Rep. Brent Wallis & 2009 Legislative Survey

Yesterday I received my 2009 Legislative Survey from Rep. Brent Wallis. If you couldn't tell from the first paragraph, the Utah GOP paid for the mailing.  I am very excited that Rep. Wallis is doing everything he can to reach out and learn more of what his constituents feel are priorities. In the survey we are asked to rank our economic priorities for the state and answer questions regarding ethics, immigration and health care reform,etc. My wife and I sat down (since it was addressed to our household) and answered the following:

• List your Priorities from 1 to 10
  

1. Public Education
2. Higher Education
3. Transportation
4. Economic Development
5. Health care
6. Public Safety
7. Environmental Quality
8. Rainy Day Funds
9. Tourism
10. Illegal Immigration

• How should fill the gap for future road projects

1. Borrow by bonding

• Economic Stimulus suggestions
  

1. Borrow money to keep road projects going and lower taxes (Counter Cyclical Policies)

• Prioritize ethic reforms

1. Personal use of campaign funds.
2. One year ban before a legislator becomes a lobbyist.
3. Campaign contribution limits.
4. Gift ban.
5. More timely campaign contribution disclosures.

• Support or Oppose laws for more stringent measures to combat illegal immigration.

1. Oppose

• Support or Oppose laws for domestic partnership rights (i.e medical care) for same-sex couples.
  

1. Support 

• How do you feel about health care reform.

1. We are leaned towards Employer Purchased and Optional Coverage
   

• Support or Oppose loosening Utah Liquor laws

1. Support

• Support or Oppose legislation for my assessments of property values.
  

1. Support

They have also asked for our email addresses, which I hope they will use in the future. Online surveys can be setup very easy and cheaply. In the future he could use those email addresses he has collected to save the GOP money.

On the back side of the survey Brent Wallis announces a town hall meeting on February 12^th at 6:30 pm at the South Ogden City Hall. This will be a must attend for South Ogden to meet your representative and discuss the issues of District 10.

 

Another City distances itself from the new Weber County SWAT

Riverdale City says NO to using the Weber County SWAT Team. South Ogden has done the same! Who is next? As I mentioned in my blog on 12/2/2008 (See Here), South Ogden city was puzzled with the request to use the newly formed Weber County SWAT. They have instead decided to stick the old reliable Ogden Metro SWAT. In small sidebar article, the Standard Examiner is reporting another city has pulled away from the new Weber County SWAT.

"RIVERDALE — The city council has chosen to continue its relationship with the Ogden Metro SWAT team, despite Weber County’s breaking off from the organization. Police Chief Dave Hansen said the city has never used the SWAT team, but there is a high likelihood of needing it in the future and the agreement will allow the city to use its services without incurring extra costs."

Is this the beginning of more cities pulling away from the SWAT team? As I pointed out back on December 2nd, why are we paying for two SWAT teams? The Ogden Metro SWAT team and it's backup the Layton SWAT team are doing just fine. Has the Weber County SWAT team tried to over step its bounds only to find closed doors?

How many cities have to pull out for Weber County to throw in the towel?

The floor is open for discussion.

South Ogden Audit Report Presentation

From a previous city council meeting on 12-16-2008 (See Here) a presentation was given by the city auditors.  On the way out I asked if the presentation would be made available for the public to review.  They told me they would do their best to have the presentation posted to the city website. I was pleasantly surprised to see it posted online for all to see and download.  The final documents have not been posted yet.  However you can review the PowerPoint used in the presentation. (See Here) - Also I have added a new downloads section to the blog.  You can download important documents as they come available.

Interesting note: unlike other cities, South Ogden gets a huge chunk of change from property taxes.  Nearly 23 percent of revenue comes from property taxes alone.  But sales taxes are still the big winner for the cash.  31 percent of all revenue comes from sales taxes.  If we continue to see sales tax revenue drop in 2009 this could hit us hard.  There won't be room to take this out of property taxes; especially if South Ogden raises our property taxes to pay for a rec center gym facility.

On the last slide you can compare South Ogden with other cities like Riverdale, Clearfield, West Point and Washington Terrace. (See example below)

Conclusion: as of June 30th, 2008 the city is in good shape and doing well.  It will be interesting to see how we are doing in the coming months.

Councilwoman Sallee Orr sticks to her guns! City Council Meeting – 1/6/2009

South Ogden City Council meeting wasn't as eventful as some of our past ones. Besides the large amounts of Boy Scouts that attended the meeting and Mayor Garwood jokingly calling Councilwoman Vicki Mattson "the biggest cheater on the council,"(because she always gives the scouts the answers to Garwood's trivia questions), most of the focus was centered around vacating of an easement on Fashion Point Dr. for some signage. Councilwoman Sallee Orr had a lot of good questions. She questioned why so many signs were needed, the purpose of the signs and how the signs looked. In the end she expressed her concerns of having so many signs. I was proud to see her stick to her guns and vote no on the ordinance; especially since everyone else voted yes before here. Final vote 4 to 1 in favor.

The condescending looks that Councilwoman Vicki Mattson gave when Sallee Orr asked questions during the meeting amazed me. I thought she [Vicki] was going to start laughing at one point, but instead she just rolled her eyes. This is not the first time I have seen her do this. It appeared most of the council was puzzled as to why Ms. Orr would be questioning the ordinance. It also seems the council becomes annoyed when Ms. Orr questions the issues brought up at many of the council meetings. I can't stress enough how I am impressed I am with Sallee Orr and her questions. She seems to really be taking her job serious and studying the issues at hand. On more than one occasion Sallee Orr has caught spelling errors, problems, and incorrect information in the city ordinances and paperwork. She seems to always be looking for ways to improve the community. We are lucky to have her on the council.

As for future meetings, January 20^th is a public hearing on our sewer rate jump. Be prepared to hear why your rate is going nearly 120+ percent. On February 3^rd will be our public hearing for the rec center gym facility. Scott Darrington is of the opinion that not everyone will care about the tax increase. He said, "When you talk to people about the tax increase some people might not like the idea, but some people might not have a problem with it". However why do we need to ask for public for comments when people have already responded in the 2007 survey the council commissioned. (See Here). 64 percent of South Ogden residents do not want to see a tax increase for a rec center gym facility.

Gov. Leavitt had nothing to do with it?

The Standard Examiner had an interesting editorial this morning about President Bush and his expansion of the medical clinics in the United States. (See Here).

The editorial was obviously very pro-President Bush, however I was surprised it made no mention to the President's Secretary of Health and Human Services—Former Governor Mike Leavitt. I think it hard to put all of the success of the creation and expansion of medical clinics in the United States without giving some credit to our former Governor. Personally I saw Mr. Leavitt on C-Span a couple of times talking with Congress or other American Citizens. I was very impressed with how he took charge of his job. From where I sit, Governor Leavitt had a much bigger role in expanding and creating more medical clinic than the President did. Any program of such magnitude would more than likely have originated in the HHS office and then proposed to the President. Any legislation, regarding funding, would have been written by people who worked in the HHS office in connection with legislators. The Standard Examiner editorial missed an opportunity to not only praise the President but to praise Utah's former Governor for his accomplishments too.

On that same note, the Deseret News had a nice piece on Gov. Leavitt and his future. (See Here)

Standard Re-Examiner Recycles South Ogden Letter

The Standard Examiner has done something interesting today.  They took a letter to the editor they published on their Live online addition (See My Post Here) four days ago. They now have finally published it in the regualar paper (See Here).  Kind of odd to Re-Examine your own letter to the editor.  I am wondering if they thought we would notice.  

Well it was a great letter to the editor I am glad to see it twice.

Rep. Brent Wallis Committee Assignments

This maybe 100 percent political geekiness, but I am excited for the upcoming legislative sessions. I am particularly interested to see what our new Representative will bring to the stage. Rep. Brent Wallis brings lots of business and education experience to the legislative stage; therefore I was pleased to see he has been put on the following committees:

• Business and Labor Standing Committee.
  
• Transportation Standing Committee.
  
• Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee.
  

With his time at the Weber ATC and the Chamber of Commerce his knowledge should come in very handy. How they decide who is put on what committee is a mystery to me, but I think with this upcoming year, recession, budget cuts, etc, each of these committees will have plenty to discuss. I can't think of a better person to represent our district. Good Luck Rep. Wallis on your first legislative session.

To see the full committee assignments see here: (Standing
Committee) and (Subcommittee)