All the newspapers...

Are finally talking about the Tim Love Woodshed deal, part of the Trinity River Vision.  (Which means more finger pointing and story changing).

The other restaurant owners in town are wishing the "news" would have done so sooner. (Kind of like the tubers of the Trinity Rockin the River events wish the "news" would have tested the water sooner).  What will all the businesses in Fort Worth say when the Trinity River Vision promotes their own over the current, established ones?

Check out the Fort Worth Business Press article.  Is it just us or do some of the answers given by J.D. Granger and Jim Lane sound different than the ones they gave in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram just a little over a week ago? Last week, neither J.D. or Love could remember WHO asked whom.  Read the latest below.  Jim Lane told the S-T that the Tarrant Regional Water District board voted on it...now it's clear, no one voted on it.

Lane compares the Trinity River Vision to Lockheed Martin and Alliance Airport.  Apples and oranges.

The Trinity River Vision is all taxpayer funded (that's YOU) and has nothing to do with defense (aside from "news" articles) or planes. Nice try though.

And someone please tell these boys, this ain't San Antonio. 

After behind-the-scenes negotiations, without public input or competitive bidding, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) has spent $970,000 of public money to build a restaurant near a popular trail head along the Trinity River. Along the way, the Water District signed a 10-year lease with celebrity chef Tim Love to run it, without a competitive bidding process.

The lease was drafted and approved by Ken Brummett, the water district’s general counsel, but not voted on by the district’s board.

TRVA Executive Director J.D. Granger, who helped search for a tenant for the restaurant, said Love proposed the profit-sharing lease rather than a standard rent agreement because fixed rents often cause problems for open-air, climate-sensitive venues.

The behind-the-scenes negotiations with Love and the terms of the lease, not to mention the lack of competitive bidding, aren’t doing much to change critics’ views that the water district is more interested in creating an economic windfall for downtown developers via the TRV than it is in doing its real job of finding new sources of water for a rapidly growing population, preserving current resources and managing flood control projects, says Clyde Picht, a former city councilman who ran for the water board opposing the Trinity River Vision plan.

___________________________________________

The Fort Worth Business Journal  "Water District takes heat over no-bid lease deal"article  also makes note of the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) award winning documentary, Up a Creek. 

WHO's your daddy?

As previously mentioned, we keep it in the family in Fort Worth.  Literally.

Read about the court connections on PoliTex.  And keep in mind, that ain't nothin.

This is Texas, we do it up big.

They’re the latest in a long line of notable offspring to be hired by the Tarrant County district attorney’s office.

Others who have branched out on the district attorney’s family tree include:

--J.D. Granger, son of U.S. Rep. (and former Fort Worth mayor) Kay Granger. J.D. Granger is now executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority.

Watchdogs everywhere

The Texas Watchdog is sniffing around the Woodshed too.  Wonder what they'll turn up? 

More dirt on the dealings of the Tarrant Regional Water District or the Trinity River Vision Authority? 

Step right up and place your bets.

Taxpayers foot $970K bill for celebrity chef's smokehouse on Trinity River

Love has competed in Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters. The latter was exposed last month as being part of a pay-to-play scheme, extracting fees from cities in exchange for being used as a Top Chef location.

 

Earlier this month, Granger was derided for failing to show up at a forum at which he promised to explain the $900 million Trinity River Vision project.

 

Granger is the son of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, who has been a supporter of the Trinity River development but has also been subject to nepotism accusations.

 

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.

It's coming...

December 6th.  Be there.

Dear Sirs:

 

Thank you for you article dated October 16,2011.  In a recent zoning committee meeting, the committee unanimously voted to deny Texas Midstream Gas Services application (ZC-11-098) at 7429 Randol Mill Road.  This was a huge victory for the neighborhoods who surround this area – Lakes of River Trails South (LORTS) , River Trails, and Mallard Cove.

 

With a small group of volunteers, we have canvassed our neighborhoods, and between LORTS and River Trails, we submitted a petition that consisted of over 1,000 signed petitions of opposition.  According to Jim Bradbury, a consulting attorney in this matter, such a petition against a gas compression station was unheard of in his history in environmental law.

 

But the fact remains that a gas compression station comprised of 15 gas compression stations at one location is unheard of in this country, according to Chesapeake’s gas representative at a recent meeting at River Trails Elementary School.

 

What remains to be seen is how the City Council of Fort Worth determines the outcome should be December 6, 2011.  Will they listen to the staff report that say this application is “inconsistent” with the already existing comprehensive plan and that it is “incompatible” with land use.  What concerns me most, however, are comments made during the November 9^th Zoning meeting by Bill Dolstrom, the attorney who filed the application, , there are “no other sites available” and that “according to the information we’ve receive, and the studies we’ve done, there is no other site available.”  Mr. Dolstrom continues, “As far as the inconsistency with the comp plan, the comp plan calls this as agricultural district.  This (ZC-11-098) use is permitted by right in an agricultural district, so I submit to you there is consistency with the comp plan.”

 

Will City Hall agree with its staff and Zoning Committee and deny the application, and if so – will Texas Midstream Gas Services and Chesapeake just build anyway???

 

Thank you for hearing me – please keep informed of the upcoming December 6^th meeting.

Take the money and run

It ain't just you're money their after, they'll take your ideas too.

Read J.D. Granger took idea and ran with it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

And the Winner is...

Ms. Hopkins.  Again.

The Loser?  YOU.

Read Ms. Hopkins latest letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  It's got everything from tragedy to comedy, from the Trinity River to Santa Claus.

Bravo, ma'am.

TRV lease

"I'm shocked, shocked!" that anyone is shocked that J.D. Granger granted a no-bid lease on the might-as-well-be-a-million-dollar Woodshed Smokehouse restaurant that his "fiefdom," the Trinity River Vision, has built. (See: "Eatery deal is debated," Sunday) Remember that's how "Mama's Boy" Granger got his own "no-bid" job? Granger, the Trinity River Vision's executive director, is nepotism's biggest beneficiary since the Borgias.

What does the Tarrant Regional Water District get in this $970,000 sweetheart deal? A mention of the proposed restaurant on a television cooking demonstration. Plus -- in lieu of paying rent -- the Woodshed will "ensure ... a specified number of beers ... on tap" and a promise that cyclists and joggers can use the restroom. Plus, if the Woodshed closes before the end of its lease, "the district would get some $400,000 of restaurant equipment."

Used restaurant equipment should come in handy; water board members can become short-order cooks when our 50-year drought dries up the river. Meanwhile, who's minding the store? It took a Star-Telegram Texas Public Information Act request to find out anything about this boondoggle. There's more going around in the dark than Santa Claus.
-- Guelma B. Hopkins, Fort Worth

Tired of Turkey yet?

THE People are.

Thanks to the Fort Worth Weekly for looking out for THE People.

Last month, the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) sponsored a forum at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to discuss the merits of the Trinity River Vision project. (You know, that project that’s going to cost $900 million to prevent flooding even though the last big flood around these parts was back around 19-and-49.) TRV Executive Director J.D. Granger promised to show up for the panel discussion and take questions from the crowd weeks in advance, but he cancelled at the last minute. The crowd booed heartily at the mere mention of his name. “He’s a gutless wonder,” shouted one.

He might lack guts, but he’s got gall. The latest issue of the TRV’s quarterly newspaper includes an article entitled “Need a Speaker?” The TRV promises to provide one to any group free of charge for a 40-minute narration. Unless of course they hear that the crowd might include people who want to question flood control disguised as economic development or question the no-bid sweetheart deal the TRV gave local chef Tim Love for his Woodshed restaurant on the Trinity River or question the … well, you get the idea.

How we roll in Texas...

Courtesy of TURF -

More I-35 shenanigans...

One of our supporters who manned a table outside the I-35 workshop the week before Thanksgiving, was present the entire time and saw all of 4 ordinary citizens enter the meeting. When he asked one of the consultants how many people had attended, they said close to 30. When he inquired how that could be when he only saw 4 people enter, they said some folks had come around 4 PM to leave comments and go. He asked how that happened since the posted start time given to the general public wasn't until 5:30 PM, he was given double talk.

When it became clear that members of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition or SAMCo (made up of over 70 private contractors that do business with TxDOT) had been welcomed prior to the posted hours given to the general public, we submitted an Open Records request asking for the sign-in sheets and any correspondence sent to SAMCo about the I-35 meeting.

Records show a litany of government officials and road contractors attended and only a handful of ordinary citizens. Records also show that SAMCo members got a personal invitation in writing from TxDOT and the RMA on November 3, more than two weeks prior to the meetings, when the general public only received notice two days prior to the workshops. It explains why the road lobby showed up and the general public did not.

This is how TxDOT and toll entities rig the process by keeping the public in the dark and getting the road lobby to do their bidding -- show-up while they're still on the clock when they don't have to rub shoulders with those stingy taxpayers to leave pro-toll comments and get home at their regular time. The general public, by contrast, funds this whole operation with our hard-earned tax money, and we have to leave work early or come after hours on our OWN TIME and DIME taking time AWAY from our families to give input to corrupt public agencies that deliberately stack the deck against us.      

State law now requires those who do business with TxDOT or who work for firms that could profit from the road project are supposed to disclose this on their comment forms. From what we have pieced together from the public records of the meeting, they did NOT comply with the law.  

Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods hears Star-Telegram Watchdog Thursday, December 1

Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods

Update -- November 29, 2011

Please join us for our

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011

6:30 p.m.

Fort Worth Firefighters Hall

3855 Tulsa Way, Fort Worth 76107

PLEASE RSVP to Melissa at 817.927-5732

Important Neighborhood Updates on proposed City neighborhood policies, redistricting, the latest on gas drilling and more

Dave Lieber, the Star-Telegram's Watchdog Columnist, will present his program on how to be your own watchdog

Celebrate the start of the holidays with a reception after the meeting and a drawing for holiday door prizes!

Join us!!!