Keep your eye on the money

After all, it's yours.  The Fort Worth Crime Control Prevention District is still in the spotlight.  That happens when you try to keep things in the dark.  So do voter revolts.

Read about it in the FW Weekly. 

“It was a money grab — it’s that simple,” said a former board member who did not want to speak on the record.

Clyde Picht views the crime district’s $50 million as a slush fund for city officials.

The board meets Aug. 24 for the second time since Mayor Mike Moncrief led a coup in February to dissolve the volunteer board that had overseen the program since its 1995 inception. The mayor and council members then made themselves directors.

Many local leaders and council-watchers were shocked by the council’s move, only a few months after voters, in November, re-authorized the half-penny sales tax for another five years. Since then, several said, they have learned that Moncrief had planned the move for months and intentionally waited until after the election to avoid a taxpayer revolt.