The other restaurant owners in town are wishing the "news" would have done so sooner. (Kind of like the tubers of the Trinity Rockin the River events wish the "news" would have tested the water sooner). What will all the businesses in Fort Worth say when the Trinity River Vision promotes their own over the current, established ones?
Check out the Fort Worth Business Press article. Is it just us or do some of the answers given by J.D. Granger and Jim Lane sound different than the ones they gave in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram just a little over a week ago? Last week, neither J.D. or Love could remember WHO asked whom. Read the latest below. Jim Lane told the S-T that the Tarrant Regional Water District board voted on it...now it's clear, no one voted on it.
Lane compares the Trinity River Vision to Lockheed Martin and Alliance Airport. Apples and oranges.
The Trinity River Vision is all taxpayer funded (that's YOU) and has nothing to do with defense (aside from "news" articles) or planes. Nice try though.
And someone please tell these boys, this ain't San Antonio.
After behind-the-scenes negotiations, without public input or competitive bidding, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) has spent $970,000 of public money to build a restaurant near a popular trail head along the Trinity River. Along the way, the Water District signed a 10-year lease with celebrity chef Tim Love to run it, without a competitive bidding process.
The lease was drafted and approved by Ken Brummett, the water district’s general counsel, but not voted on by the district’s board.
TRVA Executive Director J.D. Granger, who helped search for a tenant for the restaurant, said Love proposed the profit-sharing lease rather than a standard rent agreement because fixed rents often cause problems for open-air, climate-sensitive venues.
The behind-the-scenes negotiations with Love and the terms of the lease, not to mention the lack of competitive bidding, aren’t doing much to change critics’ views that the water district is more interested in creating an economic windfall for downtown developers via the TRV than it is in doing its real job of finding new sources of water for a rapidly growing population, preserving current resources and managing flood control projects, says Clyde Picht, a former city councilman who ran for the water board opposing the Trinity River Vision plan.
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The Fort Worth Business Journal "Water District takes heat over no-bid lease deal"article also makes note of the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) award winning documentary, Up a Creek.
1 comment:
Pretty amazing how the owner/publisher of a news outlet can influence the publications focus and level of objectivity and regard for the public interest. Welcome back, Mr. Connor (sp?).
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