That's how one water board incumbent seemed to go last night at group meeting last night.
There was some confusion on his part to whether or not the Tarrant Regional Water District owned a hunting lease or not. Apparently that depends on if you call it a deer lease or call it something else.
If you were confused by it, you can read an old article from the FW Weekly on it. They were reporting on the Water District back in the day (2006). Too bad no one was listening. You hear them now? Did you hear Julie Wilson, (yes, that one) say, “We’re not going to condemn any land for economic development,” We know several people downtown WHO know that ain't true.
Seems lots of folks at the meeting were upset with Jack Stevens as some of them helped him get elected, now they can't get him to do what he promised, which was look after them and their property.
The three candidates, John Basham, Timothy Nold and Mark Kelleher fared much better. Do yourself a favor and vote BNK for the water board. Otherwise, it's business as usual. And from the looks of it, the locals have had about enough of that. Hunting season's over.
The water board, as most people call it, has been a low-profile agency for
most of the 80 years it’s been around, taking care of four dams and the lakes
behind them, selling water to local cities and towns, looking out for flood
concerns, and choosing its leaders in elections that often generate anemic
turnout. But from time to time, especially when one of the agency’s construction
projects requires the taking of private property from those who don’t want to
sell, people start getting more curious — and critical — about how the district
operates.
“It’s there for the recreational use of our employees,’’ says Board President
Victor Henderson. “I think it’s a good thing.”
When an existing board member grew weary of service, he (and until recently
all were men) would typically quit before the term was over, allowing the
remaining directors to appoint a replacement who could then run for election as
an incumbent. Water board elections were often held on days when public interest
and turnout was light. In the late 1970s, for example, one election drew fewer
than 300 voters.
But district officials say those days are long gone. In recent years, at
least three board members have been elected without first having been appointed.
And at least one incumbent has been defeated in a recent election. That was in
2004, when businesswoman Gina Puente-Brancato, the only woman and Hispanic to
serve on the board, was defeated by retired engineer Jack Stevens.
What’s more, even if they did know when elections were being held, only a
fraction of the residents served — or affected — by the agency are eligible to
vote for the people who oversee it.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
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