But their call - issued in a news release shortly before Tuesday's council meeting - was nearly drowned out by the clamor of citizens and business owners who want the recreation center to be the catalyst of a redeveloped downtown mall.

The crowd rebutted the notion that last week's election, in which voters turned out two incumbents, was a referendum on the initiatives of Mayor Matthew Godfrey and the current council. Twenty percent of registered voters cast ballots.

“That's not a mandate to me,” said Bernie Allen, a defense attorney who described the recreation center as a “pivotal piece of the puzzle” in revitalizing downtown.

All four of those elected Nov. 8 - including incumbent Jesse Garcia - oppose the recreation center. Council members-elect Doug Stephens, Dorrene Jeske and Bill Glasmann want the council to leave decisions about the recreation center to them. They take office in early January.

Resident Robert Cato said voters “expressed in no uncertain terms their lack of confidence in this City Council and administration.

“You need to listen to the voters because the voters have spoken,” Cato said.

The council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board, gave no hint of how it might vote on the proposal by the administration of Godfrey to sell $18 million in bonds to build and equip the high adventure center.

The center would have a Fat Cats bowling alley, Gold's Gym and the high-flying features that give it its name: an air tunnel for simulated skydiving, a wave pool for board riding and a climbing wall. The city would own the center and the owners of Fat Cats and Gold's Gym would operate it.

The council is expected to vote next Tuesday on the financing package to build the center as well as a restructuring of $23 million in debt, most of it associated with buying the defunct Ogden City Mall and demolishing it to make way for the new project.

The only related action taken by the council Tuesday night was the refinancing of $12 million in debt that funded infrastructure at the Business Depot Ogden. Under the new bonds, the lease revenue from that successful business park was freed as collateral and now can be pledged as collateral for recreation center bonds.