The Fort Worth Way

After you read the article on what Judge Glen Whitley is up to this time, think about WHO do YOU want representing YOU.

Read the comment left from Tarrant Regional Water District candidate below---

Another Example of Cronyism?

Andra Estes Beatty I have been attending the TRWD Tarrant Regional Water District meetings for the past 2 years. I was at a meeting that happened right after the election where they awarded their accounting contract to Whitley-Penn. Mary Kelleher questioned the other board members about the ethical implications and how this would appear. They truly had no problem with moving forward to change the accounting firm from one that had been with them many years to one that helped them campaign. I was very proud of Mary for asking the tough questions. It was a difficult meeting but she stood strong.

Nothing was ever done, it just got worse

That should be Fort Worth’s motto.  It would apply to flooding as well as their local “news” paper.  In the latest Fort Worth flood puff piece, not one word in it about the Trinity River Vision (Or Panther Island or whatever the call the World’s Biggest Boondoggle these days).

 Wouldn’t a real reporter ask – Which of the areas in red on the map will the Trinity River Vision save us from?  A real reporter would…but we don’t have any allowed to ask those questions here.  A real reporter might also ask, if it is going to cost a billion to fix our flooding, and it’s going to cost a billion for development (which in previous examples, exacerbates the flooding) WHY wouldn’t we fix the REAL flooding?  Feel free to ask YOUR congresswoman.  It is YOUR money after all.

Speaking of YOUR money.  They are using it to do yet, ANOTHER study.  Are you surprised?  No, we didn’t think so.  It’s what we do.  We spend lots of time and lots of money on “flood” studies.  They all say the same thing.  If you continue to build and produce more run off, while not fixing any current issues or your aging infrastructure, water rises.  Properties will be destroyed and lives will be lost.

Also, wasn’t the Fort Worth flooding price tag at a billion dollars in 2009?

More Water Whoa's

Where were the quotes from the Tarrant Regional Water District? You know, that agency responsible for “flood control”?

The only quote we saw from any TRWD water board member from Mary Kelleher who is running for the water district again this May.  Remember her name.

A current TRWD Board Member would love the opportunity to tell y'all just how our taxes are being wasted...

My name is Mary Kelleher and I'm currently on the Board of the TRWD (Tarrant Regional Water District). I'm frequently criticized by my fellow board members (Victor Henderson, Jack Stevens, Jim Lane, and Marty Leonard) for fighting for people like us against wasteful spending by people like them....career politicians and Fort Worth Way Good Ole Boys and Girls. I could really use your help. Here's just an example:

In 2004, the citizens of Fort Worth voted for Proposition 1; the ballot read, “The issuance of public securities for street and storm sewer improvements in the aggregate sum of $232,000,000.” What the people didn’t know was this money was going to be used for the design and construction of the Trinity River Vision. 

In 2008, citizens of Fort Worth voted for another Proposition 1. The ballot read, “The issuance of public securities for street improvements in the aggregate sum of $150,000,000.” What the people didn’t know was this money was going to be used for three bridges over the TRV bypass channel. The bridges are to be built over dry land and the water will come later IF federal funding is still available by then.

So....while millions of our tax dollars go to this frivolous economic development project disguised as flood control....parts of our city are truly suffering unprecedented flooding as the city has failed to plan for the spike in development and its effects on our now-inadequate infrastructure. 

I will soon be posting more information you really need to know. If we're not already friends on FB, please add me. Thanks.

And if you think Durango has something to say about American’s Biggest Boondoggle being MIA from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Fort Worth Flooding article, you’d be correct –

How About Fixing Real Fort Worth Flood Issues? 

The Boondoggle wants to remove those levees and replace them with a flood diversion ditch. However, the inept Boondoggle has been stymied for a long time now by being unable to figure out how to build three simple  little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Today's Star-Telegram article about flooding issues has nothing to do with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's inept flood control project. The article is about actual flash flooding which has repeatedly occurred in other areas of Fort Worth.

Many have long opined regarding the ridiculous wastefulness of throwing money away on an un-needed flood control project where there are no floods, while Fort Worth and Tarrant County have actual serious, deadly flash flood issues.

Such as the deadly flash floods which have occurred in Haltom City. 

The Haltom City flood issues have largely been ignored, including being ignored by Congresswoman Kay Granger, who surveyed the Haltom City floods, but did nothing. 

Kay Granger's efforts have gone into securing federal funds for America's Biggest Boondoggle, where there are no floods, but is a project which was able to give her son, J.D., a job for which he was totally not qualified, for which he has been paid well over $1 million during his reign of incompetence.

There are so many things you can’t afford to miss in this article, we will try and just leave you with a few.  That way in a few more years, when this article is chopped up and reran, with the same numbers and the same neighborhoods under water, you can see just how little was ever done.

Fixing Fort Worth flooding issues could top $1 billion, report says
(the Star-Telegram article link may be blocked by their paywall, if so, go incognito)

But, Greg Simmons, manager of the city’s stormwater management program, now says, “What we’ve learned in the time since then, is the $500 million backlog is really a lot bigger” and that the figure only represents the most critical projects. All told, fixing the city’s storm-water problems could top $1 billion, he said.

Looking at fixing the single-worst flooding issue in each of the eight council districts alone adds up to as much as $170 million, Simmons said.

Worst Fort Worth flood areas
Fort Worth could spend up to $170 million to fix the worst flooding issue in each city council district and as much as $1 billion to fix all issues citywide. The city's stormwater utility has mapped where the top flooding issue in each district is located.

Flooding in the Arlington Heights neighborhood, which has gone on for years, has received a good deal of attention recently. In the past few months, several residents addressed council members during the public comment portion of council meetings, showing brief videos and pictures of the streams of rapid waters near homes and down streets. And the damage in their wake.

The residents told the council they have patiently waited their turn for help on the issue.

“We west Arlington Heights property owners believe that we’re perfectly within our rights to expect to have a working underground stormwater infrastructure, even if it is expensive,” said Teri Kramer, who lives on Pershing Avenue. “It’s a terrible precedent to say it’s too expensive. That’s what scares me the most.”

And many other locations in the city have similar problems, but most of the serious problems are in the central city, or within Loop 820, where Simmons said the drainage system is below current standards.

Well that can't be good

Mayor Price did not make a good impression at the community meeting.

Price was scolded by the Rev. Michael Bell after she cautioned the crowd that the meeting could not turn into “just a bitch session.” Bell said that the residents were not children and that she could not talk to the community in that way.

Tense Discussion In Fort Worth Over Controversial Arrest

YOU are invited…

Find out where YOUR money is going…

Health Care Delivery System to be Discussed

Colleyville Resignation

Guess who? Yes, you guessed it. The City manager is out. Who's next?

City Council accepts city manager’s resignation effective April 2

Duh…Fort Worth edition

Remember, when nothing ever gets done, it just gets worse.  Also called, kicking the can.  The Fort Worth Weekly checked in on the Arlington Heights flooding issues.

Stop us when we get to something you haven’t heard before -

….that “the pipe system that was installed 80-plus years ago is not large enough to keep rain runoff underground” all the way to the Trinity River.

The solution, as everyone is aware, would be to tear up the streets in the flood areas and put in large storm-water drainage pipes that would carry the floodwater to the Trinity. But, as Simmons noted, the cost makes that unfeasible.

“You know,” said one resident who did not want her name used, “the city has funds for their Trinity [River] Vision project, and they have funds for their bridge to nowhere, but they don’t have money for this very important infrastructure issue. I don’t buy that.”

“Essentially,” she said, “the city has allowed over-building on an under-served community.”

“What we really want,” Helmer said, “is to have the city fix the problem upstream. You can’t just allow people to overbuild continually without having a problem in the lower areas.”

Read about how the city doesn’t have the money to fix issues it has helped create in the FWW -

Arlington Heights Flooding too Costly?

YOU are invited!

If you're not going to the JPS bond meeting Thursday night, go to this!

1985 - 2016

CELEBRATING  OVER 30 YEARS ADVOCATING ON BEHALF OF FORT WORTH NEIGHBORHOODS
                               
Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods
General Membership Meeting
Thursday, December 1, 2016
6:30 p.m.

University Christian Church
2720 South University Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76109

YOU are invited!

You should be, it's YOUR money. 

Call to Action! JPS requires citizen input for proposed debt package.

POSTED BY JAKE THOMAS | NOVEMBER 28, 2016

The John Peter Smith public hospital district, more commonly known as JPS, proposed an $809,000,000 bond package last year without much citizen input. Overwhelmingly, the majority of the money was going to be spent only on the downtown facility in Fort Worth, with more than half being spent on a new inpatient tower. Meanwhile, there was minimal benefit for the rest of the taxpayers in other parts of the county who would also bear the cost of this nearly billion-dollar project. However, the bond never made to the November ballot this year.  An active citizenry of concerned taxpayers raised questions and concerns about the direction and hidden costs of the bond, prompting the Commissioner’s Court to put it on hold.  It will now face a “Blue Ribbon Commission,” in an attempt to calm those opposing the bond.

At the core of this debate is a choice we must face as taxpayers.

Detractors of the bond claim this package represents a philosophical change in the mission of JPS. A change from providing indigent care to that of becoming the “provider of choice”, to quote JPS CEO Robert Early. Do we want our public hospital competing with privately run providers of care, actively competing against them with their own tax dollars and potentially putting those jobs at risk? Or, should JPS’s focus be on taking care of those who are unable to pay and the indigent who simply cannot care for themselves? Let’s ask ourselves, what would be the wiser investment for the taxpayers of Tarrant County to make?

Preventative Care Instead of Emergency Room Care

If our focus is going to be indigent care and those unable to pay, it makes a lot more sense to focus on local clinics and prevention in those communities, rather than meeting them in the emergency room. It’s a lot cheaper to give someone an injection of insulin, than amputate a foot because the early stages of diabetes weren’t detected. Taxpayers then foot the bill for the difference. Insurance premiums rise to compensate for those who can’t pay and taxes increase to cover the uninsured.
These were among the chief concerns raised by Arlington & Grand Prairie residents at a town hall held by District County Commissioner, Andy Nguyen. Citizens & activists grilled JPS staff and JPS executive director Robert Early on how they arrived at their projections. Some, such as Ross Kecseg noted the numbers simply didn’t add up.

Kecseg reported that the debt proposal was riddled with far-fetched financial forecast’s and dubious assumptions. He showed that JPS officials were not being up front with the true costs of the project.

“FRG’s* “baseline” scenario for JPS represents the current financial trajectory if nothing is renovated, built, or added to the facility. It has 4% in unexplained operational efficiency gains   imbedded in it, on top of the 3% they assume in their best-case scenario. In other words, FRG assumes JPS will find savings unrelated to the proposed construction plan, without explaining how or why. According to sources inside the County Court, when JPS approved plans for a new patient pavilion in 2008, similar efficiencies of 2-3% were promised that never materialized.”

The County Commissioner’s Court tried to rush this proposal onto the November ballot before citizens could see the full picture. But once taxpayers did, JPS officials quickly retreated. It was an active citizenry taking direct action that held back the bond.  The fight is not over for taxpayers, however.  The Court’s rubber-stamp commission will soon give the bond new life.

The citizens of Tarrant County have two clear options.  Do we focus our attention and resources on reducing negative externalities such as high-cost emergency room care both our private and public institutions face, or try to compete with the private market, needlessly putting hard working people’s jobs at risk and wasting taxpayer dollars?

The best way to impact this process is to attend and speak up at this week’s forums.

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016 Arlington Subcourthouse, 700 E. Abram St. Arlington, TX 76010

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016 Lake Worth Activity Center, 7005 Charbonneau Road Lake Worth, TX 76054

Tuesday, January 10, 2017 Northeast Courthouse, 645 Grapevine Highway Hurst, TX 76054

*(FRG is a Consulting firm hired to do the projections)

Two down...

Incoming from Direct Action Texas:

The good news just keeps coming in. This morning Fort Worth City Councilman Sal Espino, a tight ally of Mayor Price, announced he will not seek re-election. Sal is at the center of what has been described as the largest voter fraud investigation the State has seen. Instead of facing voters again, Sal chose the easy way out, hoping to disappear into the shadows.

This decision, however, will not affect his criminal liability in the alleged activities being investigated. In October Direct Action Texas presented how Sal and his group have been illegally harvesting mail in ballots and how Sal stole his last re-election in 2015 where he allegedly won by 27 votes. It is well known in the Northside community that the race was rigged, which is why 3 challengers had announced campaigns by October of this year, something that is unprecedented. #bloodinthewater

This announcement comes on the heels of Tarrant County Elections Administrator, Frank Philips, resigning last Wednesday. In an odd move, Denton County has taken the failed administrator back, evidently they don't care about accurate elections.

#ByeFelicia

Missing Trees in Colleyville

Here’s what is up with that…

Hello all,

The city council held a special meeting this morning concerning the clear cutting destruction of mature trees and under growth of vegetation along the cotton belt trail. Council is sending a request for additional information as to the plans that Dart has for clearing these areas and to stop work until we have all details. According to plans on the TRE web site, only a small area was to be cleared. Now during the holiday weekend, a surprise of additional work was to start today without the City having received a full scope of work intended.

We have instructed the proper people to take action to stop these actions, not only for the trees but for the safety of our citizens using the trail. Council has instructed law enforcement to patrol the area to ensure that work will not happen until we clear this mess up. Ordinances are set in place across the city for tree preservation and tree mitigation for every project including residents. In our opinion the city tree ordinances guide lines are as said and set in place. Just because you own the property in Colleyville does not give you the leverage to destroy trees without mitigation. Those who claim "It's their property and they can do what they want" need to brief themselves with the ordinances to which the city has chosen to unanimously uphold at this time.

Tex rail has made a statement of untruth saying Colleyville has given them the "OK" to proceed with the T project,. This is a false statement. As most know we passed a resolution against the train and it's intent last June. The city has also asked for documentation showing where exactly the city gave the "OK" to proceed, and asked for "face to face meetings" but that information and meetings have been denied. We have been asking for meetings for months and still asking as of today. The city recently received a letter back from TRE saying they had the "OK" and that's all they needed, they also refused to talk to us "face to face". Thus (today) prompting the city to direct our attorney to send another letter asking for such documents and additional meetings.

I would like to clear up a few things.

1) We were accused of having a quick emergency meeting on a Monday morning to disguise our intentions against TexRail.

"False"

As explained, the council found out the intentions at the last minute and we took action. The Mayor could have single handedly ordered all that was discussed today without the public, but he chose to have an open meeting. "Yes" the meeting happened on a Monday morning but, this is due to TexRail trying to start work today. We have always been transparent.

That argument is void.

2) A very small amount of people have said we are wasting tax payer money by fighting a fight that we "may" lose. In my opinion (only) if we lay down and let BIG government run over us, we will be nothing more than shown as weak and feeble. There are some who like to lay down at the mere mention of a scuffle, but I for one find it justified in standing up to fight for our great town known for its unique character. This may cost us a very small amount to proceed with letters and injunctions for now, but this will give us time to fact find and justify our motive moving forward. If additional action is required we will have another public meeting. The cost of a few letters from our attorney will pale in comparison to the loss of mature trees.

We are transparent.

I took an oath to support and lead with boldness for the people and our town. I along with many others on the council feel the same in our responsibilities to residents and we will stand firm. We never claimed to stop the train, but we will make sure they adhere to the rules of government engagement. A thought - David took on Goliath with a small stone and a sling shot. We may be working against a "Goliath" but we will use the resources to do what is right for our city. Unless we take a position and stand our ground, how will we know what we may accomplish! Maybe even stop a Goliath.

Bobby Lindamood Jr
City Councilman
Place 2