Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's J.D. Granger Temper Tantrums

Just like there is a generation of Americans, growing into their post-teenage years, who have no living memory of an America not at war, that same generation of Fort Worthians has no living memory of a Fort Worth not messed up by a failed pseudo public works project, originally known as the Trinity River Vision, before years of mismanagement morphed the vision into being America's Dumbest Boondoggle.

With three simple little bridges attempting to be built over dry land to possibly one day in the future connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

With wonders like a failed wakeboard lake, happy hour inner tube float parties on a polluted river. Scenic river cruises on that same polluted river. A future scenic waterfront, with a houseboat district, among other never gonna happen nonsense.

For most of this long era of boondoggling Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's eldest son, J.D., was the Executive Director in charge of mismanaging this fake flood control economic development scheme mess.

It was almost a decade ago I found myself at a large gathering in a meeting hall at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden where J.D. Granger, and others, were scheduled to show up for a forum addressing that which even then was becoming known as a Boondoggle.

J.D. Granger did not show up at that forum. We blogged about this incident where Boos Greet News That J.D. Granger Bailed At Last Minute On Tonight's Trinity River Vision Open Discussion Forum.

When it was announced that J.D. Granger would not appear one loud wag was heard to utter the famous line "That boy is a gutless wonder."

J.D. did not appear that night because he was mad that someone on some blog somewhere had posted photos of the new landscaping at his home which mysteriously matched the look of the landscaping at the newly opened Woodshed Smokehouse, a controversial restaurant J.D. had helped finagle as part of his imaginary flood control economic development scheming.

Over the years of this century's decades of Fort Worth's embarrassing Boondoggle we have been emailed tidbits of information from various people who have had an inside look at the Trinity River Vision Authority, and J.D. Granger's mis-management. We have referred to these information providers as Deep Moat.

There have been four Deep Moats.

The first Deep Moat showed up years ago, around the time J.D. Granger was referred to as a gutless wonder. That first Deep Moat was upset at what that person saw as outrageous spending by J.D. and his cohorts on all sorts of perks. Things like junkets to other towns to supposedly check out those town's water projects. Things like office perks like new Apple products, company cars, and way too much time spent talking about where the TRVA group should have lunch that day.

The final straw with that first Deep Moat was when J.D. Granger began a flagrant office affair with an employee, which soon had other TRVA employees unhappy due to J.D.'s office mistress getting what they thought was special unwarranted treatment, things like being put in charge of party planning.

J.D. Granger has since divorced his first wife and has married his office underling, who has now been given a new position of some sort in the nepotism laden TRVA/TRWD mess of corrupt mis-management.

A couple months ago I was told about some new instances of J.D. Granger stomping his foot and having a temper tantrum. I was not going to make mention of this, not until I heard the same thing from a second person.

The reason I was not going to repeat what I heard when hearing it from only one person was because it sounded so ridiculous.

I was told of the incidents over the phone, so I don't have print versions, like an email.

It was during the period when the Fort Worth powers that be, such that they are, began verbalizing being fed up with the non progress of the Trinity River Vision and the mess that vision has made of a large swatch of Fort Worth, due north of the town's downtown.

Demands arose that a forensic audit be conducted of the mess which the Trinity River Vision had morphed into. Soon a Dallas entity was hired, at around a half million dollar fee, to conduct, not a forensic audit, but instead a "review" of the hapless project, trying to determine what might get the project back on some sort of track.

When the Riveron Review was released, redacted, it quickly increased public outrage. We blogged about the reasons for the public outrage in Has The Trinity River Vision Riveron Review Been Officially Rejected? and in Army Corps Of Engineer's Document Contradicts Controversial Riveron Review.

Reading the Riveron Review it was clear to those who have been following the Boondoggle that J.D. Granger and TRWD general manager, Jim Oliver, had mislead the Riveron Reviewers, convincing the Riveron Reviewers of ridiculous nonsense, stuff like the reason this simple engineering project was taking so long was due to the extreme complexity of coordinating the building of bridges, with the digging of a ditch under the bridges, and other needed infrastructure upgrades.

The Riveron Reviewers also swallowed the nonsense J.D. Granger has long spewed to justify his interference with the Army Corps of Engineers plan to use the West 7th Street bridge design for the Boondoggle's bridges, while Granger insisted bridges built on V-piers would somehow be unique, rendering these simple little bridges into being signature bridges.

The V-piers have caused all sorts of engineering problems, hence being in year six of what originally was already an astonishingly long four year project timeline to build three simple bridges.

Over dry land.

So, the Riveron Review made some recommendations intended to help get the Trinity River Vision out of Boondoggle mode. The recommendation which met with the most public approval was the removal of J.D. Granger as the TRVA Executive Director.

And then that move was botched when it was learned that Granger had been moved from being in charge of imaginary bridge building to instead being in charge of imaginary flood control in an area which has not flooded in well over half a century.

Basically Granger was given an imaginary new job whilst still being paid the same $200 K plus a year.

Now, it was at some point during the Riveron Review revelation's reactions that J.D. Granger lost his temper when questioned by some members of the press. I do not know if this was a TV reporter or a print reporter. I have been told there was more than one incident of J.D. Granger totally losing his cool, making a total fool of himself, embarrassing his fellow TRVA employees who witnessed it.

The J.D. Granger temper tantrum incidents were so bad that someone in the TRVA, or TRWD, called his mother, Congresswoman Kay Granger, to tell her she needed to so something about J.D.'s behavior.

And now we have learned from the latest Deep Moat that J.D. Granger and Jim Oliver are telling their underlings at the TRVA that J.D. Granger is still in charge of the project. That the hiring of a retired Army Corps of Engineers official to take over for J.D. was just for optics, to silence the project's myriad critics.

J.D. Granger claiming to be still in charge has angered multiple TRVA employees who have long been frustrated by the ongoing incompetence they have witnessed, and have been a part of.

We have also learned that there is fresh dissension on the TRWD board, with some board members demanding answers to questions that have gone unanswered for years, going back to when Mary Kelleher was asking the questions, back when she was a TRWD board member trying to get answers to questions like how much money has been spent on junkets, signage, parties, failed wakeboard parks and the like.

A TRWD board member, or two, have been raising some serious issues. Including questioning the competence of Jim Oliver. One of the TRWD board members suggested it is time for Jim Oliver to receive a performance evaluation for the first time this century. That suggestion set off a temper tantrum by TRWD board member, Jim Lane.

I have forgotten how many millions of TRWD dollars Jim Lane schemed to spend to bail out a bankrupt friend who owned the property on which the decrepit La Grave Field is located. The TRWD is now the owner of that property, along with the nearby chunk of land on which the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century was built.

Speaking of TRWD nepotism and corruption. Who is Valerie Jay? All I know about her is she has a sweetheart relationship with someone in a high management position at the TRWD, and thus got herself on the TRWD payroll.

Methinks it is high time an in-depth forensic audit is performed on the TRWD and TRVA. A real audit. Finding out how many millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on signage, propaganda, websites, junkets, salaries, parties, failures (like the wakeboard park), imaginary artwork (like the million dollar homage to an aluminum trash can which sits at the center of the Boondoggle's unfinished roundabout by two of its unfinished bridges.

I'd like to know how was the decision made to spend a million bucks on that aluminum eyesore? And to install it years before finishing the roundabout it sits on, or the nearby bridges. What was the connection, relationship-wise, between the aluminum trash can artist and the decision makers on the TRVA/TRWD?

Why would a million bucks be spent on such a thing? Spending those funds years, well, decades now, before the projected possible completion of this hapless project?

And why should the federal government funnel funds from the more prosperous parts of America, to Fort Worth, to pay for this ill-conceived, ineptly implemented mess? If Fort Worth had a million bucks to waste on an homage to an aluminum trash can, well, how can the city possibly expect funds to help build un-needed bridges, or dig the ditch to go under the bridges?

This is all so perplexing. Pitiful. And perplexing...