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.

Where do you think you're going?

Kathleen Hicks, the same Fort Worth council person who had Judge license plates on her Porsche, even though she's not one, is now running for District 33. (Does she still have the plates? WHO knows, we couldn't find a follow up in the "news").  Sal Espino, who has had his own share of misjudgements, may run too.

Remember what happened last time this race was ran?  Brimer sued Wendy Davis to try and keep her from running. He lost the lawsuit, and the race.

Here we go again.


City staffers have remained tight-lipped about how the council process will work, possibly because the last time it happened there was a lawsuit.

Ah, the Fort Worth Way. 

Read the latest in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Oakhurst being runover

By TXDOT, the City of Fort Worth and the gas drillers.

Sounds like a bad joke, but it's true.  Just another day in paradise.

WHO is in charge??

Read about it in the Fort Worth Weekly.

Residents in the Oakhurst neighborhood feel like they’re living a scene out of Cool Hand Luke — “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” They say a disconnect between city officials, the Texas Department of Transportation, and Chesapeake Energy is causing the planned expansion of I-35 to encroach on their historic area just northeast of downtown.

The city approved a drilling permit at the northwest corner of I-35 and Northside Drive several years ago, and Chesapeake built its pad site in the path of the proposed expansion of that traffic-clogged highway. So TxDOT recently altered its longtanding plans, moving the project to the east (neighborhood) side of the freeway, to avoid 10 wellheads on the west side of I-35.

The reason the state agency is favoring the drillers over the neighborhood? Existence of the wells means that the cost of expanding the freeway on the west side may have vastly increased.

TxDOT project manager John Tillinghast said he didn’t know why city officials allowed Chesapeake to build wellheads in the highway’s path.

“We never were informed by the City of Fort Worth that this property owner wanted to develop the property,” he said. “We’ve never encountered this before.”

Oakhurst resident David Collyer said it’s just another example of the gas industry’s influence at city hall.

“The city is going to let Chesapeake have first rights, even if they have to run the highway closer to the neighborhood,” he said. “Chesapeake has got the city council in their back pocket.”

“That never came up,” Espino said. “It was my understanding that the highway would be widened away from the neighborhood. No one from city staff or TxDOT brought this up.”

“This is the reality of having drilling in your city and how it affects your land-use plans,” Bradbury said.

Promised Road

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram made us laugh.  The "street monster" is coming...

For more than two years, a big, hungry monster has dogged every meeting of the Fort Worth City Council. Only occasionally have council members talked about it, but the monster's low growl and hot, heavy breath have been a constant part of their lives.

The monster is a $1 billion gap between what's needed for major street repair, maintenance and construction and what's anticipated to be available next year and in future years.

Next question, how much is the gap with drainage?  Several years ago, it was a billion, too.

Previous councils share the blame for creating this monster. Since 1995, they reduced the share of the property tax rate that goes to pay off debt.

If we're not paying our bills and we're not fixing roads and infrastructure...WHERE is OUR money going??

Councilman Sal Espino, whose north side District 2 has probably the city's worst street problems, sided with other council members against the new fee, but he was clearly reluctant.

Housing growth in District 2 boomed before the national recession hit. As Espino put it, "We allowed these massive subdivisions to be built on two-lane county roads."

WE did?  WHY would WE do that?  Wasn't Sal out on the side of the road with the Mayor asking for money and making promises to fix it years ago?

Oh say can YOU see?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial board has jumped on the Fort Worth City Councilman Sal Espino story.

Problem is, there are MANY Tarrant County politicians with MANY stories to be told.  YOU'd be amazed what you can find, if you just look.  So, WHY is no one looking?

Kudos again to WFAA for bringing the story to light.  Wonder what else they can find? 

In a May 25 e-mail, Espino didn't just complain that the judge had treated his wife "quite rudely and contrary to the normal judicial demeanor standards." He said he would put on the next council meeting agenda the subject of a sunset review for the municipal courts and "other inefficient departments." He also hinted that he might ask for an internal audit of the courts. He apologized the next day.

WFAA/Channel 8 brought Espino's huffing to light in a Thursday night report, during which he said that as a council member he has "a right to make sure departments operate at optimal efficiency."

Right? Probably not. Duty? Certainly. But griping at city employees over his spouse's poor treatment? Not the best form -- or the most objective way of exercising an elected representative's authority.

Fort Worth Double Standard

During the elections, you might remember a candidate (running against an incumbent) had a run in with some Fort Worth Bike Cops.  The local paper told you all about it, the incumbent even commented on it.  WHY didn't we see the incumbent's run in with the Fort Worth police/courts in the local paper?  Seems Sal Espino's wife was pulled over in 2009, she was then late to court in 2010, it caused some waves in Cowtown, but you never heard any of that.  WHY?  Did you hear Sal sent a letter saying he was going to get an audit and a sunset review for the department involved?  Yeah, us either.  Wonder WHY the "news" didn't mention any of that.

Watch the report on WFAA.com. 

Let's see - she was speeding, she was late to court, she may or may not, depending on WHO you believe, have said, "Do you know who my husband is?"  And the court needs to be audited??

WHY would the media not tell you this last year?  Prior to the election?

Bad "News"

Some letters to the editor today in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from THE PEOPLE point out the "news" got it wrong on their recommendations for the Fort Worth elections.  Again, please tell us WHY a supposedly unbiased news outlet would support anyone for office?  Shouldn't they report facts on the candidates and let THE PEOPLE decide?  What do they have to gain by shilling for incumbents?  ASK.

One letter concerns Sal Espino, funny, seems we mentioned some of this as well.  Did the "news" not know claims were false?  How is that?  ASK.

Another reader has some good points concerning Scarth as well.  Let's not forget about his son.

Remember, if you're not happy with what you've been getting, voting for the same old isn't going to help that.  The "news" writes all year long about the scandals and shortcomings of the city and its leaders, then come May says, reelect them...ASK - What the hell?

Fort Worth council

I'm an 82-year-old Fort Worth native and have spent most of my life living and working in east Fort Worth. I am very concerned and disappointed in the Star-Telegram's recommendation of Danny Scarth for District 4 on the City Council.

Scarth has not done anything for his own neighborhood, and he has done even less for others in the district. He's instead brought us the only toxic waste dump in the city and has never seen a high-impact gas well he didn't support, which has caused real estate values to plummet.

Let's vote for jobs and new businesses in east Fort Worth, not flooding in Riverside and Gateway parks. Let us also begin to move forward with positive improvements in District 4 by electing Lupe Arriola as our next council member.

-- Dean Hatch, Fort Worth

I have to disagree with the Star-Telegram's recommendation of Sal Espino for Fort Worth City Council District 2. In my opinion, Espino has done nothing to endear himself to the community. I find it disturbing that he is trying to take credit for the 2004 bond improvements and development along the Alliance corridor, both of which were in the making prior to his election.

Since he is proud of the improvements in Rockwood Park from the drilling money, why couldn't he have been vocal or used some of the drilling money to keep the Marine Park swimming pool open?

Perhaps he needs to look up the meaning of constituent service. If you call his office at City Hall, you will hear a long message on his voice mail detailing all the reasons why you will not get a return phone call anytime soon, if ever.

-- Lucy Aguilera, Fort Worth

We hear you North Fort Worth!

Hey City Hall -

We have a message for you from your constituents way out there where you annexed Fort Worth to get more royalties...the residents would like the roads they were promised, as well as adequate fire, police and EMT protection.  Hook them up already!  Wasn't it just yesterday the "news" paper was tooting Sal's horn?

This is one of many letters sent to the council, mayor, and Mr. Espino on numerous occasions. This has been going on for over a year now and still get the same spiel. We are looking into it. I was interviewed on 33 news as well as Mr. Zimmerman who is the head of the Ambulatory Board. He states this is a matter of "life and death" and it is all transportation problems on camera, yet a year later we are worse off than we were then. Justin will not respond and neither will Roanoke because we are the city of Fort Worth.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter to bring more attention to the problems we are having in the Far North Fort Worth area. The areas west of Texas Motor Speedway that is supposed to be part of this great city. For almost a year now I, along with others, have been actively voicing concerns for ourselves and our families. The concerns are we have very poor EMS care and very little police protection. We are stuck in this area between being residents of Fort Worth and also part of Denton County. For that is seems we are pushed to the side and no one wants to deal with us. We have no city parks, no libraries, no public things of any kind that I am aware of, yet we pay our taxes just like the rest of the city and also pay Denton County taxes as well.

Our problem is Medstar used to station an ambulance at Westport Parkway part of the time to cover our area. Most the time it was not there due to calls closer to the city. Which left us with little EMS care. Justin is only 4 miles away but no inter local agreement can be reached so they will not respond to our communities. We have approximately 2000 homes in this area as well as the Northwest School District schools here and numerous businesses. Then Medstar introduces it's new deployment system which somehow "predicts" where they will be needed at any given time. The problem for us is, it took the only ambulance that will respond to our area and moved it closer to the city. Which raised our response time tremendously. They have a goal response time of 9 minutes or less and according to all the reports they provide they reach that goal 98% of the time. Our area has a response time of 20 minutes or more. And seems to be acceptable to Medstar as well as the City. Channel 33 news interviewed myself and Councilman Zimmerman about the situation last May. He claimed this was a "life and death" situation and blamed most of it on transportation. I strongly disagree with the transportation issue. We will never get a 9 minute or less response time, which we deserve also, if the nearest ambulance if over 20 miles away. It's not possible. Yet no one seems willing to find a solution. The only one Medstar will talk about is maybe stationing one in the area during "peak" times. And with that they offer taxing us more to pay for this service. I cannot see how that is fair to all the citizens that moved here to be part of a great city as Fort Worth. That was one of the main reasons we move here from Sunset,Tx. But it seems we had far better care in that very rural area. Our only saving hope is the Fire Station 11 here and they do a great job. I have even suggested posting one of the cities EMS trucks here to take up the slack but the City cannot even come to agreements there to protect us.

As for police, we have one and sometimes two police officers for 27 square miles. Most of the time the responses are the same as the ambulance. It must come from deeper in the City which takes a lot more time.

I do understand we are in great shortages financially. Surely the city can figure out a way to support all it's residents. Seems for the money they pay Medstar, they could afford their own EMS vehicles and staff.

Something must be done to protect these student and citizens. I do not want to think a city this great would turn the blind eye on it's own. It annexed all this area to be part of the city, shouldn't they then provide the same services as the rest of the city? And for how long will they leave all these residents and students at risk?

I will continue to advocate for these problems and try to find solutions and will do whatever it takes to solve them. I am up for any suggestion to fix it.

Thank you.

District 2 LOL

We told you the local paper would start shilling for the incumbents, imagine that.  First up, District 2.  Which is funny if you know the real story behind the claims the incumbent is making. 

Clyde knows.  Read his picks. Like him or not, you'll get the truth.  Makes you wonder WHY the "news" doesn't know (or report) the whole story.

And all you Fort Worth District 2 voters - Check out Paul Rudisill. 

YOU can't afford not to.

There's some land in District 2 that they are trying to eminent domain.  Remember that when you vote.  YOURS could be next.