The Collin County Observer

Since the 81st Texas Legislature was called into session on January 13, Collin County taxpayers have watched a parade of their elected county officials and staff troop back and forth to Austin.

Who pays for all these trips?

Commissioner Jerry Hoagland (left), and County Judge Keith Self (right) testify on opposite sides of SB855 before the Senate Transportation Committee. The guy in the middle wants to be anywhere else but there.

The taxpayers of Collin County pay.

Both Judge Self and Commissioner Hoagland flew to Austin last week to testify on opposing sides of the Local Option Transportation District bill (SB855). Taxpayers paid for both trips.

It seemed that both Self and Hoagland were advocating personal agendas. At their last meeting, the Commissioners Court had agreed not to take a position on SB855.

Both Self and Hoagland are running for re-election in 2010 and both are anxious to differentiate themselves from each other in the eyes of the voters.

I asked both Judge Self and Commissioner Jerry Hoagland the same question, "Would you care to comment on the appropriateness of taxpayers footing the bill for legislative lobbying on issues where the Commissioners Court has not voted on a resolution taking a stance on those bills being advocated or opposed?"

Self replied, "I represent the citizens of Collin County as their County Judge, and part of that representation is to travel to Austin during the legislative session in order to participate in the legislative process on their behalf."

Hoagland's response was, "I was representing myself as one commissioner (not the entire comm. court) and have only testified on the one bill."

I thought it interesting that neither claimed to speak for the commissioners court, yet both felt that they had the right to travel using taxpayer's money.

The week before, Judge Self and 2 staff members flew to Austin to testify against the County Auditor. That trip too was on the county's tab.

Auditor Don Cozad, his attorneys, and 2 of his staff also traveled to the capitol to speak that day. I suspect that the county did not pay their way to Austin.

In his response to me, Judge Self noted that, "Collin County does not spend taxpayer dollars on lobbyists because we believe that is the job of your elected officials." Judge Self and I are in full agreement that local government should not be paying lobbyists to influence other local elected representatives.

Two of the trips that the taxpayers paid for were to oppose bills that would allow those same taxpayers the right to referendum on creating new taxes.

When the Commissioner's court votes in open session to support or oppose a bill before the legislature, I think it is proper for them to then appoint a spokesman or team to argue the county's position before the legislature. The county should then pay their representatives' travel expenses.

However, when the court has not stated a position on a bill, and an elected official feels moved to speak for all of us, then he or she should also feel moved to pay for the trip out of his own pocket.

Bill

Notes on lobbyists: According to recent Texas Ethics Commission filings, only one registered lobbyist claims to represent Collin County. James Hudson stated in his filing that he expected to bill the county less than $10,000.

Collin County is also a dues paying member of several organizations such as the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) which use members' dues to hire lobbyists.

According to Texas Ethics Commission filings, the TAC this year has employed 17 lobbyists with an combined expected billing adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last Sunday afternoon, my wife and I were traveling northbound on Central Expressway in Plano. We were heading to Allen, when I noticed that all traffic in front of us had stopped.

We were lucky that we were just at an off ramp. We escaped the gridlock, and went to lunch. Well over an hour and a half later, traffic was still stopped. I was told by one reader of this blog that he was stuck in the backup for over an hour.

When I asked the Plano Police Department what happened, a spokesperson sent me this remarkable picture.

A motorcycle had tried to enter the HOV lane and was struck from behind by a car. In the picture, you can see the double white line of the HOV lane. The car rode up on the bike, which never fell over. I was told that the motorcyclist ended up under the car. Miraculously, he survived.

I did not ask for the names of the drivers or injured nor their present condition.

Bill

Late Monday evening, the Texas House County Affairs Committee held a hearing on HB515.

HB515 was introduced by Reps. Allen Vaught and Carol Kent, both Dallas Democrats. The bill would allow citizens to file a petition forcing an election to merge the Dallas County Hospital District (Parkland) with a contiguous county. Elections would have to be held in both the petitioning county and in Dallas County, and voters in both would have to approve it for the merger to take place.

The Collin County Commissioners Court vehemently opposes the bill. Merging with Parkland is one of their worst fears.

Dallas County Judge Jim Foster and Parkland President Dr. Ron Anderson both testified that the merger was to the benefit of all counties, and might be needed so that Parkland could remain a level 1 Trauma center. If Parkland were to give up their level one status, the closest level one center would be in Houston. It was pointed out that when a traffic accident in Collin or Rockwall Counties results in a horrific trauma, the patient is almost always airlifted to Parkland - whether or not the victim is insured. Loss of access to Parkland would inevitably cost the lives of some suburban residents.

Dr. Anderson and members of the committee pointed out that Parkland not only served the poor and indigent, but also insured Dallas and suburban residents with the region's premier trauma center, burn unit and 24 hour psychiatric center.

Parkland's indigent care covers uninsured citizens who earn up to 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Judge Foster testified that last year, Parkland absorbed over $20 million in unpaid bills from suburban residents. Collin county covers up to 100$ of FPL, but also subjects applicants to an asset test that disqualifies more poor folks than the income level does. Other counties have more stringent income qualifications.

At one point during his testimony, Dr. Anderson quoted the Ellis County Judge as telling him, "Why buy the cow, if I can get the milk for free."

While County Judge Keith Self attended the hearing, he wisely (after the drubbing he got the last time he appeared before the County Affairs committee) did not testify. Commissioner Kathy Ward and the County's Health director, Candy Blair spoke on behalf of the commissioners court.

Commissioner Ward was closely questioned by several members of the committee, especially Chairman Garnet Coleman and Rep. Valinda Bolton. The Chair, in particular was inclined to lecturing on the history of health care benefits and legislation in Texas. Commissioner Ward, however remained poised and gracious, and the committee reciprocated. Her reception was in stark contrast to the last two legislative appearances by our county officials.

Ward testified that the county was willing to explore new ideas in indigent care, but that they were opposed to HB515 because the election would be too expensive and because it wasn't clear how much of Parkland's debt Collin County residents would have to assume.

Ward also stated that Collin County paid its bills. She noted that last year, the county paid Parkland on 143 invoices for 'qualified' Collin County indigents. What she did not list was the number of bills that went unpaid, because the county would not grant benefits because of income or asset tests.

Ward noted that an election would cost the county over $400,000. She rightly stated that HB515 would allow only 50 voters to file a petition to force an election. Ward pointed out that Collin County had any number of political activists who could go to any 7-11 and get 50 signatures before lunch.

Ward's $400,000 figure would be correct if the referendum was the only item on a county-wide ballot. However, HB515 does not mandate a special election. Nothing in the bill would prevent the commissioners from scheduling the election at the next regular election date. Combining the referendum with normally scheduled elections would drastically reduce the cost.

Ward also objected to a provision in the bill which would grant Dallas County commissioners the right to appoint the Hospital district's representatives from the annexed county. She stated that there was no way Collin County Commissioners would agree to that. She is right on target with that - in order to be fair to all sides, that provision of the bill needs to be reworked.

As to the debt issue, it is addressed in the bill, "If the district has outstanding debts or taxes, the voters in the election to approve the annexation must also determine if the annexed territory will assume its proportion of the debts or taxes if added to the district."

Candy Blair told the committee that according to Parkland's own statements during its last bond election, 90% of patients from suburban counties were insured and their bills were paid at a much higher percentage than patients from Dallas County.

With both HB515 and the Local Option Transportation Bill (SB855) asking local voters to take control over their own destinies by using the ballot box to decide if they want to support mass transit or improved health care. The 81st legislature is blazing a new trail in proposing innovative approaches to some of the most difficult political problems we face in suburban Collin County.

The legislature is not dictating new taxes, instead it asks the voters, "Is a mass transit system worth paying higher taxes?" and "Is improving health care access worth paying a hospital district tax?"

The county would do well to negotiate with the legislature to remove the more objectionable provisions of these bills - and then let the voters decide.

Bill

The recording of the March 30 House County Affairs Committee is at the Legislature's web site, here (requires RealPlayer).

The hearing on HB515 begins at time stamp 4:26:25.

Kathy Ward's testimony begins at time stamp 4:55:33.

Collin County commissioners divided on bill that provides funds to extend rail service

Sunday, March 29, 2009
by Ed Housewright / The Dallas Morning News

Rail service carries a hefty price tag.

Consider this: A single mile of light rail can cost $70 million, according to industry estimates.

By contrast, a single lane-mile of highway costs about $2.5 million.

Collin County commissioners are engaged in a rancorous, politically charged debate over rail service. They're split on a widely supported bill that could provide funding to extend rail lines to Allen, McKinney, Frisco and throughout the region.

Opponents, such as Collin County Judge Keith Self and Commissioner Matt Shaheen, cite the enormous expense of rail service compared with building roads. They say rail wouldn't carry enough riders to justify the sky-high cost.

For instance, extending rail from Plano to McKinney would cost almost $600 million, according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

"We need to make rail work," Shaheen said. "The problem is, the economics of rail now are just terrible."

Shaheen, Self and other opponents of the bill say rail service, if undertaken, should be funded by private investment and existing taxes. The new bill would allow cities the option of imposing new taxes or fees to extend rail.

Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland, a bill supporter, said the booming county can't wait to start expanding rail service. Its population is expected to grow by more than 50 percent over the next two decades.

"I don't like to pay taxes any more than anybody else," Hoagland said. "But we've got to do something if we're ever going to enhance our transit."

Commissioner Joe Jaynes also supports the bill.

"I'm not crazy about the plan," he said. "But I'm also not going to tell people you can't have the right to vote on this."

Currently, rail service barely reaches Collin County. The DART line stops at Parker Road in Plano, leaving a huge expanse of northern and eastern Collin County unserved.

A study conducted by the council of governments calls for adding 251 miles of rail service in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Rockwall and Tarrant counties. The expansion, projected to cost $9.5 billion, would be completed in about 20 years.

Besides the rail line from Plano to McKinney, the study also recommends a $679 million leg from Carrollton to Frisco and a $492 million extension from Garland to Wylie.

In the council of governments' plan, some areas would be served by light rail and some by commuter rail. DART, for instance, uses primarily light rail. It's more expensive and is powered by electricity. Commuter rail uses diesel power.

More than 40 cities and five counties in the region have passed resolutions supporting the rail funding bill.

read more....

Former Collin County Clerk dies

Staff reports / The McKinney Courier-Gazette
Sunday, March 29, 2009

Mrs. Helen Starnes, age 83, of McKinney passed away March 28 in Frisco. She was born on June 17, 1925, in Chambersville, Texas, to Floyd and Ruby (Redden) Thompson. On Nov. 30, 1942, she married Walter Howard "Curly" Starnes in McKinney. Mrs.Starnes worked for Collin County for more than 41 years.

She was appointed Deputy Clerk under Mr. James Webb on April 17, 1961. She served as Chief Deputy under Mr. Webb from December 1975 until May 1980.

On April 4, 1981, Mrs. Starnes was elected County Clerk, where she served until her retirement on December 31, 2002. She was also a lifetime member of Chambersville United Methodist Church.

She is survived by her son, Dicky Starnes and his wife, Sharon; grandson, Rowdy Starnes; and great grandchild, Brooklyn Starnes all of New Hope, Texas.

Mrs. Starnes was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Curly; brother, Burl Thompson and sister, Margie Foust.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 31 in the Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Chapel with Dr. Danny Buster officiating.

Interment will follow at Ridgeview Memorial Park. The family will receive friends for a visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. p.m. Monday at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home. To convey condolences or to sign an online registry, please visit www.tjmfuneral.com.

link to article....

The North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS) is operated by Collin County's Department of Homeland Security out of a room at the sheriff's office building.

The Collin County Observer released a copy of the February 19th "Prevention Awareness Bulletin" written and distributed by the NCTFS. The newsletter's message was that mainstream Muslim organizations were infiltrating American institutions, with the goal of gaining support for "Islamic-based issues".

The newsletter asked law enforcement to report legal, political behavior. Citing 'evidence' gathered from fringe conspiracy web sites, the article went so far as to say that because of lobbying efforts by Islamic groups, "the threats to Texas are significant."

Last Week, Caroline Fredrickson of the ACLU testified before the US House Homeland Security Committee. Speaking of the NCTFS's bulletin, Ms. Fredrickson testified, "Last month a Texas fusion center supported by DHS released an intelligence bulletin that described a purported conspiracy between Muslim civil rights organizations, lobbying groups, the anti-war movement, a former U.S. Congresswoman, the U.S. Treasury Department and hip hop bands to spread Sharia law in the U.S.30 The bulletin, which reportedly is sent to over 100 different agencies, would be laughable except that it comes with the imprimatur of a federally backed intelligence operation, and it directs law enforcement officers to monitor the activities of these groups in their areas."

The NCTFS calls itself an "all hazards" fusion center. All hazards generally means that the system is trying to compile, combine and assess law enforcement, commercial, internet and national intelligence data in the local region. These fusion centers attempt to gather and store huge amounts of data on the activities not only of criminals, but of local citizens. Even the US Department of Homeland Security has been wary of privacy risks in these "all hazards" centers.

In December of 2008, the DHS issued a "Privacy Impact Statement" on regional fusion centers. The DHS report called for the establishment of community oversight committees and the prominent public disclosure of privacy policies, information collected and how the information will be used.

The NCTFS has not subscribed to nor adhered to these guidelines.

Bill

=============================================

Keystone Kounter-Terrorism
HUNTING RADICALS IN NORTH TEXAS

March 20,2009
By Forrest Wilder / The Texas Observer

A bizarre, conspiracy-laden memo sent to almost 3,000 cops, fire marshals and public-health officials in North Texas links mainstream Muslim-rights organizations and anti-war groups to Middle Eastern terrorists, and calls on law enforcement to “report these types of activities.”

The leaked memo, dated Feb. 19 and labeled “For Official Use Only,” is one in a weekly series of “Prevention Awareness Bulletins” put out by the North Central Texas Fusion System, a regional intelligence-gathering center run by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security. Five such fusion centers, designed to consolidate and share intelligence with law-enforcement agencies, have been created in Texas since 9/11.

The bulletin has increased fears among civil libertarians and Metroplex Muslims that the North Central Texas Fusion System has edged into spying.

“This memo is not a plea for legitimate intelligence and seems to endorse discrimination against Muslims,” says Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. In a letter to state Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw, three Texas faith leaders have called for an investigation. The leaders say they find “troubling ... the lack of predicate for Reasonable Suspicion before Islamic and Leftist groups are to be spied upon in the course of their constitutionally protected civic activities.”

Serious as those implications are, the bulletin has a decidedly Keystone Kops: Kounter-Terror Squad flavor to it.

The memo suggests that terrorists have deployed lobbyists to turn Americans into pro-terror jihadists. “A number of organizations in the U.S. have been lobbying Islamic-based issues for many years. These lobbying efforts have turned public and political support towards radical goals such as Shariah [sic] law and support of terrorist military action against Western nations. ... The threats to Texas are significant.”

Who are these terror-loving lobbyists? The bulletin names names: The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil-liberties group; the peace organization ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism); and the International Action Center, a group opposing imperialism and militarism founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

“Law enforcement should be aware of activities in their area,” the memo advises.

If it sounds like the fusion center analysis was based on right-wing Web sites prone to conspiracy-mongering, that’s because it was. Citations include an article on HumanEvents.com by the author of such books as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America Without Guns or Bombs; and a review of Stealth Jihad on FrontPage magazine’s Web site.

It gets weirder. The author of the weekly Prevention Awareness Bulletin is James Johnson, son of Congressman Sam Johnson, a Republican who represents Collin County. James Johnson and his wife, Anita Miller, have received at least $1 million in no-bid contracts from Collin County since 2004 to design and run the fusion system.

James Johnson and Miller declined e-mailed requests to comment, but Collin County spokesman Tim Wyatt downplayed the significance of the memo.

“The bulletin didn’t direct any agency to investigate or target anybody,” he said. “I don’t think fire marshals in North Texas are out hunting for radical terrorists.” He did say that the county would review the sources and how the document was written.

Wyatt sent the Observer two January issues of the bulletin to show that most were concerned with more sober topics. One of the January bulletins does steer clear of the Muslim Menace altogether, discussing the law-enforcement implications of failing banks and progress made in preparing for flu epidemics. But the other, dated Jan. 22, includes a 12-point “Suicide Bombing Indicator Checklist.” FYI: Watch out for “inappropriate attire,” “sweating,” “mumbling,” and, of course, “last-minute indulgence in ‘sin’.”

link to article.....

The Dallas Morning News Transportation Blog today published an unsigned "talking points" memo from TxDOT designed to counter media and public criticism of its handling the Central Expressway HOV lanes.

In its memo, TxDOT insists that there are no design flaws in the HOV.

They do, however, state that the original design was for a reversible lane with concrete barriers. (After complaints from local politicians in Richardson and Collin County and after two studies, TxDOT relented.) The transportation department confirms that another study is ongoing.

The memo lists three traffic fatalities that have occurred on Central since the HOV lanes were opened, two of them were caused by drivers illegally jumping the lane barriers.

What got to me was the statement TxDOT makes about future plans, "While interim efforts within current funding, right-of-way and other constraints will continue, long-term planning for optimal facilities is ongoing. 635/The New LBJ project is under development and will provide a case study on separated managed lanes. Current advanced planning is underway to address I-35E with plans to implement similar managed lane design similar to The New LBJ. As noted earlier, long-term planning for the US 75 corridor is beginning and will continue. Performance of managed lanes on The New LBJ project is the template for the future."

Managed lanes, such as what's planned for I-635 are toll lanes, very expensive toll lanes. I call them Lexus Lanes.

So TxDOT's solution to the HOV complaints is to toll more?

Good Lord, when will it end!

Bill

You need to read the whole article before forming an opinion.

I know individual police officers, even good ones, sometimes make poor judgment calls, but in this case, even after nurses from the hospital and a Plano cop told him the driver was telling the truth about his mother-in-law dying, the cop continued to act like a real jerk.

It's up to the Dallas Police Department now. If they handle it poorly the issues become much more than that of just one bad cop on a power trip.

The incident occurred in a portion of Dallas that is in Collin County.

Bill

====================================

NFL player pulled over outside hospital while rushing to be with dying relative

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
By STEVE THOMPSON and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

As he rushed his family to the hospital, 26-year-old NFL running back Ryan Moats rolled through a red light. A Dallas police officer pulled their SUV over outside the emergency room.

Moats and his wife explained that her mother was dying inside the hospital.

"You really want to go through this right now?" Moats pleaded. "My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!"

The officer, 25-year-old Robert Powell, was unmoved. He spent long minutes writing Moats a ticket and threatened him with arrest.

"I can screw you over," the officer told Moats. "I'd rather not do that."

The scene last week, captured by a dashboard video camera, prompted apologies and the promise of an investigation from Dallas police officials Wednesday.

"There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least," said Lt. Andy Harvey, a police spokesman.

Moats' mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, was struggling at 45 with breast cancer that had spread throughout her body. Family members rushed to her bedside from as far away as California.

On March 17, the night of their incident with Powell, the Moatses had gone to their Frisco home to get some rest. Around midnight, they received word that they needed to hurry back to the hospital if they wanted to see Collinsworth before she died.

The couple, along with Collinsworth's father and an aunt, jumped into the SUV and headed back toward Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. They exited the Dallas North Tollway at Preston Road, just down the street from the hospital.

Moats turned on his hazard lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist signaled for him to go ahead. He went through.

Powell, watching traffic from a hidden spot, flipped on his lights and sirens. In less than a minute, he caught up to the SUV and followed for about 20 more seconds as Moats found a parking spot outside the emergency room.

read more....

Collin County not immune to unemployment woes

March 25, 2009
Inside Collin County Business, Collin County Business Press

For the first time since area unemployment rates began increasing, Collin County’s unemployment rate is at about par with the state’s. For the month of January, Collin County’s unemployment was 6.5 percent and Texas’ was 6.8 percent not seasonally adjusted, according to the Texas Work Force Commission.

Collin County’s unemployment rate represents 26,361 unemployed workers for January 2009 up from 17,157 a year ago.

“The national economic crisis is beginning to have a serious, negative impact on our Texas economy,” said TWC Chairman Tom Pauken.

Industry losses hit manufacturing and trade, transportation and utilities sectors the hardest, down 38,100 and 26,600 jobs, respectively. Trade, transportation and utilities include wholesale and retail trades, air and rail transportation and transmission of electric power and natural gas, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

“Although the unemployment rate in Texas is lower than in other parts of the country, it has gone up in recent months and we are concerned,” said TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Ronny Congleton. “I encourage job seekers to seek assistance at more than 240 Texas workforce centers providing help with work search, skills training and other services.”

Education and health services grew by 3,200 positions for an industry gain of 50,100 jobs in the past year. Leisure and hospitality continued its growth trend, adding 1,600 jobs in January and 17,400 jobs in the past 12 months.

read more....
(subscription may be req'd.)

When Ed Housewright of the Dallas Morning News published his story, "Collin, Denton officials debate path of future Dallas North Tollway extension" on the conflict between Collin and Denton Counties over the DNT extension, my first reaction was, "Good Lord, it's about time someone at the DMN noticed!". After all, it was back last spring when the Collin County commissioners rescinded their agreement with Denton County and began taking the first steps to creating the Collin County Toll Road Authority.

When Collin County then began actions to actually take over the tollway extension, the Dallas Morning News barely blinked.

Now after Senator Carona filed a bill to force Collin County to submit to NTTA and after Keith Self got a tongue lashing from Senators Carona and Watson over the County's high handed actions, NOW the Dallas News catches on.

So it would appear that now NTTA wants to float an idea that is a win-win for both counties.

Why not have two Dallas North Tollways?, says NTTA. We'll take one up northwest through Denton County to I-35 and the other northeast through Collin County to US-75. Of course, they say, this "Y" is phase 4 of the DNT extension, and is at least 10 years away from beginning construction, so we have a lot of time to work out the details with you.

The only problem is what is Collin County to do with the Outer Loop? Last month, the county commissioners approved spending over $3 million to begin engineering on Phase 3 of their portion of this new toll road.

Phase 3 of the Outer Loop connects the Dallas North Tollway to US-75 only 3 miles south of the proposed "Y". Does the region need 2 tollways between Proper and Celina that make a connection to I35 and US-75? I doubt it.

Should Collin County wait 10 years to find out? Or should they gamble with 3 million dollars?

Delaying the engineering, will delay the project and make it much more expensive. But building the "Y" puts the entire regional Outer Loop in jeopardy with two toll roads competing for the same traffic.

Is it more likely that NTTA is playing a game with our intrepid commissioners?

One glance at a map tells the story. The "Y" is a direct threat to the regional Outer Loop. (I've sketched in the green "Y" and orange Outer Loop. The Dallas North Tollway phase 4 extension is the red dashed line.)

There is no reason to have two toll roads only three miles apart that make the same connections. There just isn't enough traffic to Oklahoma to justify both.

NTTA's Chairman, Paul Wageman told the commissioners a few weeks ago that the Outer Loop is not a Collin County exclusive. It is a regional highway covering 6 counties and possibly connecting to the Trans Texas Corridor. It is much bigger than Collin County - no matter how important it is to our county, it has regional and statewide significance.

This trial balloon "Y" proposal seems designed to reinforce that lesson on the country boys in McKinney.

Bill

==================================

Collin, Denton officials debate path of future Dallas North Tollway extension


Monday, March 23, 2009
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

A simple line on a map could translate into billions of dollars for either Collin County or Denton County.

That line represents a proposed extension of the Dallas North Tollway, and the adjacent counties are squabbling over the alignment because of the economic bonanza it could bring as homes and businesses spring up around it.

Collin and Denton county officials had agreed the 7-mile stretch should be on the counties' common border to let each share in the riches.

But now Collin County commissioners insist on an alignment entirely within their county.

"This thing is like pure gold as far as the tax base is concerned," Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said. "Office, retail and so forth will spring up when it hits the ground."

Denton County officials accuse Collin commissioners of reneging on a written resolution in 2005 to share the extension right of way.

"I was very disappointed," Denton County Commissioner Andy Eads said. "Everyone represents their own jurisdiction, but we also have to wear the hat of regionalism."

The North Texas Tollway Authority alone will decide the path of the expansion, from FM428 in northern Collin County to its border with Grayson County.

Despite the agreement between Collin and Denton counties, the agency has never committed to build the extension along their boundary, said Paul Wageman, NTTA board chairman.

An alignment decision is more than a year away, he said. Construction probably wouldn't be complete for more than a decade.

"We're not going to make a political decision," said Wageman, a Collin County appointee to the board. "We're going to make the right decision for the agency."

The tollway authority recently proposed an extension alternative that could please both counties.

Instead of a single roadway northward, the agency is considering a branch that would veer northwest across Denton County and another northeast into Collin County.

"It's the best of both worlds," Collin County Commissioner Joe Jaynes said.

If the NTTA board decided on the so-called Y alignment, the Collin County branch probably would be built first because it's growing faster than Denton County, Wageman said.

Each leg would connect with another major thoroughfare.

The Collin County extension would run into U.S. 75, while the Denton County arm would meet Interstate 35, Wageman said.

"It gets both counties what they ultimately want, which is greater access into the metroplex and all the development that goes along those roadways," he said.

Dave Denison, a Denton County appointee to the NTTA board, said he's willing to consider the split extensions.

"It's got some interesting possibilities," he said. "But it probably hasn't been studied enough yet to really draw a conclusion."

However, he said he still likes the alignment that would straddle the boundary of Collin and Denton counties. Mr. Denison said he's angry that Collin County commissioners voted last year to rescind the 2005 agreement.

"The alignment was fair for both counties," he said. "Nobody likes to have a partner renege on them."

Collin County commissioners also riled NTTA board members recently by creating a separate county toll road authority.

The new body hasn't taken any action yet. But commissioners want the option to operate county toll roads and keep the fares.

Now, Collin County partners with Denton, Dallas and Tarrant counties in the North Texas Tollway Authority.

Fares collected on the Dallas North Tollway, Bush Turnpike and other roads are used for improvements throughout the four counties.

But the NTTA has so many projects under way it won't be able to build toll roads fast enough in booming Collin County, officials say.

"We can't wait for the NTTA," Hoagland said. "We've got to take matters into our own hands."

Wageman, however, said Collin County should focus its energies on supporting the NTTA and its regional approach.

"They are a one-quarter owner of our agency," he said. "We have a tremendous investment in Collin County."

read more....

Editorial: Collin County should act regionally

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Collin County can act like a petulant sibling in transportation matters. This, even though North Texas' traffic congestion presents a dense thicket of problems that requires a coherent approach to solve.

So it is fortunate that a bill in the Texas Senate aims to rein in Collin County from becoming more of an outlier when it comes to regionally planned and operated toll roads.

At issue are two decisions from the Collin County Commissioners Court last year. One was the formation of its own toll authority. Second was its rescinding of a three-year-old resolution adopted jointly with Denton County, in which both had recommended that a future leg of the Dallas North Tollway proceed along the counties' mutual border. Collin County ultimately decided it wanted the tollway extension – and the spinoff development – all to itself.

The alignment decision was a symbolic one, since the four-county North Texas Tollway Authority, a state agency, will determine what route will best meet traffic demands.

But the symbolism was a sign of things to come. And when the county created a competing tollway authority, it appeared as though reason ran into the ditch.

Commissioners contend that the county's own tolling agency would ensure that residents are treated fairly when it comes to revenue distribution. But residents ought to ask for the price tag of ramping up a new government apparatus and taking on the administrative and planning functions already done by a regional government agency. The NTTA, in fact, includes two Collin County representatives on its nine-member board – including the current chairman. Further, North Texas' umbrella planning group, the Regional Transportation Council, has an established, equitable toll-sharing policy based on the registration of cars that use a pay road.

As filed, Sen. John Carona's SB 882 could settle this game of brinksmanship. It would permit a county toll authority to advance a project only with signoff from the regional toll-road agency. If some local officials want to work at cross purposes with other transportation providers in the region, Austin has a legitimate reason to step in.

link to editorial....

It was back in 2003 that Collin County made the decision to purchase all electronic, touch screen voting machines from Diebold. They have been used in every election since then.

Many, including this author have expressed concerns that the use of digital voting machines did not provide the essential safeguards needed to absolutely assure that an election result was correct and honest. Without an auditable paper trail, all election audits come down to trusting that the equipment is totaling the votes correctly.

Elections are run, not on trust, but on verification.

A few years ago, Diebold spun off its election machine division to Premier Election Systems. Now comes the stunning news that Premier is admitting that these machines' audit trail is incomplete and unable to record if votes were deleted.

Several states, but unfortunately, not Texas, have prohibited the use of these direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines, unless they provide a paper copy of the vote that the voter can verify as correct.

In the 2004 Presidential election, one Collin County Diebold DRE locked up. Attempts to retrieve the votes on it failed, despite Diebold's assurances that such a thing could never happen due to multiple memories and fail safes.

The votes on that machine were finally counted by Diebold's programmers in Vancouver, Canada - out of sight of any Collin County election official or poll watcher. I know, I was one of the poll watchers at the county's central counting station that year.

Bill

=================

Diebold Admits Systemic Audit Log Failure; State Vows Inquiry

March 17, 2009
By Kim Zetter / Wired.com

SACRAMENTO, California — Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems) admitted in a state hearing Tuesday that the audit logs produced by its tabulation software miss significant events, including the act of someone deleting votes on election day.

The company acknowledged that the problem exists with every version of its tabulation software.

The revelation confirmed that a problem uncovered by Threat Level in January, and reiterated in a report released two weeks ago by the California secretary of state's office, has widespread implications for election jurisdictions around the country that use any version of the company's Global Election Management System (GEMS) software to tabulate votes. The GEMS software is used to tabulate votes cast on Premier/Diebold touch-screen and optical-scan machine, and is used in more than 1,400 election districts in 31 states. Maryland and Georgia use Premier/Diebold systems exclusively, therefore the GEMS software counts every vote statewide.

"Today's hearing confirmed one of my worst fears," said Kim Alexander, founder and president of the non-profit California Voter Foundation. "The audit logs have been the top selling point for vendors hawking paperless voting systems. They and the jurisdictions that have used paperless voting machines have repeatedly pointed to the audit logs as the primary security mechanism and 'fail-safe' for any glitch that might occur on machines.

"To discover that the fail-safe itself is unreliable eliminates one of the key selling points for electronic voting security," Alexander said.

Following a public records request of GEMS logs, Threat Level previously reported that the Premier/Diebold logs did not indicate when election officials in Humboldt County, California, intentionally deleted more than two dozen batches of ballots from their system during the November general election.

The finding raised questions about the integrity of elections conducted with the system, but it was unknown at the time whether the problem with the audit log existed with other versions of the GEMS software used in other counties in California and across the country. Premier/Diebold didn't respond to phone calls seeking information at the time.

The secretary of state's report (.pdf) discussed the same problem with the logs but also did not indicate whether the problem existed with every version of the GEMS software.

A Premier/Diebold representative confirmed at the hearing that none of its logs records such events.

When asked by a member of the California secretary of state's staff if the company had done anything to address the problem, Justin Bales, general service manager for Premier/Diebold's western region said, "No, not yet."

Bales went on to say that the GEMS logs have been the same since the software was first created more than a decade ago.

"We never, again, intended for any malicious intent and not to log certain activities," Bales said. "It was just not in the initial program, but now we're taking a serious look at that."

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen called the audit logs "useless" and vowed to investigate the issue further. She told Threat Level after the hearing that an examination of audit logs in other voting systems was also merited in light of these revelations. "Clearly, we're going to have to look at this," Bowen said. "That's one of the obvious next steps."

The secretary of state's office was holding a hearing to discuss a report it released two weeks ago examining what occurred on a Premier/Diebold system in Humboldt County that lost almost 200 ballots during the November presidential election. Premier/Diebold has stated that a programming flaw in version 1.18.19 of its GEMS software caused the ballots to be deleted but has said the problem was fixed in a later version of the software.

read more....

Editorial: Tollway unnecessary in Denton County

Issue date: 3/24/09
The North Texas Daily, The official student newspaper of the University of North Texas

Denton and Collin counties are in a squabble concerning the route of a proposed extension of the Dallas North Tollway. Collin County wants a 7-mile stretch to be located exclusively in its confines, while Denton County wants the tollway to be built on the border of the two counties.

The North Texas Tollway Authority, which has the last word on if and where the road will be built, should reconsider the consequences of having yet another highway built in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

Generally when highways or tollways are constructed, development and economic growth follow in the surrounding area. However appealing this may sound, construction also leads to suburban sprawl, which causes many problems of its own.

Suburban sprawl usually lacks effective planning because the fast economic growth that follows the building of major roads is difficult to control. As developers stake out their claim of land, many factors are ignored, such as energy, traffic flow and the environment.

Because of the low-density population levels in suburban cities, energy is not maximized and is often wasted. Resources are used to supply residents with their needs over vast distances, requiring energy to bring them to the consumer. Residents also use energy in the form of driving automobiles over large distances to get to work and shopping centers. Because grocery stores and other places are not planned to effectively accommodate the consumer, more gas is guzzled.

Traffic becomes a problem as more roads are built, even though they are meant to alleviate the problem. Suburban sprawl limits the effectiveness of public transportation as locations become spread out. It encourages people to move further out from a city's focal point, which often causes commutes to be longer as more people hit the road for work.

The environment is also altered in a manner not beneficial to residents in the area. Sprawl increases the amount of carbon dioxide emitted in an area as residents use vehicles to get around. Areas that once were grasslands or forests are replaced with impervious surfaces like concrete, which causes a decrease in our water quality as pollutants from cars are washed into the cities' water supply.

Building more roads treats the symptom of a larger problem. Gas will not be cheap forever, and plans must be made accordingly. As America shifts its focus to energy efficiency in the 21st century, North Texas would be wise to adopt methods of planning to reduce the amount of traffic in the area without more road building.

link to editorial...

County Judge Keith Self has posted his written statement given to the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee on SB855.

Sen. Watson lectures Keith Self at SB855 hearing

The written statement is very different from Self's oral testimony last week. Both however refer to the Local Option Transportation Act as a "tax increase". That characterization was hotly disputed by Senators Carona and Watson during Self's appearance at the committee hearings.

In a phrase reminiscent of Self's February, 2008 weird blog post comparing the NCTCOG to the Soviet Union's central planning, Self several times refers to the bill as building "a command economy".

On Sunday, the Dallas Morning News wrote an editorial piece on Self's appearance at the hearing. Calling it the, "Keith Self side show", the editorial noted that "Keith Self doesn't speak for all of Collin County", and that the senate bill gives local taxpayers a choice on whether to tax themselves or not.

On Monday, Judge Self is expected to brief the Commissioners' Court on his testimony and the status of SB855 and other bills the court has labeled priorities. At his briefing at the last court session, Self described the committee hearings as no place for "sissies". I wonder if he'll now be comparing Austin to Golgotha.

After the near lynching Keith Self has received in his last two appearances before a legislative committee, the Commissioners Court might do well to appoint one of its more rational members as their spokesman for any future committee testimony.

Bill

Update: March 25 - by a 7-2 vote, The Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee passed SB855 to the full Senate.

Judge John McCraw, Jr. served as district judge in Collin County's 219th District Court from 1997-1986. After leaving the bench, he founded what is now the McCraw Gantt law firm, and for many years he has served as a visiting judge in courts all over the region.

But not only does McCraw judge, he digs too.

He is an avid amateur archeologist and one with family roots in Collin County that go back to the days of the Republic of Texas.

On Friday, March 27, Judge McCraw will give a talk about his experiences and finds digging while in Collin County at a presentation sponsored by the North Texas History Center. The program will begin at 7PM at at The Pantry Restaurant, 214 E. Louisiana in McKinney.

Tickets for this event which benefits the North Texas History Center are Adults: $25 or $20 for members, children $15. Purchase tickets via telephone at 972.542.9457 or in the NTHC online gift shop.

Bill

County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland was first elected to the Collin County Commissioners Court in 1980. Last week, the 68 year old commissioner announced he would seek re-election.

Here is his announcement:

There is a time for everything, but now is not the time for me to retire. There are currently too many important issues on Collin County’s table that need to be dealt with - issues about which I have intimate knowledge and firm convictions. I would be shirking my responsibility to you if I walked out now and left these items for someone else to deal with.

I am currently working on a project that could be the biggest thing to ever hit Collin County and could create as many as 30,000 jobs. This project involves an intermodal facility on the eastern side of our county. An intermodal facility is a transportation hub where ground, rail and air components converge to handle foreign shipments of goods (much like Alliance Airport in Tarrant County). As the Metroplex continues to grow we will need something like this in our county to provide for our everyday existence. I want the county to conduct an economic feasibility study to determine the need for such a facility. Once the study is completed some other citizens and I will do our best to entice private enterprise to complete the project (assuming the project is economically feasible and I can’t believe that the study will not show otherwise).

Municipal Utility Districts (MUD’s) continue to be a challenge for Collin County. State law allows land developers to recoup up to eighty percent of their investment in a residential subdivision. Future homeowners should bear the burden of this reimbursement, not you. These reimbursements involve millions of dollars that existing taxpayers should not be saddled with.

Mobility continues to be an issue for our citizens. We need to make sure that Collin County continues to receive our fair share of the Sam Rayburn Tollway (State Highway 121) money placed on deposit by the North Texas Tollway Authority with the TxDot involving $XXX. The expansion of mass transit (DART) to other cities in our county, while being fair to the currently existing member cities, is also something that will be needed in the future. This project will be very costly, but necessary. A high speed rail (200 mph +) from Dallas to Houston is another project that I intend to be engaged in as we continue to move forward in the future. I believe you should have a say in both of these important rail questions.

Thank you. I look forward to continuing to work for the betterment of Collin County in the future.

Jerry Hoagland
Collin County Commissioner

Foreclosures continue to climb, reach new records
The latest data shows a record number of foreclosed homes in Collin County will go on the market next month.

March 22, 2009
By Danny Gallagher, McKinney Courier-Gazette

Home foreclosures continued to climb across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex including in Collin County, which had the second highest monthly increase for April.

Collin County's home foreclosures jumped by 29 percent to 697 homes for the April auction block, according to records compiled by Foreclosure Listing Service of Fort Worth.

The monthly total marked a new all time high for Collin County and marked the third time more than 600 homes were foreclosed on in a single month including last February and February of 2008, according to compiled data.

So far, 2,388 notices have been filed on foreclosed homes in Collin County for the first four auctions of the year, which represents a 16 percent increase over the 2,064 foreclosed homes in the same four-month period the previous year.

The affects of home foreclosures could be felt across the Metroplex, said George Roddy, presidents of Foreclosure Listing Service.

“In both Denton County & Collin County, a new monthly record high was reached with April’s home postings," Roddy said. "And, in Dallas and Tarrant Counties, home postings for the upcoming auction climbed to the second highest monthly level on record.”

Roddy said not only did every county in the DFW Metroplex experience a double-digit increase, but they also reached new record heights.

“For the upcoming foreclosure auctions in the D/FW Metro, 5,213 postings have been filed on homes. This was a 27% hike above the 4,108 filed for the same month last year; and, compared to last month’s 4,276 notices, there was a 22% increase," Roddy said. “The only other month that residential postings reached above 5,000 was in February of last year when the record level was achieved with 5,315 postings filed.”

read more....

The Collin County Observer has been getting hundreds thousands of Google hits searching for an election that will not happen.

There will be no Constitutional Amendments on the May ballot, in fact there is NO May 12 election.

Election day is May 9, 2009. The ballot will contain local City council, School Boards, local bonds and initiatives. The earliest a Constitutional Amendment election could be held is in September, but as of yet, the Texas Legislature has passed no Amendment resolutions.

From the Unwasted Life blog:

Let me repeat, THERE IS NO Texas Homestead Exemption Vote on ballot in May 2009.

I’ve gotten this email more times than I care to count recently:

The email is a hoax.

In 2008, I wrote:

There is no proposition on the ballot for Over 65 homestead exemptions. That was last year! This email is a year old...even the date for the election is wrong. This year Election Day is on May 10.

The Texas Legislature meets every other year. It did not meet this year, so no amendments could possibly be on your ballot.

Oh, and by the way, the amendment passed, but it only extended the exemption for the 2006 and 2007 tax years. So it has expired. In order to continue to preserve the Senior Citizen Homestead Exemption, I assume you will see it again on the ballot in 2009.

This email will probably still be going around in time for the 2009 elections.

Well here it is!

Bill

Judge Keith Self should have seen it coming. After all, he told the commissioners court last week that testifying before a legislative committee was "no place for sissies."

Tuesday, members of the Texas Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee proved him right about at least that one thing.

For at least a month, Keith Self has been leading a campaign against Senator Carona's SB855, the Local Option Transportation Act.

The bill would allow cities to require a commissioners court to call an election where the voters could create a taxing district that would be able to develop mass transportation projects.

Self, ignoring the fact that the bill allows the voters to choose to tax themselves or not, has been charging that passage of the bill, "Would add a whole new set of taxes to fund every sort of transportation and transit project, as well as give authorities over those tax funds to an entity outside the county."

As Judge Self learned, while email and blogs can get away with inflammatory and half true statements, its not a good idea to use the same tactic in a legislative committee hearing.

SB 855 has the support of most of the cities and counties in the region. Representatives from Denton County, Dallas County, Hunt County, the cities of Plano, McKinney, Frisco, Richardson, Greenville, Commerce and Arlington, the Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas Chambers of Commerce, DFW Airport and DART all testified for passage of the bill.

Opposition came from several anti-tax PACs and of course from Judge Keith Self.

After more that 2 hours of testimony, the drama came when the Committee called for Judge Self and Commissioner Hoagland to testify.

Self led off, beginning with a comment that over the last ten years, state spending had grown twice as fast as the increase in population and inflation. Self then stated that, "This is a tax increase". When he later repeated the tax increase charge, it was too much for Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin) to bear.

Watson said, "You just indicated that we're passing a tax increase. I think you're wrong about that. I hope that what you'll do is go back and look at the bill."

Watson added, "When you say we're passing a tax, that is not true. It is responding to a request from local elected officials and local communities, saying,'We need some help'.".

Wagging his finger at Self, Watson added, "But to say we are passing a tax increase is just a wrong statement. And I just want to make sure that you're clear about that, because I think it is inappropriate... The local community has to make the decision as to whether to have an election, and then would have to have an election."

Watson then told Self, "I know that in politics it's fun and it gets some people some support by throwing around words that's not entirely accurate, but I would ask you that when you're appearing before this committee, that's working as hard as it can to meet the needs of people across this state, that you take care in the way you characterize their work."

Self should have seen it coming.

If he did, he shrugged it off and plowed on. After the Judge completed his statement calling the result of the bill a 'hodge-podge system', Senator John Carona (R-Richardson) weighed in.

Carona let loose a blast at Self, saying, "Judge, we would welcome your help, but thus far we haven't seen any of it. The only thing I've seen so far is a series of emails you've sent out to the various anti-tax groups like yourself. But we would welcome your constructive input."

"But given the fact that overwhelmingly the cities in your county support this, it seems to me that you do a disservice to the community by sending out the missives you've sent out before you even knew or understood what the bill said."

Carona concluded with, "And then divorcing yourself from any opportunity to make the bill better or to offer anything constructive is really tragic. It is especially tragic that in a progressive part of the state like Collin County that this would represent the future leadership of the county."

After the whipping on Self, it was Commissioner Jerry Hoagland's turn to speak. Hoagland began his testimony by pointing out that when he was first elected commissioner, the county's population was 144,000. It is now over 750,000, Hoagland said, and will be as large as Dallas County is now by around 2042.

Reading from a prepared statement Hoagland said that failure to plan for future growth would result in log jams on our highways streets and toll roads.

Calling those who call the county's tax rate too high are playing "chicken little, the sky is falling", Hoagland pointed out that Collin County citizens pay some of the lowest county taxes in the state.

"I believe there is something worse than paying a few dollars in taxes. That something is sticking our heads in the sand and not planning for the future. Growth will gridlock us in the future and therefore cost us more tomorrow if we don't deal with this problem today.", said Hoagland.

Hoagland testified that the people have said they want rail mass transit, and that local government officials have no right to say that the people can not choose to tax themselves by holding an election and voting.

SB855 offers voters a choice of several tax schemes. It allows cities to require a countywide election where the taxes and district would be voted on by the county's voters. Senator Shapleigh (D-El Paso) objected to the bill because he believed it would create a number of districts instead of a united highway and rail system. Shapleigh and several Senators stated that the best way to fund transportation would be to raise the gasoline tax. While many on the committee agreed that a gas tax is a simpler and better approach, it was noted that a gas tax raise is impossible to enact since Governor Rick Perry has vowed to veto any gas tax hike.

SB855 is expected to be approved by the committee in a few days, after some tweaking.

After the fireworks over SB855, the committee then held a hearing on SB882.

SB882 is NTTAs response to the attempt by the Collin County Commissioners Court to hijack a future portion of the Dallas North Tollway. SB882 would give a regional transit authority, namely NTTA veto power over toll projects created by the Collin County Toll Road Authority.

As I described in an earlier article, the commissioners are terrified that NTTA could use its new authority to stop or limit the Outer Loop project.

In his testimony, NTTA Chairman Paul Wageman of Plano said that it made no sense for two public agencies to be at loggerheads over the same project without some level of cooperation.

Wageman then charged that, "Judge Self and the commissioners have had on their agendas, at least twice over the last few months, essentially court orders to issue contracts on elements of our system that are either owned entirely by the NTTA or under contractual arrangements."

Senator Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) tried to set the stage for a compromise, saying, "surely there is one way we can meet in the middle." Shapiro seemed surprised to learn that the county had tried to expropriate a part of the DNT.

Senator Carona jumped in, asking to be part of any negotiating team, saying, "I don't think Collin County plays nice lately. I don't think they have a regional concern, but only for provincial Collin County".

"Bad things happen if you don't play nice", Carona added.

Judge Self did testify, pleading that the county had already spent over $3 million on the Outer Loop and that the agenda items were a clerical mistake.

The bill was left pending further negotiations.

The county judge has now made two trips to the Capitol this month to testify at public hearings. Both ended poorly for him and his cause - in both Self was embarrassed to find that his brand of bombast and half truth might work in McKinney, but it is a real mistake to try to carry the same approach to Austin.

After the last legislative hearing, on the County Auditor bill, Self said he learned that the committee hearings were no place for sissies. It's too bad that's all he learned.

It's not about sissies. It's about integrity. It's about leadership.

Bill

Update 9:30AM on March 19
The Dallas Morning News blogs covered the hearing and the Collin County Observer:

Self to Carona: Don't give NTTA veto power over new new county toll authority

Carona to Collin County Judge Self: 'You do a disservice to your community'

Keith Self called out on his clumsy anti-tax rantings

The public hearing was captured on video tape and can be seen on the Texas Legislature's web site.

Judge Self's testimony on SB855 can be seen at time stamp 2:10:35

Jerry Hoagland's testimony is at time stamp 2:15:50

Hoagland's written statement is here.

Discussion of SB882 begins at time stamp 4:13:00

Last week, the commissioners court approved a $381,000 contract with the engineering firm of HTNB for a "Route Study" to determine the final placement of a 9 mile, 6 lane divided highway over Lake Lavon that would connect FM 1378 in Lucas to SH 78 near Copeville. The road will span the entire width of the lake with 2 bridges, and eventually connect with the eastern leg of the Outer Loop.

The new highway and bridges would provide a more direct route from rapidly growing Lavon and Rockwall to Plano via Parker Rd. SH 205 to Rockwall is already scheduled to expand to 6 lanes.

The road will divert much of the westbound traffic from eastern Collin County from Wylie into Lucas, Parker, and Plano.

Almost immediately after the court's actions a group called "Save Lake Lavon" set up a web site to protest the bridges.

The group lists their mission as to, "Preserve the peace and tranquility of Lake Lavon, its parks, equestrian trails, camp grounds, fishing, swimming, boating, picnic and recreational areas."

Their home page is emblazoned with the headline "Help Save Lake Lavon", and explains, "We seek to avoid the ill fate of Lake Ray Hubbard and do not want Lake Lavon ruined by any more loud, unsightly, polluting bridges."

In another, related action, the court approved spending $450,000 as a 10% match to TxDOT funds for acquisition of land to widen Parker Rd (from Murphy Rd. to FM 1378) to 6 lanes.

In 2005, the county held a public meeting in Wylie to discuss the various routes a widened Parker Rd. could take. Four different right of ways were proposed. One veered sharply to the north to Lucas. It was explained that the northern route would connect with the proposed bridge across Lake Lavon.

The other 3 routes simply eliminated the 'dog leg' intersection of Parker and FM 1378, leaving the main route towards St. Paul and Wylie. Most of the meeting was spent exploring these 3 alternatives to the bad intersection at FM 1378.

During the 2005 meeting, residents expressed a variety of opinions, with several speaking out against the northern route. County officials and the engineers explained that there would be more public hearings before a decision was made on the final right of way.

I recently asked County Engineer Rubin Delgado if purchasing $4.5 million in land meant that the final route had been determined. Mr. Delgado wrote back stating, "We, the county, have set the alignment and are proceeding with the schematic and right-of-way plans leading to a public hearing."

Wow! The public hearing will be scheduled after all the decisions have been made and the plans are drawn.

It used to be "We, the people"; now its "We, the county".

So much for public input. Maybe these Save the Lake folks are on to something.

Bill

It seems that the Collin and Denton County NTTA board members don't like naming a road after a Democrat.

Me, I like naming a major highway for Speaker Sam Rayburn - but did it have to be a tollway?

Bill

======================

Some on tollway board criticize Sam Rayburn name change

Monday, March 16, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

If the U.S. House of Representatives was once known as Mr. Sam's House, in recognition of North Texas native Sam Rayburn's 17 years as speaker, the state's largest, costliest and most controversial toll road may soon be known as Mr. Sam's Tollway.

On Monday, the North Texas Tollway Authority board voted 6-3 to rename the State Highway 121 toll road in honor of one of Texas' most dominant figures ever to serve in Washington. Effective immediately, the 26-mile toll road will be known as the Sam Rayburn Tollway. Signs will be erected within weeks, NTTA spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt said.

"Personally I would have preferred Ronald Reagan Tollway,"
Denton County Judge Mary Horn

Rayburn was born and is buried in Bonham, Texas, about 50 miles northeast of NTTA's Plano headquarters. A mentor to Lyndon B. Johnson and a key ally of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the New Deal era, Rayburn is considered one of three Democratic giants to have represented Texas in Congress, along with Johnson and House Speaker and Vice President John Nance Garner IV, also known as "Cactus Jack."

Despite Rayburn's North Texas roots, naming the toll road after him was unusually divisive for the NTTA board. Three board members – including both representatives from Denton County and one of two from Collin County – strongly objected.

Denton County board member Dave Denison dismissed the choice as merely "nostalgic" and urged his colleagues instead to give the road a name closer to what most drivers already know it as, 121 Tollway.

"It is already known as 121, and it has been for years. It was called Highway 121 back when I was drag-racing on it 50 years ago," Denison said.

Denton County board member Michael Nowels told his colleagues he was dismayed by the vote to name the road after Rayburn, when the majority of the toll road runs through Denton County. Collin County board member Gary Base also voted against the change.

"I am disappointed and frankly surprised at how this is turning out," he said. "This road goes through Collin and Denton County, and the three board members who are from those two counties want it to be called 121. The other members are from someplace else."

NTTA chairman Paul Wageman, who also is from Collin County, noted that the toll road actually runs through Dallas County, too – albeit for just two miles.

What's more, he said, the only county commissioners court to weigh in on the naming – Denton County – voted unanimously to support calling it 121 Tollway.

"I would have much preferred it to be named 121," said Denton County Judge Mary Horn. "That's how it's been known for years now, and it's what everybody calls it."

Both Denton and Collin counties are heavily Republican, and Horn said if the authority was determined to name it for an individual, there were better choices.

"Personally I would have preferred Ronald Reagan Tollway," she said.

read more....

Does the election process choose the best judges?

Should Texas look to alternative to the election of judges? During the last few years, we Texans have watched as judges in our highest courts have been accused of wrong doing, of ethics violations, of conflicts of interest. Some have even been indicted.

Many think that Collin County is not immune - that we have had our share of weak or incompetent judges.

The last 2 Chief Justices of the Texas Supreme Court have called for reform in the judicial selection process. The current Chief Justice, Wallace B. Jefferson has gone on the stump, trying to convince Texans that they must find a smarter way to seat qualified judges.

On Friday, the Dallas Morning News published an op-ed article by Judge Jefferson. I found it to be both provocative and compelling.

Bill

================

Wallace B. Jefferson: Why not elect judges on merit, not whim?

Wallace B. Jefferson, Chief Justice Texas Supreme Court
Published March 12, 2009 in the Dallas Morning News

You don't know who I am. I don't blame you.

I have been on the statewide ballot three times, in 2002, 2006 and 2008. I was elected each time by impressive margins. Yet a July 2008 statewide poll found that 86 percent of the electorate had "never heard of" me. I won because Texans voted for Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John McCain.

My parents gave me a good ballot name. My beautiful wife and three handsome sons adorned political advertisements on network television. But these things tell you nothing about my intellect, integrity or temperament.

My success depended primarily on a straight-ticket partisan vote.

I lost Bexar County last November, although it is my home. I am the first African-American justice and chief justice on the Texas Supreme Court, and I am the descendant of a slave who was owned by a Texas judge. The irony of my pedigree, however, could not secure a victory in Harris County, where the black voter turnout reached record numbers.

I campaigned hard on merit: I have handled cases successfully in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of Texas. I was endorsed by every major newspaper in Texas. They said I was fair, impartial and independent. I was the choice of most lawyer associations. Ultimately, though, my qualifications were not relevant.

Even if I had never appeared in court, lost every endorsement and fared poorly in polls that assess qualifications, I would still have won in Texas. The state voted for McCain, and I was the down-ballot beneficiary.

Currently, merit matters little in judicial elections. We close our eyes and vote for judges based on party affiliation, even though a party label does not ensure a judiciary committed to the rule of law. We reject worthy judicial candidates whose names are hard to pronounce.

The men and women we elect in this arbitrary process make decisions that affect all of our lives. We don't know who they are.

In a close race, the judge who solicits the most money from lawyers and their clients has the upper hand. But then the day of reckoning comes. When you appear before a court, you ask how much your lawyer gave to the judge's campaign. If the opposing counsel gave more, you are cynical. Aren't you entitled to a fair hearing?

We must eliminate cynicism, money and partisanship in judicial selection. We should adopt a system for judges that has two primary components. Judges should achieve office by merit rather than whim, and voters should hold judges accountable, based on their records, through subsequent retention elections.

For the foreseeable future, I will win elections not because I am best suited for the job, but in spite of my qualifications. When a judge's victory is based on party over principle, money over merit, cynicism over the rule of law, voters lose.

Let's change the system so that the law governs neutrally. What more can we ask of democracy?

link to article....

Frisco's Allen Biehl writes for The Frisco Enterprise and posts many of his columns on his blog, The Frisco Line. Beihl is certainly one of the better local commentators. I enjoy his writing - it is usually thought provoking, and is rarely predictable.

On March 6, he published this piece on the Texas Legislature's attempts to control the governance of HOAs.

Bill

Reining in HOAs
Allen Biehl, The Frisco Enterprise / The Frisco Line
March 6, 2009

On the hierarchy of human needs, shelter ranks pretty high. Depending upon your situation, it’s likely right up there with food, water and watching football. Sadly, it’s this need that is most imperiled by today’s economic downturn. Foreclosures are at an all-time high, as homeowners struggle to meet their mortgage payments.

Consider, then, the case of homeowners who have met their mortgage obligation, yet still face foreclosure. You see, Texas is one of the few states that allows Home Owners Associations to initiate foreclosure for non-payment of fees. Granted, HOA dues are a contractual obligation that buyers know about before they sign on the dotted line. But unpaid fees can be made up of more than just dues. Penalties. Fines. Special assessments. All can add up – and in some cases, compound – until a homeowner is facing a hefty sum.

The scary part this is that, unlike most other governing bodies, HOAs are not subject to the same rules that apply to city or county governments, or even school districts. HOAs are guided only by their by-laws and declarations, which may vary widely from group to group, and may not even be publicly disclosed. They’re often controlled by people with little or no experience in public policy. This has led to cases where homeowners have racked up serious fees, often for minor “offenses” having nothing to do with dues. Push comes to shove and the next thing you know, they’re facing the loss of the roof over their heads.

At least two Texas legislators have had enough. Burt Solomons (R-Carrolton) has filed House Bill 1976 to try and curb some of the power HOAs wield in Texas. State Senator Royce West has filed a similar bill (SB429) in the Senate. Solomons' bill seeks to curtail HOAs in several areas, but the most significant is that it removes their ability to foreclose on a homeowner’s mortgage due to unpaid fines. They can still file a lien against the property, but in most cases they’ll have to wait until the property is sold to collect.

Taking the fight one step further, Solomons’ bill would change how HOAs do business. First of all, it requires that HOAs follow the same Open Meeting guidelines as every other government entity. No more closed door sessions and behind the scenes machinations. Everything out in the open, folks.

read more....

Two State Senators and four State Legislators represent the voters in the Texas State Legislature from districts that include parts of Collin County.

We the voters elect these folks to represent our interests, yet many of our local governments believe they have to hire expensive and well-connected lobbyists in order for their voice to be heard.

It would be near impossible to determine exactly how much of your tax money has been spent by local Collin County governments and quasi-governmental bodies to lobby the current session of the Legislature. However, the Texas Ethics Commission does require lobbyists to register and to reveal who they are representing, along with an estimated billing of their efforts.

I have listed below those lobbyists who have reported that they represent local government bodies, as well as government associations that our tax money pays dues to, and quasi-governmental bodies that operate with your tax dollars.

All this lobbying begs the question, Why do we need to pay others to insure that our elected officials look out for us?

Your elected State Senators are:
District 8, Florence Shapiro
District 30, Craig Estes

Your elected State Representatives are:
District 66, Brian McCall
District 67, Jerry Madden
District 70, Ken Paxton
District 89, Jodie Laubenberg

Bill

The following list is distilled from Texas Ethics Commission Reports. The list shows the client, followed by their lobbyist(s), along with the lobbyists registration number and the anticipated reportable revenue from that client.

City of Allen
Hill, Fred (00020297) $25,000 - $49.999.99

City of Celina
Scott, Rider (00035064) Less Than $10,000.00

City of Frisco
Aghamalian, Brandon T. (00059188) $10,000 - $24,999.99
Carr, Snapper L. (00039466) $10,000 - $24,999.99
McCartt, J. (00050674) Less Than $10,000.00
Russell, Kerry E. (00017375) Less Than $10,000.00

City of McKinney
Erben, Randall H. (00013689) $25,000 - $49.999.99
Wakefield, Kakhi Huffaker (00062269) Less Than $10,000.00
Yarbrough, Brian G. (00037475) Less Than $10,000.00

City of Richardson
Hill, Fred (00020297) $50,000 - $99,999.99

Collin County, Texas
Hudson, James Greg (00036094) Less Than $10,000.00

Conference of Urban Counties
Hill, Fred (00020297) $50,000 - $99,999.99

County Judges & Commissioners Association of Texas
Allison, James P. (00050989) $100,000 - $149,999.99

Dallas Area Rapid Transit
Brown, Jay P. (00039172) Less Than $10,000.00
Gibson, Machree Garrett (00028312) Less Than $10,000.00
Graydon, Galt (00013173) Less Than $10,000.00
Hill, Fred (00020297) $10,000 - $24,999.99
Propes, Jay W. (00014474) Less Than $10,000.00
Swan, Shannon Lea (00014744) Less Than $10,000.00

North Texas Municipal Water District
Embrey, Ty H. (00056282) Less Than $10,000.00
Lewis, Ron E. (00020172) $25,000 - $49.999.99
Martinez, Mindy M. (00060781) Less Than $10,000.00
Rochelle, Martin C. (00053106) $10,000 - $24,999.99
Russell, Kerry E. (00017375) Less Than $10,000.00
Sledge, Brian L. (00041086) Less Than $10,000.00
Valdez, Gerald A. (00053423) $25,000 - $49.999.99

North Texas Tollway Authority
Acevedo, Julianne (00053651) Less Than $10,000.00
Cain, Randy C. (00025263) $25,000 - $49.999.99
Eschberger, Brenda (00029854) Less Than $10,000.00
Johnson, Michael J. (00055885) Less Than $10,000.00
Kelley, Russell T. (00013737) Less Than $10,000.00
Kemptner, Sara (00057952) Less Than $10,000.00
McCarley, James Bradley (00034739) $50,000 - $99,999.99
McGarah, Carol (00051437) Less Than $10,000.00
Waldon, Barbara (00057030) Less Than $10,000.00

Texas Association of Counties
Boethel, Carey (00013205) Less Than $10,000.00
Brown, Timothy W. (00060546) Less Than $10,000.00
Casteel, Carter (00051154) $50,000 - $99,999.99
Emerson, Paul K. (00060548) Less Than $10,000.00
Erskine, Candis B. (00035590) $ 0.00
Erskine, John M. Jr. (00012969) $25,000 - $49.999.99
Flores-Ortiz, Aurora (00060541) Less Than $10,000.00
Forbes, Nanette (00056550) Less Than $10,000.00
Ford, Victoria C. (00060035) $10,000 - $24,999.99
Garcia, Laura (00060547) Less Than $10,000.00
Hill, Fred (00020297) $150,000 - $199,999.99
Leo, Myra (00034631) Less Than $10,000.00
McGinnis, Larry D. (00013432) $25,000 - $49.999.99
Nicholes, Laura (00053596) Less Than $10,000.00
Norris, Karen A. (00013179) Less Than $10,000.00
Roberts, Cary L. (00033594) $50,000 - $99,999.99
Sugg, Paul J. (00050735) Less Than $10,000.00
Thompson, John (00053597) Less Than $10,000.00

Thursday, the Collin County Commissioners Court voted against a motion to, "Request consideration and action for commissioners court approval to allow Homeland Security to submit a proposal with the University of Texas at Dallas to the United States Air Force for a information sharing program, funds to be disbursed from UT Dallas from grant funds provided by the United States Air Force in the amount of $400,000.00 beneficial to the Collin County Fusion Center operations and further authorize Kelley Stone to sign and submit a letter of commitment to UT Dallas on behalf of Collin county."

The grant request stated that, "Kelley Stone will manage the project" and that "The level-of-effort research and development is to be done by Dr. Johnson of ADB Consulting, as requested by UTD."

This grant request was on the court's consent agenda but was pulled for discussion by Commissioner Joe Jaynes because the request mentioned that the R&D in the grant program would be performed by Dr. James Johnson of ADB Consulting.

Jaynes said he would not vote any more funds that would go to ADB Consulting until he was briefed on the issues he's heard about. He asked Frank Ybarbo, the County Purchasing Agent to look into allegations outlined in a vendor's letter to the county that raised accusations of nepotism by ADB.

Last week, The Collin County Observer published a letter from Sypherlink that accused ADB and Dr. Bob Johnson of awarding an $80 thousand contract to Johnson's brother-in-law based solely on favoritism. Dr. Johnson is married to Anita Miller, the manager of the Fusion Center and is the son of US Congressman Sam Johnson.

Over the past 6 years, Collin County has paid ADB over $1.1 million in 'sole source', no bid contracts for the management of the North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS)

On a motion to approve the grant request, the court split on a 2-2 vote, thereby defeating the motion. Judge Self and Commissioner Hoagland voted "yes" Jaynes and Ward voted "No". Commissioner Matt Shaheen did not attend the court meeting.

The consent agenda also included getting court support for filing a grant request with 4th Congressional District Congressman Ralph Hall for a grant to fund, "operations, maintenance, and project support for the North Central Texas Fusion System." No dollar figure was attached to the grant request item.

This request for grant passed without discussion.

Bill

"It's not going to be for sissies." That's how County judge Keith Self cautioned the members of the court on testifying before a Texas House Committee. Self was relating to his experience at the Texas House Committee on County Affairs hearing on HB561 last Monday.

In his description of the hearing he said "it was all there, the politics of destruction and demonization." What he meant to say was, "There were a lot of witnesses there who disagreed with me." He then charged that he was chastised by two counties whose IT efforts were still in the dark ages.

In fact, there were no personal or nasty attacks. HB561 is a bad bill; it drew a determined opposition from auditors from around the state. The County Affairs Committee saw the bill as an attempt by the county to circumvent the verdict of the court in Collin County vs. Collin County Auditor

Self noted that he "learned a lot" from the experience. He was warning the court that Collin County efforts to support a bill allowing a county to require engineers, architects and surveyors to compete for county business by competitive bid would face strong opposition.

Self was speaking about the county's support for HB1105. That bill, authored by Jodie Laubenberg and Ken Paxton was written at the request of the Collin County Commissioners.

Self is right, he's going to face some very stiff opposition to HB1105. And he'll likely lose.

He might as well get used to it. It would appear that none of the county's legislative agenda will make it into law.

Collin County has defined these bills as its Legislative Agenda:

HB561
Author: Jerry Madden, Plano
"Relating to the authority of county auditors with respect to computer software and data of other local officers or departments."
This bill aims to strip the county auditor of the ability to monitor software. It was filed at the request of Collin County, and was presented in public hearing on Monday. It will not get out of Committee.

HB562
Author: Jerry Madden, Plano
"Relating to certain employment functions of county government."
This bill is also seen as an attack on the Collin County Auditor. It was debated in Monday's public hearing. I suspect its only chance of getting enacted will be if all mention of the auditor are removed.

HB1480
Author: Jerry Madden, Plano
"Relating to the use of video teleconferencing systems in certain criminal proceedings."
This bill would allow video testimony in grand jury proceedings and in certain plea hearings. It is generally considered unconstitutional, and will not get out of committee. It was written at the request of the Commissioners Court.

HB1105
Author: Jodi Laubenberg, Parker | et al.
"Relating to procuring contracts for certain professional services by a governmental entity."
This bill would allow the county to add a competitive bid dimension to the process of selecting engineers and architects for large construction projects. It was also filed at the request of the commissioners court. While the bill has some merit, it will draw powerful opposition. I doubt it will survive.

SB855 & HB9
Author: John Carona, Richardson & Truitt | et al.
"Relating to local options regarding transportation and mobility improvement projects in certain counties."
These bills would allow citizens to hold an election to form a mass transportation district that could levy a variety of taxes. It has wide support of most of the larger cities, and of DART and the RTC. It is expected to pass. The County opposes the bills.

HB2334 & SB882
Author: Geren & Carona
"Relating to the powers and duties of a regional tollway authority, including the establishment of an administrative adjudication hearing procedure; creating an offense."
These bills would gut the ability of the Collin County Toll Road Authority to build any toll road without getting the approval of the NTTA. The bills are seen as an aggressive self-defense move by the NTTA after Collin County tried to take over a portion of the Dallas North Tollway. By grasping for a piece of the DNT, the commissioners may lose the ability to build the Outer Loop. The bill sets the stage for a David and Goliath political battle. The problem is that the county forgot to bring their sling. Or as I remember from the "Untouchables", the county brought a knife to a gun fight. The commissioners are asking NTTA to negotiate a truce.

Bill

On Thursday's Commissioners' Court agenda is an item for the purchase of 50 tasers for courthouse security.

Homeland Security chief, Kelley Stone is asking for $50,394.98 for these 50 tasers to be issued to court bailiffs and sheriffs deputies working courthouse security.

Sounds like a reasonable idea, but Stone's justification is, I hope, purposely humorous. He notes that the use of tasers "does not cause environmental concerns, and does not require clean up or evacuation after use." What are they using now - radioactive bullets filled with toxic waste?

There are 6 county courts at law, one probate court, 9 district courts and one auxiliary court plus 2 guards at the University Drive courthouse and 2 at the Bloomfield Rd courthouse.

I count 21 deputies. Does each one need 2.4 tasers at $1,000 each?

Bill

Last night, WFAA, Channel 8's reporter Brett Shipp broadcast a 6 minute "investigative" piece on the Collin County vs. Collin County Auditor lawsuit.

Since April of 2008, The Collin County Observer has been the only news source covering this expensive ongoing turf war. We're happy that WFAA and Mr. Shipp's investigative skills have finally 'uncovered' this ongoing waste of taxpayer dollars. (We're also happy to include WFAA among our regular readers.)

In fairness, Shipp and Gloria Campos did a fine job of reporting. They even almost got it right most of the time. The video and accompanying story are posted on WFAA's website.

On Monday, the Texas House County Affairs Committee held a public hearing on Jerry Madden's HB561 which would prohibit the auditor from accessing software.

At the last minute before the hearing, Rep. Madden replaced his bill with a watered down "committee substitute" bill. The committee substitute still removed authority from the Auditor and gave department managers a veto over his ability to audit software. Madden told the committee that he wasn't finished rewriting the bill, and he would submit another rewrite.

I testified at the hearing, which lasted almost 3 hours. There was a good representation of auditors from around the state who testified against the bill.

The only people who spoke in favor of HB561 were Collin County Judge Keith Self, 2 county employees and Donald Lee, from the Texas Conference on Urban Counties (CUC).

You might remember that it is the CUC who is selling the Odyssey software to Collin and other counties around the state.

Testifying against the bill was the former Collin County Auditor, Pasco Parker, the current auditor Donald Cozad and 2 of his staff. Also offering testimony against the bill were representatives from El Paso County, Tarrant County, Travis County, Gaines County and the Texas Association of County Auditors.

By the end of the hearing, it seemed clear that the committee members believed that the bill would attempt to, in the words of one committee member, "change the rules for all 254 Texas Counties - only because the Collin County couldn't find a way to get along with their own auditor". Several committee members seemed embarrassed that this bill was brought before them.

My prediction is that HB561 is DOA - dead on arrival.

The hearing was recorded, and can be seen on the Texas Legislature's website.

The commissioners can drag this on at even more taxpayer expense. They have an appeal pending at the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas. Their brief is due by April 15.

They can drag it on, or they can save us a whole lot of money by making peace with Mr. Cozad. They should give him the access he needs, and if they feel like suing someone, let them sue Tyler Technologies, who wrote the Odyssey program that couldn't be audited in accordance with state law.

Then, instead of paying the $600/hr that Peter Vogel is charging them, I'm sure Mr. Cozad could refer the commissioners to a good $250 an hour attorney.

Bill

As the official candidate lists have yet to be released, I've compiled this list from published reports in the area newspapers. I apologize in advance if I've made any error or missed a candidate.

I'm missing candidate names for Prosper ISD and several smaller towns and school districts. I'll fill those in as I get them. I mean no disrespect.

Please use the comments section to let me know of any errors, omissions or missing links, so that I may make the correction.

Traditionally, these local races garner only low voter turnouts, and it is difficult for many candidates, especially in the smaller towns, to find venues to get their message out to the voters.

As an experiment in Democracy, The Collin County Observer will post, without edit or editorial comment, one article (or YouTube video) by any registered candidate. Candidates may use the opportunity to tell the voters about themselves and why they are running. Please keep the article to 800 words or less (if you can).

Early voting runs from April 27 to May 5. Election day is May 9.

Bill

Allen City Council, Place 1 Debbie Stout(I)
Allen City Council, Place 3 Joey Herald(I)
Allen City Council, Place 3 Kurt Kizer
Allen City Council, Place 5 Gary Caplinger(I)

Allen ISD, Place 1 Jayne J. Grimes(I)
Allen ISD, Place 2 Benny Bolin (I)
Allen ISD, Place 3 Jason Shepard

Celina City Council, Place 2 Wayne Nabors(I)
Celina City Council, Place 3 Dewey Isham(I)
Celina City Council, Place 4 Dick Smith(I)

Celina ISD, Place 5 Jeff Wade
Celina ISD, Place 5 Sandra Lerma
Celina ISD, Place 5 Pam Peters
Celina ISD, Place 6 Brooks Barr(I)
Celina ISD, Place 7 Lance Haynes(I)
Celina ISD, Place 7 Tim Terzis

Farmersville City Council, Place 1 Shirley Horton(I)
Farmersville City Council, Place 3 Billy Long(I)
Farmersville City Council, Place 5 Lee Warren(I)
Farmersville City Council, Place 5 Fred Langford

Farmersville ISD (2 positions) Chris Reavis
Farmersville ISD (2 positions) Karrissa Edwards
Farmersville ISD (2 positions) Robert Norman

Frisco City Council, Place 1 Bob Allen
Frisco City Council, Place 1 Harold Colvin
Frisco City Council, Place 3 Patrick E. Fallon
Frisco City Council, Place 3 Rhonda K. Martin
Frisco City Council, Place 3 Phil Ramirez
Frisco City Council, Place 3 Hunt Reifschneider

Frisco ISD, Place 6 Buddy Minett(I)
Frisco ISD, Place 7 Cindy DePaolantonio(I)
Frisco ISD, Place 7 John Hoxie

Lovejoy ISD, Position 6 Elena Westbrook(I)
Lovejoy ISD, Position 6 Marianne Nevil
Lovejoy ISD, Position 7 Lynette MacDonald(I)
Lovejoy ISD, Position 7 Daris Nevil

Lucas City Council, Mayor Bill Carmickle
Lucas City Council, Mayor Ann Guzman
Lucas City Council, Seat 1 John Ellrich
Lucas City Council, Seat 1 Mark H. Barratt
Lucas City Council, Seat 2 Kerry Leath
Lucas City Council, Seat 2 Jonathan Spinks
Lucas City Council, Seat 2 Rebecca Mark
Lucas City Council, Seat 2 Larry Essary
Lucas City Council, Seat 3 Don Zriny

McKinney City Council, Mayor George Fuller
McKinney City Council, Mayor Brian Loughmiller
McKinney City Council, Dist. 1 Randall Wilder
McKinney City Council, Dist. 1 Don Day
McKinney City Council, Dist. 1 Maurice Malvern
McKinney City Council, Dist. 1 Alonzo Tutson
McKinney City Council, Dist. 3 Travis Ussery, Jr
McKinney City Council, at-large Gilda Garza
McKinney City Council, at-large David Brooks
McKinney City Council, at-large Curtis Rath

McKinney ISD, Place 1 Maria McKinzie (I)
McKinney ISD, Place 2 Mark Rude(I)

Plano City Council, Place 2 Ben Harris
Plano City Council, Place 2 Susan Plonka
Plano City Council, Place 4 Lissa Smith
Plano City Council, Place 6 (Mayor) Phil Dyer
Plano City Council, Place 6 (Mayor) David Fincannon
Plano City Council, Place 8 Lee Dunlap(I)
Plano City Council, Place 8 Greg Myer
Plano City Council, Place 8 Imran Khan

Plano ISD, Place 6 Steve Navarre
Plano ISD, Place 6 Marilyn Hinton
Plano ISD, Place 6 Nathan Barbera
Plano ISD, Place 6 Rama Lavu
Plano ISD, Place 7 Missy Bender(I)
Plano ISD, Place 7 Robert Canright

Princeton City Council, Mayor Steve Deffibaugh(I)
Princeton City Council, Mayor Ken Bowers
Princeton City Council, Place 1 Billy Combest(I)
Princeton City Council, Place 2 Rick Wheeler(I)
Princeton City Council, Place 2 Brandon Kilpatrick
Princeton City Council, Place 2 Jeremy Jones

Princeton ISD (3 positions), Glenda Beauchamp(I)
Princeton ISD (3 positions), Chuck Campbell(I)
Princeton ISD (3 positions), Rick Jondron
Princeton ISD (3 positions), Clinton Lowrance
Princeton ISD (3 positions), Tim Tidwell

Wylie City Council, Place 2 M.G. "Red" Byboth(I)
Wylie City Council, Place 4 Bennie Jones
Wylie City Council, Place 4 Gilbert Tamez Sr.

Wylie ISD, Place 3 Barbara Goss
Wylie ISD, Place 3 Allen M. Morris
Wylie ISD, Place 4 Lance Goff(I)
Wylie ISD, Place 4 Cris O'Neal

Extended responses from many of these candidates can be found on the Dallas Morning News Voter Guide.

Bill

ADB charged with keeping it all in the family

The North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS) is an intelligence and preparedness operation financed by federal Homeland Security and bio-terrorism grants and run by Collin County's Homeland Security Department.

The prime contractor to the Fusion Center is ADB Consulting, a small company based in Santa Fe, NM and owned by the husband and wife team of Dr. Robert Johnson and Anita Miller. Robert or as he is known, "Dr. Bob", is the son of Plano's Congressman Sam Johnson. For the last several years, ADB has won a series of "no bid" contracts from the county totaling over $1.1 million to set up the databases and programming for the NCTFS.

Last year, ADB consulting issued a request for bids to subcontract a portion of the database conversion for the Fusion Center. According to sources who I've spoken with, two companies responded to the estimated $80,000 bid request.

One, Sypherlink, is a mid-sized company out of Dublin, OH that specializes in database converting and merging, with a history of doing work for Homeland Security.

The other, Bassham and Associates was a small, unincorporated operation sharing a West Texas post office box address with a beauty salon and a defunct surveying business.

The Collin County Observer has obtained a copy of a letter of protest, dated September 6, 2007 from Sypherlink addressed to Kelley Stone, the Collin County Director of Homeland Security and the NCTFS and to the County Purchasing Agent, Frank Ybarbo.

In the letter, Sypherlink charges that Bassham and Associates is nothing more than a one man operation operating out of the home of Elbert Bassham and that Anita and Dr. Bob Johnson awarded the bid to Bassham in violation of Federal Homeland Security Grant Management Guidelines.

Elbert Bassham is the brother of Anita Johnson, the co-owner of ADB consulting.

In their letter, Sypherlink points out a page from ADB's now defunct website that is headlined,"Elbert Launches Strategic Services Business."

ADB's web page goes on to state, "Anita's brother has launched Bassham and Associates strategic Services (BASS). BASS provides software products and services used by academic and business organizations to implement plans and analyze performance."

At the time when ADB awarded the contract to BASS, Elbert Bassham was a full time employee at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. Bassham retired from Sul Ross on September 14, 2007, to work "in computer programming". Bassham was quoted as saying he would continue to live in Marfa and that, "I am now subcontracting to a corporation and working on a server in Dallas."

ADB announces that Anita's brother Elbert has founded Bassham & Assoc	Robert Johnson, Anita Miller and Elbert Bassham at Lake Tahoe	Congressman Sam Johnson (R-Plano)

Bassham and Associates web site even bears an uncanny resemblance to the home page of the North Central Texas Fusion System.

NCTFS website	Bassham & Assoc website

Sypherlink's letter quotes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Financial Grant Management Guide:
"No official or employee of a State or unit of local government or a non-governmental recipient/subrecipient shall participate personally through decisions, approval, disapproval, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or otherwise in any proceeding, application, request for a ruling or other determination, contract, award, cooperative agreement, claim, controversy, or other particular matter in which award funds (including program income or other funds generated by Federally funded activities) are used, where to his/her knowledge, he/she or his/her immediate family, partners, organization other than a public agency in which he/she is serving as an officer, director, trustee, partner, or employee, or any person or organization with whom he/she is negotiating or has any arrangement concerning prospective employment, has a financial interest, or has less than an arms-length transaction."

In their complaint to the County, Sypherlink accuses ADB of:

• Conflict of interest in that ADB awarded the contract to the brother of a co-owner of ADB.
• Awarding the contract to an unqualified vendor since BASS has no experience in law enforcement data bases or in any database data discovery. Sypherlink also wrote that after D&B search on Bassham and Associates, they could not find that BASS was a registered business in any of the 50 United States.
• Unfair competition in that ADB gave BASS favorable information, positioning and bid scoring. due to its relationship with the owners of ADB.

Sypherlink's letter was dated September 6, 2007 and was addressed to both the County Purchasing Agent and the director of the Fusion Center. A search of Commissioners Court agendas and minutes since September, 2007 turns up no sign of any action by the commissioners to address or investigate Sypherlink's accusations.

To the contrary, even after receiving the complaint, the Collin County Commissioners Court continued to award 'no-bid' contracts to ADB consulting.

Since September of 2007, the court has awarded 3 additional 'no-bid' contracts to ADB worth a total of $311,000.

According to check registers published on the county website, Collin County paid ADB consulting $556,123.51 in fiscal year 2008 for consulting, maintenance and software for the North Texas Fusion Center. All funds paid ADB were for 'no bid' services.

Responding to a open records request, the Collin County Auditor reported that since 2004, the county has paid a total of $1,139,245.77 in no-bid contracts to ADB.

Since the Collin County Observer began coverage of the relationship between ADB and the Fusion Center, ADB has taken down its website and the County has placed a "Request for Bid" for a general contractor for the Fusion Center.

The bid process is ongoing with a closing date of March 12, 2009.

Bill

NOTES:

Sypherlink letter to Kelley Stone, dated September 6, 2007

Screen shots of ADB and BASS web sites ca. September, 2007

CCO Coverage of Fusion Center:
Fusion: Fear, Fiction, Fact and Freedom, CCO, Feb. 2009

County pays ADB over $1.1 million in no-bid Fusion Center contracts, CCO, Dec. 2008

Commissioners to consider "no bid" contract for Fusion Center, CCO, Dec. 2008

While Plano was watching TV, what was the Fusion Center doing?,CCO, May 2008

Code Red: better late than never - or is it?, CCO, Apr. 2008

Shortly after I wrote "Collin badly understimulated", I heard a rumor that Tarrant County, TxDOT, and the RTC were working on a deal.

Tarrant County was not going to be able to collect the SH 121 funds promised it in the contract with NTTA, so the wheelers and dealers came up with the plan that Fort Worth would get the lion's share of the stimulus funds and in return, Collin County would get TxDOT money for US 380 and other projects.

It looks like that's exactly what happened.

On Thursday, Michael Lindenberger reported in the Dallas Morning News that the "DFW Connector" in Tarrant County would receive $250 million in TxDOT stimulus funds. The DFW Connector is a $917 million project containing both free lanes and tolled "managed" lanes.

The RTC voted to send another $144 million of stimulus funds to Tarrant County for interchanges on the Southwest Parkway, a toll road to be build by NTTA.

These decisions mean that all of the stimulus money earmarked for large projects in North Texas will be spent in Tarrant County.

The McKinney Courier-Gazette reports that the RTC also voted to send $27.5 million of TxDOT funds to complete the US 380 expansion. The US 380 project is one of the increasingly few "non tolled" projects (at least it is for now) for which TxDOT has committed funding.

Several legislators were critical of the plan TxDOT proposed to spend the federal stimulus money. They charged that 70% of the funds were going to tolled roads or "toll-related" roads.

Of course, the missing link in this deal is the $2+ billion in concession fees for SH 121. That money is still embargoed by TxDOT. They have promised to release it for projects approved by the RTC that are connected to the State Highway system, but with the legislature in session, and especially with legislators ticked off at TxDOT, anything could happen.

Bill

The Texas House County Affairs Committee has scheduled a public hearing on Rep. Jerry Madden's bill to restrict the ability of a county auditor to audit software financial transactions.

Madden's bill, HB561 was filed at the request of the Collin County Commissioners Court. The commissioners have lost 2 law suits so far in their attempt to keep the auditor from accessing financial transactions in several large software packages.

The Legislative Budget Board description of HB561 is:

"The bill would prohibit the county auditor in a county with a population of 190,000 or more from having authority to mandate the use of information technology components or software programs used by other local government officers or departments. The bill would also remove a county auditor's authority to have continual access to the items the auditor is required to examine. The county auditor would also be prohibited from directly accessing or manipulating real-time data on a computer maintained by another local government office or department."

After spending over $300,000 in legal fees on their suits, the commissioners asked the Collin County legislative delegation to draft a bill to accomplish their goal of thwarting the constitutional checks and balances built into the auditor's responsibilities.

The commissioners, who chafe at any restriction on their authority, have also asked the legislative delegation to draft a bill limiting the authority of the purchasing board. Both the County Auditor and the County Purchasing Agent are appointed, and their salaries are set by judicial boards outside of the commissioners' authority.

The House Committee on County Affairs is scheduled to meet to discuss HB561 at 2PM Monday in Room E2.016 at the State Capitol.

Bill

It put a tear in my eye reading that the McKinney city council has named a park along Wilson Creek after my friend Bonnie Wenk.

Bonnie was both passionate and gentle, a southern lady who loved the water and the trees and her fellow man. She worked for many years to protect and preserve the creeks, dams and lakes that make up much McKinney's green space.

I know she would be honored to see the Bonnie Wenk Park along Wilson Creek.

Bill

---------------

McKinney City Council picks a name for the Wilson Creek greenway site.

Thursday, March 5, 2009
By Katie Knickerbocker, McKinney Courier-Gazette

Choosing names is often a difficult process but McKinney City Council members were all in agreement at the council meeting Tuesday March 3. They voted unanimously to name the Wilson Creek greenway site after late McKinney resident Bonnie Wenk.

District 1 Representative Gilda Garza said it was her honor and privilege to make the motion approving the Parks Board recommendation to name the site Bonnie Wenk Park.

Wenk was an environmental activist, teacher and writer, Garza said, as well as a member of the East Side Coalition, LULAC and the NAACP. She also worked on the 2003 Strategic Plan.

Marta Gore referred to Wenk as “an awesome unsung hero” during citizen comments at the start of the meeting. Wenk’s family was in attendance and gave comments after the motion passed.

“I cannot tell you how thankful I am to the park board and to the city council,” daughter Julia Shahid said. “Our family is extremely proud tonight.”

Shahid, a professor at Austin College, said she was in Malaysia on a trip with students when she was informed of the proposal to honor her mother. She said she was elated, honored and just blown away that someone thought that much of her mother.

“Her number one interest was environmental issues whether it had to do with the trees, whether it had to do with water, and the fact is, my mother, my daughter and myself, we were all involved in monitoring the water in Wilson Creek so this is really so perfect,” Shahid said.

Wenk's son Jack Wenk told the council he thinks the new name is something his mother would be very proud of.

Garza said the plans for Bonnie Wenk Park include a dog park, climbing boulders and open spaces for soccer/lacrosse among other amenities.

read article....

Plano Republican Representative Brian McCall has authored a book that is being published by the University of Texas Press, this month on the power of the Texas governor. It looks to be an interesting read, and I've ordered my copy.

McCall has served as Representative for District 66 since 1991. He was recently named chair of the House Calendars Committee.

Dr. McCall earned his PhD from UTD in 2006 writing his dissertation on Texas governors. In the fall, he will be teaching a course in SMU's graduate program. It will be called "The Use (and Misuse) of Power in Politics."

From the University of Texas Press website:

The Power of the Texas Governor takes a fresh look at the state's chief executives, from John Connally to George W. Bush, to discover how various governors have overcome the institutional limitations of the office. Delving into the governors' election campaigns and successes and failures in office, Brian McCall makes a convincing case that the strength of a governor's personality—in particular, his or her highly developed social skills—can translate into real political power. He shows, for example, how governors such as Ann Richards and George W. Bush forged personal relationships with individual legislators to achieve their policy goals. Filled with revealing insights and anecdotes from key players in each administration, The Power of the Texas Governor offers new perspectives on leadership and valuable lessons on the use of power.

An excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Texas governors who enjoyed the most success had high aims, ones that they articulated clearly, as well as patience in deliberation, a sense of balance, firmness, ability, and principle. They rose to the occasion, and, often, they created those occasions. They dealt effectively with crises and emergencies. They hired and appointed reliable, capable people. They gave to the office more than they took from it. They exhibited courage and charm. They had a sense of history. They had an innate sense of knowing which battles were worthy of the fight and which were not. They understood that principles are eternal. Governors fail when they abandon these essential qualities of statesmanship. The worst not only fail to 'honor the principles of statesmanship, but also they fail to recognize them, having failed to learn them, having failed to want to learn them.'"

The book, The Power of the Texas Governor, Connally to Bush can be ordered online from the UT Press.

Bill

District Judge Curt Henderson sent a letter to "Courthouse Employees and Members of the Collin County Bar" today announcing that he would not seek re-election in 2010. Henderson has been the Judge of the 219th District Court since August of 1988.

He is the longest serving district judge in the history of Collin County. Prior to being appointed to the 219th, Judge Henderson served as the County Court at Law Judge from February of 1986 to August, 1998.

Bill

Judge Henderson wrote:

Collin County recently upped the ante on its biggest IT software program ever.

The county has already invested over $8 million in its new courts and justice software package, called Odyssey.

Last month, the commissioners court gave tentative approval to spend another $2.8 million to expand Odyssey's reach into jail, law enforcement and constable operations.

The total cost of Odyssey will probably exceed $11 million.

Odyssey is the major part of the county's CIJS (Common Integrated Justice Systems)program. CIJS is a statewide effort to standardize criminal justice and court data so that information can be shared between departments, courts and agencies in an automated workflow.

Standardization and sharing of court data is a major goal of the State of Texas.

The probate, mental illness and civil courts have already begun using Odyssey for their dockets and case filings. The first justice of the peace court is scheduled to go 'live' with Odyssey in May of this year, with all other JP courts following in August.

In October and November, the Sheriff and Constables will begin using the system and then in March of 2010 the county will roll out implementation of the criminal court, DA and jail operation systems.

Of the county employees I've talked to, some like Odyssey, some dislike it, but all comment that it is huge, complex, and incredibly difficult to implement.

The County's Courts website, "Texas Judge" contains the following note about the Odyssey docket system, "TexasJudge is just as disappointed as you are in the new web interface. Even I cannot access cases that I know are there, and we have heard from many attorneys about the issue."

Supporters note that any complex software change will be temporarily disruptive and that many workers will resist change. They point out that the county's home grown courts software was limiting and that CIJS is now the new state policy direction.

During the 2009 Budget Hearings, Hannah Kunkle, the District Clerk unsuccessfully lobbied the commissioners for additional workers because of the workload created by Odyssey. The commissioners took the position that their objective in purchasing software was to reduce, not add to the labor burden.

Several times it was noted that the advantage of automation was efficiency.

When the court asked IT Director Skipworth about Ms. Kunkle's concern, Skipworth responded that labor efficiency was NOT one of the criteria they used to assess software before purchasing it. (The criteria was soon changed)

Ms. Kunkle did not get her additional clerk.

One unique aspect of the county's implementation of Odyssey is that there is no overall project manager with operational management authority. Instead, the county has created a inter-departmental CIJS Project Team made up of employees from every affected department. The team members are tasked to Odyssey in addition to their other duties. These team members are placed on a "Results Based Compensation" program that rewards the achievement of specified milestones with cash bonuses.

The Odyssey program is a big issue in the commissioners ongoing lawsuit against Don Cozad, the County Auditor. In a deposition, the Caren Skipworth, the County IT Director testified that Odyssey Case Manager did not offer and could not provide the 'view inquiry', access the Auditor needed to monitor the accuracy of financial transactions.

While the commissioners court lost the lawsuit on all points, they have filed an appeal in the 5th Court of Appeals.

I have been told that the new Odyssey modules also will not have auditing 'view inquiry' portals.

Odyssey is sold by Tyler Technologies. Twelve Texas counties are in the process of installing Odyssey under a "Tech Share" license negotiated by the Texas Conference of Urban Counties.

Bill

I would be interested in comments from attorneys and other folk who interface or work with Odyssey - here or in another county. What has been your experience?

Downtown Frisco residents wonder where city stands on revitalization

Monday, March 2, 2009
By ELIZABETH LANGTON / The Dallas Morning News


FRISCO – When City Hall relocated to Frisco Square, city leaders promised not to forget the historic downtown they left behind.

The city maintained ownership of the buildings it abandoned on Main Street to preserve them and rent them out. The City Council formed a board to steer development and spur economic vitality.

But 2½ years later, the area has seen no significant change.

New businesses moved in, but others left. A city-owned building sits vacant, which the city manager characterized as a "black eye." And anticipated waves of private development have yet to materialize.

"I know that a lot of people feel like we have been forgotten," said Shelley Decou, who owns Horse Hardware on Main Street.

Some residents wonder whether the aging center of a former railroad stop has any role in the future of what is now a suburban boomtown. But city leaders say they still support the revitalization concept.

"I have made a commitment to downtown, and a lot of merchants have, too," Mayor Maher Maso said at a recent council meeting after a suggestion surfaced to sell the old City Hall at Main and Fourth streets.

The buildings, constructed in the early 1900s, at times housed banks, a hardware store and a popular pharmacist before the city moved in about three decades ago. To accommodate growth, Frisco opened a new City Hall in 2006 at nearby Frisco Square.

The Frisco Association for the Arts leased some of the abandoned property, and Ski Frisco Sports also moved in. The city reclaimed some of the space for the Municipal Court.

But the corner spot failed to attract a tenant. Several restaurants found the renovation costs too high, and other entrepreneurs couldn't see past the gutted interior.

"It's the center of our downtown," said Tamee Harty, who owns the nearby Sound Perfection and plans to open an adjacent café this week. "So when it's occupied, it will bring a lot of energy."

The council-appointed Downtown Advisory Board, on which Harty serves, suggested that the city make the site more attractive with updated restrooms, electrical rewiring and ceiling repairs.

Several council members initially questioned the logic of spending the estimated $75,000 to $200,000 and suggested selling instead.

read more....

Summary: TxDOT shortchanges Collin County, really stimulates Austin. Tarrant County is the big winner.

On Wednesday, The Texas Department of Transportation delivered its final project recommendations for stimulus spending to the Texas Legislature. The state has been allocated $1.2 billion in federal stimulus funds for highway construction.

TxDOT did not propose spending for any major projects in Collin County, however, they did include as a maintenance item $2.5 million for "Safety improvements" on Preston Rd. at Legacy Dr.

The $2.5 million proposed for Collin County represents about 0.21% of the statewide $1.2 billion allocated.

To put the proposal in perspective, Collin County accounts for approximately 3.1% of the state's population. The stimulus would equal $3.42 for each person in Collin County.

By any measure Collin County is shortchanged: per capita, Collin will receive less than 7% of its fair share; per vehicle, less than 8%; and about 25% of its fair share per lane mile of highway.

Tarrant County (Fort Worth) will be the most stimulated. It is slated to receive almost $252 million.

The other big winner is Travis County (Austin). Its $137.7 million in stimulus is over 11% of the total, while the county has only 4% of Texas' population.

PER CAPITA TXDOT STIMULUS PROJECTS

County	Population*	$ Stimulus (millions)	$ per capita
Tarrant	1,717,435	$ 251.8	$ 146.65
Travis	974,365	$ 137.7	$ 141.38
Collin	730,690	$ 2.5	$ 3.42

* Population figures are TxDOT's

While no local state representatives serve on the House Transportation Committee, Senator Florence Shapiro is on the Senate's Transportation and Homeland Security Committee which is chaired by Senator John Carona of Richardson.

Bill