If 83% Isn’t Enough, What Is?
By Mike Matlosz - 16 August 2026
More than 2,000 of us filled out the city's naming survey. Eighty-three percent said we wanted a new name - NOT OGDEN anything. Our clear mandate was Eden, Eden Valley or Pineview.
On July 30, the City Council voted 4-1 to ignore all of it and keep "Ogden Valley City".
I understand Mayor Wampler's point that naming is emotional, and that the council has bigger fires right now — the budget, the tax debacle. Those are real problems. But that's exactly why the naming process should have been the one place residents got a clean, uncomplicated say: we were asked, we answered, and the people we elected set the answer aside anyway.
If a council will wave off an 83% result on something as low-stakes as a name, what confidence should we have that our input matters on the decisions that actually cost us money — budgets, tax rates, land use? A survey that costs residents nothing but time, and gets discarded anyway, isn't public input. It's a formality.
So, I'd ask the council directly: if 2,189 responses, Eden winning four of five districts, and Pineview finishing runner-up in most of them isn't enough to move you, what is? If the honest answer is "nothing," say so plainly — so the rest of us stop spending our time filling out surveys for a city that's already decided not to listen.
Mike Matlosz,
Ogden's East Valley City (should have been Pineview)
By Mike Matlosz - 16 August 2026
More than 2,000 of us filled out the city's naming survey. Eighty-three percent said we wanted a new name - NOT OGDEN anything. Our clear mandate was Eden, Eden Valley or Pineview.
On July 30, the City Council voted 4-1 to ignore all of it and keep "Ogden Valley City".
I understand Mayor Wampler's point that naming is emotional, and that the council has bigger fires right now — the budget, the tax debacle. Those are real problems. But that's exactly why the naming process should have been the one place residents got a clean, uncomplicated say: we were asked, we answered, and the people we elected set the answer aside anyway.
If a council will wave off an 83% result on something as low-stakes as a name, what confidence should we have that our input matters on the decisions that actually cost us money — budgets, tax rates, land use? A survey that costs residents nothing but time, and gets discarded anyway, isn't public input. It's a formality.
So, I'd ask the council directly: if 2,189 responses, Eden winning four of five districts, and Pineview finishing runner-up in most of them isn't enough to move you, what is? If the honest answer is "nothing," say so plainly — so the rest of us stop spending our time filling out surveys for a city that's already decided not to listen.
Mike Matlosz,
Ogden's East Valley City (should have been Pineview)