not at all, says the measure’s foremost cheerleader, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper. Utah needs this change because few voters actually know who their board representative is. It has nothing to do with vouchers, he protests. Rather, it is simply a renewal of a year-old discussion. Nothing more, nothing less.

These guys must practice keeping a straight face in the mirror; a normal person couldn’t help but crack up when telling such tall tales.

The above editorial is also accompanied by this "pointed" Grondahl cartoon. We think it would be a fair statement to say that the Std-Ex isn't pulling its punches today.

Note to our Weber County GOP legislative delegation: Quit while you're ahead. The "voucher concept" is D.O.A.. The people of Weber County won't buy it; and neither will they buy your 2008 candidacies, if you follow your Utah County legislative leadership over the cliff, and start inflicting crass party partisanship upon the state school board. Perhaps you need to talk to your State Senate colleague John Greiner, the only single Weber County GOP elected official who seems to have gotten it mostly right. Just a helpful hint from yer old pal Rudi.

Thanksgiving Weekend Open Thread

Blog readership patterns are something we watch with great interest here at Weber County Forum. Blog traffic tends to follow a predictable ebb and flow, with readership steadily increasing on Mondays through Thursdays, and then gradually tapering off on Fridays through Sundays. Absent important breaking news, long holidays such as the current Thanksgiving one, even more strongly exhibit the weekend tendency. This is due in part, we think, to the fact that local print news agencies, upon whom we often depend as providers of topic-springboards, tend to operate with limited holiday staffs, and thus reduce news coverage during these extended periods. Another factor, we think, is that a fair-sized segment of our readership inexplicably find other things to do on weekends and holidays besides blogging, a state of affairs we franky find difficult to comprehend and also deem borderline horrifying, here within the first decade of our brave new 21st-centuryt cyber-society.

Our web statistics also reveal however that we have a core segment of dedicated readers who continue to log in daily, regardless of the condition of the calendar. We've even heard from several of them via email. "Post something new," they beseech us. And it is for those dedicated and hard-core gentle readers that we now resist the impulse to take the rest of the weekend off, and have instead decided to establish now a new Thanksgiving weekend open thread.

We invite our readers once again to chime in on whatever topics suit their fancy, and consider this thread wide open. Your humble blogmeister will be distracted this afternoon, watching his alma mater (Utah) battling the evil BYU juggernaut. We doubt we'll post anything new today, unless our beloved Utah Utes somehow miraculously defy the punters' odds.

Just to get things rolling, however, we're linking three items found whilst googling:

First, it seems that Emerald City employees will be receiving an unexpected pecuniary bonus, just in time for Christmas. We don't know whether this is a good thing or not. Perhaps our gentle readers will share their own takes on this:

City health plan pays off -- Ogden city employees to get $307,138 in bonuses

Next, our readers will recall that we made a great fuss a few weeks ago, about the Emerald City Council's failure and refusal to provide application materials submitted by the five finalists for the recent vacancy on the City Council. The Standard-Examiner was irked enough about denial of its GRAMA request, that it unleashed its media lawyer, it appears. Today's Dave Greiling column informs us today that the impasse has been at least partly resolved, with the voluntary production of materials on another three of the five candidates. We thus invite our readers' comments on the latest posture in this matter. Should the Std-Ex continue to press Emerald City authorities for the release of the other yet-undisclosed candidate information (John Thompson,) or should the Std-Ex just let the whole matter slide from here on?

In the end, Ogden comes through on public access issue

Finally, we link a thought-provocative Michael Moore piece from the L.A. Times, which reflects upon the aftermath of the November 7 election. Like him or not, I believe we can all agree that Mr. Moore makes a few pretty danged good points. Or can we?

Michael Moore's pledge - The liberal filmmaker extends an olive branch to disheartened conservatives (Free registration required)

The floor is open, and we're leaving the lights on while we prepare to occupy our trusty barca-lounger, to obsess over this afternoon's BYU-Utah "Holy War."

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Update 11/26/06 10:55 a.m. MT: One of our sharp-eyed readers got this morning's Standard-Examiner story right in the lower comments thread:

"I just read the Standard-Examiner this morning, city recieves less than expected on settlement from Shupe Williams fire. Doug Stephens says they will have to cut back in other areas to make up the difference.

When are the Council going to relize that this is the same phoney cost estimates always submitted by the Mayor and his croneys. This is so typical of Matt Godfrey and his little over paid bunch of minions."

Keep in mind that this morning's reported half-million dollar shortfall operates in addition to another half-million dollars by which the RDA fell short, when it last January activated a $3 million credit line in anticipation of the originally-expected Shupe Williams $2.5 million insurance settlement.

Of course Boss Godfrey is completely unfazed by all this. And we just loved this Boss Godfrey quote: "'We are not caught in a deficit situation,' he (Godfrey) said Friday. He didn’t provide any details."

That's a million buck shortfall, gentle readers. Have no fear. Be assurred that Boss Godfrey can pull chump-change like that out of his ass, if he needs to. All hail the ever-unruffled Boss Godfrey.

"God save us from God-Free," other more prudent Emerald City citizens wail, as they check their calenders and bleakly observe that the next municipal election/Godfrey referendum remains still nearly a year down the road.

The Council Selects the Final Five

Tonight the city council expended roughly 4-1/4 hours (including about an hour and a half in closed session,) narrowing the list of thirty-nine council applicants down to a much more manageable five. We won't try to get into the details here; but will attempt to cobble together something reasonably detailed and descriptive in the morning. For now, we'll simply reel off the list of the five finalists.

And they are (alphabetically):

• J. Brad Florence
  
• Therese Grijalva
  
• Jeremy Taylor
  
• John H. Thompson
  
• Susan E. Van Hooser

We heartily congratulate the candidates who made the initial cut, and thank every one of the other civic-minded citizens who threw their hat into the ring.

It was a tough task that Mr. Glasmann dropped into the laps of his former council colleagues, requiring them to choose from this exceptionally well-qualified list of thirty-nine. We believe the council discharged their duties tonight diligently however; and we're encouraged once again by this council of ours, which performed tonight with apparent deliberation and dignity.

Update 9/21/06 8:23 a.m. MT: Ace Reporter Schwebke provides this morning a thumbnail recitation of the events transpiring during last night's council marathon session. Read all about it in today's Standard-Examiner story.