Newsletter contradicts Council Meeting

We received our monthly South Ogden Newsletter today. I usually get an electronic version, but it arrives at different times each month; so I am relying on the mailed version. This month's has an interesting article written by our own city councilman John W. Bradley. He spends most of his time talking about the skateboarders and the potential of a skate park. We can discuss this in more detail later. The last paragraph is where I want to focus my attention. Councilman Bradley discuss the South Ogden City Budget and says something very interesting.

He prefaces his comments with fact the city budget is based on projections. Which we understand; however this still doesn't explain his final comment:

"Currently, the city is on budget and is not looking at a shortfall or a tax increase"

During the November 18th City council meeting, which he attended, (See Here) Scott Darrington explained we are $300,000 behind. Our expenditures are on budget but our revenue is behind. With our new sales tax numbers we are even further behind. Therefore his statement that we are "on budget" is in contradiction of what was really said at the council meeting.

Was he asleep? Did he miss that information? I mean I was there, I took notes, how did he miss a $300,000 hole in the budget?

Yesterday's Standard Article (see here) reports they [South Ogden City Government] have known since October that sales tax was taking a drop. Another contradiction from the meeting. What is going?

I have sent an email to Councilman Bradley for a reply; unfortunately I have never received a response to ANY emails I have ever received from him. To date I have sent six emails over the last year and half and he never replies. So we will see if he answers our request to explain the budget in more detail.

South Ogden City in the hole!

Interesting article today in the Standard Examiner about sales tax revenue for our fair city. (See Here) Sales tax revenue has begun taking a nose dive. South Ogden is not recession proof after all! This is something we have been saying for weeks and now it is here!

In the article South Ogden Finance Director Steven Liebersbach said, "It was October when city officials noticed sales tax had taken a nose dive, That’s when people started restricting their spending.”

What did he say? If you remember from my post on November 18th (See Here) South Ogden was not reporting a problem with sales tax and decided to continue spending. In fact Mr. Darrington said at the meeting, "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."

Well time to get a new crystal ball.

October we dropped. November we dropped. In total, South Ogden has not seen the biggest drop in taxes; which is the good news; however South Ogden has seen a decrease of $2,716 in sales taxes, November year to date. But what will December show? According to the article: Grocery spending is up. But the rest of the sales taxes are down. How will South Ogden be affected? How could we have better prepared for this? Remember we had a surprlus of funds that could have been saved to help balance our budget.

Scott Darrington, our city manager, was kind enough to answer some sale tax related questions a few weeks ago. (See Here) He explains the council has been watching this. However, the contradictions in information are interesting. First we are told we are not affected but are planning on a drop, then Mr. Darrington told the council we are good to go, then they report we have seen drops for the past two months. Sounds like a cloudy crystal ball to me.

From where I sit this all concerns me and tells me the worst is yet to come.

What do you think?

Attention Commuters

I recently have begun reading an intersting blog about a Northern Utah Commuter.  You can see his blog here: http://wasatchstraphanger.blogspot.com/

Straphanger, the blogger, keeps you upto date on all the changes, experiences and happenings with regards to frontrunner and UTA.  Also I see i have made his blogroll.  I am not a commuter. Personally I work in South Ogden, however I have a number of neighbors that enjoy the comforts of the frontrunner.  Checkout Straphanger and his blog, I think it is pretty interesting.

Which is worse in South Ogden: Skateboarding or....?

During a previous city council meeting (See Here), South Ogden City Council created a new ordinance to outlaw skateboarding on city streets. It is now a Class C Misdemeanor to skateboard on the road.

As a pubic service to all South Ogden residents I thought it would be interesting to see everything that could be considered worse than skateboarding on a city street. Below are just a few laws I have discovered in the South Ogden City Code.

1. 3-2-13 Selling Beer without a license
   
2. 3-6-7 Being a Junk seller, second hand seller, or a pawn shop without a license
   
3. 3-9A-3 Door to Door Sales [soliciting] without a permit
   
4. 3-9B-11 Improper Use as a Sidewalk Vendor
   
5. 3-10-14 Improper use of a Commercial Entertainment Business
   
6. 4-1-2 Improper Disposal of Dead Animals or meat,
   
7. 4-1-2 Improper use of a Soap Factory
   
8. 5-2-3 Pursue, chase, harass, capture, possess, injure, or kill any kind of animal with a handgun, rifle muzzle loader, pellet gun, BB gun, dart gun, blow gun, bow and arrow, crossbow, slingshot, or any other device.
   
9. 5-2-9 Public Indecency
   
10. 5-2-10 Fleeing from a police officer
    
11. 5-4-3 Organizing an event with out a permit
    
12. 6-1-5 blocking or parking on a street with intention to block the street
    
13. 7-2-10 Interfering with anyone from the Parks Department
    
14. 7-3-9 Failure to follow the direction of the city engineer or operations manager
    

Would you consider the above to be worse than skateboarding on the street? Well some are, some are not. But each of these are only Class B Misdemeanor. That is right, killing animals, public indecency, selling beer and fleeing from cops are all lesser crimes than skateboarding on city streets.

What is equal to skateboarding on city streets:

1. 3-8-21 Violation of rules regarding sexually oriented business
   
2. 5-2-7 Placing or displaying tobacco products in reach of minors
   
3. 6-1-11 Violation of the Uniform Traffic Code
4. 10-1-15 Violation of Zoning Ordinances
   
5. 10-14-19 Failure to landscape or maintain landscaping of a residential property
   
6. 10-21A-5 Violation of Outdoor Sign Code
   

That is right, running a sexually oriented business, putting tobacco in the hands of minors, and not mowing your lawn are all considered equal violations to that of skateboarding on city streets.

At our last city council meeting, Chief Shupe has now asked the city council to ban skateboarding from the nature park. Since skateboarding is now outlawed on city streets and skateboarders will be prosecuted next to people who improperly run sexually oriented businesses; skateboarders are now flocking to the nature park. Soon they will be kicked out of the park too.

I understand what the council is trying to do, but we have gone too far. Skateboarding isn't just a fad, it will continue for as long as we live here. The current law is way too harsh and we need to provide somewhere for kids to skate and soon.

From where I sit, this law is too harsh and wrong.

What do you think?

What is up with the Audit Committee?

Remember the Audit Committee we have talked about in the past few weeks?

See my previous posts:

• Audit Committee - Did we forget?
• Audit Committee Revealed

Well, all the talk about adding Councilman Smith to the committee after a year vacancy was for nothing. He is going on vacation next week and will miss the last meeting of the year. Mr. Smith will have to wait until June to participate in the Audit Committee. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing wrong with him going on vacation. I just find it funny the committee has been missing a member for over a year and now will still be missing a member.

Since we have gone a year now with out him, what is six more months. I am sure they will get along just fine.

City Council Meeting 12/2/2008 -- Ogden Metro SWAT vs Weber County SWAT

Our local city council had a short and sweet meeting tonight. I would tell you more about the agenda but they forgot to put out the agendas, minutes, etc.

In the short 30 minutes we had for this weeks meeting, a couple of interesting topics arose. I will leave the audit committee, rec center, and skateboarding for another post and head right into the topic of choice. The Ogden City SWAT vs. Weber County SWAT.

Police Chief Val Shupe spoke on a resolution for South Ogden City to enter into an aggreement to work only with the Ogden Metro SWAT. With some disdain he explained how Weber County has formed it's own SWAT, originally to work with the jail, and has expanded into the rest of the county. "I don't know why they have [expanded]," Chief Shupe added. Apparently South Ogden would prefer to work with Ogden Metro SWAT since they have committed men (a total of two) to the eight member team; in addition they know how the Ogden Metro works and their procedures.

Here is my question, why do we have two SWAT teams? Do we need two? Are tax payers in South Ogden, Ogden, and everyone else in Weber County paying for two SWAT teams? Ogden Metro SWAT doesn't even use the Weber County SWAT as a backup, instead they have an agreement to use Layton City SWAT.

Needless to say the city council voted unanimously to enter into the agreement with Ogden Metro SWAT.

The comments after the meeting all revolved around how frustrating it was that Weber County has a SWAT and took members from the Ogden Metro SWAT. Both Chief Shupe and Councilman Wayne Smith talked for a few minutes after about the SWAT predicament and clearly showed their frustration.

Sounds like South Ogden is drawing a line in the sand on who they will work with. It also sounds like everyone in Weber County is paying twice for a SWAT team. From where I sit this doesn't sound right.

What do you all think?

Senator Jon Greiner - The Gang Bill

Picture the future. About 20 friends get together and decide to hang out at the local park. Maybe they are all talking about books, knives, laser pointers, etc. Just then, South Ogden police show up. They say, "Sorry guys, this is a gang-free zone, you will need to leave." "But we are not a gang," someone replies. The police respond, "Sorry but this is a gang-free zone and you appear to be a gang." Just then certain members of our gang "surgically" removed from the group. Who was removed? Well the police have received special training to decide who is a gang member and who is not. We are now told to leave the area and if we return within eight hours we will be charged with a Class B misdemeanor.

This is a possible scenario related to Senator Jon Greiner's "Prohibited Activities of Gang Members" bill for the 2009 legislative session. The bill failed to pass last session, but is coming back in the 2009 session. Sen. Greiner, whom represents our city, among others, is attempting to restrict or eliminate the civil liberty we all have to assemble. I truly foresee future gross miss-uses of this bill, if passed. Gang free zones can be determined by legislative bodies like are own city council. Any time a legislative body doesn't want people to protest, they can just call it a gang-free zone. Then know one can assemble in the area. Hello! 1st Amendment!

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

To read last years bill (which is rumored to be very similar) See Here

Sen. Greiner, Ogden's Police Chief, really needs to make some progress in this next session. Since his election all I have heard is controversy. Controversy and attacks of civil liberty are not going to help him in the next election cycle. His idea has merit, he wants to help with our growing gang problem. But this is not the way.

We hope to analyze and discuss this bill in more detail in the coming weeks. Please feel free to leave your comments.

From where I sit, this bill is bad news.

Note: Skateboarding on South Ogden City Streets is now a Class C Misdemeanor. A much stiffer penalty. (See Here) Those dang Skateboarder gangs!

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The Weber County Forum has a great post related to the Standard Examiner's editoral, and this subject, on Sunday.  Weber County Forum: The Standard-Examiner Nixes Senator Greiner's "Gang Bill"