I Am Shocked Regarding New TRWD Ethics Violation Allegations

If I have said it once, I have said it twice. There is way too much corruption that way too few people notice here in the Fort Worth zone of America.

Benefit of being a backwater?

I don't know.

But, where else in America would something like the nepotistic hiring of the unqualified J.D. Granger to run a billion dollar public works project not be a scandal? With the local newspaper of record not objecting strongly to such an outrageous case of nepotism?

Hiring the son of the local congresswoman so as to hopefully secure federal earmark dollars for a thing like the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle should be a scandal. This would be a scandal anywhere else. But, in Fort Worth it is just shrugged off as being the Fort Worth Way of operating.

And now, this afternoon, I've received multiple emails regarding what seems to me to be yet one more example of the Tarrant Regional Water District being ethically challenged. With me thinking, the reason these type things keep happening is due to that Fort Worth Way of operating that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

This afternoon I am being told several things, none of which I am able to verify, all of which, for good reason, I believe to be factually accurate....

Apparently the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is working on a story about an ethics complaint which has been filed with the Texas State Ethics Commission regarding this past May's TRWD board election. John Basham, Mary Kelleher, Timothy Nold and Monty Bennett are the persons named in the complaint.

I am being told no one has yet received official notice of the ethics complaint, or what is being alleged in the ethics complaint, but that the official notice will arrive today via a phone call followed by a mailed letter.

So, who filed this complaint you are likely wondering?

Now that is where it gets interesting.

A man named Jerry Llewellyn Jenkins allegedly filed the complaint. So, what is this Jenkins guy's connection to the TRWD you can not help but wonder?

Well, guess who is a close neighbor of Jerry Jenkins? If you guessed TRWD Board Member, Jack Stevens, you guessed right. Jack Stevens and Jerry Jenkins are also both active members of the Azle Chamber of Commerce.

Big deal, you are likely sitting there thinking. So, they are neighbors and are in a Chamber of Commerce. What is unethical about that?

Now let's bring up another name. Lee Christie. Lee Christie is an attorney. For whom is Lee Christie an attorney you might be wondering?

Well.

Lee Christie is an attorney for the Tarrant Regional Water District.

Again, you are likely sitting there thinking, big deal.

Now, what if I told you that I am being told that Lee Christie is also an attorney who has allegedly worked with Jerry Jenkins, he being the guy who filed the ethics complaint against John Basham, Mary Kelleher, Timothy Nold and Monty Bennett?

Does the term "conflict of interest" mean anything to anyone as an "ethics violation" in the zone where the Fort Worth Way persists?

I am almost 100% certain that John Basham, Mary Kelleher, Timothy Nold and Monty Bennett have done absolutely nothing unethical regarding this past May's TRWD board election.

I am also almost 100% certain that there is something unethical regarding the "business" relationship between Jack Stevens, Jerry Jenkins and Lee Christie.

I am also wondering if the Star-Telegram is going to be reporting the "entire" story if they publish this article they are working on?