Tonight’s UP City Council Meeting Agenda

This is the last regularly scheduled University Park City Council meeting before the election, so if you want to address the current mayor and council of UP, tonight’s your night.

The big agenda item for tonight’s meeting is PD-38, better known as the 17-plus acre tract that is planned to become the George W. Bush Presidential Center and its much-debated parking lots. (You can check out the full agenda here.)

Gigi Welch lives on Dyer Street. Her home abuts the property that will become parking lots for the center. One of her concerns is that not enough evergreen trees and landscaping will be planted along the buffer separating the lots from residential areas to the north.

See you there?

By Joanna England May. 4, 2010 | 11:41 am | 7 Comments | Comments RSS
7 comments to "Tonight's UP City Council Meeting Agenda"
  1. Recounter @ May 4, 2010 at 3:30 pm
    Perhaps she can verify that Steve Metzger announced at her house last week that his firm has represented Albert Huddleston’s wife?

  2. ForsakenOnDyer @ May 4, 2010 at 4:35 pm
    No, but thanks for the opening Community League Recounter. I was at Gigi’s house and I can confirm that Steve Metzger told the crowd that he recieved a phone call from Fred Hamm, the president of the UP Community League, strongly encouraging him not to run. Steve later elaborated in response to several questions that Fred told Steve it would be bad for his career if he ran for city council. Wasserman and Cooke, who were also there, were deeply offended to not be considered important enough to threaten.

  3. Recounter @ May 4, 2010 at 5:34 pm
    I appreciate your recollection. Can you provide insight in to who the members and sources of funding are for the University Park Citizens for Better Government?

  4. ForsakenOnDyer @ May 4, 2010 at 8:37 pm
    You make an excellent point and I just can’t decide what’s worse – having unknown funding sources or threatening people who have the gall to try to participate in government. Maybe Joanna can do a poll. JOANNA, JOANNA!

  5. Fred Hamm, Chairman UPCL @ May 4, 2010 at 10:19 pm
    ForsakenOnDyer, I’m going to post a reply to your blog and I’m going to identify myself and not hide behind the smoke screen of anonymous blogs. I’m Fred Hamm, the current Chairman of the University Park Community League (UPCL). I don’t know what was said at Gigi’s house, as I was not there. I do know what was discussed in at least three telephone conversations that I had with Steve Metzger. Not once did I ever implicitly or explicitly “encourage him not to run.” Metzger sought UPCL’s endorsement, and indicated in a letter to me, dated January 12, that he would wait to file his papers with the city because he wanted to see if the UPCL would endorse him before he went to the trouble of filing. (I am happy to provide a copy of this letter.) It’s obvious now that the UPCL did not endorse Steve Metzger for City Council. Contrary to what Steve wrote in his letter, he filed his papers before the UPCL announced its endorsements. So I called Steve just prior to the deadline to determine what his plans were. We had a cordial conversation, but it was obvious to me that Steve was still upset that the UPCL had not endorsed him. He said he had not decided what he was going to do – that his daughter was getting married that weekend and that he would focus on the election after the wedding. He also asked me what the ‘other candidates’ (Cooke and Wasserman) were going to do. I told him I had no idea, as I did not have a dialogue with either of them. He said, “Well, I’ll drop out if they’ll drop out. But if there’s going to be an election, I’m going to stay in.” My response was simple. I said, “Steve, I encourage you to run if this is something you want to do. Although the UPCL isn’t supporting you, I respect your desire to serve. That being said, you must know that the UPCL will strongly support its candidates and will aggressively campaign for them.” Metzger replied, “Well that’s fair enough – I would expect that.” I extended my best wishes for his daughter and his family as they approached the wedding day. It was quite cordial. * * * A week or so later, Steve called me back to discuss the UPCL. I shared with him what the UPCL did and how he could get involved. QUESTION: If I had in fact encouraged Steve not to run and made the ridiculous claim that “it would be bad for his career”, why in the world would Steve Metzger call me back? In fairness, I don’t know if Steve Metzger is making the comments that are posted in ForsakenOnDyer’s blog. If Steve did not make these comments and ForsakenOnDyer is simply pushing untruthful comments out there to ‘rally the troops’ then shame on you ForsakenOnDyer. On the other hand, IF Steve Metzger is in fact making these comments about me, privately or publicly, I say to Steve Metzger, “Shame on you Steve. I can’t believe you are misrepresenting the facts in order to advance yourself in this election. Nothing is more important than the truth – - nothing.” Steve, I welcome a response from you if you’d like to ‘clear the air’. Since it’s easy to say anything about anybody in an anonymous blog – I welcome the opportunity to smoke this out publicly. I’m very comfortable with the truth and I’m only interested in what’s in the best interest of our community.
    W. Frederick Hamm, Chairman
    University Park Community League

  6. Things Are Getting Mighty Interesting in UP City Council Race « Park Cities People @ May 4, 2010 at 10:32 pm
    [...] posted this earlier today. In the comments, University Park Community League chairman Fred Hamm addresses an [...]

  7. Metzger on Snider Plaza Parking: We Have Other Options « Park Cities People @ May 4, 2010 at 10:33 pm
    [...] Park City Council candidate Steve Metzger was at tonight’s City Council meeting. I had a few minutes to ask him about the most recent advertisement sent out by the University Park [...]

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