Wednesday, July 21, 2021

On His Way Out The TRWD Door Jim Oliver Lets Loose Loopy Defense Of J.D. Granger

 

A couple days ago we blogged about 225 Feet Of Panther Island Canal Ready For Riverwalking. after reading a Fort Worth online magazine article about Fort Worth's Boondoggle known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

In that article we found ourselves freshly appalled by J.D. Granger due to his penchant for unfortunate verbiage. This what J.D. said about the Boondoggle's diversion channel canal...

“Locals will never know it. Everyone’s walking down with a margarita — might fall in because you’re drunk — [and] they just think it’s pretty. But actually, it serves a very important purpose.”
________

On Facebook there were multiple comments about J.D.'s various utterances in this article. Comments along the line of how does this idiot not get fired?

Also, in this Fort Worth magazine article J.D. tries to explain why it has taken so long for the Boondoggle to get anything done, claiming the area of the bridges as having been an "environmental hot mess" elaborating with...

“We were having to buy the property, move the property, demo the property, do the environmental cleanup — all of that had to take place before the bridges could even start,” Granger says, adding that the amount of hazardous materials removed totaled to about 330,000 tons.
_________

Multiple people have asked how could it be possible that 330,000 tons of hazardous waste were removed before construction of the little bridges could begin? And where did all that, likely imaginary, tonnage of hazardous waste go?

Last night my phone made its incoming text message noise. Twice. On the second instance I got vertical and found my phone. Text messages from Elsie Hotpepper. The first saying "OMG" with the second a link to an article in the most recent edition of the Fort Worth Report, specifically an article titled On his way out the door, water district general manager lets loose, emails reveal.  

The first three paragraphs of this Fort Worth Report article...

With retirement imminent, Water District General Manager Jim Oliver strongly aired his grievances to board members about the perception of the Panther Island/Central City Flood Control project.

Emails obtained by Fort Worth Report through a Texas Public Information Act request show Oliver defending the head of the project, JD Granger.

Oliver’s email came after Granger had made a Facebook post that the new board president, Leah King, told the Report on Tuesday was “in poor taste.”
______________

J.D. made the controversial post on Facebook. That post is what you see screen capped above. 

The post, accompanied by a picture of Granger with two others on the White Settlement bridge, read in part, “This bridge opening is just another expected milestone towards the completion of a project that makes the old guard in Fort Worth uncomfortable. … And at the finish line everyone will think it was easy and take all the credit.
_______________

Take all the credit? More likely it will be blame and shame which will be the theme of the final reckoning of this multi-decade debacle.

Just look at that bridge J.D. and two of his minions are standing on. J.D. and his fellow propagandists have long hyperbolized that this bridge along with the other two being built over dry land, will be iconic signature bridges. It truly is mind boggling that someone can try and sell such nonsense, and still keep his job which currently pays him well over $200,000 a year.

Via the Texas Public Information Act the Fort Worth Report received multiple emails in which Jim Oliver defends J.D. Granger. You can read the email exchanges in the On his way out the door, water district general manager lets loose, emails reveal.

My favorite of Jim Oliver's defenses of J.D. was this...

Oliver concluded the email by saying he’d talk with Granger about the post but chalked it up to him “pushing the envelope” because “that’s what creative and driven people often do.”
_____________

Creative? What has J.D. created? Being part of America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Now that Fort Worth seems to have at least two news sources which seem to be doing actual investigative journalism, perhaps someone can find out exactly what it is J.D. Granger does which has warranted paying him so much for so many years? Along with maybe finding out what it is, exactly, that J.D.'s wife, Shanna, does that has her on the payroll. 

Also, it would be a good thing to investigate the mechanism by which J.D. Granger was selected to be the Executive Director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Why would a low level prosecuting attorney be hired to do a job for which he had zero experience or qualifications?

As Steve A (and others) have frequently said, "Inquiring minds want to know"...