Yesterday someone anonymously sent me seven documents documenting TRWD Board Election Candidate Campaign Finance Reports, along with the Finance Report for one of the multiple PACs funneling funds to three of the candidates.
The seventh document, which you see at the bottom left of the screen cap, documented the Specific-Purpose Committee Report regarding something called the Clean Water Committee.
The people on the Clean Water Committee are all the current board members of the TRWD, except for Mary Kelleher, plus candidates James Hill and Leah King, as if they had already been elected, which indicates, clearly, that Hill and King are the chosen candidates of the Fort Worth oligarchy which feels endangered by any usurpation of their control of the TRWD Board, as evidenced by the amount of money raised and spent by the incumbent, Jack Stevens, and the chosen two, James Hill and Leah King.
Four years ago, in the previous TRWD Board Election, fearing losing control of the TRWD Board, ballot shenanigans took place to insure the re-election of Jim Lane and Marty Leonard. Shenanigans so obvious the result eventually triggered the biggest Election Fraud investigation in Texas history. An investigation which is ongoing.
And yet, in the four years since that fraudulent election, there has been no demand, from anyone in a position to demand such, that Jim Lane and Marty Leonard resign from their ill gotten board seats, with the actual winners, Craig Bickley and Miki Von Luckner, installed to their rightful TRWD Board positions.
With the ballot shenanigans option temporarily closed, for obvious reasons, the fear of losing control of the TRWD Board has brought the ruling oligarchy to a different tactic.
That tactic being a flood of money and amping up their misinformation propaganda scare tactics.
About that flood of money.
Let's look at the Finance Reports for James Hill, Leah King and Jack Stevens..
The Finance Report documents for Hill, King and Stevens include page after page after page detailing the sources of donations. Many people donate to all three, and also donate to Fort Worth's ex-mayor, Mike Moncrief's Our Water Our Future PAC, which itself makes a HUGE donation to all three. Many donate in the $50-100 range. Most donate way above that low range. The number $250 seems to be very popular.
The following make the same donation to each of the TRWD's favored trio...
Freese & Nichols PAC $2,500
AECOM PAC $1,500
HDR, Inc. PAC $1,000
Halff Associates PAC $250
Our Water Our Future PAC $20,000
Kay Granger Campaign Fund $2,700
What has been the total take of the TRWD's favored trio?
Leah King Total Political Contributions $34,915
James Hill Total Political Contributions $46,850
Jack Stevens Total Political Contributions $30,575
How about Mike Moncrief's Our Water Our Future PAC?
Total Political Contributions $152,245.00
Total Political Expenditures $71.858.15
In Sunday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram Bud Kennedy authored an
opinion piece in which the political contributions of Andra Beatty and Mary Kelleher were mentioned, but not the contributions made to the TRWD's favored trio. Bud Kennedy appears to be acting as a shill for the TRWD's favored trio, as evidenced by what he had to say about the TRWD's unfavored duo...
Meanwhile, at the very bottom of the local election ballot in Fort Worth and five suburban cities, new campaign finance reports show that Tarrant Regional Water District critic Monty Bennett of Dallas is once again paying the way for contrarian Director Mary Kelleher’s board election campaign.
Bennett doesn’t want a $2 billion water pipeline to Lake Palestine dug across his East Texas ranch. He provided Kelleher $9,680 in mailers, but under the name “MJB Operating.”
She received one other donation, for $50.
Kelleher had said last month she expected Bennett’s help “but I don’t know how much.”
Challenger Andra Beatty of Fort Worth reported $5,201, all of it from Bedford Republican state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, a Tea Party and Freedom Caucus participant.
Former Mayor Mike Moncrief’s Our Water, Our Future PAC raised $152,245 from a long list of donors for incumbent Vice President Jack L. Stevens of Azle and challengers James Hill and Leah King of Fort Worth.
Sadly, TRWD doesn’t post those reports.
_______________
Oh, I see, according to Bud Kennedy, sadly the TRWD doesn't post the reports of the TRWD's favored trio, and yet somehow someone anonymous was able to get those reports and send them to me. Unable to get the Finance Reports of the favored trio, but somehow Bud Kennedy was able to get the Campaign Finance Reports of Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty.
And, just like the last TRWD Board Election, the TRWD Board's propagandists are trotting out the bogus bogeyman myth to try to scare voters that a Dallas businessman is trying to take control of their water.
This brings to my mind the
Army-McCarthy hearings where Joseph Welch famously said to Joe McCarthy, "
Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
The Dallas bogeyman, Monty Bennett, is also a Fort Worth businessman, owning hotel properties in downtown Fort Worth. The TRWD propagandists always fail to mention that fact.
*I have been told by a reliable source that many of the large donors to Hill, King, Stevens, and the Moncrief PAC, are wealthy Dallas people with a stake in keeping the TRWD Board under insider control. But no mention is made by Bud Kennedy of all those Dallas bogeymen and bogeywomen.
To understand why the TRWD insiders fear losing control to outsiders, losing that which they think of as their Board, all one needs to do is look at the main donors.
Freese & Nichols, AECOM, Halff Associates and HDR, Inc. are engineering firms, some of which are used to winning no-bid contracts with the TRWD and its step-child the TRVA (Trinity River Vision Authority).
And then there is Kay Granger donating $2,700 to each of the TRWD's favored trio. If control of the TRWD Board is lost it is fairly obvious that Kay Granger's boy, J.D., will quickly lose the job of TRVA Executive Director, overseeing what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.
If control of the TRWD Board is lost, soon to follow would likely be an investigation into what has gone wrong with the construction of the TRVA's three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, exposing who is responsible for the bridge building foul up.
Like maybe one, or all, of those engineering firm's donating money to the chosen trio have been responsible for the bridge engineering debacle.
And then there is America's Biggest Boondoggle, otherwise known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.
Many stand to lose if insider control of the TRWD Board is lost. All those insiders who stand to gain if the Trinity River Vision ever becomes anything anyone can see.
If insider control of the TRWD Board is lost there would soon be a reckoning regarding the entire Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. Likely many people would lose their cushy jobs for which they have been well paid, for so long, for doing so little, so badly.
And then there is the General Manager of the TRWD, Jim Oliver, and all his nepotistic hires. Should the insiders lose control of the TRWD Board I can guarantee Jim Oliver's employment would quickly be terminated. Along with all his relatives.
So, do you see how it is so many have a motivation to do just about anything to keep control of the TRWD Board? Lie, steal, as in steal elections, lie some more, cover up, spend a lot of money spewing a lot of propaganda lies.
And the saddest thing, to me, is it is highly likely the TRWD Board insiders are going to win again. The results are stacked in their favor.
Sad, perplexing, appalling and pitiful...
*UPDATE: An entity called the Dallas Citizens Council has donated $20,000 to the Mike Moncrief Out Water Our Future PAC...
ALSO: And Now A Special Purpose TRWD Committee ReportPLUS: A Motherly Letter From Kay Granger About A TRWD Election
