About Last Night ...

For those of you who came to the candidate forum on Wednesday, I thank you.  For those of you showing an interest by visiting y blog page, I thank you.

Some may have noticed I seemed soft-spoken and a little hesitant in answering some of the questions presented by the moderator; public speaking is not one of my strong points.  I do have passion for my commitment to running for a seat on the Ogden City Council.  I believe I can make a difference. I know my other talents, life experience and background qualify me to be a productive member of the team, otherwise known as the Ogden City Council.

A couple of topics I wish to speak further on: 

Since one of our major attractions as an Outdoor Mecca is our many splendoured trail system, I know we must keep the trails in our open spaces in and around the City well maintained and unobstructed by further development.  I know, given time the Centennial Trail Loop will become a reality and enhance our connection with the surrounding systems in Weber County. I will work to encourage keeping the ball rolling on this one, however slowly it may seem to roll.

Blue-lining our foothills was mentioned in the Mayoral Forum; that is, marking the spot where all development stops at a certain elevation line in the foothills.  This is a good idea as it would keep the area free from development and encroachment upon our open spaces and trail systems. Also mentioned was providing a Conservation Easement to Weber Pathways for no development of the foothills. I would prefer providing the Conservation Easement to the People of Ogden City in perpetuity rather than a single entity … it would be easier to manage (Weber Pathways might go away, but the People of Ogden won’t).

Tourism has become more a part of our economy of late, bringing events and visitors year-round. Keeping this trend going and promoting events and our positive attraction is a must and I will encourage working with our Chamber of Commerce and any other local agency or group interested or already involved in making things happen for Ogden.

Tax increment funding was a much discussed and unpopular topic at the forum.  Although those more experienced than I presented that it is sometimes a “necessary evil” I believe that cutting back on the size of and slowing down the growth of the T.I. offers would be beneficial to the local city necessaries that depend on property tax money for most of their support, most importantly our schools. Developers should be given an opportunity to invest more capital of their own in projects they want to bring to Ogden; the developer will have a bigger stake of their own in the project and just might work harder to make it work. By giving them so much of an incentive we open the door for a failure and a quick exit with the feeling “Oh, well … the City paid for it … no great loss,” and we’re left holding the bag.

Not much was said about the City’s different Planning Community Districts, of which we have quite a few. Just in doing a little homework I found a number of them have not been updated for many years; one example is the Lynn Community Plan which discusses a need for a traffic light at 7^th and Wall Avenue intersection … there is a traffic light at that intersection and it’s been there for quite some time.  I want to work with the Planning Commission in assessing which of these Community Plans need to be updated or changed or something based on things that have been happening in the City that directly affect the Plans as originally adopted.  

The area of 12^th Street and Wall Avenue was mentioned briefly during the forum – though not much was said and the words Fred Meyer were not used. I did a little homework on this one as well and found out some interesting facts: it is being touted as space for lease as a community center, with an annual lease cost of $1.2M … or a direct sales price of $7M. The Weber County Assessor’s office has the property value including land and building at a very cool $432K and change.  Perhaps this is a big reason it is still empty?  I don’t know what a single City Council Member can do about this issue but I know it should be looked at because it sits at a very good location for something to be productive and economically positive for our fair City.

The issue of double dipping public servants (Police and Fire Departments) did not come up at all and it is a big issue in my view. Experienced though they may be, older personnel may be useful to some extent. However, if they retire at the desired retirement milestone they do a great service to the up and coming young personnel who are qualified by giving them opportunities they are not currently getting for advancement in our City Police and Fire Departments. We are losing good talented Firefighters and Police Officers of higher rank because the older retired ones are coming back and taking the promotional opportunities away from the younger guys who are just as qualified to fill the positions. Seems Ogden is turning into a proving ground for Officers and Firefighters to get a start and then serve elsewhere.  

Another issue with the Fire and Police Departments is pay raises: I spent some time speaking with some Fire personnel in one of our stations, and they imparted the information that a new Department employee gets paid the same as they do, having multiple years of service under their belts … when the new guys find this out they are soon gone.  

I want the double dipping to stop and pay raises given to our deserving and hard working guys and gals in the Police and Fire Departments.

TLJ