I read today that Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief has been making around $600,000, annually, from the Oil and Gas Industry.
Mayor Moncrief oversees meetings where policy is made regarding things like permits to drill for natural gas in the Barnett Shale.
Moncrief is part of forming policy from which he monetarily benefits.
In other parts of America, and the world, this is what is known as a Conflict of Interest.
A Conflict of Interest exists when a person is in a position where he is entrusted with impartiality, as in a Mayor is supposed to look out for the public he serves, not himself.
In America, except Fort Worth, a Mayor with Conflicts of Interest would either recuse himself from being any part of policy making, from which he might benefit, or shed himself of whatever is causing the Conflict of Interest. In Moncrief's case that would mean selling his shares of all the Barnett Shale gas drilling companies he holds an interest in. Or recusing himself when his Conflicts of Interest come in to play.
The need for such a recusal depends on the nature of the Conflict of Interest. If it is a trivial matter, no need to recuse. If it is a serious matter, as in something like being part of making decisions about how far from a residence a well can be drilled, or what sort of safety precautions must be taken, or what sort of pollution controls must be installed, or where a pipeline can be located, well, in that type circumstance a Mayor, with a Vested Interest that Conflicts with his duties as Mayor of the People, must recuse himself.
Failure to do so, and subsequently hugely profiting from the gas drillers activities, well, in the rest of America, like I've already said, more than once. Jail time and a huge fine.
The fact that these Conflicts of Interest are allowed to happen, in Fort Worth, has perplexed me for years now. There is a political science term, well, I'm pretty sure it's a political science term, of a certain type of capitalist economy called Crony Capitalism.
Crony Capitalism is what runs way too much of Fort Worth. It's how Fort Worth ends up with things like Cabela's, sold on promises, never delivered. Crony Capitalism is a deviation of a democratic capitalist economy. Crony Capitalism occurs where success in business requires a too close relationship between those in business and government officials.
For instance, say you are in the gas drilling business. You know there is going to be a huge play on this thing called the Barnett Shale. You know that a large part of the Barnett Shale lies under a large city called Fort Worth. You know a few years into drilling the Barnett Shale that you are going to want to be drilling in Fort Worth.
So. What do you do? You install as many of your cronies in positions of power as possible. The few people who bother to vote, work as willing stooges for the Cronies and elect their Top Crony as Mayor of Fort Worth. And even though it is clearly obvious that something is very wrong, the Mayor gets re-elected by a 70% landslide of the 6% who bothered to vote.
Why isn't the FBI investigating Moncrief's Conflicts of Interest? Especially now that even the Great State of Texas is having to recognize that an ever growing body of evidence is showing that the way the Barnett Shale is being drilled by the Cabal of Crony Capitalists, deadly pollutants spewing into the air of Fort Worth and North Texas. Entire towns (DISH) have been run over with noise, air pollution, property destruction, water pollution, dangerous chemicals (like Benzene) and who knows what else.
Now, til it became a known fact that the gas wells are spewing bad stuff into the air, and that there are ways to stop that from happening. Methods that pay for themselves. Methods that the gas drillers don't want to pay for, and which the government, not Texas, not Fort Worth, is not mandating be done, well, til then, I was not as annoyed about all this as I am now.
But now I am TOTALLY annoyed and appalled that there is not a louder demand that something be done. Done now. Moncrief and his cronies need to be run out of town on a Federal Prison Boat Float down the Trinity River.
And then I saw
Mayor Mike Moncrief pouring purple water into the Trinity River. And I heard him speak for the first time. And realized what a stooge he actually is. I highly doubt that man has any concept of how ethically challenged he is. I doubt he is able to understand what a Conflict of Interest is. I doubt he'd be able to understand he is part of a localized Crony Capitalism system.
He might know what you mean if you told him he's part of the Fort Worth Good Ol' Boy Network. But, he'd likely take that as a compliment.
