"On the other hand, sometimes well-intentioned, government-initiated projects do not go as planned."

 The Fort Worth Star-Telegram got a tip from THE PEOPLE - one at City Hall, about the $50,000 the city is spending to add showers so workers can bike to work.  The tipster is bothered with the cutting of employees and  forced furlough days while adding showers for the few that ride. 

WHAT is the "funding source"? WHAT "designation" is the city seeking?

"I have nothing against riding a bike to work," the tipster wrote. "What I do take issue with is the city, in such dire straits, on a dead run to spend money to build showers so that folks can ride bicycles to work at City Hall.

Funding source: "The scheduled replacement of an air-conditioning system at the Animal Care and Control Center will be deferred until next fiscal year to allow this shower facility to be constructed now," a spokesman said.

Did the city do a survey on need?
No. Mayor Betsy Price, an avid cyclist, told The Watchdog: "Then we would have had to spend money on surveys. ..".

Downtown bike racks are mostly empty, and the lanes are not filled with bicyclists.

City officials say they hope to attain the designation Bicycle Friendly Community through the League of American Bicyclists.

On the other hand, sometimes well-intentioned, government-initiated projects do not go as planned.

Example: North Richland Hills used part of a $2 million federal grant awarded in 1999 to develop its Walker's Creek Park trail. That included money to install lockers under a large canopy near the water park for bicycle commuters to stow their belongings.

In 2009, the lockers were removed because officials feared they could be vandalized or someone could get locked inside. Those lockers remain in storage today.

Behind closed doors...

Is the Fort Worth Way.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells you how murky that can be at City Hall.

Today, the council is scheduled to receive a closed-session briefing from city attorneys about how to fill vacancies. The process, as outlined in the charter, is not all that complicated: Except under limited circumstances that don't apply right now, new members must be chosen through elections held in those districts where there are vacancies, either on the next scheduled election day (next May) or on a special date approved by the governor.

But the game of politics is never simple.

Take today's meeting, for example. The council can hold closed meetings only under certain circumstances specified in the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Today's agenda calls for an executive session to get the advice of attorneys about "pending or contemplated litigation or other matters that are exempt from public disclosure" under state bar rules or the open meetings act. There is no such pending or contemplated litigation about council vacancies, and no other reason seems to apply but bar rules that call for unfettered, privileged communication between attorneys and their clients.

Latest Arlington Flood

But the game is still the same.  Everyone involved pointing fingers and blame at each other.  And the homeowners left holding the bag.

It's nice of Arlington to offer them a place to stay for at least a week.  What happens when "the City" floods YOU?

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Two homes on Hillside Drive and a home on Woodside Drive were damaged Oct. 26 when a 12-inch waterline at the Pierce Burch Water Treatment Plant ruptured during a $400,000 waterline renewal project.

The city is still investigating the cause of the break, but officials have said Ark Contracting Services would cover property damage claims. But this week, Travelers Insurance notified affected homeowners that it does not believe that Ark Contracting is responsible for their damage.

"Travelers' review of the contract between Ark and the City reveals the contract does not obligate Ark to be responsible for damages occurring outside the scope of the contracted work," the letter to residents stated. "Further, we do not believe Ark was negligent in their actions giving rise to the flooding. Therefore, we will be unable to assist you with your renovations and suggest you look to the City."

The news of the insurance denial came as a surprise to resident Carol Cash, who said city officials have referred her complaints to Travelers for three weeks.

Cash, who has asthma, said the city denied her request for temporary housing Nov. 11 after a doctor recommended that she move out of the home until the mold is removed.

Cash said that she isn't thrilled about spending the Thanksgiving holiday at a hotel but that her home has become unlivable.

The water treatment plant has nearly flooded Cash's home twice before, she said. She wants the city to buy her home, which she feels has been drastically devalued.

"I don't want to be their neighbor anymore," Cash said. "It's not fair to us homeowners. We didn't ask for this. They destroyed our property."

WHO to the rescue?

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells you how things are run in Tarrant County.  Don't be mistaken, it ain't just Richland Hills.

If a Texes hero shows up, they are going to be busy. 

Rescue Richland Hills

Richland Hills has ceased to function as a city, and there's no Superman to rescue us. We have a city charter that is old and outdated but is the current, legal policy voted in by our citizens. It is the law.

Or is it? Various members of the City Council are routinely violating the city charter but there's no way to hold them accountable since they abolished the city's Ethics Review Board. The city manager, who has won numerous awards for management of the city, is under siege by the council. Each week more City Council actions are being hidden in "executive session." Residents loyal to certain councilmen are allowed to misbehave during council and board meetings and are creating a hostile workplace for volunteers and city employees. Councilmen are ordering the replacement of opposing board members without following due process.

Richland Hills has become a Wild West town run by thugs and bullies. We need an intervention! I have contacted various elected officials within Tarrant County and my state representative but so far no one seems able or willing to step in, call this obviously unethical behavior into question and save Richland Hills.

-- Ralph Smith, Richland Hills

REVOKED

Arlington has revoked a Chesapeake gas well permit.  WHY would such a pro gas city do such a thing? 

Again, it all comes back to WATER.

If anyone is taking notes, be sure and note for once, Chesapeake declined to comment.  

Don't miss the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

One of the city's gas well inspectors found that Chesapeake Energy was bringing in water from a Fort Worth pond through a temporary pipeline to its Barron drill site on West Division Street, Community Development and Planning Director Jim Parajon said Friday. The company's permit, however, said water for drilling operations would be supplied through a nearby fire hydrant.

This wasn't Chesapeake's first infraction involving water. In August, Arlington cited Chesapeake for trucking water it bought at one of its south Arlington well sites to a Grand Prairie well site, which violates city ordinance. The water, which Chesapeake had paid for, was pulled from a frack pond filled at the site. The company called the incident a misunderstanding and said it would pay the fine, which the city had recommended the court set at the maximum, $2,000.

This year, Arlington increased inspections at its 384 natural gas wells. Wells are now inspected monthly; previously they were visited once a year or when complaints were filed. Random inspections were also made during drilling, city officials said.

Fort Worth Bullies

Fort Worth Weekly does a good job reporting on the bullies in the Fort Worth School District.  It doesn't stop there either, Fort Worth is full of bullies from the classroom, to the ISD, from City Hall to Capitol Hill.

Is there a law against that?

Read the article here.  Don't miss the comments, those in the know tell you many things if you listen.

Kudos to the Weekly for racking up awards in Houston and New Orleans!  Keep up the good work!

Where will YOU be tonight?

You have options.  You could attend the Arlington City Council where they'll be discussing the Hike and Bike Plan.  The last Arlington City Council meeting was so much fun, YOU might not want to miss this one.

Or you could attend the Trophy Club/Roanoke Town Hall where Congressman Michael Burgess will be speaking. 7-8 at Byron Nelson High School.

See you there!

The Great Divide

In Fort Worth.

A couple of interesting things in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

One being a letter to the editor that makes note of the switch in political parties our Congresswoman made to get elected and WHO she is beholden to.  Remember, she asked your new Mayor to run.  WHO is she now beholden to?


The new mayor

Fort Worth blew its opportunity to elect a qualified known quantity as mayor. I am not acquainted with Betsy Price but am looking forward to falling in love with her. The last female mayor we had was a very good one. It was only after she left the mayor's post that she became so totally beholden to the Republican Party.

-- Joe Hays, Fort Worth

The other being Bud Kennedy's article about Fort Worth being divided.  There are reasons for the split  - they are political and have a great deal to do with the economics of each neighborhood.

Kathleen Hicks is at it again, saying we can find money for a Superbowl but not streetlights.  Doesn't Kathleen serve on the Trinity River Vision board? 

Boswell summed it up in two words in 06.  Failed and neglected...

In 2006, then-City Manager Charles Boswell gave a passionate speech about how leaders have neglected "the other Fort Worth," the one-third of residents with low graduation and employment rates but high crime rates.

He didn't draw an east-west split, but he did say City Hall failed to maintain inner-city streets and drainage.

Arlingrton Arrogance in Action

Last week we told you about residents being escorted out of an Arlington CITY COUNCIL meeting by POLICE.  Now, thanks to our friends in Arlington, we can show you. 

We've been to meetings like this before.  Mayor and council cutting off citizens, turning off the microphone, smirking, etc.  WHO does the City Council work for??  WHY do you think we want YOU to vote?

Small Town Elections

White Settlement has asked for an election judge that isn't from there.  While White Settlement does a lot wrong, they got this one right. 

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Tarrant County Elections Administrator Steve Raborn, whose office is conducting the election for the city, said he doesn't often get requests like White Settlement's. Typically, election judges work close to their homes, Raborn said.

"Sometimes we hear from small towns where everyone knows one another," he said.

Yeah, sometimes we do too.

Small Town politics continued

This time in Richland Hills.  Read the letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

THE PEOPLE are listening.  Wonder what they'll say in May?

City Hall silence

The Richland Hills City Council decided Tuesday that it has the right to remove any speaker if council members feel insulted by what is said.

The council should be commended; this shows members are standing up for what they see is right. Think about it. I could say something like, "This decision could ruin this city." But that might hurt their feelings. I might be asked to leave.

So, no audience member should speak at all. In fact, I am not sure why an audience is even there. Let council members do whatever they want behind closed doors. Residents don't need to exercise their right to participate in government.

I just hope we don't elect three new council members who respect citizen input.

The preceding letter is sarcasm. Vote those guys out while you still have a voice.

-- Travis Malone, Richland Hills

Trinity River Supercollider Boondoggle

Read the latest from Mr. Woodard in the Letters to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Thanks to the Star Telegram for publishing the letters THE PEOPLE write.  After all, that's what it's for, right?

Mr. Woodard mentions some of the mayoral candidates being proponents of this boondoggle, for those of you not in the know, that would be Betsy Price, WHO rumor has it was asked to run by the boondoggle group and Jim Lane, WHO doesn't want to give up his seat on the Tarrant Regional Water Distritct.  Things that make you go hmmm....

Financial drain

In 1991, construction began on the Superconducting Super Collider at Waxahachie, a project that had been on the drawing boards for more than 10 years. But in 1993, after investing more than $2 billion into the project, President Clinton and Congress canceled it. All that remains are 200,000 square feet of still-vacant factories and labs, and over 20 miles of carved-rock tunnels slowly filling with water.

I have long been warning that federal funds to pay half the cost of Trinity River Vision might turn out to be like the proverbial "Check is in the mail." Those warnings have been ignored by the powers that be in Congress, City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce. After millions of Fort Worth taxpayer dollars have been washed down the river, it appears, judging from a Feb. 24 front-page story, that earmarked Trinity River Vision could well join the Waxahachie Superconducting Super Collider in the graveyard of government boondoggles.

Considering that more than one of the mayoral candidates is neck high in the Trinity Vision quagmire, were I running, To Kill a Money-Eater would be Job 1 in my platform.

-- Don Woodard Sr., Fort Worth

Young Guns

We salute the four fourth grade girls who took their fight to North Richland Hills City Hall.

More power to them.  And sidewalks for all! Watch out boys, we're betting at least one of these girls will be Mayor one day.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Keller looking for a new council

The Fort Worth Way spreads like wildfire...

Read the letters in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Election frustration

Holding the Keller City Charter proposition election the same day as a statewide general election was a terribly bad idea. The council got what it wanted. All 39 propositions passed. The chaos created at the polls was exhausting and frustrating for poll workers and voters.

With turnout high because of state and national issues, the polls were more crowded because of the time required to complete a 10-page ballot. We had four different ballots to distribute, as some voters were in the city limits and some were not because some precincts are split.

A Keller Citizen article reported that the council spent an estimated $60,000 rather than the $15,000 it would have cost to hold the city election on another day. That is our tax dollars being flushed down the toilet as well as manipulation of the vote.

Next spring, each incumbent who voted for this election date should not be re-elected.

-- Michelle Wood, Keller

At least six of the propositions amounted to a power grab by our elected officials and their enablers. In a statewide election that was a total and complete repudiation of big government in all its manifestations, the residents of Keller voted to pass all 39 propositions, with the outcome an enlarged city government and its attendant enlargement of city expenditures.

The lack of fair and balanced reporting, and the ramifications of their passage on the over-burdened taxpayers in our community I lay at the door of City Hall. They provided a misleading flyer that implied the changes were made to bring us into compliance with the state of Texas. A lot of them were, but some were not. Let's take a few minutes in our next City Council election and vote them out!

-- Sara Legvold, Keller

YOU are invited!

There will be a public hearing for the Energy Resources Committee. Speculation is this is the beginning of an attempt to take authority away from municipalities to determine how gas drilling is done in their towns.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

COMMITTEE: Energy Resources

TIME & DATE:

9:00 AM, Thursday, November 18, 2010

PLACE:

Fort Worth, TX City Hall - 1000 Throckmorton St.

CHAIR: Rep. Jim Keffer

The Energy Resources Committee will meet to discuss interim charge #1:

Survey current local ordinances governing surface use of property in oil

and gas development. Recommend changes, if any, to the authority of the

Railroad Commission to regulate the operation of oil and gas industries in

urban areas of the state, particularly the Barnett Shale.

The Committee will hear both invited and public testimony.

For questions regarding the hearing, please contact Bernice

Espinosa-Torres or Ky Ash at (512)463-0656.

You've got mail...

Word on the street is that while Fort Worth has a $73 million dollar budget issue, they are still stashing money for the pipe dream of moving City Hall to the old post office.  This has come up before and it was determined that it was too costly and it didn't make much sense.

It still doesn't.

There's still time...

Fort Worth City Council meeting at 10:00 this morning. 
Be there!

WHO's listening?

THE people...that's WHO.

Check out the Letters in the FW Weekly.  Send them to your friends, write your own.  Make some noise Fort Worth, this is YOUR town.

The Weekly staff did a fantastic overview (“Who’s Listening at City Hall?” June 16, 2010) of our esteemed city hall leaders and their collusionary tactics to have things “their way,” no matter the consequences to our communities or environment.

Mayor Moncrief couldn’t pass the litmus test to be hired as dog-catcher. His ego and his cronies have bullied Fort Worth long enough. Not informing the public prior to ordinance changes and then passing them under the table without public comments or recommendations in city hall’s “backroom” should serve notice that these money-hungry “public servants” are due to be voted out come next election. There’s power in the people’s vote, and they need to exercise it to its full potential and show Moncrief and Company there’s another angle to the “Fort Worth Way!”

So, very grudgingly, they came back to our monthly neighborhood meeting and essentially said, “We know that the majority of the neighborhood is against the closing of Galvez Avenue, but we are proceeding anyway.”

The Oakhurst community is correct: The city, under the direction of Mike Moncrief, has become a tone-deaf fiefdom.

This city has rapidly returned to the “bad old days” of closed-door, good-ol’-boy dealings, and the taxpaying citizens of any neighborhood east of downtown are locked out — all while Mayor Mike screams for civility.

Breaking News

Not really...

The FW Weekly pointed out the issues with open records request months ago. Looks like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram just caught up with the Fort Worth Way.

Where will YOU be Tuesday?

City Hall of course.

Don't miss it. Bring your friends, bring your neighbors!

Make some noise, take back your city!