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"...

Ongoing TRWD Scandal Keeps Growing Over Dry Land

 

This morning's email included one from S-Man which was a comment from yesterday's blog post above Washington's melting snowpack, with the comment having zero to do with melting snow...

S-Man has left a new comment on your post "Washington's Mountains Are Melting":

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION]

Tarrant water district board members question law firm’s advice

__________________

It would seem S-Man used the blog comment method to point me to an article he thought I would find of interest. S-Man was correct in his thinking.

That is a screen cap from the article you see above. With a new look at one of Fort Worth's pitiful little bridges which have taken years and years to build over dry land. You also get a good look at those imaginarily iconic signature V-Piers, frequently touted by the Trinity River Vision's J.D. Granger as being something real special.

J.D. Granger shows up in this article in the Fort Worth Reporter. But the main thrust of the article is the fact that apparently the majority of the Tarrant Region Water District Board is fed up with the board's longtime general counsel, and the dubious legal advice said counsel has provided.

Such as okaying funneling $300K to departing General Manager, Jim Oliver, along with $60K to J.D. Granger. With that money being a bogus adding to their accounts of supposed un-paid leave time off.

These sham pay-offs were approved by former TRWD Board President, Jack Stevens, who received the fewest votes in the latest TRWD Board election, thus removing Stevens from the TRWD Board.

Stevens made these sham pay-offs without consulting the TRWD Board.

The TRWD Board has since rescinded the sham payoffs. And it looks like there may be some sort of criminal investigation into what appear to be improper shenanigans.

Read the entire Fort Worth Reporter Tarrant water district board members question law firm’s advice article for all the details...

TRWD Secretly Tables Honoring General Manager Jim Oliver

Yesterday Miss Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to a Fort Worth Report article titled Tarrant water board tables plan to honor retiring GM which Elsie thought I might find of interest.

Apparently in the video released of a recent Tarrant Region Water District Board meeting a couple items did not make it to the video available for public viewing, with one of those items being the Board's discussion of a plan to do some sort of honor deal for retiring TRWD General Manager, Jim Oliver. 

Oliver has been employed by the TRWD for 35 years. And during those years he has been the center of plenty of controversy. Controversy of the sort which might make a discussion about honoring him to be a bit lively.

Over the years there have been reports of Oliver acting like a childish bully. Including notoriously bullying a TRWD Board member, or two. One of whom was recently re-elected to the TRWD Board.

Oliver made news years ago due to being caught in an inflagrante delicto incident with a TRWD employee.

For those who do not know what inflagrante delicto is I'll do a quick Google for you...

in fla·gran·te de·lic·to - in the very act of wrongdoing, especially in an act of sexual misconduct.

Used in a sentence, "He had been caught in flagrante with the wife of the Association's Treasurer"

I have been told by more than one person who has had personal contact with Jim Oliver that he is a classic case of little man syndrome. Hence the bullying.

So, I can see why a TRWD Board discussion about honoring Jim Oliver might turn into a heated debate edited out of the video intended to transparently document the TRWD Board's meetings. 

Relevant paragraphs from the Fort Wort Report article...

Some district observers said they were suspicious about what caused the delay in Oliver’s honor.

Layla Caraway, an office manager who formerly served as chair of the board of the Northeast Tarrant Chamber, noticed the items concerning the integrated pipeline and Oliver weren’t videotaped when she tried to watch the meeting online Wednesday.

Caraway has made it her mission to increase awareness of the water district after she experienced a flood in Haltom City in 2007. She said that years ago, residents filmed the meetings then because they were concerned many couldn’t attend them because of their timing on a weekday morning. It’s a concern she still has today as she thinks the water district’s modus operandi is to be secretive. 

Caraway questioned what was behind the video problem of the public meeting.

“There’s a reason it was tabled, and I’m assuming that happened in executive session, so we’re not going to know,” she said. “But why didn’t we see it being tabled?

“I don’t know what the issue is, but nothing would surprise me at this point.”

Layla Caraway's experience with a flood in Haltom City, way back in 2007, was a bit more than an "experience". Ms. Caraway's house teetered on the brink of toppling over into super flooding Fossil Creek. That flood drowned a little girl, Ally Collins. You may have seen Ms. Caraway and her teetering house on the national news, as a watch was underway, waiting to see if the house survived.

Congresswoman Kay Granger visited Layla Caraway and her teetering house during the crisis. The aftermath of that meeting with Granger is part of what turned Layla Caraway into an activist. She went from being a regular person minding her own business, to a lady with a mission.

With that mission being to get Fort Worth and Tarrant County to do something about the chronic flooding caused by the bad urban planning for which Fort Worth is infamous. Such as allowing the covering of open land with buildings and cement, without adequate drainage. Hence the flooding.

In 2007 Layla Caraway had zero awareness of the money being wasted on a bogus Fort Worth flood control project, way back then known simply as the Trinity River Vision, where there had been no flooding for well over half a century, due to flood mitigation installations already in place.

When Layla Caraway met with Kay Granger she had no idea Granger had an interest in Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision flood control economic development. And that Granger had no real interest in helping with actual flood issues in parts of Fort Worth where Granger had no vested interest.

Too bad we don't know one of the TRWD Board members well enough to ask about the discussion of honoring Jim Oliver...

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...

Has The Trinity River Vision Riveron Review Been Officially Rejected?

Last month, after perusing it, we came to the conclusion that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Riveron Review Needs A Forensic Audit.

That conclusion was reached due to there being some parts of the Riveron Review which seemed to be obviously tainted by self-serving "information" provided by, most likely, TRWD General Manager, Jim Oliver and TRVA Executive Director, J.D. Granger.

The Riveron Review cites input from the Army Corps of Engineers. But, in the list of who the Riveron Review reviewers interviewed, which shows up at the end of the Review, no one from the Army Corps of Engineers was interviewed. Just those responsible for the mess which has become an infamous Boondoggle, such as Oliver and Granger, and other perpetrators, were interviewed.

Those two had some explaining to do regarding the myriad problems which led to the demands for a forensic audit of the long-stalled imaginary flood control project.  There are three sections of the Riveron Review where it is obvious the Riveron Review interviewers were fed a load of self-serving propaganda, which apparently Riveron did not feel the need to question, or dig deeper.

Let's take a look at those three sections, one by one...

 THE PROJECT

The Central City Flood Control Project 

The task force essentially considered three choices as proposed by the USACE:
 
Build the existing levees an additional 10 feet taller, requiring an additional 150 feet on each side of riverway, negatively impacting businesses and neighborhoods, and resulting in an even more inaccessible riverfront 

Build a 1.5 mile flood control bypass channel, which would be a very complicated, expensive, and ambitious project that would potentially transform the City and its relationship to the waterfront 

Do nothing and accept increased flood risk, damage and loss of people and property

The Trinity River Vision (TRV)* 

After public debate and agreement, federal, state and local government stakeholders and sponsors agreed to the initial USACE design for the three inter-related elements of the Central City Flood Control Project:
-The 1.5 Mile flood control Bypass Channel 
-The three Bridges at Henderson, Main, and White Settlement that will span the Bypass Channel 

-Clean up and ultimately enable future development and recreation in the area between the river and channel, known as Panther Island

__________________

Public debate? And agreement? Cite some evidence of that please.

Okay, after the Riveron Review was released locals with a functioning memory quickly pointed out Army Corps Of Engineer's Document Contradicts Controversial Riveron Review.

The Army Corps never suggested the levees be built 10 feet taller. And what businesses or neighborhood would have been impacted if such had happened? It's an industrial wasteland. The Boondogglers fed the Riveron Reviewers this propaganda because it is used to justify the diversion channel, which is key to their ill-conceived, ineptly implemented economic development scheme.

Do nothing and accept increased flood risk, damage and loss of people and property? The area in question has not flooded for well over half a century due to those levees already in existence. As we learned via the Army Corps of Engineer's document the existing levees could be brought up to post-Katrina standards for a few million bucks paying for some shoring up of the levees in a few locations.

Meanwhile, there are areas of Fort Worth and Tarrant County which do have increased flood risk, which have already suffered property damage, and have already drowned people, due to the failure to address those actual flood issues, whilst funds are wasted on an area where there is no legitimate flood risk.

And now on to the next element of wanton misinformation in the Riveron Review...

Sequencing a Capital Project 

Three bridges were designed for Main Street, Henderson Street, and White Settlement to span the eventual bypass channel. The bridge design was approved by the City, USACE, TXDOT and the TRVA Board. Bridge design work was done by the firm of Freese & Nichols and Rosales + Partners, and construction is being performed by Sterling under the direction of TXDOT and with the support and coordination from the City and TRVA, respectively.

It is critical to understand the complexity and sequencing of a project of this nature. There are multiple stakeholders working on what is essentially three projects: the bypass channel to provide flood control; the three bridges spanning the channel; the utility and other elements necessary to create habitable land in the island that is formed once the channel is in place. 

To safely and economically deliver this complex project, the bridges need to be essentially completed by the time the channel begins construction. This approach allows the project participants to sequence dependent activities among each other with a minimum of starts and stops to re-evaluate and re-design which would be required if building bridges over a completed, water-filled channel.

_________________

Take a moment to ponder the utter absurdity of the above three paragraphs from the Riveron Review. Basically they are repeating the nonsense that these three simple little bridges are being built over dry land, as if there was some other option, as if someone has somewhere suggested that the three bridges not be built til the cement ditch is dug and filled with water.

To safely and economically deliver this complex project the bridges needed to be built by the time the ditch gets dug? Again, as if there is any other option. And pretending this is by some grand design. Economically? The three simple little bridges are now in year five of being built in slow motion.

Clearly it is obvious a fully funded, correctly engineered project of this sort would have been building the bridges at the same time the ditch was built under the bridges. Now, if the bridges ever do get completely built, it does not take a whole lot of common sense to realize it complicates the ditch digging to dig under the bridges.

We have already seen a parking garage on the imaginary island fail due to a sinking foundation. It does not take much imagination to imagine the big OOOPS which will likely happen when/if that ditch gets dug under those bridges with their host of design problems.

Oh oh, we have a sinking V-pier.

Why did the Riveron Review interviewers accept this bill of goods they were being sold by the foxes  guarding the hen house?

And now on to the final element of wanton misinformation in the Riveron Review...

The 7th Street Bridge 

Unrelated to the Central City Flood Control Project, TXDOT was involved in another nearby effort to build the West 7th Street Bridge on the west side of downtown Fort Worth. 

Leveraging lessons learned from this effort, TXDOT approached the Central City Flood Control Project participants about leveraging the experience and design template for the West 7th Street Bridge to the bridges at Henderson, White Settlement and Main that will eventually span the channel. 

Initially the local government sponsor was responsible to pay for any budget overages and the State obligation would be capped. TXDOT made an offer to take on the obligation of budget overages if the local government sponsor would agree to use the 7th Street Bridge plans for all three of the new bridges. 

The USACE, in reviewing this proposed change, indicated that the design change would require formal USACE review and would require significant rework to the proposed design of both the bridges and bypass channel. Accepting the West 7th Street proposal was ultimately rejected for two reasons.  

-The design itself would impact and potentially weaken other structures and was not acceptable as presented.
-Any design change would also have triggered USACE requirements to study and evaluate the resulting flow, turbulence, and other hydrodynamic effects, likely adding years to the project timeline.

_________________

The above misinformation propaganda stems from what we learned way back in October of last year, which we blogged about in America's Biggest Boondoggle Unravels As Trinity River Vision Scandals Grow.

At that time we all learned, via a rare instance of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram doing some accurate reporting on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, in an article titled How a split between Rep. Kay Granger and her son changed Panther Island forever. that J.D. Granger interfered with his mother's economical plan to have the Boondoggle's three bridges be of the same design as the well regarded West 7th Street Bridge.

J.D. Granger was stung bad by this embarrassing revelation. Many thought this should have been the final straw which got him fired. But, a smoke screen of nonsense was thrown up. Among the misinformation J.D. Granger spewed in defense of his mistake was the claim that the West 7th Bridge had piers in the river. Which is not true, which is clearly illustrated in the America's Biggest Boondoggle Unravels As Trinity River Vision Scandals Grow.blog post.

For some reason renowned design expert, J.D. Granger got it in his frat boy head that V-piers would be just the ticket to make the channel promenade something special. Unlike that well regarded West 7th Street Bridge design.

Just a couple days ago we blogged about the decade old video of the Trinity River Vision model of the diversion ditch and the three bridges. That model does not show V-piers supporting the bridges.

J.D. Granger's V-piers have been a engineering nightmare. Which makes the two reasons the Riveron Review gives for the rejection of the West 7th Street Bridge design particularly specious and blatantly wrong.

Claiming the West 7th Street Bridge design would somehow impact and weaken other structures, and such a design change would require the Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate the design, you know, like what has been missing from the current project, which is one of the reasons for the cut off of federal funding.

And to claim using this obviously superior West 7th Street Bridge design, instead of the tacky V-pier design, would add years to the project timeline, well that claim is beyond embarrassingly stupid.

The V-pier design bridges are now in year five of slow motion construction, with the current project timeline having the bridges possibly completed in the next decade.

Yes, one can clearly see how using a proven good design, such as the West 7th Street Bridge design, already spanning a river channel, would take way way way way longer than J.D. Granger's  non-signature, non-iconic, V-pier bridges.

Has the West 7th Street Bridge weakened other structures near it? No? I didn't think so.

And once again let's repeat it is Time For J.D. Granger's Forensic Job Performance Review...

Trinity River Vision Review Confusion's Most Wanted Fugitives

If I remember right I have previously mentioned I've been receiving multiple messages about the "review" of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Much of the initial outrage appears to revolve around disgust that the TRWD board, well, the TRWD's controversial manager, Jim Oliver, apparently, is behind attempts to, well, try to censor, or redact, the report before it is released to the public who paid for it.

However, someone inside the TRWD evidently was disgusted by the attempted cover-up and managed to leak a copy of the review to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. From what I have seen of what is in the review I can see why Jim Oliver and J.D. Granger want to censor what the public sees.

On Facebook what the public has already seen has brought multiple calls for the immediate firing of Granger, the defeat of his mother in the 2020 election and a ceasing of the long stalled building of three simple little bridges over dry land, with either the removal of what exists of the bridges, or turning the remains into some sort of cautionary memorial.

Let's look at the Jim Oliver/Granger part of this Review finds confusion, lack of planning in $1.17 billion Panther Island project Star-Telegram article...

Meanwhile Oliver and J.D. Granger pushed to keep the report secret until they could read it and offer changes. With Star-Telegram and KXAS/Channel 5 reporters present, Granger wondered if the two news organizations would accurately report Riveron’s findings. Oliver said he believed only his staff had a full understanding of the project, requiring them to provide input before the report became public.

Oliver defended keeping the report from the public Friday, saying he didn’t believe it was ethical to release a draft document.

Typically during an independent review, he said, staff are given the chance to make comments or corrections before a report goes to a public board.

“This has been backwards,” he said.

____________________

Oh, the irony.

The TRWD's Jim Oliver thinks the release of the review is backwards.

Everything about that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle has been backwards. And now after all these years it is the release of this review of the Boondoggle, that Oliver finds backwards?

Nothing about this project has been done the way such projects get actualized in areas of America where public works projects are thoroughly vetted, sold to the public, with the public validating the project by agreeing to finance it via the voting method, with a qualified team of project engineers put in charge of designing and building the project, and completing the project following a well-planned project timeline.

Qualified project engineers?

Which leads us to J.D. Granger's concern about whether the news would accurately report the review's findings.

I'm guessing Granger's real concern is that the review accurately finds much of what is dire wrong with America's Biggest Boondoggle, making clear that a large part of the problem has been caused by the son of a local congresswoman being given a job for which he had no qualifications, with no clear oversight making sure Granger did not stray afar from the actual project.

You know, so Granger would not detour the imaginary flood control/economic development project into frat boy fun like beer drinking inner tube parties on the Trinity River, Octoberfest for more beer drinking or a wakeboard pond. And other such nonsense not normal for such a project.

When I clicked on the link to the Review finds confusion, lack of planning in $1.17 billion Panther Island project in the Star-Telegram that which you see above in the screen cap is what showed up under the article headline, a video starting with a plea to help Arlington police locate 10 Most Wanted Fugitives.

More than one comment on Facebook suggested criminal charges need to be brought against Granger and Oliver and others associated with what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Bizarre TRWD Board Endorsements

A couple days ago, when I first heard of it via Facebook, I thought someone was making a late April Fool's Day joke posting that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had endorsed the incumbent octogenarian, Marty Leonard, along with C.B. Team, as their recommendation regarding how those few allowed to vote should vote to represent them on the Tarrant Regional Water District board.

Read the entire Endorsement: Leonard, Team, for TRWD board editorial to get the full ridiculous illogical nonsense spouted in this typically embarrassing bit of Star-Telegram propaganda.

The endorsement starts off by stating the obvious fact that water is important.

And then goes from that bit of obviousness to telling us why this election is important....

That’s just one big reason why the impending election for the Tarrant Regional Water District Board of Directors — early voting in the May 4 election starts Monday, April 22 — should command your attention. We’ll give you another reason — in fact, over one billion of them: the Central City/Panther Island project, a $1.17 billion flood control and economic development program overseen in large part by the water board.

Yes, this is true, America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, has been boondoggling along for most of this century, and that absurd boondoggle, brought upon Fort Worth by the TRWD board, should motivate sensible people to vote to replace those responsible, when given the opportunity to do so.

This boondoggle, when first first foisted on the not allowed to vote for it public, was touted as a vitally needed flood control project, and economic development scheme. This ill-conceived, ineptly implemented mess began near the start of this century, and is currently projected to possibly be completed sometime late in the next decade.

Yes. This is one "vitally needed" flood control project. To control floods where there has been no flooding in well over a half a century due to flood control levees already doing their job. Meanwhile multiple areas of Tarrant County regularly flood, as recently as today, due to irresponsible development, which was not required to properly mitigate the increased water run-off the development has caused.

I eye witnessed this development caused flooding yesterday on my once a month return to the Dallas/Fort Worth zone. I was heading south on 820, intending to exit to Randol Mill Road to check in on Mary Kelleher, but was unable to do so because Randol Mill Road was closed due to that aforementioned bad development caused flooding.

Now, let's take a look at why the Star-Telegram recommended re-electing Marty Leonard...

After interviewing and discussing each of the five candidates for the five-member board’s two available seats — you vote for two of the five — we recommend board veteran Marty Leonard and newcomer Charles “C.B.” Team.

Incumbency isn’t often thought of as a positive anymore, but the truth is that experience and knowledge have to count for something — especially when it comes to providing water to well over 2 million. In this regard, Marty Leonard is, frankly, a gem.

The 82-year-old businesswoman and daughter of the Leonard’s Department Store founder has been key plank of the TRWD board since 2006. Besides riding herd on the Central City flood control project, she has, for instance, been among those overseeing the $2 billion-plus Integrated Pipeline Project being built to eventually supply 200 million more gallons a day to TRWD customers and another 150 million gallons to Dallas.

You don’t learn how to do all this overnight.

Okay, well, I know Marty Leonard is a nice lady. Easy to get along with. I have been told this by person's with first hand experience with Marty Leonard. Those same people have also told me that Marty Leonard pretty much just goes along with what she is told to go along with, at the direction of the TRWD's un-elected boss, Jim Oliver.

Marty Leonard may also be a gem. But, she is not a gem at overseeing anything to do with what the TRWD is charged with overseeing.

The Star-Telegram is actually suggesting Marty Leonard has been riding herd on the TRWD's imaginary flood control project? If so, shouldn't the Star-Telegram be recommending instead that Marty Leonard be removed for being part of creating America's Biggest Boondoggle, and for the dawdling slow motion reality of this un-needed imaginary flood control project?

Marty Leonard has been a "key plank of the TRWD board"? What does that even mean? That integrated pipeline project is another problematic TRWD project, which has long been controversial.

Now, I have been told multiple instances of 82 year old Marty Leonard being charmingly doddery. My favorite is the time at a TRWD board meeting when Marty Leonard told her fellow board members she was walking the Trinity Trail and saw signs warning people not to eat the fish they caught. Marty Leonard asked why we would put up such signs. Unaware, apparently, of the polluted status of the Trinity River and its regularly elevated e.coli levels.

And then we have this ridiculous newspaper's endorsement of C.B. Tram.

Though a first-time candidate, Team, 36, has been attending TRWD meetings for three years and, as one board observer put it to us, is running for the right reasons and “doing his homework.” The son of a well-known ranch family, he teams a land-loving background with experience as a real estate broker — an exquisite combination for this board at this particular time. And despite his real estate background, he wants Panther Island to be a flood-control project first and foremost.

A real estate broker. Who the Star-Telegram tells us is running for the right reasons and who has done his homework via attending TRWD meetings for three years. And he comes from a well-known ranch family, which supposedly gives him a land loving background. And even so he wants the imaginary Panther Island to be a flood control project (where there has been no flooding for way over half a century) before considering anything else, like developing the real estate on the imaginary island.

The Star-Telegram opines Team has the needed experience. But does not endorse Mary Kelleher, who served a four year TRWD board term, and who the Star-Telegram endorsed the last time she ran.

And why did the Star-Telegram choose not to endorse incumbent Jim Lane? Or Gary Moates?

When the Star-Telegram interviewed Mary Kelleher she indicated she would advocate for the resignations of TRWD dictator boss, Jim Oliver, and TRVA executive director, J.D. Granger. And also advocated a thorough forensic audit of the entire Panther Island Boondoggle mess.

While Gary Moates told the Star-Telegram that he thought the ridiculously wasteful Trinity River Panther Island Vision installation on the ground floor of the Star-Telegram building should be removed.

Apparently the Star-Telegram does not think Mary Kelleher or Gary Moates have the "right reasons" to be running.

So, the Star-Telegram basically endorsed a pair of lackeys who will just go along with the incompetent mess which has been an ongoing Fort Worth eyesore for most of this century. With no current end in sight, and the only hope for a fix being booting those responsible...

Mary Kelleher & Gary Moates Must Win May 4 TRWD Board Election

Last night I listened to a town meeting sort of event where Tarrant Regional Water District board candidates, Mary Kelleher and Gary Moates, answered a few questions from citizens concerned about all the issues associated with the TRWD, including America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Many aspects of the TRWD's mismanagement were addressed, in addition to the central Trinity River Vision Boondoggle issue.

Listening to the candidates responses it seems clear that among the things they would like to see changed is the employment of TRWD General Manager, Jim Oliver, and TRVA Executive Director, J.D. Granger, with both needing to be removed for multiple reasons.

The TRWD incumbents up for re-election are once again Jim Lane and Marty Leonard. The last time a TRWD board election featured this pair the voting results were part of what brought about the supposedly biggest election fraud investigation in Texas state history.

The election fraud in that particular election seemed obvious for multiple reasons. Such as in the previous TRWD board election Mary Kelleher was elected with the then biggest vote total in TRWD election history. In the following election, if two opponents succeeded in booting Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, then Mary Kelleher would have had two allies on the TRWD board, and thus would no longer be thwarted in bringing about big changes, such as opening the books, transparency, and questioning issues of nepotism, such as the employment of J.D. Granger and relatives of Jim Oliver.

Hence, the TRWD insiders had multiple reasons to resort to any means available to insure they did not lose control of the TRWD board.

Hence, the alleged election fraud.

Now, it clearly sounds ridiculous to allege something like election fraud to explain losing an election. Usually those making such claims make absurd assertions, such as illegal aliens voted.

But, in the TRWD board election in question there were multiple red flags. Such as Lane and Leonard received more votes than Mary Kelleher did in the previous record breaking election.

Lane and Leonard needed to get more votes than Kelleher received, to insure that the challengers did not also get a Kelleher vote level, and thus win the election, booting Lane and Leonard.

That election, which re-elected Lane and Leonard the last time, also had a statistically absurd high level of absentee ballots, which was one of the triggers raising suspicion, in addition to the unlikely vote totals.

Nothing of substance came from that biggest election fraud investigation in Texas history. If I remember right one low level worker was charged with something.

Clearly multiple levels of Texas government had reason to not strongly pursue a fraudulent low level election, what with this happening in a Republican district under the sway of congresswoman Kay Granger, whose son, J.D., was installed in that TRVA Executive Director job for which it is now painfully, pitifully obvious he was not qualified.

And now, once again, Jim Lane and Marty Leonard are up for re-election. And this time, unlike the last time, they face strong opponents in Mary Kelleher and Gary Moates. And this time the stakes are even higher for Jim Oliver and J.D. Granger.

And J.D.'s mother.

If Jim Oliver loses control of the TRWD board there will be multiple consequences.

If whoever committed the election fraud previously, and who succeeded in doing so, why would they not attempt to do so again, what with the stakes being much higher?

May 4 is going to be an interesting day...

More Star-Telegram Panther Island Propaganda Nonsense

America's Biggest Boondoggle really does get to be exhausting.

Now that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has finally gotten around to sort of noticing that something is dire wrong with the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision more words have been printed in the Star-Telegram about the subject in the past couple months than in the past dozen plus years this embarrassment has been limping along.

And yet, the Star-Telegram still does not seem to be able to bring itself to print words which one would think a responsible newspaper of record would print.

As in print the truth. And question the nonsense.

Many have long wondered if the Star-Telegram is crippled in its coverage by the fact that the Trinity River Vision Authority headquarters take up the ground floor of the Star-Telegram building. This might explain why the Star-Telegram seems to be a propaganda cohort for the ongoing debacle.

Let's just take a little look at this most recent Star-Telegram article about America's Biggest Boondoggle, titled Officials say Panther Island is on track. But it needs a lot of money soon.

Just the article headline is ridiculous. Needs a lot of money, but the project is on track? Yes, that headline makes a lot of sense.

Entities the Star-Telegram deem to be "officials" said Tuesday the project is on track for completion in the next decade.

But, this project has been propaganda-ized as a vitally needed flood control project. And yet, with that flood control supposedly vitally needed, in an area of Fort Worth which has not flooded for well over half a century, this vitally needed flood control project awaits federal handouts.

And then there is the fraudulently worded ballot measure, passed last May 5 for $250 million purported to be for flood control and drainage, but with those same supposed "officials" later admitting the funds would be going to the Panther Island debacle. A truth which caused Fort Worth Mayor, Betsy Price, to call for an audit of the entire Trinity River Vision mess.

An amazingly hubris laden bit in this article from J.D. Granger's fellow philanderer, Jim Oliver...

Jim Oliver, general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District which has partnered with Fort Worth and Tarrant County, said Panther Island has always been seen as a long-term project. It is expected to be completed by 2028.

Really? Completed by 2028? Way back when this ridiculousness was first foisted on the public, way back near the start of this century, with a HUGE headline in the Star-Telegram proclaiming something like "TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH" there was no mention made that this project would take multiple decades to come to fruition.

I remember reading that headline and thinking to myself what moronic idiocy is this going to be. I had already become wary of Star-Telegram propaganda, way back then. Who could have guessed this Vancouver of the South thing would get so absurd. morphing into things like Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Trust me, in neither of the Vancouvers of the North do they do any River Rockin' in any polluted waterways.

Which leads us to the bizarre J.D. Granger part of this latest Star-Telegram Boondoggle propaganda...

Oliver spoke Tuesday during the water district’s monthly meeting where J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority charged with coordinating the project, gave an overview of the authority’s responsibility.

Granger said he believes that the community is confused about the authority’s role. It is not to develop the land. Its main role is vetting developer ideas and promoting a tax district through event programming, he said.

“We’re not building anything,” he said.

Well, for once I guess J.D. Granger speaks the truth. They really have not managed to build anything worthwhile in well over a decade of boondoggling.

Granger is claiming his main job is to vet developer ideas and promote events? Really? I sort of remember J.D. touting at a TNT explosion, way back in 2014, that now the public would finally be able to see some vertical construction, with those three simple little bridges under construction over dry land.

And did not J.D. Granger tout the now failed Cowtown Wakepark pond as a Trinity River Vision Authority production, providing the coveted sport of wakeboarding to a longing urban population?

J.D. Granger is being paid over $200 K a year for developer vetting and event planning? How's that developer vetting going? See a lot of developments being developed on the imaginary island?

If that forensic audit of America's Biggest Boondoggle actually takes place it will be interesting to learn how much money had been spent over how many years for salaries and perks of the TRVA employees, starting with J.D. Granger.

How much has been spent on junkets to supposedly look at other town's water projects. A lot of people went along on those junkets, according to our inside the TRVA source known as Deep Moat.

How many dollars have been spent via TRVA expense accounts, for lunches, dinners, hotel stays in Dallas, and other similar wasting of public funds.

And yet these nimrods don't seem to understand why those who dole out federal funds are now asking for a detailed analysis of this lame project's financial feasibility?

Will this perplexing nonsense ever come to an end?

Hotpepper Deep Moat Search For J.D. Granger Junket Shenanigans

Last week someone asked Elsie Hotpepper to ask me if I could remember any specific details, such as precise dates, about junkets led by J.D. Granger on ostensible TRVA fact finding missions.

Such junket details would have been blogged many years ago, back when someone inside the TRVA, calling him or herself Deep Moat, was sending me details about various things eye witnessed, or known about, which disgusted Deep Moat.

Including being disgusted by married man, J.D. Granger's office affair with Shanna Cate. I was told about this inappropriate office shenanigan years ago, as in many years ago, and yet recently the guy who is J.D.'s boss, Jim Oliver, claims he only learned of this compromising relationship two years ago, admitting this when details of the affair recently came to light,in NBC TV reports raising questions about nepotism being rife in the TRWD and TRVA, causing disgruntlement in the TRWD/TRVA employee ranks.

So, this question about junket details had me searching my own blog because the search tool works better than my apparently failing memory. This search soon came to a blog post I had long forgotten, published back on Monday, July 29, 2013, titled The Continuing Quest To Find Who Is At The Center Of Fort Worth's Culture Of Corruption.

In light of the growing realization that something is dire wrong with the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, and with many people now calling for the firing or resignation of J.D. Granger, and a forensic audit of this ongoing embarrassment which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, I found what I read in that blog post from over five years ago to be currently even more relevant.

Below are a few lines from The Continuing Quest To Find Who Is At The Center Of Fort Worth's Culture Of Corruption...

Re-reading what Clyde Picht wrote about J.D. Granger being picked as the guy to run the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is why at this point in time, in the graphic above, I have J.D. Granger at the Center of Fort Worth's Culture of Corruption.

Re-reading what Clyde Picht wrote got me thinking about TRWD board member Mary Kelleher's quest to get TRWD documents available for Mary's, and the public's perusal.

Thinking about TRWD documents got me wondering what sort of documentation exists of the communications between J.D. Granger and Jim Oliver regarding hiring J.D. to run the TRVB project.

J.D Granger was working as an assistant District Attorney. So, what happened? Did J.D. get a call one day, during a break from prosecuting, from Jim Oliver? An email? A personal meeting?

When Jim Oliver suggested to J.D. Granger that he was the man he wanted to run the TRV Boondoggle, what did J.D. say?

Did J.D. say to Jim Oliver I have absolutely no qualifications for such a job? Did J.D. ask Jim Oliver why are you thinking I could, or should, take this job?

What was Jim Oliver's explanation, to J.D., as to why Jim Oliver thought J.D. was the man for this particular job?

_________________

Go to The Continuing Quest To Find Who Is At The Center Of Fort Worth's Culture Of Corruption to read what Clyde Picht had to say, years ago, about the hiring of J.D. Granger for a job for which it is now horribly obvious he was not qualified...

Elsie Hotpepper's Midnight Fort Worth Weekly Cookin' The Trinity River Vision Books Turkey Alert

Last night, shortly before midnight, a few minutes after I'd become horizontal, my phone made its incoming text message noise.

I then struggled to get myself back vertical so as to make it to the location of the phone.

And found it was a message from Elsie Hotpepper. With the message being a screen cap from Fort Worth Weekly's Turkey Awards 2018 edition, specifically the lead Turkey Award, titled Cookin' the Books.

Below is that lead Turkey Award in its entirety....

Cookin' the Books

Turkeys are coming home to roost at Panther Island. The $1.1 billion (and climbing) private economic development plan disguised as a public flood control project is bogging down in its own hubris. Critics say the flood control portion could be completed for much less money, say, around about $20 or $30 million. A billion bucks is vital for flood control, at least according to proponents like Jim Oliver, general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District, which provides water for 2 million people and implements flood control measures for 11 North Texas counties. Nobody can say exactly how much money is or isn’t needed for flood control because a cost benefit analysis hasn’t been done during the two decades that this project has been kicking around. Why? Because Oliver and water district board members don’t want such a study. Why? Why do you think?

The project is drifting now, even after local taxpayers recently approved $250 million worth of bonds for the water board to issue. Still, at least $700 million more is needed – money that doesn’t appear to be coming from the federal government or anywhere else anytime soon. Fort Worth officials are now demanding an audit, even though most of them have been coddling and enabling Oliver and the water district from the beginning.

__________________

It is interesting to me to see how, now that what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle is clearly sinking, that those who might have been accurately reporting this multi-decade embarrassment are only now doing so.

I was not long in Texas, not long in reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, before realizing this was not a newspaper of the sort I was used to reading whilst residing on the west coast. I soon realized the Star-Telegram was more of a propaganda organ for the local chamber of commerce, than a legit newspaper of record.

I was not long in Texas before I realized Fort Worth Weekly was the closest Fort Worth came to a real newspaper. That and, at times, the Fort Worth Business Press.

But, it has long seemed to me that Fort Worth Weekly could be more aggressively investigating that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Such as way back during one of the Trinity River Vision's early failures, that being the Cowtown Wakepark.

It did not take much common sense to see that Cowtown Wakepark was not going to work. We still do not know how much public money the Trinity River Vision Authority wasted on the Cowtown Wakepark.

Or the TRVA  and TRWD shenanigans which resulted in the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century. Oddly named something Coyote, rather than the Panther Island label the Boondoggle eventually came to slap on anything associated with its multiple shady operations.

Like Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats at the imaginary Panther Island Pavilion on the imaginary Panther Island at the imaginary world class Panther Island music venue.

And, I am more than a little offput that in Fort Worth Weekly's 2018 Turkey Award about the TRV Cookin' the Books that Boondoggle propaganda is repeated, as in...

"The project is drifting now, even after local taxpayers recently approved $250 million worth of bonds for the water board to issue."

That bond issue which the voters approved remains controversial due to the misleading verbiage on the ballot, as in claiming the $250 million was for flood control and drainage. When, soon after passage, the Boondogglers, such as the TRWD's number one turkey, Jim Oliver, in full hubris mode, claimed the $250 million was for Panther Island. And another of Fort Worth's turkeys, Kay Granger, claimed this misleading ballot measure passing amounted to voters approving of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, after years of criticism that the public had never been allowed to vote for what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Yeah, another Fort Worth Weekly 2018 Turkey Award should have been awarded to Kay Granger and her favorite son, J.D., and Kay's future daughter-in-law, Shanna Cate....

UPDATE: Elsie Hotpepper has informed me I was erroneous in saying Kay Granger also needed a 2018 FW Weekly Turkey Award. Turns out Fort Worth's worst congresswoman did get herself a piece of the turkey for we have lost track now of how many times. In its entirety...

Tur-Kay

Back when Kay Granger was mayor of Fort Worth and considering a run for the U.S. House of Representatives, both Democrats and Republicans wanted her to run on their ticket. She was considered accessible and intelligent and sometimes even sensitive to the needs of her constituents. 

When she decided to run on the Republican ticket, in fact, some conservatives thought she was too liberal. 

Sometime during the last 20 years, that all changed. She has become a rubber stamp for all things right-wing, has not held town hall meetings for years, and, hell, she doesn’t even respond to most reporters’ requests for comments on issues that affect her own district.

So it wasn’t really a surprise that when Vanessa Adia decided to run against her for her District 12 seat Granger chose not to have a single debate with her. Disappointing, yes, but typical of someone who has been in office so long that she has become insulated and isolated, and the little people, even those running against her, just don’t warrant attention.

Kay, your constituents do matter. Time you wake up and come back down to earth. Meanwhile, since you’re apparently doing so well without our help, you must not need much. Therefore, all you’re getting is one turkey foot this year. Enjoy it. It’s all you deserve.

Will Fort Worth's Panther Island Madness End On May 5?

A couple days ago I read this What will $250 million bond for Panther Island project mean for property taxes? article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

And was appalled by what I read. That and the bad writing I was reading. Typos, spelling errors.

And erroneous information.

It has been a couple days. Maybe the Star-Telegram found itself an editor who cleaned up this article's mistakes. Then again, as recently as yesterday, I read this article's bad grammar referenced in comments to a Facebook post by the Star-Telegram's food critic and resident apologist for the Fort Worth Way.

Read the article yourself by clicking the What will $250 million bond for Panther Island project mean for property taxes? link and see if the mistakes have been fixed.

I will share some of the appalling erroneous information, and out and out misleading propaganda, which existed when I read and copied the article. First example....

Plus, the improvements are needed to improve the flow of flood water through the heart of Fort Worth. When the existing levee system was build in the 1960s, Fort Worth only had about 350,000 residents, but today there are nearly 900,000 residents and suburban development upstream has dramatically increased the flow of storm water during severe storms, said Jim Oliver, water district general manager.

Those levees were built in the 1950s, not the 1960s. (Note I typed "built" not "build"). Jim Oliver, paid around $300K a year to mis-manage the TRWD, doesn't know when those levees were built?

And then there is the following gem, also from the TRWD mis-manager, Jim Oliver...

If the bond election were to fail, the first option would be to simply delay the Panther Island project by a few years, which could lead to higher construction costs, Oliver said. But ultimately, if Panther Island were not built, the water district might eventually have to consider building higher levees and buying more private property for water storage, something that not only could lead to higher property taxes but would be a missed opportunity to build a beautiful new neighborhood with a river walk, he said.

So much absurd nonsense in the above paragraph. If the imaginary island is not surrounded with water the water district might have to raise the levees?

Raise the levees?

Those levees have prevented flooding in the downtown Fort Worth zone for well over a half century. Has anyone ever seen a flooding Trinity River ever get anywhere near topping those levees? And Oliver is threatening even more private property may be taken? Adding to all the property stolen via abusing eminent domain in the area where America's Biggest Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for years with little to show for all the money already wasted and property damage already done.

Well, to be fair, we did get to see a little wakeboard park for a short while before it failed. And there are those Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats at an imaginary pavilion at an imaginary world class music venue, with outhouses, and the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, sporting an ice rink for a few weeks during the winter. And other wonders which have nothing to do with flood control.

Or drainage.

Speaking of which. Here are another couple gems in this article...

A proposition on the ballot seeks permission to issue $250 million in bonds to cover the remaining unfunded portion of the $1.17 billion project, including among other things the acquisition of land, the re-channeling of 1.5 miles of the Trinity River and the construction of flood gates and water storage areas.

On the ballot, the measure is listed as Tarrant Regional Water District Proposition A, and is described as a measure for “flood control and drainage facilities.” Panther Island isn’t mentioned by name.

Okay, this article first points out what the quarter billion bucks is actually for in one paragraph, and then the next paragraph mentions how the measure is described on the ballot. Without any sort of mention made of the fact that this would seem to be fraudulent, to mis-describe a ballot measure so egregiously.

What a shocker. Panther Island is not mentioned on the ballot. Maybe the measure was run by some sort of lawyer who made some sort of point about it not being a good idea to mention an imaginary island which does not exist and never will be an island in any real sense of that island word if the Trinity River Vision ever does become something anyone can see.

When will this madness end? Maybe with a big NO vote on May 5...

Anonymously Wondering If J.D. Granger Is Paid Enough To Direct America's Biggest Boondoggle

Someone with the extremely common name of "Anonymous" made an interesting comment to a blog post from a day or two ago, with the comment pointing out how many taxpayer dollars Kay Granger's son, J.D., is being paid for the extraordinary job he has been doing for years and years and years of being the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, but more commonly known, nationally, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The comment from Anonymous...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Bridge's 2020 Possible Project Schedule":

John Dean Granger IV was paid $192,816 in 2016 according to a Public Salaries Database in the Star-Telegram. That's more than the Tarrant County sheriff made. JD Granger also made more than County Judge Glen Whitely who presides over Commissioner's Court.

Public Salaries Database

That Public Salaries Database link above was included in the comment from Anonymous, and took us to a list of what public servants in Tarrant County are being paid to serve the people of the county in the illustrious commendable way, some of them, serve the public.

The salaries of the public servants working for the public on the TRWD (Tarrant Region Water District) are surprising, at least to me. As in I am surprised at how many public servants are being served so well, salary wise, by the public employing them to run this public agency which delivers water to the Tarrant Region.

The top salary earner in the TRWD, Jim Oliver, earns $304,990.40 a year.

Some of these public servants working for the TRWD are quite notorious, and have managed to keep their high paying jobs, despite the notoriety. Noteworthy notoriety such as being caught flagrante dilecto in the TRWD headquarter's parking lot making whoopee with a TRWD employee who was not this public servant's wife. I think that particular TRWD public servant got a raise after this shenanigan.

And then there was this other TRWD TRVA employee, married at the time, who had himself a fling with a subordinate co-worker, a fling which made some of his TRWD co-workers so uncomfortable details of this ongoing assignation were relayed to me, among others, including details, such as details of overnight junkets, to far away locations, like overnight hotel stays in Dallas, with the junket on the TRWD, well TRVA, expense account, because, you know, they were in Dallas to check out what Dallas was doing with its version of the Trinity River Vision.

Let's look at the Public Salaries Database's list of the top TRWD salary earners...

Oliver, James M. $304,990.40 General Manager TRWD

Thomas, Robert A. $236,475.20 Deputy General Manager TRWD

Buhman, Daniel L. $192,816.00 Assistant General Manager TRWD

Granger IV, John D. $192,816.00 Executive Director - TRVA TRWD

Buhman, Daniel L. $192,816.00 Assistant General Manager TRWD

Granger IV, John D. $192,816.00 Executive Director - TRVA TRWD

Marshall, David H. $188,323.00 Engineering & Opp Supp Director TRWD

Newby, Sandy         $182,000.00 Finance Director TRWD

Christie, Linda         $177,091.20 Governmental Affairs Director TRWD
Cleveland, Wesley $172,120.00 Integrated Pipeline Director TRWD

Beason, Darrell E. $168,272.00 Operations Division Director TRWD

Christian, Robert S. $156,270.40 Real Property Director TRWD

Weaver, Edward M. $150,155.20 IPL Program Technical TRWD

Maguire, Charles M. $149,344.00 Director of Information Services/CISO TRWD

Owen Jr., Wayne P. $139,360.00 Planning Director TRWD

Miller, Ronald B. $138,091.20 Assistant Operations Director TRWD

Ickert, Rachel A. $136,510.40 Water Resources Eng Director TRWD

ehrig, Jason         $133,910.40 Infrastructure Eng Director TRWD

Coffey, Jeffrey M. $133,764.80 Geospatial Services Manager TRWD

Hatcher, Michael T. $133,681.60 Cyber Security Operations Specialist  TRWD

Cabrera, JL        $132,329.60 Project Management Office Manager TRWD

Is this the norm in other areas of America, to pay this many people this much to operate a water district?

When I lived in Mount Vernon one of my neighbors on the cul-de-sac on which I lived was the manager of the PUD (Public Utility District), which is the Mount Vernon/Skagit County version of TRWD. I don't think he was paid around a third of a million bucks a year. Then again, Skagit County is much smaller, population-wise, than Tarrant County, with that water district run without the scandals and boondoggles which seem to plague Tarrant County's TRWD and its subordinate agency, the TRVA, which J.D. Granger has so ineptly mismanaged.

Continuing on with that train of thought, thinking that if the PUD in Skagit County came up with a bizarre economic development flood control scheme, called the Skagit River Vision, altering the part of downtown Mount Vernon which the Skagit River passes through, with the Skagit being an actual river, not a glorified ditch, to supposedly turn that section of Mount Vernon into the Vancouver of Washington, well, such nonsense is not imaginable, for multiple reasons in addition to the fact that two Vancouvers are within a relatively short drive to the north and south of the proposed imaginary Skagit River Vision.

Ironically, during the same time frame in which J.D. Granger's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been boondoggling along Mount Vernon has sort of completed its own version of a Skagit River Vision, with the Skagit River, as it passes past downtown Mount Vernon, passing by a sort of Riverwalk, connecting downtown Mount Vernon directly to the river, with large plazas, a walkway and other attractive attributes. All that and a new Dutch designed flood wall which can be quickly put in place when the river goes rogue and threatens downtown Mount Vernon.

The Skagit River Vision was accomplished without abusing eminent domain to steal citizen's property. I do not know if the locals voted for the Skagit River Vision or if the funding came via other means, such as simply paid for out of other local revenue streams. I do know that no local congresswoman's son was hired to executively direct the Skagit River Vision in order to motivate his mother to secure federal funds to pay for the project.

I also am fairly certain if the Skagit River Vision boondoggled along, for years, with little to show for the effort, with that congresswoman's unqualified son paid $192,816.00 a year, well, the Skagit Valley locals would not put up with such outrageous nonsense.

Such is how the world operates in modern, democratic, progressive, well-educated locations in America.  Locations in America served by an actual newspaper practicing the time honored practice called investigative journalism...