Being perplexed started early with a text message telling me that Mary Kelleher was heading into battle at the TRWD, with limited pre-battle warning and thus limited backup.
I asked what the battle was about this time to be told it had to do with the ongoing objections to Jim Lane and Marty Leonard continuing to serve as TRWD directors without benefit of being re-elected to the post.
I was walking with Arlington's Indian Ghosts when I got some more text messages telling me I needed to check my email inbox for a pdf regarding one of the lawsuits against the TRWD and that I needed to check a specific Facebook page to read play by play of the ongoing Battle at the TRWD.
By the time I got back to my computer there was an email from John Basham telling me I needed to check out his Facebook page.
I checked out the Aaron Harris Facebook page first to read the TRWD Battle play by play. There I learned Jim Oliver and his TRWD director minions had stuffed the meeting with TRWD lackeys, whilst banning Mary Kelleher supporters to a separate room. And that, unlike the Mary Kelleher censure farce, this time there was a uniformed armed guard of some sort in the room.
I don't quite understand the why of it, but there were multiple calls to the Tarrant County sheriff seeking some sort of law enforcement intervention in what I guess the Mary Kelleher supporters perceived to be criminal behavior by Jim Oliver and his TRWD board minions in conducting a public meeting without the public allowed to attend.
At one point in the meeting Mary Kelleher excoriated the board, topping off her excoriation with a call for the resignation of Jim Oliver.
After reading through the info on the Aaron Harris Facebook page I was off to John Basham's Facebook page, where I quickly found myself appalled, disgusted and dismayed.
John Basham posted his own very well reasoned excoriation of the TRWD's latest shenanigans, in part saying, "....the TRWD has decided to take on; Mary Kelleher, Adrian Murray, Andy Nold, Monty Bennett, Craig Bickley and Me for a trumped up set of issues regarding campaign finance reports. In short ANYONE who has ever opposed the current money & power brokers at TRWD are now under the legal cross-hairs of this agency using YOUR tax payer dollars."
"I personally want to apologize to ALL of the people listed above for being dragged into such a petty use of tax payer resources on a personal vendetta. IN SHORT THE TRWD IS SENDING A MESSAGE: IF YOU SUPPORT JOHN BASHAM OR STAND WITH HIM AGAINST US, WE WILL SUE YOU OR TRY TO CRIMINALLY CHARGE YOU.... Hey wait! Isn't this same thing happening in Austin to Rick Perry? Welcome to THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF TRWD, where the powerful elite will ruin your name if you disagree with them."
The object of John Basham's righteous ire is a document prepared by a San Antonio law firm, the cover of which is screencapped above, titled INVESTIGATIVE ANALYSIS REPORT ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTING COMPLIANCE AT THE TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT.
Apparently the TRWD board directors, except for Mary Kelleher, decided it was a real good use of taxpayer money to spend some of those funds investigating the past couple TRWD board elections, basically going after all those who have opposed the TRWD's shady dealings.
To what end? And why?
When is there going to be an investigation of the TRWD's shady dealings? Such as the sweetheart deal which resulted in the world's first new drive-in movie theater of the 21st century? When is there going to be an investigation of the TRWD's bidding practices? The nepotism?
When is there going to be an investigation of the TRWD's abuse of eminent domain and that abuse's possible resulting financial gain for various TRWD board members?
Is the fact that the TRWD wasted public funds to conduct this Investigative Analysis of Campaign Finance Reporting, in a vindictive effort to stifle opposition, not an extreme abuse of power worthy of an FBI investigation?
What is the real reason for not holding an election, thus giving Jim Lane and Marty Leonard an extra un-elected year? Is it yet one more effort to postpone a day of reckoning? The day when a couple more Mary Kelleher-esque honest real public servant sorts get elected to the board? A day when the TRWD board and Jim Oliver can no longer stonewall regarding the release of public documents to the public?
Like I already said, this is all very perplexing. And once again causes me to lament the fact that Fort Worth suffers from not having a real newspaper.....
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