Silence!

Is what Mayor Cluck would like in Arlington. It came to light in June during several packed council meetings when citizens were denied the right to speak. 

The editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram seems to have a lot of holes.  THE PEOPLE making comments noticed.  They point out the Texas Open Meetings Act law and the right citizens have to speak.  (Are speaker time limits not outlined in City Charters? )
 
People usually end up addressing council in person, when their phone calls and emails go unanswered.  I can personally attest to this, along with several others, as well.

TOMA (Texas Open Meeting Act) treats public hearings differently from regular agenda items. State law basically says the public must be given the opportunity to speak at a public hearing. 0 minutes is NOT an opportunity to speak. 10 seconds, as the last speaker was allocated after 19 min and 50 sec of other speakers, is NOT an opportunity to speak. TOMA has been violated.
It ain't Cluck's town.  It belongs to the citizens.  The "leaders" may want to listen.
  
But his responsibility does not end there. His decisions can't be arbitrary, and of course he should not use the power of the chair to steer the outcome of the debate.

Cluck is open to criticism because his decision to limit speakers' time seems to have evolved in an ad hoc manner during the past year. The tipping point came in June during public hearings on the Hike and Bike Master Plan and Thoroughfare Development Plan.

The discussion was heated, there were large crowds and council members appeared to be eager to get the issue behind them. Cluck limited public comments to a total of 20 minutes from each side. With the large crowd heavily tilted against the plans, some of the opponents didn't get their chance at the microphone.

Cluck can also be criticized for lack of consistency. Sometimes people get two minutes, sometimes three. It is unreasonable to expect any speaker to plan an effective presentation without knowing beforehand exactly how much time will be available.

Welcome to Frackville

This time we're not talking about Cowtown. 

Frackville is just a hop, skip and a jump from another town in PA, which has been taken by eminent domain (yes, the whole town) because the under world is on fire, literally. 

Check it out on Durango.

Road closed

Why?

Durango knows.  YOU should too.

WHO's News?

We usually don't comment on too many National stories, they seem to serve as a distraction from the local issues that concern all of us and our families.  However, we couldn't pass this up.   Is it sad that it comes from UK? They have The Guardian, we have "mainstream media"...

The almost complete failure of the mainstream media to cover this issue is shocking. 

President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment, to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country … and citizens partied in unwitting bliss into the New Year.

What is the NDAA law?

Do believe the hype, says Professor Turley: the NDAA, signed into law by President Obama on 31 December, authorises the US military to detain citizens indefinitely without trial.

WHO in Texas voted for this?  YOU know WHO.  WHO did YOU vote for?  
Please don't do it again.

"People deserve to know that kind of stuff."

Almost three years ago, we started this blog due to the lack of news we were seeing on the "news".

(There are several stories taking place in Tarrant County right now, that none of the "news" stations have reported on. WHY?)

So due to lack of "news" we decided to do something, so did Grant Stinchfield.  Here's an article on WHY Grant left "news" reporting to run for office. 

There are still reporters left in the county.  They just don't work for the "news".

Kudos, Grant! 

Here is an excerpt of what Stinchfield had to say regarding a tip he started investigating  about government spending:   “When Cowboys Stadium  was being built….General Motors, getting bailed out by the federal government,  wants to buy a suite at Cowboys stadium….a million $ plus for that suite.  I make a call, and as a good conversative I say GM shouldn’t be buying a suite with taxpayer dollars.   20 minutes later I get hauled into the general manager’s office telling me, you will not make another call on that story. ” Stinchfield says the general manager didn’t want to “rock the boat” with automotive advertisers, even though it meant not reporting on what Stinchfield felt was the inappropriate spending of taxpayer dollars.

People in 2011

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram put out it's 2011 DFW Newsmakers.

We'd like to salute the citizens that ended up on the list.  THE PEOPLE who ended up there by standing up for what they believe in and protecting their neighbors.  A firefighter, a veteran, an urban gas drilling opponent and a man teaching our youth a better way of life.  These real people make a difference in our world.  Kudos to them all.  As for the rest of the list...we applaud Wendy Davis for again, standing up for THE PEOPLE.  Too bad there aren't more like her.

The meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service, Bill Bunting, also made the list.  His "standard line" on North Texas weather - 

"Episodes of drought punctuated by periods of catastrophic flooding."

Wonder WHO and what 2012 will bring...

Coming soon to a sewer near YOU

If you didn't see the History Channel show, America's Crumbling Infrastructure, you should.

You should also read the article on Yahoo.com, US Cities struggle to control sewer overflows.  

And remember it next time appointed and elected officials want you to Tube the Trinity River.  Thousands of these overflows happen yearly.  When you neglect the infrastructure that is at least a century old and was built for the population of that time, WHAT did you think would happen?

At least some of the rubbish had drifted across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee, a vivid reminder that many cities still flush nasty stuff into streams and lakes during heavy storms, fouling the waters with bacteria and viruses that can make people seriously ill.

Costs are reaching hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

She was shocked to learn that federal law lets cities discharge untreated sewage when their plants and storage facilities are flooded.

"It was maddening that they had permission to do this and we had to live with the consequences," Rodwell said.

The ultimate goal is zero overflows, but officials don't expect to get there until about 2035 because it will require being able to handle the kind of flooding that previously happened rarely but is becoming more common.

One partial solution gaining popularity with cities is "green infrastructure" — natural and man-made features that enable more water to soak into the ground instead of washing into storm drains and creeks. Stoner and Giles of EPA instructed field staff last year to incorporate green features into storm water and sewer permits as much as possible.

"Cities have had decades to deal with this problem," Welch said. "We need firm deadlines and we need strong enforcement so it can finally be solved."

Good Question

Possibly the best question we have ever seen in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  We're still waiting on the answer.

It's in a column about the Fort Worth retirees and their pension, but it applies to all things Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Way. The sheep have been asking this question for years, if the fox is guarding the hen house...

If most retirement fund board members are beneficiaries of the fund and the fund's executive director is writing guest columns defending their lucrative packages, who the heck is watching out for the taxpayers?

Again, we've been waiting on that answer for years.


With the recent article about the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, this partial comment on the retiree article seems both relevant and timely.

The biggest opponent to Fort Worth city employees is the FW Chamber of Commerce. The city can't give away tax breaks to lure businesses when they have to pay retirees and future retirees a decent retirement.  

The problem isn't the pension. The problem is upper-crust individuals who are "looking out for the taxpayer" want to spend taxpayer money on pork, at the expense of the city employee. 

Speaking of living outside of Tarrant County....  Look at Dallas TAD website and you'll find one of the great opponents of the pension, Mitch Schnurman, lives in Coppell in a $340k house.

Another Tarrant County "Study"

Funny thing about "studies", they usually produce the outcome those hired to produce it are looking for.  It's what you call a win/win.  Unless, of course, you're the one paying for it.

This one was done by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

It claims property taxes are part of the benefit to all the abatement's Fort Worth handed out this year.  How can that be when the TIF's in the area are struggling to meet their promises due to declining property taxes?  Remember, there were studies for those TIF's too. What are they basing these numbers on?  Apparently, whatever they could.

The overall economic impact includes company investments, salaries and what workers will spend.

It also considers salaries created or supported in new or existing firms, such as maintenance companies and service firms, and spending at stores and restaurants.

 There were a couple of key sentences in the article:

In its efforts, the chamber's economic development division received and spent about $1 million from private and public sources in 2011.

The chamber's economic development division works closely with the city's economic development department.

As usual the best part were the comments from THE PEOPLE:

It's a great place to do business if you're looking for a tax handout, but Fort Sprawl is not a great place to live anymore.  

Roads are in terrible condition, crime is up and police response times are lousy.  City services are poor and getting worse.  Those that still exist, anyway.  Price lives in her shielded world and is not in touch with the average citizen.

The only ones who are happy with all this are the stinking corporations and developers and corrupt politicians (current and past mayors & council included) who are benefiting at citizens' expense. If you've got enough money to buy a politician or two, you can pretty much get whatever you want. That's exactly what happened with the Trinity Drainage Ditch Vision and many other pet projects... reward the developers/politicians... screw the citizens.

3 LLC's and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Earlier this year, the Fort Worth Weekly had an article on the dealings of the Haltom City Economic Development Corporation and the LLC it created.  It was smartly titled, A High Priced Can of Worms. 

Today, on Reuters.com there is another telling article about an LLC, this one a Chesapeake affair.  
Seems when the folks in Michigan wanted to collect their signing bonuses they were promised, they couldn't find out WHO to collect from.  WHY?

In fact, the company issuing the rejections wasn't much of a business at all. It was a shell company - a paper-only firm with no real operations - called Northern Michigan Exploration LLC.
Northern has voided hundreds of land deals, and was indeed a facade - a shell company created so that one of America's largest energy companies could conceal its role in the leasing spree, a Reuters investigation has found. Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK.N), the nation's second-largest gas driller, was behind the entire operation.

Chesapeake had created one shell company that set up another, Northern Michigan Exploration.

So, WHO will step up to the plate and protect the taxpayers from the newly formed Trinity Vision Partners LLC that just purchased the Fort Worth Cats?  Wouldn't you love to know WHO all is involved in that shell game?

Ask.