The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an article about the Haltom City Economic Development Corporation buying properties under the radar and not paying taxes on them. Ever.
They make it sound like it was all Kent Flynn and that he just got fired. Looking through agendas, it shows he was terminated in December. Months after he was targeted by a local gas drilling company in a PowerPoint presentation shown at a local church, where the members of said church run for local offices on a regular basis. And a pipeline runs under the football field on the church property.
Matter of fact, one of these church members, a longtime EDC member, will now be Haltom City's new mayor. Looks like someone should be paying more attention to small town politics. Too bad the "news" didn't cover any of this information sooner...might have enticed someone not involved in the EDC fiasco to run for Mayor.
The audit mentioned in the article says the EDC conducts business in a "veil of secrecy". That's what THE PEOPLE have said for years, again, someone should have listened. If most of your council members are on the EDC, what does that say to the citizens? And remember WHO paid Flynn...THE CITY. Which of course means the taxpayers, though the city is to oversee how each dollar is spent. So, WHO is really responsible?
Welch said that ultimately the bills weren't paid, and he isn't sure what became of them.
"The city didn't pay them. EDC didn't pay them. I don't know," he said.
Officials said Flynn wanted to keep documentation to a minimum so public-information requests couldn't tie the development corporation to land it was acquiring. Lanford said doing so meant keeping residents in the dark, but he said the potential savings to taxpayers outweighed his concerns about secrecy.
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