Well, today is yesterday's tomorrow and today, Tuesday, April 29, 2014, the TRWD Board voted to censure fellow board member, Mary Kelleher.
At one point in the meeting Mary Kelleher said she would "wear the censure like a badge of honor."
When Mary said that she would wear the censure like a badge of honor the scene you see part of above, erupted, with Mary's supporters standing and cheering.
I do not know how long the video of this meeting will be viewable. I suspect it may disappear when Mary's fellow board members realize how bad this meeting makes them look. Bad and out of touch with reality. And downright ineptly stupid.
Currently you can view the video of today's meeting, via the TRWD website, by going here.
Sitting at the TRWD Board table, that you see above, is Vic Henderson at the head of the table. To the right of Henderson, clutching her pearls, is Marty Leonard. Mary is next to Marty. Directly across from Mary is Jim Lane. I think that is Hal Stevens between Lane and Henderson. Apparently Hal Stevens is limited to 10 words per meeting.
He is cropped off in the video screencap above, but to the left of Jim Lane, also across from Mary, is Mary's arch nemesis, the notorious Jim Oliver.
What with what was said about Jim Oliver at this meeting I was thinking to myself what in the world does this man have on these people that keeps him from being fired? Jim Oliver won't give Mary a key to the building? While Vic Henderson hems and haws about how he can't tell Jim Oliver what to do?
Was Vic Henderson able to comprehend that people were laughing at him and the ridiculously ironic things he was saying at times? At one point Henderson threatened to clear the room when the guffawing got going real good. Someone shouted "Good luck with that", implying that Henderson and his co-horts were outnumbered. To which Henderson threatened "It can be done."
I wish the crowd would have been more vocal and more disruptive. This was the first actual real good protest I have witnessed since I have been in mostly protest-free Texas, a place where there seems to me to be so much to protest about.
My favorite moment was when Mary basically censured the board with a litany of their extremely questionable actions. Mary brought up nepotism, cronyism, other isms I'm forgetting and most memorably Mary brought up an illicit liaison between a high ranking TRWD employee and a lower ranking TRWD employee, saying this as she sat a couple feet from Jim Oliver.
I wish I could remember exactly what it was Mary said when she got to the illicit liaison part of her censuring of the TRWD Board.
While watching this absurd meeting a couple times it was reminding me of a Simpson's episode. With Mary being Lisa Simpson, you know, wise beyond her years Lisa Simpson, usually smarter than any of the adults in the room, being totally flummoxed by the utter ridiculousness of what she is dealing with.
Sticking with the TV theme, watching this absurd meeting also reminded me of watching Dallas. The drawling Texas accents, particularly Vic Henderson's, combined with the sort of evil undertone of the Board's shenanigans, well, it seemed like J.R. Ewing would have felt right at home, and not just because of the condoning of illicit liaisons.
Listening to some of the nonsense, like going on and on like Mary had committed some sort of crime at a Fort Worth City Council meeting had me thinking Alice in Wonderland Through the Looking Glass, where right is wrong, up is down, stupid is smart, yes is no.
And where, in Vic Henderson's imagination, Mary is surrounded by special shirts. Yes, that's right, Henderson accused Mary of attending the city council meeting with a gang of special shirts.
Seriously, Fort Worth, can't we do better than have buffoons like this conducting public business?
I wish there was a printed transcript so I could exactly repeat what Mary said about her fellow board member's need to resign due to their multiple incompetencies and questionable antics. This may have come in the part of the meeting where Mary answered the various charges against her, charges like costing the district money. Mary then counted off a long list of various ways the TRWD Board had wasted public money. Like millions spent on a lawsuit trying to get water from Oklahoma.
Or planting peas at their private game reserve.
One more thing.
I think I may have fallen in love with Mary Kelleher today. I know I'm smitten. If you watch the video you will get why, there's just something about Mary.....
8 comments:
Did you see Craig Bickley's amusing Lettermanesque take on the TRWD meeting fiasco? I will copy it below for your amusement in cast you've not seen it----
With apologies to David Letterman, here are the Top 10 things I learned today at the Tarrant Regional Water District's circus of a board meeting.
10. This group is much worse than we ever imagined.
9. Nepotism is alive and well in Tarrant County.
8. When you want to cover up all of your own nefarious deeds, simply gang up and accuse your lone opponent of impropriety.
7. Vic Henderson is clearly the ringleader here.
6. Marty Leonard is a nice lady that doesn't say much, but sits on the board for the sole purpose of giving Vic Henderson two votes.
5. Jack Stevens is so ideologically confused that he has a "Who is John Galt?" bumper sticker on his car, but I believe this is because he is literally asking and is hoping someone will tell him.
4. Jim Lane is so worried about being the next Fort Worth Mayor that he is desperately trying to tiptoe through the minefield he helped Vic create, yet isn't savvy enough not to accuse the incoming DA of being bribed by outside influences.
3. Jim Oliver makes $300,000 per year, but somehow is unable to perform such a simple task as giving his boss a key to the facility.
2. Mary Kelleher is the only member on the board that is fighting for YOUR interests.
1. There are a lot more concerned citizens out there willing to stand up for what is right than the board ever realized.
Yes, Another Mary, I saw Mr. Bickley's 10 Ten List on Facebook this morning.
Facebook also led me to Bud Kennedy's version of the TRWD meeting as opined in his Star-Telegram column.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/04/29/5778021/was-this-tarrant-water-board-meeting.html
I am sure Mary Kelleher's army of supporters really appreciate how Bud Kennedy characterizes them....
"Much of the behavior Tuesday resembled kindergarten, not only by directors but also by a boorish and jeering crowd of Kelleher supporters led by state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford."
Was that the very hot Elsie peppering the Board chairman and his mute sidekicks? It looked like Lon Burnam got there late. Maybe, he was busy trying to recount the ballots from his election loss. Was there free food at the meeting? If so, Bud Kennedy was present for sure.
Mary's supporters could care less what a washed up, boorish, food critic has to say.
Anonymous, I am fairly certain Hot Elsie was keeping a low profile at the meeting, maybe even in a disguise. I know I did not see Ms. Hotpepper there. I also saw no Bud Kennedy there, so I guess we can conclude food was not on the meeting menu....
Couldn't care less
never heard if you before but if you are from ny and live in austin you might be excused for you lack of facts. number one is trwd is not only in ftw and for a fact not all of ftw is in the trwd. for a long long long time trwd has supplied wholesale water and storage for their district.
no until the dallas money backed or purchased the election for this woman has their ever been a problem like this. if i were a voting member of that board i would vote to kick her off because violation of open records laws are punishable by removal and imprisonment.
and just watching this i am sure that this has happened on more than one occasion, or they have not talked about certain things in her presence. i would not trust her at all. this is what happens to a good group when you bring in people from dallas. sad but true.
Video is gone...
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