The thinking anew has me being freshly perplexed.
Let me see if I can explain the train wreck of my thinking.
So, the people of Fort Worth had a billion dollar public works project foisted on them long ago, I think the beginning dates back to late in the last century.
I first learned of what has come to be known as The Boondoggle when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Sunday edition on a Sunday early this century breathlessly trumpeted, in a HUGE headline, that that which was then called the Trinity Uptown Project, would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.
I remember reading that and thinking to myself what fresh ridiculous hell is this. Little did I know, then, how ridiculous.
Okay, so the way public works projects come about in democratic, non-oligarchy locations in America is that a public works proposal is presented to the public. The merits of the proposal are debated. And then, after much public discussion, the public works project is put to a vote where the voters agree to support a bond issue to finance the building of the public works project. Or vote NO.
If the voters approve of the public works project the project then proceeds to the construction phase, building the project as quickly as possible so as to reap the benefits of the project as soon as possible.
When the voting public can see the benefit to them of voting for a public works project they vote a big YES.
Having the public vote on public works projects and then having those projects built in a timely fashion may be one of the reasons other parts of America seem to be much more advanced than Fort Worth.
Which brings us back to the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. Never voted on. Not funded in a way which allows the project to be built in a timely fashion.
So, now to the point of what is bugging me. With The Boondoggle being un-funded, being built on a slow motion indeterminate timeline, does it not occur to anyone, but me, that the way this Boondoggle has been operating, that it has become a strange, sort of permanent job, for people like J.D. Granger?
What I am thinking is if this Boondoggle was done like a normal public works project, the project would have, by now, been completed, with J.D. Granger having moved on to his next construction project, if his mother could find him one.
Does it not greatly add to the cost of The Boondoggle to be paying people, like J.D. Granger, for years longer than he would have been paid had this project been built like it would have been built in, like I already said, if it were a normal, voted on, fully funded public works project?
How much is the total paid to The Boondoggle's employees, year after year, as The Boondoggle boondoggle's along in slow motion?
If I remember right J.D. Granger is paid something like $100,000 a year to mismanage The Boondoggle. I think he began mismanaging in 2004. That is a decade ago. I am not good at math, but I think in ten years, at $100K per year, J.D. Granger has been paid something like one million dollars. Plus he has an expense account. And who knows what other perks.
Well, I have been told about the well stocked liquor supply in J.D.'s office.
How many employees are on The Boondoggle's staff? How many extra millions of dollars have been lost due to paying people boondoggling in slow motion for an unfunded project the public has never voted for, with no end in sight?
Like I already said, if this urgently needed flood control project were funded and built in the way it would be in democratic areas of America, it would have been completed by now. With no more money being wasted paying J.D. Granger and his fellow boondogglers.
The simple Three Bridges Over Nothing, which supposedly explosively began being constructed recently, are being built in slow motion, taking four years to complete. When the Three Bridges Over Nothing are complete, if J.D.'s mama has somehow come up with federal money, then the ditch under the bridges can begin being dug. I don't believe the engineering design for that ditch and its diversion dam have been completed, let alone that actual cost to built it determined.
Or how long it will take to dig the ditch.
If it takes four years for The Boondoggle to build three simple bridges, how long will that ditch take to dig? A decade? Longer?
However long it takes to complete this slow motion project, those in charge of The Boondoggle, as in J.D. Granger and his crew of boondogglers, are being paid, with salaries and perks.
J.D. Granger is in his 40s, I think. His precise age I can not find. I am thinking maybe J.D. is thinking he can milk this lucrative job, for which he has ZERO qualifications, til he hits retirement age. Of course, it goes without saying that J.D. keeps his job only as long as his mama keeps hers, which would seem to be forever, judging by the last election which re-elected J.D.'s politically corrupt, nepotism loving, mama.....
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