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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Godfrey answers questions
By Scott SchwebkeOgden mayor, council exchange letters over gondola expenditures
OGDEN -- Mayor Matthew Godfrey is taking the Ogden City Council to task for failing to give him advance notice about concerns regarding a fiscal impact study for a much talked-about gondola project.
Godfrey said in a letter to the council he is extremely disappointed the concerns weren't raised during a meeting he attended Thursday with the council's leadership just an hour before the questions were released to the Standard-Examiner.
"I cannot see how this kind of action fosters good-will and positive relationships between the administration and city council," Godfrey said in his letter, which he provided to the newspaper.
City council Chairman Jesse Garcia and Vice Chairwoman Amy Wicks could not be reached for comment.
Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske said Godfrey has no right to criticize council members because he didn't inform them that the study exists. "It's like the pot calling the kettle black," she said.
The council asked Godfrey to explain a Dec. 22 expenditure of $16,250 to Lewis, Young, Robertson & Burningham Inc., a Salt Lake City firm that completed the study. The expenditure was later canceled.
The funds were to come from the city's Crossroads of the West Historical District account, according to city council Executive Director Bill Cook.
The council also asked the administration to detail two other financial postings of $16,250, dated March 9, for payments to Lewis, Young, Robertson & Burningham Inc.
Godfrey responded to the council that the city mistakenly processed a bill it received for the study that the Utah Transit Authority has agreed to fund.
"It was a clerical error," the letter says. "When the error was discovered it was corrected. There was confusion from some about the city's role versus UTA's role. There is no nexus between the gondola study and the Crossroads of the West."
UTA has agreed conceptually to commit about $200,000 for a large-scale feasibility study for the overall gondola project but it hasn't spent any money because there isn't a management agreement with the city, said UTA spokesman Chad Saley. In addition, no UTA funds have been spent on the fiscal impact analysis, he said.
Godfrey, in his letter to the council, also explained why he didn't let the board know about the study when it was completed in November 2006.
"You instructed us that you did not want piece-mealed information about the gondola and resort project, and that you were not going to spend any more time on it until there was a formal proposal," the letter says. "Moreover, this is not our document. It is UTA's."
The study doesn't analyze any information provided by Chris Peterson, whose proposal is the centerpiece of the overall gondola project.
Instead it relies on previous transportation studies and other data provided by the city.
The council's letter to Godfrey also asks whether the gondola project, which has been in the works for more than a year, is essentially on hold.
Godfrey responded that it is his understanding that Peterson is continuing to refine the project. Peterson, reached by e-mail, declined to comment.
Peterson wants to buy the city-owned Mount Ogden Golf Course and adjoining land, along with property from Weber State University, to make way for a subdivision with upscale homes.
Proceeds from the golf course sale would be used to fund a gondola system that would run from downtown to Weber State, where it would connect to a separate gondola that Peterson wants to run to a resort he plans to build at Malan's Basin.
The study concluded the gondola and resort project would cost about $533 million to build and would generate more than $89 million over 10 years in tax revenue for local governmental entities.
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