Spotlight on This Morning's Special Standard-Examiner 2009 Election Feature

Nine new Standard-Examiner items begging for your attention... do your duty, folks

The Standard-Examiner is evidently trying to get its act together in advance of the November 3 election, with a special WeberPlus Section feature which appeared in this morning's edition, under the title, "Determining Ogden's leaders." Much of the material is a rehash of earlier-reported matter, but in the interest of helping keep our readers informed of all the 2009 municipal election stories on the web, we'll highlight the four writeups which appeared in this morning's SE hard-copy edition:

• Ogden City Council At-Large Seat A
• Ogden City Council At-Large Seat B
• Ogden City Council Ward 1
• Ogden City Council Ward 3

We encourage our readers to follow these links over to the SE site of course, to lodge your ever-savvy comments.

And here's something of additional interest. The Standard appears to be midway through the process of assembling expanded candidate statements which go beyond the depth of the candidate questionnaire responses which the SE published way back on September 10. We're just speculating on this, but perhaps these pages are the fruit of the still SE editors' ongoing council candidate interview process.

So far the SE has published these expanded statement pages for Patrick Dean, Doug Stephens, Bart Blair, Mark Haines and Susan Van Hooser. We'll be sure to let you know when they've published the rest. We'll be adding these article to our WCF candidate roster pages too, of course

We take great pride in providing all the relevant 2009 election information here on Weber County Forum. Hopefully however we're not driving you all into information overload mode.

And don't forget, these last five pages have comments sections too.

Do your duty, O Gentle Ones.

Jon Greiner Gets His "Day in Court"

Scott Schwebke reports on Jon Greiner's now-ongoing Hatch Act administrative hearing

The Standard-Examiner describes the latest episode in the long-simmering Jon Greiner Hatch Act Saga,with this morning's Scott Schwebke story, which reports that our Ogden Police Chief/State Senator is now mired in the midst of a multi-day administrative hearing, wherein it will ultimately be determined whether Ogden City's carefully-crafted Hatch Act Compliance Program, (whereby Chief Greiner has been formally insulated from duties and authority related to federal grants) is sufficient to remove the matter from Hatch Act jurisdiction:

• Hatch Act hearing puts senator/Ogden police chief's future on the line

Curiously, and despite the Godfrey administration's otherwise scrupulous efforts to distance Chief Greiner from any official acts related to application, management or disposition of federal grant funds, Mr. Schwebke's morning story reveals that the administration may have nevertheless clownishly dropped the ball, by allowing Chief Greiner to affix his signature and/or initials to a number of grant applications and/or other grant-related documents. This slip-up of course thus provides the federal Office of Special Counsel a seemingly significant angle of attack -- a circumstance which could have been easily avoided. In that connection, it seems to us that it it would have made better sense for the administration to have required Ogden CAO John Patterson or Assistant Chief Tarwater to have signed off on these documents. Why they committed this particular bone-headed blunder we'll never know, although we will snarkily suggest that it does seem consistent with the general level of incompetence we've come to expect from "Boss Godfrey's Gang that Can't Shoot Straight."

We're posting this article mainly for archival consistency, inasmuch as we don't reasonably anticipate any real news about the outcome of this week's hearings for at least a few more months.

Nevertheless, we'll open the floor for any appropriate reader comments.

Emerald City Tuesday News Roundup

A reminder that early voting starts today; and a report that Boss Godfrey's "Council Nanny Plan" has fizzled out

There are a couple items in this morning's Standard-Examiner which we believe to be worthy of note.

First, Bryon Saxton provides a helpful reminder that early voting for the November 3 general election begins today. Although this morning's story reports that some northern Utah cities will have abbreviated voting hours, that's not the case in Ogden City. We spoke with the Ogden City Recorder's Office this morning and confirmed that our readers can visit that office at the City Municipal building to cast their early ballots any time between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, during the period running from this morning through October 30.

With the publication of this morning's story, we also believe it's a fine time to again remind our readers of our Weber County Forum Council Candidate Roster, wherein our readers can find a full collection of articles and links regarding the eight council candidates. If you haven't visited these pages even within the last week, you'll find that they're seriously fleshed out since your last visit. Be sure to click the links for the individual candidate pages, where we've assembled what we believe to be the single most information-rich Ogden City council candidate data source on the web. There's no need, we believe, for early general election voters to enter the voting booth unarmed.

Next, we'll put the spotlight on this morning's Standard-Examiner story, wherein Mr. Schwebke reports that Boss Godfrey's October 21, 2008 effort to appoint a City Council Nanny has fizzled out. When we last discussed this topic on Weber County Forum, a number of our readers expressed their doubts about the viability of this plan. Unfortunately, due to serious health issues within Dr. Goff's family, we'll never know whether the appointment of a dedicated council liason would have had a snowball's chance in hell of paving the way for improved Administration/Council relations. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dr. Goff and his family, of course.

We do have a fallback plan however. Howbout the council re-appropriate the 500 bucks previously designated for Dr. Goff's monthly stipend, and redirect it for the enrollment of Boss Godfrey in a reasonably closely located charm school instead? We do believe this is the area where the lumpentaxpayers could get the most bang for the buck, and that dedicated charm school tuition for the socially-incompetent Boss Godfrey would be taxpayer money very well spent.

That's it for now, gentle readers.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Update 10/20/09 12:10 p.m.: Upon the most excellent suggestion of the ever-cerebral gentle reader Keisha, we've set up a poll, to allow our readers to rate the "best of the best of the best" of the 2009 general election council candidate websites. First, go to our award-worthy Council Candidate Roster, click on the individual candidate page links and check out what the candidates offer online. After that, enter your vote in the poll module we've just now placed in the right sidebar.

Let it never be said that Weber County Forum readers can't find creative ways to amuse themselves... even on an otherwise S-L-O-O-O-W news day.

Standard-Examiner: Outlet Stores in Downtown Ogden?

The real puzzle is why the SE permits itself to be played like a violin

By Curmudgeon

This morning's Standard-Examiner has another painful example of Ogden's home town paper's inability to distinguish between news and campaign-driven speculations by Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey:

• Outlet stores in downtown Ogden? Mayor says deal could be announced in November

From the story:

The city expects to announce an agreement next month with one or more companies to establish retail outlet operations in three vacant buildings on the east side of Washington Boulevard, says Mayor Matthew Godfrey. Godfrey declined to identify the companies the city is negotiating with.... A terraced parking structure could eventually be built behind the outlet operation depending on customer demand, said Godfrey, who hopes other retail businesses will also open along the east side of Washington Boulevard.

And he expects to make the announcement in November. Isn't there an election coming in November? Why, it seems there is! Imagine that.

Could it be the purpose of announcing the Mayor's intention to announce, probably after the election, that three un-named companies, or maybe one, may sign leases to locate on Washington is to boost the election chances of the Mayor's candidates for Council seats? Is it possible that didn't occur to the SE's editors?

Since Hizzonah has so often announced things were going to happen that never did, it's hard to figure why he'd not wait until he had leases in hand from companies he could name before going public --- unless the goal all along was to influence the election if he could in favor of his pet Council candidates.

The real puzzle is why the SE permits itself to be played like a violin by the Administration over and over and over again.

Back in the days when the SE had a newsroom instead of a Content Center and editors who made it a point of pride not to permit themselves to be played by politicos, here's what would have happened with Hizzonah's latest press release reached the SE newsroom. The News Editor would have called Mr. Schwebke over and said:

"Scott, call the Mayor's office and tell them if they won't name the companies they say they're close to signing, so we can check the story out, we're not going with this. Without the names, this is not news we can verify, and we're not running it two weeks before the Council election. Tell him when he can give us a date certain on which a company he can name is going to sign a lease, to call us back and we'll print it. That the Mayor hopes business on Washington will pick up isn't news. We're not that desperate for copy. I'll print a lost dog story first."

Sadly, that's not what happened.

Bits and Pieces of 2009 Municipal Election Information on an Otherwise Slow News Sunday Morning

A pitch for campaign donations for one our favored council candidates; and a spotlight on the heretofore seeming Ward 3 council candidate "invisible man"

Red meat news has again slowed to a crawl this weekend, so we thought it might be appropriate this morning to devote some space to a couple of bits and pieces of new municipal election 2009 information:

1) For those who are unaware, Council "A" Seat candidate Susan Van Hooser is in the midst of a grassroots campaign contribution drive, whereby she's attempting to raise a modest $800 in donations, through the PayPal donation button on her website. From Ms. Van Hooser's Facebook page we receive this 10/16/09 project update:

Thank you for all of your support. We've received $150 in the last 48 hours in just online donations. We're well on our way to our goal of $800. This is just half of the $1,500 my opponent has received from The Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors, a special interest group wanting to get supporters in the council to do work for Ogden's Real Estate and not Ogden's Citizens. Our grassroots campaign is going strong and would thrive greatly with your support. There's no contribution too small, if you could spare $10 that would be greatly appreciated. Please visit my website for more info.

If you haven't yet coughed up at least a few shekels to help out with Susie's campaign, why not amble over to her campaign website, click the donation button and make a contribution right now?

2) We've received several emails from WCF readers, expressing appreciation for our Ogden City 2009 General Election Voting Guide, which we posted on Friday. In that connection, some of you said you got some extra chuckles from this segment, "focusing" on Ward 3 Candidate Pat Dean:

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.

Fun is fun, gentle readers; but we want to give the man a completely fair shake. So being the curious type, we accordingly contacted Patrick Dean by telephone, and requested that he send us some info -- something to let our readers know what he and his campaign are all about. Mr. Dean cordially agreed to do so; and here's the information he promptly sent:

• Patrick Dean - A Few Words About Myself.....,

In speaking with Mr. Dean, we were also delighted to learn that he has a fairly information-rich (although still "under construction") campaign website:

• Vote Pat Dean

As we know, there are numerous readers among us who are not completely satisfied with Councilman Doug Stephens' somewhat unpredictable council performance; and even one or two readers (or more) have come out and suggested they like Mr. Dean as their preferred candidate. We're thus shining a little brighter spotlight on the other Ward 3 alternative.

Our inclusion of this information should be in no way interpreted as a Weber County Forum endorsement of Mr. Dean's candidacy (not at this point, at least); but we thought it might be useful for our readers to know he's not really quite "the invisible man" he's heretofore appeared to be.

That's it for now, gentle readers.

Have at it; and let the ever curious world-wide blogosphere know what our ever-savvy WCF readers think. We know you're out there; we can hear you breathing.

Alternatively, feel free to consider this an open topic thread.

WSU Homecoming: WSU v. SSU Game Day Thread

The University from Governornator "Arnold's" capitol city of Cal-E-Fornia shows up at Stewart Stadium to get their "Ass Kicked" today

Regular as clockwork, the calender has rolled on by one week since our last WSU Game Day article; and we're thus delighted to open up another article and discussion thread in that vein. Here's the pregame setup from this morning's Standard-Examiner:

• Mighty motivation

Weber State University will be playing Sacramento State at home in Stewart Stadium this very afternoon. Kickoff is @ 1:30 p.m., to be exact. We can always hope, with a homecoming game going on, that otherwise distracted, but actual WSU students who are turned on by the "Homecoming Atmosphere" will rally up, to put themselves and their fannies and into stadium seats, and actually pack the stadium for at least a couple of quarters.

Once again we'll provide the internet links, for those local WSU fans who can't (for possibly implausible and logicly inexcuseable reasons) make it in person for this afternoon's game:

Check out the internet video version on Big Sky TEEVEE. Check it out. It really is very good.

For those who might be satisfied with classic radio audio, WSU Flagship KLO Radio is the ever-reliable "go-to place," of course.

We''l leave this article up for today's game comments. Don't hesitate to throw in your own two cents.

Final Score: WSU Wildcats 49; Sac State Hornets 10 = Homecoming Blowout.

Update 10/18/09 9:00 a.m. MT: Check out this morning's Std-Ex post-game writeups:

• Homecoming Bliss - Jason Asay
• Halftime momentum pays off - Jason Asay
• I's Toone time at Weber St. - Jim Burton

And here's the post-game story from the perspective of the Hornets' home town newspaper, the Sacramento Bee:

• Hornets' winning streak is history

Great to see our Wildcats hitting on all cylinders, no?

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...