Star-Telegram no show, no surprise

While the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had plenty to say during the Tarrant Regional Water Board election (not all of it accurate), they were noticably absent from yesterday's standing room only TRWD board meeting.

The Fort Worth Weekly and the Fort Worth Business Press were there. (While the Biz Press got a few things wrong, at least they took the time to show up and actually REPORT on the meeting.)

KERA was also among the news outlets in attendance.

We are told a FWST columnist linked to the FW Weekly article on his Facebook page.  We were then asked why his own paper didn't cover it?  Good question.  ASK.

Kudos to Mary Kelleher for not backing down from the smirking bullies at the table.  And reminding them that almost 9,000 citizens put her there and she planned on doing right by them, not the board.  What other board member has received that many votes?  That's right, none.  Ever.

There weren’t enough parking spaces for the cars outside, and there weren’t enough chairs for the people inside.

A big turnout is rare at a Tarrant Regional Water District board of directors meetings. The water board isn’t known for transparency and doesn’t exactly embrace outsiders (aka taxpaying citizens) who poke their noses into the board’s business, even though much of it is supposed to be public information.

Board members appeared a bit surprised to see a full house at this morning’s meeting.

The big draw was Mary Kelleher, the only challenger during last month’s citywide election to oust an incumbent and get elected to a board that hadn’t seen a fresh face in a few years.

Following Kelleher’s statement, Jim Lane, another TRWD board director,asked: “What would be total compliance? You either comply or you don’t. You can’t halfway comply.”

Board President Victor Henderson noted that the board was “here in an open session.”

“Correct,” Kelleher replied, “but I want a legal opinion from the outside firm that can assure us that all of the things that we need to exactly have, including the executive sessions, are in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act – period.

“We’ve spent so many millions of dollars in legal fees. We have another lawsuit pending that’s alleging that we’re in violation of the open meetings act. I don’t have any idea why the board would not want an outside, independent [opinion], an additional one just to make sure that we’re not [in violation of the act],” she said. “We have a lot to lose; we just lost a lot. I think we serve the community well by getting an additional one, and I don’t understand why my fellow directors wouldn’t be in agreement with me.”