Who is running for City Council and Mayor?

It has been nearly a month since my last post. With the birth of a new child and other family obligations I am surprised at how little time I have to write. But I am happy to be at the computer this morning to talk about something I am passionate about--politics.

Who is running for office in South Ogden. As many of you know there are three city council seats open this election, which includes Mayor. I have had five people confirm to me that Mayor Garwood will not be running this time around and council member Vicki Mattson will be looking to replace him. Potentially a couple more city council members will throw their hats in. I would not be surprised to see Bradley or Minster go for the job as well.

Ms. Mattson and I have had our run ins in the past, but in the end we are always friendly to each other. I believe she has the understanding of South Ogden to do the job. But does she have the demeanor and leadership skills to make it happen?I have seen how she has treated constituents and other council members when she thinks know one is looking. Her leadership in my opinion has been lacking. I am yet to be convinced she would make a good mayor.

Hopefully we can gather more information and keep you all informed. The deadline is July 15th.

One final note: I have had many people, including some city council members, ask me if I am running for the council. Though I feel this is a great time to run for the council, I have decided not to run. With some recent obligations that have come forth, my time is now extremely limited and it would be unfair to my family. I have not been able to attend the last four city council meetings and expect to miss more with these obligations. Thank you to those who called in support.

Standard Re-Examiner catches up to the D-News: Garwood to chair a committee

The Standard Examiner finally catches up to what we already know. (See Here) Mayor Garwood will be heading up a National Committee.  The Deseret News ran this same story three days ago (See Here), but now we get to here "the rest of the story."  Thanks to our Re-Examiner reporter Jamie Lampros we now have of some more information as to Mayor Garwood's agenda. He will not be pushing issues like, outlawing skateboarding in your town and how to building a rec. center gym facility. Instead Mayor Garwood says the following:

"I would like to focus on revitalizing older neighborhoods as far as housing and keeping ownership and history in those homes," Garwood said. "I would also like to look at ways cities can help create more jobs and influence the job market and bring in new businesses."

NLC president Kathleen M. Novak said:

"I will look to George's leadership on this important committee to help define our expectations and sharpen our message on behalf of cities and towns."

Mayor Garwood has a lot on his plate now; though I do think he could do a great job on the committee, I just hope he can "sharpen his message" when it comes to things around here.

South Ogden Mayor Garwood to Lead a National Panel

The Deseret News has scooped the Standard Examiner (or maybe not since their online site was not updated early this morning) with a great article about our very own South Ogden mayor. (See Here)

Mayor Garwood, who is very politically active in other organizations, was called to be the chairman for a national committee with National League of Cities. Essentially his committee, Congress of Cities Programs Committee, will determine the major topics discussed at their 2009 convention. I am wondering what will be on the agenda.

• How to effectivly outlaw skateboarding.
  
• Raising taxes to build a rec. center gym facility.
  
• How to build a Nature Park with a kewl splash pad!
  

Either way, I think Mayor Garwood will do a good job on the committee and I hope his involvement only improves our city.

Good Luck Mr. Mayor.

"Don't Call it a Rec Center, it's a Gym Facility!" City Council Meeting 12-16-2008

At the beginning of every city council meeting there is a chance for public comment on any concerns about South Ogden City.  I took this opportunity to mention my concern about the upcoming potential for a property tax increase for a new rec. center in connection with the new South Ogden Junior High. If you don't remember you can see the following posts:

South Ogden City Council Meeting 9-2-2008

City Council Meeting Minutes (It was called a recreation facility)

Then I began mentioning a survey done by South Ogden City Council where 65 percent of residents have said they would not like to see a tax increase for a rec. center.  For more info, see my post on November 15, 2007 (See Here). 

As we continued with our reasonable discussion about the tax increase, Mayor Garwood interrupted me to say the following:

"We are not building a rec. center, it's a gym facility. Why are people calling me about a rec. center. We were never building a rec. center.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a gym facility for your kids. Your kids won't be around for 60 more years to see such a great opportunity."

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a nice recreation center gym facility with a pool and other features.  But I am not for a rec. center gym facility that has very limited use, is not open until after 5 pm and is raising property taxes during a recession. (Have we not heard of counter cyclical economic policy - lowering taxes in a recession).

A few minutes later the financial advisor for the city council came forward to speak about the bond for the new rec center gym facility.  He said, "We will need to change the wording in the documents to not say rec. center."  

Throughout the night this was the case, any time someone said rec. center, they were told to change it to gym facility.  Finally councilman Wayne Smith made a motion to set a public hearing for the proposed rec center gym facility.  He too called it a rec. center (while shaking his head in confusion) and was politely told to change it to gym facility.

What is the difference between a gym facility and rec. center?  According to Mayor Garwood--gym equipment.  Since there is no gym equipment this is not a rec. center.  

Come on people!  I have been in all the same meetings as you Mr. Mayor!  The city council has been calling this a rec. center for months! See the minutes from September 2, (See Here), it was called a recreation facility.  You all called it a rec. center at least a dozen times in your conversations.  Now people are questioning the rec. center; so we are now calling it a gym facility. Does this seem right?  

We all took the same survey and said we didn't want a tax increase for a rec. center. But we are fine with a tax increase for a gym facility?

Personally I am disappointed in how this is playing out.  I did not appreciate the response from the Mayor and it was VERY OBVIOUS the council, the lawyers, the financial advisers, and EVERYONE else was calling it a rec. center.  Also did I mention tax payers will being paying on a $3 Million bond for a rec center gym facility with limited use.  

For even more information about the rec. center gym facility, check out the press release on Scott Darrington's blog, (See Here)

From Where I Sit Podcast #1 - South Ogden Old Fashion Holiday

I am pleased to announce the first From Where I Sit - In South Ogden, Utah PODCAST! I have wanted to record a podcast for sometime but have been afraid to make the jump. But at last here it is. I will make future podcasts with interviews of politicians, business leaders and reviews of events.

For my inaugural podcast we have live review of the South Ogden Old Fashion Holiday event.

Every year South Ogden holds a Neighborhood Christmas party. Using non-Senator Buttars lingo, it is called the South Ogden Old Fashion Holiday. Each year it is held at the 40th street park. There is free food, entertainment, tree lighting and of course Santa Clause. I took my family had tons of fun.

I podcasted the event and have it ready for download. You can download or listen below.

Listen Now:

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This Podcast features:

1. Mayor Garwood Tree Lighting 00.18
   
2. Interview with Marcie Edwards from South Ogden Police Department 01:08
   
3. Interview with Frederick and Misty Stone 03:14
4. Shout out to Sen. Chris Buttars 03:58
   
5. Wasatch Christian School Choir 04:01

City Council - 11/18/2008 - Are we in money trouble?

Our local city council meeting this week was very interesting. There was a larger than normal crowd and lots of great topics discussed. My post will center around the budget amendments; however I will mention a little about the number of young kids that attend the meeting.

The unusual amount of young kids at the meeting puzzled me. I quickly realized they were there to hear the city council's discussion on a proposed ordinance to eliminate skateboarders from the city streets. The ordinance would make it a Class C Misdemeanor to skate on a city road. This could be a maximum fine of $750 and 90 days in jail (similar to those who point a laser pointer at cops - See Here). Kids will now be limited to skating only on sidewalks. Councilwoman Sallee Orr spoke up stating we should find something or somewhere for the kids to skate. The mayor agreed and mentioned he has looked into skate parks (During his Orlando Trip/Conference). Interestingly enough, as soon as the kids left he said, "This is just a fad," almost to suggest there was no real intention to help the kids who want to skateboard. -- Interesting.

The second issue of note was the discussion of the 2008-2009 budget. Most of the amendments were simple and easy to understand. But as the evening went on, we came to understand the city is nearly $300,000 in the negative for the fiscal year. City Manager, Scott Darrington made sure we all knew sales tax revenue was doing fine, this is not why we are in the negative. Yet it was because of other revenue problems and the slow economy.

Mr. Darrington said, "Expenditures are right on and we are not over spending. If sales tax revenue went down, things would be much worse. But if I had a crystal ball, I would say the city will be ok."

Then why are we in the negative!?! He even said all new projects are on hold because of the economy. Is it comforting to know each year about this time we a little behind or even, but this year we are $300,000 behind--NO!

Don't worry, there is light at the end of the tunnel; we have roll over funds from the Capital Funds project accounts. We have a total of $230,000 to be exact. Thank goodness! We are saved, we found some money to help out in this economy.

So what should we do with the money? Balance the budget, pay off the debts we owe? No, instead we are going to spend the money on the next phase of the nature park (so we can enjoy it this winter), a cement walkway between Friendship Park and the new library (so we can walk on it during the winter) and AC units (to cool us down in the winter).

Now don't get me wrong, I know these things are important, but sales tax revenue has a high probability of dropping lower than expected this next quarter; so why isn't this money instead spent to prepare for a potential shortfall. Did I mention we are $300,000 in the negative? We have $230,000 that could help! In addition, why did Mayor Garwood and Councilwoman Vicki Mattson go to Orlando for a conference if our city budget is in the negative? Should we not slow our spending when the economy starts slowing?

Are we reading the news? Do we know there is economic crisis?
Is South Ogden exempt from all the problems every surrounding city is experiencing?

I am worried about our city budget. Maybe I don't need to be, but I tend to think if we are in the negative or in debt, we should slow down the spending, conferences and retreats (Oh, the council is going on a retreat in January). We should start using our money wisely!

January is our next budget meeting; this will also tell us how our revenues are doing.

On a lighter note, I was very impressed with Sallee Orr's attention to detail. She caught nearly five inconsistencies or grammar errors in the ordinances, amendments or contracts. She was really on top of things.

Also Jon Andersen was great to follow up on my sprinklers and we are working things out.

South Ogden City Council Meeting - 9/2/2008

Tonight I had the great pleasure of attending our city council meeting. I haven't been able to attend a meeting for sometime do to my school schedule. However, now my Tuesday's are free; so I will be attending as many as I can. I thought it would be helpful to blog about what I observed in tonight's meeting.

Two things stood out tonight as very interesting:

1. Through Weber County, the city now has a service called City Watch Notification System. (See Link) This system, if you follow the website you will learn, is an emergency notification system; however they city may use it for other professional needs like last minute meetings, notifications, etc. When an alert is triggered via a recording that a city official calls in; An automated phone call is sent to thousands of people through out the city to warn us or give us instruction. This was purchased through a grant given by Home Land Security and is a very exciting project. I think it can be great for the city. Interesting enough, they had asked all of the city council to go through an emergency training from an online website. Mayor Garwood commented, "No one has emailed me the link." It was quickly pointed out that it had been emailed out, he had just deleted it. He promised if it was re-emailed he would get it done.

2. The South Ogden/Weber County Schools Recreation Center. This one drove me crazy. For sometime now there has been talk about a recreation center for the city of South Ogden. It was in our survey (see link) we filled out last year. South Ogden City has been working with the Weber County Schools to use part of South Ogden Junior High as a facility for recreational services. Part of the complex would be remodeled and developed to accommodate this project. The cost would roughly be $2 Million. The building is primarily designed for basketball, but could be used for other purposes. With the option of having a walking track around it. However, the building will only be open from 5 pm to 10 pm. Scott Darrington, city manager, recommended that we bond out the project (aka - DEBT). He also recommended we "Pork Barrel" (see link) an additional $500,000 for a new building and a conference room at the city works department.

The most interesting part of the project is the talk of bonding and the pork barrel spending. I work in the financial industry. If someone came to me and asked for a loan for a tennis court or a gym, then they told me they were positive that the revenue generated would not be enough to cover the debt; we would not do the loan. This is exactly why we are in a housing crisis. People got loans they could not afford. Scott Darrington specifically said, "This will not be a revenue generator, this will not generate near the revenue to pay the cost of the debt." My jaw dropped to floor at this statement. Is the City Council really going to ask the tax payer to put the city into debt $2.5 Million with no hope of making the payments with out raising taxes. In addition, the rec center can only be used for five hours a day. Does this make any business sense? If I ran my business this way, I would be out of business. Why would we go into debt for something that makes no money! Why don't we find a better solution?

P.S. RAYMOND UPDATE:

Lastly, I emailed the entire city council my post on the Raymond Avenue project. Councilman Wayne Smith and Mayor Garwood both responded. But nothing was said at the city council meeting. Jon Andersen was there and I did talk to him. He said that they have called the company, he also said the cement and landscaping will be fixed; so not to worry. I will keep you all updated.

Random Newsletter Message

Did anyone think Mayor Garwood's newsletter message this month was overly random this month? He jumped around a lot, but his overall theme was things have changed over the past year and are getting tough. He gave a few suggestions on how we can save money and improve our lives. Again, I felt he was a little random in his writing, he had a good message; however I disagree with a few of his arguments.

The two I disagree with are:


1. He counseled us to buy SUV's??? I personally disagree with this for the fact that if I buy one and it is rebated six weeks later, the car loses value equal to the rebate. Therefor now would not be a good time to buy an SUV. Some money annalists may disagree. If you are looking to really save money don't buy an SUV; because a car is not an investment and never should be treated as such.

2. He announced we are in a recession, when our economy is not in a recession. The GDP has not seen negative growth. Okay so in one sentence he alluded that we might be in one; then in the next one he said we are.

Either way, it was good to hear from the Mayor.