Envision Ogden Chronology

By Dan Schroeder

On 12 February 2007, a front-page article in the Standard-Examiner announced that "five local business leaders" had formed Envision Ogden. The article identifies one of the members as realtor Abraham Shreve (misspelled Sheve in the article), and states that Shreve declined to identify the other members. Two of the statements in the article are attributed to Mayor Godfrey, including a statement that officials from Amer Sports are supportive of the organization. The article states that the organization's first fundraiser, a $120/plate dinner attended by about 300 people, had been held the previous Thursday night (8 February).

Also on 12 February 2007, Steve Conlin registered the web domain envisionogden.com. (Conlin told me he did this on speculation after reading the name in the paper, and that he later turned the domain over to EO in exchange for some advertising space on their site.) Three days later, Aaron Spurlock registered the domain envisionogden.org.

On 13 June 2007, an ad for the upcoming "Sneak Peek" event at the Salomon Center and Megaplex 13 appeared on page 2B of the Standard-Examiner. The ad states that tickets are available online at http://www.envisionogden.org/. The ad also shows the logo of Downtown Ogden Inc. as an apparent sponsor of the event.

The Sneak Peek event occurred on 15 June 2007.

Also on 15 June 2007, a Memorandum of Commencement Date for the Salomon Center property was signed by Mayor Godfrey on behalf of the Ogden RDA and by Sean Collins and Gary Nielsen as tenants of the property. The Memorandum states that the lease commencement date shall be 15 July 2007 and that the date of the tenant's possession of the property shall be 18 June 2007. Therefore Ogden City was still in possession of the property, and the lease had not yet taken effect, at the time of the Sneak Peek event.

On 22 June 2007, an email from Janet Peters was sent to multiple recipients, apparently members of the Historic 25th Street Association. Peters states that Amer Sports is assembling a relocation handbook of information to be given to employees relocating to Ogden, and that for $100, businesses can be listed in the handbook. Checks are to be made out to Envision Ogden, identified as a "non-profit group", and sent to Cindy Patterson at Amer Sports.

On 5 September 2007, Mark Thomas of the Lieutenant Governor's office (acting on an inquiry from a citizen) spoke with the "president of Envision Ogden" who stated that they are a "527 committee", that is, a political committee for purposes of federal taxes. However, since they are not contributing to candidates for state office, they apparently have no requirement to register with the state. (Utah Code 20A-11-101(33) defines "public office" to include only state offices and school boards--hence the law is silent on polticial organizations that contribute only to local candidates. The Ogden City code (Title 1, Chapter 8) contains no disclosure requirements for political committees, even though it otherwise prohibits anonymous contributions to candidates.)

On 7 September 2007, City Council candidate Blain Johnson received a $1500 campaign contribution from Envision Ogden (as reported on his campaign financial report dated 26 October 2007). His report lists Envision Ogden's address as simply "Ogden, UT".

On 17 September 2007, Dave Harmer of Ogden City stated on the phone that according to his understanding, EO's arrangement for use of the Salomon Center on 15 June was made with the tenants (Gold's and Fat Cats), not with Ogden City.

On 19 September 2007, Abraham Shreve stated on the phone that EO is a "527 organization" and is "not for profit". When asked whether EO is making contributions to political campaigns he replied that he would not disclose the organization's finances. He also stated that EO's arrangement for use of the Salomon Center on 15 June was made with the tenants (Gold's and Fat Cats), not with Ogden City.

Conclusion: Envision Ogden is a political organization and has made a campaign contribution to at least one candidate for municipal office. Little is known about the organization's officers or structure, except that Abe Shreve seems to be an officer and Amer Sports (especially Cindy Patterson) seems to be playing some role.

Because of loopholes in state and local campaign finance disclosure laws, it does not appear that Envision Ogden is in violation of any laws. However, Envision Ogden solicited funds on at least three occasions without (as far as we can tell) giving the contributors any indication that the funds might be used for political campaigns.

Also, Envision Ogden used a publicly owned facility (the Salomon Center) for one of its fundraising events. Ogden City is taking no responsibility for the event, even though it owned the facility and no lease was in effect at the time.