Election in Big D

Check out item number 23, and VOTE for TXSharon!

http://surveys.dmagazine.com/bestofbigd2013-culture

Define Insanity

Doing the same thing and expecting different results.

The Tarrant Regional Water District incumbents have sat on the board for a combined total of almost 60 years. 

In that 60 years, WHAT benefit have they provided you?

A good plan for water supply?  Nope. 
A good plan for cleaning up the river? Nope.
A way to reduce costs?  Nope.

Eminent domain? Yes.
A wake board park and restaurant? Yes.
A billion dollar boondoggle? Yes.

It's time.  "Captain Clean" needs YOUR help.

Early voting starts tomorrow.  VOTE BNK!

John Basham, Timothy Nold and Mary Kelleher. 

Give the citizens THEIR board back. 

Read what Durango has to say here. 

This is it! Prairie to the people!

Prairie Fest starts Saturday morning at 11 a.m. Come on in to the greenest festival in Texas. More than 40 green Exhibitors, prairie tours, live music,  from 10 bands, tasty food and beverage, kids stuff and much more at the most valuable 160 acres in Fort Worth. FREE and open to the public. Prairie to the People!

http://tandyhills.org/fest

Same old dog, same old tricks

The Tarrant Regional Water District just spent lots of YOUR money to put out their board report.  Now, knowing many citizens in the district, we have a feeling they'd be happy with that info being free online, or at the very least, being printed on regular paper with black ink.

Sadly, YOUR elected official don't feel the same, as they printed a 10 page color brochure, promoting the incumbents.  Have you ever seen the incumbents promoted in a Water Report before?  Do you think it has anything to do with the Tarrant Regional Water District election being days away?

Don't be fooled.  Again.  Stop the madness.

Vote BNK starting Monday.  Save YOUR water, save YOUR money.

http://www.flushtrwd.com

YOU only get one.

Don't screw it up.

URGENT: Texans' Property Taxes to Build Toll Roads???

THE GRASSROOTS TEXANS NETWORK

Fellow Grassroots Texans:

Please find below an URGENT message from Terri Hall of T.U.R.F.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.

PROPERTY TAX TO BUILD TOLL ROADS?

This week, the full Texas House will vote on whether or not to use property taxes & sales taxes to build toll roads using Transportation Reinvestment Zones (TRZs). That means they'll build the road with property tax, but will charge you a TOLL to drive on it - another DOUBLE TAX scheme. It also expands the use of TRZs to fund transit, rail (think street car), even parking lots!

We DEFEATED the expansion of TRZs known as Prop 4 on the Constitutional Amendment election in November 2011 (read about it here), so we can certainly do it again! The senate version of this bill already passed the Senate. Every member of the Senate voted FOR it, so stopping this in the House is a MUST!

It's up to YOU to help us STOP it in the House!

ACTION ITEM #1:

Call your State Representative & make sure they vote AGAINST HB 1716 which allows the use of property tax & sales tax to build toll roads!

>>Find out who your STATE representative is here:

http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/Home.aspx

>>You can email using this formula:

first_name . last_name@house.state.tx.us

(Be sure to eliminate any spaces in the actual email address. Include your full name, address, & phone in all written correspondence.)

NOTE: If Speaker Joe Straus is your State Rep., email him here:

joe.straus@speaker.state.tx.us

He does NOT vote on bills, but controls the calendar and which bills come to the floor for a vote.

AND/OR

>>Call the Capitol Switchboard - (512) 463-4630 (between 8 AM - 5 PM)
 (Give them your zip code & they can connect you to your state rep.)

CLICK BELOW for more urgent
ACTION ITEMS THIS WEEK:

http://GrassrootsTexans.net/4677/Property_Tax_to_Fund_Toll_Roads

The man was right.

Remember back when then Councilman Clyde Picht said the Trinity River Vision would cost taxpayers at least a billion dollars?

And when he said Fort Worth should invest in tornado sirens?

That's what people should be concerned with, their safety and their property. 

So, what does Clyde say about the Tarrant Regional Water District candidates and the upcoming election?

Read his letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

In a letter to voters, Mayor Betsy Price tried to justify her support of Tarrant Regional Water District board members. She said the district makes sure we "have a clean, safe and adequate water supply." That's patently false.

It does not provide clean, safe or adequate water. Fort Worth and other consumer cities clean the water for public consumption.

Independent studies have shown that Trinity River water contains contaminants that can harm humans and make eating the fish very risky.

The Wall Street Journal identified Fort Worth as one of the 10 biggest cities running out of water
.
The water district supports gas drilling on its property in the flood plain and close to lakes. Drilling consumes millions of gallons of water for each well. The revenue is used for economic development, not water resources. The district is scamming the public and needs new and trustworthy leadership.

Vote for John Basham, Timothy Nold and Mary Kelleher.

-- Clyde Picht, Fort Worth

Double Talk

The incumbent endorsing Fort Worth Star-Telegram has been endorsing incumbents today.

We know, no surprise.

Thing is, do they read their own opinion pieces?  There's one that says we need a "fresh start" and one that says "Change is inevitable", then they tell you not to change a thing. Over the years, they agree the board is secretive and votes unanimously without discussion and yet they say keep them?  WHY would they say that?

They mention the board members are all in their late sixties and seventies and have served from 10 - 29 years.  If they have served on the board that long, WHO do YOU think they really work for?

Here are some quotes from the OPINION pieces.  Good thing most folks we know think the ST opinion is as worthless as the paper it is printed on.

Do YOURSELF a favor, vote BNK and take YOUR water board back.

But they have been less successful at nurturing younger and more diverse board leadership to continue that work for another 50 years.

Directors also say they want to expand the board's "Lawn Whisperer" conservation campaign.

For voters interested in change -- and with some good reason -- the roster of challengers is thin.

That's true. Directors say they comply with state law, but they could choose to give more public notice and deliberate more openly. They have not.

Nold also is critical of no-bid contracts issued by the Trinity River Vision Authority, a separate agency that oversees the Trinity Uptown floodway project near downtown. Henderson and the water district general manager, Jim Oliver, also sit on the authority's board.

WHO is looking out for YOU?

The New York Times is looking at Texas again.  Of course for Oil & Gas.  We can't wait till the start looking at the water.

Get a rope!

Friendliness toward the drilling industry is typical for Texas, where many lawmakers receive campaign contributions from oil and gas groups or have investments in drilling companies. The three elected members of the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees the oil and gas industry, have received significant contributions from the very industry they regulate. 

Fort Worth, Dallas on Line 1

Finally.

The Dallas Morning News writes about the Tarrant Regional Water District. 

Read what the Water District spokesperson had to say.  YOU can't afford not to.

Kudos to Dallas for having a real "news" paper.  Y'all come back real soon!!

And for the rest of you, there's an election coming up.  Pay attention!

Bennett’s lawsuit alleges that the real debate and discussion of water district business — decisions on the pipeline route and awarding of multi-million-dollar design, engineering and construction contracts — takes place not in the public meetings of the board of directors but in secret committee meetings.

Notices about the time, place and agenda of those committee meetings are neither posted publicly ahead of time nor do they appear on the water district’s web site, according to Chad Lorance, a spokesman for the water district.

A little background is in order here for readers unfamiliar with local governments in Texas.

The Texas Attorney General has ruled repeatedly that a governmental body such as a tax-supported water district cannot create committees to deal with a public issue and then allow the committees to meet in secret and make decisions in secret.

I asked Lorance for a legal rationale for why the water district’s committees should not be subject to the state open meetings law. He did not answer directly.

Instead, he cited another statute found in the Texas Water Code. It says, “A meeting of a committee of the board, or a committee composed of representatives of more than one board, where less than a quorum of any one board is present, is not subject to the provisions of the open meetings law.”

One could infer from Lorance’s citation that the water board committees purposely structure their meetings to include less than a quorum to avoid violating the open meetings law. But he did not say that.

“All 339 actions were unanimously adopted by the board,” the lawsuit concluded.