Ogden City 2009 General Election Voting Guide

Special Guest Commentary from Mayor Godfrey (Parody)

You’ve probably heard about how abusive I am toward the women on the city council. Some people think I’ve gotten even more crabby than ever since all my projects are going to pot. But in reality, my administration has always taken a consistent approach toward women. Take my Business Development manager, Scott Brown, who had to resign because of sexual harassment charges and computer porn, or my current Chief Administrative Officer, John Patterson, who had to quit his last job because of having an affair with one of his subordinates.

You see, when these city council women sometimes won’t meet with me when I command them to, it reminds me of the way women have treated me all my life – they ignore me. Most women don’t know their place and how they should serve a man. When the members of my administration have affairs, abuse women or look at computer porn, they are just tying to help themselves to see women in their proper role.

Take my problem with council chairman Amy Wicks. She’s a woman, but she acts like a man, by having her own opinions on things. One day I started to give her a piece of my mind, and one of my people took this picture. You can see in my eyes that I don’t like women to ignore me.

To drive home the point, I called my people at the newspaper and told them to hit the women on the council, which they did. The newspaper not only told the women to let me beat them up as much as I want, they even called on Amy Wicks to resign. Click here to read their brilliant editorial. Who’s the boss now, Amy?

But I didn’t want to take all day talking about the proper role of women. I wanted to talk about who you should vote for in the upcoming election on November 3, to implement my vision.

At Large Seat A

Mark “Stinky” Haines

You probably remember my new committee that I talked about in the primary: the “Supreme Committee of Real Estate Workers – United.” Hains is in charge of this committee now since my other candidate lost out in the primary.

Now somebody told me if you take the capital letters of my committee, it spells out something not very nice. Well, I’m not changing the name because I’ve never admitted to making a mistake in my life, and I’m not going to start now.

Haines is a real estate agent. He gets his nickname “Stinky” from the expression that he gets on his face whenever he sees or smells open space. Stinky Haines is getting a little on in years and so he doesn’t like to walk too far when he’s selling homes – condos are much better for him. So he’s running for city council to help me put condos all over the East Bench.

Look, Haines is a real estate agent, with real estate money bankrolling him. Haines understands that the East Bench needs to be bulldozed. Why else would he be running and raking in all that real estate and contractor campaign cash? But he’s not going to come out and say it because the naysayers will complain. You can figure that out for yourself, can’t you, Sherlock?

Susan Van Hooser

This is the woman who ran against me in my last election for mayor. My lawyers intimidated the county elections director (another woman) into throwing out enough ballots to barely make me the winner. It’s seems easier for me nowadays to intimidate some women into doing what I want. If only I could take that ability and go back in time to High School.

Anyway, VanHooser has tons of useless public service, and she’s been on the city council. She listens to people, studies issues, and thinks before voting. And she is courageous. In other words, she’s another woman who has her own mind and is no good for anything. Do you really want me to have to deal with another independent minded woman?

At Large Seat B

David “Alfred E” Phipps

I still think the campaign portrait I had done for Phipps is a near perfect likeness.

Phipps’ campaign got off to a slow start. First, he put the wrong seat he was running for on his signs. Then he sent out a flyer saying people were supporting him who actually weren’t. Then he apologized. Then he did it all over again.

Then to top it off, this screwball let everyone know that he just moved to Ogden from Sugarhouse during the last year, and doesn’t even own a home in Ogden – he rents. (The dummy posted it on his blog! Then when people started noticing, he took it down. But the darned naysayers still have it available to read here.) And he tells people he has a business in Ogden, but he’s really just a real estate agent in Layton. And to add the frosting to the cake, he admitted in the Standard-Examiner via this very morning's Scott Schwebke story that he committed voter fraud in Salt Lake County on November 4, 2008! With this kind of sloppy work and calm, casual falsification, you can see why I love this guy!

On the bright side, when people ask why he knows nothing about Ogden, he can claim it’s because he just moved here. That way, people may overlook the fact that he actually doesn’t have the lights on upstairs either.

But he doesn’t have to be the brightest bulb in the box to take my cronies’ campaign cash and buy a council seat for himself. Phipps just has to keep going around saying he’s independent while he keeps taking the money my cronies give him. In the end, my supporters know Phipps will do what he’s told. Enough said.

Bart Blair

Bart Blair’s family business has been in Ogden for over 50 years – Blair’s Service. Those who are familiar with it know it is a clean place that does an honest business in good times and bad. People trust him and come back again and again.

In other words, he’s a dinosaur who is out of touch with my new approach to business. Blair refuses to get with my “Godfrey School Business Model,” which involves me selling off public land to my cronies on the cheap while they write me campaign checks.

In the 10 years I’ve been in office, this guy has taken none of my graft and has not given me a single kickback. Do you really want him to apply his work ethic and real-world business sense to Ogden City?

Municipal Ward 1

Neil “Doughboy” Garner

Garner looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy. At least I guess he does. I’ve never met him.

I said I needed somebody to get rid of Garcia, and they got this guy. My people have given him so much money he ought to be able to get elected to anything. With all that money I’ve fronted him, I guess he really is the “dough” boy. So I’m right as usual. I’m a genius even when I’m not trying.

Jesse Garcia

Garcia gets in my way. I tried to kill Union Station and he stopped me. I tried to close the Marshall White Center, and he blocked it. He lives in a district full of lower and middle income people. So why do they need any public facilities – they’re poor, right? I thought those people were supposed to entertain themselves by dancing or something. I need money for my failing projects downtown and since people in Garcia’s district rarely vote, I decided I can axe all the stuff in their neighborhoods and get the money I need. But Garcia keeps getting in my way. He’s my #1 target in this election.


Municipal Ward 3

Patrick “Invisible Man” Dean

I’ve never met this guy. I’ve never seen him, and I don’t know anybody who can describe anything about him. The people who finance me apparently found him someplace, and got him to run by telling him the job pays several hundred dollars a month. They assure me he’ll do what I tell him to do. This is exactly the kind of visionary, forward-looking candidate we need more of in Ogden.

Doug Stephens

Stephens is the incumbent. He votes with me sometimes, but I still have to talk him into things. And for some reason, he seems to like to hear other opinions as well. I’m tired of this guy and need somebody who is easier to work with.

In Summary

It’s easy to tell which ones are my candidates, because they are the ones being funded by the same people who bankroll my campaigns. My candidates were dug up by, and funded by, my back scratching real estate people and crony contractors who make their money from big government projects, from carving up raw land into condos, and from fomenting a lot of house turnover so they can collect their commissions. In other words, my candidates are those who will do what my bankrollers tell them to do – just as I do – for the good of Ogden.

So if you’re tired of council meetings, public hearings, public input, discussion, and a sense that there is more than one opinion in Ogden, this is your chance to do something about it. Vote for my candidates, and all discussion will end. If you’ve ever watched what happens when I get one of my people on the city council, you know they always, always do what I tell them to do.

On a final note, I wanted to show you the new place in my office I have for uppity women and people who disagree with me. Yeah, it’s right here:


In fact, for anybody who doesn’t agree with me, this is where they can go. Just put your hands together, and jump. So you see, I do have a place in my office for alternative opinions after all.

Breaking: Descente Tells "the Geigers" to Take a Hike

For the very first time since 2005, "the Geigers" could not be reached for comment

This is definitely encouraging news for Emerald City...

• Father and son team resign from positions with Descente North America

Seems the Samurai businessmen in Osaka are not quite so nutty as we'd earlier thought them to be.

We earnestly hope the Geigers won't let the screen door painfully slap them in the backside as they exit the Emerald City political scene stage left.

So long, gondola boys... and good riddance.

Little Bobby's former Descente company car

Sadly, We Seem to Have a Legally Unqualified Candidate Running For the Emerald City "B" Seat in November

Further probing questions concerning David Phipps's purported one-year Ogden residency

It's it's been reported in the last night's post-debate comments that several debate attendees submitted the pointed question to At Large Seat "B" council candidate David Phipps, as to the specific date he established his Ogden City residency, for purposes of complying with the Ogden City elections ordinance, which requires a prerequisite residence period prior to filing for Ogden City elective office. In the expectation that some of our readers may have not been closely following developments regarding this issue, we've decided to put up this article, to focus on the factual uncertainties which have led some lumpencitizens to apply closer scrutiny to this issue at last night's debate. Hopefully with this post, we'll be able to bring all our readers up to speed regarding this.

Specifically, here's the applicable Ogden City ordinance which among other things, specifies a threshold one-year period of residency for city council candidates:

2-3-2: COUNCIL MEMBER QUALIFICATIONS:
Each member of the city council shall be a registered voter and shall have resided within the city for a period of twelve (12) consecutive months immediately preceding the date of election and remain a resident during the term of office. The members elected from each of the municipal wards shall have been an actual and bona fide resident of the ward from which the council member is elected at least sixty (60) days prior to the election and shall continue as such resident during the term of office. If a council member shall cease to possess any of these qualifications, his office shall immediately become vacant. Council members while in office shall hold no other compensated employment with the city. [Emphasis added.]

In the instant case, we'll now inform our readers that there are two circumstances which have led many of us to question whether Mr. Phipps has complied with the above threshold residency requirement:

1) In an earlier comments thread, one of our gentle readers revealed that she'd stumbled upon Mr. Phipps' personal family blog, which contained the four eye-opening entries, described below, concerning candidate Phipps's Ogden residency:

Zippy, I am so glad you asked! The Candidate Guide to Elections for 2009 on page 9 states the following:
"Qualifications for Candidacy
Anyone wishing to file for candidacy must meet the following qualifications:
• Be a United States citizen at the time of filing;
• Be at least 18 years old;
• Be a registered voter of Ogden City;
• Be a resident of Ogden City or resident of a recently annexed area for a period of 12 consecutive months immediately preceding the date of election."
So, in answer to your last question: 12 consecutive months months immediately preceding the date of election = either September 15 or November 3, 2009.
From the Phipps Family blogsite:
10/12/2008, in the 4th paragraph is stated: "still don't know when moving."
10/30/2008, in the 2nd paragraph is stated: "currently staying at David's parents house in Ogden valley while we do some work on our new home"
11/23/2008, in the 2nd paragraph is stated: "We are still staying at David's parents, hoping to move into our house the first week of December"
And, finally, on 12/8/2008, in the 1st paragraph is stated: "the furniture is in, the toilets work, the kitchen is stocked and unpacked, the floors swept and mopped ... tomorrow we'll be in"

Quite predictably, this information caused quite a stir amongst our gentle readers. And the fact that Mr. Phipps subsequently closed down his family's blog to general internet traffic didn't help quell the outrage. Some of us even speculated that this latter move could be interpreted as "consciousness of guilt," an act which could be reasonably construed as "hiding the damning evidence."

2) And then, earlier this week, a number of us in Emerald City received additional data of a "political dynamite" nature, information which has remained unpublicised... until now. According to documents obtained from the Salt Lake County Elections Office by Rep. Neil Hansen, through an October 12, 2009 GRAMA request, we've learned that candidate Phipps cast a vote on November 4, 2008 in his former Salt Lake voting precinct during the 2008 General Election (thereby affirming his Salt Lake County residency as of that date):

• Salt Lake County Election Division GRAMA Response In Re David Phipps

Do the math, people. According to our calculations, the last day immediately preceding the date of the upcoming November 3, 2009 election (November 2, 2009) by which Mr. Phipps could have perfected the requisite one-year residency requirement, would have required starting the clock running on his Ogden residency by no later than November 3, 2008. Having however voted as a Salt Lake County resident on November 4, 2008 in his old Salt Lake precinct, many of us believe Mr. Phipps has failed to meet (and cannot meet) the residency requirement specified in the above-referenced Ogden City Code section. In other words, it seems obvious that Mr. Phipps is therefore unqualified as a matter of law to have his name placed on the November 3, 2009 Ogden City ballot. If Phipps had an ounce of decency -- which we doubt -- he'd remove his own name from the November ballot. Of course he won't, even though he's now been caught red-handed, a day late and a dollar short.

These are the reasons, gentle readers, that conscientious Emerald City citizens are in an uproar; and that's why the focus is now on the details concerning Mr. Phipps's residency. What a difference a day makes, no?

And what say our gentle readers about all that?

Update 10/16/09 8:00 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner picked up on this story late last evening, and carries Scott Schwebke's writeup on its Live! website:

• Hansen challenges Ogden City Council candidate's eligibility

Sadly, even when the reported facts are viewed in a light most favorable to candidate Phipps, they nevertheless require a direct admission of an act of wilful and deliberate voter fraud on Phipps's part in Salt Lake County, which tellingly reflects upon his honesty and integrity. The poor kid's digging himself in deeper and deeper. If he had a lick of integrity or common sense at all, he'd do "what's right," and quietly drop out of the race. Of course he probably doesn't... and he likely won't.

Another Heads-up In Re Tonight's Council Candidate Debate

Another correction; and a cordial invitation to join in the discussion on this dedicated council candidate debate thread

OK, we're going to try this one last time. Please take note and re-mark your calendars. Tonight's 2009 City Council candidate debate, originally set for Ogden's Union Station, and then subsequently moved to the Ogden-Weber Applied Technology Center (ATC) Student Union Ballroom, has now been reset to the ATC Business Building, Room 162. Here are the corrected thumbnail data, for those readers who may be confused about the correct venue for tonight's event:

What: Ogden City Council Candidate Debate
Where: Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College Union Building Business Building - Room 162, 200 N. Washington Blvd. [Google Map; Main Campus Diagram]
When: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 @ 7:00 p.m.

We made a strong pitch yesterday urging everyone supportive of moderate and sensible City Council candidates to be in attendance for tonight's debate. Rather than repeat ourselves, we'll link yesterday's short rant here:

• Ogden Council Candidate Debate Set For Wednesday Night - UPDATED

Needless to say, we haven't budged an inch. We hope every concerned citizen will make it a point to attend, for the reasons set forth in the above-linked article.

In accordance with our usual practice here at Weber County Forum, we'll now dedicate this thread to a discussion of tonight's debate. Feel free to lodge your comments here, before, during or after tonight's debate. Our community-minded readers lodged over 100 comments two years ago, under the thread we dedicated to the 2007 Municipal Election debate. With dedication and luck, today's discussion thread ought to be equally vigorous and robust.

Have at it O Gentle Ones. Who will be the first to comment?

Update 10/15/09 12:50 a.m.: Scott Schwebke's post debate story is now up on the Standard-Examiner site:

• Candidates show for debate / Ogden forum allows glimpse into strategies

Oddly enough, the Standard opted to report on this event, even though there was apparently no fistfight. Go figure.

Here's How it Works @ the Gondola-Examiner

Insider insight into the process by which the Standard-Examiner unabashedly and wilfully prints mindless Boss Godfrey propaganda

We're sure many of our readers were scratching their heads this morning, wondering about this morning's Scott Schwebke masterpiece (which we'll link below), dredging up for what [?] the fourth or fifth time in the past several weeks [we've lost count] the shop-worn meme concerning the Boss Godfrey sham debates which never happened.

Thanks to one of our gentle readers, we've now received a document which illustrates the simple three-step process by which the twisted Godfrey administration message makes its way right to the front to the front page of publisher Lee Carter's Gondola-Examiner [formerly the Ogden Standard-Examiner]:

Step One: Boss Godfrey's boot licking pet lackey John "Pureheart" Patterson sends out to the Gondola-Examiner a completely bogus and self-serving press release via email to Ace Reporter Schwebke on October 13, 2009:

• Council candidate debate will not be shown

Step Two: Ace Reporter Schwebke, quite possibly the laziest reporter in Standard-Examiner history, immediately recognises a good opportunity to cut and paste.

Step Three: On October 14, 2009 (this morning), the news editor at the Standard-Examiner accepts Schwebke's cut/paste gibberish, and pawns it off as a real news item, even while entirely ignoring any discussion of tonight's legitimate candidate debate:

• City nixes televised debates

Three simple steps, people.

That's how it works at the Official Boss Godfrey House Propaganda Organ.

The Standard-Examiner: Boss Godfrey's very own "trick pony."

Standard-Examiner: Tax Increment District Extended

Fine tuning the facts on an otherwise good report on last night's RDA Session

By Dan Schroeder

Some responses to the details of Scott Schwebke's morning story, concerning last night's RDA session:

• Tax increment District extended

1. He never says how much money the taxing entities are losing through this deal (and the RDA is gaining). Based on McConkie's estimates, the net amount is over $12 million. Nor does he name any of the taxing entities (Ogden City general fund, Weber County, library, 911 service, paramedic fund, etc.) that will receive no mitigation payments. So I don't think most readers will realize the magnitude of this decision, or understand that their taxes will probably go up as a result.

2. Godfrey's apparent denial that he intends to use this revenue as collateral on additional debt is extremely misleading. I wasn't there to hear everything he said, but the direct quote isn't a denial at all--he's merely pointing out that this particular action doesn't create any new debt. Godfrey wasn't even there when McConkie admitted, repeatedly, that his office intends to pursue a "partnership" with a major hotel, backed by this tax increment. That's just a polite way of saying the city would take on new debt.

3. The article says that "tax increment from The Junction nearly matches projections made when the city bought the mall property", according to McConkie. I don't know what projections he's thinking of, but the actual tax increment is only about 1/3 what the city promised it would be in a newspaper ad and utility bill insert in 2007.

4. The Junction's total bond debt in 2005 was over $36 million, not $22.4 million as Schwebke claims. He's forgetting the two additional bond series for the Salomon Center. As of this year, very little of the principal has been paid off on these bonds, and there have been additional refinancing charges, so the debt currently stands at about $34 million. (These total figures omit the $2 million portion of the $22.4 million that was for the American Can district, not the Junction.)

5. Similarly, the figures that Schwebke gives for the annual bond payments are only for the largest bond series. The payments on the two other bond series totaled an additional $1.1 million (about half from Salomon Center lease payments and half from tax increment from other RDA districts).

Live Blogging From Tonight's Council Meeting

Dan S. reports in real time via his wireless mobile device

Well looky here. We're now suddenly getting live blog comments from tonight's council meeting, direct from Dan Schroeder's wireless mobile device. For those casual readers who feel like they're out of the information loop, Dr. Schroeder earlier framed the pertinent issues here. Regular WCF readers as always know exactly what's "going on," of course.

Read Dan's comments below to "listen in."

Ogden Council Candidate Debate Set For Wednesday Night - UPDATED

Another heads-up on what may prove to be the most important public event during the 2009 municipal election season

The Standard-Examiner provides another reminder in this morning's edition of what could prove to be the most important and best attended public event during the 2009 municipal election season, tomorrow night's council candidate debate. We tipped our readers off with brief info about the the scheduling of this event back on October 2. Read Mr. Schwebke's Std-Ex morning story for further and more detailed information:

• Face-off to be held in Ogden / City council candidates to explain views on issues Wednesday night

Once again, here are the time and location coordinates in a nutshell:

What: Ogden City Council Candidate Debate
Where: Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College Union Building Business Building - Room 162, 200 N. Washington Blvd. [Google Map; Main Campus Diagram]
When: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 @ 7:00 p.m.

For those readers who support politically moderate candidates such as Van Hooser, Blair, Garcia and Stephens, and oppose the radical "develop Ogden City at all costs" Boss Godfrey Ticket, we can't over-emphasise the importance of attending this event. We have it on good authority that the Godfreyites are working behind the scenes to pack this event with real estate developer lackeys and Godfrey cronies. And as we've seen in the past, these folks can be quite noisy and disruptive. We believe it's the duty of us who'd like to launch a new council in 2010 -- a council with a philosophy of common sense and financial prudence -- to show up in force, and to help nurture a hospitable atmosphere for those honorable and honest candidates whom we support. If there is any single 2009 municipal election event that deserves your attendance during this election cycle, this has to be it. Hopefully everyone will juggle their calenders this go-round, and make plans to be there.

Interestingly, the last portion of this event, which seems to be set up in a quasi-debate format, will also offer a short opportunity for the lumpencitizens to ask questions of the candidates from the floor. In this connection we hope everyone will put on their thinking caps, and arrive at the event with at least one probing question.

With this, we'll open up the floor for discussion. Here we'll also offer one caviat: If you do have a probing blockbuster question... please don't post it here as a comment. The Godfreyites voraciously read this blog; and it makes no sense at all to provide advance notice of "pending questions" to what we'll politely call the "Godfrey Intelligentsia." (Ha-Ha).

Who will be the first to comment?

Update 10/14/09 9:31 a.m.: Please take note that tonight's debate, previously set for the ATC UnionBuilding, has now been moved to the Business Building - Room 162.

Be Honest, Fair, and Conservative

An open letter to the Ogden RDA Board (aka City Council)

by Dan Schroeder

Dear RDA Board members:

I write concerning your agenda items for Tuesday, October 13, which call for extension of tax increment collection for the CBD Mall District and for associated mitigation payments to certain taxing entities. My concerns fall into three categories.

1. The RDA is breaking a promise.

Please refer to the attached “Ogden City Update” newspaper ad that appeared in the Standard-Examiner on May 31, 2007. In this taxpayer-funded advertisement, the city repeatedly promised that starting in 2015, the various taxing entities (including the library, school district, county, city, and smaller entities) would “begin receiving the full benefit of the tax income from The Junction.” If you pass Resolution 2009-6, you will be breaking this promise to your constituents (Click to enlarge image).

You might object that the promise was made not by you but by the mayor’s office. However, in RDA matters the mayor is actually acting as the RDA Executive Director, and answers to the RDA Board. The Board could have ordered the Executive Director not to make promises that could not be kept, or to publish a correction the following month, rescinding his unrealistic promise. Because the Board took no such action, the Board bears a portion of the responsibility for the mayor’s promise to the citizens.

2. The mitigation payments are grossly unfair.

The proposed “mitigation payments” are plainly being used to buy a bare minimum of the needed votes on the Taxing Entity Committee. In effect, these payments allow some entities to receive tax revenue from the Junction while others receive none. This redistribution of legally prescribed tax rates violates the fundamental principles of property tax collection, and sets a disturbing precedent whereby a coalition of taxing entities can “gang up” to increase their own tax receipts while decreasing that of the other entities.

In the present instance, the mitigation payments would go to the Ogden School District and three of the smaller taxing entities. No mitigation payments would go to the Ogden City general fund, Weber County, the library, the Paramedic Fund, 911 service, or the Weber/Morgan Health Department. As a result, all of these entities will either have to cut services or raise everyone’s taxes.

3. This revenue will merely encourage more debt.

If the purpose of this action were to help pay down the existing debt associated with the Junction, there would be no rush. The RDA district is not set to expire for another five years, so there is plenty of time to negotiate the terms of the extension after we have a clearer picture of the Junction’s financial situation and how much tax revenue is at stake.

However, according to the minutes of the June 25 Taxing Entity Committee meeting, this issue is coming up now because the administration wishes to use the additional revenue as collateral for additional debt. Apparently the administration is still trying to facilitate construction of a major new hotel on the vacant Junction parcel east of the Salomon Center, despite the fact that market conditions are inadequate to make such a hotel financially viable. Rather than respecting these market conditions, the administration apparently wishes to subsidize the hotel with a new taxpayer-financed parking garage and perhaps other incentives. The proposed tax increment extension would allow the RDA to borrow several million more dollars, on top of the $34 million of existing debt associated with the Junction.

Conclusion

While it might seem irresponsible for the RDA Board to turn down free money, the Board must also remember its ethical obligations as public stewards. For too long, the Board has passively allowed the administration to dictate the terms of its dealings. Now is the time for the Board to take control and direct the administration to keep its word, treat everyone fairly, and plan conservatively for the future.

Scam Alert: Emerald City Voters Beware

Watch out for carpetbaggers and real estate interest candidates, who will represent the mayor and his cronies, not the citizens of Ogden

By Ozboy

There is a concerted effort this election for the mayor and his circle of cronies to win this council election with their hand picked candidates - Phipps, Hains, Garner and Dean. If they succeed, the mayor will then have another "rubber stamp" council like the one several years ago that allowed him to pursue his obscene and costly fantasies like the Junktion and River projects. These projects have created nearly a $100 million dollar debt for the tax payers of Ogden. It will take decades for the citizens of Ogden to dig out from under this debt. To date, all of these projects are complete losers. The Junktion alone is costing the tax payers over $700,000 per year in bond payments. The mayor and his former rubber stamp council made many and repeated promises that this would never happen. Meanwhile the things that a decent city government should be doing is not being done. The city infrastructure continues to deteriorate while the mayor and his staff blissfully continue their foolish games pretending they are great business tycoons - again all on the tax payers dime.

It is interesting that the Standard Examiner published four articles on the mayor's sham debates of a couple of weeks ago, two on the front page. The main focus of those articles were the three candidates that smelled a rat with the mayor and this shallow scam of a "debate" and did not participate. A week later the ladies of the Weber County Women's Legislative Council organization conducted a fair and above board Meet the Candidates Night. All candidates attended and the citizens were well served and informed as a result, thus putting the lie to the Standard's and the Mayor's false propaganda that the three non Godfrey candidates were playing games by not attending the first put on by the mayor. To date the Standard has conducted themselves in an extremely dishonorable manner and have not reported one word about the only legitimate debate held so far. It leads this reader to believe that the Standard Publisher is in cahoots with the mayor and his hand picked candidates and they are trying to sway this election by misleading reporting and/or stonewalling pertinent stories that would give the voters fair and balanced information on which to base their votes.

Two of the mayor's candidates - Phipps and Hains - are both in the real estate business and are receiving large contributions from out of town real estate interests that are aligned with the mayor and his cronies. Phipps in particular is receiving a large portion of his funds from mysterious out of state interests who are hiding behind acronyms in order to mask who they really are. This is a repeat of the infamous Envision Ogden/FNURE (rhymes with manure) scam that the mayor pulled last election. Large and secret amounts of money into a council race from secret donors. Why would these people find it necessary to be so secret and what is in it for them if Phipps, Hains, Garner and Dean win? Mt. Ogden Park comes to mind, it is a well known fact that the mayor and his cronies have their eyes on developing it - which if that comes to pass will go a long way toward destroying the magnificent open spaces on the east bench that all Ogden citizens enjoy.

Beware of carpetbaggers and real estate interest candidates, they will represent the mayor and his cronies, not the citizens of Ogden.

Musings on the Topic of Candidate/Voter Apathy:

The Standard-Examiner again falls down on its Fourth Estate obligations

By Curmudgeon

Standard-Examiner executive editor Andy Howell has some interesting comments on the election in his "Behind the Headlines" column this morning [behind the firewall]:

• We all know voter apathy. What about candidate apathy?

He wonders if the abysmal turnout among voters in the primaries should be attributed not so much to voter apathy as to candidate apathy. What's he mean by that? This:

If candidates decline to outline any positions outside of the usual “I want to serve my community” statements, then it is understandable that voters would be less than enthusiastic about taking the time to vote.

He's got that right. He goes on:

Some candidates seeking municipal office in the Top of Utah feel that the support of friends and family is enough to get them elected, so there is no need to take a stand on an issue and risk offending someone. Sadly, they may be right.

He's got that right too. He goes on to complain about candidates giving mushball answers to questions the SE has asked them.

Right again. But the SE has to shoulder some of the blame for that. The questions the paper posed, for example, for the Ogden Council candidates to answer on camera for the SE to post are very general [I'd say mushy] questions that all but invite puffery in reply.

But then Mr. Howell goes off the rails. He notes that his reporters have attended some "Meet the Candidate" events, only to gain background for covering the election. Of these meetings, Howell says this:

However, if a fistfight breaks out, they will file a breaking news story. So far, that hasn’t happened.

While I can sympathize with Mr. Howell's not wanting to fill his news columns with stories of candidates repeating campaign boilerplate at event after event --- I wouldn't either --- he conveniently forgets in his little homily this morning, the SE's reporting on the "debate" [politely so called] arranged by the manager of the tax-payer financed Channel 17 [aka The Godfrey Channel] on which nothing appears without the prior approval of the Mayor and his staff [so Mayor Godfrey's CAO, Mr. Patterson told the SE]. The questions were to be determined and asked by the host of the Mayor's own TV Show on taxpayer-financed Channel 17.

The SE did a story on several candidates refusing to take part when the Mayor's secretary summoned them to appear. [The SE has now reported several times claims by the head of Channel 17 that the Mayor's office had "nothing" to do with arranging the so-called debate, but the SE has yet to inform its readers that it was the Mayor's secretary who summoned the candidates to appear.]

The first story, which ran on the Top of Utah front page, was certainly appropriate. But then the SE ran three more stories, two on the front page, highlighting the Administration's claims that it couldn't understand why some candidates refused to take part, and repeating Channel 17's insistence that the Mayor's office had nothing to do with the debate, and reporting the Administration's offer to give the non-participants "another chance."

In short, the SE, by its coverage made the non-participants refusal to take part a campaign issue as it dutifully kept repeating the Mayor's Channel and the Administration's take on the matter. Four times.

So Mr. Howell is being disingenuous when he states now that at the recent Meet the Candidates forum for Ogden City Council, there was nothing to report, and wouldn't be, unless someone threw a punch. The news was that the candidates all appeared and took part, and that they all handled questions put to them by voters, not by a staffer of the Administration's TV channel. Having repeatedly reported the Godfrey ticket candidates' take on why their opponents did not appear at the Godfrey-arranged forum at Channel 17, the SE had an obligation to report that all the candidates did appear at the most recent one. And why.

Big Sky Football: WSU Game Day Open Thread

WSU Wildcats square off with Eastern Washington at 1:30 p.m.

Well lo and behold, it's another WSU game day, as our Weber State Wildcats square off on the road in Cheney, Washington against last season's conference nemesis EWU. Just to get the pre-game juices flowing for WSU football fans, we'll feature today's Jason Asay writeup, which frames today's gridiron matchup as an opportunity for sweet revenge:

• Revenge could be sweet, if Wildcats can step up

Todays game will be broadcast live on cable through the Altitude TV Network, so we're infortunately unable to provide a Big Sky TV video link this morning. As per usual however, readers who are stuck in an office or work cubicle this afternoon can catch the audio broadcast on the ever-reliable KLO Radio, of course.

We'll leave this thread open for anyone who'd like to comment, kibbitz or rant... before, during or after this game. Last one out, please turn out the lights.

We'll be back later with the final score, of course.

Update 10/10/09 4;52 p.m.: Final Score: WSU 31; EWU 13, in a very convincing victory.

Former Ogden Manager Seeks to Drop Lawsuit Because Boss Godfrey (and Gary Williams) Drove Him to the Poorhouse

Boss Godfrey beats down another righteous litigant from his ill-deserved, taxpayer funded bully pulpit

By Ogden Lover

Sad story on page 1 of yesterday's Standard-Examiner. Dean Martinez is dropping his lawsuit against the city because he's already spent $20K and is broke:

• Former Ogden manager seeks to drop lawsuit because of lack of funds

I know personally that part of the reason he is out of money is that when he applied for jobs outside of Ogden, Godfrey deep-sixed any chance he had of landing a job. Godfrey has done this to others as well.

Hot Off The Press: Second Set of Campaign Financial Disclosure Reports Now Available For Viewing

The Realtor-backed Boss Godfrey Ticket rakes in another large pile of dough

For those readers closely following the money trail, we're delighted to provide the latest set of 2009 Municipal Election Campaign Financial Disclosure reports, which were filed with the Ogden City Recorder's Office on October 6, 2009. We're limiting our scrutiny to the reports of those candidates who are still in the running for the 2009 General Election. For our more detail-oriented readers, you can peruse each of the latest financial disclosure reports here:

• 2d Report of Contributions & Expenditure for Candidates - October 6, 2009

We're publishing these reports in raw form, without editorial comment, except to note that it's quite apparent to us, after giving these document a mere quick once-over, that the realtor-backed Boss Godfrey Ticket has once again raked in another hefty and unholy pile of filthy lucre, during this latest reporting period. As a matter of fact, it appears that "Man of People" David Phipps (with the exception of one donor) is entirely bought and paid for by the real estate development lobby.

As an added bonus, one of our readers has prepared and submitted a graphic summary of campaign contributions to date, displayed in handy table form (Click to enlarge image):

We invite our readers to slice, dice and ginsu-knife these documents, and come back to offer your opinions as to whether you think it's possible that the evil real estate industry can actually buy a majority of seats on our beloved Ogden City Council.

Update 10/10/09 8:45 a.m. MT: The Standard-Examiner carries its own story on the second round of campaign finance disclosures this morning. Have a look at Mr. Schwebke's story here:

• Ogden council candidates disclose financial statements

Take it away, O Gentle Ones.

Two Important Election Stories The Standard-Examiner Has Neglected to Print

Query: What's up with the Standard's spotty election coverage, people?

To kick off today's discussion, we're going to take a novel approach this morning, and focus on two important 2009 municipal election stories which have not appeared in the Standard-Examiner. During this off-year election, and in the face of demonstrated voter apathy (primary election turnout was around 9%), it seems us that the Standard-Examiner ought to be doing everything possible to heighten the awareness of its general readership concerning public events occurring during this election cycle. So far, in our view however, the Std-Ex's performance has been spotty at best. Here are a couple of examples of what we're talking about:

1) On October 5, the Standard prominently announced the Weber County Women's Legislative Council Meet the Candidates Night, which was held on October 6. Weber County Forum did its part in post-event reporting of course, with this article, published the very night of the event, which provoked a robust discussion within the comments section, of the numerous interesting revelations which emerged during that entertaining and informative public meeting. By contrast, the Std-Ex has yet to publish a single word about this event, even though we know Scott Schwebke was in attendance, scribbling pages upon pages of copious notes. Oddly enough, the Std-Ex now seems to have dropped this story entirely; and we'd like to know why. Perhaps Std-Ex publisher Lee "Gondola Boy" Carter didn't want to report that Boss Godfrey Ticket At Large "B" candidate Phipps was the only candidate among the eight who was dumb enough to admit considering Boss Godfrey's Gargantuan $143 mil Condo/hotel/Golf Course Boondoggle to be still "on the table." Maybe the Standard didn't want to report that our council, which has been recently and regularly accused by the Standard-Examiner of "obstructionism," actually votes in favor of Boss Godfrey proposals 98% of the time. Perhaps the Std-Ex editors thought Councilman Garcia's revelation that the $800 thousand annual subsidy which Ogden taxpayers fork over to the airport dwarfs the purported $250 thousand annual shortfall at the Mount Ogden Golf Course (the only public subsidy Boss Godfrey ever complains about) would be too painful for its taxpayer readers to take.

2) Despite the fact that well informed local political wonks have been aware since October 2 that the eight council candidates have agreed to hold a legitimate debate on October 14, at a mutually-agreed venue, with agreed ground rules, the Standard-Examiner hasn't said word one about it to its general readership. Whereas the Std-Ex has devoted barrels of ink to report on the (justifiable) refusal of the majority of council candidates to participate in Boss Godfrey's wholly bogus Channel 17 Dog & Pony show, the Std-Ex hasn't breathed a word about the scheduling of the October 14 debate.

We've criticised the Standard for its lop-sided coverage of 2009 election stories over the past months; and we believe our criticism has been mostly well justified. On top of that however, we believe we must consider those important stories the Standard doesn't write about; and we need to ask why these stories are being neglected.

We believe the Standard's omission of these stories serves as a particular disservice to its print readership, for whom our home town newspaper is virtually the only source of election news. Demographically, the Std-Ex readership tends to be a little longer in the tooth than internet readers; and yet older voters are the most reliable voters of all. Even the most reliable of voters can't make rational decisions however, if they're deprived of crucial election-related information.

So once again we ask our readers... why is the Standard neglecting those stories? Is there a hidden agenda to suppress the November General Election vote? Is there some reason the Std-Ex is reluctant to get the voters charged up in an election which could tip the balance of council power? Is the Standard-Examiner, which constantly rails on its own editorial pages about "voter apathy," nevertheless wilfully sending mixed messages? Or alternatively, is our home town newspaper simply not paying attention?

The world-wide blogosphere is sitting on the edge of its seat... waiting to find out what our gentle readers think about this.

Who will be the first to comment?

Wednesday Morning Emerald City News Roundup

Four interesting story selections per gentle reader Ray

By Ray

Several interesting items in the Standard this AM. The first, Trentelman's article, in which it would appear St. Anne's has prevailed and rebuffed the Godfrey attempt to make the most political hay out of the proposed relocation. Perhaps we need the St Anne's board members on the city council as they seem to be able to control the Mayor's machine.

In addition, a back page 4B blurb that states the Weber County Commissioners unanimously voted to appeal the the 2nd District Court order regarding appointment of the Powder Mountain Town government.

I may quibbling but:

Is it me or do others notice in the Standard-Ex that Rob Bishop is always "blasting" something when it comes to President Obama? Such as the story with today's inset on the front page, "Bishop blasts Obama's "poor decisions... with our space program" It may be the proper word but seems as though they could come up with a different one from a thesaurus? However, I can conjure up an image of Bishop with that always pained expression on his face with him "blasting" Obama.

And lastly, in the Newsbeat Column the headline reads "WSU to feature former HUD worker" in describing former US HUD director, Henry Cisneros regarding his upcoming visit to WSU. I guess he did work at HUD but by the headline it could be a janitor appearing. If former President Bush was appearing would it say "WSU to feature former White House worker" I doubt it...

About Tonight's Weber County Women's Legislative Council Meet the Candidates Night

Here's a first impression of the first of the Ogden City election 2009 municipal election public forums

By Dan S.

Just returned from the Weber County Womens's Legislative Council candidates' forum. All eight candidates were present and had plenty of opportunities to speak. After each gave an opening statement, there were plenty of questions from the audience.

One person asked Phipps about his position regarding Mt. Ogden Golf Course. Phipps said that all options should be on the table, and it's unacceptable that the course loses $350,000 [sic] a year. Then my turn came to ask a question, and I pointed out that right now we have an option on the table, namely relocating the clubhouse and building 350 condominiums, while completely redesigning and rerouting the course. I asked each candidate whether that option should be on or off the table. Every candidate answered "off" except Phipps, although Stephens sounded a bit uncertain.

Interestingly, some of the candidates were more equivocal on this question when they responded to the Sierra Club questionnaire.

Ed. Addendum: The floor is open for the comments and observations of other WCF readers who attended tonight's event.

Tuesday Morning Emerald City News Roundup

Selected bits and pieces, designed to provide fodder for yet another great WCF reader discussion

In the absence of any blockbuster Ogden City stories from the northern Utah print media this morning, we'll shine the spotlight on these selected bits and pieces, which nevertheless may provide fodder for further reader discussion:

1) Ace Reporter Schwebke reports that the city council will consider taking action against three "sexually oriented" Ogden businesses (strip clubs), in an apparent effort to enhance our city's new "Provo-style" family friendly image:

• Zoning changes could force businesses to relocate

A new Utah law provides that a municipality may enact by ordinance an amortization schedule for the termination of nonconforming uses over a "reasonable period of time." This statute, which was enacted by our purported "pro property rights" GOP legislature during the 2009 session, abrogates former law of long-standing in America, wherein preexisting non-conforming uses have been traditionally "grandfathered," during the entire duration of their operation. In our opinion, this new legislation, which would allow government bureaucrats to arbitrarily "amortize" the "value" private property rights, invites a constitutional law challenge if ever there were one. Maybe it's just us... but we do believe we smell an expensive potential lawsuit blooming on the horizon. Hopefully the city council will be very, very careful as they examine this issue.

2) The Standard-Examiner again seems to be horribly out of touch with current developments this morning, with the publication of this letter which criticizes the three council candidates who declined Boss Godfrey's imperial summons to appear for Boss Godfrey's botched Channel 17 sham debates:

• Debate no-shows set atmosphere for more division

The Standard-Examiner editors are well aware that all council candidates have now gotten together and planned a legitimate debate with a venue and ground rules which are agreeable to all council candidates. We thus don't understand at all why the Std-Ed editors allow the Godfrey Ticket letter machine to keep flogging this now dead horse.

3) Rachel Trotter reports this morning, a short seven weeks after signing away the bulk of its multi-million dollar Junction tax increment until the year 2026, that the Ogden City School District is even now shuffling slim resources to meet an "unexpected" increase in elementary school class enrollment:

• Ogden City School District considers its options

Mercilessly, this morning's story dwells on the manner in which the school district intends to "make do" with the resources it already owns; and there is no hint, express or implied, suggesting that the school district will be asking for more taxpayer money any time soon. This is fine with us of course. Frankly, we don't want to hear any whining about funding shortages from the geniuses at the Ogden School District until around the year 2026.

That's it for now, O Gentle Ones.

Pick up on any of the above topics, or start up a new discussion all your own.

Standard-Examiner: Ogden Police Are Allowed To Kick Criminal Ass In Ogden -- At least For One Remarkable Day

More evidence that Matthew Godfrey is an idiot

Interesting pre-election story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, referring to at least one day in Emerald City when Boss Godfrey allowed Ogden's Finest to actively bring down the heat on the criminal element in Ogden's sometime crummy central city (soon to renamed "The Trolley District"):

OGDEN -- Like enforcer bees crawling over a hive of crime, the Ogden Police Department recently swarmed an area that attracts criminal activity at a much higher rate than the rest of the city.
Approximately 20 officers from the department patrolled the targeted crime reduction area Wednesday night, an area bounded by 20th and 30th streets and Washington and Harrison boulevards, searching for known criminals and illegal activity.
Officers served 11 warrants, found stolen property, picked up a parole violator, made a drug arrest and issued six citations.
The drug arrest took an "8-ball" of methamphetamine off the streets -- an eighth of an ounce.
"It was definitely worthwhile, that amount of arrests and contacts for six hours worth of work," Police Sgt. Kevin Cottrell said.

"We shook up a lot of stuff for a few hours, " says OPD Sargent Cottrell.

We couldn't be more in agreement with this latest police tactic. In fact, we wonder why the OPD isn't allowed to at least do something like this on a daily basis. Time to restore law and order to Central City Ogden , we think. If we want to see a "renaissance in our central city," this is obviously the FIRST place to start. Time for Boss Godfrey to also fatten up the numbers on the police force, we believe. Thanks to a highly-reliable OPD insider we spoke with today, by the way, its revealed to us that the council-authorized number of OPD officers falls 17 short. Naturally, we ask why Boss Godfrey hasn't filled these vacant positions already...

Time for Godfrey to grow up and abandon his Gondola/Icicle dreams, we think, and join the world of grownups.

Query: When will Boss Godfrey grow up, reach a reasonable level of adult maturity and realise that his first obligation to Ogden City residents is to provide the fundamentals, like Public Safety Protection and Working Infrastrucure?

We'll not hold our collective breath.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Standard-Examiner: Council Candidates Invited to Meet Public

A chance to meet and greet the Ogden City Council candidates in a relatively informal setting

For those who have not yet marked their calenders, the Standard-Examiner provides a Top of Utah section front page reminder this morning of tomorrow evening's 2009 Ogden Municipal Election event. As we briefly announced in last week's WCF story, the Weber County Women's Legislative Council has scheduled for Tuesday night a "Meet the Candidates Night" event. Std-Ex reporter Loretta Parks now provides more information this morning. Her key passages provide the gist:

OGDEN — With any luck, the Weber County Womens Legislative Council will run out of cookies and punch Tuesday when Ogden City Council candidates meet to discuss issues.
The event is free and starts at 7 p.m. at the South Ogden Senior Center, 580 39th St., South Ogden, said Kay Feeny, first vice president of the Weber County Womens Legislative Council. [...]
“We’re inviting people we see to come and asking everyone to bring a guest,” Feeny said. [...]
Each candidate will be given five minutes to discuss their background and what they believe is important to the city. They will also take questions from the audience, Feeny said.

You can read Ms. Parks's full story here:

• Council candidates invited to meet public

Due to the relatively "unstructured" announced format, we believe this event will provide Ogden voters the ideal opportunity to get to get "up close and personal" with the council candidates. We also believe that the short time limit on candidate opening statements will allow more time for questions from the floor than a more structured formal debate format. And if history is instructive, (the WCWLC has held numerous similar events in the past), there'll be time for direct hobnobbing with at least some of the council candidates after the meeting is adjourned.

We urge all Emerald City lumpencitizens to attend this event, which we view as a useful "warm up" for what looks to be The Main Event.

Be sure to arrive early folks... before the punch and cookies run out.

Boss Godfrey Again Puts the Cart before the Horse

Godfrey announces St. Anne's Center groundbreaking ceremony; St Anne's Board responds, "Slow Down, Mr. Mayor"

By Curmudgeon

They're at it again! The Godfrey administration is trying to give the St. Anne's Center the bums rush out of downtown, and just as happened before, the St.Anne's Board is not sitting still for it. [Charle's Trentelman's story can be found here:

• Moving time for St. Anne's?

It's quite a tale reporter Trentelman has to tell. Seems Hizzonah, Mayor Godfrey and his gaggle have announced a ground breaking ceremony for a new St. Anne's Center to be built out of downtown. Only problem is, St. Anne's Center says its way too early for a ground breaking ceremony, and they're not going to show until they have a signed agreement with the city about the move, which they don't have yet. From the story:

The city and the directors of St. Anne's Center agree it is time to move the homeless shelter from central Ogden to a location on Pacific Avenue, but St. Anne's officials are resisting a city effort to hold an Oct. 14 groundbreaking until they have details in writing.

The Administration notified the Standard-Examiner that the ground breaking ceremony would take place, that it's inviting the Lt. Governor, and that it has "a major donor" to help build the new St. Anne's --- nameless of course --- "already on board." [We can only hope it's not the same nameless donor who the Administration said was on board with the money for the ice tower, only it turned out, he wasn't.]

It seems the Administration announced the groundbreaking ceremony without bothering to inform, much less invite, the St.Anne's Board. From the story:

Asked about the groundbreaking, several St. Anne's officials, including Graham Lovelady, treasurer of the board of directors, said the board didn't know anything about it.

Mayor Godfrey's CAO, Mr. Patterson, insisted however "it was all still going to happen." [He didn't quite say "Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!" to the St. Anne's Board. Not quite.]

Trentelman reports that the St.Anne Board held "an emergency meeting Wednesday night" and "voted to tell Ogden to slow down." The Board wants "a signed memorandum of understanding before it proceeds." [Seems the St. Anne's Board has learned the hard way, as have the rest of us, that the Mayor's word is no good. We want it in writing, the Board insists. Smart people.] What must the signed agreement include? This, say's St. Annes: "basic stuff like, here's what we're going to do and here's what we expect the city to do. And it will include things about the land swap."

A spokesperson for the St. Anne's Board put the matter so plainly, it's possible even the Mayor and Mr. Patterson [both out of town yesterday] might understand it: "We're not going to be pushed into something if we're not ready."

There is much else in the story about the history of St. Anne's in Ogden, and the history of its relations with the Godfrey Administration. All well worth reading.

But you would think after finally wiping the egg off its face for its last grand announcement of an agreement with St. Anne's about its moving to 12th Street when it hadn't agreed at all, the Administration would have learned something. Apparently not. What it has not learned yet, evidently, is that "agreements" involve the cooperation of all parties involved, not just the Mayor.

Good story. Good work by the SE. Hope we see more of it.

WSU gets Down And Dirty With MSU at 1:30 p.m.

Our WSU Wildcats take the next step forward toward another Big Sky Championship Title (we hope)

OK Weber State University football fans! It's once again time to publish our weekly WSU tout piece. This afternoon at 1:30 p.m., our home town college football team, the WSU Wildcats, square off in Ogden-situated Stewart Stadium, against perennial Big Sky Conference football power Montana State U (the Bobcats).

Game kickoff: 1:30 p.m.

Here are a few teaser newspaper pieces, just to get the juices flowing. We know you'll all take them for what they're worth. This afternoon's game is definitely drawing plenty of sports press attention. We even include an article from the MSU home town newspaper down below:

• WSU wants fast offensive start at home -Standard-Examiner
• Wildcats run into test - Salt lake Tribune

Here's a good one too, as we suggeted above, just for perspective from "the Montana State Bobcats" home town newspaper's perspecive:

• Win over Weber would be big for Cats

Tickets are still available at the gate for this afternoon's game, and in this context, we encourage all WSU fans to attend today's games if they can, even though they may not have a season ticket. Remember that Ogden City is now the world's prime mecca for high-adventure recreation. And what's more high adventure than attending a great football venue to watch giant humans face off against each other every 30 seconds or so to pound each others' brains out?

Seriously though WCF readers, we do hope you'll all consider attending this afternoon's game. WSU (under the experience tutelage of "Coach Mac" has actually put together a quite credible football program, which actually puts our Hi-Rec city "on the map."

For those of course who can't make it to the stadium, but would like to keep up with the game, there are two other options, of course.

Watch the internet video on Big Sky TeeVee;

Or alternatively... listen to the audio on the KLO radio WSU Flagship.

We'll keep the lower comments section open for those who watch or listen to the game.

We'll publish the final game score here, of course. Iin the meantime, lets have intra-game reader comments here.

No excuses please: WSU gets its ass royally kicked by MSU, with a final score of 26-21.

Dan S. Online Critique Gets Promoted to the Standard-Examiner Print Edition

We encourage all WCF readers to mosey on over to the Std-Ex site to throw in their own 2¢

For those who may have missed it the first go-round, be sure to check out Dan Schroeder's letter to the editor, which found its way to the Standard-Examiner hard-copy edition this morning:

• Editorial Board afraid of mayor

This is one of the most accurate and hard-hitting critiques of the Standard-Examiner that we've seen on the editorial pages in quite a long time; and we therefore believe it's well deserving of a reprise. We also believe that the Std-Ex editors are deserving of congratulations for making it available to its print readership. With luck, the Std-Ex editors will also write it down so they don't forget it.

This Std-EX Live! Edition letter has already generated a good number of comments from Standard-Examiner readers; but we see no reason to stop there. So in that connection, we encourage all WCF readers who haven't thrown in their own 2¢ to mosey on over there right now.

And in the course of that... don't forget about our own WCF comments section. Sometimes it gets a mite lonely around here on weekends.

Standard-Examiner: New Name on Track

Ogden Trolley District renaming: a prelude to a central city streetcar system?

Encouraging story on the Standard-Examiner front page, reporting on the efforts of residents of the Ogden Central Bench Historic District to upgrade the public image of their neighborhood. From this morning's Scott Schwebke story:

OGDEN -- A resident has rechristened an historic Ogden neighborhood with an unofficial new name and a Web site to tout its streetcar heritage.
Officially known as the Ogden Central Bench Historic District, the neighborhood extending from Washington to Harrison boulevards between 30th Street and the Ogden River has been dubbed the Trolley District by Shalae Larsen, a former city planning commission member.
"It really does a better job of telling the story of what we are all about and how we came to be," said Larsen, who lives in a Victorian-era home in the heart of the district at 614 24th St.

Mr. Schwebke reports that Ms. Larsen is pulling out all the stops, with a multi-pronged campaign (including yardsigns and a website) which would not only highlight the Central City neighborhood's trolley heritage, but also aid in the effort of residents of that district to put in place a new east-west streetcar corridor alignment which would bisect the District:

The city council and city administration are participating in a study that may lead to the establishment of a streetcar system along the busy downtown to the Weber State University/McKay-Dee Hospital Center corridor.The aim of the study is to meet requirements for pursuing Federal Transit Administration funding for a possible streetcar project that could take three years to five years to obtain.

Within the story, we found what we thought to be an interesting twist. As every WCF reader already knows, Boss Godfrey has has been vocal in his preference for an oddball corridor alignment which would run up 36th street between Washington and Harrison Boulevards. This alignment would of course certainly be a great boon for the city... the City of South Ogden, that is. And here's the angle which we find most interesting in this morning's story. Among those quoted is ordinarily diehard Godfrey supporter Tom Moore, who seems to have now strayed from the Godfrey hard-line, and appears to understand that renaming this district could be a prelude to what's really important for a Central City renaissance, i.e., the running of a 21st Century "trolley" through an aptly named Trolley District. If Mr. Moore's apparent support for Ms. Larsen's public relations campaign can be interpreted as an indication that Ogden City political activists of the other persuasion can depart from the hare-brained Godfrey dogma, and join together to work for sensible solutions to Ogden City's infrastructure problems, we'll start off this weekend much encouraged.

Hopefully we're not reading too much into this; but ask yourselves this: How could Ogden have a Trolley District and not a Trolley District Trolley? Such a ridiculous circumstance would make no sense. Ms. Larsen's tactic in this matter is far from subtle, or so it seems to us.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Council Candidates Schedule 10/14/09 Debate

Open public forum to meet and discuss the important issues facing our city

By Jennifer Neil

This from Bart Blair face book message:

Bart Blair October 1 at 8:35pm
I just returned from the "candidate debate meeting". It was a good meeting and we were able to come up with a very fair and equal forum. We are scheduled to meet at the Union Station Business Building (room 162) on Wednesday, October 14 at 7pm. The moderator will ask each candidate a question and his/her opponent will have the chance to respond also. The candidates will also field questions from the audience. It should be a very positive experience and a great opportunity to meet and discuss the important issues facing our city. All are invited so I would encourage you to try to attend. I look forward to seeing you and meeting with you that night. Thank you for your support.

This is different from Women's Legislative Council's "meet the candidates"; and it is in Ogden.

Update 10/14/09 9:38 a.m.: Please take note that the above referenced debate, which was originally set for Ogden's Union Station, has been reset for the Ogden Applied Technology College Business Building (room 162) on the originally-announced time and date, due to a scheduling conflict.

Meet the Candidates Night 10/6/09

Everyone's invited to come and meet the candidates; see you there!

By Jim Hutchins

Council At Large Seat "A" candidate Ms. Van Hooser has posted the following to her Facebook Wall:

What: Ogden Council Member Candidate Forum, Hosted by the Weber County Womens Legislative Council
Where: South Ogden City Senior Citizen Center, 580 39th Street
When: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 @ 7:00 p.m.

Everyone's invited to come and meet the Ogden City Council candidates; see you there!

Ogden City Council Debates: Back in the News For the Second Time This Week

Lots of tantalizing questions to discuss this morning

To kick off this morning's reader discussion, we'll highlight a pair of Ogden City municipal election stories provided by the northern Utah print media:

First, we'll provide a link to this morning's Salt Lake Tribune story, wherein we believe reporter Chris Smart got the facts mostly right:

• Candidates opt out of city-sponsored debate

Although Mr. Smart does report that Ogden City officials have offered to move Channel 17 cameras to wherever alternative venue the candidates choose, he misses the boat in failing to tell his readers about "the catch": that any agreed venue outside the ninth floor studio (across the hall from Boss Godfrey's throne room) would require somebody other than the city to pick up Channel 17's "travelling expenses".

We won't gig Mr. Smart for this minor omission however, inasmuch as he does get the main point right:

Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey isn't up for re-election this year. But that doesn't mean he's not at the center of campaign-season rancor.
Three candidates running for Ogden City Council opted out of a recent debate sponsored by the municipality, citing concerns that a government forum is improper for election campaigning.
While a Godfrey spokesman said the mayor wasn't directly involved in setting up the debate, his shadow seemed to fall over it...

And on the heels of yesterday's WCF report that the council candidates are themselves setting up a non Boss Godfrey-sponsored debate, we receive this encouraging news this morning from the Standard-Examiner, whereby Mr. Schwebke reports that all eight council candidates are set to meet today, in an attempt to work out their own alternate debate venue and ground rules, and possibly cut the meddling Godfrey administration entirely out of the deal:

• Candidates discuss logistics - Debates, forums, sponsorships and formats on minds of hopefuls

We see lots of interesting possibilities here. Will the candidates themselves succeed in amicably working out the necessary details in the this single meeting? Will there be holdouts for a Channel 17 broadcast? Council challenger David Phipps has candidly expressed his preference that these proposed debates be featured on the Godfrey Propaganda Channel. Will he and his Godfrey Ticket comrades then refuse to debate at a neutral forum such as WSU, for instance? Will the citizens of Ogden City be treated to another set of "empty chair" debates? Or alternatively, will Emerald City voters finally get the legitimate and robust question and answer sessions that they deserve? And tangentially we'll ask this question: Does WSU or any other reasonably available neutral party or entity even have the technical capability itself to tape and broadcast a new set of debates? Is Channel 17 the only practical alternative, if the voters are to see a video broadcast at all?

Lots to discuss this morning as we said; so we'll thus turn the floor over to our readers without any further ado.

Don't let the cat get your tongues, O Gentle Ones.