Ogden rehires Reid, this time under contract

Salt Lake Tribine

Questions: Council members demand details regarding the ex-development chief's new job
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 09/13/2005 12:16:34 AM

OGDEN - A month after leaving Ogden with a $43,561 severance, Stuart Reid has signed a $77,828 annual contract to oversee a city-owned business park.

Mayor Matthew Godfrey said he feels lucky to have Reid, Ogden's former director of community development, at the helm of Business Depot Ogden (BDO). "I'm surprised he would want to do something like this."

But City Council members Rick Safsten and Jesse Garcia are not happy about how they found out about Reid's new business relationship with the city - from the rumor mill and not from the mayor's office.

"It doesn't say much about the communications to the council from the mayor's office," said Safsten, who is chairman of the council. "It raises questions. Why are you hiring someone that just left the city?"

The council has a host of questions for Godfrey about Reid's departure and his contract to oversee Business Depot Ogden. That is the huge business park on the city's northwest side that was given to the city by the federal government when it closed Defense Depot Ogden in the late 1990s.

The Boyer Co. is under contract to develop the business park, and Reid's job will include managing that contract. Before he was recruited to Ogden, Reid was in charge of economic development for Salt Lake City and worked closely with Boyer on The Gateway center and other projects.

A Democrat, Reid lost to Rocky Anderson in Anderson's first bid to be Salt Lake City's mayor; shortly after that, he went to work for Ogden.

The City Council has asked but has not been told whether Reid was terminated, said council administrator Bill Cook.

Godfrey gave Reid a severance as if he were being terminated, but the mayor said Monday that Reid resigned.

A 1999 ordinance allows a severance of one month's pay for every year of service for department directors or members of the mayoral or council staff who are terminated or who refuse a job at lower pay, said Michael Goodwin, city treasurer.

Godfrey said that ordinance does not bar him from treating "good" employees the same way, if he chooses.

"We can do what we want with people who are good," he said.

Because Reid was with Ogden City for five years, he was paid the equivalent of five months of his annual salary of $104,547, as well as for more than 322 hours of accumulated vacation pay, or $16,217, when he left July 15, said Goodwin.

According to the contract to manage BDO, Reid, through his company S.C. Reid LLC, will make nearly $78,000 on the contract, which is renewable each Aug. 15. The contract does not restrict Reid from taking on other work as well.

The city paid the former manager, Kevin Ireland, more than $67,000 a year to manage BDO, but the total cost to the city, after benefits and federal employee taxes, was close to $91,000.

The contract does not spell out Reid's responsibilities, but an "exhibit A" attached to the contract signed Aug. 29 says that he will coordinate all redevelopment efforts at BDO, administer the contract with the U.S. Army, supervise the capital improvements at BDO, and manage tax increment and bond proceeds.

The exhibit also requires Reid to "coordinate and oversee" some city staffers assigned to work on depot redevelopment, in conjunction with their regular supervisors. And, it provides Godfrey the option to use Reid for other projects "on behalf of the city."

Reid was involved in one transaction that the U.S. Army is now pressuring the city to remedy. That was the $10 million the city borrowed from BDO to buy and demolish the Ogden City Mall. The Army suggested the loan violated its contract, but the city said BDO would get more money via the loan.

Now, however, the city is refinancing that debt to avoid a lawsuit.

Safsten said he wants to know Godfrey's thinking on why BDO's management will be better via a contract than an employee.

"If it's such a good idea now, why wasn't it done a few years ago?"

"I have hope that Stuart can and will do a very good job," said Safsten. "I want Stuart Reid on my team. I would not want him against me."

Garcia, who lost to Godfrey in the mayor's re-election race, said Godfrey's contract with Reid "doesn't look or sound right."

"It's like many things that have happened. We hear about it on the street before we hear it from the mayor's office."

Godfrey, however, said the council has not previously shown interest in who manages BDO. "The council is never informed on this level of hire. They weren't interested when I hired Kevin Ireland."

Via Salt Lake Tribune