What she said was...

One of our friends in Haltom City wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram supporting a candidate for Haltom City Mayor.  She was kind enough to send us a copy.  Then we noticed something, what she said and what was printed, well - read it yourself.  Can you see a difference?  Another example of WHY we started this blog.

Said:
A recent letter stated the Haltom City election was costing $30,000 while the true cost is $14,704. This was just another feeble attempt in misleading the citizens with so called “facts”. It's been going on far too long in our town and it's time for it to end. If you agree, join me in voting for Bob Watkins as the write-in candidate for Mayor. Bob attends most every city function and meeting. He donates time to Paw Pals and Friends of the Library. He is a homeowner and business owner in the city, as well as a long time member of the Zoning Board of Adjustments and the Northeast Tarrant Chamber, and he has never been a member of the Economic Development Corporation. Don’t let your right to vote go to waste, write in Bob Watkins for Mayor!

Paper said:
Join me in voting for Bob Watkins as the write-in candidate for Haltom City mayor. Bob attends most every city function and meeting. He donates time to Paw Pals and Friends of the Library. He is a homeowner and business owner in the city, as well as a longtime member of the Zoning Board of Adjustments and the Northeast Tarrant Chamber -- and he has never been a member of the Economic Development Corporation. Don't let your right to vote go to waste. Write in Bob Watkins for mayor!

Now why would the first portion of the letter be removed?  ASK. Knowing her, she already has. 

Another question would be, HOW many letters are edited and what did they REALLY say?  ASK.

Haltom City Recall

Seems the recall is where everything can be traced back to in Haltom City...WHY is that?  And WHO was responsible?  Stay tuned, we'll have a history lesson for you soon.  Pay attention to WHO all is involved.

The Fort Worth Weekly  has the story about the EDC fiasco and the secretive dealings that cost taxpayers money.  YOU can't afford to miss it. 

WHO was asking about the EDC prior to the audit?  Bob Watkins, write-in candidate for Mayor.  What does that tell you?  VOTE.

That full accounting may be a long time coming. Of the four people who constituted the EDC board in 2004 when key arrangements regarding Flynn were changed, one is dead and one says he can’t remember most of what happened. A third member, who was then the board president, defended the Flynn deal — and she said she can’t remember who the fourth member was. City officials say they’re not sure exactly how many properties the EDC and Flynn bought for the city.

“That’s just unbelievable,” Carlton Schwab, president and CEO of the Texas Economic Development Council, said. “EDCs are supposed to be all about helping create jobs. “Where is the job creation? … Where is the economic development?”

Another key question: Where are the records and the public accountability for the EDC, which is funded with a half-cent hike in the sales tax, approved by Haltom City voters in two stages? And how was so much of what was done allowed to happen in secrecy?

Current council member Gary Nunn said he’s been asking for that kind of information for two years and has never gotten any answers.

With Flynn as director and new Mayor Calvin White as board president, Haltom City EDC business moved almost exclusively behind closed doors, in executive sessions.

“We had an interim city manager named Pat Efrink,” said Harper, “and one day at a meeting he simply told me I was no longer allowed at the meetings. Neither was anyone else. Which meant no one knew what was going on with the EDC.”

But in January 2008, when the EDC took on Chesapeake Energy in a condemnation case over land the EDC wanted for a ball field, the EDC lost. Ironically, Chesapeake, which through its Texas Midstream pipeline company routinely condemns land, responded with a public relations blitz, asking Haltom City residents if they knew what an EDC was, why a consultant for the EDC was preventing those citizens from having their mineral rights developed, and touting the millions of dollars that would come to Haltom City if the EDC would allow them to develop land and mineral leases they already owned. The campaign worked. The EDC backed off.
 
Told that the Haltom City EDC currently owns 40 undeveloped properties, Schwab said he’d never heard of that happening either.
 
The real issue, he said, is that for all the land transactions and all the money paid to Flynn, there has been little business development produced.

Haltom City showdown

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram article on the Haltom City EDC fiasco this week is much more telling than the last.  Finally.  Maybe the residents over there can get some help, they've needed it since at least 2004, when a current councilmember initiated the recall.  Yes, he was on the EDC too.

Rumor has it, due to this information, there was a write in candidate for Mayor.  Since the only candidate to file spent years on the EDC as well.

Attend the meeting tonight at 6:30 at the old library.  It should be enlightening.

Haltom City's Economic Development Corp. is listed as owing $2.3 million in delinquent property taxes -- a figure more than four times the amount that the staff reported at a council meeting last month.

But Councilman David Averitt wants the seven-member development corporation board, which includes Mayor Bill Lanford, to resign immediately. He has also made requests to the Texas comptroller's office and the Tarrant County district attorney to investigate the development corporation.

Lanford likened Haltom City political tensions to a war that won't end. He traces it to the city's recall election of 2004.

The corporation owns 40 properties with a book value of $6.2 million. The properties were acquired as far back as 2004.

More Small Town Politics...

Another letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the Haltom City EDC fiasco.  Seems THE PEOPLE want the "news" to tell the whole story, and hold elected officials and city staff paid by their tax dollars accountable.

WHO's in charge over there?

More to the story

I am not satisfied with the reporting about the fiasco that is the Haltom City Economic Development Corp. It appears to me a small covert group is operating within a larger covert group calling itself the EDC. I do not believe there was enough investigation by the Star-Telegram. (See: "Haltom City fires consultant after audit," Wednesday) If what appears to me is true, the whole shooting match is illegal, and the open meetings act is not being observed.

Had I known this story was going to appear, I would have filed for the mayor's position; the only person who filed is part of the council put in place during the political coup of 2004, and he was on the EDC for several years. I unsuccessfully ran for council last year with the major platform being the EDC; if there is still an EDC in January 2012, I will be running for the same Place 5 seat.

-- Bob Watkins, Haltom City

Small Town Letter

Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram concerning Haltom City's EDC fiasco.

We are sure it won't be the last.  This letter writer blames the current mayor.  What about the next mayor?  Remember, he was on the EDC.  And what do the taxpayers have to show for the tax they pay to the EDC?  Bank account grows, so did the tax rate.  WHO initiated raising the tax rate?

Outrage in Haltom City

The Wednesday article about Haltom City did not reveal who is responsible for the outrageous blunders in the Economic Development Corp., mainly its board. (See: "Haltom City fires consultant after audit") I, along with many others, am sadly disappointed in the mayor. He appoints the board, including the council representatives, so that pretty well states he is responsible for all actions.

This city closed or reduced hours in the rec center, library and senior center for financial reasons while EDC was spending taxpayers' money wildly and unaccounted by any city official.

At EDC's discretion, it purchased properties for no apparent reason. We are now one of the largest property owners in the city, and that does not help property taxes. We need further audits or criminal investigations into this so-called private corporation spending taxpayers' money secretly.

When we voted for the EDC fund, it was for improving the development of Haltom City. The half-cent needs to be cut to a quarter-cent and then hold it more accountable.

-- Bob Ryan, Haltom City

More Small Town Politics

Richland Hills, Forest Hill, now back to Haltom City...

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.