Sierra Club clips Ogden City for $10,000 in costs/attorneys' fees; declares total victory
We're pleased to report this morning that The Sierra Club and Ogden City have settled their gondola-related open records lawsuit, which had been pending for three years running. The Sierra Club, plaintiff, has reportedly received from defendant, Ogden City, 43 of the 46 disputed records and clipped Ogden City for $10,000 attorneys' fees. The Sierra Club quite properly considers this a complete victory, as is more thoroughly set forth in this morning's press release:
Be sure to visit the Sierra Club website, where you can examine the array of documents finally released to the persistent Sierra Club plaintiff:
Putting it all in a nutshell, these records document both "the depth of involvement of Ogden City officials and others in promoting the gondola-resort proposal," and "city’s overly broad interpretations of several GRAMA exemptions." Additionally, these documents "highlight the city administration’s troubling preoccupation with secrecy, even in instances when the withheld records contained no information worth protecting." Moreover, these documents expose the bad behavior of almost everyone involved in the Gondola Fiasco, from Boss Godfrey, to the Ogden Records Review Board, to officials of the Utah Transit Authority, etc.
A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat this morning to the Ogden Sierra Club for its dogged pursuit of the truth in this matter, and for serving as a champion of government transparency and accountability.
And no... we're not happy to observe that Ogden City taxpayers have coughed up $10k in costs and attorneys' fees. Having said that however, we'll also observe that it wouldn't have had to happen this way, if Boss Godfrey had in good faith complied with GRAMA in the first place.
Okay... that's it from us for now.
Time for our gentle readers to let 'er rip.
Update 6/3/11 7:20 p.m.: The Salt Lake Tribune is carrying Cathy McKitrick's writeup on its website:
Update 6/4/11 4:13 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner is now running the story too:
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16 comments:
The ten K the city had to pay to the Sierra Club's attorneys is, I think, just the tip of the ice berg in terms of what the Mayor's continuing attempts to hide his administration's actions from the Council and the public cost the taxpayers of Ogden City. For instances, what was the cost of the time the city's attorneys spent on fighting disclosure of public records?
Exactly right, Curm.
Count up the lawyer fees, the court costs and all the other squandered public assets this gondola fiasco has cost the tax payers of Ogden and it is all just a drop in the bucket compared to the hundred million plus that has gone down the rat hole because of Godfrey's dishonesty, arrogance and incompetence.
What a twit-
http://bizazzmedia.com/davebaggott/
Yes indeed, Ozboy. If the taxpayers Of Ogden are "takin it in the shorts" in re this story, it's nobo0dy's faulty 'cept Boss Godfrey's
"And no... we're not happy to observe that Ogden City
taxpayers have coughed up $10k in costs and attorneys' fees. Having
said that however, we'll also observe that it wouldn't have had to
happen this way, if Boss Godfrey had in good faith complied with GRAMA in the first place."
Asleep at the wheel Ogden City City voters can share the blame. They're the ones who elected the "little shite" three times.
In the interest of archival consistency, we'll take the liberty of reposting Dan S.'s most interesting comment from the SE story comments section;
"To see whether Mr. Joseph's intent was merely to "encourage public
dialogue" and give the proposal a "fair hearing", it's informative to
read Mr. Joseph's email of May 24, 2006, in which he suggests, as
bargaining chips, that Mr. Peterson close the trails on his property and
put forward an alternative development plan with no concessions to
locals. In this email, Mr. Joseph also claims that "vicious
misinformation and lies" were being spread by Smart Growth Ogden, Weber
County Forum, and the "generally negative" Standard-Examiner. Here's a
direct link to the email:
http://utah.sierraclub.org/ogd...
Incidentally,
Mr. Joseph became the chair of the Ogden Trails Network Committee
shortly after the 2007 election, when Mayor Godfrey purged most of the
earlier membership (including yours truly and another Sierra Club
member) and replaced them with several of his loyal supporters, whether
or not these supporters had any interest in the trails."
It does make me smile that the truth about shady Godfrey and friends is finally coming out. Now, do we let them go or take them out back and hang em?
Interesting email from Mr. Joseph to Peterson and the mayor. No wonder
the mayor wanted to keep it secret! Mr. Joseph, at least in this
letter, shows himself to be every bit as duplicitous as Godfrey and
Peterson. He demonstrates the meaning of "birds of a feather flock
together".
I also thought it rather amusing that he is labeling
the Standard as being anti-gondola when the truth is they never did blow
the whistle on just how ridiculous the whole gondola/give the Mt. Ogden
Park to Peterson idea was.
What a sickening, self-serving manipulative bunch of SOBs these Godfreyites were - suggesting Peterson screw the public as hard as he could to force the outcome he and his depraved sociopaths wanted. And Godfrey in the middle of all of it, all while holding a current temple recommend. Lying, committing fraud, money laundering, misuse of funds - there were no holds barred for this Machiavellian bastard.
What a sad, twisted era in Ogden, is ending as Godfrey thankfully leaves office.
Sorry I used the b-word. After reading some of the emails and remembering what a snake Godfrey and his band of creeps are, I typed and pressed "send" too fast.
Watching the clip below, posted by,
Never thought of him as bright ...
... I had forgotten one thing that was good about Godfrey.
He was a jackass magnet. So many jerks were drawn here to Godfreyland- it was hilarious to watch them and to laugh at them.
Dave Baggott, in the clip, is a good example - plainly, comically, wide-open stupid, and absolutely clueless that he is.
owk2..I vote for a public tar and feathering followed by a ride out of town astradle a rail over a bumpy trail justlike the good old days.
Danny, "holding a current temple recommend" and being a duplicitous SOB isn't a basis for surprise in our state - our State Legislature is full of people just like the Mayor.
Danny
Don't forget that silly little film clip with the mindlessly babbling Mr Baggott was a grand production of the one and only Producer Rupert, the Godfreyite's entree into the magic world of Hollywood. He is the bestest buddy of Gadi the Magnificient of Ogden River fame and together they rode up here from Hollywood to save Ogden with their dazzling tap dancing and lip servicing abilities. Rupert is just about as damn big as one can find in Hollywood, or at least as big as the Godfreyites could find anyway.
Unfortunately, the majority of the electorate will never bother to read (or read about) these goings-on. When election time comes, unless there is true opposition (and an opposition that pulls few punches), the sheeple will think "Godfrey's built the Junction, brought us MallWart, and cleaned up the river, and vote for whoever they are told to support. Told by whom? I don't need to spell that out on a Sunday morning.
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