Standard-Examiner: Another City Council Candidate Showcase Event

Weirdly enough, the ladies from the WCWLC have evidently ignored the candidates from the contested Ogden City Council Ward 2 race

As a followup to their earlier October 12 Ogden Mayoral candidate Question and Answer Session, The Weber County Women's Legislative Council will be holding its second 2011 Ogden City Election candidate event on Wednesday night (11/2/11), this time a city council candidate Meet the Candidates Night, the strange details of which we'll incorporate from this brief Standard-Examiner announcement:

OGDEN -- The Women's Legislative Council of Weber County will hold a Meet the Candidates Night at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the South Ogden Senior Center, 580 39th St.

Candidates for the city council will introduce themselves and address concerns and questions from the audience. Expected to attend are candidates for At large Seat C Rick Safsten, Steve Thompson and Amy Wicks, and South Ogden City Council candidates Michael Jacobazzi, Sallee Orr and Kelly Zaugg.

The public is invited to attend. For more information, call 801-621-4788 or 801- 644-1585.

That's right, folks. It'll be a genuine mixed bag, featuring council hopefuls from the South Ogden city council race, together with Ogden primary-qualifying At-large Seat "C" candidates Amy Wicks and Stephen D. Thompson , right along with the late-filing write-in Comrade Rick Safsten, whose name won't even appear on the November 8 ballots. Weirdly enough, the ladies from the WCWLC have evidently ignored however, for reasons unknown, two other ballot-qualified candidates from the other contested Ogden City Council race, namely Ogden Ward 2 Council candidates Jennifer Neil and Richard Hyer, each of whom was legitimately selected by the voters during the September 13 Primary to stand for the November 8 Ogden General Election, (unlike the conniving interloper, Mr. Safsten).

While we won't speculate on these ladies' reasoning for this glaring inconsistency, we will urge all Ogden City political wonks who support the re-election of incumbent Councilwoman Amy Wicks to make arrangements to be in attendance, if only to demonstrate solidarity with, and support for, Ms. Wicks and her candidacy.

That's it for now, gentle readers.

Here's another golden opportunity to throw in your own 2¢.

Who would like to offer their own speculation regarding the WCWLC's apparently willful decision to exclude Ogden's Ward 2 candidates? Why would the WCWLC set up a phony forum like this, without inviting ALL the candidates? Nefarious motives? Mere poor planning? Something in-between? And what other issues can you spot regarding this upcoming 2011 Municipal Election event?

This will be "on the test," btw.

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.

Thursday Morning Northern Utah News Roundup

There's so much happening on our local "red meat" political news front, we hardly know where to start

As luck has it, our "usual" Northern Utah news sources are over-brimming with red meat political news this morning.  There's so much happening on our local news front, we hardly know where to start.  Here's our short list however, which we'll throw out in no particular logical order:

1) Matthew Stewart Pretrial Motions. There's more news this morning concerning the Matthew Stewart death penalty case, as the Salt Lake Tribune reports that "2nd District Judge Noel Hyde on Tuesday denied a previous motion from defense attorney Randy Richards declaring the death penalty was  unconstitutional," additionally holding that "the Utah Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the death penalty was constitutional."  This ruling does not however dispose of a second pending defense team motion in which, according to the SL-Trib, counsel assert that the Court should "toss evidence related to marijuana cultivation" because Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force agent Vanderwarf allegedly 1) asked for the search warrant based on "stale information," and that this officer 2) "lied" in his foundational search warrant affidavit, under circumstances which Richards characterizes as a "blatant fabrication":

• Matthew David Stewart says police lied on search warrant

Oh my! Is it concivable that an Ogden City police officer might actually lie in a search warrant affidavit? "Say it ain't so, Joe!"

2) Governor Herbert - Snake Valley Pipeline Agreement. Both the Standard and the Tribune gleefully report that "Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has rejected an agreement with Nevada that would allow Las Vegas to pump massive amounts of groundwater from the states' shared border," in an apparent effort to spare Utah's Snake Valley residents, (and "downwind" Wasatch Front residents ) from the potentially devastating effects of a Nevada water-grab which might mimic the disastrous environmental results which happened decades ago in California's once agriculturally-productive Owens Valley following a similar Los Angeles, CA water grab:

• Herbert won't sign water deal for Vegas
• Herbert rejects Snake Valley water pact with Nevada

We're scratching our heads wondering what's happened to Governor Herbert lately. With last week's veto of HB76, and Wednesday's rejection of the proposed Snake Valley intra-state groundwater pact, Herbert's suddenly become a "Man of the People," one of those rare birds in Utah politics who don't necessarily serve as obediant lapdogs to economic development interests, but actually listen to to their lumpen constituents. Seems that "Governor Gary" is transforming himself from a political zero to a gubernatorial hero, right before our very eyes.

3)  FBI investigates West Valley City Police. "The FBI has agreed to investigate allegations of  corruption within the West Valley City police department's disbanded  drug unit amid reports of a cover-up involving the officer-involved  shooting death of an unarmed woman," the Standard reports this morning:

• FBI to investigate West Valley police allegations

Sodden question: Now that the FBI is poking around in WVPD's affairs, would it be good idea  for these federal law enforcement authorities to take the short drive  north to Ogden City, to take a quick peek under the Ogden Police Department "hood"? We know that there are at least a few folks round town who might think so; but even more importantly, howbout you?

4) Ogden Hinkley Tower Closure Lawsuit. Looks like it'll be a full employment economy for Northern Utah lawyers, as the Standard-Examiner breathlessly reports that "The Ogden-Hinckley Airport is joining a lawsuit to try to stop the federal government from shutting down 149 air traffic control towers across the nation in an effort to cut spending":

• Ogden-Hinckley Airport joins lawsuit against FAA to keep towers open

Will Ogden-Hinkley airport officials, along with a whole potload of other hopeful plaintiffs succeed in compelling the Federal Aviation Administration to spend monies that have been denied by the U.S Congress? Will a  U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. have the audacity to rule that "public safety" trumps the our federal Congresscritters' tightfisted, and ideologically-driven "push toward U.S. fiscal austerity"? Will Congressman Rob Bishop, and the rest of the Utah federal legislative delegation continue to embrace massive across-the-board, meat cleaver-style spending cuts, except of course when negative consequences are felt in their own backyard?

5) Women's Legislative Council Event.  In connection with the above story, we'll also take the opportunity to alert you all of a Weber County Women's Legislative Council (WCWLC) special event, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9.  The featured speaker will be Utah Speaker of the House Brad Dee.  This might be a grand time to ask Rep. Dee what (if anything) the State Legislature has in mind concerning possible assistance which the legislature might have planned for the Ogden Hinkley sequestration problem, wethinks, in the event that the FAA lawsuit plaintiffs fail to succeed with their lawsuit, inasmuch as the meeting agenda calls for "discussion of sequestration is affecting Utah," and further provides for "questions from the audience." Check out our link below for the full "skinny," including time, date and location coordinates:

• Women's Legislative Council - April 9, 2013 Event

We've eagerly followed on WCF similar WCWLC events in the past, which graciously hosted events are always open to the general public.  So we encourage all Ogden-Hinkley Airport boosters to put this event on their calenders and plan to be in attendance.

That's it for now folks.  So who wants to throw in their own 2¢?

2011 Ogden Municipal Election Update

Last Thursday's mayoral debate video in now available for viewing via YouTube; and The Womens' Legislative Council announces yet another upcoming mayoral candidate showcase event

Here are couple of notable 2011 Municipal Election developments for Ogden City political wonks, both concerning the Mayoral Race, as our right sidebar Election Countdown Clock mercilessly ticks down to within 29 days of the November 8 Election:

1) Channel 17's video recording of Last Thursday's (10/6/11) Ogden Mayoral Debate is now available for viewing via Youtube:


We've also added the link to our right sidebar election module for your convenient future reference, of course.

2) The Weber County Women's Legislative Council announces yet another upcoming mayoral candidate showcase event, the particulars of which we'll incorporate from this morning's Standard-Examiner sidebar snippet:

OGDEN — Mayoral candidates Brandon Stephenson and Mike Caldwell will speak to the Women’s Legislative Council of Weber County at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The two will make presentations and answer questions from the audience.

The meeting will be held at the South Ogden Senior Center, 580 39th St.

This will be the tenth mayoral event this election cycle, by our count folks. Lest some of you might argue that this year's weird abundance of mayoral candidate events is an indulgence in overkill, we'll make the observation that this very well might be the last chance for Caldwell and Stephenson, candidates who've heretofore failed to demonstrate a dime's worth of difference between their respective platforms during their first nine attempts, to clearly and finally differentiate themselves, one from the other.

"The tenth time's the charm," according to the old ax... no? [wink] Well who knows? Maybe this time these bumbling candidates will finally get it right, this tenth (count 'em, 10th) go-round.

The floor's open for your ever-savvy remarks.

Big Meeting Tomorrow Night: Energy Solutions Discussion Is On The Agenda

We're sure there are more than a few of our readers who are concerned about the storage of the world's radioactive nuclear reactor waste right here in Utah's western desert

As Emerald City's favorite community blog, one of our community service functions which we find to be most personally satisfying at Weber County Forum is the touting of important local community political events. In that connection, here's something interesting coming up for tomorrow night. We'll briefly reel off the info in the same format submitted by one of our gentle readers over the weekend:

What: Women's Legislative Council of Weber County monthly meeting
Where: South Ogden Senior Center, 530 39th Street, Ogden, UT
When: Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Guest Speaker: Betty Arial, Director of Legislative & Community affairs, Energy Solutions
Further Details: Time allotted for Q&A; Public invited- no charge

Readers who have additional questions about this event are invited to call Skip @ 801-621-4788, or Donna @ 801-552-8488.

The Weber County Women's Legislative Council monthly meetings have become a particular favorite venue of ours. Regular readers will of course recall our announcement of the group's pre-election 2009 Ogden City council candidate open house, which turned out to be a quite lively and informative event. And although we didn't publish a post meeting summary, we have received reports about the WCWLC group's recent ethics reform-topical program, wherein Utahns For Ethical Government's own in-house lawyer David Irvine evidently popped up from the audience out of the blue, to add balance to the conversation and to considerably enliven the discussion. One of the things we like best about these WCWLC sessions, by the way, is the group's healthy tolerance for relatively free-wheeling on-floor public participation.

Although Energy Solutions hasn't been a chief topic here at WCF, we're sure there are more than a few of our readers who are concerned about the storage of the world's radioactive nuclear reactor waste right here in Utah's western desert. So it's for the benefit of those readers that we're pleased to provide this announcement of tomorrow night's WCWLC event.

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?

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.

Sudden Notice of a City Council Candidate Venue

Realtime revelations intrude upon the tranquil WCF atmosphere

We received this missive via email a few minutes ago from one of our gentle readers:

"Sorry I don't have a blog account, but I think your readers would be interested to know or be reminded that a Forum for Ogden City Council Candidates is being held this evening at 7 p.m. at the South Ogden Senior Center (525-39th St.). It is being co-sponsored by the Women's Legislative Council of Weber County and the League of Women Voters of Weber County.

Thanks for passing this on."

We wonder why angry little bobby forgot to mention this "vital" event.

Probably off his "meds," is our guess.

Update 10/1/07 6:01 p.m. MT: New missive: "Just received a correction that the Ogden City Council Candidate forum is set for 6:30 instead of 7 p.m. Kind of late, but pass it on if you think it will help anyone. Lynette Belka -LWVW Secretary. "

Here's a link to the Weber County League of Women website for those who are still doubtful about the legitimacy of this late-noticed event: WEBER COUNTY LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS ACTIVITIES .

Gather up your torches and pitchforks quickly, lumpencitizens of Ogden. According to the latest missive, this event begins in 29 minutes.

Update 10/2/07 8:19 a.m. MT: There's not a word of last night's event in this morning's Standard-Examiner; not anything we could find, anyway. It thus appears we're the only game in town when it comes to discussing last night's council candidate face-off. We therefore encourage all event attendees to continue to post their observations here.

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.

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.

Public Invited to Hear How Ogden School District Uses State Core in Student Education

Special Note to our friends of the Weber County Democratic Education Caucus: This is an event where some of your "peeps" need to "show up," wethinks.

Over the course of the past few months we've rededicated ourselves to closely following all the "action" in re our absolutely dysfunctional Ogden School District, in anticipation of next year's Ogden School Board elections, wherein we expect asleep-at-the-switch Ogden School Board incumbents to fall heavily, due to their obvious ineptitude, en masse.  So in that connection, we'll put the spotlight on tomorrow's Women's Legislative Council of Weber County event, wherein Dr. Rich Nye, director of assessment, research and evaluation for Ogden School District, will "talk about understanding the Utah State Core and how the Ogden School District uses the state core in regard to student education":

• Public invited to hear how Ogden School District uses state core in student education

We're putting out the word of tomorrow night's event via our usual online sources, i.e,  Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the ever VERY trendy Tumblr.

Special Note to our friends of  the "Weber County Democratic Education Caucus" This is an event where some of your "peeps" need to "show up in force," wethinks.

Standard-Examiner: Meet Weber County Candidates on Monday Night

Mark your calenders, folks... these WLCWC events invariably turn out to be exceptionally informative and lively

In our relentless effort to keep our WCF readers fully abreast of all important local "meet the candidates" events arising prior to the November 6, 2012 Utah General Election, we'll put the spotlight this morning's Standard-Examiner announcement, which we incorporate in full, together with a few helpful links which we've added for your convenient reference:

SOUTH OGDEN — The Women’s Legislative Council of Weber County will hold a Meet the Candidates night beginning at 6 p.m. Monday at the South Ogden Senior Center, 580 39th St.

Candidates who will be speaking are Matt Bell and Corey Combe, Weber County Commission; Gage Froerer and Nickolas Velis, Utah House District 8; Jeremy Peterson and Neil Hansen, Utah House District 9; and Richard Greenwood and Benjamin Pales, Utah House District 12.

Refreshments will be served*. 

Mark your calenders, folks,  These boffo  WLCWC events invariably turn out to be exceptionally informative and even lively and invigorating.
_________
* Delicious and lovingly home-baked cookies and punch, assuming history repeats.