When a mayor is getting 7-0 votes on the budget, he may wish to keep the City Council. He may wish to help them get re-elected.
The first Ogden City Council debate was held on Thursday July 10. I remember the incumbents not defending themselves against my accusations
- Ogden is in a tax and spend death spiral
- Ogden’s entrepreneurial dreams are suffocating from a massive regulatory paralysis
- Ogden City Council arrogantly believes they know how to spend your money better than you do
Going into the second debate, the incumbents knew they would get blasted with more of the same from me.
But despite
- having received lots of advanced notice about this debate (listen to Te Anu’s explanation of it at the beginning of the video)
- having the July 10th debate audio being of such poor quality that the publicly available recording is of little value (so that Ogden voters who were not present can get little information from the video)
The Ogden City incumbents Bart Blair and Marcia White apparently did not feel much obligation to the voters to explain and defend their votes.
The City Council race is already dominated by low information messaging. As if having a name is a monumental accomplishment, yard signs do little beyond revealing a name.
What kind of a politician has as his central marketing focus putting signs out with his name on it? Answer: One that cares little about respecting the voter’s political understanding.
So they’re running for re-election and they
- don’t defend their record
- don’t contest their record (e.g., 62% property tax increase over seven years and absurd draconian regulations)
- don’t commit to the voters a defense of their votes before their opponents
Would you be surprised if Bart and Marsha had the City Council scheduled a sudden meeting in order to have an excuse to skip the debate?
Dr. Pieder Beeli for Ogden City Council 