Like all of our Ogden Valley friends, we salute Commissioners Dearden, Zogmaister, and Bischoff for their courageous decision to refuse to appoint a Town Council not representative of the citizens of the potential town. It’s nice to see our elected officials truly represent us!
Those of us who live in “Powderville” care about our neighborhood and all of our neighbors. We care about what the actions of the past few months could do to destroy our sense of community. To that effect, we request that a distinction be made between the petitioners and the petition sponsors.
The petitioners are the 22 individuals who signed the incorporation petition, including 8 who live in the neighborhood. Motivations of these individuals have been speculated upon ad infinitum, and none of us will ever know exactly what was going through their minds. Had the neighbors not signed the petition, it would still have been a “qualified petition”. Since the petition has now been approved by the Weber County Commission, the petitioners are no longer players in the story, except as potential mayor/council members and citizens with rights to have and express their opinions.
The petition sponsors are 3 individuals: Mark E. Arnold of Layton, Lee A. Daniels of Park City, and Edward F. Bates of Salt Lake City. None of the 3 is a resident of the “town” or a registered voter in Weber County. Kimball Wheatley’s excellent post reveals how much they pay in Weber County property taxes. The commission has refused to appoint from the very limited list(s) provided by the non-local petitions sponsors, and it is the petition sponsors and their hired guns who have publicly challenged the commissioners’ actions.
In our efforts to protect citizens’ rights to be meaningfully involved in the process, we should exercise extreme caution to respect the rights of those who disagree with us. We in the neighbourhood would appreciate it if negative comments be directed at the petition sponsors and not at our neighbors.
Thank you again for your continuing involvement and support.
A Guest Post by
Darla Van Zeben
