No ethics?

Skimming this article, we thought it was written about the Tarrant Regional Water District.  Looking closer, it just sounds like them.  This is coming out of Houston.

Wake up, Texas.  After all, YOU are picking up the tab.

“Now we have the Commission spending taxpayer dollars to hide an audiotape, rather than simply operate in the sunlight,” said Joe Nixon, lead counsel for Empower Texans. “The commissioners not only promised to provide recording, as the recording will show, but then ignored our written request for it. Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for their bad behavior. A lot of time and money could be saved if the Commission would just release the tape. It’s incomprehensible that they are working so hard to hide their record.”

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FW Weekly and the Dallas Observer

Both wrote articles this week concerning Fort Worth's portion of the Trinity River. 

The Dallas Observer made us laugh, Hey Fort Worth, your bridge sucks.

The Fort Worth Weekly made us sick.  Well, they didn't, it was really the TRVA that did.  The Weekly just tells you about it.  Thank goodness someone does. 

Kudos to the Weekly for keeping people in the loop.  Kudos to San Antonio for keeping their people safe. Maybe we can copy them on that too.  Kudos to people like Mary Kelleher and Libby Willis for holding elected and appointed "officials" accountable. 

Don't forget the TRVA motto - "Clean swimming, Dirty Living"...yes, we laughed too.

Did the Trinity River Vision Authority cancel tubing events this year and last year because of high levels of dangerous bacteria in the river? It depends on your definition of “because.”

However, the water district only tests water quality in the river once a month — a time period during which pollution levels can vary significantly. So when TRVA spokesman Matt Oliver said the district didn’t cancel events this year and in 2012 due to high levels of bacteria, that was accurate — because the agency didn’t know whether the water that day was dangerously polluted or not. Statistics suggest there was a good chance it was.

The city of San Antonio, by contrast, does weekly testing of its river water and publicizes the results so that people know the pollution levels.

We had a big rain the day before and the day of, and the river was moving too swiftly” for public safety, Oliver said. The fast-moving water washed litter and debris into the river, causing the cancellation, he said.

The other cancellation occurred last July 11. A storm’s high winds and hail damaged the pavilion’s sound system, Oliver said.

Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations president Libby Willis and other residents first expressed concerns about water quality three years ago when the TRVA proposed to divert floodwaters to a retention pond in the Riverside neighborhood. Willis’s group consulted with Joon Lee, a University of North Texas Health and Science professor who specializes in public water supplies.

However, no testing for E. coli was performed on either of those dates. So it’s possible that E. coli levels were high enough to warrant canceling the events.

“They’re doing it backward it seems,” she said. “It amazes me when I see all those people in the tubes. It’s a nasty river.”

Willis doesn’t blame the TRVA for the E. coli levels, she said. But she does expect the agency to protect residents who are invited to go tubing.

The San Antonio River is considered dirtier than the Trinity — swimming and water-contact recreation is forbidden near the metropolitan area. But boating is allowed — and testing is frequent.

The TRVA doesn’t do as much testing or publicizing of results, but it does provide a 500-word release that tubers must sign, which includes absolving the agency of responsibility for “any and all claims for bodily injury, death, sickness, disease” and other damages.

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Texans - Second Highest debt in the nation...

Stop voting for these people already.  YOU CAN'T afford it.  Just look at the numbers below.....

Thanks to Empower Texans for calling out those spending YOUR cash without much oversight.  Vote in some oversight, would ya?

 And be careful what you vote for when voting for "WATER".

Texas currently has the second-highest per person, local debt in the nation. As of 2011, taxpayers were $233 billion in the hole, with 83% held locally by cities, schools and water districts.

The approval process to issue debt will be at the arbitrary discretion of the Water Development Board, which does not have statutory limitations requiring the funds be used only on projects that expand water production.

They can be used for low-interest loans, credit enhancement agreements, the deferral of interest obligations and other methods. Proposition 6 advocates claim the scope of financing is limited to the 562 projects in the state’s water plan; but that’s somewhat misleading.

Thanks to Republican spendoholics like Charlie Geren (HD-99) in north Texas, districts charged with supplying water like the Tarrant Regional Water District, have been authorized to waste millions of your dollars on economic development slush funds. The TRVA, a subsidiary of TRWD, recently approved plans to build an outdoor ice rink! So much for water…

It begs a very important question: Why would we encourage more state and local borrowing when water districts are allowed to spend millions on projects not related to water production?

House members like Giovanni Capriglione (HD-98), also from north Texas, pleaded for basic transparency requirements that would have posted water project expenditures online for public scrutiny and accountability. Again, the GOP moderates joined Democrats in rejecting those and other debt-related transparency proposals.

We’ve previously criticized the lack of transparency in local bond proposals that are deceiving taxpayers as to the true cost of debt. And now we’re being asked to trust that politicians won’t engage in similar shenanigans at the state level?

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WHO is Jerry Jenkins?

Well, if the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was a real "news" paper, they would have told you. If they were a real "news" paper, they would have also told you about the Ethics complaint filed against the old board members and the General Manager, (FW Weekly's Candidate for Alien Abduction) Jim Oliver. This ethics complaint was filed during the Tarrant Regional Water District election. With as many articles as the FWST ran on the water board race, you'd think they'd cover that. Oh wait, it was against their precious incumbents. Again, what's in it for them? Advertising money from their neighbors?  WHO's money is that again?

Thank goodness for people out there doing the FWST's job for them.  Durango told you days before the FWST article, WHO Jerry Jenkins is.

He also asked the question about HOW FWST got their info. Sounds like Mr. Jenkins made that call. WHERE did Mr.Jenkins get his info? Fort Worth Star-Telegram articles? Oh the irony.

Can you file Ethics Complaints on "news" papers?

The paper quotes Mr. Jenkins saying something about you can't go around writing checks all "willy-nilly".  Someone please tell the TRVA that.

And on a side note, is the FWST looking to hire an Editor? Someone please tell them that "Bennett" did not run in the election.

"Bennett, Nold and Kelleher ran on a slate known as “BNK.”"

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What's wrong with this picture?

Durango reports on ethics while the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on Ice.

Durango has been on a roll lately, reporting on everything from a laughable ethics complaint to the memorial for the child who drowned in Haltom City.

While the FWST reports the Trinity River Vision / Trinity Uptown / Central City / Panther Island will now have an ice skating rink.  Is that a flood control measure or our new water supply?

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No child left behind...

Unless you're poor.

Groups are forming all over Tarrant County for and against the FWISD Bond election.

What do YOU think?

So far there are 3 known groups -

• It's Ok to Say No to the School Bond
• FWISD Parents for Kids
• Citizens Supporting Classroom Excellence

The first one seems to be a group of concerned taxpayers and citizens, the second one seems to be a group of concerned parents, the third one seems to be a concerned group of...Fort Worth Chamber Members?

Really??

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The politicians are coming...to Haltom City??

Thursday afternoon Wendy Davis is expected to announce her run for governor in Haltom City.  Many may be asking WHY Haltom City, the small town political hotbed of Tarrant County.  Well, back in the day, Haltom and Richland High schools both graduated at the Wiley G. Thomas Coliseum.  So, she's making her announcement from the same place she graduated high school.

Don't think this will go unnoticed, as we have already received emails on the protest that Republicans are planning to host at the "church across the street".

Yep, they should all fit right in around these parts.

The showdown starts tomorrow at 3:00, though the protesters ask that you be there early.

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