Former South Ogden city engineer N. Scott Nelson has been sentenced to community service on his guilty plea to a felony charge of recording a false or forged document.
In March, Nelson admitted creating a fraudulent copy of a 1987 city ordinance establishing a $700 impact fee on homes in the South Ogden's Burch Creek area after an original of the document could not be found.The copy carried bogus signatures of the city's former mayor and city recorder. Nelson said he traced them from actual sig-na-tures.
After learning of the forgery, Mayor George Goodell ordered an end to collections of the fee. The city had collected $235,000 in impact fees since 1987.
Nelson resigned in a May 2 letter to Goodell.
During a hearing Tuesday, 2nd District Judge Stanton Taylor ordered Nelson to perform 80 hours of community service in lieu of 30 days in jail and fined him $1,850.
"You forgot whom you were working for. You are responsible to the public, not South Ogden Corporation," the judge said.
Upon completion of the sentence, Taylor said, the court may reduce the charge on Nelson's record from a third-degree felony to a misdemeanor. The judge noted that Nelson had not profited from the deception personally.
Nelson blamed his action on being an engineer and insisted the ordinance had been passed, though no record exists of that.
"Engineers want things perfect," he said. "And I know in my heart the ordinance was passed, but the paper got lost."
Prosecutor Bill Daines did not agree, saying a thorough investigation convinced him the ordinance never had been passed. He also said he believed Nelson knows that.