"We were leveraged heavily for a while," recalls Monica. "We adhered to a budget. We didn't go out to eat or go to movies much."

Their house is paid off and they are debt free.

Godfrey graduated from Weber State with degrees in finance (a bachelor's) and accounting (a master's) in just five years and took a position with Iomega in Ogden, turning down three out-of-state job offers in order to remain in his hometown. A short time later, he was asked to serve as a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the age of 25.

"He's always been able to manage a lot of things," says Monica.

Eventually, the Iomega job (he was a project manager) evolved into what was essentially an out-of-state position, requiring him to commute to San Diego several days a week.

After several months, he tired of this routine and quit.

He devoted himself instead to his real estate business, managing his apartments and homes, and eventually took a low-level job in the city's community development office. Genuinely bothered by the decay of his hometown, which he observed daily on his drive to work, and weary of seeing so many friends leave the area for better opportunities, he began to attend City Council meetings to see what was being done to improve Ogden.

"That opened his eyes," says Monica. "He saw how things were run. As a finance major and businessman, he thought it should be run like a business, not a bureaucracy."

He began to make suggestions at work on ways to improve the city and, according to Godfrey, after his ideas made their way back to Rocky Fluhart, the city manager, a meeting was arranged between the two.

As Godfrey recalls, "I gave him my thoughts on what needed to happen. He took notes. Then I told him I had never heard anyone talk about crime and that we could do a lot about it and put resources there. He stopped (taking notes) after a couple of minutes and folded his arms. He told me, 'You can't do anything about crime; it happens.'

"I was shocked. I politely ended the meeting. It was obvious nothing was going to come of it. But that got my wheels turning. I started to pay attention to what was going on."

 · · · · · 

By then, it was the middle of the campaign season, and Godfrey was convinced none of the candidates was going to make a difference. He began to mull the idea of his own candidacy.

The Godfreys were not complete strangers to politics. Monica's father, Ed Allen, was a state senator, and her grandfather, Merle Allen, was a former Ogden mayor. Godfrey's father was mayor of Harrisville.