Not a Normal Corner of the Universe

Tonight's the night the council will consider a matter which - in a normal corner of the universe -- would have dropped off calender three weeks ago. In a normal corner of the universe, in fact, this matter would never have been calendered in the first place. Emerald City is of course NOT a normal place. This is MattGodfreyWorld, a place ruled with an iron fist by the Kingfish on Nine, who believes himself to have been annointed to bend the people's will to his own "inspired vision."

The matter, of course, is the ratification by the council of the appointment of another of the "annointed ones." The Dustin Chapman planning commission appointment, tabled for further study during a regular council meeting on August 15, is set for a council vote tonight.

Ace Reporter Scott Schwebke reports:

OGDEN — A controversial nominee for Ogden’s Planning Commission will find out Tuesday night whether the City Council will approve his appointment.

The council is slated to interview Dustin Chapman in a closed executive session, then vote on his appointment during its regular open meeting that begins at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building, 2549 Washington Blvd.

Chapman, a Weber State University student employed as a project engineer for Kier Construction Corp., has been nominated by Mayor Matthew Godfrey to replace Planning Commission member Carol Brockman, who decided not to seek another fouryear term.

The City Council decided to interview Chapman because some residents expressed concern over his public support for developer Chris Peterson’s multimillion-dollar proposal to build a resort and gondola at Malan’s Basin. Those residents worry he won’t be able to make impartial decisions on the Planning Commission.

Chapman’s nomination is based on his qualifications and isn’t an attempt to stack the commission in favor of Peterson’s proposal, Godfrey said [with a completely straight face.]

Chapman promised that, if named to the commission, he would remain open-minded about the proposal.

“I have to live here, and I would never do anything that’s going to hurt Ogden and its residents,” he said. [Emphasis and snarky parenthetical remarks added.]

Although reporter Schwebke vaguely alludes to certain "citizen concerns" which might interfere with Mr. Chapman's "impartiality," our intrepid reporter for the most part fails to cite any specifics. We presume this omission relates more to limited column space, rather than any intention to under-inform the townsfolk; so we'll therefore give our old pal Scott a little helping hand, with our virtually unlimited electronic band-width. Here are what we perceive as the chief ethical conflicts and other impediments surrounding Mr. Chapman's proposed appointment:

• Mr. Chapman operated a popular blog for about a year in Emerald City, posting hundreds of articles during its existence. A fair number of these posts were advocacy pieces, promoting the Peterson/Godfrey gondola scheme. Ten months of these posts have been mysteriously deleted.
  
  
• Mr. Chapman was not only a member of the Lift Ogden group, but was a militant Lift Ogden activist, participating as a "team-member" in concerted political action, such as the recent brochure distribution and lawn sign campaigns.
  
  
• Mr. Chapman is employed by the Kier Corporation, a local real estate developer/property management company, an entity which would likely appear before the planning commission with some regular frequency.
  
  
• We have learned that Mr. Chapman is already a member of at least one other Ogden City volunteer committee, and his attendance has been irregular at best.

For more "nitty-gritty" information re the above, we refer new readers to this article. We'll add that it's personally painful for us to be compelled to bring these matters to light in a public forum. We basically like the man. We believe he's just an enthusiastic but politically-inexperienced young fellow who's been caught up with a bad crowd -- a crowd which believes that the only ethical constraints in politics are activities likely to draw an indictment. We had sincerely hoped that our friend Mr. Chapman would have pulled his name from the running by now. Alas, his hat reportedly remains in the ring, for reasons that are incomprehensible to us. Attending tonight's council meeting might not be a bad idea either. In a normal corner of the political universe this matter would be an obvious non-starter, as we said. With this council, however, you can never predict what will happen.

For those who have not yet registered their opinions to the council on this matter, you can find council contact information in the upper left sidebar, including a handy bulk emailing form.

Comments, anyone?

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