Clearfield's secret meeting

From time

to time we hear stories about governments conspiring behind closed doors to ruin a business. Frankly, these allegations usually sound like unreliable, paranoid rantings.

But in Clearfield, it actually happened -- that is, city government conspired behind closed doors to drive a private club out of business. The mayor, city council and police chief convened a closed-door meeting to contemplate using an untested state law to deny Bogey's, a private club that serves liquor, its liquor license renewal and, thus, drive it out of business. During the meeting, which was tape recorded -- listen to the entire meeting on our Web site, www.standard.net -- those in attendance talk about how the state and county are in on the effort to target Bogey's.

It's terrifying to listen to city officials targeting a legal business behind closed doors. The police chief says his officers spend too much time responding to calls at the club. Another male voice is heard to say that Bogey's is harming options for redevelopment of the area because few businesses would want to be next to the private club. If there are problems, that's a legitimate conversation to have in the open, but not in some municipal star chamber out of public view.

Furthermore, when told they might be too late to block the liquor license renewal for the current year, a female voice is heard to say, "Well look at this way: You won't have to deal with this politically until after November." What arrogance.

The only concern expressed for the owners of Bogey's appeared to be a fear that because they are so well-liked in chamber of commerce circles, there might be some chamber blowback that could harm Clearfield. Talk about unmitigated selfishness.

Clearfield maintains the closed meeting was legal, since the council, mayor and police chief were discussing imminent litigation. A court has already taken a dim view of that argument, forcing the city to relinquish the recording of the meeting to Bogey's owners, who requested it under Utah's Government Records and Access Management Act. The club's owners are poised to file a lawsuit over the closed meeting and official conspiracy, and we hope they follow through.

Utahns should not tolerate this kind of government abuse. If Clearfield -- or any government body -- has an ax to grind with a resident or business, it should conduct its process in open meetings. The fact that officials saw fit to do so in secret is proof they knew what they were doing was ethically -- morally -- suspect. Indeed, this is precisely the caveat we noted in our recommendation of Clearfield Mayor Don Wood for re-election. We said he has displayed a hideous blind spot when it comes to open government. So, too, do others in Clearfield city government.

This illegal government behavior should have the most severe penalties. We call on the attorney general's office to investigate the obvious violation of state statute. While doing so, we're not sure the attorney general can be objective in the matter, since on the recording we hear participants in the meeting saying they have been encouraged by the "state" to pursue this action. We'd like to hear the state's version of those alleged conversations.

The consequence of all this, of course, is that the public's view of government is polluted -- justifiably so. If officials are punished for their mockery of the system and the law of the land, perhaps some of the trust can be restored.

But even then it will take time, and completely candid behavior by Clearfield's government.

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