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veryone knows this time of year is commonly referred to as the "mud season" -- temperatures are on the rise, the snow is melting and when you venture outdoors there's a lot of wet soil to deal with.
But 2007 in Ogden has given the term mud season a whole new meaning. Various city government officials are flinging the muck with such reckless abandon there's no telling how many people will need a good bath before it's all done. Accusations include political coercion in the workplace, sexual harassment, porn on city computers and more.
Why has it suddenly turned so ugly? That's simple: Ogden elects its mayor this year. Neither one has yet made it official, but few doubt that incumbent Mayor Matthew Godfrey will run for re-election -- and that one of his opponents will be the same person who faced him four years ago: City Councilman Jesse Garcia. (Neil Hansen has already tossed his hat into the ring; but he's not involved in this current bare-knuckled scrap.)
What's odd is that respective supporters and detractors are already tossing pitchforks at each other in March; it usually doesn't get this nasty until much closer to autumn.
Actually, the whole fracas went from zero to 60 in the space of a few minutes on March 6, when Ogden's Business Development Manager Scott Brown used a City Council meeting to rip three council members. As most observers sat slack-jawed, Brown accused Garcia of asking him to dig up dirt on Godfrey in order to further Garcia's chances of unseating the incumbent. In return for the favor, Brown said, Garcia promised to promote him to the job of chief administrative officer.
Furthermore, Brown said Councilwoman Doreen Jeske was unethically leaking information from closed council executive sessions. And he accused Councilwoman Amy Wicks of making disparaging remarks about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Garcia has denied Brown's accusations. Jeske said maybe Brown's comments had something to do with his battling cancer. And Wicks hasn't said whether or not she made the alleged derisive comments about the LDS Church.
Brown, by publicly attacking the council members -- and specifically by calling into question their ethics -- left himself open to criticism for alleged sexual harassment of a former female employee, and of porn being found on his city-owned computer.
Brown's charges against the council members were followed two days later by a memo to the City Council from Ogden Risk Management Manager Ron Ball. He said he was told by former Human Resources Manager Dean Martinez -- who has since been fired, for taking home Scott Brown's personnel file -- that Garcia would look favorably on Ball if he'd help produce information Garcia could use to defeat Godfrey.
It's been a wild week, for sure, with no signs that the acrimony will subside. This newspaper has been peppered with e-mails offering more "insider" information regarding the current administration and its opponents.
And while all these allegations and denials might make for an entertaining spectator sport, it doesn't do much to advance the cause or reputation of good government in Junction City. So far, most of it's been unsubstantiated hoo-ha.
Rough-and-tumble politics may be fun to watch from a distance, but a successful city is built on credibility and competence. And those qualities are difficult to see through successive coats of mud.
