As the 2007 election season begins, the Ogden Sierra Club offers the following Environmental Score Card to facilitate public discussion of the record of Mayor Matthew Godfrey. The ratings below are based on the mayor's first seven and a half years in office.
While not all important issues are environmental in nature, we believe that environmental issues are playing a large and increasing role in city government. In fact, Mayor Godfrey himself has highlighted the importance of many of these issues, as he seeks to improve Ogden's environmental image in order to attract outdoor equipment companies and their employees. For example, the vision statement of the new Sustainable Ogden Committee makes an explicit link between environmental quality and promoting Ogden as a "high adventure recreation capital."
So without further ado, here is our assessment of Mayor Godfrey's performance on nine specific environmental issues...
Sprawl and Legacy Highway: When Godfrey first ran for office in 1999, he told the Sierra Club that he was opposed to extending the Legacy Highway into Weber County. This position (which was shared by his two leading opponents) is the natural one for the mayor of Ogden, because highway construction on the suburban fringe draws economic investment away from older urban neighborhoods. However, Godfrey has since backed away from this position, even denying that he ever made such a statement. During the most recent revision of the Wasatch Front Regional Council long-range transportation plan, Godfrey commented on several other issues but did not object to the massive proposed expenditure of over half a billion dollars on the Weber County portion of the Legacy Highway. The Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce, which is generally allied with Godfrey, is now promoting a county sales tax increase to subsidize Legacy Highway construction. Grade: D
Mass Transit: Godfrey got off to a good start on this issue by endorsing and promoting commuter rail between Ogden and Salt Lake City. His more recent record, however, is mostly anti-transit. He has been an outspoken opponent of the proposed streetcar link between downtown Ogden and Weber State University, effectively putting this proposal on hold for more than two years. (His "urban gondola" proposal is not designed primarily as mass transit and would be unlikely to succeed if it is built.) At the county level he has missed numerous opportunities to advocate for Ogden transit projects, and has instead remained silent as other mayors have tried to divert funding from transit to road construction. Grade: C
Bike Routes: Early in Godfrey's first term, the city established a system of recommended bike routes, marked with signs and painted stripes. Godfrey dedicated the system with great fanfare. But none of the bike lanes were painted correctly, to separate bicycles from parked cars. Now most of the stripes have faded. There has been talk of bike lanes on Washington Blvd. and of more bike racks downtown, although neither has happened yet. The most significant improvement for bicyclists in recent years has been the westward extension of the Ogden River Parkway to the 21st Street Pond. Grade: C
Pedestrian-Friendly Development: Several new projects have enhanced downtown Ogden as a pedestrian-friendly area. For example, the new Junction development is much more inviting to pedestrians than the former Ogden City Mall, and the new median strips on Washington Blvd. make it safer for pedestrians to cross at mid-block. But the long delays in these projects have been frustrating, and in many ways downtown Ogden remains hostile to pedestrians. Elsewhere in the city there has been no visible progress toward pedestrian-friendly neighborhood design, despite the sections of Ogden's General Plan that call for new zoning to encourage mixed-use centers and neighborhood villages. Grade: C
Trails: Ogden's outstanding trail system was mostly in place before Mayor Godfrey took office, but the Godfrey administration has supported several extensions of the system including the western portion of the Ogden River Parkway and the new Birdsong Trail near Rainbow Gardens. On the other hand, Godfrey has also advocated selling a significant portion of the city's foothill trail system for construction of a private gated housing development. Although he recently announced that he has changed his mind about selling the Mt. Ogden Golf Course, he has not responded to repeated inquiries from the Sierra Club over whether he still wants to sell the nearby trails and open space. Grade: C
Open Space: For most of the last two years, Godfrey has led a high-profile campaign to advocate the sale and development of 175 acres of city-owned park land, including the Mt. Ogden Golf Course and 60 acres of adjoining undeveloped open space. Breaking a promise made during the 2003 election season, he has also attempted to loosen the city's zoning regulations to permit development on steeper slopes in the foothills. On the other hand, the city has recently acquired some new open space parcels around the Birdsong Trail, and perhaps elsewhere. (City officials have not responded to the Sierra Club's request for more information about open space acquisitions.) Grade: D
Wilderness Protection: In 2001, when the Forest Service considered wilderness status for the Burch Creek Roadless Area on the southwest face of Mt. Ogden, the Godfrey administration wrote a letter in opposition, saying it wanted to leave open the possibility of constructing a gondola through the roadless area. The most recently proposed gondola alignment would go mostly over private land, but development of a resort in Malan's Basin would probably require a new access road through National Forest land, among other impacts. Recently the Godfrey administration has denied the Sierra Club's requests to present its wilderness proposal to the Sustainable Ogden Committee. Grade: F
City Utility Services: Although Godfrey supported the development of Ogden's recycling program, he recommended that it be an opt-in program, rather than universal. This would have reduced participation considerably, and made it more expensive for those households that chose to participate. Godfrey's administration also resisted the City Council's decision to offer an optional smaller trash barrel to households, at reduced cost. More recently, Godfrey has resisted the Council's efforts to develop a water rate structure that would encourage increased conservation. Grade: D
Municipal Energy Use: During the last few months the city has begun taking steps to reduce its energy and carbon footprint, by buying renewable energy credits from the power company and by buying a few hybrid vehicles for municipal use. The city is also now encouraging residents to reduce their fossil fuel consumption through its "Fresh Air Friday" program. These are all excellent programs, but it is too early for them to completely outweigh the administration's previous seven years of inaction. Grade: B
Overall Grade: A straight average of our nine individual grades comes to a low C-. Voters who believe that some issues are more important than others are encouraged to weigh them appropriately to determine their own bottom line. In any case, we hope that this information will help everyone better understand the strengths and weaknesses of Mayor Godfrey's environmental record. And of course, there's still time for Mayor Godfrey to take further actions and/or change his positions before his second term ends.
For more information, please contact:
Dan Schroeder
Conservation Chair, Ogden Sierra Club
801-393-4603
Last modified 15 September 2007