Too little too late

The editorial in the Bipolar paper today gives us enough material for the rest of the week.

The TRWD isn't the only group in need of a "slap in the face" as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says.  They, themselves are in need of one.  The "news" paper spent all their time talking about the challengers donations while never once mentioning where the incumbents were getting their money (no-bid TRV contractors - YOUR money).

Their food critic spent all his time trashing the challengers on Facebook.  Some of the attacks against the challengers were down right false.  Any reporter worth their weight could have asked the tax assessor about the challenger Marty Leonard called a "tax deadbeat", they would have received the letter we did during the campaign that shows no taxes owed.

By the way, the incumbents long time political consultant should learn some new tricks. He said the same thing about a candidate in the last water board race, it was false too.

WHY did the paper label the challengers as Tea Party candidates, when they were supported by the Tea Party, and the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, and the Libertarian Party and many folks that are tired of downtown partying on their dime.

What was the vote difference between the incumbents and BNK?

4.  Four votes.  Remember that.

The "news" paper also failed to ask WHY the incumbents weren't attending forums or answering to the taxpayers WHO elected them.  Remember that too.  Ask them WHY they didn't report on the TEC complaint against the Water Board members.  And WHY they didn't investigate allegations that they have been aware of for years?

Now the paper is singing a different tune.  Nobody is buying it.  Or the paper.  Just look at their plummeting stock.

Be sure and read the FW Weekly tomorrow for their exclusive interview with Mary Kelleher.

If you want a laugh, you can read the FWST, it's all they are good for anyway.

If the campaign and vote totals in Saturday’s election for three seats on the Tarrant Regional Water District board of directors struck a bit of fear in the hearts of current board members, that would be a good thing.

But barely alive campaigning has been quite the norm in many water board elections, and that’s the problem. Maybe if board members see themselves more as vulnerable to defeat they’ll put a little more effort into sharing what they do with the people who elect them.

But openness is not the board’s strong suit. It may not quite fit the “secret meetings” label advanced by the challengers, but the TRWD is not a constituent-friendly organization. It has a spiffy website, but try going there to find out when the next board or committee meeting is or what’s on the agenda.

What does a hero look like?

Her.  Mary Kelleher. The new Tarrant Regional Water District Board member.

The record setting vote getter in the history of TRWD elections.

The taxpaying citizen that finally got fed up with the lack of response, transparency and ethics and did something about it.

Thank you to all who voted for Mary, and for BNK.

Watch for more good things to come from all of them.  People like them will change the face of Tarrant County.

Go Mary!

So an attorney walks into a 9-12 meeting...

On April Fool's Day, no less.

Does that make him a Tea Partier?

Maybe someone should focus on their own campaign and quit playing in the water.

And THAT is how you report the News

As usual, the FW Weekly lays it out for you.

Wonder WHO will get the story when the board is tossed out on their butt?  We don't.

Among other things, he said the water board has become a “vehicle used by arrogant, overreaching politicians and bureaucrats to roll over taxpayers and property owners with the ill-advised, outrageously expensive boondoggle known as the Trinity River Vision.”

Newspaper publishers don’t generally control editorial content, but it seems unlikely that the pro-incumbent, pro-Trinity River Vision, serial butt kissing Star-Telegram would have embarrassed itself quite as much with its recent water board election coverage had Connor still been there.

If it walks like a duck...

We found some interesting comments on the Dallas Observer article about the TRWD race.

Vote BNK tomorrow.

There needs to be a house-cleaning at that board. The Star-Telegram is totally in bed with the incumbents. The fact they both freaked out then clammed up when Breitbart posted two stories about it makes both look guilty as sin.

WHAT did he say?

As if you needed another reason to vote for BNK on Saturday.

Jim Oliver, TRWD General Manager gives you one.

Well look WHO's back

Richard Connor jumps in the Water Board race.

 Good thing, cause his paper didn't do the best job on reporting.  No mention that the incumbents have received all their donations from their contractors.

The ones they will turn around and give it back to.  Isn't that YOUR money?

And did you notice in the Star-Telegram they said if the challengers killed the contracts it would be devastating.  A real reporter would have asked, To WHO??

Vote BNK tomorrow.

Since when, you’re wondering, is a water board election important to anyone?

Fair question. The answer: since the water board became the vehicle used by arrogant, overreaching politicians and bureaucrats to roll over taxpayers and property owners with the ill-advised, outrageously expensive boondoggle known as the Trinity River Vision.

Unfortunately, in election after election, voters have been content to rubber-stamp incumbent board members or their designated successors in much the same fashion that the board has rubber-stamped the machinations of the Trinity River Vision Authority, the agency charged with implementing the project. It’s time for that to change.

The water board needs at least one new voice, one fresh perspective, one conscientious member who will represent and advocate for the taxpaying public rather than the political and financial interests of the powerful few who have perpetrated the ever-expanding outrage that is the Trinity River Vision.

Seven candidates are seeking three board seats May 11, including three incumbents and four challengers. The top three vote-getters are elected.

Among the challengers, 42-year-old meteorologist John Basham has the best chance of displacing one of the entrenched board members – and the best chance of effecting changes in the way the board operates if he’s elected.

We urge voters to support John Basham.

WHO to vote for in the water board race?

The usually quiet Tarrant Regional Water District race is causing quite a stir.  It's usually quiet because regular citizens don't usually have the option to stand up to the "7th Street Gang".  They prefer it that way.

But this race is different.  Three challengers are creating a lot of excitement.  You may have read about it in the "news" paper, seeing as how they had several articles in just ONE day this week.  And of course, the daily mandatory Trinity River Vision promotion article (did you know the drive-in opens on Friday.  The parking lot YOU paid for.  Convenient, isn't it?).  WHO knew a water board election was so important?  WHY has one never received that much coverage in Fort Worth Star-Telegram history? Until they voted to postpone their last election, there has been one every two years, right?  They ST always told you to vote for the incumbents.  Have you ever asked WHY? 

We noticed it was quieter today.  We can't help but wonder if that had to do with an outside news organization writing an expose on the TRWD, asking WHY the ST hasn't.  Valid question.

There have been many accusations about the challengers by the incumbents spokespeople.  Notice, they, themselves aren't talking much.  They couldn't be bothered to show up at forums.  They couldn't even be bothered to return a phone call.   Don't they work for YOU?  These don't.

Notice they are having the challengers attacked personally.  Notice the challengers are attacking their record.  What they have done or not done while they've been on the board the last 60 years (combined)?  Need proof?  Go here.

Someone is standing up for YOU. Don't miss the opportunity. Be a part of it.

VOTE Basham, Nold and Kelleher on Saturday. 

YOUR kids will thank you.

GET UP AND GET OUT

That's what the latest piece of propaganda from the Trinity River Vision says.

Odd isn't it that they had a mailer out now, just days before the election?  Odd isn't it that it looks just like the TRWD mailer?

We couldn't agree more, GET UP Saturday and go vote, tell the water board, which is spending so many taxpayer dollars on this joke, to GET OUT.

VOTE BNK Saturday.

If you want more on this ridiculous mailer, check out Durango.  He blows the ST out of the water on news.

On a side note, we didn't see mention made of JD Granger being called out at city council this week for the danger that the Trinity Trails that they are so proud of are causing.

WHY is that?

Does this have anything to do with a national news source reporting on the Tarrant County Corruption?

Adrian Murray has done it again.

Read below, then vote BNK Saturday.

MUDDY WATERS

Today, for the first day in a row, Fort Worth’s newspaper of record, the Star Telegram, did not publish a news article, an editorial or a letter to the editor defending the status quo at the Tarrant Regional Water District. Could we be seeing a trend?

Don’t bank on it. If the Star Telegram were truly interested in keeping its dwindling readership informed (which it demonstrably is... not), it might consider spending a little less time attacking the challengers in the TRWD election while providing sycophantic cover for the quislings currently occupying the board, and maybe spend a little more time answering pertinent questions such as, “Why is the Trinity River Vision still in operation?”

The Trinity River Vision is, of course, a political subdivision of the TRWD, which itself is a political subdivision accountable to, well, no one actually. Ostensibly, the TRWD is accountable to the people via the elected board, but the board, with a combined tenure of sixty years of non-accountable rubber-stamping of every single directive of the water district’s staff, may as well not even exist. Its sole purpose is to perform kabuki-like public meetings in which a dissenting voice is never raised and every whim of the staff is unanimously moved, seconded and passed. It’s a farce.

The Star Telegram, of course, knows this. It would be impossible to send a reporter to observe these ritualistic board meetings every three months for the last ten years and not detect a pattern. It could be argued, in fact, that it would take a conscious and deliberate effort not to report on it. Yet the newspaper, in classic Kim Jung Un style, tells its readers only that which it wants them to know, lest the peasants rise up in revolt. Relentlessly harping on the skills and experience of the board members as if saying “Yes” requires any particular cognitive abilities would be comical if it were not so shameful.

Which brings us back to the Trinity River Vision, the grandiose plan to revitalize the city’s decrepit north side. Originally budgeted at $320 million back in 2003, the project has exploded over the years and now carries a price tag just shy of $1.0 billion. The Fort Worth city council, which routinely votes to close libraries, swimming pools and golf courses due to lack of adequate resources, has approved $26 million in taxpayer money to fund the project. The county commissioners’ court, which has never seen an expenditure of public money it didn’t embrace, kicked in another $11 million. Since the redevelopment would be touted as a flood control project, the TRWD ponied up $64 million. This left the TRV $800 million short, so the gap was plugged by magically inventing $320 million in tax revenue to be generated by the new economic activity in the development and $488 million in federal dollars, of which Congress only authorized $220. The make-believe $488 million still remains in the TRV budget.

J.D. Granger was plucked from obscurity as an assistant district attorney and installed as Executive Director of the TRV, even though he had exactly zero experience managing such a huge project. Nevertheless he did have a mother, Congresswoman Kay Granger, who was able to keep thing rolling by earmarking a total of $53 million over the years, most of which was used to acquire property. Then, in 2010, the well went dry with the Congressional ban on earmarks. At the time, J.D. was quoted as saying, "Do I hope we can get some money this year? Yes. Do I know if we can get some money? No. I do know we've been told that earmarks are not being accepted for the Fiscal Year 2011 continuing resolution."

Yet with no prospects of additional federal funding (which, remember, was over half of the project’s budget) the TRWD continued to pour money into the TRV, budgeting $80.7 million for 2011 alone. In one of the more bizarre and questionable transactions, the water district purchased 41 acres of land (a parking lot) around LaGrave Field, home of the Fort Worth Cats, for $17.5 million an agreement which was, of course, unanimously approved by the ever compliant TRWD board. “This is one of the most important land purchases we will make for the flood control and development projects of the TRV," said board member Jim Lane, without bothering to explain how purchasing the parking lot of LaGrave Field had anything to do with flood control. Crowed J.D. Granger: “This is a really big day for the project.”
Whatever it was, it was certainly a really big day for Carl Bell, owner of the Cats, who was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and foreclosure, unable to continue business operations without an infusion of cash. In its reporting on the transaction, the Star Telegram said that TRV officials insisted it was not a bailout of Bell. Of course it wasn’t. That’s what friends are for.

Stuck with a 41 acre parking lot purchased for flood control in an area that hadn’t had a single flood in sixty years, J.D. had a bit of a dilemma. There’s only so much you can do with a parking lot in a blighted part of town. Then in early 2012, the Tarrant Regional Water District made an announcement. In a surprising unanimous vote the board approved a plan to lease the property for ten years to a group of developers who would construct..…..a drive-in movie theater. The value of the lease was put at $1.7 million. The Star Telegram reported that J.D. Granger could not be reached for comment.

Not surprising, in that he might have been required to answer the question of how a $17.5 million piece of real estate essential for flood control that had nothing whatsoever to do with bailing out Carl Bell could be leased out for 10% of its value over a ten year period. The Star Telegram ended its story with this line: “The $909 million Trinity Uptown project will feature a town lake and 12 miles of waterfront development.”

No it won’t. The TRV is dead in the water. Put a fork in it. In an era of sequestration and budget cuts, Congress is unlikely to give the project another nickel, never mind the additional $435 million in the fantasy budget. So why is the TRV still around, doling out taxpayer money and putting on events like “Tubing the Trinity” (known locally as “Floating with Feces”)? Why hasn’t the “we-have 60-years-of-combined-experience” board of directors at the water board even addressed this issue? What exactly is J.D. Granger doing to earn his $155,000 salary and the perks of office? For that matter, who approved the salaries of the top ten staff members of the TRWD, whose combined salaries exceed $1.8 million? Inquiring minds and all that stuff.

The Star Telegram was similarly uninterested in 2005 when then city councilman and current TRWD board member Jim Lane voted with the rest of the council to give first rights on 33 acres of city owned land next to LaGrave Field to Carl Bell so he could construct $500 million dollars of townhomes, despite the fact that he was delinquent on his taxes. Said the visionary Lane, “"I think this will be a great success. People would love to live around the area, eat around the area, shop around the area. The excitement it will generate is wonderful." As Rick Perry might say: Ooops.

Of course, the Star Telegram is more interested in protecting the powers that be than in asking, much less answering, these questions. When challengers arise to crack open the vault of secrecy and expose the truth of what’s happening on the banks of the Trinity River, the paper of record goes into hyperdrive to discredit them, lest the truth become known.

What exactly is it the Star Telegram is trying to hide?