Little late?

Haltom City and the Corp of Engineers is finally getting a move on fixing Little Fossil Creek.  A project that dates WAY back. We're wondering how long it will take for them to fix Big Fossil Creek?  The monster that runs through many cities.

WHY was Haltom City left holding the bag on millions and WHERE did they "find" the money?  Is this the same place their U.S. Congresswoman "found" money for her son's bridge projects?

Read about the creek and the rising cost in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Construction of the $12 million first phase, which began last year, is expected to be completed in December, according to the Corps of Engineers. On the drawing board since 1994, the project will widen the channel to an average of 75 feet; beef up the sides with concrete, rocks, interlocking blocks and grass to prevent erosion; create a pool downstream from the Trinity Railway Express tracks with a small dam; and add a hike-and-bike trail along the entire project.

Little Fossil flooding traditionally was a greater threat to commercial properties than residential, Muir said. In the review plan for Little Fossil Creek Flood Control Project, the Corps of Engineers said a 1981 flood caused about $10 million in damage. 

The project will cost the city an estimated $12 million or more. The federal government is covering only about $7 million of the project’s first-phase cost, leaving Haltom City holding the bag for more than $5 million, and for the entire cost of phase two.

“We’re anticipating another 6 to 7 million dollars,” Muir said.

Haltom City voters approved a $4 million bond election in 2001 for the project. The rest of the funding has come from certificates of obligation, which do not require voter approval, Muir said. “The option was to say forget it, or grin and bear it and find the money,” he said. “So we found the money.”

WHO is the tool?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote an editorial concerning the Tarrant Regional Water District (Read: Uncomfortable times ahead for Water District)  and it may be one of their best yet.  However, if they think people will forget that the FWST has been the biggest cheer leading tool of the water district and their shenanigans, they might want to think again. 

Also, if they think Mary Kelleher answers to anyone other than herself and the man upstairs, they don't know Mary.  We do.  And so do many of the thousands (nearly 9,000) who voted for her. 

Mary has worked in the county for over 20 years, she has made many contacts and life long friends while doing so.  She is also a very involved, respected member of her well organized neighborhood group, as well as the farming community of Tarrant County.  Neighbors and farmers have all told us the same thing about Mary.  She is smart, hard working, trustworthy, capable and determined.  We've yet to hear those same words to describe any other member of the water board.  Those boys (and girl) are going to have to grow up, Mary is here to stay.  And THE PEOPLE are with her.

That 61% increase in voter turn out was only the beginning. 

Mary has been flooded, railroaded, threatened and bullied.  She's not going anywhere and neither are the people that elected her.

That's a fact, Jack.

The main thing the four multi-term members of the Tarrant Regional Water District board of directors must remember about recently elected member Mary Kelleher is that she won.

Putting it mildly, they said the TRWD has some explaining to do.

Lane and Kelleher engaged in a brief staredown, after which he apologized. Let’s hope that’s the last of the schoolyard behavior at TRWD. Kelleher was elected to a four-year term, she’s on the board, and other board members might as well accept that she’s going to be asking some questions that will make them uncomfortable.

Read more here: 

What did YOU vote for?

As usual, Don Woodard has wise words about the Fort Worth Bond Election.  This man could save YOU some money in 2014.  And he comes from a generation that when they say, you can take that to the bank.  He meant YOURS, not theirs....

I hope my City Councilman Zim Zimmerman (who is Mayor Pro Tem) and at least four others on the Council will insist that any item in the proposed $292 million 2014 Bond package earmarked for the Trinity River Uptown Boondoggle (streets, bridges, intersection round-abouts, etc.) be listed separately on the ballot. Viva Transparency!  This would be a distinct departure from the subterfuge of the 2004 and 2008 bond elections where the wool was pulled over our eyes.

For ten long years, step by stealthy step, the Four Horsemen of this looming environmental, historical and financial Apocalypse -- Congress, City Council, Commissioners Court and the Chamber of Commerce have been able to hide the cost of this cataclysmic Boondoggle under the white sheet of Street Improvements.  

In the City's clandestine 2004 Summary of bond items which few ever saw appeared the following:

Proposition No. 1

Project Scope: These funds would supplement other funding sources from other entities for design and construction for several components to support Trinity River Vision; possibe construction of Henderson Street from 3rd Street to Northside Drive, including the White Settlement Road intersection.
 
But look at this:  This is all that appeared on the 2004 ballot and what the average taxpaying voter voted for, knowing little if anything about the Boondoggle behind the white sheet but very much in favor of his own street project.

Proposition No. 1

The issuance of public securities for street and storm sewer improvements in the aggregate sum of $232,000,000.
                           
In the City's clandestine 2008 Summary of bond items which few ever saw appeared the following:

Proposition No. 1
         
The requested funding provides the City's share of funding for three bridges on the existing arterials Henderson, North Main and White Settlement, where those streets cross over the TRV bypass channel.
                                                                                
But look at this:  This is all that appeared on the 2008 ballot and what the average taxpaying voter voted for, knowing little if anything about the  Boondoggle behind the white sheet but very much in favor of his own street project.

Proposition No.1 

The issuance of public securities for street improvements in the aggregate sum of $150,000,000.
                                     
In both elections the bonds passed. The voter got his own street paved, funds continued to flow for the Boondoggle and the Four Horsemen rode off to await the next bond election.

As stated above, in the 2004 and 2008 bond elections, the promoters and developers of this voracious tax eater, backed by the power and prestige of the Four Horsemen, cloaked the  Boondoggle components -- bypass channel, three bridges and a roundabout --in the sacrosanct Holy of Holies cocoon of Street Improvements.  They have steadfastly refused to put Trinity Uptown to a vote of the people.  Who believes the voters knew they were committing millions of dollars to the Boondoggle when they voted for a pig in a poke Street Improvements?  Step by stealthy step the charade has been foisted upon us.  If you attend one of the community 2014 Bond meetings ask that any Trinity Uptown item be listed separately on the ballot.

Thank goodness for Mary and the FWW!

Both standing up for THE PEOPLE and THEIR water and money.

WHO does the board think they are?

Thanks to the Fort Worth Weekly for reporting the real deal.

Nice try FWST but the semantics of whether it's a "deer lease" or a "deer camp" pale in comparison to what really transpired.

“Given the public perception of the secrecy at the Tarrant Regional Water District, denying a board member access to records does nothing to dispel that perception,” she said.

Water district board meetings have been sparsely attended in recent years. Residents describe them as rubber-stamped dog-and-pony shows with little insight or discussion. That’s changing, thanks to Kelleher’s dogged attempts to shed light on this powerful agency with about $160 million in its general fund. The water district is charged with making sure this region has plenty of water in the future. However, it has become known more for using its eminent domain powers to push the Trinity River Vision project, which seems to be aimed mostly at making money for already-rich people while doing little for flood control or any other truly public purpose.

WHO is

J. Parker Ragland?

And what happened to the reporter who was covering TRWD for the Fort Worth Business Press?

The latest article about yesterday's meeting leaves a lot of questions to be answered.

Like are those newly voted on "governance policies" legal?

And if Lane wants to get Mary to vote, get her the info she requested.  Simple.  Stop orchestrating roadblocks.

“I requested records from the board members ... a month has gone by now, and most of the records I have requested have still not been made available to me. This is the first time I have served on a board, and while I may lack procedural knowledge, my common sense remains in tact.”

While there was a small group of observers at a board meeting last month, the Monday, July 22 meeting took place in front of a larger crowd.

“Y’all [Kelleher and her supporters] are all here, and this is all orchestrated, and we all know that, and that’s fine. I’m trying to figure out how to get you [Kelleher] to vote on things at this board and to participate,” said Jim Lane, a TRWD board member.

Just when you think the "news" can't get any worse

They repeat their stories.

Catch the FW Weekly calling out the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Again.  You'd think they'd be tired of it by now and actually strive to be a real news source.

From reading the comments, seems it may never happen----

Another commenter asked the obvious question: Why is the Star-Telegram writing about Lake Granbury and the Brazos River Authority when the paper has a hands-off policy on writing anything remotely critical about the Tarrant Regional Water District? “Typical Star-Telegram; report on this, but ignore the water management problem in our own backyard,” LesleyPezley wrote. “The local water board is totally mismanaging Lake Bridgeport. They’ve been allowing millions of gallons to go downstream during a time of drought, and now that lake is at less than 50 percent capacity. I’ve pointed this out in comments on several drought-related stories, but have yet to see a single question asked by the S-T about this. Pitiful excuse for a ‘news’ paper. More like a propaganda rag.”

TxDOT WHAT??

Read the latest unconstitutional scam here.  Seriously, read it, YOU are paying for it.

But that certainly doesn’t give TxDOT permission to sidestep the Texas legislature and write its own rules, violate the Constitution, and obligate Texans to a virtually unlimited number of taxpayer bailouts of toll roads, whether public or private. It’s not only double taxation but also fiscally reckless. This arrogant move by TxDOT demonstrates why state agencies don’t get to appropriate themselves money from the state treasury. The Texas legislature appropriates tax money, and it’s directly accountable to the people who elected them. So bypassing lawmakers makes TxDOT its own defacto taxing entity -- like a king making laws in his own fiefdom.

State officials, especially those charged with oversight over the Texas state budget and enforcement of the Constitution, need to step-in to prevent this un-Constitutional loan guarantee by TxDOT that could be the final nail in the coffin sealing the state’s fiscal cliff on road funding.

Worth a shot...

Sounds like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is tired of being left out of the Water Board game.  They haven't reported on anything that has taken place since the election.  Sources say it's because newly elected board member and rising star, Mary Kelleher, won't give them an interview.  She recently refused, due to their completely biased and unprofessional reporting on the Tarrant Regional Water District election.  Now they are assigning a new reporter (though he's been entrenched in FW and ST for well over a decade) to cover TRWD.  That should work... 

While his first story may be somewhat of an improvement, the ST has a long way to go to prove they aren't just in business to haul water for their friends on 7th street.

We do have some questions for the fresh, unbiased reporters over at FWST concerning their campaign finance article about the water board.

While it finally admits incumbents, too, received campaign donations, from places like Kay Granger's "campaign fund" (WHAT??), it still never mentions "out of town" money/donors.  Isn't this the very thing the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was harping on the candidates for?

What exactly is the "neighborhood outreach" the incumbents spent money on?  Was this neighborhood in Como?

Have the ST reporters read the IPL pipeline report that the water board produced?

Is HillCo still representing the City of Fort Worth?

If the ST would answer our question, we'd gladly print them. 

Toxic Environment

No we're not talking about the Trinity River, though that's about as toxic as you can get.  We're talking about yet another board in Tarrant County that operates in the "Fort Worth Way" and is an embarrassment to all who it is supposed to represent.  Some of the quotes in the FW Weekly article about the latest Joe Palazzolo lawsuit speak volumes.  Remember that come election time.  WHO put these people in office in the first place??

The "That's the way things are done around here" excuse doesn't fly anymore...things are about to change.

And we now see yet another link as to WHY a certain trustee would want to censure Ann Sutherland.  The same trustee that according to the FWW article, lied during her deposition.  (Did she also call Betty Brink evil?!)

And could Mayor Price have one of her Police escorts return the Weekly's calls.  Inquiring minds want to know what took place at that meeting...

That sound you hear are the dominoes starting to fall...

His saga has taken more left turns than a NASCAR race. The drama started in 2010 when Palazzolo, acting in his role as the school’s diversity program officer, went to administrators with teacher complaints about attendance fraud, disparate treatment of minority students, misappropriation of funds, and the inappropriate behavior of some faculty members. When the administrators chose to cover up the wrongdoings instead of acting on them, he said, he took his grievances to the Texas Education Agency.

Eventually an internal investigation by the district found the majority of Palazzolo’s complaints to be accurate. Additionally, a TEA auditor found that during a six-week period in 2009 the school had reported numerous students present in their classrooms when in fact they were not and fined the district almost $18,000.

Based on the information Palazzolo produced, three administrators and one coach at Heights were pressured into retiring or resigning. But only one person from Heights was fired: Palazzolo.

For blowing the whistle while doing a job the district created for him specifically to report wrongdoing, Palazzolo was punished. He has been demoted, transferred twice, put on administrative leave, then fired, reinstated, fired again, and since then has yo-yoed in and out of courthouses and hearing rooms. The latest turn in the soap opera involves leaked records, busted agreements, and an inevitable return to court.

They want Palazzolo to get what is due him, but they also want their day in court. For them, this trial represents the best shot at getting out to the public the details of what they see as widespread, deeply entrenched problems at the school district: intimidation, cronyism, and corruption.

One quote from an April deposition of school board president Judy Needham exemplifies the kind of testimony that the district’s critics want to see come out.

Palazzolo attorney Jason Smith had asked Needham about reports that Palazzolo’s former boss at Arlington Heights had recommended him for a promotion to another campus. Why recommend a promotion for someone she disliked?

The boss just wanted Palazzolo out of the building, Needham told Smith. “That’s the way things are done around here.”

Ironically, many of its critics feel it is the district that is lying, covering up, bullying, and discriminating.

“I’ve never worked in a place like this … I am in shock,” she said at the time. “It is truly a toxic environment.”

Palazzolo said he thinks the board is trying to bully her into silence. “It’s…disturbing that the board would censure someone that I listed as a witness, apparently in part because they did not like how she would testify,” he said “It’s an insult to the judicial process and makes me worry about the other witnesses I listed who still work for the district and are reporting retaliation.

Several other teachers wrote that Perry often bragged about her friendship with Needham and threatened that the school board trustee would retaliate against anyone who spoke against Perry.

In her deposition in April, Needham said that she had no knowledge of Palazzolo’s involvement in the story. However, in a July 2010 e-mail to then-Superintendent Melody Johnson, Needham referred to Palazzolo and Brink working together on the story.

“Can you believe that evil woman and Joe,” Needham said in the e-mail.

Palazzolo believes that it was no accident that the district struck a deal with a law firm that collects taxes three weeks before he received a letter from the same firm trying to collect a 30-year-old debt from Oklahoma.

In the deposition, Needham admitted visiting the home of Barbara Williams, a partner of the law firm Linebarger, Goggan, Blair, & Sampson — the firm that collects delinquent taxes for the district, Tarrant County, and Fort Worth.

Needham told Smith she could not remember if her visit was before the board voted to award the firm the contract to collect taxes for the district. She and Williams met again, along with Mayor Betsy Price and trustee Tobi Jackson, at Michael’s Restaurant to discuss the contract.

The board hired the firm in October 2010, and the following month Palazzolo received a letter from Linebarger trying to collect the $435 debt owed to the state of Oklahoma. Linebarger claimed the debt, with late fees and penalties, had ballooned to $26,000. Palazzolo claims he paid off the debt long ago. (Linebarger also collects back taxes for Oklahoma.)

In an e-mail to the Weekly, Needham said that the meeting at Michael’s had nothing to do with Palazzolo.

There was absolutely no discussion of ‘going after Joe’ at the luncheon,” she said. “His name was never mentioned.”

Price could not be reached for comment.

Tarrant County Karma Catch Up

Seems folks are starting to ask questions about the way things are done in Tarrant County government offices. Keep asking. The lights are coming on, let the dominoes fall where they may.

It is dated 5 weeks after the May 24, 2012 meeting. So if changes were made to the project, why didn't the county put the job back out for bid or why wasn't there a change order to the original contract?

"That sounds like a pretty major change in the scope of the work?" questioned Becky Oliver.

"On a job this size, that is pretty significant," said Howard. "Most times an actual formal document is prepared and issued, yes."

Records show Howard was also paid another $5,775.00 for a slab added to a private driveway. The driveway raises more questions about work on private property and whether the county is following proper procedures.

"I don't have any control over what goes on inside the county," said Howard. "All I know is that I did my job and I did not do anything wrong."

Last month, Fox 4 reported on another questionable project in Precinct 1.

Fox 4 watched county crews working all day to take down a fence on private property. Commissioner Roy Brooks told Fox 4 it was a recommendation from the Tarrant County District Attorney's office.
"Before we undertook the project, we cleared it with the district attorney's office, they cleared it," said Brooks.

Later Brooks admitted the DA's approval was for another project involving trees but not a fence.

"It borders on the absurd," said David Brooks, an expert on county government.

David Brooks told Fox 4 he did not believe the county could use tax dollars to remove a fence on private property.

Emails show the fence job was set up after the ranch manager contacted supervisor T.C. Webster and asked for the county to consider assisting with fence removal.

"Is this just another example of what is going on in that office?" Oliver asked the former employee.

"Most definitely," said the source. "I don't want my job back. I don't hate the people but what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. Knowing how bold they are, never being questioned, never being held responsible for their actions."

When government contracts are involved, there are checks and balances in place to help control fraud and ensure taxpayers are getting their money's worth. The documents from this road project have been turned over to law enforcement outside the county. Tarrant County officials are expected to turn over the results of their investigations to commissioners on Tuesday.

A press release was sent to Fox 4 on Monday. The release came from a firm that says it does strategic political communication consulting. The release says Commissioner Brooks is pleased with the project reviews and adds his office will be implementing the auditor's recommendations immediately. Fox 4 asked the county's spokesman why Commissioner Brooks was responding to a third party about the report. The spokesman said he knew nothing about the news release.

Read more: Investigation - Tarrant County Concrete