Category: News Clippings
Observer's notebook on the campaign trail
December 11th, 2011The Collin County Observer will continue to cover the 2012 election. We will attempt to give our readers information and insight into the candidates, the issues and their campaigns.
The Collin County Observer does not recommend nor endorse any candidate.
Some notes from the Observer's notebook range from the humorous to the nasty:
Campaign Trucks
Barnett Walker is running for judge in the County Court at Law #2.
I got a hoot when I saw a picture Barnett Walker's truck. I did remind Barnett the story two years ago when Ralph De La Garza put a giant placard on his truck for his Collin County District Attorney race. Ralph's truck was stolen almost immediately.
A wonder if auto thieves are quicker to steal from a judicial candidate or from a District Attorney candidate.
What District am I in?
The Observer does try to know what districts I live in, who will represent me, and who I can vote for?
I, like many in Texas, I don't know who my congressman will be. Many in Collin County do not know who their congressman, state senator or state representative - no matter how hard they try to find out.
The US Supreme Court has put the Texas redistricting plans for Congress, Texas Senate, and the Texas House on hold.
The SCOTUS has ordered arguments in January, but the filing period ends on December.
Even the Texas Attorney General doesn't know what maps the candidates should file in their district.
Nice deal, eh?
The 380th Court getting crowded
The 380th District Court bench is vacant since Suzanne Wooten was convicted of bribery.
Five Republicans have filed for the position in the March primary.
Terri Green
Jody Johnson
Chip Jarvis
Piper McCraw
Ben Smith
At this date, no Democrats have filed for the bench.
None of the candidates have a campaign website yet. More information, on all five, to come.
District 12 SBOE race already ugly
All of Collin County (and North Dallas) is now in 12th district for the State Board of Education.
The incumbant is Republican George Clayton. He is a resident of Richardson and an educator at North Dallas High School. Last year Clayton defeated Tincy Miller, the long time member of the SBOE. She served on the SBOE from 1984 to 2010.
After Clayton first challenged Miller, he won, despite being the target of a whisper campaign charging him with being gay.
Earlier this, Susan Fletcher, the president of the Golden Corridor Republican Women’s Club was questioning Clayton's "living arrangements".
In response, Clayton sent an email to the media confirming that, “To avoid the tyranny of misinformation and innuendo in this political race, I wish to say that I, in fact, do have a male partner who lives with me in my home in Richardson, Texas”.
The right wing and Tea Party websites are already on the attack.
There are three Republican candidates:
George Clayton
Pam Little
Tincy Miller
So far, I have not heard of any SBOE candidates for the Democratic Party primary.
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More news on the Observer's notebook will be posted as interesting stories develop. I hope you enjoy.
Bill
Federal Court proposes redistricting plans
November 20th, 2011|
The Texas House Districts
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The Federal Court Proposed Plan
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The 2011 enacted plan
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The current plan prior to 2011
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The San Antonio Federal Court has released their proposed maps of the Texas House and the Senate District.
The Texas Democratic Party, the NAACP, the LULAC and several Democratic elected officials have sued Texas Legislature's 2011 redistricting maps. The federal courts in Washington, D.C. and in San Antonio have held that the Texas plan dilutes the vote of minorities.
Redistricting is in its nature a political operation. The Republican majority legislature drew several districts to elect more Republicans. That is perfectly legal.
The Democrats however have charged that the legislature gerrymandered the districts to fragmented minority communities to disfranchisement those ability minority elected offices. The federal courts have agreed that the Texas plans are illegal under the Civil Rights Law writing:
"the Court finds and concludes that the State of Texas used an improper standard or methodology to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice and that there are material issues of fact in dispute that prevent this Court from entering declaratory judgment that the three redistricting plans meet the requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act."
The courts decision have left the Texas voters confused. They can not know who can and will be able to run for election in their own districts. The court have promised final maps in the following month.
The Texas Legislature House Districts:
The court has extended the filing period. Until the decision is final, the court has allowed candidates to file in their previous districts if the court does not act in time.
If the legislature fails to draw a legal map, then their failure gives the authority to the federal courts. And the courts do their decisions for their own logic. The Democratic issues were mostly involved gerrymandering in Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth - not that involved Collin County. Nevertheless, the court offered substantial changes to the county's house districts.
The legislature made some significant changes to the Collin County house districts. The newly created District 33, was carved out of District 89 (Jodi Laubenberg) drawn from Rockwall to Frisco. The federal court is planning to also move of District 70 (Ken Paxton) into the District 33 (and renumbered to Dist. 3).
The maps to the right show:
- The proposed Texas House districts. (Plan 298)
- The 2011 legislature enacted districts.
- The previous districts prior to the last redistricting.
The Texas Legislature Senate Districts:
Collin County has two Texas Senate Districts. Senate District 8 encompasses the north-east quadrant of the county, including Plano and Allen. Three quarters of the lesser populated remainder are in Senate District 30.
The legislature was taken a substantial part of Dallas from District 8. The court did not make any major changes to the legislature plan.
Both the legislature and the court has changed the huge 30th District. District runs from Wylie along the Red River to Wichita Falls and south to Erath County. However the legislature and the court have made few changes within the District 30th within Collin County. But the Court has removed very little in Senate District 30 within Collin County. However, the court has made large changes in the remainder of the 30th Senate District by removing Erath County will added the Denton County voters could change the rural demographics adding the ratio to suburbanites in Collin County, and change the locus from Wichita Falls to Denton and Collin County.
(Click the maps to download a pdf larger map)The Texas legislature has maps that show all of the plans here.
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The Texas Senate Districts
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The Federal Court Proposed Plan
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The 2011 enacted plan
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The current plan prior to 2011
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Bill
Chuck Ruckel announces for Justice of the Peace, 3-1
November 14th, 2011
Major Chuck Ruckel is in charge of the Operations Division in the Collin County Sheriff's Department, has announced for a run for the Justice of the Peace in Precinct 3-1 in Plano.
Judge Johnny Lewis will not be running for re-election next year. His term will end on December 31, 2012.
Ruckel has posted a brief announcement on LinkedIn writing,"I wanted to let you know that I am a candidate for Collin County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3-1. The incumbent, Judge Johnny Lewis, is retiring. This office is the people’s court and it is important to elect proven leaders who know the law. I believe that I am that person."
In 1971, Ruckel earned a degree in AeroSpace Engineering at The University of Texas in Austin, and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He has also earned a Master Degree in Management at UTD. He has also graduated from Leadership Plano and the Leadership Command College Sam Houston State University.
As the Department head of the Sheriff's Department of the Operations Division is responsible for Criminal Investigation, Patrol, Crime Prevention, DARE, Health and Safety, Narcotics and Weight & Licenses.
He is on the Board of Directors of the Children's Advocacy Center of Collin County. He is also a member of the North Texas Crime Commission, the North Texas Chiefs of Police Association, the Sheriff's Association of Texas, and of the National Sheriff's Association.
Major Ruckel has not yet set up a web site or a Facebook page. He can be reached by email at ruckel202@hotmail.com.
A map of the Justice of the Peace precinct map is at the Collin County website. (Good luck seeing the map. It loads very slow, if at all. The county can go better.)
The Collin County Observer is unaware of any other candidates running so far for JP, Precinct 3-1.
Bill
Allen ISD votes for a 'good' tax raise
October 8th, 2011In the Allen school district, 4,373 voters have approved a 13 cent property tax rise (to $1.67 per $100 valuation) by 60.5% to 39.5%.
The 9.7% turnout was a large turnout for a school election proposition.
2,645 FOR
1,727 AGAINST
out of 45,141 registered voters
The school district board explained the tax raise was needed to, "offset $21 million in cuts to local funding by the Texas Legislature in 2011."
"The Texas Legislature reduced funding of over $4 billion to Texas public schools in June. Cuts to Allen ISD are approximately $9 million for 2011-2012. An additional $12 million will be cut from state funding to Allen ISD in 2012-2013.
"The school district reduced 80 positions this year saving approximately $3 million and made an additional $1.5 million in cuts to non-instructional areas such as administration, maintenance and energy expenses.
The local anti-taxes groups and the Tea Parties argue that there is no tax. The information by the Allen Patriots point out that, "AISD could curb non-essential spending and focus more on education"., and that the new tax would, "Move Allen ISD from 19th highest tax rate to the max rate of $1.67, joining 3 other Texas districts out of 1024 with the highest allowed."
The AISD argued that the taxes ($10 million) would be used to "help hire additional teachers to meet student growth and reduce class size[s]".
But the Allen Patriots complain that the district has used bonds more for "non-essential spending...than on education". They point to the $60 million HS stadium and the "$23 million for a Performing/Fine Arts Center, including a $70 thousand grand piano."
The AISD voters gave a 60-40 percent decision to give their money to their schools, and a loud setback for the anti-tax groups.
Bill
FDWIL: Meet the Candidates for the 199th District Court, Collin County
October 2nd, 2011Meet the Candidates for the 199th District Court, Collin County
Posted on October 1, 2011 by Hunter Biederman
The Frisco DWI Lawyer and Attorney Blog
ANGELA TUCKER
Angela Tucker has practiced civil, family, and criminal law. After spending four years as an Assistant District Attorney in Collin County, she opened her law office and currently is a solo practitioner at Angela M. Tucker, PC.
Mrs. Tucker has stated in the past she is, "committed to representing the people of Collin County by serving as the next [Judge]. To maintain high legal standards, it is imperative that we elect judges who have a strong work ethic, high moral standards, and diverse experience.”
Mrs. Tucker lives in McKinney? with her husband James and two children.
Mrs. Tucker's campaign website can be found at www.angelatuckerforjudge.com
SHARON RAMAGE
[ed. The Collin County Observer has learned that Sharon Ramage will likely to announce that she has chosen to run for the County Court at Law #2.]
BOB DRY
Son of retiring judge Robert Dry, Robert Dry, III (Bob) has also announced his intention to run for his father's bench through a facebook page.
Mr. Dry Robert T. Dry, III joined the firm Gay, McCall, Issacks, Gordon & Roberts, PC, in 2005 upon graduation from South Texas College of Law. He practices Civil Litigation with the firm. He was born and reared in Plano and is a graduate of Plano Senior High School and SMU.
Hunter Biederman is a DWI / Criminal Defense Attorney in Collin County. He publishes his blog (www.friscodwilawyer.com)which focuses on the Collin County and Texas legal system. He can be reached at friscolaw@gmail.com or (888) DWI-FRISCO.
Link to the Frisco DWI blog.....
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The Observer adds....
Judge Jerry Lewis of County Court at Law #2 has decided to retire later this year although him term would normally end on December 31, 2012.
The Commissioners Court has the right to fill a vacancy in the Courts at Law until a new judge is elected at the "next general election". The next general election more than would be 74 days before the judge leaves the office will be November 2012.
The Government Code
Sec. 25.0009. VACANCY. (a) The commissioners court of each county shall appoint a person to fill a vacancy in the office of judge of a statutory county court.(b) The appointee holds office until the next general election and until the successor is elected and has qualified.
(c) This section applies to a vacancy existing on creation of the office of judge.
The Election Code
Sec. 202.002. VACANCY FILLED AT GENERAL ELECTION. (a) If a vacancy occurs on or before the 74th day before the general election for state and county officers held in the next-to-last even-numbered year of a term of office, the remainder of the unexpired term shall be filled at the next general election for state and county officers, as provided by this chapter.(b) If a vacancy occurs after the 74th day before a general election day, an election for the unexpired term may not be held at that general election. The appointment to fill the vacancy continues until the next succeeding general election and until a successor has been elected and has qualified for the office.
Two years ago, after two County Courts at Law left office vacant before their terms, the County Commissioners did not choose to appoint new judges until the primary election. Since Judge Ripple and Judge Bender both unopposed in the November election, the commissioners court appointed both after the primaries.
Sharon Ramage will announce tomorrow to run for this court rather than her earlier statements for running for the 199th District Court
Two Candidates are actively campaigning for this bench:
BARNETT WALKER
Barnett Walker came to the practice of law after a 22 year career in the US Air Force. He is a Gulf War veteran who retired as one of the most decorated Senior Master Sergeants in the Air Force. He then attended SMU Law School, graduating in 2004. While attending law school he was twice chosen to participate in the National Criminal Moot Court Championship, which pits the brightest law students in the nation to present legal arguments in front of Justices of the California Supreme Court. Walker then went to work as a prosecutor in the Collin County District Attorney's office, where he served as chief prosecutor for 2 of the Courts at Law. He is now a solo criminal defense practitioner in Prosper.
SHARON RAMAGE
Sharon Ramage has been licensed to practice law since 1992. As a former social worker, Ms. Ramage has practiced law in many areas specific to protecting children since that time. From 1992-1997, Sharon served as an Assistant Criminal District Attorney in Tarrant County, and was assigned to the Crimes Against Children Division from 1995-1997.
After resigning from the District Attorney’s Office, Ms. Ramage opened a private practice in Tarrant County, where she practiced special education law and family law. Since 2000, Ms. Ramage has worked in private practice in Collin County, primarily in the area of family law and adoption. Since 2003, she has also served as a Special Education Hearing Officer and Mediator for the Texas Education Agency, conducing special education due process hearings and mediating disputes between schools and parents.
“The totality of my experience -- criminal prosecutor, defense attorney, appellate attorney, family law attorney, mediator and hearing officer -- has prepared me for this position,” Ramage said. “I welcome this challenge and recognize the hard work that lies before me in seeking this position, as well as in the hard work and diligence required of the Bench.”
Sharon is married and the mother of two children adopted from China.
More information about Sharon can be found on her facebook page, Sharon Ramage for Judge.
Bill
McKinney Planned Parenthood bombed
July 27th, 2011NBC KXAS - Planned Parenthood Attacked With Molotov Cocktail
By Greg Janda, KXAS- NBC TV
Wednesday, Jul 27, 2011, Updated 5:25 PM CDT
McKinney fire officials say an overnight blaze at a Planned Parenthood clinic was started by a "Molotov cocktail."
The health center on Eldorado Parkway was attacked Tuesday night around 10 p.m. Firefighters arrived to extinguish the fire and discovered a wine bottle filled with diesel fuel and a rag for a lighter.
Officials say the fire did damage to the exterior of the building, but did not penetrate the building. Investigation into the attack is still ongoing.
The clinic opened in 2008 and has been the site of multiple protests. This is the first serious attack at the location.
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CBS KRLD - Molotov Cocktail Hurled Through McKinney Planned Parenthood
By Matt Goodman, CBSDFW.COM
July 27, 2011 4:31 PM
MCKINNEY (CBSDFW.COM) – Someone hurled a glass bottle topped with a flaming rag and filled with diesel fuel through the front door of the McKinney Planned Parenthood offices just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, a spokeswoman said.
The attack left shards of glass littered in front of the office at 1720 Eldorado Parkway and charred the metal door, but Planned Parenthood staffers hurriedly cleaned the mess and still saw patients Wednesday.
“Since we’re seeing patients today and trying to do repair and cleanup as fast as possible, you may not get an idea of the damage done if you go by there today,” said Holly Morgan, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of North Texas.
The Molotov cocktail failed to make it into the actual clinic and no staffers or patients were there, Morgan said.
Though the McKinney location has been the center of controversy in the area since it opened in 2008, Morgan said the attack was unprecedented – none of the 28 north Texas locations have suffered something like this.
And though the McKinney Police Department still has not identified a motive, Morgan said the arson is even more upsetting because the targeted location does not offer abortion services.
“It’s really unfortunate because that site only provides preventative care,” she said. “But until we know from the police, until they figure out what happened, we can’t really say what the motivation was.”
The McKinney location offers preventive services such as breast and pelvic exams, as well as birth control, diabetes screenings, sexually transmitted infection tests, pregnancy testing and emergency contraception. News Radio KRLD reported picketers at the location earlier in the day.
McKinney police has not identified a suspect.
“Ninety-six to 97 percent of what we do –and that’s an audited number – every year for our patients is preventative health care. It’s breast and cervical cancer screening and well women visits,” Morgan said.
“We even give flu shots.”
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NTTA to raise tolls
June 2nd, 2011From an NTTA press release:
NTTA TOLL RATES SCHEDULED TO INCREASE EFFECTIVE JULY 1
Updated Rates Follow Biennial Schedule Announced in 2009
Plano, Texas – June 1, 2011 The North Texas Tollway Authority wants to
remind drivers that a regularly scheduled toll rate increase takes effect
July 1.
To deliver regional transportation projects to relieve congestion,
preserve a strong and financially viable system and maintain quality, safe
and reliable roadways, the NTTA will implement a regularly scheduled toll
rate increase of .8 cents (less than a cent per mile). The toll rate
policy provides for a 50 percent price difference between TollTag and
ZipCash rates.
“The Board understands this rate increases comes during a challenging
economic time,” said NTTA Chairman Victor Vandergriff. “However, raising
rates is a planned and necessary step the NTTA needs to take in order to
maintain a viable financial system and to deliver the many mobility
projects that bring growth to the North Texas region.”
The action increases rates from 14.5 cents per mile to 15.3 cents per
mile. NTTA rates are compatible with the toll rate structure recommended
by the Regional Transportation Council.
This increase follows a schedule that requires toll rates be increased
every other July at a compounded annual rate of 2.75 percent. This
incremental change is required to meet the financial needs of the NTTA
while ensuring drivers see only small increases to tolls.
“ZipCash customers, who pay 50 percent more than TollTag? customers, are
encouraged to get a TollTag?. It will save them money, and they won’t have
to worry about paying invoices,” said NTTA Executive Director Allen
Clemson.
NTTA Chief Financial Officer Janice Davis said the rate increase will help
protect NTTA’s credit rating, ultimately ensuring NTTA’s access to low
cost borrowing. “The rating agencies want to see proof that NTTA’s Board
is committed to the maintenance of the Authority’s financial strength and
integrity,” Davis said.
The NTTA intends to continue to deliver on its mission to provide mobility
solutions including the Eastern and Western extensions of the President
George Bush Turnpike, complete the Sam Rayburn Tollway and support future
projects like Chisholm Trail Parkway.
About the NTTA
The North Texas Tollway Authority, a political subdivision of the state of
Texas, is authorized to acquire, construct, maintain, repair and operate
turnpike projects in the north Texas region. The nine-member governing
board is comprised of Chairman Victor Vandergriff; Vice Chairman David
Denison; and Directors Kenneth Barr, Kent Cagle, Bob Day, Bill Moore,
Michael Nowels, Bob Shepard and Jane Willard.
The NTTA serves Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties and is
responsible for the NTTA System, consisting of the Dallas North Tollway,
President George Bush Turnpike, Sam Rayburn Tollway, Addison Airport Toll
Tunnel, Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge and the Mountain Creek Lake Bridge.
The NTTA is able to raise capital for construction projects through the
issuance of turnpike revenue bonds. NTTA toll projects are not a part of
the state highway system and receive no direct tax funding. Tolls are
collected to repay debt and to operate and maintain the roadways.
Customer Contact:
CustomerService@NTTA.org
www.NTTA.org
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The Collin County Observer comments that tolls sure look like, smell like, and hurt just like taxes.
Bill
DMN - Texas businesses serving frail warn cuts would close their doors
February 3rd, 2011By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News - Austin Bureau
February 2, 2011
read this story at DallasNews.com (registration may be required)
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The needs of thousands of children and adults living with mental and physical disabilities are about to collide with the limitations of the Texas state budget.
Here in the wealthiest county in the state, where some folks would prefer to ignore the unpleasantness of mental or physical challenges, it will be interesting to see how this issue is prioritized by our legislators (including Senator Florence Shapiro who sits on the Finance Committee referenced below)and dealt with on the local level by our county leaders.
angellsmith
DMN - Collin County Commissioners Court hears complaints about long voter lines
January 12th, 2011January 11, 2011
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
read this story at DallasNews.com (registration may be required)
read the rest of this article at DallasNews.com
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Comment: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay our intrepid editor, Bill Baumbach, from the completion of his self-appointed rounds - including braving the traffic on 75 on the first snow day of the year to attend a Commissioners Court meeting with important issues on the agenda!
Unfortunately, some other key folks didn't make it to the meeting, so the much anticipated report on the "vote center" experiment wasn't formally presented at the January 10th meeting. It would be reasonable to assume it will be on the agenda for the January 24th meeting, but we won't know for sure until the agenda is posted online on Friday, 1/21 (Commissioners Court Agenda 1/24/11)
As reported by Ed Housewright of The Dallas Morning News in this article, two citizens appeared to express concerns about the implementation of vote centers to the Court. It's interesting to note that Republican precinct chair Chris Freeman rated the headline and the lead in the story, while Bill, a member of the site selection committee for the November 2010 election, was relegated to paragraph 6. You can watch both gentlemen's comments online at the County's website. Bill's comments begin at the counter reading 8:30, while Mr. Freeman's comments begin at 17:30.
Bill and The Collin County Observer have been closely following the efforts to implement the "vote center" concept since 2006. You'll find a list of our previous posts, including news clippings and several original articles, below.
If you have input on the subject of vote centers in general, or as implemented in recent elections - including the November 2010 general election, we suggest you make your thoughts known to your Commissioners, either in writing or in person. You can send an e-mail to the Court's general mailbox at commcourt@collincountytx.gov or call 972-424-1460 ext. 4631.
The 2012 presidential election isn't that far away.
angellsmith
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Additional information on Vote Centers on The Collin County Observer:
11/2/2010 - The Texas Observer - Voting Problems in Collin County
11/2/2010 - Technology issues reported at Collin County vote centers
9/9/2009 - Collin to take part in vote center experiment despite concerns
8/10/2009 - Does Collin County understand what a vote center is?
DMN - Paxton not backing out of speaker's race
January 10th, 2011Link: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/01/paxton-not-backing-out-of-spea.html
January 10, 2011
by Robert T. Garrett/The Dallas Morning News - Trailblazers Blog
read this story at DallasNews.com (registration may be required)
DMN - Recent Collin County grand jury and former DA Roach criticize each other
January 9th, 2011Recent Collin County grand jury and former DA Roach criticize each other
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Sunday, January 9, 2011
FE- Assistant DA indictment quashed
January 9th, 2011Assistant DA indictment quashed
By Marthe Stinton, The Frisco Enterprise
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The indictment of former Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis, which left several county officials stunned, has now been quashed.
Judge David Brabham of Longview granted the motion to dismiss the indictment Friday. Brabham was assigned the case this week by Administrative Judge John Ovard after Judge Mark Rusch signed an order recusing himself from the case.
The dismissal of the indictment follows a motion to quash it that was filed Monday by Ted Steinke, Davis’ attorney.
The motion submitted by Steinke said the original indictment failed to state where Davis “intentionally and knowingly made, presented and used a governmental record with knowledge of its falsity…”
Steinke said Brabham agreed with his motion due to the requirement that an indictment filed for “tampering with a government record” must allege the nature of the falsity.
“[Davis] is relieved and happy with the decision and is now going to pursue a position in Waco,” Steinke said. “Unless another grand jury re-indicts him or Terry Hart appeals it, I think it’s over.”
Special prosecutor Terry Hart had just received the ruling when he was contacted.
“I just now got the ruling from Judge Brabham,” Hart said. “He is a very good jurist and we respect his opinion.”
Davis was indicted last week on a state jail felony charge of tampering with a governmental record. His indictment stems from the summer indictment of six district clerk’s office employees who allegedly tampered with time cards, making it look like the employees were at work when they were not.
Steinke said Davis filed the document when it came to his attention that the DA’s office was following a similar program as the clerk’s office through its “High 5” program. The program awarded employees with time off for meritorious conduct.
“He wanted to present that information to alert the defense attorneys and the general public, because it was a public filing,” Steinke said on Monday.
Steinke said neither he nor Davis suspected an indictment could follow the submission of information for the clerk case.
Steinke recently told Star Community News that “It takes a tremendously honest prosecutor to file a public document admitting that his office had done something wrong. He ought to be congratulated for doing that, certainly not indicted for it.”
FE- Assistant DA indictment quashed
January 9th, 2011Assistant DA indictment quashed
By Marthe Stinton, The Frisco Enterprise
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The indictment of former Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis, which left several county officials stunned, has now been quashed.
Judge David Brabham of Longview granted the motion to dismiss the indictment Friday. Brabham was assigned the case this week by Administrative Judge John Ovard after Judge Mark Rusch signed an order recusing himself from the case.
The dismissal of the indictment follows a motion to quash it that was filed Monday by Ted Steinke, Davis’ attorney.
The motion submitted by Steinke said the original indictment failed to state where Davis “intentionally and knowingly made, presented and used a governmental record with knowledge of its falsity…”
Steinke said Brabham agreed with his motion due to the requirement that an indictment filed for “tampering with a government record” must allege the nature of the falsity.
“[Davis] is relieved and happy with the decision and is now going to pursue a position in Waco,” Steinke said. “Unless another grand jury re-indicts him or Terry Hart appeals it, I think it’s over.”
Special prosecutor Terry Hart had just received the ruling when he was contacted.
“I just now got the ruling from Judge Brabham,” Hart said. “He is a very good jurist and we respect his opinion.”
Davis was indicted last week on a state jail felony charge of tampering with a governmental record. His indictment stems from the summer indictment of six district clerk’s office employees who allegedly tampered with time cards, making it look like the employees were at work when they were not.
Steinke said Davis filed the document when it came to his attention that the DA’s office was following a similar program as the clerk’s office through its “High 5” program. The program awarded employees with time off for meritorious conduct.
“He wanted to present that information to alert the defense attorneys and the general public, because it was a public filing,” Steinke said on Monday.
Steinke said neither he nor Davis suspected an indictment could follow the submission of information for the clerk case.
Steinke recently told Star Community News that “It takes a tremendously honest prosecutor to file a public document admitting that his office had done something wrong. He ought to be congratulated for doing that, certainly not indicted for it.”
FDWI - Indictment of Collin County's First Assistant DA - An Analysis By Local Defense Attorney
January 7th, 2011Indictment of Collin County's First Assistant DA - An Analysis By Local Defense Attorney
Posted on January 6, 2011 by Hunter Biederman
Frisco DWI Lawyer & Attorney Blog
The latest jab in what I like to call, "Indictment Fest 2010" is the indictment of Collin County's District Attorney First Assistant Gregory Davis. All of the back and forth is a bit too much for one article, so I'll work on the background for another article.
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Gregory S. Davis
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In addition to Gregory Davis' eight years at the Collin County DA, he was also a former prosecutor in Dallas. Mr. Davis obtained twelve death sentences in Dallas County, including the only two such sentences against women in that county’s history. He was involved with the Darlie Routier death penalty case, one that garnered a significant amount of controversy.
So what is the First Assistant and what do they do? In Collin County, the First Assistant could be compared to the president of operations for a company, along with the chief litigator.
In most larger counties, the elected District Attorney does not handle courtroom trials. This was true for the last 8 years in Collin County. Major trials are usually handled by the First Assistant (death penalty cases, higher profile cases). The First Assistant in Collin County also dealt with many of the day to day operations of the office, and also supervised the highest level attorneys at the office (the felony chiefs and chief of misdemeanor courts). These were the duties of First Assistant Gregory Davis.
Mr. Davis has been indicted for Tampering With A Government Record, which is a State Jail Felony. A State Jail Felony is punishable up to 2 years in a State Jail Facility, and up to a $10,000 fine.
A person commits TGR if they makes, presents, or uses a governmental record with knowledge of its falsity. This is the "version" of TGR he has been charged with. Two other items must be included in the charge:
1. What was false; and
2. Who was defrauded.
The allegations in this case say that the false government document was the State's Disclosure of Evidence Favorable to the Defense. They also say it was "The State of Texas" that was defrauded. This State's Disclosure filing came 8 days after my article regarding the similarities between the DA's "High Five Program and the District Clerks accused behavior.
The indictment is odd for several reasons. Firstly, it is (ironic/strange/unheard of -- pick your own adjective here) that a prosecutor gets indicted for seemingly turning over evidence favorable to the Defense. One would think the indictments would fly for destroying evidence and not turning evidence over.
Additionally and arguably, Mr. Davis was admitting his office committed the same "crime" that he charged the District Clerks with. He stated, "[a]t least two timekeepers in the CCDA altered employees' time records to reflect that employees were at work when they were actually on 'High Five' leave." One would think that this "crime" would be prosecuted (probably not against him, but rather other officials in the DA's office), not the filing of the paperwork admitting to it.
Note: Other outlets have reported that he was indicted for falsifying time records -- those reports are incorrect.
Secondly, choosing the State of Texas as the party defrauded sounds odd as well. Since the Disclosure was meant to give the defense notice, it would seem that they would be the ones defrauded. Although I guess the argument could be held that when filing that paper, it is also a filing with the court, or the State of Texas.
So this leads us to the question, what is false, and what did Mr. Davis know was false in this filing? It would have to be a statement made within this document. Here are my best guesses at the possibilities:
1. [Employees were given paid time off]... "The undersigned found no evidence that any paid leave time was awarded for electioneering or political activity."
This could be the statement because it is such a clear statement, with no prefacing. (i.e. "I dont recall finding any information..."). It also could be the false statement because it is one that could easily be proved false through testimony of someone who told Mr. Davis otherwise, or an email showing he knew. However I doubt this is the false statement mainly because I suspect the statement is true. I don't think anyone was out campaigning during their days off.
2. An undetermined number of scheduling requests for investigators in the Collin County District Attorney's Office were destroyed without the knowledge of the Criminal District Attorney or the undersigned.
This is another "provable" statement. Either through testimony or an email. Someone saying Mr. Davis knew these records were destroyed would be a direct conflict with this statement.
Other statements are often prefaced with "at least." This leads me to believe they are not the false statements he is being charged with.
I don't know what statement is false, and neither does Mr. Davis' attorney. So what's a defense attorney to do? Mr. Davis' attorney has filed a "Motion to Quash" the indictment.
A Motion to Quash in this case (I haven't seen it, but was reported by the Dallas Morning News), is because the indictment didn't "allege which specific part or portion of that ... is false."
Generally speaking the indictment serves to put the defendant on notice of what the charges are against him. If it is too broad, it is subject to being quashed.
The ironic thing is that the Collin County District Attorney's Office has been famous for putting as little as possible in the indictments and being stingy with discovery. This often led to meetings where the DA would simply say, "she knows what she did" and she should resign to avoid them taking her "law license, her family, her home, her liberty, and her reputation" as alleged by Judge Wooten's attorney in regards to her indictment).
If the motion to quash is successful, the accused can simply be re-indicted and the charging document (indictment), can be changed to properly conform with the law. Usually quashing the indictment just delays the whole case. The same Grand Jury can re-indict, or it can be presented to another Grand Jury. But not necessarily in this case.
The accusation is that this particular Grand Jury had an ax to grind, and no other Grand Jury would indict on the same evidence. That means that if the motion is granted, this case could very well be over.
Hunter Biederman is a DWI / Criminal Defense Attorney in Collin County. He publishes his blog (www.friscodwilawyer.com) which focuses on the Collin County and Texas legal system. He can be reached at friscolaw@gmail.com or (888) DWI-FRISCO.
link at the article at the Frisco DWI Lawyer & Attorney Blog......
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Collin County First Assistant to the DA, Greg Davis Indicted
December 29th, 2010On Tuesday, a Collin County grand jury indicted Gregory S..Davis on charges of the felony of "Tampering with a government record for defraud/harm". A Special Prosecutor had been requested by the Grand Jury, and it was the Special Prosecutor who investigated the office of the District Attorney. Based on the information of the independent Special Prosecutor, Davis was indicted. The charges accuse Davis of falsifying over 40 time records in order to reward DA office employees with paid time off, even though time records indicated the employees were working on certain days – when, in actuality, they were not.
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Gregory S. Davis
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Greg Davis was appointed by District Attorney, John Roach, as the First Assistant District Attorney in 2003. The First Assistant DA is the top manager at the DA's office. In three days, on January 1, 2011, DA John Roach will leave office and the new elected District Attorney Greg Willis, will assume the control and management of the office. Two weeks ago, Willis had informed Davis that he will no longer be employed in the DAs office. Willis will also replace about 13 prosecutors and investigators and DA staff.
For the last two years, DA John Roach initiated the investigation of two public officials. Using several grand juries, Roach conducted a two-year investigation against then, County Court at Law judge, Greg Willis and District Court judge, Suzanne Wooten. Earlier this year a grand jury refused to indict Greg Wills. The unanimous jurors wrote an unusual report that Willis had committed no crime. Later, the DA once appeared to shop around several grand juries until he could find one that would indict Judge Suzanne Wooten.
In the latter half of 2010 there were two grand juries sitting at the same time. One of the grand juries was supervised by Judge Mark Rusch (401st Court), and the second grand jury was supervised by Judge Suzanne Wooten (380th). This fall, the 401st grand jury indicted Judge Wooten, and also indicted six deputies in the District Clerk’s office for time sheet falsification – similar to the indictment against Mr. Davis.
A couple months ago the 380th grand jury requested a special prosecutor to help investigate possible crimes committed by the District Attorney's Office. It is from this independent investigation that the indictment brought.
After the appointment of the Special Prosecutor, DA Roach dismissed all true bills of indictment from the 380th grand jury, and then asked the 401st grand jury to re-indict all of the defendants indicted by the 380th district court. Roach announced he would no longer submit any cases for consideration to the 380th grand jury.
The DA issued media statements that one on the grand jurors was a former DA prosecutor he had fired this year, and one juror was the father of Wooten's attorney. That juror, John Schulte, was unable to attend the grand jury proceedings and was unable to weigh in on any grand jury decisions because he was battling terminal cancer. (Sadly, that juror, John Schulte, died on Christmas day.)
Earlier this year, six Collin County District Clerk employees, including incoming District Clerk, Patricia Crigger, were indicted for crimes that gave rise from time sheet discrepancies and possible “electioneering.” Indictment of District Clerk-elect. After the indictment, Davis, was the lead attorney in the prosecution of the six assistant District Clerks. Later, Davis filed a motion to recuse the DA’s office from the prosecution of the case because of allegations that the DA’s office had been falsifying time sheets.
The six charges accused of the district clerk the criminal investigation was led by an independent investigation led by a Texas Ranger. Many believe that the other cases investigated against Wooten and Willis were Roach's vendettas.
Many informed courthouse insiders charge that the good citizens of the two grand juries seem to have been used as power games by DA Roach and others, that attorneys and some judges have delayed trials for more than 80 accused criminals waiting in jail for John Roach to vacate his office on January 1. Many members of the defense bar believe that the new Willis administration will give the accused and the community a guarantee of actual justice and Due Process.
After the New Year's it would seem likely that the new DA Willis will recuse his office and ask for special prosecutors in all three cases of official malfeasance.
Bill
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NOTES:
STATE of TEXAS Vs. Gregory S. Davis
Case Number: 401-82854-2010
Date Filed: 12/28/2010
Case Type: CR - Filed by Indictment
Status: Pending
Judicial Officer: Rusch, Mark
Description: TAMPER W/GOVERN RECORD DEFRAUD/HARM
Offense Date: 10/26/2010
Level: State Jail Felony
Statute: 37.10 (c)(1)
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The Dallas Morning News penned an editorial, "Courthouse circus in Collin County".
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DMN - Assistant DA Davis indicted in Collin County on record tampering charge
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County First Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis was indicted Tuesday on a state jail felony charge of tampering with a governmental record.
If convicted, he faces up to two years in a state jail and up to a $10,000 fine.
Davis could not be reached for comment. District Attorney John Roach defended him.
"Nothing has changed my mind about Greg Davis," Roach said. "He's been an outstanding first assistant and enjoys a reputation of integrity among all of his peers."
The indictment stems from an investigation by the district attorney's office into the district clerk's office.
Prosecutors gained felony indictments in July against incoming District Clerk Patricia Wysong Crigger, who takes office Saturday, and five other supervisors for allegedly falsifying county records.
The defendants are accused of altering time records to show district clerk employees were working when they were not. Prosecutors say some employees took time off to work on Crigger's Republican primary campaign in the spring.
In October, the district attorney's office filed a motion asking to be recused from prosecuting the district clerk employees.
That court filing, signed by Davis, said the district attorney's office also altered time records to indicate some employees were at work when they were not.
The document said about 40 district attorney employees were given paid time off since Jan. 1, 2003, when Roach took office. They received one to eight hours off as a reward for "meritorious conduct," the filing said.
"The undersigned has found no evidence that any paid leave time was awarded for electioneering or political activity," Davis wrote.
Davis will leave the district attorney's office at the end of the week. He is among more than a dozen staff members not being retained by incoming District Attorney Greg Willis, a Republican who takes office Saturday. Willis succeeds Roach, who did not seek re-election in the Republican primary.
The grand jury that indicted Davis was impaneled by state District Judge Suzanne Wooten, who was investigated by the district attorney's office.
Roach and Wooten have repeatedly sparred in recent months.
In October, a grand jury indicted Wooten and three other people on six counts of bribery and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity. Prosecutors allege Wooten accepted money to issue favorable rulings. She denies any wrongdoing.
A week earlier, Roach announced that he would no longer submit cases to the grand jury impaneled by Wooten.
The grand jury had requested a special prosecutor to investigate "possible criminal wrongdoing" in Roach's office.
The special prosecutor, Dallas lawyer Terence Hart, could not be reached for comment on Davis' indictment.
DMN - Plano City Hall granting fewer wishes, targeting more urgent charity needs this year
December 21st, 2010December 20, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Commissioner Hoagland was a constant in fast-changing Collin County
December 20th, 2010December 19, 2010
by ED HOUSEWRIGHT/The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Plano opening unusual interchange at U.S. Highway 75 and Parker Road
December 10th, 2010December 9, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - After 20 years on Collin County court, world's youngest judge as committed as ever
December 10th, 2010Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/120910dnmettheboyjp.3a8474e.html
December 9, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Volunteers work to add beds at Collin County homeless shelter by Christmas
December 5th, 2010December 5, 2010
by ED HOUSEWRIGHT/ The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Several area cities acting to annex land
December 5th, 2010December 4, 2010
By RAY LESZCYNSKI / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - A few in Collin County fight for the bridge that wasn't
December 5th, 2010December 5, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Texas earns a D for charter schools as Frisco group plans its first
December 1st, 2010Texas earns a D for charter schools as Frisco group plans its first
Dallas Morning News, Frisco Blog
4:30 PM Tue, Nov 30, 2010
Jessica Meyers/Reporter, Dallas Morning News
Read more of the DMN's charter school coverage here, here and here.
DMN - Collin town feels its way after 3 resignations
November 27th, 2010November 27, 2010
By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News
imccann@dallasnews.com
Paxton supporters question Texas House Speaker Straus' Judaism
November 18th, 2010Collin County's contender in the race for Speaker of the Texas House, Rep. Ken Paxton, has repudiated e-mails circulated by his supporters which make an issue of current Speaker Joe Straus' religion, Judaism.
The e-mails have been sent by supporters of both Paxton and fellow Republican Warren Chisum, emphasizing the importance of electing a conservative Christian, and some specifically point out that Straus is Jewish. Conservative leaders have responded to charges of antisemitism by saying that critics are being overly sensitive and that their real concern with Straus is based on issues. Other observers suggest that the real problem is that Straus has been able to work with, and has support from, Democrats.
The story surfaced on Monday, as political stories in Texas often do, in The Quorum Report (www.quorumreport.com), an online newsletter published by Harvey Kronberg, a veteran political journalist in Austin. The story was picked up by major publications like the Dallas Morning News and The Texas Observer (see below) and since then there has been a flurry of statements issued on the subject.
E-mailed "whisper campaigns" of questionable veracity (and plenty of outright lies) have become commonplace in political campaigns in recent years. Of course, the beauty of the technique from the political operative's perspective is that, in addition to being free, the candidate and the campaign can deny responsibility and repudiate the statements, while the questionable allegations still plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of many recipients.
Kronberg reported Paxton's statement condemning the e-mails today.
CHISUM AND PAXTON CONDEMN OUTSIDE GROUPS' RELIGIOUS ATTACKS IN SPEAKER RACE
"There is absolutely no place for religious bigotry in the race for Texas Speaker"
Two Republicans seeking to unseat House Speaker Joe Straus in the new legislative session released statements this afternoon condemning language used by outside groups that some say imply that Straus isn’t fit to be Speaker because he is Jewish.
Here’s the statement from Rep. Ken Paxton (R-McKinney):
“There is absolutely no place for religious bigotry in the race for Texas Speaker, and I categorically condemn such action. Furthermore, it is just as shameful for anyone to imply that I would ever condone this type of behavior. My campaign is singularly focused on a message of providing proven, dependable conservative leadership to the Texas House.”
Abby Rapoport of the Texas Observer has several blog posts on the topic, including this bit, edited from a longer post:
It's not easy to trace the allegations of mailers and robo-calls. While there's been increased activism around the Speaker's race, there has not been increased transparency. Because the race is not on an open ballot race none of these activists will actually cast a vote, non-profit groups can be active without filing to the Texas Ethics Commission. We can't follow the money or know who's backing whom…
…Anti-Straus activists chose to create a grassroots campaign around this political fight—as I've written before, the speaker's race was once an insiders-only affair. The anti-Straus movement has brought more people into the decision-making process, and activists have never before been mobilized on anything approximating this scale in this type of race. One web letter demanding a new speaker, ConservativeSpeakerMandate.com, brags it has over 4,000 signatures. Almost every representative I've talked to has mentioned calls and emails regarding the race.
And predictably, there has already been an allegation that the furor was REALLY started by Straus supporters. Here's Abby's reporting on this juicy tidbit:
The Texas Home School Coalition PAC has sent out an email accusing Straus supporters of manufacturing the scandal. Tim Lambert, who heads the coalition, was one of the 46 leaders who signed the letter asking members dump Straus. Here's an excerpt from the email:
Straus' supporters started pushing back against those who are highlighting his record by sending out fake e-mails accusing the Republican activists and TEA party groups of being bought and paid for and accusing Straus's opponents of being anti-Semitic. (Most didn't even know Straus was Jewish.) This is, of course, a tactic used by Democrats against conservatives in the recent election cycle. His supporters continue to say that Straus is being "attacked" personally.
read more from this and other posts on this topic at TexasObserver.org
Note the use of quotation marks around "attacked" and the allegation that the source of all of this nastiness is "of course" the Democrats.
For comprehensive overview of the controversy, read this article by Robert Garrett in the Dallas Morning News.
E-mails targeting Texas House Speaker Joe Straus cite his Judaism, rivals' Christianity
November 17, 2010
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – Some conservative Republican activists working to unseat House Speaker Joe Straus are circulating e-mails that emphasize his Judaism.
Several e-mails have surfaced in recent days that mention Straus' rabbi and underscore the Christian faith of his leading critics in the House Republican Caucus.
"Straus is going down in Jesus' name," said one, whose origins were unclear.
Straus, R-San Antonio , "clearly lacks the moral compass to be speaker," said another, written by Southeast Texas conservative activist Peter Morrison.
"Both Rep. Warren Chisum and Rep. Ken Paxton, who are Christians and true conservatives, have risen to the occasion to challenge Joe Straus for leadership," Morrison wrote in his newsletter last Thursday, referring to two Republicans who are running against Straus for speaker.
Morrison, asked Tuesday if he intended to signal that Straus is unfit because he is Jewish, replied in an e-mail, "I was simply making factual statements about Rep. Chisum and Rep. Paxton."
Morrison said his opposition to Straus is driven by issues, not religion.
Straus, asked his reaction to the e-mails, said in a statement that religious freedom and "the Judeo-Christian values of the dignity and worth of every individual" are key American principles.
"At its core, America believes in the freedom of every individual to worship as his or her conscience dictates, and it would be most unfortunate for anyone to suggest someone is more or less qualified for public office based on his or her faith," Straus said.
As the speaker's race has heated up in recent weeks, Straus has said he's solidly conservative and happy to compare his decades-long service to the GOP with that of his rivals.
But his alliance two years ago with 10 other dissident Republicans and 64 House Democrats in a speaker's race has drawn sharp criticism from Chisum, R-Pampa, and Paxton, R-McKinney. Since both launched formal bids for speaker, support for Straus has slipped slightly.
The day after last week's election, Straus released a list of 126 House members who he said have pledged him support. By most public counts, the list now is down to about 120. He needs 76 votes to keep the speaker's post.
The Quorum Report, an online newsletter, reported extensively late Monday on e-mails that mentioned Straus' Judaism, his rabbi and the Christian faith of his House critics, who include Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola.
The Lucas Mayor, City Manager and a City Council member offered their resignations
November 17th, 2010The Lucas Mayor, City Manager and a City Council member have offered their resignations following a furor between the Mayor and the City Council.
Today, the Dallas Morning News had an interesting article about the Lucas City turmoil. The post below includes the Newsletter written by the Mayor Bill Carmickle, and the DMN article written by Sam Hodges.
Bill
Lucas Newsletter, Volume V, Issue 12, December 2010
Lucas City Newsletter: STRAIGHT TALK FROM THE MAYOR
I just wanted to keep all the citizens informed as to what has transpired in the past few days.
Our City Manager, Robert Patrick, has tendered his resignation effective December 31, 2010. Please join the City Council, City Staff and the citizen’s of Lucas wishing Mr. Patrick and his family the best in his future endeavourers [sic]. Many great things have occurred during the time Mr. Patrick served as our City Manager.
City Councilmember Don Zriny, currently serving in Seat 3, also has tendered his resignation effective January 31, 2011. Councilmember Zriny has served the citizen’s of Lucas for the past five years and we the City Council, City Staff and citizens of Lucas wish to thank him for all his time and effort put forth on behalf of the citizens of Lucas. Thanks goes to Councilmember Zriny and his family for all the time spent serving the City of Lucas.
With the developments of the past few weeks, I have decided that now is the time for me to step down as Mayor of the City of Lucas. I have worked hard to ensure that the City has grown in the manner which the citizens desired. At this time, I wish the City and the citizens of Lucas the very best. I hope that the City continues move forward to preserve our quality of life we all have come to love. My resignation is effective December 3, 2010.
Thank you,
Mayor Bill Carmickle
City Councilmember Don Zriny
City Manager Robert Patrick
Lucas in political turmoil with mayor, city manager and city council member announcing resignations this week
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News
The Collin County community of Lucas is in political turmoil, with the mayor, city manager, and a city council member all announcing their resignations this week.
Allegations of elected officials interfering with Lucas city staffers have surfaced. A special city council meeting is set for Thursday at 6:15 p.m.
City Manager Robert Patrick resigned Monday, followed that day by council member Don Zriny, then on Tuesday by Mayor Bill Carmickle.
Carmickle could not be reached, but the latest Lucas newsletter announced the resignations, giving no explanation for his own other than “developments of the past few weeks.” His resignation is effective Dec. 3.
Patrick’s resignation letter says that not all elected officials in Lucas, with about 5,400 residents, have accepted the home rule charter giving staffers responsibility for day-to-day operations.
His letter also says, “I cannot stand by and see my staff disrespected by the constant allegations that either we are acting as minions to the mayor, or are pro-development.”
Patrick said in an interview that as city manager for Lucas, where residential lots must be at least one acre, he faced constant pressure over development.
“It’s just very difficult when there are the growth issues knocking on the door, trying to develop areas,” he said. “Then we have the want and need to keep Lucas’ quality of life as it is. Those forces sometimes meet. That’s where the elected and appointed officials are. That can be a difficult challenge -- to balance that need and appear and remain objective.
Patrick added that “staff does need to be allowed do to their job” but said he wasn’t accusing any particular elected official of interference.
Zriny, in his resignation letter, called Patrick “the best city manager this great city could have ever desired.”
In an interview, Zriny, said, “I felt I failed to protect the city manager from the rest of the council.” He said he would elaborate later.
Wayne Millsap, a former Lucas council member, said he hopes Patrick would reconsider resigning, given Carmickle's resignation.
Patrick said he is definitely leaving his Lucas post.
“I have been looking and feel confident that I’ll have employment shortly,” he said.
Patrick’s resignation is effective at the end of the year, and Zriny's is effective Jan. 31.
Another city council member, Philip Lawrence, said he had been assured that city services will not be greatly affected by the resignations.
“It’s never a good thing if you have one person leave, let alone three,” he said. “But the city is fine.”
The Thursday meeting deals only with Patrick’s resignation, said City Secretary Kathy Wingo.
DMN - Exide battery recycling smelter lands Frisco on list of areas violating new federal lead standard
November 17th, 2010November 16, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH and MATTHEW HAAG /The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Collin County DA's office headed for image makeover
November 15th, 2010November 14, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
McKinney Courier-Gazette - Local parties, professor discuss congressional divide
November 14th, 2010November 14, 2010 12:25 AM CST
By Marthe Stinton/ McKinney? Courier-Gazette
For the first time in United States history, the nation will have a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate and a Republican House next year. The split has occurred before, though not in this composition.
Dr. Loran Miller is a professor of political science at Collin College and provided a few examples of the House-Senate split.
“During the Reagan years we had a Democratic House and a Republican Senate; during the first two years of the George H.W. Bush administration we also had a Democratic House and a Republican Senate; and early in the George W. Bush administration we had a Republican House and a Democratic Senate,” Miller said.
Though this will affect national politics, Miller said it will be hard to tell how it will impact the average citizen.
“Obviously, to get anything done you are now going to need bipartisanship,” he said. “Will the party leaders exhibit this or will gridlock ensue? The chance of bipartisanship is more likely during the first year than the second, as during the second year, politicians will be on reelection mode and less likely to bargain. When the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate and an overwhelming majority in the House - and a Democratic president, bipartisanship was not necessary.”
Miller said the addition of tea party Republicans, and whether they decide to stick with the ideas they had during the election cycle — of “cut, cut, cut” without adding new taxes — could create interesting results.
“Both political parties need to make progress on cutting the deficit and dealing with economic issues — since those seem to be the mandates from last Tuesday’s election,” Miller said. “How these issues are addressed and how much each side is willing to give are the key questions. When political leaders talk about spending cuts, they don’t get specific. They tend to talk about ‘cutting the fat’ — but one person’s fat is another person’s meat,” Miller said.
Obamacare was a lightning rod on Election Day, but Miller said completely eliminating it is unlikely.
“Insurance companies — one of the Republicans’ largest contributors — love parts of it,” he said. “While they want to eliminate the provisions that require the industry to cover kids with preexisting conditions and they want to set lifetime limits on medical care, they make billions on the requirement to purchase insurance.”
Shawn Stevens, chairman of the Democratic Party of Collin County, said now that the Republicans have a majority in the U.S. House, they have the responsibility to actually govern and work together with the Democratic majority of the U.S. Senate and President Obama. He said they now have the chance help more Americans get good-paying jobs, “not the minimum-wage jobs that have been most of what has been created in Texas recently.”
“That is what Americans care most about,” Stevens said. “Hopefully, the Republicans in the U.S. House under Speaker John Boehner will not waste all of their time doing their contributors’ bidding by relitigating the recent health insurance reform legislation and trying to make President Obama a one-term president — as Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell? has said was his main focus, instead of focusing on helping the Democrats try to improve the economic mess that was underway when President Obama took office — and focus on helping get Americans back to work.”
Stevens said it is difficult to tell whether the split will have a profound effect on local and national government.
“It all depends on how the Republicans approach the situation,” he said. “If they continue to be obstructionists and seek to try to frame President Obama and the Democrats as not being able to get anything done, and shut down the federal government like Newt Gingrich did when he was speaker and battled President Clinton, then that will obviously have an effect on the national government.”
Though what happens in Washington affects the public’s perceptions of politics in general, Stevens said, how the two big political parties relate to each other has an effect on the atmosphere of state and local politics.
“The biggest political reality on the ground in Texas right now is that the state of Texas is facing an estimated $25 billion state budget shortfall,” he said. “The Republicans completely control Texas state government, which in many ways has more of an impact on Texans’ lives, both directly — with school and college funding, prisons, roads and bridges, Medicaid, and safety-net programs like food stamps, which many Texans are having to rely on just to eat in this difficult economic environment — and indirectly with how state funding affects local governments.”
Stevens said because Gov. Rick Perry won’t have $16 billion in federal stimulus money from Washington in the legislative session next spring, Texans will likely see public college tuition increases, more students crammed into public school classrooms, closing of a number of state prisons and a continuation of the underfunding of the construction and maintenance of roadways, leading to even more congestion.
“Local governments, including local school districts, will very much be affected by what happens with the state budget in Austin next spring,” Stevens said. “The state budget shortfall is likely to have a severe impact on local community-college funding, like that for Collin College, which may be forced to either raise local tax rates, or tuition, or both.
Fred Moses, chairman of the Collin County Republican Party, sees the Republican House as an opportunity.
“We have a more conservative House that can put restraint on government spending,” Moses said.
Moses said that when one party controlled both the Senate and the House, it was presented the opportunity to pass something like health care without bipartisan support.
“I don’t know that it was good for the country,” he said.
He said the split will have a profound effect on both national and local governments in that there will be a more “conservative agenda.”
“I think in terms of some of the mandates we get from the federal government, there will be less likelihood that we have these government mandates on local districts like Collin County, because one is more conservative and we are looking more strongly to represent local government interests,” he said.
Moses hopes that both parties will work together and have the country’s best issues at heart.
DMN - Collin County Paxton joins the Speaker's race
November 11th, 2010Link: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/11/collin-county-paxton-joins-the.html
November 11, 2010
By Erin Mulvaney/ The Dallas Morning News - Trailblazer Blog
Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, threw his hat in the ring to join the race for Speaker of the Texas House.
Exide to test Frisco residents for lead in their blood
November 5th, 2010The City of Frisco issued a press release also released from Exide: Exide will allow all Frisco residents free blood tests for lead.
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The following information is distributed from the City of Frisco's News and Information service.
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***The following information has been released by Exide Technologies, Inc.
Blood Lead Testing Now Available for Residents of Frisco, TX
Frisco, TX – (November 4, 2010) – Exide Technologies has announced that testing for blood lead concentration is now available for all residents of the City of Frisco, at no charge. Exide will be responsible for all expenses incurred for the blood draw and testing. Frisco residents interested in the testing must go to the office of Dr. Vicki B. Davis at 8680 East Main Street, Suite 1E, Frisco, TX, phone number: 972-377-2447. The blood testing can be done by appointment or on a walk-in basis. Please note that walk-ins may have to wait for staff availability. Citizens will be asked to confirm their residency prior to the testing. All blood samples will be sent by Dr. Davis to ACL Laboratories for a lead concentration analysis. Results obtained by ACL will be returned to Dr. Davis. She will contact residents to provide and discuss the results and answer any questions.
“We are offering this testing to all residents of the City of Frisco in order to provide peace of mind regarding blood lead levels,” said Don Barar, plant manager for Exide’s Frisco recycling facility. “I encourage any citizen who has a question about blood lead levels to take advantage of this testing.”
For questions regarding the testing, please contact either Dr. Davis or Susan Jaramillo at Exide, (203) 699-9133.
###
DMN - Collin County judge says "vote center" system may have contributed to long lines on election day
November 3rd, 2010November 3, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
read this story at DallasNews.com
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Commentary: Just for the record, vote times in excess of an hour were reported as early as 3 pm at high traffic locations such as the Allen Municipal Courts building, Christ United Methodist Church and Harrington Library in Plano, Renner-Frankford Library in Dallas and the Murphy Municipal building -- while other locations had minimal wait times.
It was not just last-minute voters who experienced long lines, as many Collin County voters who waited hours to vote, some outside in the rain, can attest. Unknown is how many voters were discouraged and left polling locations due to the long lines.
The Wait Time indicators on the County Elections website seemed to be updated for some locations, but not for others. At one point in the late afternoon, the indicator for Ford Middle School in Allen showed no wait when exiting voters were reporting waits of 90 minutes. A few miles away, voters at Suncreek United Methodist Church also waited 90 minutes as the online system showed a 15 minute wait.
Other than the indicators on the county website, there did not appear to be any system in place to advise voters in long lines that other nearby locations had significantly shorter lines. For example, while voters waited in a 90 minute line at Renner-Frankford Library in Dallas, lines were negligible at Rose Haggar Elementary School, half a mile away.
As frustrating as this experience was for so many, it was positively inspiring to see the long lines of voters so determined to cast their vote that they were willing to wait for an hour or more, particularly those who did so standing in the rain. They should be commended for their dedication, and we can hope that those who didn't vote at all will be encouraged by their example.
angellsmith
DMN - Collin County Judge Keith Self heads toward a second term
November 3rd, 2010November 2, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
The Texas Observer - Voting Problems in Collin County
November 3rd, 2010Link: http://www.texasobserver.org/forrestforthetrees/voting-problems-in-collin-county
by Forrest Wilder/The Texas Observer
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
The Collin County Observer has a post up describing "multiple reports of voting issues in Collin County today." Collin County is trying out a new "vote center" concept in which voters can vote at any polling location rather than their neighborhood precinct. The system requires the use of electronic pollbooks linked together.
According to The Collin County Observer, technical glitches with these pollbooks is causing trouble at the polls.
Concerns brought to our attention so far include a corrupt file loaded on all of the county-issued electronic pollbooks, network and telephony issues.According to our information, voting in many locations was interrupted due to the issues with electronic pollbooks and networks, and the resulting phone calls into the Elections Office overwhelmed their capacity to receive and handle calls.
While some election judges and their crews capably kept processing voters, others were paralyzed by the technology failures and essentially stopped voting for periods of time. All polling locations are provided with paper ballots and instructed to process voters on paper in the event of technical failure.
Election judges are also responsible for reporting wait times to the Elections Office so that the Wait Time indicator on the county's website can be updated and indications are that this is not happening consistently.
The Texas Observer talked to the author of the post, Debra [sic] Angell Smith. "From my standpoint, [the vote center concept] is a great idea," Angell Smith said. "The problem is do they have adequate infrastructure? I would say today the answer is 'no'."
Angell Smith said she didn't know how widespread the problems are. When I called the office of the Collin County Voter Registrar I was put on hold for about 10 minutes before reaching an operator. I left a message with an elections official in an attempt to corroborate this information. I will update this post when I hear back from her.
Update: I spoke with Tim Wyatt, a spokesman for Collin County. He confirmed that there were problems today with the electronic pollbooks, which are essentially laptop computers that contain a database of voters. But Wyatt said the delays in voting were relatively short and the problem is now fixed.
Here's what happened: Some of the laptops became overloaded and had to be reset, temporarily delaying folks from voting. It took the county IT people about 30 minutes to identify the root cause – a "Windows glitch" (damn you Microsoft!) that brought down the computers.
"It caused some delays," said Wyatt. "It slowed things down." He didn't know how many polling places were affected in all but said 47 technicians were deployed to fix the glitch. The longest reported wait was 90 minutes, Wyatt said. The voting machines themselves were not compromised and poll workers were able to verify voters over the phone.
The glitch wasn't caught during pre-election simulations because the system wasn't tested with the type of loads (number of voters) seen on Election Day.
As noted in the original post, the "vote center" model is relatively untested. Collin County is one of a handful of counties trying it out this election. The primary advantage of "voter centers" is convenience. On Election Day, voters can vote at any polling place of their choosing and can move to a different location if the lines are long. However, the system necessitates new layers of technology, i.e. more stuff that can go awry.
DMN - Software glitches cause delays at Collin County polling places
November 2nd, 2010November 2, 2010
By THEODORE KIM and ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Keeping up with the DA's battles
November 1st, 2010October 31, 2010
Ed Housewright/The Dallas Morning News
DMN - 2,500 Collin County residents get tax mailers addressed to New Mexico
October 29th, 2010October 29, 2010
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Editorial: Courthouse circus in Collin County
October 29th, 2010Editorial: Courthouse circus in Collin County
The Dallas Morning News / Editorial board
Thursday, October 28, 2010
.... link to the editorial at The Dallas Monday News
DMN - Trial for 6 Collin County clerk's office employees postponed until 2011
October 27th, 2010October 27, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Collin County DA's office recuses itself from prosecuting district clerk supervisors
October 27th, 2010October 27, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Couple in custody battle accused of paying judge for favorable rulings
October 24th, 2010Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/1024dnmetcollinjudge.24b1c01.html
October 23, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH, ED HOUSEWRIGHT and MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/1024dnmetcollinjudge.24b1c01.html
DMN - GOP reigns in Dallas-area suburbs
October 23rd, 2010Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/1023dnmetgopburbs.2343248.html
October 22, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Divided GOP may be factor in Collin County judge campaign
October 21st, 2010Sunday, October 17, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
CBS-11: Collin County Judge Suspended Following Indictment
October 20th, 2010CBS 11TV: Collin County Judge Suspended Following Indictment
Collin County Judge Suzanne H. Wooten has been suspended by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct following her indictment on criminal charges last week.
Wooten and three others are accused of funneling money to her 2008 political campaign in exchange for favorable rulings in her court. There are seven counts of bribery, including Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity.
In a written response to the Commission, Wooten's attorney, Peter Schulte says "Judge Wooten accepts the Commission's decision and has immediately ceased acting in the capacity of Judge of the 380th Judicial District Court."
But supporters of Judge Wooten gathered in a courtroom this morning before the judge arrived. Upon her arrival she as given a standing ovation. Wooten's supporters say the investigation is a political vendetta by the Collin County District Attorney's office that began in the days after her successful campaign for the bench.
"They have their favorites. She's not one of their favorites" says Sharon Curtis, the President of the Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, who organized today's show of support for the judge. "From reading the indictment, it sounds like it has lots of holes" says Curtis.
"And so we're letting her know, and the community know, that people who are kind-of in-the-know, in her court every day, believe in her and don't believe this (the allegations) happened" says Curtis.
Collin County District Attorney John Roach says he forwarded the investigation to the Texas Attorney General's office on July 22, 2010, and he would not comment on the case or the show of support for the judge.
Wooten also would not comment. She has been suspended with pay. Visiting judges will hear cases in the 380th Judicial District Court until the criminal case is resolved.
link to CBS TV 11 an video and article.....
DMN Opinion Blog - Could Spanish get deal to toll Collin County highway?
October 15th, 2010Link: http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/could-spanish-g.html
October 15, 2010
by RODGER JONES/The Dallas Morning News
A
DMN - State District Judge Suzanne Wooten, others, indicted on bribery charges related to 2008 campaign
October 15th, 2010State District Judge Suzanne Wooten, others, indicted on bribery charges related to 2008 campaign
October 15, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Frisco's Exide plant to make upgrades in effort to cut lead emissions
October 14th, 2010Frisco's Exide plant to make upgrades in effort to cut lead emissions
12:35 AM CDT on Thursday, October 14, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH and MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Collin County kills Lake Lavon bridge project
October 14th, 2010Collin County kills Lake Lavon bridge project
October 12, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Statesman.com - E-voting case goes to Texas Supreme Court
October 13th, 2010This lawsuit filed in Travis County references e-voting machines manufactured by Hart Intercivic, but there are similar concerns about e-voting machines sold by all manufacturers, including Diebold, the source of Collin County's voting equipment. This is a re-print of Bill's comments about e-voting here in Collin County from a post in December '09, still relevant today:
Collin County has used Diebold's electronic voting machines for several years now, and not without incident. In the 2004 presidential election, a Diebold machine "locked-up" at one polling place, and election officials were unable to get the vote counts from the memory card. The votes were finally counted a week later, but only after the memory card was secretly sent to a Canadian lab for analysis.
Recently, ars technica reported, "Diebold machines have been responsible for dropping votes and derailing elections in several states, including Ohio and Alaska. These high-profile failures and repeated findings of low reliability and poor security during tests have compelled several states to ban Diebold voting machine products. The company has also been sued for a wide range of misconduct associated with its voting machine business, including fraud and even GPL infringement."
Nevertheless, in 2008 Collin County bought 410 more Diebold machines for use in future elections. The county now owns over 1,400 of these "AccuVote" machines.
A couple of years ago, Diebold, concerned about the unlimited legal liability that could ensue from machine errors in contested elections spun off the elections division after it was unable to find a buyer. Renamed Premier Elections Solutions, the old election division was then sold this year to rival Elections Systems and Software, Inc.
Bill
(from post "Reuters - Diebold sale challenged" - 12/20/09)
Group of Travis voters takes e-voting case to Supreme Court
NAACP, others want paper ballot backups.
By Chuck Lindell/ AMERICAN-STATESMAN
October 13, 2010
Alleging that Travis County's electronic voting machines are not secure or reliable, a group of voters Tuesday asked the Texas Supreme Court to let their lawsuit demanding changes go to trial.
The lawsuit, filed in 2006 but held up on procedural questions, seeks to force Travis County to provide voters with a paper copy of their just-cast ballot to review for accuracy. That ballot would then be submitted to create a record that can be checked in event of a recount or problem with a machine.
The current system, which tabulates all votes cast on a machine but does not provide individual printed ballots, cannot ensure accuracy or provide a backstop to a voting system that has had problems in the past, the voters say.
But on Tuesday, a lawyer for Secretary of State Hope Andrade urged the state's highest civil court to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that the voters cannot show they have been harmed by the voting machines and therefore have no standing to sue.
Alleging hypothetical scenarios in which votes might be lost because of tampering or malfunctions is not the solid proof of harm that the law requires, Kristofer Monson , an appellate lawyer with the attorney general's office, told the court during oral arguments.
"This is not a case about the right to vote," Monson said. "This is a case about the relative policy merits for two alternative mechanisms for performing recounts after someone has voted" — ballots printed on paper versus the computer tabulation of votes compiled by each machine.
In addition, Monson argued, the secretary of state properly followed the law in certifying in 1999 that the voting machines meet state standards for accuracy.
Travis County purchased its machines, made by Hart Intercivic Inc., in 2001.
Similar arguments failed to sway the District Court in Travis County or the 3rd Court of Appeals, which ruled 2-1 that the lawsuit could proceed to trial.
The state has asked the nine-member Supreme Court to reverse those rulings and dismiss the suit.
Timothy Herman, lawyer for the voters — who include 2006 Democratic attorney general candidate David Van Os and the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on behalf of its members — said a history of voting machine problems raises valid questions about the reliability of the ballot system in Travis County and elsewhere in Texas.
A paper record, he said, is necessary to protect voting rights guaranteed by state law and the Texas Constitution.
"The right to vote is meaningless unless you are also assured that the vote you cast is going to be counted properly," Herman said.
In briefs to the court, Herman recounted several past failures with electronic voting machines, including the loss of voting records in Collin County in 2004 and the inclusion of 100,000 uncast votes in Tarrant County in 2006.
"If a voter could demonstrate, as these voters have, that they are forced to use a machine which does not comply with the Election Code (requirement for accuracy), then they are in danger of being harmed," Herman said.
"We have right to plead it. All we want is to go back to the trial court and sort it out," he said.
Thirty-two states now require voter-verified paper ballots, according to the Verified Voting Foundation , a nonpartisan nonprofit reform group.
The Supreme Court has no deadline to rule but typically issues an opinion about 13 months after oral arguments. The case is Andrade v. NAACP of Austin, 09-0420.
=========================================================================================
link to this article in The Austin America Statesman
Additional coverage on electronic voting on the Collin County Observer:
Reuters - Diebold sale challenged
Statesman.com - Texas judges run in the dark
October 8th, 2010Texas judges run in the dark
Editorial Board - Austin American Statesman
As we've noted many times before, Texans zealously cling to their right to elect their judges but would be hard pressed to name even a few of the 18 people who occupy the benches of two highest courts in the state, the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Nonetheless, every two years, judicial candidates ask people for money and votes then cross their fingers. There might be a better way to do this, but until Texas finds it, the state's voters will hand the power to redirect lives and money to people they barely know.
The nine-member Supreme Court is the last stop in the state system for civil disputes, and, as the name implies, the Court of Criminal Appeals is the last word in the state system for criminal cases.
This year, three Supreme Court justices — all Republicans — face challenges from Democrats, and only one of the three justices running for re-election to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals faces a Democratic challenger.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
It is no coincidence that Justice Mike Keasler drew a Democratic opponent. Though Keasler, a Republican, who has served two six-year terms, is an amiable enough fellow, he is associated with a faction of the court that never met a conviction it didn't like.
A series of death penalty cases involving ineffective assistance of counsel, allegations of bad science or just plain sloppy police work have been affirmed by the court of appeals. One particularly troublesome case involved Verla Sue Holland, a former member of the Court of Criminal Appeals who, as a state district judge, presided over a capital murder case in which the evidence against the defendant was strong. The problem was not the quality of evidence, though. When long-standing rumors that Holland and the prosecutor in the case had a romantic affair were confirmed, questions arose about how fair the trial was for defendant Charles Dean Hood.
Keasler was part of the Court of Criminal Appeals majority that refused to grant Hood a new trial when the defense claimed that the first one couldn't have been fair given the circumstances. The case drew national attention and a lot of comment about the appeals court standards for a fair trial.
The appeals court finally ordered a new punishment trial for Hood but had to reverse an earlier ruling that had nothing to do with Holland's illicit affair with then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell Jr.
It isn't the only example of the court's strange notions of justice.
Keasler, 68, shrugs when asked about the cases, saying the law is imperfect sometimes. That attitude might make sense in a strictly academic legal sense to someone, but it is chillingly cavalier when a life is at stake.
Clearly, it is time for new blood on the court, and we recommend Keith Hampton, 49, an Austin lawyer, to inject it. Hampton is a well-respected advocate who was the overwhelming winner in a statewide poll of lawyers. The poll might not mean much outside legal circles, but it speaks volumes because incumbent jurists usually have an advantage in those surveys
It should concern all Texans that the Court of Criminal Appeals has lost respect; the judiciary is the bedrock of a civilized society.
Hampton won't necessarily be able to fix all the court's ills, but we bet that he'll make a pretty good start toward restoring the public's confidence in its court.
Incumbent Justices Lawrence Meyers, and Cheryl Johnson, both Republicans, face Libertarian opponents on the Nov. 2 ballot.
DMN - Frisco battery recycling plant to test residents' blood levels for lead
October 8th, 2010Frisco battery recycling plant to test residents' blood levels for lead
Frisco battery recycling plant to test residents' blood levels for lead
October 7, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH and MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
link at The Dallas Morning News....
=============================================================================
Link: Letter from Frisco city manager
Link: TCEQ map of non-attainment area
Link: EPA recommendation
McKinney Courier-Gazette - DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"
October 6th, 2010DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"
DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"
By Danny Gallagher, StarLocalNews.com/McKinney Courier-Gazette
October 5, 2010
The tension between Collin County District Attorney John Roach and District Judge Suzanne Wooten grew another notch Tuesday when Roach announced he would pull and re-submit over 100 cases from her court.
Roach said in a released statement that he ordered his office to pull and review more than
100 indictments filed in Wooten's court and resubmit them to another Collin County grand jury due to allegations of biased members that Wooten placed on the jury panel and the appointing commissioners.
Roach, who conducted an investigation into Wooten's election practices to the 380th District Court that ousted incumbent Charles Sandoval before handing the case to a special prosecutor from the Texas Attorney General's Office, claimed the questionable indictments were made by a grand jury selected by Wooten.
A separate grand jury approved the appointment of a second special prosecutor to investigate the Collin County DA's office's conduct in launching their investigation against Wooten. Roach's office recused themselves from the investigation after the Texas Attorney General's took over the case.
Roach alleged in a separate statement that Wooten had stacked the grand jury with questionable appointments including the father of her attorney Pete Schulte of Dallas and a former Collin County DA employee "who has had personal and professional conflicts with my office."
Schulte said Wooten did not directly appoint the members of the grand jury. She appointed commissioners to choose jurors from a sealed document.
Roach pulled the indictments when he discovered that an unidentified aunt of Schulte's served as one of the commissioners on the grand jury panel.
"We have also learned at least one of Judge Wooten's grand jurors, who we believe to be acting independently of the 'special prosecutor,'" Roach said, "has personally contacted at least one person to be a witness for Judge Wooten's grand jury."
Schulte rebuked the allegations made by Roach's office as the last act of a desperate man.
"The DA of Collin County has completely lost it," Schulte said. "He's lost his mind."
Schulte said he recommended her aunt to Wooten as a commissioner for the grand jury panel after Wooten asked him if he knew anyone "in Plano who has a lot of time. I thought of my aunt because she's retired."
He called Roach's decision "unprecedented."
"Basically for the DA to decided without any other determination that a grand jury is not lawful is unprecedented and probably illegal," Schulte said. "The fact of the matter is that taking the time to do away with these cases that he's dismissing and re-indicting or resubmitting is obstruction of justice."
The resubmitted cases represent the distrust that Roach and his office have in Wooten's ability to construct a credible and impartial grand jury, Roach said.
"I took these actions because I have profound reservations about the integrity of the entire process in impaneling Judge Wooten's grand jury and its subsequent actions, which also present serious ethical questions," Roach said. "Neither I, not any other citizen of Collin County can have confidence in the composition and operation of Judge Wooten's grand jury. All persons whose cases are presented to a grand jury have a right to expect, without reservations, that their cases will be considered ethically and within the bounds of the law. I am duty bound to see to it."
Schulte denied the allegations that Wooten tried to stack a grand jury with favorable members.
"If Judge Wooten was going to stack a grand jury, she would have put 12 angry lawyers on that grand jury because it takes nine out of 12 jurors to do anything," Schulte said. "This is all a smoke screen because he's scared. He knows the activity that he and his office have done and he knows he could get indicted. He's trying to cast a shadow of doubt because he has no other recourse."
myFOXdfw.com - McKinney Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
October 6th, 2010McKinney Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
October 6, 2010
Adapted for Web by Tracy DeLatte
An American soldier with North Texas ties was killed recently while on foot patrol in Afghanistan.
Pfc. Cody Board was with two other soldiers when an explosive device went off. The two other soldiers survived, according to the Department of Defense.
Friends said the 20-year-old was a McKinney native who joined the Army after graduating from McKinney North High School in May 2009.
His parents have since traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a special ceremony.
There will also be a candlelight vigil for him around the MNHS flag pole at 8 p.m. on Friday night. The school's football players will wear stickers with his initials during their game.
DMN - Nonprofit clinic to treat the poor opens today in West Plano
October 6th, 2010Nonprofit clinic to treat the poor opens today in West Plano
October 6, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Feud escalates between Collin County District Attorney John Roach, state District Judge Suzanne Wooten
October 5th, 2010Collin DA John Roach, foes ready for his retirement
October 5th, 2010DMN - Collin DA John Roach, foes ready for his retirement
October 5, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT /The Dallas Morning News
Collin County District Attorney John Roach says he's looking forward to his retirement at year's end.
Some defense attorneys say they are too. They've become increasingly vocal in criticizing Roach as arrogant, autocratic and demeaning of defense attorneys.
"He doesn't seem to shy away from personally attacking anyone who dares to criticize him," said Mitch Nolte, a former chief felony prosecutor under Roach.
He and other attorneys began speaking out because of Roach's yearlong investigation of state District Judge Suzanne Wooten, who was elected in 2008. The inquiry is believed to involve campaign finance issues. Roach defends the investigation but won't comment on its substance.
"It's a witch hunt, and there's no witch," said Sharon Curtis, president of the Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Roach has received both criticism and praise in his eight years as district attorney.
He received the Lone Star Prosecutor Award from the Texas District & County Attorneys Association in 2008. The group honored Roach for "his courage and discretion in prosecuting – or choosing not to prosecute – several cases."
Roach's office has won a number of high-profile convictions. Last year, for instance, Raul Cortez was sentenced to death after being convicted of fatally shooting four people during a 2004 McKinney? home burglary. It was the worst mass murder in Collin County history.
Roach, an Air Force veteran, runs his office in a formal, regimented way. He addresses all his employees by "Mr.," "Ms." or "Mrs." Employees call him "Judge Roach" in recognition of his two decades as a district and appellate judge.
Roach requires male prosecutors to wear a suit or sport coat with a tie. Women can't wear "unreasonably short skirts or dresses or sexually provocative clothing," according to a 40-page office manual.
"I have some pretty set ideas about the way things ought to be," Roach acknowledges.
He has often riled county commissioners who set his office budget.
For instance, commissioners opposed his plan in January to spend $25,000 on high-powered rifles, shotguns, helmets and shields to equip a courthouse security team consisted of his investigators.
The money would have come from an asset forfeiture fund that Roach alone controls.
"It's my money," Roach said at the time. "I can spend it for anything my office requires, in my opinion."
Roach, 64, staunchly defends some policies that defense attorneys attack. For instance, he won't allow some defendants to plead guilty before a judge. Instead, Roach insists on trying the case.
"We're hard-nosed prosecutors," Roach said. "A lot of defense attorneys, not just here, want a DA who will roll over for them."
The repartee between Roach and defense attorneys won't last much longer. He decided not to seek re-election in the spring primary and his last day in office will be Dec. 31. In November, voters will decide his successor: Republican Greg Willis or Democrat Rafael De La Garza.
Roach plans to pursue his hobbies of swimming, scuba diving, skiing and firearm sports.
He won't rule out another run for public office, although he has no job in mind.
"Nobody holding office currently needs to be quaking in their boots," Roach said.
DMN - Trial of district clerk supervisors to move
October 5th, 2010Trial of district clerk supervisors to move
October 5, 2010
ED HOUSEWRIGHT/The Dallas Morning News
DMN - Judge refuses to move trial of Collin clerk's office supervisors accused of falsifying records
September 27th, 2010Judge refuses to move trial of Collin clerk's office supervisors accused of falsifying records
Monday, September 27, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
link to this article at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN - Collin County commissioners' vote not to include vision, dental care services in '11 grants
September 26th, 2010DMN - Editorial: David Smith for Collin County judge
September 23rd, 2010Editorial: David Smith for Collin County judge
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Give credit to Collin County Judge Keith Self for one achievement in office: stimulating citizen interest.
Unfortunately, much of the public interest that Self has ginned up has involved a level of acrimony and distortion that are a disservice to the county.
Self, a Republican, is seeking a second term by styling himself as an uncompromising fiscal conservative. Voters who like that message but could do without the drama have a good option on Election Day: former Plano City Council member David Smith.
Smith, 59, a telecommunications consultant, has the challenge of being a Democrat running in a GOP county. But he matches Self's credentials as a budget hawk. Known as a detail man in office, Smith served three terms on the Plano council as a finance committee member who pushed for efficiencies and lower taxes. One year, 1997, when Plano had a healthy budget surplus, the City Council approved an unprecedented property tax rebate; Smith pushed, albeit unsuccessfully, for a cut in the rate as well.
Smith used his voice in Plano to make the council's decision-making more accessible. He was sympathetic to homeowner interests when they clashed with big developers. He continues that work as legislative director for a statewide homeowners group.
One difference between the candidates that Smith pledges to accentuate: his interest in consensus-building vs. Self's predisposition to pick a fight.
Self, 57, a former career Army officer, has stirred up a fuss in arguing that the county funds extravagant pensions for its employees. He took that campaign to rallies and recruited supporters on Facebook, but the message stems from flawed assumptions.
Self has painted a picture of retirees rolling in pension dollars, when the truth is that most collect modest benefits. One session of the Commissioners Court overflowed with alarmed employees and raw emotion. A fellow officeholder, longtime Tax Assessor-Collector Ken Maun, challenged Self's integrity, saying, "Your math sucks."
Self grudgingly admitted to this newspaper that he might do some things differently now that the issue has caused such bitterness, but that's hard to believe when he insists that his numbers are not misleading. It's clear he doesn't accept responsibility for disingenuously pitting taxpayers against employees.
Self also fought his own Commissioners Court and a citizen-led planning process for a major countywide bond package for roads, a package ultimately approved overwhelmingly by voters. And he tangled at a hearing in Austin with state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and has made clear that he sees regional cooperation as infringement on local control.
This should not be the face of one of the nation's fastest-growing, most affluent communities. The county deserves measured, professional administration.
Smith, an Air Force veteran, brings a business portfolio to the table, drawing from a career at Texas Instruments and EDS as leader of engineering and business-development projects. The county could use collaborative leadership after four years of counterproductive head-butting.
FDWI Blog - Scott Becker Appointed to the 219th District Court
September 17th, 2010Scott Becker Appointed to the 219th District Court
Posted on September 15, 2010 by Hunter Biederman
Frisco DWI Lawyer and Attorney Blog
Congratulations to Scott Becker on his appointment to the 219th District Court in Collin County. The appointment was announced on the Governor's website today.
Mr. Becker won the Republican Primary election and was set to take office (no democratic opponent) on January 1, 2011. However, current sitting Judge Henderson recently announced his retirement. Most people around the courthouse assumed he would be appointed to the bench, but until today nothing was official.
Mr. Becker's appointment is to begin on October 5, 2010, and expire at the end of the term January 1, 2011 (when he will become the elected Judge).
Mr. Becker is an assistant district attorney in the Collin County District Attorney’s Office. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas, Collin County Bar Association and Collin County Young Lawyers Association. Becker received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and a law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law.
MCG - First McKinney city budget hearing to be held Tuesday
September 6th, 2010First city budget hearing to be held Tuesday
By Andrew Snyder / The McKinney Courier-Gazette
September 2, 2010
On Tuesday the McKinney City Council will hold the first of two public hearings on a proposed budget totaling $90.7 million in general fund expenditures. The hearing will be held at city hall during the scheduled council meeting that begins at 6 p.m.
Expenditures under the proposed budget see a decrease of about $2.5 million from last year. Despite the reduction, the proposal is still a deficit budget that sees expenditures exceed revenue by about $4.4 million. The city will use reserve dollars to bridge the gap without raising the tax rate from it's current level or cutting staff, though 16 open positions will remain frozen.
The budget under consideration sees drops in a number of funding categories. Some funds seeing large decreases include the Utility and Street Construction Funds, which each fell from amounts around $50 million last year to $536,932 and $1,976,130, respectively. Park construction also fell by a large amount from $55.6 to $2.7 million.
City services paid for through the general fund such as police, fire, public works, city government and parks and libraries will also see reductions. Public works funding will see the largest decline with a 9.4 percent decrease, followed by police (-4.7) and fire (-1.9). In an earlier budget hearing, the police department said it will make up for the loss by delaying vehicle replacement and using less money on computer hardware, uniforms and ammunition.
Under the proposed budget, the general fund balance will drop from 27 million at the start of the fiscal year to an estimated 23.8 million. That keeps it about two million over the city’s 90-Day Revenue Requirement, though projections for Fiscal Year 2011-12 show the balance falling below that amount if the current rate of expenditures to revenue continues.
read the rest of this article at The McKinney Courier-Gazette.....
DMN - Retiring Collin County district clerk waits to see if she'll face criminal charges
August 30th, 2010PSC - DART saves Senior Rides program
August 26th, 2010DART saves Senior Rides program
By Jon Vanderlaan / The Plano Star Courier
August 24, 2010
The tightening budget in Plano is not without its casualties, one of which was scheduled to be the Senior Rides program -- but an agreement between the city and DART will spare it for at least another two years.
Because DART service does not flow extensively through Plano, especially its northwest reaches, the agency has agreed to fund the program at $50,000 per year for the next two years, or until the northwest Plano park-and-ride station is operational.
The program has offered taxi vouchers and mile reimbursement as part of its services since its inaugural year in 2008.
Lee Stark, the transportation coordinator at the Geriatric Wellness Center of Collin County, said the change to two years -- board members requested to fund the program for an initial year from the proposed one-year agreement -- helps give the program stability.
“We’re not expecting there to be significant change in terms of what the client deals with,” he said. “It marries the two agencies a lot more in terms of looking directly at the issues of senior transportation.”
Todd Plesko, DART vice president of planning and development, said until the agency can bring more coverage to that area of Plano, funding the program is a good option.
However, Vice Chairwoman of the planning committee Pamela Gates said she does not want other member cities to believe the funding is a pilot program and available to all.
Because Plano is in a different situation than member cities, it is a one-time funding agreement, she said.
Stark said despite spending just over $50,000 in 2009 and estimating the cost of the program at more than $70,000 in 2010, administrative cuts should keep the program under the $50,000 budget.
The program originally was going to cut the mile reimbursement program as part of those cuts, but as of the planning committee meeting, that part of the program still was in the plans.
Stark said the Geriatric Wellness Center is going to absorb some costs, and marketing also is going to take a cut, because the program already is almost at capacity with about 90 clients.
He said when the funding is cut off in two years, he believes not only will Plano have a park-and-ride station in the northwest area of the city, but DART and Plano will have come up with a Mobility Management Plan, which DART is working on courtesy of a United We Ride grant.
According to a presentation by DART Innovative Services Project Manager Daniel Dickerson, eligible seniors 65 years old or older can purchase discounted taxi vouchers at $25 for a $100 voucher or have mileage reimbursed at 50 cents per mile.
Plano still will be charged with running the program with funding from DART...
FWW - Fusing Fear and Data
August 26th, 2010Fusing Fear and Data
August 25, 2010
PETER GORMAN / Fort Worth Weekly
In December 2008, State Rep. Lon Burnam had a one-car accident. The Fort Worth Democrat didn’t even get a ticket. Nonetheless, Burnam is convinced that the accident report was passed from local police to who knows what local, state, and federal agencies, via the Collin County North Central Texas Fusion System.
You may have thought fusion these days had mostly to do with cross-cultural cuisine, but in this case the Collin County fusion system is a “remotely accessed data-sharing and analysis system” that involves more than 170 agencies in 16 counties, including Tarrant and Dallas. It’s meant to provide policing agencies, the FBI, Homeland Security, first responders, and health providers with a wealth of information at the touch of a computer keyboard.
According to advocates, such information-sharing systems allow police to do a better job of tracking and apprehending dangerous criminals by giving them information covering a broad area rather than just their own backyard.
But critics aren’t sure that putting that much information — including some that has nothing to do with criminal activity — into the hands of law enforcement is really a good thing. They fear it will lead to racial profiling, the targeting of perfectly legal groups, and even harassment of individuals. One major concern is that information from various sources will be sent up the line to federal agencies, which will use it to target undocumented residents for deportation — and that the result will be a wedge driven between Latino communities and local police.
“When that happens, people often won’t even report criminal activity or come forward as witnesses to criminal activity,” said Aerin Toussaint, a policy analyst with Texas Impact, a grassroots network that includes Christian, Jewish, and Muslim individuals and institutions. The group works for public policies that enhance freedom and justice.
“I am tremendously concerned about the potential violation of privacy” with fusion systems, Burnam told Fort Worth Weekly. “I have been trying through the Open Records Act to discover what they have gathered on me. I know they gathered something in the context of my having been the director of the Dallas Peace Center for 10 years. And I want to know what it is.”
Fusion centers were started in 2004 as part of the post-9/11 anti-terrorist backlash. They are funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which developed the idea of creating multi-jurisdictional agencies that would share information in order to track and prevent terrorist and criminal activity. However, the federal government offered no strict guidelines on how the centers would be run, leaving that up to the local jurisdictions.
The first such center in Texas was opened in 2004 by the Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. Since then several others have been created, including the one in Collin County that covers North Texas. All the participating agencies supply data to that “bank.” Dallas, which has its own center, provides only limited information to the Collin County center.
The result thus far has been the creation of overlapping data centers with different missions, each run independently — and some taking the kind of actions that civil libertarians have feared all along.
The Collin County fusion center, for instance, sent out a “prevention awareness bulletin” in February 2009, ordering law enforcement authorities to report on all civil rights meetings involving Muslims and to gather and pass along information on any anti-war groups in the 16-county jurisdiction. The ability to “order” local jurisdictions to supply information comes from the center’s federal mandate.
It turned out that the bulletin was not authorized by the Collin County head of Homeland Security, but was sent out by a computer worker in the center. [Bill notes: actually the 'computer worker' was Dr. bob Johnson, the prime contractor to the Fusion Center and the son of Congressman Sam Johnson]
In the months that followed, everyone from the ACLU to religious groups objected to it. In the wake of the scandal, center officials center limited the scope of their data collecting — but many of the agencies in its jurisdiction continued to pass along the information demanded.
“This memo is not a plea for legitimate intelligence, and seems to endorse discrimination against Muslims,” Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, said in a press release. “The idea that the tolerance advocated by the groups being targeted would be treated as a menace to American security demonstrates a disregard for civil liberties and a disdain for democracy itself.”
The Collin County fusion system hasn’t released another such bulletin since then.
According to Lt. Todd Thomasson of the Dallas Police Department, commander of that city’s fusion center, other centers have “passed out documents that suggest that if a person has a certain bumper sticker they might be a terrorist and other misleading things.” But he said the Dallas City Fusion Center — officially called Metro Operations Support and Analytical Intelligence Center, or MOSAIC — does not participate in that sort of grab-bag information gathering.
“Dallas is part of the NCTFS, but our center only provides the Collin County fusion center with information related to criminal activity,” he said. “A lot of fusion centers around the country are multi-agency. We’re not. We are a tactical fusion center, focused on crime. We share information as it relates to criminal activity and nothing else.”
Thomasson said that while his staff has the ability to gather data from the NCTFS, neither the Collin County center nor any other agency can look into the Dallas center’s computers. “Other agencies can call us for information, but there would have to be a criminal predicate before we would release information,” he said.
Asked whether he had run into any issues with the Dallas Hispanic community, so easily targeted because of the number of undocumented aliens, he said, “We view that as strictly a federal issue.”
The Fort Worth Police Department did not respond by deadline to questions about what information they pass along to the Collin County center.
Hector Carrillo, civil rights chair of the Fort Worth LULAC chapter, said, “We have not seen any upheaval with regard to the Fort Worth Latin community from the Collin County fusion program. Yet.”
“The reason that one fusion center might target a specific race or group of people and another won’t is that different fusion centers have different missions,” said Bill Baumbach, a printing company manager and reporter who writes for D Magazine’s FrontBurner blog and runs his own blog, the Collin County Observer. “They all have the same basic concept, which is to take information from different databases to make them relational. But what data they choose to collect and what data they send on to the FBI and Homeland Security is where they differ. The Department of Public Safety’s Texas Fusion System in Austin is one of the most frightening.”
The Texas Fusion Center shares information with the Texas prison system, Homeland Security, federal treasury and immigration agencies, the Air and Army National Guard, and a host of other police and non-police agencies.
Baumbach said the DPS center also collects personal information every time a police officer talks with someone, including drivers who are pulled over and issued nothing beyond a warning. “That is gathering information on people who were not only not convicted of a crime — they weren’t even charged with one. That’s very frightening to me,” he said.
“Think of what can go into those databases. The Collin County Sheriff’s Department has bought handheld license plate scanners, and they walk around certain parking lots recording those plates. And that information is fed into the fusion center. The question is, should the government collect that information — where your car was at 3 p.m. yesterday, for instance? I don’t think so. But these fusion databases have escaped scrutiny because they wave the flag of national security.”
Because there is so little federal oversight, he said, “They’re all mavericks. You can have a good one in Dallas but one that overreaches in Collin County and affects millions of people.”
Many groups have been calling for oversight and transparency regarding the centers, almost since they began operating in 2004. In a 2009 press release, the ACLU noted that it had predicted that the “complete lack of oversight over [fusion centers’] activity would lead to violations” of civil rights.
Part of the problem, Baumbach said, is that the Collin County fusion center’s top official reports to the county administrator, who is ultimately responsible to the county commissioners. “Are the county commissioners capable and willing to set constitutionally acceptable espionage-gathering guidelines? I don’t think so.”
MCG - Local reporters subpoenaed in district clerk case
August 20th, 2010Local reporters subpoenaed in district clerk case
August 19, 2010 6:05 PM CDT
McKinney Courier-Gazette
McKinney Courier-Gazette reporter Danny Gallagher has been subpoenaed by the defense in the case of Rebecca Littrell, one of the district clerk employees indicted for engaging in organized criminal activity.
The subpoena, which he received Thursday, instructs Gallagher to bring all articles he has written on Littrell and report to the 401st District Court on August 25.
Ed Housewright of the Dallas Morning News and Bill Baumbach of the Collin County Observer have also been subpoenaed.
DMN - Plano coming to terms with new identity, needs
August 16th, 2010Plano coming to terms with new identity, needs
August 16, 2010
By THEODORE KIM and MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
"Plano has changed from the perception that it is a well-to-do, all-white community."
Plano Mayor Phil Dyer"We need to accept that Plano today is not your daddy's Plano."
Plano City Councilman Harry LaRosiliere
DMN - Frisco's air has too much lead under new federal pollution rules
August 16th, 2010Frisco's air has too much lead under new federal pollution rules
August 16, 2010
By MATTHEW HAAG and VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
An area of Frisco that encompasses downtown, several schools and neighborhoods will soon be in violation of new federal lead pollution standards.
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News.....
DMN - 13,000 pages of evidence filed in case against Collin County District Clerk supervisors
August 15th, 201013,000 pages of evidence filed in case against Collin County District Clerk supervisors
August 15, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County prosecutors have filed a barrage of evidence – more than 13,000 pages – in their case against six district clerk supervisors indicted on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity.
"They're making a statement that they've got the goods."
Defense attorney Mitch Nolte
"The whole thing is kind of sad. You've got a bunch of grandmothers who have never been in trouble a day in their lives."
George Milner III, defense attorney for Lorrie Robertson
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Patricia Crigger
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K-2 bans: faux reefer madness or public safety imperative?
August 13th, 2010Over the last few weeks, Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney and now Dallas have banned the sale of K-2 or "Spice", which has been billed by internet sites and the press as a marijuana substitute, or synthetic marijuana.
A March Newsweek article pointed out that, "Although the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has listed K2 as a "drug or chemical of concern," it isn't officially 'scheduled,' and that makes it legal."
The Newsweek article goes on to state:
"Is JWH-018 [K-2] dangerous? No one really knows. There's not a lot of research on what it does to mice and almost nothing on what it does to humans. Its effects shouldn't be that different from marijuana's, but then, we could argue all day about how dangerous marijuana is."
But as USA Today noted, "Clemson University chemist John Huffman, a research professor whose graduate students synthesized the substance in his lab 15 years ago, says the chemical may be harmful. 'It shouldn't be out there,' he says."
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction released a paper last year, "Understanding the Spice Phenomenon", which seems to be the most detailed study of K-2 that I've been able to find. The EMCDDA explains:
"So far, little is known about metabolism and toxicology of the synthetic cannabinoid compounds. It cannot be assumed that the risks associated with the use of synthetic cannabinoids will be necessarily comparable to those seen with THC, and indeed there are some reasons for concerns that these drugs may have a greater potential to cause harm. Because the synthetic cannabinoids in the ‘Spice’ products have only been tested in the laboratory (in vitro or in animals), the health risk of the inhaled smoke is unknown. In the case of JWH-018, it can be speculated that, due to structural features, there may be a certain carcinogenic potential. Furthermore, accidental overdosing with a risk of severe psychiatric complications may be more likely to occur because the type and amount of cannabinoid may vary considerably from batch to batch even within the same product."
..."What is clear is that further studies are needed to assess these risks reliably."
With or without the science, Sen Florence Shapiro has promised to carry a bill banning K-2 in the next Texas Legislature.
The Dallas Morning New's editorial writer Todd Robberson wrote an article yesterday where he decries the passage of laws prohibiting K-2 without any scientific evidence that it is harmful. Also yesterday, the Morning News editorialized on the issue, calling the Dallas ban on K-2 "premature".
The News summed up its position by stating:
"By all means, let's address the dangers where they truly exist. But before instituting broad-brush bans, we should be guided by science and statistical evidence, not emotions."
The lack of action by the federal and state governments is the crux of the dilemma facing our local municipalities.
The regulation of drugs is usually accomplished at the state and federal levels. But neither the state nor Washington has acted, leaving local officials scrambling to protect their citizens. Data or no data, local elected officials are simply trying to respond to the fears of their constituents.
The lack of any real pharmacological data only heightens the fear and lends it more justification.
Bill
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City Council's K-2 ban not well considered
August 11, 2010 | Tod Robberson / Editorial Writer
The Dallas Morning News Opinion Blog
I wish actual science had been used in today's City Council debate regarding K-2 and other cannabinoid substances that head shops are currently selling as an alternative to marijuana. Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway made an impassioned plea for approval of the ban that he and Mayor Tom Leppert proposed, arguing that K-2 poses a danger to children as the latest thrill-seeking way to evade marijuana prohibitions. He likened the danger to "cheese," as if heroin and pot are equivalent in terms of what they do to abusers physically.
The only voice of sanity in this debate was that of Councilwoman Angela Hunt, who calmly asked the city attorney and police chief for statistics about hospitalizations or deaths related to the use of K-2. The answer came back: none, save for one instance in which K-2 was one of many drugs used by a guy who also ingested PCP. Then Hunt asked about calls to poison control related to K-2. Statewide, there had been 119 calls and 6 in Dallas, City Attorney Tom Perkins stated. When asked about hospitalizations, deaths and calls to poison control related to alcohol, it was obvious that they far exceed those related to K-2.
So Hunt suggested amending the ban so it didn't go further than the ban on alcohol sales: if you're under 21, you can't buy it, possess it or use it. She also suggested waiting until either the state or federal governments had passed bans, reasoning that it didn't make sense for the city to pass a ban that is meaningless if you take two steps beyond the city limits into a jurisdiction where it remains legal. No luck.
With Hunt as the only dissenter, the cannabinoid ban passed. The worst that the Food and Drug Administration can say about K-2 is that it has not been approved for consumption. That's a far cry from declaring it "dangerous" as Caraway did. I'd like to see some real science on this. Plus, it's worth considering that there are probably a thousand cannabinoid derivatives, of which K-2 is one. Does the City Council propose to enact a ban each time a new product emerges containing one of these other derivatives?
Legal or not, I won't be trying K-2. But I really would prefer that such laws be based on actual scientific evidence of harm rather than anecdotal evidence and highly emotional appeals.
Link to this article at the Opinion Blog of The Dallas Morning News....
MCG - Pogue Construction founder faces sentencing in late August
August 12th, 2010Pogue Construction founder faces sentencing in late August
By Danny Gallagher / The McKinney Courier-Gazette
August 12, 2010
The former president and found a major McKinney construction company will face sentencing for his federal tax charges later this month.
Paul Pogue is scheduled to enter the sentencing phase of his federal criminal trial on Aug. 27 in the U.S. Eastern District of Texas court, according to federal court records. Pogue accepted a plea deal and entered a guilty plea in the U.S. Eastern District of Texas court on a federal felony violation of making and subscribing a false tax return back in February. Pogue admitted that he "willfully made and subscribed a U.S. individual income tax return form...for calendar year 2003" that reflected his taxable income by a lesser margin of approximately $1 million, according to court documents.
His 1040 reflected he earned taxable income of $4,594,052 for his work as a consultant for a construction firm, but investigators discovered he actually earned $5,588,249 in the span of the calendar year.
He then submitted two additional fraudulent tax returns in 2005 and 2006 that also contained significant deductions of actual taxable income. His 2004 return only reflected earnings of $3,111,715 when he actually earned $3,686,784 and his 2005 return only reported $2,908,235 when he knowingly earned $3,030,684.
Internal Revenue Service investigators said these fraudulent returns cost a tax loss of $473,680, according to a finding of fact document filed with the court.
Pogue entered a guilty plea last Thursday. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Pogue faces a possible sentence of up to three years in a federal prison and a possible fine not to exceed $250,000 or "not more than the greater of twice the gross gain to the defendant or twice the gross loss of any victim," according to the notice of penalty.
Pogue helped found and served as president and chief executive officer of Pogue Construction, a McKinney based construction firm that has designed and built numerous local projects with the city of McKinney and the McKinney Independent School District including the McKinney Public Safety Building on Taylor-Burk Drive and several fire stations for the McKinney Fire Department, the McKinney ISD administration building and several McKinney ISD schools.
WFAA - Homeless shelter backs off plan to expand in Plano
August 10th, 2010Homeless shelter backs off plan to expand in Plano
by JASON WHITELY / WFAA
August 10, 2010
Updated 11:26 PM
MCKINNEY — The Samaritan Inn, Collin County's only homeless shelter, said it will no longer push Plano to open its own homeless facility.
Late Tuesday night, the Plano City Council indefinitely postponed applying for $700,000 in federal funds to buy land for its own shelter.
So The Samaritan Inn — which had volunteered to run a Plano shelter and make interest payments — said it will now back off, though it will still offer help to the city whenever asked.
Even if Plano isn't ready to take part in its own shelter, the city tells us it has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Samaritan Inn over the last 20 years, which is earmarked for homeless residents and also to provide rent and utility assistance to prevent people from ever losing their home.
"Plano absolutely helps out," Samaritan Inn director Lynne Sipiora said. "We are very grateful for all the support we get from them."
The McKinney shelter is about to open a new wing, she added, which includes 40 more beds for 10 new families.
"We're tired of seeing moms and dads and kids sleeping in their cars and checking back every day to see if we have an opening," Sipiora said. "I expect that when this wing is open, we'll fill it in a week."
That's how much demand exists in the suburbs.
Plano city officials tell us nothing else to help the homeless is currently under consideration, although the city will continue to award thousands of dollars in grant money to organizations that provide assistance.
Homeless shelter grant fails to clear Plano City Council
August 9th, 2010At 11:30 tonight, after a long public hearing, the Plano City Council voted 6-2 on a motion by Councilman Pat Minor to table the Samaritan Inn grant request until after the Plano Planning and Zoning Commission has acted on the Inn's rezoning request of the proposed site on FM 544 and Shiloh Rd.
The vote to table has the effect of temporarily not approving any grant funding for a homeless transition facility in Plano. The vote is a major set back for the Samaritan Inn and its plan to build a facility to house 40 homeless families. The Inn must now present its case to the P & Z, and then the City Council for the land use request.
Only after clearing those hurdles can it request the community development grants.
Bill
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DMN - Plano council tonight weighs $700,000 land purchase for homeless shelter
Monday, August 9, 2010
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
The Plano City Council could take a major step tonight toward building one of North Texas' largest homeless shelters, a plan that triggered a fierce debate about the shelter's location.
Area of proposed Plano homeless shelter site
The City Council will consider approving the use of $700,000 in federal grant money to buy land Plano for the shelter.
The Samaritan Inn of McKinney has proposed placing the facility on six acres in east Plano.
Much of the opposition comes from businesses near the proposed site, on 14th Street near Shiloh Road.
Business owners worry that the complex will lead to higher crime rates and lower property values.
Supporters say the $4 million project is needed. While Collin County is one the country's most affluent, it has a growing homeless population. About 7 percent of Plano families live in poverty.
read the rest of this story at The Dallas Morning News....
also....
WFAA - Plano homeowners gripe about homeless shelter plan, CCO, Aug. 4, 2010
The real story behind Samaritan Inn in Plano, Chuck Bloom, CCO, Aug. 2, 2010
DMN community opinion - Lynne Sipiora: Collin County needs to shelter its homeless, CCO, Aug. 1, 2010
DMN - Homeless shelter director says need must trump Plano residents' oppositionul. 25, 2010
DMN - Plano weighs plan to build long-term homeless housing facility, CCO, Jul. 16, 2010
DMN - Transportation blog: Jane Willard to replace NTTA Chairman Paul Wageman as board's Collin County representative
August 9th, 2010Transportation blog: Jane Willard to replace NTTA Chairman Paul Wageman as board's Collin County representative
Monday, August 9, 2010
By MICHAEL LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
PSC - Plano employees file suit; seek break, overtime pay
August 9th, 2010Plano employees file suit; seek break, overtime pay
By Jon Vanderlaan / The Plano Star-Courier
August 9, 2010
Six Plano employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against the city seeking lunch break pay and overtime pay because of the work they had to do during those times.
According to the complaint filed July 27, the employees were promised pay during lunch breaks while they also monitored the radio for relevant calls. They also were promised overtime pay during on-call hours.
Billy Horton, Robert Morris, Robert Prunty, Alan Spurgin, David Ratcliff and Sam Bigham are the named plaintiffs in the case, which is presented on behalf of others in the same situation.
In the court filing, the plaintiffs argue they should be paid for breaks and on-call time because they must continuously listen for messages and adhere to company policy during the time.
It also alleged that employees were not paid for overtime work.
The city has since instituted a policy that pays its employees for such time, but has not compensated employees for past work, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs allege that the practices violated the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
“Plano showed reckless disregard for the fact that its failure to pay workers overtime compensation and minimum wages was in violation of these laws,” according to the lawsuit.
Even if the court does not grant full payment for breaks, the lawsuit requests payment for the time employees spent on their radios or doing work resulting from a radio call.
According to the document, the plaintiffs are bringing suit against the city for declaratory judgment, breach of contract, quantum meruit, promissory estoppel, common law debt and the Texas Payday Act.
They are seeking unpaid wages, attorney fees, costs and interest.
read the rest of this article at The Plano Star-Courier.....
Today's local media coverage of District Clerk charges
August 5th, 2010The McKinney Courier-Gazette
Collin County DA will not step down from prosecuting district clerk's employees
By Danny Gallagher / The McKinney Courier-Gazette
August 5, 2010
The Collin County District Attorney's Office has no plans to let another district attorney's office handle the case against six indicted Collin County district clerk's employees.
First Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis confirmed his office's decision by email.
"There are no plans to recuse our office," Davis said. "I will be handling these cases until they are concluded."
A Collin County grand jury returned indictments against chief deputy district clerk Patricia Crigger, civil/family manager Sherry Bell, senior administrator Rebecca Littrell, deputy district clerk Amy Mathis, civil/family supervisor Lorrie Robertson and deputy minutes clerk Marcia Simpson in connection with the Texas Rangers' investigation, according to Collin County court records.
An unidentified source told Sgt. A.P. Davidson of the Texas Rangers' Office that Crigger and Littrell held meetings last January to recruit employees of the District Clerk's office to "assist with the Crigger campaigns during regular working hours."
Employees earned paid time off for participating in Crigger's campaign. When the employee claimed "blue book time," "supervisors would falsely report to the county payroll system that the employee was at work," according to the affidavit.
Further investigations showed that Crigger used the county office's computer to transmit campaign materials including her "bio" and "an endorsement letter purportedly written by current district clerk Hannah Kunkle for use in the Crigger campaigns."
The Collin County DA's decision to pursue the case might seem unorthodox to some, but Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Edward "Chip" Wilkinson said he believes they are simply following their judicial obligations....
read the rest of this article at The McKinney Courier-Gazette....
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The Dallas Morning News
E-mails describe Collin County employees' campaign work for incoming clerk
Thursday, August 5, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County district clerk employees used county computers on county time to work on the campaign for chief deputy Patricia Crigger, according to e-mails contained in court documents.
County policy prohibits campaigning during work hours, yet the e-mails among staff members at the district clerk's office freely talk about campaign schedules, walking precincts and dressing for the polls. One supervisor even dubbed herself the "campaign queen."
"It's an unfortunate misunderstanding and misidentification of the facts," said Crigger's attorney, Robert Hinton, who spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about the allegations against his client. "Patricia and the other girls indicted are just good salt-of-the-earth people. They were just doing what they've been told, including Patricia."
Hinton said that the office has rewarded employees for years with extra personal days, and that staffers volunteered to use their personal days to campaign for Crigger.
Crigger defeated law office manager Alma Hays in an April 13 Republican primary election runoff. Crigger faces no Democratic opposition and is due to take office Jan. 1, replacing longtime District Clerk Hannah Kunkle, who is retiring.
Accused of tampering
Crigger and fellow supervisors Sherry Bell, Rebecca Littrell, Amy Mathis, Lorrie Robertson and Marcia Simpson were indicted last week on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity. They are accused of tampering with government records and committing theft by falsifying time and attendance records to show employees were working when they were not.
More than two dozen e-mails from district clerk employees about Crigger's campaign are included in a search warrant affidavit from a Texas Rangers investigation. The affidavit states that employees were asked to assist Crigger in "various ways, such as walking neighborhoods and holding campaign signs at polling places."
Collin County policy states, "Employees are not permitted to perform or be involved in political campaigning ... during working hours or on paid overtime."
The e-mails shed light on how the campaign work was coordinated.
"Sandra and Pam are willing to work Farmersville on either Thursday or Friday and possible [sic] both," Bell wrote to Littrell on Feb. 23. "Do you want them there? I think it might be good."
About four hours later, Bell sent another e-mail to Littrell: "Lorrie will go to Allen. Just come on in the office and we will decide where we are going."
That same day, Bell wrote: "You better dress for us to work the polls tomorrow. That's what Patricia wants us to do."
On Jan. 19, Bell sent an e-mail from her county computer to a friend outside the district clerk's office.
"I am the campaign queen around here and Patricia has named my truck the 'Campaignmobile,' " she wrote.
Mathis, another defendant, sent an e-mail on Feb. 2, saying she had worked 10 straight days on the Crigger campaign. On March 5, Mathis wrote to the same person about the upcoming runoff election.
"We are in a run off [sic] now so I will not have a life until April 13th," Mathis stated in the e-mail.
Fuddruckers meeting
One e-mail in the affidavit mentioned an employee meeting at Fuddruckers restaurant in McKinney on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
The e-mail includes no details. But attorney George Milner III, who represents Robertson, said the lunchtime meeting was called to encourage employees to back Crigger. Kunkle was present but did not speak, Milner said....
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
Bill
FE - Frisco avoids low-income housing lawsuit
August 5th, 2010Jessica Rush does a great job in this article giving some of the background behind the Frisco City council's vote to support an application by a developer for low-income housing.
The Observer covered the story of the development proposal with media clippings. See:
- DMN - Frisco council votes to support reduced-rent apartments, Feb. 17, 2010
- DMN - Frisco affordable housing plan gains board's support but meets resistance, Feb. 12, 2010
Bill
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Frisco avoids low-income housing lawsuit
By Jessica Rush / The Frisco Enterprise
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Developer Stewart Creek LLP did not receive the tax credits needed to fund a 150-unit, low-income apartment complex in Frisco. The housing project development was competing for $9 million worth of credits against almost 30 other developments, but it was too far down on the list to receive immediate state funding. Fifty units in the 10-acre complex, North Court Villas, would have been made available for clients with Section 8 housing vouchers.
Had the Frisco Housing Trust Board not agreed to send letters of support to both Stewart Creek LLP and another developer, VDC Frisco Reserve I, LP (which withdrew its contract earlier this spring) in their goals to provide Section 8 housing, the city would likely have faced a lawsuit by the Inclusive Community Project (ICP).
“We just evaluated what ICP brought to the table, and we created an agreement with them. I think our leadership has been very proactive in addressing any shortfalls in affordable housing in Frisco,” Mayor Maher Maso said.
ICP is an organization that seeks to create and maintain thriving racially and economically inclusive communities, expand fair and affordable housing opportunities for low-income families, and improve policies that prolong the effects of discrimination.
The city of Sunnyvale recently lost its lawsuit against ICP, and both Flower Mound and McKinney are dealing with similar suits for claims they violated the federal Fair Housing Act.
ICP filed its suit against Flower Mound claiming the town has a history of zoning that excludes certain groups, and that it refuses to participate in low-income housing loan and credit programs that help create affordable low-income housing. It also asserts that area cities and towns have adopted policies to develop low-income housing. Finally, it alleges that Flower Mound’s racially discriminatory policies and practices hamper the ICP’s mission to assist families seeking to use Dallas Housing Authority’s Section 8 housing vouchers in Dallas suburbs.
So far the ICP lawsuit has cost Flower Mound more than $200,000 in legal fees, court costs, and other fees, such as those for external consultants.
In March of this year, the McKinney Housing Authority reached an agreement with ICP after more than a year of litigation, agreeing to annually request applications from qualified developers for the next five years and to pay some of ICP’s attorneys’ fees.
ICP is seeking to construct 400 apartment units in Flower Mound. Because Sunnyvale lost the lawsuit, it must build 77 low-income housing units in the city.
“We have an agreement with them [ICP] to look at the housing in Frisco and we’ve met our obligations,” Maso said.
The contract on the land on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway between Woodstream Drive and Preston Road is now still open for development.
Staff writer Chris Roark contributed to this story.
WFAA - Plano homeowners gripe about homeless shelter plan
August 4th, 2010NIMBYism is alive and well in East Plano.
Bill
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Plano homeowners gripe about homeless shelter plan
by GARY REAVES / WFAA
August 3, 2010
PLANO — The City of Plano got an earful from property owners Tuesday night who are upset about a proposed plan to help the homeless.
In a sign of the tough economic times, about 150 people gathered at the First United Methodist Church for a town hall meeting to talk about what to do about the growing homeless problem in one of the nation's most affluent counties.
Just about everyone agrees something must be done, but many of the speakers at Tuesday's meeting want it done somewhere else.
Plano residents kept their emotions in check, but that doesn't mean they want the proposed facility for 80 homeless families to be built in their backyard.
"This is a worthy cause, but this is the wrong site," one speaker said.
The proposed site is currently a vacant lot in east Plano. The Samaritan Inn of McKinney — the county's only homeless shelter — is seeking a federally-backed loan for the Plano property to build a facility to help homeless families get back on their feet.
The agency's McKinney shelter is swamped.
"With the decline in the economy, we have now been turning away 15 to 30 people a week because we're full," said Samaritan Inn director Lynne Sipiora.
Her organization is committed to the Plano location, but people who live nearby fear it would only hurt the value of their homes.
"I feel trapped, because I've already asked 50 people — or more — if they would be willing to buy my condo if they could see a homeless shelter out the bedroom window, and their response to me was, 'No,'" said Shari Gearhart.
Like most everyone at the meeting, Gearhart said she would support the Samaritan Inn proposal if it was located elsewhere.
But Denny James, who has been helped by the Samaritan Inn shelter, offered a reminder that many others are just a paycheck away from being homeless like he was.
"They were there," James said. "They gave my baby wet wipes and diapers and toothbrushes and stuff I just ran out of. They helped me."
Next Monday, the Plano City Council will consider the first stage of the Samaritan Inn's proposal — applying for a federal loan. After that, the organization would still have to raise more than $3 million and they'd have to settle on a final site.
link to this article, video and pictures at WFAA Channel 8.....
DMN: Frisco Blog - City of Frisco proposes property tax rate increase
August 4th, 2010City of Frisco proposes property tax rate increase
August 04, 2010
Valerie Wigglesworth/The Dallas Morning News Frisco Blog
The city of Frisco is considering a property tax rate increase due to declining property values.
The city's rate of 46.5 cents would increase to 47.76 cents under the proposed 2011 budget. City Manager George Purefoy said the increase of 1.26 cents would go entirely toward paying debt and not be used for the city's maintenance and operations. The proposed increase amounts to an extra $31.50 a year for the owner of a home valued at $250,000.
Assistant city manager Nell Lange said existing property values declined by 4.3 percent, much of that being in the city's commercial sector. A special fund that sets aside revenues from property taxes in a square mile around Stonebriar Centre mall for public projects, for example, lost about $60 million in value compared with last year, Lange said.
Council members received a brief summary of the budget proposal on Wednesday and will get copies of the full budget on Monday. Public hearings on the budget are scheduled for Aug. 17 and Sept. 7.
Last year, the city manager's office proposed no property tax increase. But council members decided 4-3 to increase the property tax rate by 1.5 cents to fill 17 key vacancies and take less from the city's savings.
Earlier this summer, Frisco ISD announced it would increase its property tax rate by 3 cents, pushing the overall tax rate to $1.42 per $100 assessed valuation for the next school year. This represents a 2 percent jump, or about $75, for owners of a home valued at $250,000.
link to this posting at The Dallas Morning News Frisco Blog....
DA: District Clerk's office padded time, attendance records
August 4th, 2010Yesterday, the Collin County DA's office, filed a "Notice of Overt Acts" detailing the charges against Chief Deputy District Clerk Patricia Crigger and 5 other indicted deputy district clerks.
I have uploaded the 45 page "Notice of Overt Acts of the Combination" filed in the case The State of Texas v. Patricia Crigger.
The filing is basically a list of actions by the six accused Deputy District Clerks in falsifying time records and using access cards to clock-in absent employees.
A reading of the filing shows that the DA is accusing the defendants of falsifying time records to grant time off to themselves and others, and of using electronic access cards to clock-in absent employees.
The filing also accuses Crigger of arranging an after the election party in Oklahoma, and then falsifying the time records to show that she an the other defendants were at work at the time.
The "Notice" also accuses one or more of the defendants of removing an absent employee's access card during the raid by the Texas Rangers to keep the Rangers from finding it.
The filing, by First Assistant DA Greg Davis, charges the six defendants acted in an organized manner to commit two classes of crimes, "Tampering With a Government Record", and "Theft by a Public Servant".
It details instances of employees being granted paid time off for campaigning for Crigger, as "Blue Book" time, and as unofficial holidays such as "Hannah Freebies", "Free Days", Spring Days", Fair Days", Shopping Days", and "Birthday Days".
I counted over 230 days of unearned pay being granted over the 5 month period detailed in the filing.
You can read the entire filing, "Notice of Overt Acts of the Combination" here.
Bill
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Collin County DA: District clerk's office padded time, attendance records
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Incoming Collin County District Clerk Patricia Crigger rewarded five supervisors in the clerk's office who campaigned for her with a trip to Oklahoma and falsified records to indicate they were on the job during the two-day trip, according to court documents.
DMN - District clerk's office padded time, attendance records with hundreds of false entries
August 3rd, 2010Collin County DA: District clerk's office padded time, attendance records with hundreds of false entries
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County District Clerk supervisors made more than 200 false entries to show employees were at work when they were not, according to a 45-page court document filed by the District Attorney's office.
The document also says that supervisors used employees' access badges to log in workers when they really weren't on the job.
Patricia Crigger, the incoming district clerk, and five other supervisors were indicted last week on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity. The indictments stem from a Texas Rangers investigation that alleges Crigger and the others pressured district clerk employees to work on Crigger's spring campaign.
Crigger defeated law office manager Alma Hays in an April 13 Republican primary runoff election. Crigger faces no Democratic opposition and is due to take office Jan. 1, replacing longtime District Clerk Hannah Kunkle, who is retiring.
The new court document alleges supervisors gave employees unauthorized paid time off in exchange for their campaign work.
The charges against Crigger, Sherry Bell, Rebecca Littrell, Amy Mathis, Lorrie Robertson and Marcia Simpson allege the women tampered with governmental records by making false entries in time and attendance records.
PSC guest opinion - Chuck Bloom: The real story behind Samaritan Inn in Plano
August 2nd, 2010The real story behind Samaritan Inn in Plano
Chuck Bloom
Published by The Plano Star-Courier
July 27, 2010
One of the problems with something instantly deemed “controversial” is how the facts often get intermingled with feelings, producing an inaccurate debate when possible approval is pending. Such seems to be the case with the proposed Samaritan Inn in Plano (SIIP), which, when ALL the facts and information are presented accurately, will be seen as a positive for the city of Plano and its citizens.
The starting point for this discussion must be a realization of fact: homelessness among Collin County citizens, especially families, once doing well financially, is increasing at an alarming rate. The county has but one homeless facility – the Samaritan Inn in McKinney – and it turns away twice as many needy people as it takes it for one simple reason – the lack of space. Sadly, the Samaritan Inn is always full (with one-third of the residents being children under 17, meaning part of families).
More and more former middle class residents are in need of Samaritan Inn services than ever before – due to sliding economic/job RIF conditions. So serious is the problem of homelessness in the North Texas region that people will go to extraordinary lengths to get help, including one man who WALKED from Sherman to McKinney because he had lost his job, his home and his car. There are times when every male family head of household in Samaritan Inn possesses a college degree. The old stereotypes don’t apply anymore.
The Inn offers programs to return residents to being productive and independent members of society – with an affordable place to live and a job to sustain their independence. Such IS the goal of everyone associated with the Samaritan Inn for every person/family it accepts into the program.
Many of those families come from Plano, as well as other parts of the county, but currently, all services are McKinney-centric. It would be logical to have services provided in the county’s largest individual population center. That seemed to be the consideration by the Plano City Council when it voted unanimously to approve its five-year Consolidated Plan (2010-2014) on March 8.
In that document, on page 30, “the creation of additional shelter, supportive services, and transitional housing for homeless and under-housed” was stated as one of the city’s high priorities.
Then on July 13, the city’s Community Service Commission voted (again unanimously) to fund the $700,000 land purchase of the land (6.2 acres located just east of 14th Street and Shiloh, is currently owned by Temple Baptist Church of Allen, and not being developed) with a grant from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. This is funding outside of city-taxpayer expenditures, coming from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, earmarked for projects exactly like this. Such block grants have been part of redevelopment of urban and rural cities for decades, and not a peep has ever been sounded before because the money is returned directly to the people for good use.
At the same time, the Samaritan Inn was already working with city officials on a different CDBG block grant and the connection seemed to be natural.
“When we identified a possible site, we went back to the city and it was suggested we apply, they apply for HUD funds to purchase the property and that is how it all began,” said executive director Lynne Sipiora. “Make no mistake, the need is truly there.”
The financing does not involve a single Plano taxpayer; the city will purchase the property through the CDBG grant, donate it to the Samaritan Inn, which will, in turn, be responsible for the facility’s construction. Once it opens, operation and oversight will be done by the Inn, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, led by a board of directors consisting of many of the county’s top business and social leaders and elected officials. Not one penny comes out of the city of Plano’s budget.
Although the Samaritan Inn has been part of the fabric of Collin County for 26 years, many residents remain unaware of its services, program and purpose. First, it is NOT a faith-based charity. The Samaritan Inn receives support from a cross-section of churches, service organizations, civic groups, school groups, corporations, businesses and individuals.
It is not a burden upon county or city taxpayers; it only gets a mere 5 percent of its budget from government entities (through community block grants). The remaining 95 percent of its annual budget is garnered through private donations and fundraisers; much of the work is done by volunteers.
Here is a very important point overlooked by critics – this state-of-the-art facility WILL bring jobs to Plano; staff will be hired to work there. In addition, there will be retail sales dollars involved as supplies and non-donated groceries must be purchased, plus other monies injected into the Plano economy. The unused property in this part of Plano will become a viable entity; opposition to such a positive turn is inconceivable.
Additionally, housing Plano families locally will mean a bit of savings for Plano school district taxpayers. Currently, children who live in the PISD, but get relocated to the Samaritan Inn, can remain as PISD students and, hence, must be provided transportation to and from campuses … from McKinney. And since the school-age children to be housed at SIIP will already be enrolled in PISD schools, there is no strain on campus enrollment.
In safety terms, the Samaritan Inn is a superb neighbor in McKinney with a zero-tolerance for criminal activity of any kind. If rules (or laws) are broken, the offenders are expelled from the facility. As a result, there is almost no threat of criminal activity from the residents who understand the consequences.
This second homeless family program will coincide with a planned expansion of the McKinney facility, with the recent purchase of property near its headquarters. It will be used to relocate Samaritan Inn offices in order to add 20 rooms to accommodate more clients. And still, it won’t be enough to meet the challenge.
The future of the SIIP project will be decided in three key upcoming meetings. On Aug. 9, the council is expected to vote on the $700,000 CDBG grant request. The following week (Aug. 16), the Planning and Zoning Commission will consider rezoning the 6.2 acres from Research/Technology to Light Commercial with a Specific Use Permit for a Household Care Institution.
Finally, on Sept. 13, the council is scheduled to vote on the rezoning request, pending the P&Z action.
All meetings, of course, are at City Hall, 1520 Avenue K.
So there you have it: a new facility to address an increasing problem in Plano at no cost to any taxpayers while developing unused property and eventually adding to the local economy.
It makes sense economically; more importantly, it makes sense because it directly addresses a growing need in Plano and the surrounding area. And if you don’t think it affects you, you need to take a second look around. Every foreclosed home, every shuttered business, is a possible family needing help.
And there but for the grace of God go you or I. The Samaritan Inn is trying to provide a lifeline, in Plano, when that happens.
Chuck Bloom is a former managing editor for the Plano Star-Courier and longtime Texas journalist-publisher-columnist. He can be reached at chuckbloom@hotmail.com, or through his Web site at http://chuckbloom.blogspot.com.
DMN community opinion - Lynne Sipiora: Collin County needs to shelter its homeless
August 1st, 2010Lynne Sipiora: Collin County needs to shelter its homeless
Lynne Sipiora, Executive Director of the Samaritan Inn
Published in The Dallas Morning News
July 30, 2010
Five years ago come September, I accepted the position of director of the Samaritan Inn, Collin County's only homeless shelter. In an amazing baptism by fire, my first week on the job was also the first week the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina arrived in Texas.
I remember thinking, as I walked around the mountains of laundry detergent and piles of canned goods, that public awareness and fundraising would be a cinch.
Well, I was right and I was wrong.
I was wrong because the outpouring of generosity for Katrina victims did not seem to transfer to the people who were living in their own storm of poverty every day. An act of nature is nobody's fault, but when your house is foreclosed, somehow, to some people, it is.
And I was right because an amazing group of loyal supporters have kept us going and have recognized that, even though it's not seen on the news daily, people are still suffering.
Since that September, thousands of people have passed through the Samaritan Inn and found the support they needed to become independent once again.
"Who is your typical client?" I am asked often, and the answer is always anyone and everyone.
They are 20-somethings, the middle-aged and senior citizens; they are day laborers and middle management; they have high school diplomas and advanced degrees. They are white, African-American and Hispanic. Poverty, it seems, does not discriminate.
Two of our four wings are devoted solely to families, and they have been filled continuously for the last 18 months.
Intake interviews occur daily; our waiting room is regularly packed with moms, dads, crying babies, squirming toddlers, anxious school-aged kids and humiliated teenagers. More often than not, there is no room for any of them.
We have long known we needed another facility, and Plano seemed the logical place because the majority of our residents come from Plano. The city itself committed to providing more housing for the homeless in its five-year plan. City staff agreed to submit an application for a HUD loan and use those funds to purchase property that would be donated to the Samaritan Inn. The Samaritan Inn would then commit to raising the money to construct the facility and operate it.
A piece of property was identified, and then the opposition began.
Critics said our program would increase crime and decrease property values; they said businesses would suffer and everyone who was homeless in Dallas would immediately come north.
None of these things have happened in McKinney, and we don't expect them to happen in Plano. However, we respect the concerns and have tried to address them thoughtfully and responsibly.
These are the facts: Everyone who resides at The Samaritan Inn goes through an extensive intake interview, a mental health assessment, a criminal background check and a drug test. We are not a jail, a halfway house or a drug rehabilitation center; we are a program that helps willing people regain their independence and dignity. That's our mission statement – always has been, always will be.
We don't presume to know the best location in Plano for our program, and we have absolutely no interest in the political debate, but we do know that while it's being figured out, hundreds of people in Collin County don't know where their family will sleep at night.
A moral, spiritual and civilized society takes care of one another, and that is all we hope to do.
Lynne Sipiora of McKinney is executive director of the Samaritan Inn, Collin County's only homeless shelter. Her e-mail address is lsipiora@tx.rr.com. A town hall meeting about the Plano shelter plan will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church, 3160 E. Spring Creek Parkway, Plano.
WFAA - Non-profit group will operate Plano rec center
July 27th, 2010Non-profit group will operate Plano rec center
by DEBBIE DENMON
WFAA
July 26, 2010
PLANO — The Douglass Community Center in Plano will be run by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County.
The Plano City Council Monday night voted to relinquish control of the rec center to save the city $508,000 a year.
African-American have expressed concern that the change could put an end to cultural and community events at the center — something that the Boys & Girls Clubs has said will not happen.
link to this article, video coverage and some great background links at WFAA Channel 8....
DMN - Homeless shelter director says need must trump Plano residents' opposition
July 25th, 2010Homeless shelter director says need must trump Plano residents' opposition
Saturday, July 24, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
There's no room at the Samaritan Inn.
Collin County's only homeless shelter has 130 beds but needs many more, said Director Lynne Sipiora.
With the economic downtown, the shelter must turn away people day after day.
"That's the worst part," Sipiora said. "It keeps me up at night."
The shelter's solution to overcrowding: Open a second facility in Plano.
But some Plano residents and business owners immediately assailed the Samaritan Inn's proposal, announced this month, for a larger shelter near 14th Street and Shiloh Road.
Opponents charge it would lower property values and increase crime.
"This is the last thing that the east side of Plano needs," one person commented online.
Sipiora expected the opposition but isn't backing down.
If the Plano City Council rejects a zoning change to allow the proposed shelter, the Samaritan Inn will look for another site in town because of the need, she said.
"As long as I'm around, we'll be looking to expand services," Sipiora said.
She rejects the assertion that the proposed shelter, to be built in phases over several years, would harm the largely commercial east Plano neighborhood.
She points to the Samaritan Inn's track record in McKinney?. It opened in a commercial area near State Highway 5 and U.S. Highway 380 in 1984 and hasn't driven up the crime rate, said McKinney? Deputy Police Chief Scott Brewer.
"These are folks who are just in hard times," he said. "They're grateful. They're not typically going to get out and partake in criminal activity."
'No frills'
The shelter operates out of a converted nursing home, with five wings extending like spokes from a central monitoring station. Two wings house families, one houses men, one women and one administrative offices.
Sipiora compares the shelter to a college dormitory in terms of sights, sounds and feel. Having visited, I agree.
Each room is identical, about 16 feet square, with four bunk beds, a sink and a toilet. Common showers are in each wing. Meals are served on long folding tables.
"No frills," she said.
True, but the shelter is a huge improvement for some residents.
One woman had been living with her three young children in a mini-warehouse unit.
"I can't imagine," Sipiora said.
Other residents have been sleeping on the street or in their cars.
"They arrive shell-shocked," Sipiora said. "We're the last resort."
The Samaritan Inn produced a searing video of interviews with residents, describing their journey. It's posted on the shelter's website, www.thesamaritaninn.org.
"I never thought in a million years I'd end up in a shelter," one woman said. "I have a college degree."
Rules enforced
The Samaritan Inn has strict rules for residents. Each must undergo a drug test and criminal background check, take mandatory classes on budgeting and parenting, meet twice weekly with a caseworker and look for a job during the day.
The average length of stay is about six months. Someone leaves, or "graduates," when they have a full-time job and have saved enough money to rent a place.
Sipiora said the proposed Plano shelter also would stress personal responsibility and push people toward self-sufficiency. It wouldn't be a place for the chronically homeless to crash for a few nights.
"I'm hoping it's a matter of education," she said. "I want to believe people will see the need and respond to it."
PSC - Council to decide fate of Douglass Community Center
July 25th, 2010Council to decide fate of Douglass Community Center
By Kim Williams / The Plano Star-Courier
July 25, 2010 10:28 AM CDT
Negotiations between the city of Plano and Boys and Girls Club of Collin County have been in the works for several months. The item in debate is whether or not the BGCCC will take over responsibility of the Douglass Community Center.
The final discussion and vote by the city council will be at 7 p.m. Monday.
The community center has been serving its members since the 1970s and is considered a pinnacle hub for bringing residents together with a variety of activities.
The city of Plano has been leasing the center from the Plano ISD and operating it since 1987. Budget deficiencies have resulted in a citywide effort to reduce expenses through a variety of means, which include service and job reductions and budget cuts.
In a memorandum from Director of Parks and Recreation Amy Fortenberry to City Manager Thomas Muehlenbeck, she explains why the city is considering other options in order to save the center.
"While the Douglass Community Center 'fits' our agency's values and vision, it is not economically viable in its current structure, our market position is weak, and alternate coverage in this neighborhood is high due to the presence of the Boys and Girls Club of Collin County in the same building and the close proximity to the Plano Senior Recreation Center."
The BGCCC moved into the center in 1997. The club pays 17.5 percent of the maintenance cost, which is usually around $20,000 per year in exchange for use of the property.
When the city approached BGCCC last fall in search of a solution to the declining budget, "They were ready to jump in and help any way they could," said Fortenberry about the BGCCC.
"We will lose our center, activities and director," said Dorothy Ellis, Douglass Community resident. This is a fear that many residents share with Ellis, and Tanya Greene, CEO of the BGCCC, is working on possible solutions to this problem with Fortenberry to hopefully make a peaceful transition if the change of operations is approved.
"I know we can take care of the community center and can provide the services wanted by the members," Greene said. "We've tried to stay out of the politics and tried to just focus on the community."
If the agreement is approved, the city will sign a 15-year contract with the BGCCC with two five-year renewal options. This will result in the daily operations of the community center being transferred to the BGCCC along with all operational expenses, saving Plano citizens $508,213 annually. The BGCCC will assume daily management of the building within 30 days from city council approval.
DMN - As aging baby boomers head to suburbs, Collin County to feel impact
July 25th, 2010As aging baby boomers head to suburbs, Collin County to feel impact
Saturday, July 24, 2010
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News
Tim Montgomery built his own retirement home.
In a land of McMansions, he limited his Celina house to one story. He widened bathroom doors to fit wheelchairs. He planned a spare bedroom for elderly parents. He designed his kitchen table to hold at least eight hungry grandchildren.
An Air Force vet turned teacher, the 54-year-old settled in Frisco a decade ago among other young working parents and their school-age children. Now these empty nesters and retired homeowners are uprooting the suburban stereotype.
Affordable living, jobs and a Sun Belt climate have made Texas one of the most attractive states for baby boomers. As America's "first suburban generation" ages, cities are scrambling to accommodate them.
Collin County will feel one of the greatest effects in the region, with its senior population more than doubling in the next decade. But the county – known for its youth rather than its elderly – already struggles with transportation, health care and affordable housing for its seniors. Cities that fail to reshuffle priorities, experts say, face strapped social services, budget pitfalls, disgruntled residents and tarnished images.
"For the most part, communities are not planning as well as they should be," said Doni Van Ryswyk, aging program manager at the North Central Texas Council of Governments' Area Agency on Aging. "There's a whole host of challenges in terms of infrastructure, livable communities and adequate transportation providers for people who are no longer able to drive.
"Even though Collin and Denton counties are relatively wealthy, there are portions that are already designated health professional shortages. That's only going to get worse as the population ages."
Unlike their Florida-bound parents, this generation doesn't want to move. Many deal with their own graying relatives and plan to work for years to come. Demographers have coined a term for this behavior: aging in place.
"[Leaving] would take me away from sons and grandsons," said 63-year-old Susie Reukema, a social worker who moved to Plano from Wisconsin three decades ago. "And at this point in life, family is a very big plus in the community."
Texas a hot spot
Such communities developed in Texas faster than anywhere else this decade. The Austin suburbs saw the highest growth rate in people 45 and older from 2000 to 2008, according to a recent Brookings report on the state of metropolitan America. The suburbs of three other Texas cities made the top 10, including Dallas'.
"Texas is a peek at the future of the suburbs," said William Frey, who wrote the report's section on aging. Most senior growth in the coming years will take place in bedroom communities, he said. Young minority and immigrant families may help offset the state's graying suburbs, but that won't happen for years to come.
Baby boomers, Frey said, "are people who are going to need social services at various times, and if it doesn't happen it will spill over to the image of the suburbs and quality of life."
He said, "One thing about the baby boomers and elderly is that they vote in large numbers and make their views known very loudly."
The number of Collin County residents 60 and older will increase by 118 percent between 2011 and 2020, estimates the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Dallas County's will move up 25 percent.
Plano already sees this shift in wait lists for subsidized senior housing and complaints about limited Medicaid providers. With a visibly aging population, it has taken the most focused approach to the impending growth. Officials charted a plan three years ago to provide taxi vouchers for senior citizens and match them with requested services.
"We were looking at it in the context of Plano in a period of transition," said Kate Perry, the city's senior planner. "It used to be the city had only families and young children. That changed and continues to change, and a major component is seniors."
Much of the region has yet to catch up, said Lee Stark, transportation services director at the Geriatric Wellness Center of Collin County. "Folks at the county level are really more concerned with addressing the needs of a growing county," he said.
Developing communities like Frisco and Allen have made some provisions for seniors, Stark said, but affordable housing and convenient transportation remain less of a priority.
John Lettelleir, Frisco's director of development services, said the city has anticipated its aging boomers. Frisco's senior center is in walking distance of the downtown square, near residences and restaurants.
"It wasn't big until two years ago, and then people started to panic," he said about the aging boomers. "Now it's happening and we have to do something about it."
Lettelleir said city officials want to update zoning ordinances to allow for flexibility in housing developments. This way, he said, empty nesters can relocate to apartments down the block or grandparents can settle in duplexes up the street.
But wary developers make such transitions challenging, he said. "They say, 'Change is good. You first.' "
Revamping services
Most cities realize they must address this shift, said Karen Walz, project manager for Vision North Texas, a public-private partnership that plans for the region's future. They're talking about mixed-use developments or revitalizing areas so they're in walking distance of amenities. They're considering transit options and weighing housing costs.
"Right now there isn't a regionwide plan to say 'how are we going to deal with that,' but a recognition that cities need to be thinking differently," she said.
They need to do it quickly.
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN - Editorial: Tollway agency works to restore confidence
July 24th, 2010Editorial: Tollway agency works to restore confidence
Friday, July 23, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
The North Texas Tollway Authority made the right decision by ignoring high-dollar bait dangled its way to choose a Collin County route for a future stretch of the Dallas North Tollway.
Property owners near the new roadway will make a bundle after it's built, and the city of Celina wanted the super-heated development inside its boundaries. No problem with that. Celina made the novel pledge that NTTA could have the future bounty of the higher property taxes. No problem with creative thinking, except for where it might lead.
Had the NTTA jumped at the money, it might have opened the door to an era of transportation planning by municipal bidding war. Those kinds of cash inducements may be in our future someday as road money dries up, but the rules aren't in place nor the consequences fully thought out yet.
The bigger problem with the proposed Celina route was that it would have further insulted a one-time compact made between Collin and Denton counties to run the future road segment up their common border. The deal was reached in 2005, but Collin County reneged three years later in a snit about dividing toll revenue. Collin County formed its own, rival tollway authority and vowed not to let money get away.
The decisive 7-1 vote by NTTA to honor the county-line route is a statement about regionalism. Just as the region's major highways serve a wide swath of commuters and travelers, the benefits should be measured out fairly as well...
read the rest of this editorial at The Dallas Morning News.....
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The Observer comments:
The Dallas Morning News' Trailblazers Blog has a post, "Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley was honored as County Leader of the Year by Penton's American City and County magazine. He was presented the distinction at the National Association of Counties annual conference in Reno, Nevada."
The post goes on to say that, "Whitley was praised for building consensus on transportation projects and other North Texas issues in a cover story for the magazine's July 2010 issue."
Trailblazers quotes from the magazine article, "Whitley's ability to bring together diverse groups to resolve issues is the hallmark of his leadership style, sorting out the issues, listening to all points of view, yet insisting, in the end, that a solution must be identified and rallied around".
I don't think that Collin County Judge Keith Self was in the running for an award for regionalism.
That's too bad.
Bill
DNT extension approval along county line is a big defeat for Keith Self
July 22nd, 2010The NTTA Board of Directors voted today to approve the alignment of the future Phase 4B and Phase 5 segments of the Dallas North Tollway on the original agreed route along the Denton/Collin County line. The decision was a defeat for Keith Self and the City of Celina,
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NTTA approved the middle (yellow - red route) Click image for larger map. |
Both Self and Celina had lobbied the NTTA Board and the Regional Transportation Council for the eastern alignment through Celina. In the end however only one NTTA board member, Bill Moore, a recent Collin County appointee, voted for the eastern alignment.
Most on the RTC and the NTTA see the vote as a victory for the region and for a regional approach to meeting the area's transportation needs. Self and the Collin County Commissioners Court are increasing being seen as provincial mavericks - unwilling to compromise for the sake of the entire region.
The tale started back in 2005 when Both Denton and Collin counties agreed to a county line alignment for the future tollway extension. In 2008, Collin County rescinded their agreement - partly in frustration over the allocation of the SH 121 revenue sharing scheme and partially to gain the anticipated tax base that would occur on both sides of the new toll road.
Collin County commissioners then formed the Collin County Toll Road Authority, partially in an attempt to take over the planning and construction of the future extension of the DNT.
The NTTA and its Chairman (Collin County's own Paul Wageman) strenuously objected to what they characterized as a hi-jacking of NTTA property.
The NTTA scared the heck out of the commissioners court when it became apparent that NTTA had powerful friends and influence in the Texas Legislature, especially in the Senate Transportation Committee. The Chairman of the Senate Committee warned Collin County's Keith Self that, "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". Faced with the legislative threat to remove all authority from the Collin County Toll Road Authority, the commissioners court backed down and conceded the DNT extension to the NTTA.
As recently as this March Senator Carona warned that, "Once again, Collin County elected officials are thumbing their noses at regionalism as they futilely attempt to seize control of the latest Dallas Tollway extension. It's a short-sighted move surely to incur the wrath of most North Texas leaders. Judge Self has been cautioned previously against this type of predatory behavior and appears eager for yet another bruising by his neighbors."
But a couple of weeks ago, Keith Self ratcheted up the rhetoric again with an email he posted on his blog. In his email, Self brought up the old complaints about the RTC's allocation of SH 121 tolls. Most experts in the region and members of the RTC saw Self's email as being loaded with half-truths and misrepresentations.
No one I talked to ever believed the NTTA board would approve the eastern alignment. Rather, the question today was whether the NTTA board would take revenge on Collin County and Self by moving the DNT extension completely out of Collin County.
Thankfully, the NTTA board did the right thing. They took the regional approach and approved the long standing agreed upon alignment along the county line.
Judge Self could learn from their example.
The Phase 4B and 5 extensions are many years away from being completed. Current guesses range from 10 to 20 years before construction will begin.
Meanwhile, the political landscape for transportation and especially the NTTA is about to change. Chairman Paul Wageman will retire at the end of the year, and the Collin County Commissioners will be appointing his replacement.
Also John Carona, last sessions' mercurial chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, will no longer be on the Committee. Press reports say that he was frustrated at the lack of will by the State Legislature to raise the money needed to address the mobility needs of the State.
Bill
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NTTA rejects Collin bid to move future DNT to the east
Michael Lindenberger / The Dallas Morning News Transportation Blog
The North Texas Tollway Authority rejected a bid by Collin County and Celina city leaders to move the northernmost future segments of the Dallas North Tollway to the east, and entirely within Collin County.
The board voted 7-1 this morning to formally endorse a route that will run the DNT along a path that will essentially track the county line between Collin and Denton counties. Chairman Paul Wageman, a Collin County appointee, did not vote, explaining that his law firm represents a property owner along another segment of the DNT. Board member Bill Moore of Collin County voted against.
That route had been endorsed by both counties in 2005, but Collin County changed its mind in 2008, in part because of frustration over how the Regional Transportation Council voted to split up the $3.2 billion advance payment the NTTA made to win the SH 121 toll contract. Collin County Judge Keith Self has said Collin County should have received larger portion of the payment.
The Collin County plan was novel in that it included a proposal by the tiny city of Celina, whose leaders promised that it would give NTTA every penny of property taxes it received as a result of the DNT -- an offer it said would be worth well over $220 million over the first 40 years after the road is built.
Celina city manager Jason Gray said The proposal could be a model for how cities across North Texas could use property taxes to help offset NTTA's costs. The real value of that promise however was questioned by some board members, who noted that the prospect of money decades into the future would mean little to lenders who would finance the nearly $1 billion the DNT is expected to cost.
No matter where the road is built, construction isn't expected to begin for at least a decade and perhaps in the words of one top NTTA official a generation.
Denton County Judge Mary Horn said the county line route represented a compromise that deserved to be supported. The county also noted it had secured agreements with property owners to donate 95 percent of the right of way needed for the county line route.
In addition, Denton County voters have already agreed to use $20 million to help NTTA build footage roads, and another $1.5 million for design -- dollars available now.
link to this article at The Dallas Morning News Transportation Blog....
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Horn: Toll route good
Road extension to follow line between counties
Thursday, July 22, 2010
By BJ Lewis / The Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton County leaders said Wednesday the region won when the North Texas Tollway Authority chose to extend the Dallas North Tollway along the Denton-Collin county line rather than entirely in Collin County.
“This is a good regional solution — good for Denton and Collin County, Pilot Point and Celina,” said Denton County Judge Mary Horn. “Perhaps at this time Collin County isn’t looking at it like that, but I hope they will. We have worked well in the past and hope we will in the future.”
Construction on the extension isn’t expected to begin for at least a decade.
Both counties had endorsed the route along the county line in 2005, but Collin County officials changed their minds in 2008, in part because of frustration over how the Regional Transportation Council voted to split up the $3.2 billion advance payment the tollway authority made to win the State Highway 121 toll contract.
Collin County Judge Keith Self has said Collin County should have received a larger portion of the payment.
The Collin County plan included a proposal by Celina, whose leaders promised that it would give the tollway authority every penny of property taxes it received as a result of the Dallas North Tollway — an offer it said would be worth more than $220 million over the first 40 years after the road is built.
Horn and some board members questioned the real value of that promise.
Denton County voters have agreed to use $20 million to help the tollway authority build frontage roads, and another $1.5 million for design — dollars available now.
“It’s very speculative, whereas Denton County, upon the advice of our transportation consultant, had the foresight to put $20 million in our bond election to do the frontage roads,” Horn said after the meeting. “A million and a half that we got for the design phase, … that’s money that is available today; that’s not speculative.”
Another issue was the flood plain in the northern part of both counties. Taking the eastern route would mean five more bridges, Horn said. The county line route would require only two.
Commissioner Hugh Coleman said the tollway authority made a good decision in selecting the county line route.
“The tolls are paid for on those roads by everyone in the region,” he said. “Having it along the county line benefits both counties.”
Coleman said his lingering concern is that a good portion of the toll road would run through special taxing districts that were set up for future development.
“In those districts, we need to solve the problem of providing police and fire [service],” he said. “We’re going to work with Pilot Point on a remedy.”
Coleman said the tollway authority took a well-reasoned approach that gave all parties an opportunity to speak.
“Overall, the best decision was to have it on the county line,” he said.
Michael Lindenberger of The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.
A brutal demolition
July 22nd, 2010
To the surprise of no one, the McKinney City council voted today to demolish the old county courthouse on McDonald St.
The sale and proposed destruction of the old courthouse has not been without its share of well-deserved controversy. In 2006, at the time of the sale, Commissioner Jerry Hoagland vigorously opposed selling the old courthouse for what amounted to a fire sale price of $8 million. However he lost that argument because the other commissioners believed the City of McKinney when they said they needed the floor space as they were outgrowing their old city hall facility. The plan was that the city would renovate for an inexpensive move-in.
They never mentioned tearing the building down until after the title was transferred.
The Texas Historical Commission also objected to the sale and destruction. The Historical Commission characterized the old 6 story cube as a, "good example of a modern form of architecture known as Brutalism which is gaining notoriety and appreciation among architects and historic preservationists."
A year ago, citing a law that required state permission before a county courthouse could be sold, the Historical Commission fined Collin County $1,000 for violating the law on preserving old courthouses.
Bill
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Council votes to demolish courthouse
July 21, 2010
Ed Housewright / The Dallas Morning News McKinney Blog
The vote was anti-climatic, but the McKinney City Council has made it official:
The old Collin County courthouse on McDonald Street will be demolished.
Council members have discussed the fate of the six-story building near the square since the city bought it from the county in 2006.
In recent months, council members have leaned toward demolishing it.
But they delayed the vote while the University of North Texas decided whether to acquire the 31-year-old building.
Recently, UNT decided it couldn't use the courthouse, said McKinney Deputy City Manager Rick Chaffin.
"I think it's time to clean up the site and begin to think about what we might do with it in the future," City Council member David Brooks said.
The council set no timetable for demolition.
The Texas Historical Commission fought unsuccessfully to save the courthouse, calling it an example of Brutalism, an architectural style common in the 1970s.
link to this article at the Dallas Morning News' McKinney? Blog...
DMN - Anna officials say liquor sales have boosted revenue
July 18th, 2010Anna officials say liquor sales have boosted revenue
July 17, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Anna is a one-stoplight town whose main drag features a feed store, a trailer park and The Malt Shop, a drive-in that looks unchanged from the 1950s.
Stereotypical small town? Yes, except for a little place called Coyote Liquor Den.
Anna – population 8,250 – is the only place in Collin County to allow liquor stores. And five years after the contentious election that let them in, Anna remains small and still miles from the suburbia creeping north, a laboratory of sorts for examining the effects of liquor sales on a community.
"I can't think of a situation that would be better," said Scott Testa, a business professor at Cabrini College in Philadelphia, who has studied alcohol trends. "No data collection is pure, but Anna has fewer factors that could skew the data."
Testa notes that arguments over alcohol sales center on the economic benefit vs. the perceived social harm. That's not lost on folks in Anna, which now has four liquor stores but not a single 7-Eleven or Starbucks.
"I still don't like to see liquor and beer signs around town," said Buddy Hayes, a 50-year resident and president of Texas Star Bank. "But sales have been excellent. I certainly appreciate what they've done for the city."
How communities fare with expanded alcohol sales is getting new attention because of elections this fall in Dallas and University Park to eliminate "dry" areas.
Anna's sales tax revenue has more than doubled since liquor stores were approved by just 19 votes. In 2005 Anna received $353,781, according to the state comptroller. In 2009, that number had swelled to $767,497 – an increase of 117 percent. That increase far exceeds Anna's 63 percent population growth during the same period.
Liquor store owners and managers in Anna were reluctant to discuss sales, except to say business was good. State and city officials don't break down sales taxes by product, so it's hard to measure liquor's exact impact. In recent years, a number of businesses – including a supermarket, an auto parts store and restaurants – have opened.
But the liquor stores have played a major role in padding city coffers, said Mayor Darren Driskell. "The sales tax dollars have been a huge boon for the city."
New parks
The windfall has helped build two parks, Natural Springs and Slayter Creek, and buy land for more, City Manager Philip Sanders said. It's allowed the town to expand its police presence from a single officer to a force of 11, open a new police station and reconstruct older streets, he said.
Meanwhile, officials say, the forecast ills of liquor stores haven't materialized.
The Collin County Substance Abuse Program assesses and refers juveniles and adults who have drug and drinking problems, said its director, Tommy Blakeman. Many are referred by courts.
Blakeman said he hadn't noticed any increase in alcoholism or alcohol-related crimes since the Anna liquor stores opened. He said he frequently gives community presentations and hasn't heard people lament the vote.
Police Chief Kenny Jenks said driving while intoxicated and other alcohol-related crimes haven't increased. Sexually oriented businesses haven't arrived. And, officials say, the liquor stores haven't caused the surrounding neighborhoods to deteriorate.
"Some of the nicest stores in town are the liquor stores," say Hayes, the banker. "And it's clean all around them."But while many Anna leaders laud the liquor stores, former City Council member Billy Deragon has a more skeptical view.
He worries about the effect on Anna's image of having Collin County's only liquor stores. Three of the four – Anna Liquor, Fossil Creek Liquor and Goody Goody – sit visibly on U.S. Highway 75 at the town's only exit.
"I still feel it's a negative that the first thing people see when they come into Anna is liquor stores," Deragon said. "Someone could say sexually oriented businesses are economic development. It's a question of where do you draw the line."
Emotional issue
In Dallas, where voters will decide in November whether to eliminate areas that don't allow beer and wine sales, groups on both sides have sparred vigorously. However the arguments have primarily involved the accuracy of economic projections, not whether crime will increase.
Alcohol elections invariably stir strong emotions, said Testa, who has consulted for liquor companies.
He said research doesn't support the claim that greater availability of alcohol leads to higher crime.
"Certainly, there are cases where people with substance abuse problems commit crimes," he said. "To say it doesn't happen would be absolutely false. But those are relatively low. Even in towns that are dry, you still have those issues."
Another expert, however, cautions that alcohol sales affect communities differently and can produce negative results.
Traci Toomey heads the University of Minnesota's Alcohol Epidemiology Program, which researches ways to reduce social and health problems associated with drinking.
"Quite a few studies have looked at the density of alcohol establishments and various types of health and crime outcomes," Toomey said. "The preponderance of research evidence does suggest [that] as we increase the number of alcohol establishments in a given neighborhood, we see an increase in a wide range of problems.
"Some have shown violence, some higher levels of sexually transmitted diseases and some more traffic crashes, although I think the evidence is a little more mixed."
Rick Ballard, executive director of the Collin Baptist Association, said he hasn't heard of specific problems arising from Anna's liquor sales.
But he said the wider availability of alcohol can have insidious effects. For instance, underage drinking can increase and excessive drinking by adults can strain families, he said. "You can't necessarily put a statistic on it, but there are enough ills and damage to the family that you don't really want it around you."
'The citizens spoke'
Liquor sales didn't arrive in Collin County without a fight. A 2003 ballot proposal in Anna failed by a wide margin. The 2005 measure, to allow retail sales of all kinds of alcoholic beverages, passed with 51.5 percent of the vote.
Dan Lovitt, who led the petition drive to call the first election, said he was surprised by the strident opposition. Opponents circulated fliers that said DWI arrests would soar and strip clubs would arrive if voters approve liquor sales.
"I was amazed," said Lovitt. "It really opened my eyes to what politics can be like. I guess I went in kind of naïve."
Voters have rejected liquor sales in the Collin County towns of Fairview, Lowry Crossing, Melissa and St. Paul.
Ballot proposals for sales of beer and wine have fared much better. In the past decade, voters in Allen , Frisco and McKinney? have approved the sale of beer and wine at grocery and convenience stores. Parts of Plano have allowed beer and wine sales since 1977.
Deragon, the former Anna City Council member, said he felt so strongly about the problems liquor stores pose for Anna that he led a petition drive in 2007 to overturn the 2005 election.
But the subsequent election revealed a far different mood among voters.
With almost twice the turnout, more than 77 percent voted to keep the sale of beer, wine and liquor. Deragon said he has given up on efforts to rid Anna of alcohol.
"The citizens spoke," he said.
Link to this article at The Dallas Morning News....
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The Observer comments:
The voters in Frisco also spoke, but that hasn't prevented the City of Frisco from spending almost a million taxpayer dollars to purchase land to try to block the election's outcome and thousands more dollars in legal attempts to use the courts to circumvent the will of those same tax payers.
Bill
DMN - Plano weighs plan to build long-term homeless housing facility
July 16th, 2010Plano weighs plan to build long-term homeless housing facility
Thursday, July 15, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Faced with a homeless population that has grown amid the recession, Plano is weighing a plan to build a large, first-of-its-kind campus to house indigent families.
The proposal, put forward by the Samaritan Inn of McKinney, is thought to be the largest facility of its kind in North Texas.
It would differ from other homeless shelters in that families would, for the most part, live there full-time for months and receive job and other support.
The Samaritan Inn, Collin County’s only homeless shelter, follows a similar model. But the six-acre Plano complex would offer more amenities, have a link to DART buses and house some 80 families at one time — more than twice the Inn’s capacity.
“This has long been needed in Collin County,” said Jim Malatich, the Samaritan Inn’s director of operations. “We’re excited about the project.”
Civic leaders say the $3.8 million endeavor, which has advanced quietly until now, is critical at a time when poverty is on the rise, even in affluent Collin County.
But controversy is already brewing over the project’s location, scope and possible impact on Plano, particularly the community’s poorer eastern side.
The Inn has proposed a site in an eastside technology district that the city formed years ago to attract the kinds of Fortune 500 companies that dot Plano’s affluent western side.
“A lot of us have put years of service into revitalization efforts,” said Katherine Brewer, who owns a mapping company near the proposed campus. “I see all of the hard work to turn around all of east Plano going down the drain.”
City Hall also is considering the unusual step of giving the project $700,000 in federal grant monies, with the Samaritan Inn repaying the city the interest it would have earned on that amount.
Organizers filed paperwork for the complex late last week, but discussions with the city began in the spring, project officials said.
Plano Mayor Phil Dyer said the city has not yet decided whether to approve the loan or zoning changes required. But project officials say they expect a final City Council vote sometime in September.
Social services advocates have long pushed for additional facilities for the homeless somewhere in Collin County. Despite its vast and growing population of 800,000 people, Collin has few housing options for the indigent.
In Plano, the number of families living on incomes of less than $25,000 has grown some 18 percent since 1999. That growth has intensified during the recession.
Plano City Council member Harry LaRosiliere said the facility “speaks to the reality of what’s going on in America, Texas and Plano.”
“The economic conditions that many people are facing are real. For us to ignore it would be a disservice to those experiencing those difficulties. Whether we do something or not, they are there.”
DMN - Collin DA John Roach, foes ready for his retirement
July 11th, 2010In what could be the local reportorial understatement of the year, The Dallas Morning News' Ed Housewright has noticed that DA John Roach seems to be getting rather unpopular with the local bar....
Bill
Collin DA John Roach, foes ready for his retirement
Saturday, July 10, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County District Attorney John Roach says he's looking forward to his retirement at year's end.
Some defense attorneys say they are too. They've become increasingly vocal in criticizing Roach as arrogant, autocratic and demeaning of defense attorneys.
"He doesn't seem to shy away from personally attacking anyone who dares to criticize him," said Mitch Nolte, a former chief felony prosecutor under Roach.
He and other attorneys began speaking out because of Roach's yearlong investigation of state District Judge Suzanne Wooten, who was elected in 2008. The inquiry is believed to involve campaign finance issues. Roach defends the investigation but won't comment on its substance.
"It's a witch hunt, and there's no witch," said Sharon Curtis, president of the Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Roach has received both criticism and praise in his eight years as district attorney.
He received the Lone Star Prosecutor Award from the Texas District & County Attorneys Association in 2008. The group honored Roach for "his courage and discretion in prosecuting – or choosing not to prosecute – several cases."
Roach's office has won a number of high-profile convictions. Last year, for instance, Raul Cortez was sentenced to death after being convicted of fatally shooting four people during a 2004 McKinney? home burglary. It was the worst mass murder in Collin County history.
Roach, an Air Force veteran, runs his office in a formal, regimented way. He addresses all his employees by "Mr.," "Ms." or "Mrs." Employees call him "Judge Roach" in recognition of his two decades as a district and appellate judge.
Roach requires male prosecutors to wear a suit or sport coat with a tie. Women can't wear "unreasonably short skirts or dresses or sexually provocative clothing," according to a 40-page office manual.
"I have some pretty set ideas about the way things ought to be," Roach acknowledges.
He has often riled county commissioners who set his office budget.
For instance, commissioners opposed his plan in January to spend $25,000 on high-powered rifles, shotguns, helmets and shields to equip a courthouse security team consisted of his investigators.
The money would have come from an asset forfeiture fund that Roach alone controls.
"It's my money," Roach said at the time. "I can spend it for anything my office requires, in my opinion."
Roach, 64, staunchly defends some policies that defense attorneys attack. For instance, he won't allow some defendants to plead guilty before a judge. Instead, Roach insists on trying the case.
"We're hard-nosed prosecutors," Roach said. "A lot of defense attorneys, not just here, want a DA who will roll over for them."
The repartee between Roach and defense attorneys won't last much longer. He decided not to seek re-election in the spring primary and his last day in office will be Dec. 31. In November, voters will decide his successor: Republican Greg Willis or Democrat Rafael De La Garza.
Roach plans to pursue his hobbies of swimming, scuba diving, skiing and firearm sports.
He won't rule out another run for public office, although he has no job in mind.
"Nobody holding office currently needs to be quaking in their boots," Roach said.
DMN Editorial - Harassment lawsuits endanger free speech
June 13th, 2010Editorial: Harassment lawsuits endanger free speech
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
We all like to think that freedom of speech is an inviolable constitutional right. But, for instance, if someone with money doesn't like a blog post about them, the mere threat of a lawsuit often is enough to silence even the most outspoken. The expense of hiring a lawyer and defending oneself in court can have a chilling effect on speaking one's mind.
Also Online
Valid criticism is silenced, unfair or potentially illegal behavior goes uncorrected, and free speech is stifled – all because the person being criticized has enough money to haul the accuser into court and bankrupt him into submission. In legal terms, this is know as "strategic lawsuit against public participation," or SLAPP. In 27 states, anti-SLAPP laws give courts discretion to reject meritless harassment lawsuits designed to make people shut up.
Texans have no such protection. Various legislators have tried but failed repeatedly since the 1990s to pass anti-SLAPP legislation. Now U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, is co-sponsoring legislation that could bring relief to victims of harassment cases in states where such protections don't exist. Here's why such a law is needed:
Blog participation is exploding, and consumers increasingly are using their keyboards to vent frustrations over being cheated or mistreated by companies. Once posted, those complaints can fall under state defamation laws. In other cases, lawyers for a company criticized on the Internet often sue by claiming "tortious interference" – that the blogger is hindering a company's right to conduct business.
In Kalamazoo, Mich., Justin Kurtz found himself in such a bind. He vented online, saying his car was towed without cause by a Kalamazoo company, T&J Towing. Hundreds joined a chorus of criticism of T&J, which sued Kurtz for defamation, seeking $750,000 in damages.
"There's no reason I should have to shut up because some guy doesn't want his dirty laundry out," Kurtz told The New York Times. "It's the power of the Internet, man."
Anti-SLAPP legislation might have helped when The Galveston Daily News , author Carla Main and law professor Richard Epstein questioned Dallas developer H. Walker Royall's role in an eminent domain case involving private land seized to build a luxury marina near Galveston. They became swamped in litigation.
Anti-SLAPP laws do not – and should not – halt attempts by people to seek valid redress when they've been libeled. Instead, actions typically involve efforts to immerse a defendant in mountains of pretrial expenses such as legal consultations, depositions and evidence-gathering, even though the lawsuit itself has no merit in court.
People with loads of money rarely face the fear of economic ruin when they speak their mind, but for most Americans, harassment litigation can abruptly halt the free flow of information and discussion. Without anti-SLAPP, this growing silence can become deafening.
link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News.....
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The Observer comments:
Yes, these suits, brought by government officials against taxpayers, happen here in Collin County.
See:
- Lovejoy: Tales From The Dark Side
- Judge orders Plano man to keep his distance from mayor, other officials
Bill
DMN - Planned Fort Worth-McKinney rail line to seek private partner
May 13th, 2010Planned Fort Worth-McKinney rail line to seek private partner
Thursday, May 13, 2010
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
The Regional Transportation Council took the first step Thursday toward a new model in North Texas for how commuter rail could be financed and built.
The 43-member council voted unanimously to give itself the lead role in finding private firms to partner with local transit agencies to build – and pay for – what could be a 62-mile long Cotton Belt commuter rail line from Fort Worth to McKinney?.
Such a public-private partnership for rail would be the first in Texas, and one of the very few in America.
RTC leaders said Thursday they want to fashion a unique kind of partnership that would involve private companies covering the upfront cost of building the $1 billion rail line and expenses related to maintenance and operations for its first decade or more.
In return, the transit agencies in Dallas and Fort Worth would probably need to agree to make annual payments to the firms large enough to cover the companies' debt service and expenses – plus a profit.
To do so, the RTC will probably need creative ways to find that revenue – which could be $100 million a year or more – because the transit agencies will not have any sales tax revenue to contribute.
Typically, it is sales-tax revenue to which firms look to guarantee their negotiated payments. But the chairman of Dallas Area Rapid Transit has said it will not pledge any of the sales taxes paid by its 13 member cities toward the Cotton Belt.
"We agree that a traditional public-private partnership may not work," RTC spokeswoman Amanda Wilson said. "We have been in that position for over a year. That is why we are not pursuing a traditional model, but an initiative on innovative finance."
One idea floated by transportation director Michael Morris has been to try to lure a plant to North Texas to manufacture a new kind of rail car under design by DART.
The eastern half of the Cotton Belt has long been on DART's wish list of projects, but the agency didn't expect to have any money to spend on it until 2028, and more recent financial problems probably mean it would be years beyond that.
In addition, the Fort Worth transit agency, The T, is developing a plan to build the western half of the line by 2013 using traditional tax dollars. But that plan is wholly dependent upon uncertain approval of a major federal grant that would pay for it.
Any deal negotiated by RTC will have to be approved by the transit agencies' boards of directors, and would not transfer ownership of the rail lines to a private firm.
Two editorials on the Supreme Court's Charles Dean Hood non-decision
April 21st, 2010Fairness gets upstaged in courtroom soap opera
The Austin American Statesman Editorial Board
Tuesday April 20, 2010
The evidence the state amassed against convicted murderer Charles Dean Hood was formidable.
His fingerprints were found at the scene of the bloody double homicide in Collin County. Hood pawned the victims' jewelry and cashed the victims' checks. Hood used the victims' credit cards, and he was apprehended driving a victim's Cadillac, 800 miles from the crime scene.
Despite the evidence, Hood says he didn't kill Ronald Williamson, his employer, or Tracie Lynn Wallace, Williamson's girlfriend. Williamson was 46 when he was killed at his Plano home in 1989; Wallace was 26. They died bloody deaths and deserve justice.
Unfortunately, a sordid set of circumstances involving an illicit love affair between the judge who presided over the trial and the district attorney who prosecuted Hood raises significant questions about the conviction, which otherwise would have been a slam dunk.
The legal standard for conviction is not "he probably did it," but in this case that appears to be good enough. It shouldn't be. Maybe a criminal justice system run by fallible human beings can't achieve perfection, but it should be fair.
No one could argue credibly that Hood is a victim of bad luck or coincidence. A credible argument could be made — and has been made by a bevy of judicial experts and ethicists — that the romantic relationship between then-state District Judge Verla Sue Holland and then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell Jr. casts doubt on the fairness of the proceedings. The affair was over by the time of trial, but the two remained close friends.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused, without comment, to hear Hood's appeal.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — where Holland served between 1997 and 2001 — refused Hood a new trial because he didn't raise the issue of the relationship at trial. It was a ruling that would have made Franz Kafka proud.
One reason the relationship wasn't raised sooner is that there was no way of verifying long-standing courthouse rumors of the relationship.
Holland and O'Connell acknowledged their affair only after they were subpoenaed and asked under oath about it years later. By then, the Court of Criminal Appeals — most of the members of which served with Holland — said it was too late.
The case is outrageous even by Texas standards. Former FBI Director William Sessions and former Gov. Mark White have interceded; many an expert on jurisprudence has weighed in on the case; and so far the best the system can do for Hood is provide him with a new sentencing hearing.
He was sentenced to death in 1990 and has been on death row while the soap opera has unfolded.
In all the hubbub, it's easy to overlook the families of two murder victims who are prisoners to each new wrinkle in a case that would have been settled long ago had the judge and prosecutor just let the case be decided by more objective parties. Their indiscretion again raises doubts about the way Texas administers justice.
The state's reputation as being tough on crime is well-established. There is nothing wrong with being tough on crime as long as the system is fair to those accused of it. Hood's prosecution was plenty tough, but the trial was very short on fair.
===========================
Justice further delayed in Hood case
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Wednesday April 21, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision against taking up the tawdry Charles Dean Hood murder case is disappointing to those of us who crave a watchdog against the mischief that sneaks into Texas courtrooms.
The state's appeals judges had already taken a pass on examining allegations of corrupted justice and sexual secrets kept by the Collin County judge and prosecutor in the death penalty trial. The fact that the two admitted to bed-hopping before the trial – and remaining "good friends" – wasn't enough to get the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to consider whether the outcome was fatally flawed.
The appeals court's refusal had the look and feel of sweeping the state's dirt under the rug.
Enter the Supreme Court and a request by Hood's appellate team for a judgment on whether former Judge Verla Sue Holland and former District Attorney Tom O'Connell could have been faithful to their oaths to uphold the law and its demands for impartiality. Is it even possible for a judge to manage impartiality toward a prosecutor with whom she had been repeatedly intimate, in her home and his, when their spouses were away?
In declining to hear the case this week, the Supreme Court did not give its reasons. It's anyone's guess whether it was solely on procedural matters or whether Hood's legal team might get the fair-trial question back into federal courts, perhaps back to the high court itself.
For its part, the Court of Criminal Appeals is on record with its rationale for rejecting the argument: Hood's lawyers were too late in dredging up the affair, even though they produced sworn admissions from Holland and O'Connell. (Their depositions, incidentally, were ordered by a local judge who was sufficiently concerned about the possible miscarriage of justice.)
The case continues in state courts, but in a different vein. The appeals court postponed the latest of six execution dates based on a finding that sentencing procedures were flawed in Hood's trial. That sends the case back to the courtroom for more testimony and re-consideration of the death sentence. That means the possibility of the affair finally being aired in open court – perhaps even testimony by the one-time lovers themselves.
This all is a glaring case of justice delayed, which is a shame on the court system. Mostly, it's a shame for the families of the two murder victims, Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace of Plano.
Their loved ones sat through Hood's trial in 1990 and have waited 20 years for finality – whatever that turns out to mean.
Evidence at trial convinced a jury of Hood's guilt. That finding we don't question. He appears to be a dangerous man with the blood of two people on his hands.
But shortcuts to justice can't be tolerated, even when it comes to unsavory people. Leaving the door open to corrupted justice makes everyone vulnerable.
SCOTUS: No new trial for Charles Dean Hood
April 19th, 2010
The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from convicted murderer Charles Dean Hood. Hood's attorneys had asked the court to order a new trial based on the admission of the judge and District Attorney that they had previously been in an adulterous affair.
While the court's decision will mean Hood will not get a new trial on the facts of the case, a Texas Court has already ordered a new sentencing trial based on other technical issues.
Bill
===============================
Supreme Court Rejects Appeal by Charles Dean Hood in Case of Prosecutor and Judge Making Beast With Two Backs
Monday, April 19, 2010
From Bloomberg: By Greg Stohr
April 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a convicted double murderer who said his Texas trial was tainted because the judge and prosecutor previously had a sexual relationship.
The justices today left intact a Texas appeals court’s refusal to reopen Charles Dean Hood’s case.
Hood, 40, contended that the affair between Judge Verla Sue Holland and Thomas S. O’Connell Jr. had cast a “deep shadow” over the Texas criminal justice system and violated his constitutional rights. Dozens of ethicists and former judges, state officials and prosecutors -- including former FBI Director William S. Sessions -- urged the court to take up the case.
“We believe his case was marred by a fundamental misjustice,” said Andrea Keilen, the director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents Hood. She said in a statement that she was “disheartened” by the rejection.
Hood was convicted in 1990 of killing his boss and his boss’s girlfriend in the house the three shared. His lawyers say they didn’t have firm evidence of the long-rumored affair until 2008, shortly before he was scheduled to be executed.
Collin County Criminal District Attorney John R. Roach said that Hood’s lawyers had reason to suspect the affair years earlier and that they waited too long to raise the issue in court. Roach argued that Hood had previously filed seven so- called habeas corpus petitions seeking to overturn his conviction.
The issue “should have been raised, addressed and resolved many years ago,” Roach argued.
Holland and O’Connell eventually testified that they were involved in a relationship for several years in the 1980s and had been in love with one another. Both were married.
A Texas court threw out Hood’s death sentence on unrelated grounds earlier this year.
The case is Hood v. Texas, 09-8610.
DMN - Shed no tears for Hoagland as he exits stage
April 18th, 2010Shed no tears for Hoagland as he exits stage
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Ed Housewright / The Dallas Morning News
For 30 years, Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland has been a political lightning rod.
He's riled people with his strong, unfiltered views, whether denouncing illegal immigration or opposing greater spending on indigent health care. And voters kept re-electing him by wide margins.
Even as Hoagland approached his 70th birthday and entered his fourth decade in office, he seemed politically invincible.
No more.
Cheryl Williams, a first-time county candidate, finished off Hoagland in a runoff election Tuesday after battering him in last month's Republican primary. Facing Hoagland alone, Williams knocked him out with almost 59 percent of the vote.
"We got caught up in the anti-incumbent sentiment that prevails throughout our country," Hoagland wrote in an e-mail to supporters.
So one of Collin County's longest-serving, highest-profile elected officials finds himself a lame duck. His term ends Dec. 31.
"I'm not devastated by this loss," Hoagland said in an interview. "I just feel like the Lord has bigger and better things for me."
Hoagland, an active member of First Baptist Church of Wylie, wants to get involved in prison ministry. He said he may also sell real estate. Unlike some former politicians, he isn't interested in lobbying or consulting.
But Hoagland, who earns about $111,000 a year as a commissioner, said he doesn't have to work at all.
"I've got a good retirement plan," he said, "having been in the system 30 years."
Oversaw growth
When Hoagland took office in 1980, Collin County was a rural outpost of 144,000 people. Today, it's a teeming suburban county of almost 800,000.
During his campaign against Williams, Hoagland touted his accomplishments. He said he was proud of helping launch the Collin County Community College District, building a new courthouse, and consolidating county offices on a 250-acre complex in north McKinney.
"My wife said you can drive all over Collin County and see evidence of things I was personally involved in," Hoagland said. "That's gratifying."
Former Collin County Judge Ron Harris can relate to Hoagland's situation. Harris, who had headed the five-member Commissioners Court for 16 years, was ousted by Keith Self in 2006.
Harris supported Hoagland in his race against Williams and offered him condolences afterward.
"It's not time for Jerry to go to pasture," Harris said. "Healthwise, he's good, and mentally he's as sharp as ever."
Enjoyed it all
Harris laments the rapid, almost complete turnover on the Commissioners Court after years of stability.
For more than a decade starting in the mid-1990s, the panel consisted of Harris, Hoagland, Phyllis Cole, Jack Hatchell and Joe Jaynes.
"I refer to it as the Dream Team," Harris said.
But the team has disbanded. Jaynes will be the only remaining member starting Jan. 1.
After Self defeated Harris, Matt Shaheen ousted Cole in 2008. Hatchell died of cancer three months later and was replaced by Kathy Ward, who fell to Duncan Webb in last month's primary.
Rick Neudorff, a former Collin County Republican Party chairman, supported Williams over Hoagland. He said political change is inevitable and wasn't surprised to see Hoagland lose.
"Everyone's time comes eventually," said Neudorff, who ran unsuccessfully for county judge in 2006.
Now, it's Hoagland's turn to hand over power. But he isn't mourning or second-guessing his final campaign. He told supporters in his e-mail not to worry about him.
"It has been my honor to represent you on the Commissioners Court," he wrote. "I have enjoyed every minute of my time as an elected official."
link to article at The Dallas Morning News....
==============================
The Observer comments:
As many of the Observer's readers are aware, I ran as a Democrat against Jerry Hoagland in 2006. I did so because I disagreed with his policy positions and his long tenure on the court.
Since that election, I have had many opportunities to visit with and interview Commissioner Hoagland.
I have to admit, I enjoyed our conversations. In every case he was a gentleman who showed himself to be both extremely knowledgable on county affairs and willing to share that knowledge.
Jerry Hoagland and I differ on many issues, but I readily acknowledge his impact on the growth of the county. He cares deeply for our county -- and he has left his mark.
I wish Jerry and Annette well in their retirement. I'm sure he will continue to stay active in the affairs of our community... and our community will be the better for his involvement.
Bill
DMN - Voters push Collin County more to the right
April 14th, 2010Voters push Collin County more to the right
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By THEODORE KIM and ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
The political pendulum may have swung again in Dallas' northern suburbs.
Less than two years after Democrats made inroads in Collin County, Republicans shifted to the right in Tuesday's primary runoff elections.
Van Taylor, who ran on an unabashed conservative platform, soundly defeated the more moderate Mabrie Jackson in the GOP primary to represent west Plano in the Texas House of Representatives.
And Cheryl Williams, a former Plano City Council member who campaigned as a "true conservative," won big over incumbent Jerry Hoagland for a seat on the Collin County Commissioners Court.
To be sure, money and an anti-incumbent air played roles as large as any political message.
Taylor injected more than $700,000 of his own money in the race, among the highest totals ever for a state House primary.
And some voters were eager for a new face to replace Hoagland, who has served for three decades.
"It was a bad year to be an incumbent," Williams said.
Still, both Taylor and Williams tapped deeply into the anti-Washington, anti-tax outrage that has manifested itself in the fervent Tea Party movement.
Although much of the simmering anger is aimed at federal leaders, activists have worked hard to endorse local candidates, often outsiders, who hew to rigid fiscally conservative principles.
"The message is that fiscal sanity needs to be applied to all levels," said Michael Openshaw of Plano, a vocal member of the North Texas Tea Party.
He compared the city of Plano's fiscal habits to "lemmings making for the cliff. Some of us are hearing the surf down there and saying, 'Can we slow down?' "
Longtimer ousted
The Tea Party insurgency also confirmed its presence Tuesday in other House races across Texas, helping to oust a key Republican who helped Speaker Joe Straus come to power last year.
Lubbock businessman Charles Perry, a Tea Party organizer, clobbered longtime state Rep. Delwin Jones, one of 10 original GOP supporters of Straus.
In another Lubbock-area runoff, John Frullo beat Mark Griffin, an establishment-backed candidate, in the race to succeed retiring Republican state Rep. Carl Isett.
The outcomes follow last month's upset of Rep. Tommy Merritt of Longview, another early Straus backer who lost in the GOP primary to a Tea Party-backed challenger, David Simpson.
Strongholds
"The two places where you really saw a strong level of Tea Party organization were in Lubbock and East Texas, the Tyler area," Austin political consultant Todd M. Smith said. "Those are the two places where the Tea Party really flexed its muscle."
Tuesday's results also illustrate the ebb and flow of politics in suburbs such as Collin County, which is a political battleground between Democratic-leaning Dallas and Republican-dominated rural areas.
The 2008 primary and general election drew record numbers of Democrats to the polls in Collin, suggesting changing times in the Republican stronghold.
But in Tuesday's runoffs, Republican voters overwhelmingly responded to a fiscal conservative message.
Taylor cultivated the Tea Party movement while bombarding the district with mailers and ads painting his GOP opponent as a liberal spender.
The strategy apparently worked.
Jackson lost despite securing the backing of Plano's Republican establishment and many business and civic groups.
Likewise, Williams, who was considered a moderate during her days on the Plano City Council, campaigned as a penny-wise outsider and received backing from Tea Party-affiliated groups.
"Both [Taylor and Williams] ran as conservative candidates," said state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, who endorsed Taylor and Hoagland. "They succeeded because they captured the message that is reflective of the voters."
The movement, of course, has had its share of setbacks.
A number of candidates who marketed themselves as fiscal conservatives were crushed in various primary elections across North Texas on March 2.
And the Tea Party-backed candidate lost in a special election runoff last month for Plano City Council.
But the success of Taylor and Williams had been building for years.
Hints surface
The first hints of change came in 2006, when upstart Keith Self, running as a strict fiscal conservative, won the seat of county judge by toppling Ron Harris, a GOP leader who had been in office for 16 years.
Self, who is running for re-election and has Tea Party support, won the GOP nomination handily over Plano school board member John Muns.
Newcomer Matt Shaheen won a seat on the Commissioners Court two years ago, using a similar template to oust 18-year incumbent Phyllis Cole.
Laubenberg said that Taylor's victory, in particular, was telling.
House District 66 encompasses most of west Plano, which has overwhelmingly backed moderate candidates in the past.
"The tougher that times get, the more people look to pocketbook issues," Laubenberg said.
'Changing times'
Longtime Collin County Republicans like James Muns, the father of John Muns, acknowledged that political change is afoot.
"We're in changing times," said the elder Muns, who was Plano's mayor when Williams served on the City Council in the 1990s.
"When you've lived as long as I have, you've seen things go up and go down, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. The Tea Party is one of a number of groups in my lifetime that have come and gone. It's just part of politics."
Read the entire article at The Dallas Morning News....
=====================
The Observer notes that the article should be titled, "Republican voters in Collin County push more to the right".
This last election was a Republican Party run-off -- by, of, and for Republican voters. Generally, the bulk of the Primary voters (and especially run-off voters) are committed Party members. To assume that the 4% turnout speaks for the county as a whole seems to be a bit of a stretch.
In the ONLY non-primary election this year where the Tea Party had an interest, their candidate, Kathy Fang was defeated.
However, because of the scarcity of well-financed, viable Democratic Party candidates, it is true that the results of the primary run-off will likely shift the political tone map in the county to the right.
Bill
DBJ - Rodman LLC is closing, laying off 242 (Updated 4/15)
April 14th, 2010Rodman LLC is closing, laying off 242
Dallas Business Journal - by Kerri Panchuk, Web Reporter
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Construction services firm Rodman LLC is closing its doors and laying off 242 employees on April 30, the company said in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Frisco-based Rodman LLC said in its letter that the company has been searching for a cash infusion to keep operations going and to prevent the business from closing.
The organization said despite its best efforts, negotiations that it had planned fell through, leaving the company with no option but to close, the TWC warn letter said.
Link to article at The Dallas Business Journal....
=====================
The Collin County Observer notes that Rodman was a major contributor to Commissioner Jerry Hoagland's failed re-election campaign.
Rodman, LLC and Rodman Paving are Collin County vendors; over the last two years, they received over $4 million from county contracts. At this time I don't know if they are working on any ongoing projects for the county and if so, how those will be affected.
The Observer has contacted county purchasing officials and I will post their responses here.
Bill
====================
UPDATE April 15
Frank Ybarbo, Collin County's Purchasing Agent, responded to my request about ongoing projects with Rodman with:
"We do not have any current projects in progress with Rodman, LLC. The last project we had was over a year ago and that was let on a bid for the Dallas Toll way, Extension 4A."
Bill
Oklahoma seizes Frisco insurance company
April 14th, 2010Holland shuts down insurer
A Texas-based company's execs are "looting the business," she says.
"The business is "owned and managed by scam artists."
By DON MECOY / NewsOK.com
Tulsa World
Published: 4/13/2010
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland has taken control of a Texas-based insurance company "owned and managed by scam artists" engaged in the "ongoing looting" of the business, Holland said in court filing.
Holland claims the management of Imperial Casualty and Indemnity Co. — based in Frisco, Texas, and licensed in 47 states including Oklahoma — "is not fit to be engaged in the business of insurance." An expert retained by Holland claims in a court filing that Imperial is insolvent by more than $19.2 million.
Attempts to reach company officials or their attorney were unsuccessful. Imperial, responding to Holland's initial court filing, claims that before Holland seized the company, it was "solvent, profitable and well managed" and has not violated state law.
Imperial's officers and directors "systematically looted" the company by creating a bogus entity, General Insurance Managers Inc., to provide medical review services for Imperial, according to court documents. Imperial paid millions of dollars to General Insurance Managers, but the business did no work, the court filings stated. Imperial President Derek Lancaster has been paid $8.6 million "under the guise of this bogus services agreement," the filings say.
Click here to read the complete article at NewsOK.com.
===========
There is more coverage on Oklahoma's takeover of Imperial in the Dallas Business Journal. Click here to read.
Bill
DMN - Veteran Collin commissioner Hoagland loses runoff to former Plano council member Williams
April 14th, 2010Veteran Collin commissioner Hoagland loses runoff to former Plano council member Williams
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Challenger Cheryl Williams defeated longtime Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland on Tuesday by a wide margin in a runoff election.
Williams received almost 60 percent of the vote, according to the Collin County Elections Department.
"I think we worked really hard," she said. "And I think it was a bad year to be an incumbent."
Williams, a former Plano City Council member, outpolled Hoagland in a three-person Republican primary last month.
Hoagland said he thought his long tenure worked against him.
"I think people were anti-incumbent this year," he said. "I guess we didn't communicate well enough to the public the fact that I am a fiscal conservative. I wish her nothing but the best."
Williams will face Democrat Rick Koster in the November general election. No Democrat has held Collin County elective office in more than 20 years.
"We take every opponent very seriously," she said.
Williams had labeled Hoagland a "career politician" for his 30 years in office. But Hoagland attacked Williams for moving back to Precinct 2 less than a year ago after spending a decade in Dallas County.
The two took opposite stands on a proposed rail and trucking distribution hub in rural southeastern Collin County. Hoagland, who originated the idea a year ago, said it would bring needed jobs and tax revenue.
But Williams said the massive intermodal facility would create noise and congestion and ruin the tranquil country atmosphere.
Precinct 2 includes East Plano, Murphy and Wylie.
Karl Voigtsberger, who finished third in the March 2 Republican primary, endorsed Hoagland.
Williams, meanwhile, had the backing of the Tea Party.
A second Collin County commissioner was defeated in the primary. Precinct 4 Commissioner Kathy Ward fell to Plano school board member Duncan Webb.
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
PSC - Taylor, Williams win in runoff
April 14th, 2010Taylor, Williams win in runoff
By Zach Markovic / Plano Star-Courier
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Van Taylor won out convincingly over Mabrie Jackson in the State Representative District 66 race.
The primary runoff election on April 13 had six judicial positions, one state representative race and one county commissioners race. Longtime County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland was defeated by former Plano council member Cheryl Williams for the County Commissioner Precinct 2 seat.
A mere 4 percent of voters came out and voted in the runoff, down from 15 percent in the primary election.
The state representative race between former Plano City Council member Jackson and political newcomer Taylor was highly contested, seeing plenty of money spent and attacks thrown from both sides as the candidates battled it out to Election Day. In the end, Taylor won the runoff with 58 percent of the vote, beating Jackson 4,954 votes to 3,541.
He said his victory was because of the support he received from the conservative voice in Plano. Conservative groups such as the Tea Party and pro-life groups came out in support of the former Marine.
“This is a big victory for Plano conservatives,” Taylor said. “I need to spend a little time with my family and reconnect. I want to thank all of the people who made this victory possible and start building relationships so I can start going to work for the people of Plano.”
Taylor said he had a chance to speak with Jackson and wished her, her family and her campaign workers the best and congratulated them on a strong campaign.
He said in their conversation she told him she would endorse him in the November election.
Taylor will not even have to wait until next year to take his seat. Gov. Rick Perry has set up a special election on May 8 to fill the seat of Rep. Brian McCall, who recently resigned from the District 66 chair. Taylor said Jackson told him she would withdraw her name from that ballot so Taylor could run unopposed and not cause any division in the party.
Jackson did not return phone calls for comment.
The other contest closely watched by citizens in Collin County was the County Commissioner Court Precinct 2 race between incumbent Hoagland and Williams. In a hard-fought victory for the challenger, Williams won with 59 percent of the vote. She drew 2,590 votes against Hoagland’s 1,803. She said it was a difficult race, but the voters really came out in support of her views on where the county needs to head.
“I feel really honored by it and pretty humbled by the trust the citizens have given me,” Williams said. “I am very grateful for all the volunteers and workers who really came out to support me. We worked hard.”
Hoagland, a 30-year veteran of the county commissioners court, said the message was clear on what the voters wanted.
“My district voted for change today; that is very clear to me,” Hoagland said. “It has been a wonderful 30 years; I have enjoyed every minute. I wish Cheryl and the county nothing but the best.”
Many of the candidates were counting on a higher voter turnout, after a primary that saw a record-level response for a non-presidential election year. But with only 4 percent of the voters turning out, voter fatigue and confusion is being blamed as the source of low voter participation.
Terri Green, who lost to Jay Bender in the Collin County Court at Law No. 6 race, said she knew people were unaware the race was going on or if they could even vote in it. But she was happy for what her campaign accomplished and all of the hard work her volunteers put in.
“I am very thankful. I think we ran a great race; I am sorry that all my voters didn’t come back out to vote,” Green said. “Voter confusion was an issue – we were on the heel of the special elections for some cities, so I think realistically some voters were confused on what we were voting on. We are going to go on, though, and do what we were doing: continue practicing law in Collin County and serving the people who live here.”
DMN - Texas House race in Plano a bitter one
April 10th, 2010Texas House race in Plano a bitter one
Saturday, April 10, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
"the election might tell us what the future of the Republican Party will look like."
Michael McConachie, political science professor at Collin College
After Sam Johnson beat a young Brian McCall in 1984 to represent Plano in the Texas House, McCall drove to his opponent's election party to congratulate him.
A lot has changed in politically genteel Plano as Republicans Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor now battle to succeed McCall, who won the House seat after Johnson moved to Congress.
The battle in House District 66, which culminates in a runoff election Tuesday because no Democrat is running, has unfolded as Plano's bitterest, costliest and most intense political race in memory, observers agree.
"This is probably the lowest we have seen," said Ken Lambert, a former Plano City Council member who has not endorsed either candidate. "The way to win today's elections, it seems, is to do character assassinations."
Some believe the contest is but a testament to how Plano rarely sees contested state legislative races. Others view this year's primary as a harbinger of heated campaigns to come.
Friction evident
In a broader sense, the contest illustrates the friction between mainstream and hard-line conservatives emerging in elections nationwide.
"Mabrie, a mainstream Collin County Republican, is seen as the natural successor to Brian McCall. And here comes this new guy, this hard-line conservative, outflanking her on the right," said Michael McConachie, a political science professor at Collin College. "It's a microcosm of what the Republican Party is struggling with."
Jackson and Taylor have blasted each other's records, affiliations and ideologies on Web sites, in television ads and in political mailers.
Record amounts of campaign money have only added to the stakes and intensity.
Taylor, a real estate investor and former Marine, had lent his campaign $710,000 as of last week. Experts say the amount is staggering for a local House primary.
Few House candidates have spent more since 2000, according to figures provided by Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics. And those totals were for entire general election campaigns.
Taylor is on pace to spend more of his personal wealth on the House primary than any Texas candidate this year other than Democrat Farouk Shami, who spent millions on a bid for governor, the group's research found.
Jackson, meanwhile, has spent more than $172,000 since late February, the latest campaign finance reports show.
Of the nearly $120,000 that Jackson raised in the latest filing period, more than half came from political action committees and business groups. The former Plano City Council member also received checks from homebuilder Bob Perry ($15,000) and grocery-chain mogul Charles Butt ($10,000).
Topping the mailers and money totals is a palpable sense that the candidates, generally, do not like each other.
Jackson fired the first shot a few days before the March 2 primary when she accused Taylor and a third candidate, Wayne Richard, of misrepresenting their résumés.
Taylor, who came in second in the primary but triggered a runoff election, dismissed the criticism as "negative" and "false."
Accusations flying
The salvos continued on Friday.
Jackson took aim at Taylor's personal loans, accusing him of "trying to buy this seat."
"What's he going to do with your money if that's what he's doing with his money?" she asked. "It's an insane amount of money. It's irresponsible to spend that much money on a political opportunity."
She also portrayed Taylor as an opportunist with little connection to Plano. Taylor, who grew up in Midland, ran for Congress in the Waco area in 2006.
"I'm the only one with experience in Plano," Jackson said. "He isn't beholden to anybody in Plano because he's not from here."
Taylor characterized Jackson's comments as "ridiculous."
"I live 20 miles from where I was born. My mother lives here. It's ridiculous. I have served in this community for years before this election."
Taylor, as he has in a last-minute ad campaign, painted Jackson as "courting lots of liberal groups" such as an association representing teachers that has supported Democrats and President Barack Obama. (Jackson dismissed the criticism.)
Taylor also defended his largely self-financed campaign, saying the personal loans have been "necessary to defeat these liberal interest groups that are coming into Plano and these negative, false attacks."
'Bare-knuckled'
In general, Taylor said, he believes he has run a "positive, issues-based campaign."
Others would disagree, saying both candidates have bashed each other with equal force. Plano City Council member Harry LaRosiliere, who has remained neutral in the race, said he "can't remember any race being as bare-knuckled as this."
"I certainly hope this is not the direction of our local politics," LaRosiliere said.
McConachie of Collin College noted that more is at stake than election tactics.
"Depending on which side wins," he said, "the election might tell us what the future of the Republican Party will look like."
DMN - Judge delays showdown between Plano officials, gadfly
April 7th, 2010The City of Plano and its Economic Development Corporation spend years stonewalling attempts by Jack Lagos, a citizen watchdog, to obtain EDC agendas, minutes and financial records.
Time and again they stall and raise appeals to the Texas Attorney General trying to keep the citizens of Plano from learning how their tax dollars are being spent. Time and again, the Texas Attorney General rules against the EDC.
They then file a restraining order against Mr. Lagos, charging him (frivolously) with making terrorist threats. They even cause a search warrant to be issued.
Then they go to court to try to keep him from hiring the attorney of his choice. They lose again.
Welcome to Open Government, Plano style.
Bill
=======================================
Judge delays showdown between Plano officials, gadfly
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
A judge has put off a legal showdown between some Plano officials and a longtime gadfly.
The Plano Economic Development Board and its executive director, Sally Bane, have accused resident Jack Lagos of harassment and threats. Lagos says the board is trying to stop him from questioning its activities.
A trial was slated to start Tuesday. But state District Judge Cynthia Wheless pushed the date back to May 4, citing a busy court workload.
Not often does a quasi-public agency seek an injunction against a local resident. But the court action illustrates the depth of the sour relationship between the board and Lagos, a frequent critic of City Hall and its economic development efforts.
The claims stem from a dispute in which Lagos demanded to see certain documents at the board's West Plano headquarters in August.
Bane and administrative assistant Linda Thomason contend that Lagos' behavior became erratic and confrontational. They also allege that he threatened to set off a grenade in the board meeting room.
At the request of Bane and the board, the court later granted a temporary injunction forbidding Lagos from interacting with them and other top city officials.
Lagos has said his accusers are overreacting and taking his words out of context.
No criminal charges were filed. He said authorities subjected his house to a search but later apologized.
Central to the dispute is how much of the board's activities and documents are public. The agency, tasked with luring businesses to Plano and retaining them, is funded by city property taxes. But it operates as an independent nonprofit corporation.
City officials contend it is not subject to the same scrutiny or open meetings laws as a public agency. Lagos has fervently disputed that logic.
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN - Appellate court will weigh Plano principals' role in banning religious candy canes
April 7th, 2010Should the principals be held liable for enforcing the Plano ISD's policy on religious expression?
The 5th Circuit will decide.
Bill
Appellate court will weigh Plano principals' role in banning religious candy canes
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News
Plano's long-running "religious candy cane case" resurfaced today, when a federal appellate court heard arguments surrounding the responsibility of two school principals named as defendants in a religious-freedom suit.
Three judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals met to hear the arguments in a packed courtroom at Southern Methodist University, where the court is based this week.
The candy cane controversy arose in 2003, when administrators at Plano’s Thomas Elementary School stopped an 8-year-old boy from distributing candy cane pens with religious messages at a winter holiday party. A year later, with assistance from the Plano-based Liberty Institute, the boy's family and three other families sued the district on free speech grounds.
The Plano school district later revised its policies to allow students to pass out religious materials at designated times and locations.
Last December, the appeals court ruled that the district’s new policy was constitutional. But it allowed a district court to determine the liability of two school principals. The district court ruled against the principals; today's session was their appeal.
The principals named in the case are Lynn Swanson from Thomas Elementary and Jackie Bomchill, the former principal of Rasor Elementary School.
Lawyers for the principals argued that a free speech violation was not “clearly established,” especially in the case of school administrators, who have jurisdiction to regulate children’s activities in schools.
“It’s like in baseball when the tie goes to the runner,” said Thomas Brandt, a lawyer for the principals. “It’s a close call. And when the law is not quite clear, qualified immunity protects officials.”
But Liberty Institute attorneys said the principals showed “viewpoint discrimination” by banning items with a religious message from events like holiday parties, while permitting other, nonreligious items.
“We are very encouraged,” Kelly Shackelford, president of Liberty Institute, said as everyone filtered out of the small, carpeted courtroom. “We finally got a day in court to get to the real issues - that elementary school kids do have First Amendment rights.”
The judges will issue a ruling in the coming months. The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, will decide this summer whether to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Plano school policy. Another aspect of the case is still being adjudicated in district court in Sherman.
Public Hearing scheduled in Dallas on Frisco low income housing project
April 4th, 2010
The Dallas Morning News' Valerie Wigglesworth, writing in the Frisco Blog fills us in on the latest developments to bring a low income housing project to Frisco:
One low-income complex in Frisco remains in the running for state's housing tax credit program
Sat, Apr 03, 2010
Valerie Wigglesworth, Reporter / The Dallas Morning News
One developer remains in the running for the state's housing tax credit program to build a low-income apartment complex in Frisco, according to a city news release.
Stewart Creek LLP completed all the paperwork with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for the proposed 150-unit North Court Villas complex on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway just east of Woodstream Drive. The other developer, VDC Frisco Reserve I LP, has withdrawn from the process. It was proposing to build 200 units near Bicentennial Park at McKinney? Road and Sunset Drive.
The Stewart Creek project is one of 28 developments competing for $9 million in tax credits available this year to urban areas in Texas' Region 3, which includes Frisco and the Dallas area, according to the state log of applications (Region 3 applications start on page 4). Based on self-rankings by developers, the Frisco project ranks 27th out of 28th.
If the Frisco project is approved, it will also be eligible for $2 million in a low-interest loan from the Dallas-based Inclusive Communities Project as part of an agreement with the city of Frisco. Under the agreement, 50 units of the complex would be made available first to certain Dallas Housing Authority clients with Section 8 vouchers.
That controversial agreement has drawn lots of opposition from Frisco residents. It also spurred the formation of a Facebook group called Frisco Resident's [sic] Against Section 8 Housing in Frisco, TX, which has 257 fans.
read the rest of this article on The Dallas Morning News' Frisco Blog.....
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From a City of Frisco press release:
REGIONAL PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED AFFORDABLE HOUSING SET FOR APRIL 14
(April 2, 2010) The City of Frisco has received notification from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs that one developer has submitted a completed application for the 2010 Competitive Housing Tax Credit (HTC) program for a proposed low income housing complex in Frisco.
The developer, Stewart Creek, LLP, submitted the completed application for the proposed North Court Villas complex. The proposed complex would be built on 10 acres on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway between Woodstream Drive and Preston Road. The project is now one of 28 developments competing for the $10 million in tax credits available this year to Texas’ Region 3. The total amount requested for the 28 projects submitted is $41 million. Based on a self-ranking submitted by developers with their completed HTC applications, the North Court Villas development is currently ranked 27th out of the 28 projects in line for funding.
If Stewart Creek, LLP's development is awarded funds from the HTC program, then the developer will also be eligible for $2 million in grant money from the Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. (ICP) through an agreement with the City of Frisco. Under the ICP agreement, developers must set aside 50 units or 25 percent of the complex’s units, whichever is greater, for Section 8 vouchers. North Court Villas would have 50 units available for Section 8 voucher holders.
In February, the Frisco City Council approved requests from Stewart Creek, LLP and a second developer, VDC Frisco Reserve I, LP, for letters of support to submit with their 2010 Housing Tax Credit Applications. The council submitted letters on behalf of both developers; however, VDC Frisco Reserve I, LP has withdrawn from the process to compete for funds for a proposed complex near the intersection of McKinney? Road and Sunset Drive.
Residents may voice their opinions about the proposed development when the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs holds a public hearing on Wednesday, April 14 at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will be in the auditorium of the J. Erik Johnson Central Library, located at 1515 Young Street in downtown Dallas.
Residents may also submit written comments through June 15. Comments should be mailed to:
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs
Multifamily Finance Division
P.O. Box 13941
Austin, TX 78711
The Department of Housing and Community Affairs will also accept written comments by fax: (512) 475-0764, or email: Raquel.morales@tdhca.state.tx.us
Read more about proposed low income/Section 8 housing in Frisco online at FriscoTexas.gov/affordablehousing.
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The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs board is expected to decide which projects to fund in July.
Bill
DMN - McCall next chancellor of Texas State Universities
March 30th, 2010Yikes! Another special election?
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Plano legislator McCall is lone finalist for Texas State University chancellor job
Monday, March 29, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
State Rep. Brian McCall, who has been Plano's face in the Texas House of Representatives for nearly two decades, plans to resign to become chancellor of the Texas State University system.
The Board of Regents on Monday named the 51-year-old Republican legislator as its sole finalist for the job. Law requires the institution to post McCall's name for three weeks before taking final action.
Board of Regents Chairman Ron Blatchley said the system is "honored by Dr. McCall's interest in leading the Texas State University System as it enters its centennial year."
McCall said, "My interest in higher education has been long standing."
He said he decided in November not to seek re-election to his District 66 seat, which includes most of western Plano, so that he could pursue the Texas State chancellorship. His resignation could compel Gov. Rick Perry to call a special election to fill the remaining term, which concludes in January.
McCall said he plans to meet with Perry today to discuss election options. Republicans Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor are in a runoff for the House 66 seat.
McCall, who was once a candidate to be House speaker and is chairman of the powerful Calendars Committee, said he plans to move to Austin soon for his new job.
He called his legislative tenure, which began in 1991, a "humbling experience."
"I showed up every day, I voted when I had to, I returned every phone call, I read every piece of mail," he said. "I served in the House without a hint of scandal. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to serve my home."
He stands poised to take over a system of nearly 70,000 students and seven institutions, including Texas State University at San Marcos and Sam Houston State University.
McCall received a bachelor's degree from Baylor University, a master's from Southern Methodist University and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Gov. Mark White on the Charles Dean Hood case
March 28th, 2010Published today in the National Law Journal:
Death penalty process must be fair
The high court should right the wrong in the Hood case, stemming from the judge's and prosecutor's affair.
Mark White
Published in The National Law Journal, March 29, 2010
I'm a longtime supporter of the death penalty, but what's happening in Charles Hood's case in Texas isn't right. If we are going to have the death penalty, we need to make sure that the process is fair and accurate.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the state's high court for criminal cases) recently granted a new sentencing hearing for Hood on a technical issue related to jury instructions but has refused to address the central issue in this case: The judge and the prosecutor at Hood's trial had a long-term secret affair prior to the trial and concealed the relationship for 20 years. This was a secret that the pair kept even when they knew Hood was on the brink of execution and was trying to verify the rumors of the relationship.
The trial judge and the prosecutor did not come forward voluntarily or abide by their ethical or constitutional duties to divulge this information. Indeed, they denied it or refused to cooperate when asked directly about the affair by Hood's counsel five years ago. Their admissions came only when they were forced by a Texas trial court to testify under oath in 2008.
Now that the world knows the truth and the state courts have failed to correct this injustice, it's imperative that the U.S. Supreme Court intervene in Hood's case and grant him a new trial with an impartial judge and an ethical prosecutor.
The trial judge and the prosecuting attorney's affair breaches every standard of fairness that you would expect a defendant to receive during a capital case or, for that matter, a noncapital case. Hood could not have gotten a fair trial under these circumstances. His trial was infected with an incurable conflict of interest.
The judge and the prosecutor kept the affair secret for their own personal reasons, but they also concealed it from the people who were entitled to the information. If Hood's counsel had known about or had proof of the affair at the time of trial, he could have moved the judge to recuse herself.
The Court of Criminal Appeals, rather than setting things right, issued a two-sentence boilerplate denial of Hood's judicial bias claim. We all want justice to be blind, but the whole world can see the Texas court's foolishness in turning its back on the egregious breach of ethics in this case.
The passage of time doesn't make it any less of a breach. The only thing for which we can be thankful is that an execution has not already occurred.
As governor of Texas, I oversaw 19 executions. This was a grave responsibility. I have seen frailties in the criminal justice system first-hand as a practicing lawyer and as an attorney general of Texas. Thus, before each execution, I reviewed in agonizing detail each individual's case to be as certain as humanly possible that he had received a fair trial.
Hood was convicted of killing the couple with whom lived in Plano, Texas. I'm not saying he is innocent or guilty. I'm saying that the way we determine guilt or innocence in this country is with a fair trial, and defendant Hood did not receive one.
A BLOW TO PUBLIC CONFIDENCE
The harm to Hood is obvious, but the damage does not stop there. If the system fails to correct itself, it will deliver a blow to public confidence that cannot be easily remedied. Citizens can rightfully wonder how many other defendants were denied their right to a fair trial because the presiding judge and the prosecuting attorney concealed the true nature of their relationship.
People often mistake criticism of death penalty procedures for opposition to the death penalty across the board. I believe that the death penalty is appropriate for the most heinous crimes, those in which 21st century forensics or other probative evidence prove the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and after constitutional safeguards have been carefully observed.
During the past 20 years, DNA and other advances have gone a long way to hold criminals accountable, but modern science does not address every failing of the criminal justice system. Hood's case shows, at the most basic level, that there are huge flaws in our procedures and human frailties in the people who administer them.
The U.S. Supreme Court should take Hood's case to reinforce not only the standards that are to be applied in Texas courts, but in courts across the country, and strengthen the faith that the American people have in their judicial system. There's only one thing that can cure an unfair trial. That's a new trial. This time, it should be a fair one.
Mark White served as governor of Texas from 1983 to 1987 and as attorney general of Texas from 1979 to 1983. In February, along with 20 former judges and former prosecutors, he filed an amicus brief in support of Hood's petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.
link to article at The National Law Journal.....
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For prior Collin County Observer coverage of the Charles Dean Hood case click here
The Colony gives 'finger' to Frisco
March 25th, 2010Sorry, I couldn't resist the headline:
DMN - The Colony, Frisco settle dispute over sliver of land known as The Finger
Thursday, March 25, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
After years of wrangling and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, The Colony will hand over to Frisco a sliver of land known as The Finger.
The 22-acre tract – home to two holes of The Golf Club at Frisco Lakes – has been the subject of a long-running dispute that will end with the property in Frisco's city limits. Frisco also received more than $1 million from The Colony as part of a settlement from a 2004 lawsuit.
Frisco officials say the agreement was about more than money.
"It is the rebuilding of good relations and clearing up of several other matters between our cities that make this an important step for both entities," Frisco Assistant City Manager Ron Patterson said.
City Manager Tony Johnston of The Colony said, "The settlement of the lawsuit has been long-awaited, and we look forward to working together with our neighboring city."
The feud between the two started years ago over two tracts of land west of FM423 known as The Finger and The Lightning Bolt. Both cities claimed the tracts were within their extraterritorial jurisdiction. A district court ruled in Frisco's favor in 1984. But The Colony went ahead and annexed The Finger, according to court records. By the time Frisco found out, it was too late to challenge the move in court.
But Frisco officials didn't forget.
In 1998, The Colony and Frisco contracted with the North Texas Municipal Water District to expand capacity at a wastewater treatment plant in Frisco. The district sold bonds and expanded the plant, while the two cities made payments on the debt.
But when The Colony started making plans to connect to the plant, Frisco refused to grant access through its city. It wanted The Finger and The Lightning Bolt, which The Colony was still claiming as its own.
The Colony found itself having paid toward a wastewater treatment plant it couldn't use. And its own 25-year-old treatment plant needed an upgrade. Environmental regulators had already fined the city $16,000. If it couldn't bring its plant into compliance within two years, more penalties were coming.
So The Colony stopped making payments on the new plant and invested $14 million into expanding its own plant. And it sued the water district and Frisco for breach of contract.
According to court records, the contract didn't address how the wastewater would be delivered to the new plant. The contract guaranteed The Colony only a certain amount of capacity once its wastewater arrived, the courts ruled.
The lawsuit advanced from trial court to the Second District Court of Appeals. Last year, The Colony petitioned for a review by the Texas Supreme Court. In recent months, though, all three entities decided to settle the case and move on.
The $1 million settlement reimburses Frisco for the $642,863 it paid to cover The Colony's share of the plant construction plus interest. The amount also covers Frisco's $208,200 in legal fees on the lawsuit. The water district did not receive reimbursement it requested for an estimated $152,500 in legal fees it incurred in the case. The Colony also surrendered The Finger.
Last year, Frisco gave up its claim to 40 acres known as The Lightning Bolt as part of an unrelated settlement with a developer. The Colony had annexed the jagged-shaped property at the request of Wynnwood Peninsula Partners at the same time that Frisco was initiating annexation on the tract. Wynnwood had sued Frisco to keep the land in The Colony. Frisco agreed....
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
PSC - Douglass community speaks out against plans to outsource center
March 24th, 2010Douglass community speaks out against plans to outsource center
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
By Kim Nguyen / Plano Star-Courier
Ten speakers voiced concerns to the Plano City Council on Monday about the planned negotiations to transfer operations of the Douglass Community Center to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Collin County.
By allowing the BGCCC to take over control of the Douglass Community Center, the city would save more than $400,000 annually.
Tempting as it may seem – city leaders recently projected a budget deficit of $15 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year – members of Plano’s historically black community say that the move would negatively affect the center’s identity. The speakers requested the council halt negotiations and work with Douglass Community members to find alternative ways to recoup lost funds in the city deficit.
“We are concerned because the Douglass Community Center is more than just a community center for Plano residents,” said T.J. Johnson, a member of Douglass Community Visions, an advocacy group that promotes the significance and livelihood of the community. “The Douglass Community Center is not limited to Douglass Community residents. The center is there for the Plano community at-large.”
Douglass Community Visions promotes and protects awareness of the city’s historically black community. Group members say the current issue with the center is causing an “identity crisis” in the community, as there has not been a clear decision of whether the Douglass Community Center is part of the city as a revenue-producing recreation center or a free community center.
“A community center has programs and may rent some rooms to receive some revenue, but most of the programs are free,” said Eleanor Evans, resident of the Douglass Community. “It was not designed to bring in revenue, but the city wants the center to act as a recreation center, which does produce revenue.”
Evans said the center has long been a site where Plano residents – from the Douglass Community and beyond – meet, socialize and host functions.
“The center is a meeting place for residents of the Douglass Community and churches grew out of the center,” she said. “A lot of people have a vested interest in the center.”
Transferring control from a city facility to a non-profit organization would also diminish the historical significance of the Douglass Community Center. As the former Plano Colored School and Frederick Douglass High School, the building and property have huge historical value in the area, said Dollie Thomas, a lifelong resident of the Douglass Community.
“We want to protect the community and preserve its historical significance,” she said. “It may be one of Plano’s oldest communities, but it is a viable community. We want to work with the city to treat the Douglass Community for what it is – a historical district.”
Thomas said another fear of Douglass Community Visions is the closure of the facility.
“Everyone is going through some rough financial times,” she said. “But later on down the line, if Boys and Girls Clubs decide they can’t handle the Douglass Center and it’s not on the city or the school district’s budget, then the doors will close.”
Douglass Community Visions is not limited to members of the Douglass Community or its community center.
The Rev. Sam Fenceroy of the Mount Olive Church of Plano said the council would not “wipe out a historical area just to do it.”
“It’s easy to look at numbers and pick out a big one,” he said. “But I believe that when we met with the city staff (earlier in the year), they realized that the community is too vital to lose.”
Regardless of how the negotiations turn out, Tanya Greene, president and CEO for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Collin County, said she hopes to continue providing Boys and Girls Clubs programs at the Douglass Community Center.
“I can definitely empathize with their concerns and I understand where the concerns are coming from, but that is the farthest thing that we would want happen to the Douglass Community,” she said, regarding concerns raised about the center losing its identity. “We want to work with the community to continue to preserve (the center’s) history and identity.”
The Boys and Girls Club of Collin County has provided services and programs at the Douglass Community Center since 1992, and Greene said she hopes to continue its open partnership with the children and families in and around the community.
“Since we started the process, we have asked repeatedly for a list of programs and what we can do to support the community,” she said. “In dealing so closely with families, we certainly want to keep communications open so everyone can understand what we do because we play a significant role in the community.”...
Dallas Morning News once again 'recommends' Mabrie Jackson
March 24th, 2010Editorial: We recommend Mabrie Jackson in House runoff
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
The Republican runoff campaign for the Texas House from West Plano has been a contest over who has the more legitimate claim to the term conservative.
Both Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor have signed the nationally known "taxpayer protection pledge" against new taxes and posted it on their Web sites. (Taylor touts the fact that he signed his first, on Nov. 19, as his first act as a candidate.)
As for guiding principles, Jackson, 45, vows to "keep the government out of my pocketbook and out of my house" if elected from the House District 66.
Taylor, 37, maintains that he is the sole "really, truly, deeply convicted conservative" of the two and that his "singular goal" would be that kind of representation.
If conservative-minded Republicans need a tiebreaker between the two for the April 13 runoff, it won't be a weak résumé for either. Taylor, for example, is an Iraq war veteran with a career in real estate finance and banking.
What voters won't find among Taylor's credentials are two important things Jackson can claim: deep roots in Plano and a long record of public service to the community, both as an officeholder and civic leader. With a record as a former Plano City Council member, Jackson was the top vote-getter at the ballot box March 2, with 41 percent of the primary tally, compared with 33 percent for Taylor. (Candidate Wayne Richard ran third.)
Another tiebreaker is Jackson's solutions-oriented approach to governing and the priorities she has set, including economic development, public education and keeping up with growth through forward-looking transportation and water policies. The state also must do better fighting child abuse, she says.
Jackson, formerly in marketing for EDS and a manager for Microsoft, has lived in Plano since grade school in 1970. Taylor moved to the district after losing a race for Congress from Central Texas in 2006.
One recent comment by Taylor might give voters yet another tiebreaker: He told this newspaper that he would "starve state government."
That's a handy catchphrase, but it says nothing constructive about how to educate children, pave roads or boost the business climate.
The winner of the runoff has no Democratic opponent in November.
DMN Transportation Blog - Dueling gets serious between 2 tollway authorities
March 23rd, 2010Dueling gets serious between 2 tollway authorities
March 23, 2010
Rodger Jones / Editorial Writer
The Dallas Morning News / Transportation Blog
We see at Bill Baumbach's Collin County Observer site that the competition is heating up between the North Texas Tollway Authority and the upstart Collin County Tollway Authority.
The NTTA already held hearings twice this month on the future extension of the Dallas North Tollway into northern Collin County. So yesterday, members of the county's commissioner's court -- who double as members of their own tollway authority -- voted unanimously to hold their own hearings on the future of the DNT.
County Judge Keith Self has been pushing this real hard from the beginning, drawing the anger of Sen. John Carona, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee. Carona has been trying to ensure a regional approach to planning and funding of major roadways, and Self has gotten himself in hot water before with the senator. This latest decision for the duplicate public meetings is no different. Carona sent me the following statement this afternoon:
"Once again, Collin County elected officials are thumbing their noses at regionalism as they futilely attempt to seize control of the latest Dallas Tollway extension. It's a short-sighted move surely to incur the wrath of most North Texas leaders. Judge Self has been cautioned previously against this type of predatory behavior and appears eager for yet another bruising by his neighbors."
I talked this over with Commissioner Joe Jaynes, who is key in this debate. He is also a member of the policy-making Regional Transportation Commission and has a good handle on North Texas' planning and financial challenges for large road projects.
Jaynes does not apologize for the vote by county commissioners, doubling as the upstart local toll authority. He said the NTTA is financially strapped from taking on so many different projects in recent years, most recently the SH 161 roadway and, probably, the Southwest Parkway-Chisolm Trail in Tarrant and Parker counties.
NTTA, he says, cannot offer a firm timetable for developing a new alignment for the DNT north of Celina or even for laying down main lanes where the alignment is already set between US 380 and Celina. Until the county gets some kind of assurances from the NTTA, commissioners have a responsibility to push the projects through their own toll authority.
He said since funding for major transportation projects sometimes appears suddenly -- think of the infusion of $250m in stimulus money and how it helped out the D/FW Connector -- the new tollway segments need to be as ready as possible.
"We need all the tools we can get," Jaynes said, echoing the thoughts of Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey, who supports a separate Dallas County tolling agency.
Jaynes said he backs the concept of "primacy," meaning that NTTA should be the default, go-to tolling agency for the region.
"NTTA should have primacy -- but within reason," Jaynes said. "We should have guidelines in place" on timetables that make sense, he said.
Who should set those rules? "The state, or the region," Jaynes said.
As for the idea that the dueling, duplicative public meetings will be awfully and needlessly confusing to the public, Jaynes did not dispute that.
"We may hear that NTTA is on the right track," he said. But the real test is when and whether that agency will commit to spend the money for engineering and construction.
As for Sen. Carona's anger at the duplication, Jaynes said, "I don't know Sen. Carona that well, and I doubt he'd be able to pick me out of a crowd." He said Carona is acknowledged as a leader in transportation, "and I'd like to develop a good working relationship with him."
Update from Sherita Coffelt, spokeswoman for NTTA, on the Collin County toll authority's vote:
"This could be confusing to the citizens, in a situation where the NTTA is conducting a parallel process. Someone might go to a Collin County public meeting and think that they're going to an NTTA public meeting. .... If they provided a comment, it wouldn't be taken into account as part of our planning process."
I asked about the notion that Collin County could push its planning entirely on a parallel track and disregard the NTTA's work. Coffelt said, "That's just not in the public interest. You'd be doing a disservice."
And about the complaint that the NTTA is not advancing the roadway quickly enough, she said, "We have been advancing the roadway, as evidenced by the fact that we have been holding public meetings."
And what about the complaint that the NTTA can't afford to do the work now? The road would not attract the traffic needed to finance construction at present, she said.
"The road is not feasible right now," she said. "The road doesn't get more feasible based on the agency that's building it."
And the time frame? "There's not a firm time frame. I've heard rough estimates between five and 10 years. ... We know the growth will be there in the future."
Link to this post on the Dallas Morning News' Transportation Blog....
DMN - Defendant's bid to plead guilty before judge not an open-and-shut case in Collin County
March 22nd, 2010The Dallas Morning News' Diane Jennings retells the story, extensively covered here, of the Open Plea decision by the 5th Court of Appeals in ruling against visiting Judge McCraw in a Collin County case.
The DA's office seems to be begging the question of forum shopping, first denying it, then stating that it doesn't make any difference what their motive was.
Michael Curran, the defense attorney in the case told Ms. Jennings that he was appealing the ruling by the 5th COA. My guess is that he will lose. To correct this problem, the law needs to be changed.
Hunter Biederman at the Frisco DWI Lawyer's Blog adds his own commentary today, stating, "The point the article and I sought to make is that the DA cant stop a judge from sentencing a person. They jury serves no purpose, and is not needed to make a determination of guilt -- because the defendant conceded to his guilt."
Hunter's right -- all the State can do is waste taxpayer money and a jury's time.
For what?
Bill
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Defendant's bid to plead guilty before judge not an open-and-shut case in Collin County
Monday, March 22, 2010
By DIANE JENNINGS / The Dallas Morning News
Robert Blackburn wants to tell a judge that he's guilty. But the people charged with punishing him – the prosecution – won't let him.
When visiting Judge John McCraw tried to allow Blackburn to plead guilty to drug possession charges, saying taxpayers should not have to pay for unnecessary trials, the ruling set off a flurry of legal maneuvers in which the Collin County district attorney's office asserted its right to demand that a jury hear the case rather than let him plead guilty to the judge.
"We're not up here just going through the motions," District Attorney John Roach said. "We have reasons for everything we do – our reason has to do with the promotion of justice."
The spat between judge and district attorney has created a stir in legal circles and the blogosphere. But Roach says the brouhaha over forced jury trials in Collin County, which has arisen occasionally in other counties, is due to "defense lawyers that don't like being made to go to trial."
Roach declined to discuss the Blackburn case, citing pending litigation. But in a peculiar twist due to Texas law, if Blackburn goes to trial, he can demand to be sentenced by the judge, putting the case back where it started after considerable taxpayer expense. Blackburn's attorney is promising to take the issue to the Supreme Court to allow his client to plead guilty to a judge.
Roach said his office doesn't think it is an "honest process" to accept open pleas in which the accused pleads guilty to the judge and the judge decides the punishment without approval by the prosecution.
"A lot of time the defendant and the state, it's just a wink and nod and forcing the judge to decide what the punishment should be," said Roach, who also is a former judge.
Few cases go to jury
Despite the hallowed American right of defendants to face a jury of their peers, 99 percent of criminal cases in Texas never go to trial. Guilty pleas are the grease that keeps the system moving, because it would break down if everyone entitled to a jury trial demanded one.
Texas is one of a handful of states that allow jury sentencing; most leave that task to a judge. But in the few states that do, if you demand a jury trial, you get jury sentencing. Texas is the only state that allows the defendant to choose who sentences the guilty – judge or jury. Only if a Texas defendant pleads guilty to a jury must he or she be sentenced by the jury.
Juries generally are considered less predictable than judges when it comes to punishment.
And in Texas, like many other states, prosecutors must agree to a defendant's decision to waive a jury trial and go before a judge.
Though it is unusual for prosecutors to demand trial when the defendant wants to plead guilty, it's not unheard of.
"It's costly, but it might serve some educational purpose for the public to air the facts," said Nancy King, law professor at Vanderbilt University. "It's a way to test the proof, if there's some doubt about whether the offense actually occurred."
Shannon Edmonds, government liaison for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said a trial also might \enable the judge to "learn something new in that trial he wouldn't have learned otherwise," and give the victim "their day in court, which they don't get to do if there's a plea."
But judge shopping – by the defense or the prosecution – is always a possibility.
In Blackburn's case, McCraw thought he saw just that. In his December ruling, McCraw accused the district attorney's office of "forum shopping for a particular judge to fix the punishment."
Assistant District Attorney John Rolater, who is handling the Blackburn case, denied it in court.
Attorneys cannot request that a case be assigned to a specific judge, but they can try to gauge a judge's calendar to see when he or she will be presiding.
Hunter Biederman, a Collin County defense attorney who was in court the day McCraw accepted Blackburn's plea, said efforts by prosecutors to avoid certain judges are outrageous.
"If we're going to elect our judges, who are supposed to be neutral magistrates, why are we going to take that [sentencing] power away from them?"
Roach said his office does not target specific judges as some allege. "That's an ignorant statement," he said. The law says prosecutors are entitled to demand a jury trial "and it doesn't make any difference what our motives are."
Rolater also pointed out in court that without a trial, a judge could give Blackburn deferred adjudication in which the accused's record is wiped clean if he or she completes this special probation. Authorities said Blackburn, 27, tried to swallow the evidence and scuffled with an officer. He faces four felony counts.
Prosecutors opposed deferred adjudication in Blackburn's case. But McCraw called that argument a "straw man" because Blackburn did not request deferred adjudication.
"The state wants to control who sets the punishment hearing," McCraw said. "Is that what the fight is about here?"
DA's reasons debated
Biederman, who wrote about the twists and turns of the Blackburn case extensively on his blog, mentioned other reasons the district attorney's office might insist on trials in cases in which defendants want to plead guilty, including giving rookie prosecutors courtroom experience or inflating the district attorney's conviction rate for political purposes.
Roach dismissed those ideas as well, pointing out that young attorneys cut their teeth in misdemeanor court, not felony court, and saying his office doesn't need to "pump up" its conviction rate.
"I'm hired by the people of Texas to try criminal trials – that's what we do," he said. "Who wants an idiot for the district attorney who won't work to try a case?"
When McCraw allowed Blackburn to plead guilty over prosecutor's objections, he said, "I would submit the United States Constitution allows a defendant the right to enter a plea based on the court's request."
McCraw cited "judicial economy" in his ruling, saying the county should not have to pay for up to four jury trials at a cost of about $5,000 per trial when the defendant is willing to plead guilty.
Other costs related to any trial – attorney fees, costs to jurors' time – also would be incurred.
An appellate court overruled McCraw, citing the state law that says the case must go to trial because the prosecutor and judge must consent to the waiver of a jury trial and saying Blackburn failed to "specifically raise a constitutional argument for this court to address."
Blackburn's attorney, Michael Curran, said he is filing a motion asking the appellate court to rehear the issue. If he loses in state courts, as others challenging the law have done, "This thing can go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "I intend to take this as far as I can."
Roach stands by his policy to adhere to the law that allows him to refuse to let judges accept pleas without his consent. Even though the law allows Blackburn to be sentenced by a judge after a jury trial.
"I don't think it's a waste of taxpayer money for fellow citizens to make a determination about whether a person is guilty of a criminal offense."
###
CR - Hundreds of Celina area residents let NTTA know preferred route for tollway extension
March 17th, 2010Hundreds of Celina area residents let NTTA know preferred route for tollway extension
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Penny Rathbun / Celina Record
More than 400 Celina, Denton and Collin County residents kept NTTA officials busy at a meeting last week held to give information on the proposed routes for the extension of the Dallas North Tollway.
“As the mayor, I am thrilled that so many people responded and came out to the informational meeting,” Celina Mayor Jim Lewis said.
Of the three routes the North Texas Tollway Authority is proposing, he favors the route known as the Orange/Red Alignment.
“It's $60 million less for our route. It's just almost unrealistic to think they're going to spend an extra $60 million in my opinion. Why tear up another 20 acres of wetland if you don't have to? It just doesn't make sense,” Lewis said.
He added he was also glad to see council representatives from so many of Celina's neighbors. There were council people there from Anna, Melissa, McKinney and Pilot Point.
The NTTA is considering three different alignments. The Green Alignment veers west/northwest directly towards Pilot Point and meets up with U.S. Highway 377 just north of Pilot Point. The second alignment, Yellow and Red, veers west then due north up the Denton and Collin County line. The third Orange and Red alignment, goes straight north from the existing roadway.
The Green Alignment moves the majority of developable DNT frontage outside of Celina and Collin County. About $40 million to $50 million of annual tax revenue will go to Pilot Point and Denton County. Project development cost in 2010 dollars is about $890 million.
The Yellow/Red Alignment along the Denton/Collin County line will also divert tax dollars away from Celina. The estimated cost of developing the Yellow-Red alignment is $865 million.
The Orange/Red alignment would allow Celina and Collin County to provide a high level of services for a fairly low tax rate. It would be less expensive to build because it does not go through flood plain. The alignment along the county line will require several bridges to elevate the road above the flood plain. The Orange/Red alignment project development cost will be about $805 million.
“The Orange/Red route would bring prosperity to our town,” Celina resident Kandace Hancock said. It's only a mile off the square.”
The next step for the NTTA staff is to evaluate public meeting comments and finalize an alternative alignment analysis. The NTTA board then selects a locally preferred alternative. The staff will then develop a preliminary design schematic and environmental evaluation on the locally preferred route.
A tentative time line is for the board to approve a locally preferred route in July this year. Design development would take place from July through February 2011. Formal public hearings would be conducted in March of next year. The NTTA board would approve schematic design in June 2011.
Another alternative Lewis said is possible is that the NTTA board could decide not to choose a route or do anything else for awhile.
The NTTA is still taking public comments. They can be emailed to DNT45@ntta.org.
Comments can be written and sent to Corridor Manager, Re: DNT 4B/5A Project, P.O. Box 260729, Plano, Texas 75026.
For information on all three proposed routes for the Dallas North Tollway extension visit www.ntta.org.
DMN - Collin County's first charter school moves a step closer to opening
March 17th, 2010Collin County's first charter school moves a step closer to opening
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County's long-discussed first charter school has moved closer to opening despite concerns raised by the state over its proposed contract with an education management company.
In an apparent about-face, the State Board of Education approved a charter last week for the Imagine International Academy of North Texas even with concerns over the management contract apparently still unresolved. Board members granted the education commissioner authority to approve a revised contract between the McKinney school and Virginia-based Imagine Schools Inc., one of the country's largest for-profit charter operators. Once it's approved, the state-funded school would be permitted to open.
The education commissioner could sign off on it in the next few weeks, said DeEtta Culbertson, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman. She said that the agency couldn't disclose possible revisions to the contract until they're finalized because they involve "negotiations and lawyers."
Officials with Imagine and the McKinney school couldn't be reached for comment.
The McKinney school's future had been uncertain for some time, and its opening delayed because of state scrutiny and turnover on the charter school's governing board. TEA's attorneys raised concerns over the initial contract because they said it appeared to grant the company power over the school's governing board. Education officials in other states where Imagine operates have also questioned the fees the company charges its schools and the complex real estate agreements into which some schools are required to enter.
Imagine International Academy of North Texas and a sister school outside Austin have faced challenges since the state awarded them two of its last charter spots in November 2008. Like many Texas charters, they were required to satisfy several contingencies, or concerns, the state raised before they would be approved to open.
One of them: Both schools lacked their own nonprofit statuses – usually a requirement for a charter to open. The state signed off on an unusual relationship with the Texas schools sharing the status of an Indiana nonprofit connected to Imagine Schools.
In recent months, the McKinney school has dropped its association with the Fort Wayne entity and has become its own nonprofit organization, the TEA said. Meanwhile, the Imagine charter school outside Austin has cut ties with Imagine Schools over issues regarding the proposed management contract. (Last week, state board members also voted to allow that charter to open without the company.)
Officials with that Austin-area charter weren't alone in their concerns. Last summer, four of the McKinney school's five original board members quit, saying in their resignation letter that they weren't comfortable with the Imagine Schools contract. The board's president has also changed twice since then.
continue reading the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN Local Voices - Justin P. Nichols of Plano: Local political forums encourage apathy
March 15th, 2010Justin P. Nichols of Plano: Local political forums encourage apathy
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Dallas Morning News - Local Voices
Justin P. Nichols is a Plano resident and former candidate for the Plano City Council in 2008.
Voters just went to the polls to decide dozens of political contests. But before the election there were countless forums and debates sponsored by various groups. Some groups host forums for the benefit of the public, and some give candidates a chance to cater to a particular type of voter. But the one thing all these proceedings had in common was terrible dullness and boredom – hence why few news sources, if any, covered them.
The typical political "debate" consists of too many candidates being given too little time to introduce themselves with a canned intro, followed by a handful of questions that are asked so candidates can show off their canned responses.
Don't we want some political vigor – some democratic passion?
Sure, it's easy to take a jab in a mailer or through a press release, but it's another thing to call out opponents at a forum. Why aren't there any debates that offer real insight into candidates' personality and positions?
The question, "Why do you want to be elected?" doesn't give me all the information I need. I want to see tough questions asked – questions that no one sees coming – questions that only get whispered in gossip circles. I want to see candidates address each other.
I would have liked to see Kelley Adley ask Justice of the Peace Mike Yarbrough, "Why aren't you willing to get up early on Saturdays to perform arraignments like your fellow JPs?" In turn, it would have been interesting to see Yarbrough ask Doug Reeves, the other candidate in the race, "How many times will you run against me?"
Someone should have asked judicial candidate Linda Drain if she was at all ashamed to have been endorsed by former prosecutor Tom O'Connell, who has recently brought a lot of negative publicity and discredit to the Collin County legal system. After all, Republicans hammered President Barack Obama for associating with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. He had to address that in debates. Asking tough questions about supporters is fair play – Republican or Democrat.
Besides being interesting and somewhat uncomfortable, these types of questions are good because they allow voters to see the off-the-cuff side of candidates, and they keep candidates on their toes. If you think about it, pre-election debates are the only time candidates are compelled to answer questions. If elected, the most someone can do is make a statement at a public meeting, and the official doesn't have to respond at all.
I'm sure some folks will tout the traditional civility of Collin County campaigns.
But Collin County has outgrown the good ol' boy network, and elections will no longer be decided at a country club over cigars and brandy. Rather, to win an election these days, it will take a fight to win each vote.
I just wish there were public forums where true political discourse occurred. I'm not advocating outright brawls or cheap shots, but I do advocate for more vigorous debate and excitement at these events. Plus, having been a candidate myself, I believe those vying to be elected wouldn't mind these events being a bit livelier. They have to sit through them, too.
Apathy and voter fatigue are already challenges to an engaged electorate, and I think it would help if local debates more closely resembled the Roman senate than an afternoon of tea and crumpets.
Justin P. Nichols is a Plano resident and former candidate for the Plano City Council in 2008.
link to this Local Voices opinion at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN - Many in Collin County jumping at chance to serve on city councils, school boards
March 15th, 2010Many in Collin County jumping at chance to serve on city councils, school boards
Sunday, March 14, 2010
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News Staff writers Valerie Wigglesworth, Jessica Meyers and Sam Hodges contributed to this report.
Collin County voters this spring will find more candidates on the ballot for some city council and school board races than in previous years.
In the Plano school district, eight candidates are vying for three seats on the school board. Seven people filed to run for two seats on the Frisco City Council. And in Allen, three of the four incumbents drew challengers.
The robust election of mostly political newcomers represents a small shift for Collin County politics, where incumbents often run unopposed. Part of the increased interest comes from a rare opportunity: There won't be any incumbents from the McKinney and Plano school boards on the May 8 ballot.
"They see their opportunity and are jumping," said Mike McConachie, a Collin College political-science professor. "It is so hard to beat an incumbent despite all you hear about the anti-incumbency."
That's playing out in Frisco ISD, where all three trustees up for re-election are running unopposed.
Board president Dan Mossakowski said the school district doesn't have the turnover of other local offices or the slew of political opponents because the trustees avoid drama.
"It has a lot to do with how the community views how the school board is doing," Mossakowski said. "And there's a lot more stuff going on in the city government level that really doesn't happen in the school district."
Controversies
The increased interest in some races, especially for the Plano school board and the Frisco City Council, stems in part from past controversial decisions.
In Plano ISD, trustees unanimously approved a divisive school boundary realignment plan in November without explaining their vote.
"I would really imagine after that redistricting debacle that more parents would put their hat into the ring," said Place 2 candidate Paul P. Kaminksy, a retired Army warrant officer, who faces two opponents.
One of those parents is Nancy Humphrey. She said she decided to run for Place 3 because she thought board decisions have too often occurred unanimously and without discussion.
"I just feel like the communication hasn't been there," said Humphrey, who lives in a part of Richardson that is in the Plano school district's boundaries.
Contested races for the Frisco City Council have been common the past decade and don't seem to faze anyone now.
"The days of council races being unopposed are over," said Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Cheney, who's running for a second term. "A lot of exciting things are happening in Frisco. It's hard not to want to be a part of it."
Cheney faces two challengers for his Place 2 seat, while incumbent David Prince is in a four-way race for Place 4. Most challengers are political novices. In fact, only Jim Joyner, who served on the council for two terms and has been on numerous city boards and commissions, has previous political experience.
Joyner said he filed for the Place 4 seat after the high-profile debate over support for the Collin County arts hall. He said he wants to focus on the city's vision that has made it so successful in the past. Other candidates mentioned that arts hall debate and opposition to the city's support for two proposed multi-housing projects that would include Section 8 voucher-holders.
Those issues served as a wake-up call for Tony Walsh, who's running for the Place 2 slot.
"A lot of people in Frisco have their head in the sand, and I used to be one of them," said Walsh, a mortgage broker and youth sports coach. "I just want to vote for the people."
Raising performance
Allen is seeing competitive races both for school board and city council, but the candidates says they've not been drawn in by single issues or frustration with an incumbent.
Paul Sundar-Singh was among residents of an Allen neighborhood upset by school zone changes that shifted where their children attended middle schools. But he says that's a "closed chapter" and not why he's running against incumbent Gary Stocker for Place 5 on the Allen school board.
Sundar-Singh says he has ideas to lift school ratings and academic performance, particularly in science.
Kevin Livesey is another first-time Allen candidate, running for Place 6 on the city council. Livesey said he's pleased with how Allen is run and has no quarrels with incumbent Jeff McGregor.
"This is just a matter of me wanting to contribute to my community," Livesey said.
McKinney has competitive races for two school board seats, but in both cases the incumbent chose not to run again. So far, the rhetoric has been high-minded, with candidates such as Curtis Rippee arguing that they have expertise that the district needs in a recession.
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN - Collin County at bottom of federal funds distribution
March 10th, 2010Collin County at bottom of federal funds distribution
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County, known for its corporate headquarters and explosive growth, has a new distinction: The county reportedly receives the smallest amount of federal funds per person among the country's 200 largest counties.
A Brookings Institution report released this week looked at 2008 federal spending tied to the census in an effort to understand how the upcoming count will affect the distribution of more than $400 billion from federal programs. The bulk of federal assistance goes to states through grants for low-income households and highway infrastructure. States' per-capita funding is tied to income inequalities of high pay and high poverty, Medicaid income limits and the percentage of rural population.
Collin County didn't receive much federal money largely because it doesn't have an income disparity that pulls those funds, said Andrew Reamer, who authored the report. The county got $182 per person in 2008. Suffolk County, Mass., which includes Boston, received the most funding per person at $6,032.
"In wealthier counties, people don't use Medicaid, so they aren't likely to benefit," Reamer said.
Medicaid alone makes up almost 60 percent of federal assistance spending. The low-income health program accounts for most of Collin County's funding, as well. But these services are less utilized than in Texas counties of similar size, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the state's health and human services commission.
Collin County, which has a 6 percent poverty rate, has 31,064 people enrolled in Medicaid. El Paso County, with roughly the same population, has 133,079 in the program. Hidalgo County has 195,559.
That doesn't mean residents can slough off the upcoming census, Reamer said. "If Collin County is undercounted, it may not get its fair share from the state of Texas," he said, pointing to both fiscal and political ramifications. Businesses uses census data to identify markets, and an inaccurate count could lead to mistakes in investment, he said. The data will also be used to draw new legislative boundaries.
The 2010 census may also reveal just how short-lived the county's current distinction is, said Terry Clower, director of economic development and research at the University of North Texas. The county is becoming "more income diverse," he said.
WFAA - Stakes high as cities debate proposed tollway routes
March 10th, 2010Stakes high as cities debate proposed tollway routes
by STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV
Posted on March 9, 2010 at 9:56 PM
Updated March 9 at 10:38 PM
PILOT POINT — The Dallas North Tollway is expanding far north.
Right now, there are three proposed routes, and the stakes are high. The chosen path will bring with it millions of dollars in tax revenue and economic development.
The Mayor of Celina, Jim Lewis, put it this way:
“The decision on where the Tollway will go is about money — who gets it and who pays it,” said Mayor Jim Lewis of Celina.
Three hundred people converged on the community room of a Pilot Point bank Tuesday to take a look for themselves.
The Green Alignment veers west-northwest toward Pilot Point and meets up with U.S. Highway 377. Cindy Schindler says its the best route for rural Denton County.
“They have no direct route to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex areas, no matter where they work," she said. "They have a long, winding way to get there. This route would benefit them, save fuel and save time."
The Yellow/Red Alignment veers west and then heads due north up the Collin/Denton county line. Pilot Point leaders say this route would share the wealth and cost between both counties. They believe it can be built the fastest.
“It’s just a lot better route. It's a straighter route," said Pilot Point City Manager J.C. Hughes.
But Celina leaders want the Tollway to run through their town in Collin County on the Orange/Red Alignment. They claim it's the shortest route to Grayson County, which means less road to build and big savings.
“And what that means is that's $40 to $45 million less in tolls that will have to be charged to make up the funding," said Celina City Manager Jason Gray.
The cities are competing for big benefits. The Tollway extension is expected to generate $50 million in tax revenue every year.
The NTTA board is scheduled to approve a route in July.
Related:
* Detailed map of proposed Dallas North Tollway expansion options (pdf)
* Dallas North Tollway expansion information Web site
read and watch video report at WFAA....
=================
The Observer comments:
You want to know why there is a Collin County Toll Road Authority?
Look at the DNT extension map, that's why.
The CCTRA was formed out of fears that this extension of the DNT would bypass much of Collin County. for years, there was an agreement between Collin and Denton counties that the future tollroad extension would be along the county line. This is the yellow route on the map.
Hearing that other routes were under consideration that would move the alignment into Denton County, the Collin County Commissioners panicked and after repudiating the agreement with Denton, formed the CCTRA and tried to take the right of way from NTTA.
Unfortunately for our commissioners, the North Texas Tollway Authority has lots of friends in the Texas Legislature. Collin County was forced to back off and promise not to interfere with the DNT extension in return for being allowed to pursue their work on financing the Outer Loop.
At one point, the NTTA floated the compromise idea of the "Y", basically creating two roads one east and one west. At the time, The Observer predicted that the "Y" option was not realistic.
We notice that it didn't even appear in the map used in yesterday's NTTA presentation. Instead there are 3 possible routes, one largely in Collin County and two in Denton County. The original negotiated route along the county line appears to no longer be on the table.
At stake is billions in future long-term economic development.
Because of its 'snatch and grab' attempt, Collin County finds itself at the disadvantage.
Neither NTTA nor Denton County has any moral imperative now to play fair. If they do, you can bet they'll make our commissioners squirm first.
The Collin County Commissioners Court often rails against "regionalism" as if it were some kind of communist plot. Right now they are letting Celina fight alone for the Collin County route.
It will be interesting to watch the commissioners court now that they have no choice but to seek a regional approach.
Bill
WFAA - History museum loses funding, in jeopardy of closing
March 5th, 2010History museum loses funding, in jeopardy of closing
by STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV
Posted on March 5, 2010 at 4:57 PM
Updated today at 5:54 PM
******
A rally will be held on the steps of the North Texas History Center in McKinney Saturday morning in an effort to drum up support to save it. The museum is in jeopardy of running out of money and closing its doors.
The building that houses the center is historic itself. It was built as a U.S. Post Office in 1911. Collin County now owns it and leases it to the history center. County commissioners, who act as landlords, recently decided to cut museum funding 75 percent and stop funding altogether next year. "I was surprised and horrified," said museum executive director Vicki Day.
The museum houses historic artifacts from five North Texas counties, from authentic flags, a covered wagon and civil war uniforms, to military weapons, a mask worn by Abraham Lincoln and slave shackles.
Students from area schools, including the Bonnema kids, often come to the center to learn hands-on about their heritage.
“It’s real-like. It’s not in a book. You can actually feel it,” said Boone Bonnema, a student. His grandfather, Arch Bonnema, also likes the hands-on approach. “It becomes more real to them when our grand kids can go there and try on clothes and actually touch and hold some of the old tools that our grandparents had to do to make things that are all electric for us."
History Center officials say they had a five-year plan to become self-sufficient without any county money. But the commissioners’ sudden move has left them struggling to find a way to survive. “If we're lost, that means history is lost. You can never retrieve it. It's gone forever," said Day.
Many of the supporters who will attend Saturday’s rally will be dressed in civil war uniforms. After the rally, they will march to the downtown McKinney square, where they will ask people to help save a local treasure.
Arts Hall: On again, but for how long?
March 5th, 2010Frisco voters have already approved bonds to build the Arts Of Collin County's Performance Hall.
Recently the beleaguered project got a huge shot in the arm when construction bids came in at $16 million less than planned. Donor's have already added $10 million to the public funds promised. And the City of Allen announced they would give the ACC a $5 million loan guarantee so that construction could begin.
But don't break out the shovels yet. From Thursday's Dallas Morning News:
No Frisco means no arts hall, Plano mayor says
March 4, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
Staff writer Matthew Haag contributed to this report.
An effort to put Frisco's bonds for the planned Collin County arts hall before voters again could cripple the project if they're turned down, Plano's mayor says.
Some members of the Frisco City Council want residents there to vote again to authorize Frisco's remaining $16.4 million in bonds for the project. They say the original 2002 vote was based on Frisco, Plano, Allen and McKinney teaming up. McKinney later opted out.
"The city gave its word," Frisco council member Pat Fallon said during a council meeting on the subject Tuesday that went late into the night. Fallon and some others on the council want a referendum on the bonds in May or November.
"If they feel this is the will of the people, why not ask them?" Fallon said Wednesday.
The council will meet Monday afternoon to decide whether to put the question on the ballot.
And if Frisco votes against re-authorization, what then?
"The deal dies," said Plano Mayor Phil Dyer, whose city would be left with Allen to figure out how to make up Frisco's share of the construction costs. The two cities would also have to pick up Frisco's portion of the operating costs once the arts hall opens.
Plano couldn't afford that, Dyer said.
As to what Frisco should do, Dyer said it's not his place to say.
Allen Mayor Steve Terrell said this is just the latest of many hurdles that the Arts of Collin County has faced over the years. He doesn't expect the project to be derailed forever if Frisco pulls out.
"We'll just keep going and try to make it happen," he said.
The man in charge of making the 2,100-seat performance hall happen, meanwhile, says he is frustrated by what he calls a misguided effort.
Mike Simpson, executive director for the Arts of Collin County, was there Tuesday as the Frisco City Council debated.
And Simpson, who was Frisco's mayor during the original vote, said the council thought long and hard before deciding to proceed with a three-city project. The matter was settled back then, he said. After seven years of Frisco's involvement, this shouldn't be an issue, Simpson said.
What the council should be debating, he said, is whether this is the time to move forward. Simpson has a construction bid that's brought the total costs for Phase 1 to $68.9 million, down $17 million from earlier estimates.
He's ready to finalize the contribution agreements and set a date for breaking ground in Allen.
"Did they not think I would get the job done?" he asked.
Frisco City Council member Jeff Cheney said Tuesday that he has struggled with the three- vs. four-city issue and what's right.
"Circumstances change," he said. "I'm not afraid to ask the voters."
Frisco Mayor Maher Maso said the city prides itself on weighing the facts and getting things done. "There's too much to do here to dwell on this," he said. "A very real and valid dialogue needs to take place about if now is the right time [to build]."
Read this article at The Dallas Morning News....
Bill
Reeves accused of violating notary laws: Notarizing own signature
March 3rd, 2010Doug Reeves, who came in a surprising 2nd place in the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4 race has been accused of violating "the duties and responsibilities of [his] office as a Notary Public.
Reeves is accused of notarizing his own signature on a campaign ethics filing. State law specifically prohibits Notary Publics from notarizing their own signature.
In a letter to Mr. Reeves from the Texas Secretary of State's office, Reeves was ordered to respond to the accusations within 20 days. He was also asked to turn over to the State portions of his notary log book.
If the allegation is upheld, Reeves could have is Notary commission suspended or revoked. He may also face a fine and criminal prosecution.
Last month, the Observer pointed out that Reeves campaign ethics reports were the worst we've ever seen. It is our understanding that more than one complaint has been filed with the commission. The errors, omissions and creative accounting on all 3 of his reports will, if sustained, likely subject Mr. Reeves to heavy fines by the Texas Ethics Commission.
Reeves will face incumbent Mike Yarbrough in a run off for the Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Republican nomination.
Bill
Notes:
Letter to Doug Reeves from the Office of the Texas Secretary of State dated February 25, 2010
Reeves form C/OH Campaign Finance Report dated January 15, 2010
Reeves form C/OH Campaign Finance Report dated February 22, 2010
DMN - Collin County election results delayed amid heavy voter turnout
March 3rd, 2010Collin County election results delayed amid heavy voter turnout
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Election results were delayed Tuesday night in Collin County, where officials said voting was extremely heavy.
At some polling places, people waited in line more than an hour, said Patty Seals, assistant county elections administrator. And some locations still had people waiting in line to vote at 7 p.m., when the polls are supposed to close. Those people were allowed to vote.
"A lot of locations probably could have used more [voting] machines," Seals said.
The county's highest-profile race was the Republican primary for county judge, and first-term incumbent Keith Self led John Muns in early voting.
The winner will face Democrat David Smith in the fall. He had no opposition in his party's primary.
During the campaign, Self said he had kept his promise to lower the county tax rate and slow the growth of government spending.
Muns, meanwhile, said the budget was too austere. He said the county needed to hire more sheriff's deputies and add courts to keep crime from increasing.
The county judge heads the five-member Commissioners Court, which approves the county budget.
In other Republican Commissioners Court races, Commissioner Kathy Ward was trailing Plano school trustee Duncan Webb, and Commissioner Jerry Hoagland was behind business consultant Cheryl Williams, with retired engineer Karl Voigtsberger in third place.
In the Republican district attorney's race, former county court-at-law judge Greg Willis was leading lawyer James Angelino and Jeff Bray, senior legal adviser to the Plano Police Department. Incumbent John Roach did not seek re-election.
In the county judge race, both Self and Muns had high-profile, passionate supporters.
Self was endorsed by state Reps. Jodie Laubenberg and Ken Paxton. Muns had the backing of former Plano mayor Pat Evans and former county Commissioner Phyllis Cole.
Self, a retired Army officer, toppled longtime county judge Ron Harris in the 2006 Republican primary.
Muns, a real estate developer, has been on the Plano school board for 17 years and has deep ties to the community. His father, James Muns, was Plano mayor from 1992 to 1996. His mother, Betty Muns, is on the Arts of Collin County Commission.
John Muns said he would work closely with local mayors if elected. Some were angered by Self's opposition to a 2007 county bond program that included money for city projects, Muns said. Voters overwhelmingly approved the $328.9 million package.
Muns also said he would increase the county's economic development efforts.
Self, meanwhile, said the best way to attract businesses was to keep county taxes low. He said he had a more proven conservative record than Muns.
Last month, some fellow Republicans criticized Self for using a quotation from a Nazi official to rebut campaign statements made by Muns.
Self put a post on his Web site and Facebook page titled "Let's Try Some Truth" that leads off by quoting Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's notorious propaganda minister: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
Muns and some other Republicans said they were offended that Self would invoke a Nazi official's comments in a campaign. Others, however, defended Self, who said he didn't intend to link Muns to Nazism.
A record 39 candidates in 14 contested races appeared on the Republican primary ballot.
Collin County murderer to be executed Tuesday (updated)
March 1st, 2010Texas death row inmate set to die for murder of Brazilian couple in Plano
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Dallas Morning News / Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Michael Sigala was on probation for robbery and allowed to leave a Dallas-area substance abuse treatment center for the day to look for a job. Instead, he violently ended the lives of a newlywed Brazilian couple and ended up on death row.
Sigala, 32, was set for execution Tuesday evening for the death of Kleber Santos, 28, a Brazilian engineer whose wife also was killed in an attack nearly a decade ago at their Plano apartment
Sigala would be the third Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and the first of four scheduled to die this month in the nation's most active death penalty state.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to review his case and no new appeals were in the courts Monday.
Sigala, of Plano, was condemned for the fatal shooting of Santos, whose job brought him to Texas in January 2000, a month after he was married. His wife, Lilian, remained in Brazil to continue her veterinary studies at the University of Sao Paulo and was visiting her husband during a school break that August.
Evidence showed the 25-year-old woman was raped and also fatally shot several hours after her husband was killed. Their wedding rings were among items taken in the attack. Sigala also was charged with her slaying but was not tried.
read the rest of the article at The Dallas Morning News....
UPDATE (March 2):
The Associated Press reported that Michael Sigala was executed in Huntsville at 6:20 PM CST. He is the third person executed in Texas this year.
From the AP story in the Houston Chronicle:
"During his final statement, Sigala asked for forgiveness from the slain couple's relatives who attended the execution."
"'I have no reason for why I did it,' Sigala said. 'I don't understand why I did it. I hope that you can live the rest of your lives without hate.'
"Relatives of Kleber Santos and his wife, Lilian, did not speak with reporters afterward, but the parents of both victims issued statements saying they were grateful justice had been done.
"'For many people facing such tragedy, life would be worthless. For us, however, we have faith and we find meaning in an eternal life that our merciful God will provide us. We really believe that we will meet our dear son and daughter-in-law one day in heaven,' Jonas and Lizete Santos, Kleber Santos' parents, said in their statement."
Bill
DMN - History center in McKinney fighting to survive
March 1st, 2010History center in McKinney fighting to survive
Monday, March 1, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Vicki Day is trying to preserve the museum that preserves Collin County.
The 28-year-old North Texas History Center in downtown McKinney could close because of a sharp cut in county funding and private donations, said Day, executive director.
"We are in serious jeopardy of running out of money shortly," she said.
The museum took an unexpected financial hit when Collin County commissioners slashed its funding from $134,950 in fiscal 2009 to $32,000 this year, Day said.
"I was so surprised," she said.
Commissioners say they told Day last year the museum needed to become self-sufficient through private fundraising.
It had been receiving far greater county funding than other historical organizations, said County Judge Keith Self, who heads the Commissioners Court.
"The North Texas History Center is a wonderful organization, but they are just one of many historical organizations in the county," he said.
Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said the county had to focus limited funding on core functions, such as building roads and operating courts and the jail.
"These are tough economic times," he said. "You have to make cuts that are not always popular with people."
Civil War event
The history center had hoped a Civil War re-enactment last November at Myers Park in McKinney would raise $50,000. Instead, the event lost $7,000, worsening the museum's outlook, Day said.
Attendance didn't meet projections, and recent heavy rains prevented people from parking on the grounds, she said. As a result, organizers had to rent buses to take people to and from the park. In addition, insurance costs to hold the event exceeded expectations, Day said.
Commissioner Joe Jaynes, who took part in the Civil War re-enactment, voted against cutting the museum's funding. He said another year of higher county funding might have helped the center hold a successful Civil War event.
"Those re-enactments can basically be a cash cow, but you need three or four years to get it going," Jaynes said.
In search of help
Day said the history center may seek money from the city of McKinney, which currently does not provide funds. It may also approach the county commissioners again, she said.
"It's worth the county getting involved to help us survive," she said. "We've got a collection that is very unique."
About 8,000 students a year from Collin and surrounding counties visit the North Texas History Center, Day said.
On Friday, two fifth-grade classes from Daffron Elementary School in Plano attended and saw a Civil War exhibit.
"It's wonderful," said Cindy Burns, one of the teachers. "We teach the Civil War in school, and this really gives them the opportunity to see how it affected their ancestors."
The museum is housed in an old post office, built in 1911, at Virginia Parkway and Chestnut Street, a block off the square in downtown McKinney. It has exhibits with photographs and a variety of artifacts on the main floor and in the basement.
Upcoming rally
The museum has tried to sell memberships and get corporate sponsors for exhibits, but had little success, Day said. It receives revenue from school field trips, ticket sales and gift shop purchases.
The history center is holding a "Save the Museum" rally on its front steps on Saturday. It's also having a dinner and lecture on March 27 with Arch Bonnema, a Collin County resident who funded an expedition to Iran in search of Noah's ark. Tickets are $75.
"This could make a world of difference for us," Day said. "We hope we can clear about $7,000."
Jaynes said he hopes the museum can remain open. Although he supports it, he doesn't believe county commissioners will approve any additional funding.
"The court has let its will be known," Jaynes said.
link to the article at The Dallas Morning News....
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The Observer comments:
My wife and I went to see the "Reluctant Confederate" exhibit at the NTHS last Saturday.
The building is a real jewel, and the exhibit was interesting and informative. Anyone interested in the history of their community will be entertained and educated by a trip to the North Texas History Center.
Bill
Note to Joe Jaynes -- put your Confederate uniform back on before the next court and fight a little harder for these guys. They deserve our support.
Bill
DMN Editorial - Three capital cases illustrate how tactics trump truth
February 27th, 2010Editorial: Three capital cases illustrate how tactics trump truth
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Convicted killer Charles Dean Hood is getting a new day in court, but not for all the right reasons. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted him a new sentencing hearing, but that's beside the point.
The point is that Hood was convicted of murder in a scenario right out of Desperate Housewives. The Collin County judge who gazed out over the courtroom during the trial in 1990 would see a district attorney who had been in her bed. Their secret tryst – even though they had broken it off by trial time – represents such an obvious possibility of bias that any reasonable mind would tell the court to try the whole case again and keep it clean.
Appellate attorneys for Hood outed the affair in 2008, putting former District Attorney Tom O'Connell and former Judge Verla Sue Holland under oath. The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, refused on procedural grounds to grant a new trial based on complaints of corrupted justice.
The court did halt Hood's execution to take another look at the fairness of sentencing, and last week, judges ordered prosecutors back in court to re-do those proceedings.
Where does that leave the question of whether former lovers should have tried a case with a man's life at stake? The U.S. Supreme Court now is considering that, and fortunately so. Texans who care about justice can hope that a court well insulated from the political stickiness of the Hood case will finally take a clear-eyed view of what was going on in that courtroom.
No one is suggesting that the Hood jury got the question of guilt wrong; the evidence against him was overwhelming. But the courtroom is no place to tolerate little secrets when a life-and-death question hangs in the balance.
That position is supported in a petition to the Supreme Court by 21 former judges, prosecutors and other officials, including former FBI Director William Sessions and former Texas Gov. Mark White.
The Hood trial is one of three Texas capital murder cases lined up before the Supreme Court – all revealing how legal jousting has become more important than pure justice. All increasing our resolve that the death penalty should be abolished.
Earlier this month, a judge held up the execution of Hank Skinner in a 1993 triple murder out of the Panhandle. Again, procedure was at issue, this time the death warrant. The Supreme Court is being asked to take on the far more important issue of whether testing should be ordered on evidence that hasn't undergone DNA analysis. Facts in the case indicate that the answer is yes.
Finally, there's the case of Delma Banks, convicted in a 30-year-old murder near Texarkana. He awaits word from the Supreme Court on complaints that authorities hid the fact they used testimony from a paid police snitch and a shaky witness who was intensively coached.
The chess game continues, more a matter of tactics than truth-finding. That's no way for Texas to determine who lives and who dies.
DMN - Heard museum prepares for court fight
February 26th, 2010
Heard museum prepares for court fight
February 26, 2010
The Dallas Morning News McKinney Blog
Ed Housewright/Reporter
The Heard and the North Texas Municipal Water District are still battling over the district's plans to install a sewer line under the museum property.
The Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary offered an alternate route across its 289-acre site. But the water district rejected it.
"Efforts to resolve the dispute ... have failed," the museum says in a news release. "The lawsuit will be set for trial."
The museum and wildlife sanctuary, which opened in 1967, draws more than 100,000 visitors a year.
It fears the sewer line will damage native prairie grassland and wetlands.
The water district says the line poses no environmental damage.
link to the post on The Dallas Morning News McKinney Blog....
======
The Observer Comments:
Good grief...
"The water district says the line poses no environmental damage"
Wow! So the Water District is telling the Wildlife Sanctuary how to protect its habitat.
I assume that now The Heard's environmentalists will feel free to tell the NTMWD how to maintain water pressure.
For more coverage on this issue, see:
Eco-terrorism: Collin County style, CCO, December, 2009
Heard museum worried about sewer line planned on property, The Dallas Morning News, December 20, 2009
Panel sides with water district on plans to run sewer line under McKinney's Heard museum, The Dallas Morning News, December 16, 2009
Heard museum in McKinney battles water district over sewer line, The Dallas Morning News, October 29, 2009
Bill
$4 million or $5 million; What's the difference?
February 25th, 2010This guy ought to get elected to something, he's got all the qualifications. His company, Pogue Construction ("A Name, you can Trust", according to its web site) in McKinney, has built many local city and county buildings.
Bill
=========
McKinney man guilty of federal tax income violations
By U.S. Department of Justice as reported in North Texas E-News
February 24, 2010
PLANO, Texas - U.S. Attorney John M. Bales announced today that a McKinney, Texas man has pleaded guilty to federal income tax violations in the Eastern District of Texas.
Paul Pogue pleaded guilty to making false statements on his federal income tax returns today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Don D. Bush.
According to information presented in court, Pogue, who stated he was employed as a consultant for a construction company, acknowledged in court that he stated on his 2003 tax return that he only had taxable income of $4,594,052 for that year, when he knew he had taxable income of $5,588,249.70.
Pogue admitted in court documents that he also knowingly understated his taxable income on his 2004 and 2005 individual tax returns. Pogue admitted reporting only $3,111,715 in taxable income for 2004, when he knew his taxable income was $3,686,784.40, and reporting only $2,908,235 in taxable income for 2005, when he knew he actually had $3,030,684.70 in taxable income that year.
Pogue acknowledged that the total tax loss resulting from his additional, unreported income was $473,680.53.
Pogue faces up to 3 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.
This case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Williams.
GROUNDBREAKING IN SIGHT FOR ARTS OF COLLIN COUNTY WITH CITY OF ALLEN SUPPORT
February 24th, 2010From an Arts of Collin County press release -
GROUNDBREAKING IN SIGHT FOR ARTS OF COLLIN COUNTY WITH CITY OF ALLEN SUPPORT
COLLIN COUNTY, TEXAS – (FEBRUARY 24, 2010) – The Arts of Collin County and its Owner cities are working diligently to toward the ground breaking of Phase I. During the City of Allen City Council meeting on February 23, 2010, the Council voted to proceed as the guarantor of a line of credit from a financial institution to support the gap in fundraising related to pledges not to exceed $5M. In any 501(c-3) organization’s capital campaign project, like building a new church, pledges are a large part of individual and corporate donations. Pledges allow donors to pay out their gifts over a period of years or utilize planned giving vehicles such as life insurance policies, estate trusts and other resources. The Arts of Collin County has received a total of $10.4M in private donations. Of the $10.4M in private donations, pledges yet to be received are $8.1M. Of the pledges, 82% is in pledges from businesses which we are confident will be paid out over the construction period.
“All three owner cities in the Arts for Collin County - Allen, Frisco and Plano, have worked together during the past several years to craft a project that will have a significant economic impact to our region and serve as a cultural icon that will benefit generations to come. With the Allen City Council’s approval to guarantee a bridge loan, we are closer than ever to getting the shovels in the ground,” states Mayor Stephen Terrell, City of Allen. “The City of Allen is making this step forward because ACC will have an Allen address. Land donation and infrastructure development for the project have occurred and fundraising efforts to date have been successful. It’s time to make the project a reality,” continues Terrell.
“The guarantee by the City of Allen, allows the Arts of Collin County to move forward with the process of awarding the guaranteed maximum price contract to the Hunt Construction Group,” states Mike Simpson, executive director of the Arts of Collin County. “The next step is to finalize the contribution agreements between the Owner cities of Allen, Frisco and Plano; gain approval of each Owner cities council along with our Board of Directors and then the award the guaranteed maximum price contract which will allow us to announce a date for groundbreaking in early 2010,” continues Simpson.
The initial guaranteed maximum price for construction of Phase I has been estimated at $69.9M by Hunt Construction Group which is a cost reduction of $16M from the estimated costs of $86M in March 2009. The final maximum price will be presented by Hunt on February 26th which may result in additional savings.
As a public/private partnership, it is required that 100% of funds are committed in order to move forward on construction.
To date the following funds can be applied towards Phase I construction: $19M from each Owner city: Allen, Frisco and Plano; $850K from Collin County and $2.3M in private donations which have been received. (The remainder of private funding is in the form of pledges which will be paid out over time.). The land which has been donated by Briar Ridge Investments was not included in the original cost estimates and at the time of the donation in 2005 had a market value of $22M, which is the largest donation ever received in Collin County.
“The Allen City Council’s directive has been very clear to proceed with a funding mechanism that would facilitate construction for the Arts of Collin County. In order to take advantage of lower construction costs which represent a cost savings of about $16 million, the time to act was immediate,” states Peter Vargas, Allen City Manager.
The Arts of Collin County will continue to fundraise to complete the gap and plan for the future phases of development and operations. The Phase I construction process will span across two and a half years, and fundraising and programming events will continue as the performance arts hall and arts park are brought to life. The most prominent opportunities to meet these goals is a naming rights partner for the 100+ acre arts park, performance arts hall which and the theater itself, plus many other valuable sponsorship components.
DBJ - Pervasiveness, prosecution of white-collar crime rising
February 24th, 2010Pervasiveness, prosecution of white-collar crime rising
State securities board sees activity increase fivefold since 2005
Dallas Business Journal - by Chad Eric Watt Staff writer
Friday, February 19, 2010
The retired couple living in Murphy really didn’t have any need for a credit card terminal.
But after a salesman explained how they could buy the machine and lease it back to merchants in exchange for interest payments, they signed up.
Bruce and Barbara Ellsworth invested $125,000 in order to get back $1,000 a month for five years in addition to the return of their original investment.
The payments came for a year, maybe 13 months, and stopped.
“For a while, we got interest, and then it just quit,” Barbara Ellsworth said. “We called the man that sold it to us, and he told us they were having trouble. He was as surprised as we were.”
The Ellsworths were some of the 140 Texans who bought into what prosecutors describe as a $15 million Ponzi scheme run by Edward S. Digges Jr., a disbarred lawyer and convicted felon from Maryland who had been sanctioned by securities boards in several Atlantic states.
Digges was convicted by a Collin County jury on Feb. 10 and in sentencing hearings at presstime. Prosecutors were seeking a life sentence for Digges, 63. Attempts to reach Digges were unsuccessful.
Securities fraud has been perpetrated more and uncovered more frequently since the start of the financial crisis for a confluence of reasons, said Joe Rotunda, enforcement director at the Texas State Securities Board. The state securities board counted five times more criminal, civil and administrative actions tied to securities misdoings in 2009 as it did in 2005, up to 2,318 from 449.
‘A horrible, ripe environment’
As the economy soured, operating schemes suddenly couldn’t find new investors to pay off older investors. This is why headline-grabbing swindles, including Bernard Madoff’s bogus hedge fund and the Stanford Financial Group’s too-good-to-be-true Antiguan CDs, fell apart in the wake of the September 2008 financial crisis.
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, writing about the 1929 stock market crash, described such schemes that grew in good economic times as “the bezzle,” which only come to light in the wake of a crash or downturn. As investors sought better and safer returns than they could find in bank deposits, stocks and bonds, they also became easy marks for new “guaranteed return” schemes.
The credit card terminal scheme for which Digges was convicted preys upon investors’ desire for safety and big returns.
“This created a fertile environment for people to steal things — a horrible, ripe environment,” Rotunda said.
Digges lived in Cambridge, Md., but more than a third of all the money taken from investors came from Texas, Rotunda said. That’s because Digges used a network of insurance agents to market the program to senior citizens in Texas.
Did the agents know they were selling a bogus investment pitched by a felon?
“Depends on who you ask,” Rotunda said. “You attract people with really high commissions. When the price is high, they don’t ask questions they should.”
One San Antonio salesman has been convicted, and others have entered guilty pleas, Rotunda said.
Collin County prosecutions
In response to a rich environment for fraud, the Texas State Securities Board has crafted a partnership with the Collin County District Attorney’s Office to investigate and prosecute large fraud cases, including Digges’ case.
In spite of an initial Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed in Florida in February 2006 and a receivership for the alleged Ponzi scheme, Digges hadn’t been brought up on federal criminal charges, so the securities board and Collin County DA stepped in.
“Witnesses started to die. There was a big question whether these investors would see justice,” Rotunda said.
Of the $15 million placed with the Digges’ scheme, the receivership returned just more than $1 million to all its investors.
The Digges conviction comes six months after the securities board and Collin County won a big fraud conviction tied to oil and gas investments.
Last May, a Collin County jury convicted William Lester Seelye of McKinney? and sentenced him to 99 years in prison for stealing from oil and gas investment projects, laundering money and committing securities fraud. Seelye allegedly took more than $400,000 from investors.
DMN Editorial - Transit innovation
February 24th, 2010Editorial: Transit innovation
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Expanding the reach of rail transit in North Texas will take progress big and small on multiple fronts. Here are a couple of areas where things are quietly heading the right way:
In Austin – House Speaker Joe Straus officially invited ideas on new ways of paying for transportation projects. The speaker announced special committees last week to study needs and report to him on, among other things, "using alternative funding options at the state and local levels."
That was the right move. A bill to permit local-option elections on transportation funding crashed and burned spectacularly in the House last year. Straus' leadership team now must sort through possibilities for solving the inarguable problem of urban traffic congestion.
Traffic planners maintain that expanded rail transit is a must, and this newspaper agrees. Last year's local-option bill would have given voters a say on paying for new transit projects as well as badly needed urban roadways.
Lawmakers in both parties are also making a strong case for raising the motor-fuels tax for the first time since 1991, but any such revenue could go only to roads, not rail, under current law.
That's where the special House committees come in. The speaker's proclamation last week also used the words "innovative approaches," and it couldn't have been said better. Innovation in solving traffic congestion is what transportation leaders in North Texas have been pushing for. It's good to see Straus expressing interest in more of that.
In North Texas – A coalition of cities and transportation agencies has stepped up efforts to develop the long-proposed east-west Cotton Belt rail link to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It would connect northern suburbs and North Dallas to the airport and run through downtown Fort Worth. DART owns the Cotton Belt right of way but doesn't have the money to put the project together.
Again, innovation is called for. The North Central Texas Council of Governments is finishing a report on ways the six cities on the east side of the airport can team up with property owners and DART to start the new line.
For example, developers might be interested in sharing construction costs if passenger stations were located on their land. The University of Texas at Dallas might want to hire a developer to build a station and amenities on campus.
One audacious idea under discussion is encouraging a manufacturer to locate along the Cotton Belt and produce the next generation of diesel rail cars, which are in demand nationwide for new transit lines.
Ultimately, voter-approved money may be needed to put this project over the top. But since nothing is guaranteed out of Austin, North Texas leaders are smart to look for creative ways to achieve the goal of a seamless regional rail network.
DMN Opinion Blog - Keith Self attacks the tactics of ... Keith Self
February 24th, 2010Keith Self attacks the tactics of ... Keith Self
Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010
Michael Landauer/Editor
The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog
Embattled Collin County Judge Keith Self issued an e-mail to supporters in response to allegations from the John Muns campaign. Here's what he said:
"Are these gutter attacks the "Collin County values" that my opponent says that he will bring to the county? No thank you. These are the same attacks that the same consulting firm made against Commissioner Joe Jaynes two years ago. I want to hear from John Muns - are you hiding behind an out-of-control consulting company or are these gutter attacks your values? I want to know."
They don't call this the political funny season for nothing. Keith Self endorsed the campaign against Jaynes in 2008. He never spoke out against the tactics in that campaign. He is now throwing an old friend, Corbett Howard, under the bus to score political points.
And here's the best part. "Are these gutter attacks your values?" According to the consulting firm in question, they are Keith Self's values. As a campaign adviser, he directed and suggested the very attacks he is now attacking. This from Brian Mayes at Allyn Media:
We talked to Mr. Self on a regular basis during the 2008 campaign, and of all Corbett's supporters and advisors, his strategic direction was by far the most aggressive.
I asked Mr. Self if he'd like to respond, and here's what he said:
"No, I have no intention of engaging in a public debate through the media that endorsed my opponent. It is no secret that I supported my friend Corb Howard."
We did recommend John Muns. I stand by these words more than ever:
It's not what first-term Self is for that causes concern about his time in office. Rather, it's what he's been against and how he pursues his agenda. Self doesn't shy away from butting heads with people he disagrees with and, at times, seems to go out of his way for a collision. ... With GOP voters choosing between two fiscally conservative Republicans, they should go with Muns, a leader with experience building coalitions.
Read this article at The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog....
DMN - Texas House race starting to get ugly in Plano
February 24th, 2010Texas House race starting to get ugly in Plano
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Politically genteel Plano is witnessing a testier brand of politics this year.
The GOP campaign to represent West Plano in the Texas House of Representatives is emerging as one of the city's most cantankerous races in years. Candidates are trading barbs over everything from resume discrepancies to charges of tax evasion.
The first volley came Friday, when Mabrie Jackson sent out a mailer and put up a Web site entitled "Plano Resume Fraud." The mailer and site accused opponents Wayne Richard and Van Taylor of misrepresenting their records and other transgressions.
"Don't be tricked by resume fraud in the Plano State Representative Race," Jackson's Web site reads. The mailer blames Richard and Taylor for having "falsified their backgrounds to win votes" for the March 2 primary.
Richard and Taylor have fired back, accusing Jackson of spreading falsehoods and poisoning the political atmosphere.
Taylor charged Jackson, a former City Council member, of publishing "one of the most negative mail pieces in Collin County history." Richard characterized Jackson's allegations as "malicious and hateful."
Unusual
Such heated rhetoric is unusual in Plano, which has long revolved around a stable of powerful incumbents and has rarely played host to knockdown campaigns.
But the stakes are high. The prize is the Texas House seat representing District 66, which has not been open since 1991. Incumbent Republican Brian McCall? is not seeking re-election.
The turbulent campaign also reflects a deepening battle to court conservative primary voters as all three candidates tilt to the right.
On her Web site and mailings, Jackson accuses Richard of "cheating on his business taxes," hosting a "voyeurism video" Web site and receiving campaign help from "extremists."
She also charged Taylor with being a "political carpetbagger" who is "searching for a political office to run for" (Taylor ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the Waco area in 2006) and of bankrolling his entire campaign.
Jackson declined to comment about the Web site or mailing, which feature her photo and campaign logo. Her spokesman Judd Pritchard called the materials a "comparison between candidates."
"All this stuff is legitimate candidate resume material," he said.
Richard said the accusations are "inaccurate, untruthful, hateful and inappropriate."
Regarding the charge that he has cheated on his business taxes, Richard, who owns a small Web company, said the accusation is false and proof of what he called Jackson's "lack of expertise in business and how she would address legislative issues as a representative."
Richard also responded to questions about his political ties. One of his top campaign aides, Peter Morrison of Lumberton, Texas, keeps a Facebook page on which Morrison has blamed the "Third World" for the Fort Hood shootings and criticized Texas schools for advocating diversity.
"I'm happy to have their support," Richard said of his aides.
More response
Taylor, meantime, said Jackson's "attacks are negative and false." He did not dispute any of her claims when asked specifically about each of them. But he said he had been up front about his record.
"She is attempting to mislead voters that I'm trying to hide something," Taylor said.
Fundraising, like the rhetoric, has picked up in recent weeks.
Taylor, who works in real estate, has loaned his campaign $420,000, including nearly $200,000 since late January. He raised $41,000 from other sources during that period.
He gave more than $1 million in contributions and loans to his 2006 bid for Congress, federal records show.
Jackson has raised $64,000 in recent weeks, according to records. That includes more than $20,000 in cash from political action committees representing interests ranging from natural gas and liquor to finance.
She has more than $110,000 on hand.
Richard reported $47,000 in contributions, though that figure includes more than $37,000 in noncash campaign services.
He has spent $12,000 since late January and reported having no money left in his campaign account.
No Democrats are running for the seat.
WFAA - Some early voters report problems in Collin County
February 24th, 2010Some early voters report problems in Collin County
by STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV
Posted on February 23, 2010 at 9:11 PM
Updated today at 10:31 PM
Several Collin County voters are complaining about their early voting experiences. They say election workers just couldn't believe they wanted to vote Republican.
All of them are minorities, and they believe race is the reason they were questioned.
Three of the voters who had problems at a McKinney polling place have something in common: All are women; all are black; and all say they were questioned when they wanted to vote Republican.
Connie Evans explained what happened when she went to her polling place. “Before she gave me the card, she said, 'Now you're voting what?' 'I'm voting Republican.' And then after she gave me the card, she asked me again what I was voting, and I said, 'I'm voting Republican.'"
Tiffany Loera and Brittany Evans say they were asked the same question several times.
“It’s very offensive, because it's almost like we don't know what we're talking about," Loera said. "Why ask more than once?"
Four African-American candidates are running on the Republican ballot, the most ever in Collin County. Historically, African-Americans vote Democratic in the county.
The women believe that's why they were questioned.
“Most black people were supposed to vote Democrat, but we can change our mind just like anybody else," Evans said.
In response, Collin County Elections Administrator Sharon Rowe sent a message to all county poll workers, telling them to ask every single voter if they are voting in the Democratic or Republican primary, or allow the voter to declare their party affiliation. She warned them to never assume a party affiliation for any voter.
Connie Evans says reaction she received has upset her. “If I’m coming in and I say I'm voting Republican, that's what I'm voting; I don't need to be asked three times," she said.
The problem isn't’ limited to African-American voters at just one polling place.
Long-time Republican voter Fred Nasseri's had difficulty inside the voting booth.
“As soon as I put the card in, it says 'Democratic.' I was really upset, and I let them know this is a concern," Nasseri said.
The elections administrator wants to talk with all the voters who had problems at the polls, so she can address each issue to make sure it won't happen again.
NYT - Questions Of an Affair Tainting A Trial
February 22nd, 2010Questions Of an Affair Tainting A Trial
By ADAM LIPTAK / Columnist, The New York Times Sidebar
The New York Times / Published: February 22, 2010
WASHINGTON - Charles Dean Hood was sentenced to death in 1990 by a Texas judge who had been sleeping with the prosecutor in his case. It took Mr. Hood almost 20 years to establish that fact.
But he finally managed to force the two officials to testify about their rumored affair in the fall of 2008. They admitted it.
Texas’s highest court for criminal matters, its Court of Criminal Appeals, considered all of this and concluded that Mr. Hood should be executed anyway. In a 6-to-3 decision in September, the court told Mr. Hood that he had taken too long to raise the issue of whether a love affair between a judge and a prosecutor amounted to a conflict of interest.
Mr. Hood has asked the United States Supreme Court to hear his case. On Thursday, 21 former judges and prosecutors filed a brief supporting him. So did 30 experts in legal ethics.
“A judge who has engaged in an intimate, extramarital, sexual relationship with the prosecutor trying a capital murder case before her has a conflict of interest and must recuse herself,” the brief from the ethics experts said. “Of all the courts to have considered the issue, only the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in this case failed to recognize this imperative.”
The affair itself, as described in the depositions of the two former lovers, sounded tawdry and sad.
Judge Verla Sue Holland, who presided over Mr. Hood’s case in a district court in Collin County, Tex., testified that she and the prosecutor, Thomas S. O’Connell Jr., had had sex at each other's homes when their spouses were away. This happened, she said, seven or eight times.
Mr. O’Connell did not seem especially romantic. Judge Holland testified that he once gave her a picture of a polar bear with a matching cup. Another time he gave her a chafing dish.
He never stayed the night. “I had a truck that everybody recognized,” Mr. O’Connell explained.
And he might have been more sympathetic when Judge Holland’s mother died.
“Tom didn’t send a card,” the judge testified. “He didn’t send flowers. He didn’t come by. He didn’t call. You know, I think that’s pretty callous.”
Asked if they had professed their love to each other, Judge Holland sounded wistful. “Yeah,” she said. “Yes. I loved him.”
Judge Holland was elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1996, served for five years and sat with eight of the nine judges who considered her conduct last September. The exception was Judge Cathy Cochran, one of four women on the court and the author of the dissenting opinion.
Judge Cochran took a stab at characterizing the relationship in a footnote. It was misleading, Judge Cochran wrote, to say that Judge Holland and Mr. O’Connell had “an intimate sexual relationship,” though she conceded that the phrase was “literally true.”
“Theirs was hardly the torrid relationship of romance novels,” Judge Cochran clarified. It was, rather, “a close personal relationship that, on a few rare occasions, dipped into intimacy.”
Whatever the precise contours and intensity of the affair, Judge Holland did testify that she would have disqualified herself from Mr. Hood’s case had his lawyers asked. But she also said she and Mr. O’Connell had kept their extramarital affair secret. She said it ended in 1987, three years before Mr. Hood’s trial.
In her deposition, Judge Holland said she had lately become angry with Mr. Hood’s lawyers for “annihilating my reputation.” She said she had asked the attorney general’s office to represent her in Mr. Hood’s challenge to her conduct because she thought she needed to fight back. She was “tired of laying over,” she said, and “getting licked without any input.”
Mr. Hood was convicted of murdering a couple he had been living with, Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace, in Plano, Tex., in 1989.
The district attorney in Collin County, John R. Roach, has said that the case should not be reopened in light of the gravity of those crimes and Mr. Hood’s delay in pursuing rumors of the affair. Mr. Roach added that there was no need for a categorical rule against a little romance.
“The existence of a prior sexual relationship between a judge and a prosecutor is not cause to absolutely disqualify a judge,” Mr. Roach told the appeals court last year. “At some point, the past romantic relationships, of even public figures, become a matter that is entitled to some privacy.”
John R. Rolater Jr., a lawyer in Mr. Roach’s office, declined to elaborate. “We have no comment at this time because of the pending litigation,” Mr. Rolater said Friday in an e-mail message.
The Supreme Court has lately taken some interest in the integrity of the judicial system.
Last year, it ruled that millions of dollars in campaign spending on behalf of a West Virginia judge was reason enough to require his disqualification from a case involving his supporter.
“The probability of actual bias on the part of the judge,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, was “too high to be constitutionally tolerable.”
And last month, the Supreme Court ordered the federal appeals court in Atlanta to have another look at a case in which jurors in a capital trial gave a trial judge an odd gift — a penis made of chocolate.
“From beginning to end,” the unsigned majority decision said, “judicial proceedings conducted for the purpose of deciding whether a defendant shall be put to death must be conducted with dignity and respect.”
To review the bidding: Campaign spending may undermine the integrity of the judicial system. The same goes for a gag gift of confectionary genitalia. But a love affair between the judge and prosecutor in a death penalty case is, in Texas, at least, another matter.
link to this column in The New York Times....
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Also see commentary from Grits for Breakfast.
And BRIEF OF FORMER JUDGES, STATE OFFICIALS, AND PROSECUTORS AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER filed before the US Supreme Court. (Bill notes, this is worth reading. Look at who signed it.)
DMN Plano Blog - House 66 race gets testy; Jackson attacks foes
February 20th, 2010House 66 race gets testy; Jackson attacks foes
February 19, 2010
The Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog
Theodore Kim / Reporter / The Dallas Morning News
....Candidate Mabrie Jackson has gone on the offensive today, publishing a website paid for by her campaign that attacks her foes, Wayne Richard and Van Taylor, on various fronts. The website is called PlanoResumeFraud.com.
It accuses Richard of a number of shortcomings ranging from cheating on his business property taxes and running fringe web businesses to cultivating ties with political extremists. The site also mentions how Richard voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2008. (He has portrayed himself as an arch conservative.)
Meantime, Jackson's website attacks Taylor for being a "political carpetbagger" who abandoned the Waco area shortly after a failed bid for Congress there in 2006. Jackson also mentions how few of Taylor's campaign contributions come from Plano.
The publishing of the website coincided with a mailer that reiterates many of the same factoids. The headline on the mailer: "Stop Voter Fraud and Candidate Fraud."
Richard published a lengthy response in which he calls Jackson's criticisms "malicious and hateful" and "the work of a desperate opponent." Richard said he voted for Clinton in 2008 as part of "Operation Chaos" in which conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh encouraged his listeners to vote in the Democratic primary.
He also defended his business practices as legitimate. For his full statement, click here.
....UPDATE | 7:31 p.m. Candidate Van Taylor responded Friday to Mabrie Jackson's website, calling it "one of the most negative mail pieces in Collin County history."
"In a last-minute attempt to resurrect her failing campaign, Mabrie Jackson has subjected Plano residents to negative attacks, false charges and offensive mailers," Taylor said in a news release. To read his full statement, click here.
read the entire article at The Dallas Morning News' Plano blog....
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The Observer comments:
After the DMN blog posting, there is a long comment conversation that is quite amusing. My favorite comment had to be,"I'm amused that somebody would use 'I did it because Rush Limbaugh told me to' as a defense".
Bill
Grits - SCOTUS should "remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court"
February 19th, 2010Sex Parte Redux: SCOTUS should "remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court" in Charles Hood case, since Texas CCA won't
Grits for Breakfast
February 19, 2010
Bully for the Constitution Project and the former federal judges and other officials who signed an amicus brief requesting the Supreme Court of the United States hear the Charles Dean Hood case, in which the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a habeas petition without giving a reason after the trial judge and the prosecutor admitted an affair before and possibly during his trial, then lied about or concealed their misconduct. Reports the Dallas News Crime Blog:
A former governor, a former district attorney, a former U.S. attorney from North Texas, and the former director of the FBI are among a group of 21 lawyers who have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a controversial Texas death penalty case.
The group, which was organized by the Constitution Project, is asking the court to hear the case of Charles Dean Hood, who was sentenced to death for killing two people in Collin County in 1989. Hood's case has garnered national attention not for the horrific crime, but because the prosecutor in the case had an intimate relationship with the judge.
See the Constitution Project's press release. According to the petition, "Amici are deeply concerned that, if the judgment [by the Texas CCA] is allowed to stand, the Due Process Clause’s guarantee of fundamental fairness—especially in death penalty cases— will be imperiled, and public confidence in the courts will suffer."
The brief asserts that "the Due Process Clause forbids a trial judge from presiding over a criminal proceeding in the circumstances presented here." SCOTUS should intervene, they said, because it "has an extraordinarily strong interest in preserving the reputation of the judiciary—in particular affirming the courts’ willingness to recognize and remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court that violate fundamental fairness."
It's worth mentioning that all but one of the sitting members of the Texas CCA served on Texas' high criminal court with the judge in question - Verla Sue Holland - so there's an appearance that they declined to correct this obvious error out of an excess of collegial deference (read: cronyism). Only three CCA judges - Cochran, Price, and Holcomb - dissented to that embarrassing ruling. (Good for them, btw - I'm sure there was pressure to do otherwise.) So whether or not SCOTUS reviews the case, the majority of judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have already affirmed their un-willingness to "recognize and remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court that violate fundamental fairness."
This is perhaps an even more embarrassing, despicable spectacle than Presiding Judge Sharon Keller's defiant insistence that she'd repeat her behavior from the "We close at 5" imbroglio. Keller, at least, is just one vote on the court. But here, five others joined her in shirking their responsibilities to protect their ex-colleague, and not on the spur of the moment, as in Keller's infamous decision that got her into trouble, but in a deliberative setting when they had full power to right the wrong.
One bad apple could perhaps be overlooked, but in this case the barrel's spoiled. Hopefully SCOTUS will take the case and clean up the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' mess, again.
See related Grits coverage:
Disgrace! CCA lets stand egregious misconduct in capital murder case
Sex Parte: Coverup of judicial tryst tests CCA's ethical mettle
CCA Follies: They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness
link to entire article on Grits for Breakfast....
Observer coverage of Charles Dean Hood case:
NLJ - When procedure trumps justice, Nov. 3, 2009
Sex, lies and lethal injections, Sept. 18, 2009
Hood gets his appeal (maybe), May 5, 2009
Charles Dean Hood gets another 60 days to live, Jan. 28, 2009
AG questions 1/3 of Collin death sentences, Sept. 22, 2008
Collin County needs to review capital cases, Sept. 18, 2008
Crossing the line: Sex and justice, Collin County style, Sept. 8, 2008
Atlantic - Travesty in Texas, Sept. 8, 2008
Attorney General files for possible stay in Hood case, Sept. 4, 2008
DMN - Frisco council votes to support reduced-rent apartments
February 17th, 2010Frisco council votes to support reduced-rent apartments
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
More than 100 people turned out Tuesday to voice opposition to two proposed apartment complexes in Frisco.
The planned complexes are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program, which provides federal tax incentives to developments with rents at below-market rates.
The complexes also would set aside a certain number of units for Section 8 voucher-holders from the Dallas Housing Authority.
Late into Tuesday night, the City Council discussed the projects and spent more than an hour in executive session consulting with the city’s attorney. Just before midnight, the council voted 4-to-1 to write letters supporting the projects to the state, which will decide in July which projects get funded. City support is key in the developers’ applications to the state for funding.
“This is about providing low-income housing and a plan to get us there,” Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Bob Allen.
Several council members said that residents had some valid concerns about impacts to traffic, utilities and schools. They also noted that the projects were too early in the process to have answers but that the developers would be held to Frisco’s high standards.
Council member Bart Crowder said he believed that some of the fears from residents about the projects were greatly overstated and he believed the agreement with Inclusive Communities Project was appropriate.
Council member Scott Johnson, who cast the sole vote against the letters of support, said he heard lots of reasons why the projects weren’t a good fit for the city. “I have yet to hear why they’re good for the community,” he said. “On this day and this issue, I choose principle over pragmatism. This is not something I support.”
The proposed projects are part of a three-year agreement with the nonprofit Inclusive Communities Project that the City Council approved in October 2008.
In return for making the units available to Dallas clients first, the nonprofit is giving the city $2 million that will be passed on to the developers as low-interest loans to build their projects.
The agreement with Inclusive Communities Project is the first of its kind in North Texas. The nonprofit made similar offers to other cities. Frisco was the only one to accept. The responses from Flower Mound and McKinney prompted lawsuits by Inclusive Communities Project. Flower Mound's suit is pending. McKinney is working out a settlement.
In response to residents' concerns, the city of Frisco posted background about the agreement on its Web site in recent days. As part of the written explanation, City Manager George Purefoy states:
"If Frisco had not negotiated the agreement with ICP, then the likely outcome would have been a federal lawsuit. After 14 months of litigation, the McKinney? Housing Authority is negotiating a settlement agreement with ICP which establishes the same general parameters as the Frisco agreement, except it includes a longer-term agreement (5 years vs. 3 years) and it pays some of ICP's attorneys' fees."
Several residents at Tuesday's meeting said they were willing to pay for the legal fight.
"We are letting the threat of a lawsuit determine what will happen in the city of Frisco," resident Sotirios "Chris" Tsongas said.
Some of the council members said late in the meeting that the threat of a lawsuit did not factor into their decision to contract with the Inclusive Communities Project.
“This is about what’s in the best interest of the city,” Mayor Maher Maso said.
"If Dallas can't handle its own problem, it shouldn't become Frisco's," Frisco resident Dody Brigadier said. "I've never known any Texan to back down from a fight, and here you are."
Betsy Julian, president of Inclusive Communities Project, declined to comment about Tuesday's proceedings.
Residents' concerns about the projects ranged from possible increases in crime to decreases in property values. They were concerned about the ability of nearby roads to handle the traffic from such large complexes. And they were concerned about what the projects would mean to the school system.
The projects are competing for funding through the state's Housing Tax Credit program. It's a competitive process. Developers in the Dallas region have applied for more than $92 million in tax credits for 60 projects. The state has about $10 million available for the region this year.
Developers for the two Frisco projects both admitted Tuesday that they weren't high on the state's project rankings.
"We don't think the odds are great, but we do love Frisco and would love to build in Frisco," said Chris Applequist with San Antonio-based Versa Development Co., which proposes building 200 units on more than 12 acres near Bicentennial Park.
The other project, by Songhai Development Co., proposes building 150 units on 10 acres on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway east of Woodstream.
Julian said last week that she believed there would be plenty of interest from Dallas Housing Authority clients wanting to live in Frisco. They are part of the so-called Walker Settlement, which stems from a 1985 lawsuit over black residents' being forced to live for decades in segregated slums in Dallas.
That settlement has allowed thousands of black families to move into predominantly white neighborhoods. It also created the Walker Project to promote fair housing and support the class members. In 2004, the Walker Project became the Inclusive Communities Project.
DMN Editorial - We recommend Hall in 4th Congressional District
February 16th, 2010Editorial: We recommend Hall in 4th Congressional District
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
The 4th Congressional District needs a new voice in Washington, but the five GOP challengers to incumbent Ralph Hall do not provide credible alternatives to the 15-term congressman. So, despite our substantial reservations about Hall's leadership in recent years, we recommend him in this GOP primary.
The 86-year-old Hall, who was first elected in 1980, served constituents well for many years. But more recently his stands have seemed ill-suited to this rapidly changing district's needs; this newspaper has not recommended him since 2004.
While we respect his experience, we disagree with Hall on several important issues, including his opposition to an immigration pathway to citizenship and to cap-and-trade energy legislation. We also were dismayed by his intemperate suggestion in 2004 that the U.S. military should have leveled Baghdad to show the Iraqis they were whipped.
Unfortunately, Hall's opponents – all of them essentially protest candidates – don't inspire confidence. They are John Cooper, 70, a Baptist minister; Steve Clark, 56, a retired telecom executive; Lou Gigliotti, 60, a race car owner; Jerry Ray Hall, 58, a mediator; and Joshua Kowert, a 28-year-old economics professor.
In interviews and campaign materials, they spouted party platitudes that revealed a stunningly superficial knowledge of key issues, such as taxes, energy and immigration.
Hall isn't the leader this district deserves, but his challengers simply aren't ready for Washington. The GOP winner will face Democratic and Libertarian opposition in the fall.
link to this editorial at The Dallas Morning News....
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Bill Comments:
This is the, I believe, the fourth time in a row the Dallas Morning News has held its nose and either recommended Ralph Hall or refused to recommend anyone. Ralph needs to retire. Unfortunately, the GOP can't seem to recruit anyone who's not a total kook, and the Democrats haven't fielded a candidate who could raise the kind of money it takes to defeat a long term incumbent.
The 4th Congressional District has in the past been served by such political heavy weights such as "Mr. Sam" Sam Rayburn, and Ray Roberts. Now it's simply the fiefdom of an old man who has served long past his usefulness.
That's a shame.
Bill
Early voting begins today!
February 16th, 2010From Collin County's website:
Early voting for the March 2 party primary elections begins on Tuesday, Feb. 16 and runs through Friday, Feb. 26 – and our Elections Office is ready to help you find a place to cast your ballot.
In Collin County, about 70 percent of those who cast ballots do so during the early voting stage, so we’ve set up some easy ways for you to find your way to the polls early, or on March 2.
Here’s a quick rundown of links and services available:
For starters, you can find a polling center in Collin County by simply plugging in a street address and zip code into our Early Voting Location Search, which will also give you driving directions to the nearest polling center. We also have an alphabetized listing on the same page if you’d like to scroll through the 19 locations. Voting traffic status on this list will also show how long a wait you might have at one location. Since in early voting you can cast your ballot at any location, if one spot is crowded you can locate another where the wait is shorter.
Also, be sure to check the times and dates for early voting. These vary slightly throughout the two-week stretch.
Of course, you’re also going to want to check the ballots for your precinct (plus, voting locations for March 2). In case you don’t know your voting precinct, you can perform a Voter Registration Card Search.
Finally, remember you can also view – or sign up to receive email versions of – elections results for Collin County.
DMN - David Melton of McKinney: Solutions needed for McKinney arts center
February 15th, 2010David Melton, who has written often in The Dallas Morning News Voices columns, has authored an interesting piece on the ongoing City of McKinney review of the McKinney Performing Arts Center.
The McKinney Performing Arts Center (MPAC) is housed in the old Collin County Courthouse on the downtown square in McKinney. It is an imposing and historically valuable asset, but and expensive one to keep up, and always seeming to be in need of renovations.
I have been to several productions and one banquet at MPAC. I love the building, and it seems to be a wonderful venue for small productions. But it is underutilized and the size limitations of any artistic productions limit its ability to generate enough revenue to sustain it.
I hope this article spurs a vigorous debate, and The Collin County Observer is willing to publish a responsible reply from an opposing point of view.
Bill
Link to city of McKinney public input form on the future use of The McKinney Performing Arts Center
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David Melton of McKinney: Solutions needed for McKinney arts center
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Local Voices / Opinions
In recent months, there has been a lot of serious debate within the McKinney City Council about what to do with the McKinney Performing Arts Center, the old courthouse in the middle of downtown.
Several years ago, there was a major push for the McKinney Community Development Corp. to spend $9 million rehabbing this structure. The money was spent, and what the city ended up with was a structure that probably needed another $10 million to be spent.
Windows need to be replaced, and it would help to replace the roof. All of this money spent was projected to make the place presentable so it would be a major tourist attraction and arts center.
Years went by, and the arts center never lived up to potential. The MCDC was told that it would have to pay for the deficit each year to the tune of over $500,000 per year.
For the first couple of years, I sat on the MCDC board, and we were not even consulted about the cost. It was just added to our budget by the city, with the result being over $41,000 per month allocated to MPAC to keep it going.
Today, with the city running short on operating funds – struggling with cutting jobs and overhead, and delaying major projects – I often pause for thought about the millions of dollars that have been spent on MPAC.
I raised the ire of a good number of people when I suggested that the city hire four bulldozers and put one on each side of this building and let them go to work and meet in the middle of the rubble. The arts people went wild over the idea and suggested that I was out to destroy downtown McKinney.
I still believe that a large pavilion could be erected where MPAC now stands and it would enhance the overall image of our town and be a much better way to spend our tax dollars.
I am happy that the City Council is looking at MPAC seriously and trying to come with some solution that will work better for all concerned. I realize that the building has been registered as a historical site and that their options are limited.
But it's time the city do something to stop throwing good money after bad.
David Melton is a semi-retired insurance executive who lives in McKinney.
DMN - Candidates for West Plano seat in Texas House digging deep into their own pockets for campaign funds
February 15th, 2010Candidates for West Plano seat in Texas House digging deep into their own pockets for campaign funds
Sunday, February 14, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Contenders for West Plano's seat in the Texas House of Representatives are pouring lots of their own money into the fight.
With several weeks to go before the March 2 Republican primary, Mabrie Jackson and Van Taylor have between them invested more than $300,000 in the race, campaign finance reports show.
Fundraising records also have raised questions about the political ties of the third candidate, Wayne Richard, who has gained momentum among Tea Party activists.
The House District 66 seat opened in November when incumbent Brian McCall? said he would not seek re-election. No Democrats filed to run.
Money, of course, has always played a central role in politics. But with few differences separating the three candidates on the biggest issues – all have portrayed themselves as conservatives and said they support low tax rates and fewer state regulations – fundraising has emerged as perhaps the biggest point of contention.
Experts also say the campaign reports provide the latest evidence of how spending in Texas politics continues to escalate, driven largely by the growing role and cost of technology in campaigns.
"Certainly television matters and still has the most significant impact," said Brian Roberts, a professor of American politics at the University of Texas at Austin. "But look what else is going on: You have social media, Web ads. This is opening up a whole new avenue of expense."
The total money raised for state legislative races alone has almost doubled to $95 million since 2004, according to Texans for Public Justice, a nonprofit group that tracks money in state politics.
"The cost of elections continues to trend up, up, up," said Andrew Wheat, the group's research director.
That, in turn, has put even more pressure on candidates to dip into their own wallets.
Van Taylor
Taylor, who works in real estate, has bankrolled his campaign with $230,000 in personal loans, putting most of that money toward television ads and mailings.
He has collected far less, $21,700, from campaign supporters. A $10,000 check from Taylor's father constitutes nearly half that total, records show.
Of the rest, $6,450 represents contributions from Plano addresses.
Taylor has spent large sums on campaigns before. He put more than $300,000 of his own money into an unsuccessful 2006 bid for Congress in the Waco area.
Taylor said he has local donations "coming in every day" and has a Plano fundraiser scheduled this week.
"I'm getting a great response and running a hard-hitting, grass-roots campaign," he said.
Mabrie Jackson
Jackson, a former Plano City Council member and Microsoft account manager, has invested $80,000 in her campaign. She has supplemented that with help from supporters and from interests ranging from real estate to liquor, records show.
Including her cash, Jackson had raised more than $148,000 through late January.
That total takes into account more than $16,000 from at least 20 political action committees that, in the past, had supported McCall?. Among them: the Texas Association of Realtors ($2,500), the Texas Energy Association ($2,500) and the Licensed Beverage Distributors ($1,000).
Jackson made no apologies for receiving PAC money.
"These associations represent industries that create jobs," she said. "They have confidence in my abilities to represent House District 66."
The biggest individual donors so far in the race include construction materials magnate John V. Lattimore, Jr., who donated $5,000 each to Taylor and Jackson; and Fehmi Karahan, the developer behind The Shops at Legacy, who gave $2,500 to Jackson.
Wayne Richard
Financial reports reveal that Richard, who runs a small Web company, had raised less than $10,000 in cash through January.
More significantly, the records raise questions about his political ties.
Richard has leaned heavily on campaign help from Peter Morrison, a local school board member in Lumberton, Texas.
Records show that Morrison has donated tens of thousands of dollars' worth of signs, mailers, supplies and time to Richard's campaign.
In posts on Facebook, Morrison argues that Texas schools teach a "radical left-wing agenda" and that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a "radical racist."
Another lengthy post blames "immigration from Third World countries" for the mass shootings at Fort Hood in November.
"The Fort Hood massacre was the predictable result of decades of massive immigration from third world countries, affirmative action, enforcement of political correctness and 'celebration' of diversity and multiculturalism," Morrison wrote Nov. 17.
When asked about his aide's Fort Hood essay, Richard said, "Commanders would agree it was a political correctness situation that allowed the mass shooting to take place."
Asked whether he thinks schools should encourage diversity, Richard said, "I don't believe there's enough American history and positive representations of democracy and liberty that our country provides our citizens in our schools."
link to article at The Dallas Morning News, including candidate profile data....
DMN - Frisco affordable housing plan gains board's support but meets resistance
February 12th, 2010Valerie Wigglesworth at The Dallas Morning News has written a top-flight article and then followed up with a blog post full of resources for anyone wanting to follow the debate on the need to build affordable (including Section 8) housing in Frisco.
Bill
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DMN - Frisco affordable housing plan gains board's support but meets resistance
Friday, February 12, 2010
By VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
In a first of its kind effort, Frisco is helping developers build affordable housing with money from a nonprofit in Dallas.
The catch: The partnership with Inclusive Communities Project Inc. requires some of the low-income apartments be available first to certain Dallas Housing Authority clients with Section 8 vouchers.
That has some people in this affluent suburb concerned.
"How does this help residents of Frisco?" asked Mark Walsh, who raised concerns in an e-mail to his neighbors. "It's helping Dallas Housing Authority people to move to Frisco."
Betsy Julian, president of the nonprofit, said Dallas residents want what everyone wants: attractive communities with amenities, good schools and low crime rates. Frisco fits that bill.
"Our mission is to promote healthy inclusive communities, and if there's no affordable housing, it's not an inclusive community," she said.
The two apartment complexes proposed on vacant lots in Frisco are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program. The competitive program provides federal tax incentives for developments with rents at below-market rates. Developers in the Dallas region have applied for more than $92 million in tax credits for 60 projects. The state has about $10 million available for the region this year.
On Wednesday, the Frisco Housing Trust Fund Board voted 3-1 to recommend that the City Council send letters in support of the projects to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Its board will vote in July which projects to fund.
Frisco housing board member Shannon Kackley voted against.
"I want to make sure we do what's best for our citizens," Kackley said. "This is mainly for Dallas residents."
He said after the meeting he was concerned about the potential influx of people who may or may not have jobs and who may need extra services that the city can't provide.
City Manager George Purefoy said the City Council approved the agreement with Inclusive Communities Project in 2008 after two years of negotiations.
"The council thought this was in the best interests of the city," he told the housing board, adding that the two developers meet all the criteria. "I urge you to approve them."
Julian told the board it was unlikely that people with jobs in Dallas would commute from Frisco. She said it's more likely that people who find lower-paying jobs in Frisco would want to live there.
"I'm very confident there will be interest," she said.
Civil suits
Julian's group approached several cities in 2007 about creating affordable housing for low-income families.
"Frisco stepped up in a proactive way and acknowledged the need for workforce housing," Julian said.
The responses from Flower Mound and McKinney prompted civil suits from the group. The McKinney case is in the process of being settled. The Flower Mound case is pending.
Last fall, the nonprofit sued Sunnyvale over what it said were the city's discriminatory practices in affordable housing. The group also has a suit pending against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the Section 8 program that provides rent subsidies to low-income families.
The agreement with Frisco calls for the Inclusive Communities Project to give $2 million to the city, which in turn would loan it to developers at low interest rates to build projects approved through the state's tax-credit program.
In return, 50 units or 25 percent of the development – whichever is greater – would be offered first to Dallas Housing Authority clients who are part of the so-called Walker Settlement. It stems from a 1985 lawsuit over black residents being forced to live for decades in segregated slums in Dallas.
That settlement has allowed thousands of black families to move into predominantly white neighborhoods. It also created The Walker Project to promote fair housing and support the class members. In 2004, The Walker Project became the Inclusive Communities Project.
Incentive to build
The low-interest loans are an incentive to build in Frisco, said Dru Childre, whose Songhai Development Co. put in an application.
The Austin-based company is proposing to build the 150-unit North Court Villas on 10 acres on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway east of Woodstream Drive.
"These deals are very expensive," Childre said. The loan "shows that the city realizes they have a need for affordable housing, and it shows they support good reputable developers coming to the city."
The second project, proposed by San Antonio-based Versa Development, is the 200-unit Residences at Frisco on 13 acres near Bicentennial Park.
Both projects would have income restrictions for tenants. They would also offer tenant services ranging from financial planning to tutoring. Amenities would include a swimming pool, fitness center and computer learning center.
Julian said the ultimate goal is to help families get into decent housing.
"We just keep trying to remove barriers as we find them," she said. "We're cautiously optimistic that one or both of these developments could get done in Frisco this year
link to article at The Dallas Morning News.....
DMN Frisco Blog - Frisco affordable housing projects tied to funding from Dallas nonprofit
Thursday, Feb 11, 2010
Valerie Wigglesworth/Reporter / The Dallas Morning News Frisco Blog
In a first of its kind effort, Frisco is helping developers build affordable housing with money from a nonprofit in Dallas. The catch: The partnership with Inclusive Communities Project Inc. requires some of the low-income apartments be available first to certain Dallas Housing Authority clients with Section 8 vouchers. That has some people in Frisco concerned. Click here to read the rest of my story in today's newspaper.
The Frisco City Council approved the agreement with the Inclusive Communities Project at its Oct. 8, 2008, meeting. Click here for video of the meeting and documents related to the agreement (agenda item #41).
The two apartment complexes being proposed are on vacant lots in Frisco (see map above). One is on the south side of Stonebrook Parkway just east of Woodstream Drive; the second is near McKinney Road and Sunset just north of Bicentennial Park. Both projects are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program. The competitive program provides federal tax incentives for developments with rents at below-market rates.
Read the developers' pre-applications:
Click here for the North Court Villas on Stonebrook Parkway
Click here for the Residences at Frisco at McKinney and Sunset
What's next: The City Council will consider whether to send letters of support for the projects to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which oversees the Housing Tax Credit program.
Public hearings will be held around the state in April on the Housing Tax Credit program applicants. The Dallas hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. April 14. Written comments will also be accepted. Click here for details.
The board for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will decide in July which projects will receive tax credits. Click here to see a list of pre-applications. Applications are due March 1.
Worth noting: There was some concern that these apartment complexes would rent units to clients with the Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative, which works with the Dallas Housing Authority to find homes for ex-offenders. The TORI program uses only project-based Section 8 housing, which means the rental subsidy is tied to the apartment. The apartments in Frisco are not set up that way and would not be an option for TORI clients.
link to post on The Dallas Morning News Frisco Blog....
DMN - Editorial: We recommend Muns for Collin County judge
February 11th, 2010Editorial: We recommend Muns for Collin County judge
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Collin County Judge Keith Self is strong on open government and has delivered on promises for improvement. Some commissioners meetings are now held at places and times more convenient to the public. The county's checkbook has gone online for anyone to inspect. All good moves.
It's not what first-term Self is for that causes concern about his time in office. Rather, it's what he's been against and how he pursues his agenda.
Self doesn't shy away from butting heads with people he disagrees with and, at times, seems to go out of his way for a collision. The most spectacular example was his opposition to a countywide bond package for roads in 2007. The projects were vetted by a citizen review panel based on community input, yet Self squared off against supporters, called the package "pork" and unsuccessfully campaigned against it.
Then there was his work to unseat two fellow GOP members of the commissioners court, one of whom voters tossed out of office. And there was his combativeness while testifying in Austin before Dallas Sen. John Carona's transportation committee.
While there's something to be said for a public official who sticks to principles, there's a time when it goes overboard. Self reaches that point too often.
That's partly why we recommend his opponent, John Muns, in the March 2 GOP primary for county judge. Muns' background of civic involvement and public service, including 15 years on the Plano school board, gives him the grounding needed to preside effectively over the commissioners court.
Muns, 50, a developer, would concentrate on ensuring that infrastructure keeps pace with the county's torrid growth. He supports the concept of a local-option proposal that lawmakers in Austin have proposed to give local voters the right to raise money for transportation. Self opposes it.
Like Self, 56, a retired Army officer and McKinney resident, Muns says he would hold the line on taxes and spending.
The winner will face Democrat David M. Smith in November. With GOP voters choosing between two fiscally conservative Republicans, they should go with Muns, a leader with experience building coalitions.
TT - Primary Color: HD-66 (Featuring Bikini-Babe Voyeur Video)
February 10th, 2010Primary Color: HD-66
February 10, 2010
by Reeve Hamilton / The Texas Tribune
If you're not tuned into the three-way GOP primary to replace retiring 10-term state Rep. Brian McCall of Plano, you'll be sorry. The race has it all: the high price of political ambition, reruns of a classic campaign ad and a bikini-clad beauty — plus a fight over ideological bonafides that's very much of the moment. Affluent and highly educated, Plano is one of the state's most reliably Republican areas; there isn't even a Democrat running for the seat in November. Yet the district and surrounding Collin County are "ground zero" for the battle between "real conservatives and the philosophically pliable," says Michael Openshaw, the North Texas Tea Party's self-styled Blog Warrior.
“It’s going to be very close to get into a runoff,” says candidate Mabrie Jackson, a former Microsoft account manager and member of the Plano City Council. “I think we’re all evenly split right now.”
In November, when McCall decided to step down, he called Jackson, who'd told him six years earlier that she'd be interested in succeeding him. But the news couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time — Jackson was just a year and a half into her first term on the Council. “Can you wait two years?” she asked.
Wayne Richard, who had been running against McCall since August, was even more surprised to hear about his retirement. Richard never intended to vie for elective office — until recently, he didn't even pay much attention to state or local politics. But in 2008, his politically charged e-mails to friends morphed into a newsletter under the auspices of a group Richard christened "The National Coalition for Defense of American Sovereignty." He enjoyed his newfound notoriety; one thing led to another, and suddenly he found himself involved with the area’s first-ever tax day Tea Party protest. Collin County Tea Party leader Diane Nusbaum saw in Richard the candidate she had been looking for to retaliate against McCall for helping to oust conservative House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, at the start of the 2009 legislative session. She temporarily left the Tea Party to run Richard’s campaign.
Rounding out the primary field is businessman and Iraq War veteran Van Taylor, who bought a house in Plano in 2007, just a mile away from his great grandfather’s farm, after a failed campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. With a battle shaping up between Jackson and Richard, Taylor says, “So many conservatives reached out to me and said, 'Van, we have to have a conservative representing Plano in the Texas House. You have to run.'” He threw his hat in on Dec. 7.
Jackson, the granddaughter of a former Port Arthur mayor, caught the political bug early in life. She's the only of the three who has served in public office and is intimately familiar with the issues Plano faces: She cites, for example, the need for more roads and a viable water plan. “She is the only candidate who has been involved in the community at all levels,” says McCall, who endorsed Jackson after she resigned her Council seat on Nov. 16. Jackson has also been endorsed by the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association, the Texas Hospital Association, the Texas State Teachers Association and The Dallas Morning News.
Of the Tea Party movement that has been less enthusiastic about her establishment-friendly candidacy, Jackson says, “For the most part, they’re great people who are just concerned about what’s going on at the national level. I share that concern, and I lose sleep over it, too. But this race is about representing Plano in Austin. It’s not about Plano in Washington."
Richard’s approach is the epitome of grassroots. Running with very little money, his campaign is almost entirely manned by energized volunteers — many of them Tea Partiers — and fueled by in-kind donations, some of the biggest coming from outside the district. “I’ve never seen so many yard signs in my whole life,” Richard says. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Collin County before.”
Richard announced his candidacy in August and began block-walking. By early February, he or someone from his campaign had knocked on the door of every registered area voter at least twice. “Opponents have come and gone,” he says, “but I think a lot of people recognize the political courage it took to get into it from the very beginning to take McCall? on like that. Now we have people trying to jump in at the last minute. For us it’s been like a marathon, but for them it’s been like a sprint.”
Taylor, meanwhile, has a resume. The self-described “lifelong committed Republican” started a GOP club as an undergraduate at Harvard University. As a Marine, he gained experience with illegal immigration issues while serving on the Texas-Mexico border. He serves as state chairman of the National Defense Committee and is the North Texas vice captain of Vets for Freedom, and he touts endorsements from Young Conservatives of Texas, the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility PAC and Republican U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling. Like Richard, he has been “Tea Approved” by the North Texas Tea Party.
The candidates all have hurdles to overcome. Richard's is his bio, which doesn’t read like he grew up with a political career in his sights. For starters, there’s FUBIOV — “Forget U Buddy I’m On Vacation” — which he says was the name of a boat he owned decades ago, a name he tried to turn into a brand with “FUBIOV!” t-shirts and www.fubiov.com, a now-defunct travel website. A web video advertising the site features a girl in a bikini walking near a pool, unaware that she’s being filmed.
"If that’s the best thing they think they can come after me with," Richard says, "then to heck with 'em. I’m trying to stay above board." He claims to be an innocent bystander. “Somebody put a bikini video out there?” he asks. “I can’t control what’s out there.” But YouTube seems to think otherwise. The video was posted on the site in Jan. 2007 by “fubiov,” who claims to be a 55-year-old named Wayne. The user who posted the same video on dailymotion.com, once again using the “fubiov” moniker, also posted a video parodying Hillary Clinton. That video was produced by ICglobal.net, Richard's advertising technology firm.
“If you elect someone who has that,” critiques Jackson, “you don’t want that to come to light later and embarrass your city. And that will be an embarrassment to our city.”
Jackson’s finding out that it might be possible to love her city so much it hurts. When she vacated her seat on the City Council, she believed it could be filled by a 10-day appointment per the city charter. It turned out that state law called for a special election, an event that set Plano back $80,000 — and that was before it ended up being pushed into a runoff. “That’s the price of democracy. We are blessed to live in a democracy where anybody can run,” she says. “I believe that my serving Plano will save the city a whole lot more money in the long run than whatever a special election costs.”
Mention the independently wealthy Taylor in Plano and the conversation will likely turn to the money he’s spent on television advertisements. The ads highlight his conservative bonafides and the military service that took him to Iraq and the Texas Border. But one of them is just a minimally tweaked rehash of an ad he ran in Waco, when he was gunning for a totally different seat. “Pictures of me in Iraq are still pictures of me in Iraq,” Taylor says. “I have the same values and the same beliefs that I’ve held for decades.”
Taylor’s latest ad, called “Only One,” points out the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed committing to fighting all tax increases. It claims that Taylor, the "only true conservative” in the race, is the “only one” to sign such a document. Jackson says she signed one on Dec. 17 — but votes count more than pledges do. On the morning after primary day, all that will matter is who's the "only one" left out of the runoff.
link to this article at The Texas Tribune....
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Bill asks:
FU = "forget you"? Yea right!
also
The D Magazine's Front Burner blog notes that the fubiov videos have been pulled off of YouTube and Daily Motion.
Bill
DMN Editorial - We recommend Jackson in House District 66
February 10th, 2010We recommend Jackson in House District 66
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Plano voters will see something in the voting booth March 2 that they haven't seen in 19 years: a Republican ballot without Brian McCall's name as a candidate for state representative. With McCall not seeking re-election, the three-person GOP race in House District 66 is being closely watched to see who will replace his lawmaking and leadership abilities.
Mabrie Jackson, 45, former Plano City Council member, is the best choice of the three, based on her experience in decision-making, involvement in civic affairs and deep roots in the community. Moreover, Jackson appears best positioned to continue the brand of coalition-building McCall practiced to get things done in Austin.
Jackson has a clearly enunciated list of priorities, which includes economic development, public education, health care and transportation and water improvements. Formerly in marketing for EDS and a manager for Microsoft, she now concentrates on her family.
There are many similarities between Jackson and her opponents, Wayne Richard, 55, a technology company owner, and Van Taylor, 37, an investment manager. All would hold the line on taxes and stress efficiencies to deal with the coming state budget gap.
Taylor would go further and scrap the business tax, and Richard would scrap or reduce it. But neither offered a workable solution to fill that revenue void.
In his first run for office, Richard says he wants to offer fresh ideas, and he points out he was the only candidate to enter the race before McCall's announcement on re-election. Richard says that McCall has been in Austin too long and that his voting record is not business-friendly. Richard says he is relying on grass-roots support, in contrast to his well-financed adversaries.
Taylor lost a race for Congress from Waco in 2006 and since moved to Plano. A Marine Corps veteran who would "starve state government," he says he offers more conservative views than McCall's.
The winner of the race will face no Democratic opponent in the fall.
CBS11 - County In Need Of Advocates For Abused Children
February 7th, 2010County In Need Of Advocates For Abused Children
February 4, 2010
Stephanie Lucero -- CBS 11 / TXA 21
COLLIN COUNTY (CBS 11 / TXA 21) - Virginia Barrett says the intimate details of child abuse appalled her when she served on the Collin County Grand Jury. It was the gruesome details behind a number of cases that led Barrett to become a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer.
"People say, 'How can you do this?' and I think my response is 'How can you not?'" Barrett asked. "If you see a need, you just have to put aside all those heartbreaking things and think 'What can I do to make it better?"
There is a shortage of CASA volunteers across North Texas. CASA of Collin County is currently serving 250 children who have been removed from their parent's home. The agency serviced 460 children last year.
"CASA gets involved with a case once Child Protective Services (CPS) has done its initial investigation and determined the child cannot be safe at home," explained Susan Etheridge, the Executive Director of CASA Collin County.
David Shevlin adopted twin brothers, Alex and Andrew, when they were 14 years old. The twins were adopted after their parents lost custody of them in Florida. Shevlin says his entire family, of eight, has bonded with the teenagers and that experience led him to become a CASA volunteer.
"There was quite a bit of abuse in the past," Shevlin said of his adopted sons' experience. Alex and Andrew were severely malnourished and weighed only 38 and 40 pounds when they were adopted.
Shevlin was one of 28 men and women trained to be CASA volunteers last week. "It's a hard job to hear about the horrific abuse that these children have suffered," Etheridge said of those who step up to help.
Volunteers go through a week of training and report to a CASA Supervisor. The volunteers interview children, advocate for their best interests, and investigate each case. During their investigation they talk to the parents, family members, teachers, therapists and anyone who has knowledge of what is taking place in the home.
The CASA volunteer then recommends, to the judge overseeing the case, whether the child should be returned to the parents or be removed from the home permanently. Etheridge says, "The volunteer forms a strong relationship with the child", and visits with him or her at least twice a month.
There is a shortage of CASA volunteers in Collin County, with the more experienced advocates handle multiple cases.
Virginia Barrett says she stays in contact with many of the children she has advocated for over the past 11 years. "In some cases the parents, who have been drug abusers, they get their act together and the family gets back together and that's happily ever after too," she said.
Find out more about possibly becoming a CASA volunteer in Collin County.
DMN - Plano's plan for Douglass Community Center draws concerns from neighbors
February 3rd, 2010Plano's plan for Douglass Community Center draws concerns from neighbors
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Plano's historically black neighborhood is raising concerns about a city plan to outsource a local community center.
Residents' reservations unfolded at an animated public forum Tuesday at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church that drew about 60 people, including the city manager, mayor and several City Council members.
At issue is a plan to transfer operations of the city-run Douglass Community Center to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County. The club has offices in the building.
Many aimed their concerns at City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck, who spoke well into the evening explaining what he believes are the plan's merits.
The city says it would save more than $400,000 annually with the move – an enticing prospect since Plano faces projected budget deficits. The Boys & Girls Clubs would assume those costs and has pledged to keep service levels the same, if not improve them.
"We are trying our very best to [make this work]," Muehlenbeck said at the forum.
Still, he and his staff were on the defensive for most of the evening. Many in the audience said the change would hasten the center's demise or closure. City officials said that is not in the plan.
"I can assure you there has never been a word said about closing the Douglass center," Mayor Phil Dyer said Wednesday.
More broadly, the forum revived longstanding frustrations among some Douglass residents that the city is unfairly singling out the neighborhood just south of downtown.
For instance, residents said, no plans have emerged to outsource any of Plano's other recreation centers. And they portrayed the Douglass center as a vital community nexus, particularly for children and teenagers who take advantage of its after-school programs. Some of the programs already are run by the Boys & Girls Clubs.
"We are satisfied to the extent that there is dialogue and that we're getting clarity as to what decisions are being made," said T.J. Johnson, a community activist and attorney involved in the Douglass center discussions.
"But there is still some sentiment, a feeling like Douglass is being targeted. We want to expand the pool of options and make sure this budget is not being balanced on the backs of the Douglass community. But the options seems to be singular, which is to hand [the center] off," she said.
Plano officials point out that Douglass is a community center, not a recreation center. As such, it has fewer amenities and programs. And it does not charge member fees, while the other centers do.
The City Council must sign off on any outsourcing agreement. City officials said negotiations are continuing.
Tanya Greene, chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County, said she empathizes with the neighborhood's unease. But she said the concerns are unfounded.
"Unfortunately, any time you talk budget cuts, it's going to become personal for that neighborhood," she said. "Truthfully, I know what the Boys & Girls Clubs is capable of. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we can elevate the services and make it stronger than it's ever been."
FE - Alcohol all the buzz at Frisco council meeting
February 3rd, 2010Alcohol all the buzz at Frisco council meeting
By Jan Bellamy, Staff Writer / Frisco Enterprise
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Tuesday night’s [Frisco] city council meeting offered it all: alcohol, morality play, property rights, and pleas to be heard. It wasn’t a Texas shoot-out, but a gun was mentioned.
The hot topic: Did city council want to hold a public hearing on establishing a process for future alcohol-selling establishments to request waivers or variances from required distances from schools, churches, etc. Distances now vary from 350 to 800 feet, depending on specifics. Texas law allows a city to establish a variance process for future development.
“There are two considerations before you today. No alcohol sales near schools, which is, of course, a laudable goal,” Will Russell told council during the public hearing on whether to have a public hearing.
“But also property owners having a forum for hearing a variance or an exception to an ordinance,” Russell continued. “I think it’s important we have a forum for property owners to come to be heard.”
Ultimately, the council members voted 4-2 for staff to proceed with a public hearing to gauge interest and need for establishing a waiver-request process.
But not before the potential for a variance for alcohol sellers was compared to a five-day waiting period for a gun.
“You load the gun and put it in the drawer, and take it out after the five days,” Councilmember Bob Allen said.
“Now, that’s a cute political trick,” said Councilmember Scott Johnson, “comparing this to a loaded gun.”
Council members Allen and David Prince opposed using the public hearing process. Voting in favor were council members Bart Crowder, Jeff Cheney, Pat Fallon and Scott Johnson.
“The question is, while acknowledging it’s a good thing to have separation as a general rule, does common sense ever say, ‘well, in this case, all parties agree that it may be appropriate to consider a variance’,” Crowder said. “Right now, we don’t have the ability to consider a variance.”
Councilmember Prince said it’s wrong to presume restaurants won’t develop if they can’t or don’t want to sell alcohol.
“I’m not in favor of holding a public hearing on the situation,” Prince said. “I don’t think there should ever be a reason to compromise the distance between alcohol, children and schools.”
The public hearing will be included on a future council meeting agenda. More on the heated exchanges and Mayor Maher Maso's call for decorum can be seen on video at www.friscotexas.com/meetings.
Dallas Morning News endorses Ratliff for SBOE
February 3rd, 2010Editorial: We recommend Ratliff for SBOE District 9
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
We recommend Thomas Ratliff over incumbent Don McLeroy in the Republican primary for the State Board of Education's District 9 for several reasons. Most important is the fact that the Mount Pleasant resident could move this board beyond its culture-war conflicts.
Unfortunately, since being appointed as chairman in 2007, the 63-year-old McLeroy has helped lead the board into skirmishes involving evolution, reading standards and social studies content. The panel even got bogged down debating hip-hop versus country music. The rancor grew so routine that the Texas Senate last year refused to confirm the Bryan dentist as chairman.
McLeroy, a board member since 1999, undoubtedly cares about education. But this panel could use Ratliff's more practical approach to keep its work focused on essential issues. He's not an ideological brawler and could develop consensus.
Ratliff has had experience doing just that while serving on boards at his children's public schools in East Texas. And he says he would listen to teachers and superintendents in determining what students should know. Setting standards is a key function of this board, and Ratliff, 42, would be more in touch with educators than McLeroy. While Ratliff shouldn't become their captive, Texans are better served by someone who takes teachers' points of view seriously in crafting curriculum.
We also prefer Ratliff's emphasis on depoliticizing appointments of outside advisers, including those who handle the state's sizable education funds. The board has run into problems in selecting investment advisers.
A lobbyist himself, Ratliff swears he will disassociate himself from decisions that could involve a client. He certainly kept his lobbying business at arm's length from his father, Bill Ratliff, when the Republican served as lieutenant governor in 2001.
The winner of this primary will be unopposed in the November election. Voters in this district, which runs through parts of East Texas and Collin County, would benefit from Ratliff's sensible style and approach.
DMN - Area cities spending millions on IT projects
February 2nd, 2010Area cities spending millions on IT projects
Sunday, January 31, 2010
By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News
Even as the ongoing recession squeezes municipal budgets, several cities in North Texas are spending millions on major technology projects.
Frisco, Irving, McKinney, Plano and Richardson are replacing police and fire radio systems, to the tune of $8 million to $25 million apiece.
For most, the technology spending is an absolute need. Mowing schedules can be cut, and staff hires can be frozen, but police officers, firefighters and dispatchers must be able to communicate.
"We can't lose dial tone. We can't lose data," said Steve Graves, Richardson's chief technology officer. "The radio system, that's a crucial part of doing business."
Cities usually try to space out major projects so large expenditures can be spread out over time. But Richardson and Irving are planning to install several new technology systems at once.
Graves said some of his city's project was delayed, including buying $376,000 in new hardware and software for a public safety dispatch and records management system.
"Last year, we were ready to pull the trigger on it," Graves said. "But with a new chief coming in, we wanted to give him input. We don't want to say, 'Here's the system we're giving you. Work your needs around it.' "
At the same time, during a change to the city's radio frequency, the city found that its 18-year-old communications system was in dire need of replacement. That work will cost up to $10 million. Replacing an 11-year-old phone and data network will cost about $1.7 million.
Irving's two-year, $25 million project involves replacing its 13-year-old radio system, retrofitting the city with a fiber optics network and adding a wireless network.
Shane Burton, who oversees Irving's IT infrastructure, said the wireless network will cover the entire city but will not be available to the public. Instead, it will be reserved for water meter reading and other city uses.
Like Irving and Richardson, cities that hit their growth stride years ago, Plano also needs to replace an aging radio system. Bruce Glasscock, a Plano deputy city manager, said Motorola no longer supports his city's 15-year-old system.
Plano's situation is compounded in that growing areas including Frisco, Wylie and Murphy also use its radio system. Frisco in coming months will start using its own system, further changing the area Plano's radios must cover. Plano and its partners will spend about $25 million on the new system.
"It's a major project," Glasscock said. "We've been working with council the last three to five budget years, so we've been ready for it."
On the other end of the spectrum from the landlocked inner-ring cities are Frisco and McKinney?.
"Our system was designed for a 1999 city of McKinney," McKinney Assistant Police Chief Rex Redden said. "In some areas, our officers can't get a signal. Our department has tripled in size, and our land mass has pretty much quadrupled."
McKinney's $8.3 million radio system purchase comes on the heels of a $2 million public safety software and hardware replacement last year.
Scale can magnify even seemingly small purchases. Garland is proposing to spend about $2 million to replace video units in each of its 200 patrol cars.
The department is moving from VHS systems to digital recorders, equipment that Officer Joe Harn, a police spokesman, said hadn't been perfected when Garland first installed recorders in 2005.
A key for all the cities is to use advanced equipment but not to get too far ahead of the curve, especially on critical infrastructure like police and fire radios. Buy equipment that's too advanced, and it may still have bugs to work out. Technology that's too old has a shorter life cycle. So IT directors make purchasing decisions carefully.
DMN - Experian to add 300 Allen jobs
February 2nd, 2010Experian to expand Allen operation, add 300 people
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
International credit information firm Experian plans to increase the size of its Allen operation by almost a third.
Experian inked a deal with the city of Allen to expand its operations by 300 people in exchange for increased economic incentives, the Allen Economic Development Corp. said Monday.
Experian plans "additional business operations" at its 300,000-square-foot complex in Allen's Enterprise Business Park. About 600 Experian workers are housed in the facility, east of U.S. Highway 75.
Experian has had operations in Allen since 1993 and is the Collin County city's largest employer. The company has facilities in Allen for several business groups, including its National Consumer Assistance Center and its Decision Analytics, Information Technology and Public Education groups.
"In 2008, we reached an agreement for them to renew their lease for 10 years," said Robert R. Winningham, Allen Economic Development CEO. "Then last summer, they approached us and said they had done an analysis and liked Allen and wanted to sit down and talk with us again."
The new agreement calls for Allen to provide funds to remodel and build new offices in the Enterprise Business Park building that Experian will use.
"We like to put our funds toward infrastructure," Winningham said. "If they don't do anything, they don't get anything."
Winningham said the value of the incentive depends on how much growth the company has. It could be as much as $1.5 million paid over 10 years. But to receive all the incentive funds for the building renovation, Experian would have to invest $30 million.
DMN - Candidates spar over conservative credentials in Collin County judge race
January 29th, 2010Candidates spar over conservative credentials in Collin County judge race
Thursday, January 28, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
John Muns is running for the top office in Collin County government, so don't call him a moderate.
"I am a conservative Republican," Muns said at a candidate forum Thursday. "I've always been a conservative Republican. I believe in low taxes, fiscal responsibility, transparency and limited government."
Muns is trying to unseat Collin County Judge Keith Self, who says he's the real conservative in the March 2 Republican primary.
"There's a stark difference," Self said at the forum, sponsored by several local Tea Party chapters.
Self and Muns, political veterans with die-hard supporters, are each trying to win over party loyalists by touting their conservative credentials.
Self, a retired Army officer who is seeking a second term, said he's shown he's a fiscal conservative by helping to lower the county tax rate and slow the growth of county spending.
"Four years ago, I said I would stand with the taxpayers, and I did," said Self, who as county judge heads the Commissioners Court that approves the county budget and tax rate.
Muns, who has served on the Plano school board for 17 years, counters that the county budget has "been cut to the bone."
He said spending has been slowed at the expense of adding courts and sheriff's deputies, which he said are desperately needed.
"We must be proactive in keeping up with resources for law enforcement and the courts to keep our neighborhoods safe," Muns said.
The winner faces Democrat David Smith in the November general election. But a Democrat hasn't held Collin County office in more than 20 years, so the stakes are elevated in the March primary.
Both of the Republican candidates have lined up heavyweight endorsements. Self is being backed by local state Reps. Jodie Laubenberg, Jerry Madden and Ken Paxton. He also has the endorsement of the Collin County Association of Realtors.
Muns, by comparison, has been endorsed by the Real Estate Council, which represents Dallas-area commercial real estate companies. He also is supported by former Collin County Commissioner Phyllis Cole and former Plano Mayor Pat Evans.
Ties to Plano
Muns, a real estate developer, has strong ties to Plano. He graduated from Plano Senior High School in 1978 and has served on the Plano Economic Development Board and the Plano Symphony Orchestra board.
Muns' father, James Muns, was Plano mayor from 1992 to 1996. His mother, Betty Muns, serves on the Arts of Collin County Commission.
Muns said he would work more closely with local mayors. Some were angered by Self's opposition to a 2007 county bond proposal that included money for city projects, he said. Voters overwhelmingly approved the $328.9 million bond program.
"We must be better partners with city, regional and state leaders," Muns said.
He said the county should work with cities to attract businesses to the area.
"We have to be proactive and give businesses incentives to come to Collin County," Muns said.
Self, however, said keeping the county tax rate low is the best way to draw and keep businesses.
"It's been proven again and again and again that business goes where it is welcome and stays where it is welcome," he said.
Self lives in McKinney. He moved to the county in 2000 after retiring from a 25-year career in the Army. He's a graduate of the United States Military Academy and was a Green Beret and a Ranger.
He serves on the boards of the Samaritan Inn homeless shelter and the Prestonwood Pregnancy Center.
DMN - DART considers letting more cities aboard at lower cost
January 25th, 2010DART considers letting more cities aboard at lower cost
Sunday, January 24, 2010
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Area Rapid Transit is considering ways to bring new cities aboard without requiring them to pay a full cent of sales tax, which has been a core membership requirement since the agency's founding more than a quarter-century ago.
That full-penny requirement, which in recent years has meant more than $200 million a year in sales tax contributions from Dallas alone, has been the biggest obstacle to the agency's growth. One fast-growing suburb after another has chosen to stay out of DART rather than surrender all of its discretionary sales tax revenue to pay for bus and rail service.
DART president Gary Thomas said preliminary discussions have begun among his board members and leaders in cities that border the agency's 13 member cities.
"When we started DART in 1983, it didn't make sense for some of these outlying cities to be part of a regional system," Thomas said. "The revenues in those cities were not sufficient, and neither was the likely ridership. But here as we find ourselves with a lot of first-ring suburbs as part of the agency ... and we have gone way beyond that."
He and DART board members said they would like to persuade some new cities to join, though they said it will take a patient strategy.
The first efforts probably will be to persuade cities to simply contract for specified services – probably limited bus service, Thomas said, adding that doing so would require changes to DART rules.
"Right now, our board policy says I can only contract for commuter [rail] service," he said. "But some communities have approached us about contracting for bus service, so we have begun those conversations at the board to talk about a policy change.
"In other words, if a city wants to have us run three routes in the morning and three in the evening, then we'd send those buses – probably bringing the passengers to downtown Dallas or another central location – and send the city a bill, and they would send us a check."
That's a far cry from ushering in new cities as full members of DART, but, Thomas said, it's an important first step. All the cities that border DART cities have obligated their sales tax revenue for other purposes, and it will take several years for most of them to be in a position to even consider dedicating any of that money to DART.
"These cities would begin to carve out room in their budgets" so that a discussion about becoming a member – whether at a full penny or, if DART changes its rules, at a reduced rate – would be a less drastic step, Thomas said.
Finding new members – even if in a reduced capacity – would help DART in two big ways.
First, the new members would provide badly needed growth for an agency that hasn't expanded its revenue base since shortly after its founding.
The last city to join DART, by a local referendum in 1985, was Buckingham, a city later annexed by Richardson. There have been no attempts by any of its neighbors to join since then. Meanwhile, only two cities have dropped out – Coppell and Flower Mound, both in 1989.
Second, new members, even junior ones, could help ease frustration among some member cities confronted with sagging sales tax receipts.
One founding member, Plano, has already asked DART to prepare a summary of what would be required should it decide to quit, Thomas and officials in Plano said.
"We are working on that now," Thomas said, adding that staff is determining how many years Plano would have to dedicate sales taxes to DART following a withdrawal. "It wouldn't be for just a year or two. If a city were to have a [successful] pullout election, the service would stop the next day, but the financial obligations for that city may not stop that day."
The soonest Plano could hold such an election would be 2014, though officials there said no serious discussion of calling an election has begun.
Still, Thomas said DART takes any such request seriously. "It doesn't come up often, but occasionally it has ... They begin to say, 'Gosh, is there a better way to spend our money?' "
Not surprisingly, for Thomas the answer is no.
But he said complaints from Plano, which has two busy light rail stations plus extensive bus routes, reflect growing pressures among older suburbs as they weather an economic downturn while their neighbors use their sales taxes to promote economic development.
"Certainly in these tough economic times, cities are looking for ways to look for relief in their financial system," he said.
He said DART has begun studying ways to increase service to Plano, with a special focus on how to ramp up services for elderly citizens.
Meanwhile, Mayor Phil Dyer of Plano said there has been no serious talk of withdrawing from DART, despite occasional criticism. But he said it's easy to lament the flow of more than $55 million in annual sales taxes out of the city.
"If we had this election again, and had the option of using the penny for economic development, I am not sure how it would come out this time, either here in Plano or in any of the DART cities," Dyer said.
Rick Stopher, mayor pro tem in Irving, said his city is thrilled to finally be able to welcome rail service to town as the Orange Line opens in phases beginning next year.
"We're had our difficulties with DART, but right now we're like a kid with a shiny new toy; we can't wait for it to get here," he said. "But we have these conversations all the time, questions about whether DART has been a good investment."
DMN - Primary fight for Texas House seat in Plano tilts right
January 25th, 2010Primary fight for Texas House seat in Plano tilts right
Sunday, January 24, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Think back nearly two decades, when the Persian Gulf War was unfolding, the Dallas Cowboys had yet to renew their dynasty and the word "web" meant spiders.
That is the last time someone other than Brian McCall has represented West Plano in the Texas House.
McCall's decision not to seek re-election means a new face will take his District 66 seat in November.
The campaign's action is in the March 2 Republican primary, where Mabrie Jackson, Wayne Richard and Van Taylor have sought to burnish their appeal among conservatives.
No Democrats filed to run. Other candidates include Libertarians Josef Novak and Benjamin Westfried and independent Eric Roberson.
Moderate Republicans in the affluent district have long anchored support for McCall, one of Plano's most popular politicians.
But with impassioned conservatives showing new life at Tea Party rallies and in groups such as the Collin County Conservative Republicans, the politics of the primary has tracked to the right.
At a packed kickoff event earlier this month, Jackson vowed to keep tax rates in check and adhere to what she called "traditional values."
Taylor has picked up the endorsement of the Young Conservatives of Texas and signed a "taxpayer protection" pledge with the Americans for Tax Reform, a group opposed to most taxes.
Meanwhile, Richard says he is "worried about the direction that Texas can possibly go," wants to lessen the business tax burden and promotes home schooling.
Barbs thrown
Little sparring has occurred so far, but that could change as March approaches.
Opponents have quietly begun throwing barbs at Taylor, a real estate investor who according to federal records spent more than $300,000 of his own money in an unsuccessful 2006 bid for Congress in the Waco area. He moved to Plano shortly thereafter.
He dismisses the chatter, saying, "My wife and I have always invested in causes that we believe in."
Taylor, 37, has already begun running television and other ads touting his conservative credentials and tenure in the Marine Corps. He said he hopes to restructure state government, bolster border security and encourage the creation of more charter schools.
In general, he said, he would advocate "lower taxation, less regulation and less litigation."
Jackson, a former Microsoft account manager, is the only candidate to have served in public office. She resigned from the Plano City Council in November and has received endorsements from a number of community groups and city leaders, including McCall.
She said she would seek to balance the state's budget and focus on funding the growing needs of Texas' public education system and transportation network.
"I understand the real issues that affect real people every day," said Jackson, 45.
Touting new ideas
Richard said he does not have the name recognition or resources of either of his opponents. But the 55-year-old, who founded a small technology firm, said he would bring new ideas to the table.
For instance, he believes that government and schools could operate more efficiently by turning to new technologies, such as computer tablets instead of textbooks.
He also has started a group called the National Coalition for the Defense of American Sovereignty, which adheres to the view that the U.S. Constitution faces threats from laws created abroad.
Richard said he would "vote 100 percent of the time with the taxpayer."
read more including candidate backgrounds at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN - Opinion allows Collin DA to fund weapons for courthouse security team
January 24th, 2010Opinion allows Collin DA to fund weapons for courthouse security team
Sunday, January 24, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County District Attorney John Roach will get his gear.
The county commissioners have given up their effort to stop Roach from spending $25,000 on high-powered rifles, shotguns, helmets and shields to outfit a one-of-a-kind courthouse security team.
The commissioners, who approve the district attorney's overall budget, sought a legal opinion but found that Roach can use asset forfeiture funds for the purchase.
"It's very clear," Commissioner Matt Shaheen said.
Earlier this month, he and other Commissioners Court members questioned the legality and necessity of having two dozen DA investigators don riot gear to respond to a courthouse shooting.
They still don't like the idea.
Commissioners say the McKinney Police Department, the Collin County sheriff's office, the Homeland Security Department and bailiffs provide plenty of firepower to handle an emergency.
"Here's my concern: Who's in charge?" Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said. "If a shooter does show up in a courtroom, who's going to do what?"
Roach, who is retiring at the end of the year, said he never doubted he had the authority to buy the SWAT-type equipment.
"I wouldn't have been asking for something I couldn't do," he said.
Roach formed the emergency response team after taking office in 2003. It conducts monthly training after hours at the courthouse but has never been called into action.
The investigators, who are all certified to carry a gun, could respond to a shooting quicker than other law enforcement officers, Roach said. But they would take a secondary role once police, sheriff's deputies or others arrived, he said.
"We have 24 police officers in this courthouse who work for the district attorney's office," Roach said. "They're not going to stand there with their thumbs in their ears if something goes down."
He's a little rankled that commissioners and others have referred to the security force as a SWAT team. SWAT officers break down doors to make arrests. The emergency response team is defensive in nature, Roach said.
"The mission is entirely different," he said.
In 2005, an East Texas courthouse shooting left two people dead. This month, a gunman opened fire in a Las Vegas courthouse, killing one person and injuring another.
"Just because it hasn't happened here doesn't mean it won't," said Chad Smith, deputy chief investigator for the Collin County district attorney's office.
Smith took part in a training exercise Thursday night in which investigators wore bulletproof vests, helmets and black windbreakers with "District Attorney Police" on the back. They carried pistols that shoot plastic pellets and responded to staged courtroom emergency.
In it, a sexual assault defendant pulls a gun after being sentenced to 50 years in prison.
"I'm in charge of the courtroom now," the actor screams.
He then fatally shoots the bailiff and two jury members as others scream.
Four investigators, crouching and pointing their guns, barge into the courtroom. They immediately shoot and kill the defendant, who collapses onto the floor.
"All clear," an investigator yells to end the crisis.
Smith stood and addressed the team members.
"Good job, everybody," he said.
The mandatory training will continue next month. Roach says it may one day save lives.
"The likelihood of these things occurring may be remote, but it's ridiculous not to plan," he said.
link to article at The Dallas Morning News....
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Bill comments:
Also see Collin County Observer article, Armed & Dangerous: DA wants to SWAT 'em
In military terms, what the DA is trying to do is called "mission creep", as the role of the Criminal district Attorney is to prosecute criminals, not defend the courthouse.
I hope the next Collin County District Attorney takes swift action to disband or limit these "courthouse commando" teams. Listening to DA Chief Investigator Novaline Varner's testimony before the commissioners court makes it clear that the teams lack clear command and authority guidelines.
For example Varner told the court that there is no Memorandum of Understanding between the various police agencies defining the roles and responsibilities of the DA, the Sheriff and the McKinney police in the event of a courthouse emergency. There is no standard operating procedure written that defines the role of or the authority of the one law enforcement officer presently charged with the security of the courtroom - the bailiff.
Varner's response to the questions on the procedures for command and authority shed some light on the nature of the courthouse commando teams, "We are working on an SOP, so everybody will know what they're doing. but all of that takes time. While we're wasting time getting through the red tape, we're still training. I don't want us to come across that we're some kind of "Three Stooges" type [operation]."
After her testimony, Commissioner Jerry Hoagland told the court, "My concern is, we have the sheriffs department, we have the McKinney police, we have homeland security we got the bailiff. We have all these different parties. And I'm not sure this is a function of the DAs office. I'm not saying that maybe we don't need more security, maybe we do. But I'm not sure that is a proper function of a District Attorneys Office."
Commissioner Joe Jaynes stated, "I really don't believe we need another police force, whether its called a SWAT or Emergency Response. In a lot of ways that could just make the situation even more dangerous."
In discussion over another agenda item, it was revealed that the DA investigators lacked radio equipment to communicate with Sheriff's deputies in the event of an emergency.
Ms. Varner and the DAs office often refer to the 2005 Smith County courthouse shooting as an example of the need for tighter security here in Collin County. But in the Smith County incident, the shooter was outside the courthouse, and he fired on citizens who were on the courthouse steps. In both the Smith County shooting and the Las Vegas shooting, the suspect was killed far from the courthouse after a chase by law enforcement. It is unclear from the DAs proposal exactly where the limits will be set for John Roach's courthouse commandos. Will they be authorized to respond to shooters outside in the parking lots? Across the street at the Sheriff's Office? At Wal Mart across from the University Dr. courthouse? Anywhere?
Where does the mission creep end?
So far, the ONLY casualty from violence at the Bloomfield Rd courthouse has been by friendly fire. During one of the DA's commando training exercises, District Judge John Roach, Jr. was accidentally shot in the face with a blank. He was shot by a volunteer civilian, who had no business with a real gun, but was given the gun for role play by law enforcement personnel who should have known better. But they don't want to be known as some kind of "Three Stooges" operation.
Courthouse observers and law enforcement personnel I have talked with believe the real key to security at the courthouse is in excluding weapons, not in escalating the levels of violence. They believe that putting more commissioned sheriff's deputies at the entrances and in the hallways, and putting them in charge of courthouse security would both exclude the likeliness of a bad guy being able to start a shooting incident and speed up the reaction time in the case of an incident.
Presently, the task of screening visitors and the responsibility for courthouse security is assigned to the Homeland Security Department. Homeland Security is not a police agency, and was given the job because using civilian guards is cheaper than hiring real commissioned deputies.
The real issue of courthouse security is budget. The Commissioners Court has elected to run courthouse security "on the cheap". Their decision to hire unarmed, civilian guards creates a security vacuum that the DA is trying to fill with his erstwhile "courthouse commandos". DA Roach's decision is a mistake. The county's attempts to Wal Mart the security of the courts is the cause.
The solution is obvious.
Bill
NBCDFW - Mileage Meters? Texans Could Get Taxed By the Mile
January 17th, 2010Mileage Meters? Texans Could Get Taxed By the Mile
By KEN KALTHOFF / NBCDFW Channel 5
Updated 11:19 PM CST, Fri, Jan 15, 2010
A tax on the miles you drive could be a way to pay for Texas roads in the future.
Texas transportation planners are studying the idea of a “mileage meter” to help raise money.
Cars built after 1999 have a computer port that can access many types of data about the vehicle.
Progressive Insurance already offers a device that connects to that port for pay as you go rates.
“Mileage does have a lot to do with it,” said Mike Leonard, a Progressive insurance agent in Carrollton. “The less the miles, the less exposure Progressive has. So therefore, they’re willing to give you a discount on your rates.”
The Texas Department of Transportation is investigating whether such a device might also be used to tax drivers for how much they use roads.
“I’m not ready to embrace that technology, but it is a technology we may have to look at,” said State Sen. John Carona, of Dallas, a Republican.
Carona said Texas has an estimated $100 billion worth of unfunded transportation needs.
“The money simply does not exist, and if people are being honest with constituents, they come out and just tell them that," he said. "We don’t have the money in Austin, and there isn’t the ability locally to raise this money to be able to solve these problems.”
Carona said a 20-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax approved 19 years ago no longer covers Texas transportation requirements. The state senator said he believes Texas has resorted to too many toll roads, which he claims cost citizens more in the long run.
“It’s not a good public policy," he said. "I would argue continued advancement toward more toll roads is bad for Texas.”
Another pay-as-you-go plan might require drivers to electronically record their mileage at the gas pump, which is already required by for some private company cars.
Carona said raising the gas tax by 10 cents per gallon could pay for all the unfunded transportation needs, but Carona has found that option has found that option extremely unpopular among state lawmakers.
One way or another, all of the options require citizens to pay more to solve Texas transportation needs.
“We are substantially behind the times in dealing with this,” Carona said. “We’re going to face substantially greater congestion and air quality issues.”
DMN - Property tax cap for seniors puts some North Texas cities in a bind
January 17th, 2010Property tax cap for seniors puts some North Texas cities in a bind
Sunday, January 17, 2010
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Six years after Texas voters gave cities the ability to cap property tax bills for senior citizens, cash-strapped communities that opted in are starting to feel the costs.
Cities stand to forfeit billions of dollars in values from their property tax rolls this year because of the caps even as many municipalities face their worst budget deficits in years.
Those losses are projected to grow sharply as property values climb and waves of aging baby boomers become eligible.
The permanent local-option caps, which voters added to the state constitution in 2003, apply to residents age 65 and older. At least 244 cities have adopted the municipal tax caps since 2004, according to the state comptroller.
"All of these cities, they are going to cause themselves imminent trouble in the future," said Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst for the nonpartisan Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin. "That's all property value that's no longer able to support schools, fire, police, roads and sewers."
Figuring out how much taxable value the caps have wiped off the books is difficult. Neither the state nor local appraisal districts keep reliable data about the losses.
Clearly, the numbers reach into the billions. By comparison, school districts, which operate under mandatory senior citizen tax caps, forfeited an estimated $47 billion in taxable value in 2008.
In Collin County, tax data shows, the municipal caps erased more than $200 million in value from the books of nine communities last year.
That figure does not include an optional tax cap for seniors on county property taxes, which expunged an additional $560.9 million, the analysis showed. More than 100 counties, including Dallas and Tarrant, have passed optional senior tax caps. The city of Dallas has not.
All of that lost taxable value translates into millions of dollars in revenue for local government – more than $2.4 million this fiscal year in Collin County and its cities. And it puts greater pressure on leaders in those communities to slash services or raise property tax rates for nonseniors.
Easing the burden
Providing tax relief for the elderly became a political hot potato after a real estate bubble in the 1970s that, for many, drove up property tax bills to unreasonable levels.
Texas and other states have since eased the burden on older fixed-income homeowners with homestead and other exemptions.
The senior tax caps, written by state Rep. Fred Brown, R-Bryan, are meant to provide further relief. The proposal received overwhelming support from lawmakers and voters.
Once eligible, a resident's tax bill becomes frozen at its current amount. Disabled residents also qualify, although their impact on local budgets is far less.
The thinking is that the cap's budgetary impact will always be limited because even as more seniors qualify, others will move or die. When that happens, the full value of those properties returns to the tax rolls. Widowed spouses age 55 and older continue receiving the benefit.
Oscar Garcia, a 77-year-old Fort Worth retiree who has actively campaigned for the senior caps, said the measure is crucial to struggling older homeowners.
"This applies to people who have been paying their fair share of taxes all of their lives," Garcia said. "It's not unfair to pass the burden to the next generation. That's the way it's always been in life."
But with property values certain to rise in the long term and the senior population far outpacing overall growth in Texas, the tax caps could one day become a ball and chain on municipal budgets.
The state's elderly population, about 2.4 million, is expected to double by 2030, according to estimates from the census and state demographer. Texas' total population, 24 million, is projected to grow far more gradually.
Plano's problem
Perhaps no city illustrates the predicament better than budget-challenged Plano, which capped senior citizen tax bills in 2004.
Even as Plano struggles with budget deficits, the city is expected to forfeit more than $765,000 in revenue this year because of the senior cap. The losses have risen sixfold since 2005, driven largely by growth in the city's elderly population.
The forfeited amount is relatively small given Plano's general fund budget of about $220 million. But the losses have exacerbated the city's financial problems and will only grow.
The cap also has blunted Plano's ability to raise money through property tax rate increases.
Plano has twice raised its tax rate since 2006. But because of the city's senior cap, those increases do not apply to one-sixth of the roughly 56,000 properties in Plano that qualify for homestead exemptions, according to local appraisal data.
Plano Mayor Phil Dyer was a City Council member when the cap passed and voted for the measure. But even then, he expressed concerns about the long-term consequences.
"The monetary impact is for real, and it's going to get larger," he said. "I'm not in favor of taking it away by any means. But it is going to be a significant drain on a lot of this city's resources."
For that reason, in late 2007, the city of University Park took a different approach.
Instead of adopting a tax cap, the city approved a much larger tax exemption for elderly homeowners that can be adjusted annually for market conditions.
"Putting a freeze on senior taxes is a one-time forever decision," said Kent Austin, University Park's finance director.
"You make that decision without knowing for certain what's going to happen in your community. What if the over-65 population goes from 10 percent to 50 percent of your city? You've then frozen half of your tax base."
Of course, the impact differs based on a city's demographics, property values, tax rates and other factors.
Grand Prairie and Mesquite, for instance, predict modest cap hits to their budgets.
"I don't think the impact is going to be that significant," said Diana Ortiz, Grand Prairie's finance director. That city has lost about $200,000 so far because of the caps.
'Poorly conceived'
On the whole, government experts say the logic behind the senior tax caps is flawed.
"It's poorly conceived," said Michael Pagano, dean of urban planning and public affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "It assumes that, at age 65, everybody retires, your income doesn't change and you're not well off. It has nothing to do with your ability to pay."
Brown, the author of the tax caps, said, "By and large, the freeze has been very effective for those on fixed incomes."
But as the broader impact of his legislation has become clearer, he wishes he had tailored the proposal more narrowly to benefit only those of modest means.
"I don't want to see seniors in million-dollar homes getting a huge tax break," he said.
Tweaking the tax caps would be difficult – both politically and logistically.
Said Dyer of Plano, "It's something we decided to do. And we can't really reverse it. Now, we're going to have to work around it."
DMN - Collin Higher Education Center in McKinney keeps students at five schools closer to home
January 14th, 2010
Collin Higher Education Center in McKinney keeps students at five schools closer to home
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News
During peak traffic, Nathan Bearden would give himself a full hour to get from his McKinney driveway to his classroom seat at the University of Texas at Dallas.
This week, that commute dropped to 10 minutes. He's taking a juvenile-law course at Collin College's new Collin Higher Education Center, where UTD and other four-year colleges offer classes.
"It's like three streets away. I'm very happy," said Bearden, a senior in his last semester. "Plus, it's a really neat building."
The $30 million facility, at State Highway 121 and Central Expressway in McKinney, opened this week with a few, mostly small, classes. But Collin College officials say it represents a major effort to give residents of the fast-growing county a chance to pursue four-year and graduate degrees.
"We're hoping that we can at least keep people close to home, and have them spend less time on the highways," said college President Cary Israel.
Collin College, a public, two-year school, built the 125,000-square-foot center on land provided by the McKinney? Economic Development Corp. The four-story building, featuring Texas red granite framed by blue-tint windows and a soaring glass atrium, will house the Collin College administration as well as classes from other colleges.
Different approach
While some community colleges have expanded to offer their own upper-level undergraduate courses, Israel said he and the Collin College trustees felt a more efficient approach would be to bring in established four-year schools.
When the current term is fully under way, the center will see about 450 students taking classes offered by UTD, Dallas Baptist University, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Texas Woman's University and the University of North Texas.
The number should triple by next fall, when a new school year begins and the center is better known, Israel said.
UTD has 210 students enrolled at the center. Given that 4,000 UTD students live in Collin County, the school's enrollment at the center will probably grow dramatically, said Sheila Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres, associate provost.
Students enrolled at the center follow the procedures and pay the fees set by the college teaching the course. Each school has its focus areas, with UTD offering business and criminology courses at the undergraduate level, as well as graduate courses in accounting and business administration.
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
Plano City Council Special Election: Early Voting begins
January 12th, 2010Early voting begins tomorrow, January 13 for the Plano City Council special elections to fill the open seat vacated by the resignation of councilwoman Mabrie Jackson.
Early voting will run from the 13th to the 26th. Election day is on January 30, 2010. More information about voting locations, days and hours can be found at The City of Plano's Election Information webpage.
EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS
| Collin County Elections Department | 2010 Redbud Boulevard, Suite 102, McKinney, TX 75069 |
| Carpenter Park Recreation Center | 6701 Coit Road Plano, TX 75024 |
| Christopher A. Parr Library | 6200 Windhaven Parkway Plano, TX 75093 |
| Collin County Community College - Spring Creek Campus | 2800 E. Spring Creek Parkway Plano, TX 75074 |
| Haggard Library | 2501 Coit Road Plano, TX 75075 |
| Harrington Library | 1501 18th Street Plano, TX 75074 |
| Plano Independent School District Administration Center | 2700 West 15th Street Plano, TX 75075 |
EARLY VOTING TIMES
| January 13, 2010 through January 15, 2010 | 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. |
| January 19, 2010 through January 23, 2010 | 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. |
| January 25, 2010 and January 26, 2010 | 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. |
THE CANDIDATES:
André Davidson
Age: 64
Occupation: Volunteer
Family: Husband and two adult children
Education: Bachelor of arts degree in general studies, University of Texas at Dallas; attended University of Southwestern Louisiana
Community highlights: Served numerous local volunteer groups ranging from Meals on Wheels to the Plano ISD Education Foundation; named Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year in 2005
Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage
Kathy Fang
Age: 63
Occupation: Accountant
Family: Single
Education: Master's degree in business administration, University of North Texas; bachelor's degree in business administration, Soochow University in Taiwan
Community highlights: Leadership Plano graduate; founder of a local group for Chinese-American businesswomen
Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage
Doug Shockey
Age: 42
Occupation: Real estate investor
Family: Wife and two children
Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration and master's degree in taxation, Baylor University
Community highlights: Real estate consultant
Campaign Website
Collin County Observer coverage
biographical details from the Plano Blog, Dallas Morning News
Bill
====================================
Council candidates pledge to be vocal, engaging and transparent
By Kim Nguyen / Plano Star-Courier
Monday, January 11
Now that the special election campaign season is underway, the three candidates vying for the vacant Place 3 seat on the Plano City Council are gaining momentum
The special election will take place Jan. 30, but early voting begins Jan. 13, leaving the candidates little time to attract their constituents.
In her 30 years as an active Plano citizen and volunteer, André Davidson has seen the highs and lows of the city. She pledges to be an active voice on the council by taking a fresh look at the city’s budget to help identify potential cuts.
“The city council has already begun to do what they need to do by examining the budget very closely,” she said. “Obviously, the budget will be the biggest challenge in next few years, and if we continue to do that -- look at every program and service the city provides to see which are the most cost-efficient -- we can make changes to reduce expenses and possibly increase revenues.”
Increasing revenues will add to the city’s quality of life; but without additional revenues, more services that Plano residents keep close to heart may end up on the chopping block.
“What I’m most concerned with is maintaining quality services for our citizens, particularly in public safety,” she said.
Maintaining a high quality of life, will not only attract future residents, but businesses as well, she said.
“It is extremely important to continue the economic developments efforts currently being made by the council,” Davidson said. “We need a solid plan to recruit and retain businesses in the city to build a strong corporate tax base.”
Another way to increase the city’s quality of life is looking at ways to revitalize the aging community in residential and commercial areas, Davidson said.
“I want to continue to look at ways to revitalize the neighborhoods as we become a more mature city, which is a challenge to the economic development of the city,” she said. “I want to keep Plano as the vibrant community that companies and families choose to live in and open their business in.”
In order to adequately evaluate and assess the budget, a person with a strong background in finance is needed, said candidate Cathy Fang.
“If I am elected, I will use my knowledge and experience in the finance field to work with other city council members to review the budget and try to find more cuts,” she said. “I know cuts sound scary, but if we make the right ones, it won’t make as big of an impact and be as noticeable.”
Considering the economic downturn, Fang said the budget balancing is not the sole responsibility of the city council members.
“As they are in the process of revising the budget to maximize cost-efficiency, the city does a great job of listening to the public,” she said. “I like that everyone sees the big picture and is agreeing to find a way to fix it [the budget problem]. Based on the feedback from the public, the council needs to set the priorities and find cuts in non-essential items.”
The constant flow of communication is important and Fang pledges to remain available to the public to allow for the exchange of ideas and opinions. Engaging the community throughout the budget cycle is something that Fang feels is an important step in the process.
“The constituents can give very good advice because they see things that we don’t always see,” she said. “I’d rather spend my spare time being out in the community to be available to speak with the public to see what they think is important to them. That way I can make decisions based on what the community feels is important.”
Fang said the entire Plano community needs to develop a team attitude to get through the recession.
“We are all in the economic downturn, and we need to work together to get out of the situation,” she said. “We need to balance our budget now, or our children and children’s children will have to pay.”
The biggest thing that needs improvement for Plano city government is the need for increased transparency and open communication to citizens.
“We do have some big budget issues coming that we need to work harder toward but the primary thing to being an elected official is being a true representative of the people and increasing the citizen voice,” he said.
Shockey pledges to provide accessible government, transparent leadership and more citizen involvement as the Place 3 councilman.
“I want to encourage proactive communication and help find ways to get the citizens involved,” he said. “The council has been moving in that direction but there’s still a long way to go.”
Shockey said on his campaign trail he’s been confronted with upset citizens who “truly, just want representation.”
“A lot of people have a negative view on our city leaders strictly because they don’t know what’s going on or they don’t feel like they know what’s going on,” he said. “Some people I’ve met have said that want to get involved but don’t know how to. I pledge to find ways for them to get involved, either through volunteer efforts or through education.”
City government is a three-legged process, Shockey said, and without citizen participation, the constituents will continue to feel misrepresented and discontinue their efforts to help make Plano the best city to live.
“Right now, everything we have works well. Plano is a wonderful city with a low crime rate and relatively low tax rate, and city leadership is committed to trying to keep it that way,” he said. “But what Plano needs is a consensus among the administration, citizens and council. Plano’s becoming a big city and will cave in to big city problems if we don’t plan appropriately.”
Former City Councilwoman Mabrie Jackson resigned her seat on the Plano City Council in November to seek the Texas House District 66 seat after longtime incumbent State Rep. Brian McCall? announced he would not seek re-election.
Early voting starts Jan. 13. One of the candidates must receive more than 50 percent of the vote on Jan. 30 to secure the seat. If there is no clear winner, a run-off election will take place March 20 to determine who will take the Place 3 seat on the Plano City Council.
FDWIL - The Race for Justice of the Peace, Pct. 4
January 6th, 2010The Race for Justice of the Peace 4 (Frisco area)
Posted on January 3, 2010 by Hunter Biederman / Frisco DWI Lawyer Blog
This year's Republican primary is set to be contested for the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4. Justices of the Peace's primary function is to hold civil court both justice and small civil claims. They also can preside over weddings. JP-4 handles tons of Toll Booth violations as well.
I understand there are 3 candidates, and I only personally know two. Kelley Adley, and Mike Yarbrough, the current sitting JP. Below is a profile on both candidates. I will add any additional candidates including Doug Reeves later once I see websites up, or learn more about them.
KELLEY ADLEY
Kelley Adley works in the County Court and has served as a Senior Criminal Investigator for the Collin County District Attorney’s Office, where his responsibilities included reviewing police reports, gathering criminal evidence and documentation, interviewing victims for criminal trial testimony, business and medical record affidavits, and issuing and serving subpoenas. Additionally, Adley is a Volunteer Firefighter in Prosper. While serving the community, Adley earned his MBA from LaTourneau University.
"I want to restore integrity and honesty to the office while reestablishing accountability. Together we can tackle the issues facing local families and the community. The schools need our help with truancy and minor offenses. Our children are our future and keeping them on the right track is vitally important.
I pledge to work full-time with real production. I will have an open door policy and will respond to all questions and concerns of all the people of Precinct 4. We must address real issues and solutions. Join with me in reestablishing JP Court Precinct 4 as 'the People’s Court'."
More about Mr. Adley can be found on his campaign website at www.kelleyadley.com.
MIKE YARBROUGH
Mike Yarbrough is the current sitting JP of the court. He has held this position since 1998. Mr. Yarbrough holds a B.A. in political science from the University of New Mexico earned a J.D. from California Western School of Law, San Diego. He earned these degrees degrees while serving in the United States Marine Corps and retired as a Major.
Prior to serving as a JP, he has has served as a federal and state prosecutor, law professor at the
University of Oklahoma, municipal judge, a Department of Defense Ethics Counselor and legal liaison, as well as running a private law practice.
More about Mr. Yarbrough can be found on his campaign website at www.judgemikeyarbrough.com.
PAST ARTICLES ON COUNTY RACES
- Collin County Campaign Websites
- Collin County Court 2
- Collin County Court 3 (Collin County Observer)
- Collin County Court 4
- Collin County Court 6
- 219th District Court
- 296th District Court
- Collin County District Attorney
- Collin County Legislative races (Collin County Observer)
- Collin County Commissioners Court (Collin County Observer)
- State Board of Education (Collin County Observer)
Hunter Biederman is a DWI / Criminal Defense Attorney in Collin County. He publishes his blog (www.friscodwilawyer.com) which focuses on the Collin County and Texas legal system. He can be reached at friscolaw@gmail.com or (888) DWI-FRISCO.
DMN - Collin County Legislative Races
January 5th, 20103 Republicans, 2 Libertarians seeking McCall's Plano seat
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Brandon Formby, Theodore Kim and Ian McCann / The Dallas Morning News
The hottest legislative race in Collin County will be in House District 66. Three Republicans and two Libertarians will vie to replace longtime state Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, who is not seeking re-election for the western Plano seat.
They include former Plano City Council member Mabrie Jackson; Wayne Richard, founder of an advertising technology firm and a group called the National Coalition for the Defense of American Sovereignty; and Van Taylor, a real estate financier and former Marine.
Libertarians Josef Novak and Benjamin Westfried will face off in a party convention in March for a spot on the November ballot.
No Democrats filed to run in any legislative races in Collin County.
In other races:
• In House District 67, veteran state Rep. Jerry Madden of Plano drew no Republican challengers. No Democrat filed for the seat, either.
• In House District 70, incumbent Republican Ken Paxton will be challenged by Libertarian David A. Johnson.
• In House District 89, incumbent Republican Jodie Laubenberg had no challengers in any party.
• In state Senate District 8, longtime Republican Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, will face David Hall, a former Plano school board candidate and self-described futurist, in the GOP primary.
DMN - Collin County judge race reflects GOP divide, heads up packed primary ballot
January 5th, 2010Collin County judge race reflects GOP divide, heads up packed primary ballot
Monday, January 4, 2010
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
The primary campaign in the race for Collin County judge may center on whether conservatism in the Republican stronghold has gone too far.
Keith Self, who as county judge heads the Commissioners Court, touts himself as a staunch fiscal conservative who's helped lower the tax rate and reduce the growth of spending.
His challenger, John Muns, calls Self an extreme right-winger whose views jeopardize county services and quality of life.
"Keith has done a minimal amount of anything, except keeping taxes low," said Muns, a longtime Plano school trustee.
Self and Muns agree their race will offer Republican voters a stark ideological contrast.
"This is as good as it gets in terms of having a choice," Self said.
The Self-Muns race highlights a long list of contested county races in the March 2 Republican primary, for which filing ended Monday.
Commissioners Kathy Ward and Jerry Hoagland also face GOP opponents. Three candidates are vying to succeed District Attorney John Roach, who is not seeking re-election. And three candidates want to step in as district clerk to replace the retiring Hannah Kunkle.
Other contested GOP races include six judgeships and one justice of the peace seat.
Ward's opponent is Plano school trustee Duncan Webb.
Webb could not be reached for comment. On his Web site, he said he "has a proven record of community service, effective leadership and conservative values."
Ward, who won election in November 2008 to finish an unexpired term, said, "I'm looking forward to the competition."
Hoagland, a county commissioner since 1980, faces Karl Voigtsberger and Cheryl Williams.
Voigtsberger, a former engineer, ran unsuccessfully in 2008 for county tax assessor-collector. Williams served on the Plano City Council from 1995 to 1999. She owns a management and consulting firm.
In the district attorney's race, the Republican candidates are James Angelino, a Plano lawyer; Jeff Bray, senior legal adviser to the Plano police; and Greg Willis, who resigned as County Court at Law No. 6 judge to run for DA.
The GOP district clerk candidates are Patricia Crigger, Terrye Evans and Alma Hays. Crigger is the chief deputy district clerk.
Democrats, meanwhile, are fielding five candidates for Collin County office – their largest slate in more than 20 years.
David Smith, who served on the Plano City Council from 1993 to 1999, is running for county judge. He will face Self or Muns in the November general election.
Smith said he thinks Democrats are making a comeback in Collin County.
"There's a need for new leadership in Collin County government," he said.
The other Democratic candidates are Rick Koster for Precinct 2 county commissioner, Rafael De La Garza for district attorney, Sajeel S. Khaleel for judge in County Court at Law No. 3; and Rey Flores for justice of the peace.
DMN - Frisco homeowner association seeks to centralize city, county and school balloting
January 4th, 2010Frisco homeowner association seeks to centralize city, county and school balloting
Sunday, January 3, 2010
By WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning News
When Dudley Wilson wants to exercise his right to vote, he'd better make sure his car isn't running low on gas.
To vote in the May school board election, the Frisco resident drove to an elementary school in The Colony. Then he headed to a Frisco fire station to cast a ballot in the City Council election. Finally, he went to a local retirement community to have his say in the justice of the peace precinct alcohol referendum.
"We call it legalized voter disenfranchisement," Wilson said of the multiple polling places that he and his neighbors in western Frisco must travel to at election time.
That's because they live in three voting jurisdictions – Frisco, Denton County and the Lewisville school district – and each has its own polling place.
Wilson and his neighbors would like to simplify their election day by establishing a single polling location for elections.
They pleaded their case this month to the Lewisville school board, one of three entities that must approve their request.
Wilson, president of the Heritage Lakes homeowner association, offered the clubhouse in his gated community as a polling site for future elections.
School board secretary Cherry Carter said the clubhouse must be accessible to disabled voters and would have to be open to the public during voting hours to meet the election requirements.
Wilson said the clubhouse meets these requirements, and its use has been approved by the association's board.
The school board may vote on the measure in March when it's time to call the next election, district spokeswoman Karen Permetti said.
But Wilson and his neighbors may get a quicker response from Frisco.
City Council member Pat Fallon attended the school board meeting to speak in support of the group's request. He said the item is on the agenda for Tuesday's council meeting.
He told the Lewisville school board that "5,000 voters are being disenfranchised by having to vote in various locations."
The Denton County Elections Administration declined to comment on the group's request.
FDWIL - The Race for Collin County's 296h District Court
January 2nd, 2010The Race for the 296h District Court of Collin County
Posted on January 1, 2010 by Hunter Biederman / Frisco DWI Lawyer Blog
I found out recently that there will be a contested race for Republican Primary for the 296th District Court. The court currently held by John Roach Jr., will be contested by McKinney attorney Keith Gore. Right now, the court only hears civil cases because John Roach Jr.'s father, John Roach is the District Attorney. John Roach Sr. will be stepping down, meaning the court will now hear civil and criminal cases once again. Below are bios on the candidates. As they put up campaign websites and I gain information on their campaigns, I will post it here.
KEITH GORE
Keith Gore is a McKinney attorney in practice since 1997. Mr. Gore is a graduate of TCU and the University of Mississippi Law School. He was a former assistant district attorney in Dallas County (Chief misdemeanor prosecutor and felony prosecutor), served as prosecutor for City of Frisco, Foreman of the Grand Jury in 2008, former Municipal Court Judge, City of Trenton, Texas, and is certified to handle death penalty cases. Mr. Gore currently handles both civil litigation and criminal defense with the firm he founded, the Law Office of Keith Gore.
"The citizens of Collin County need a judge who is qualified to handle all cases filed with the court, including the most serious criminal cases, like capital murder, crimes against children and sexual assaults. I am the only candidate qualified to handle this broad range of cases."
More information can be found on his (future) website www.goreforjudge.com
JOHN ROACH, Jr.
John Roach, Jr. is the current Judge of the 296th District Court. He was elected in March 2006 and took office January 2007. He is a former partner in the firm Albin, Harrison, and Roach where the firm practiced in business and General Civil Law including Medical Malpractice Insurance Defense, Municipal Law, Business and Corporate Law, Family Law, Land Use and Zoning, Wills, and Commercial and Business Litigation.
Mr. Roach is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and St. Mary's University School of Law and served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves.
"I am very excited about my upcoming campaign for reelection as Judge. I enjoy the campaign trail because it allows me to talk about the court system, my philosophies about the law and get to meet so many new people. I have worked tirelessly in this position for the last 3 years and look forward to the next 4 years."
More information about Mr. Roach can be found on his (future) campaign website at www.judgeroach.org.
PAST ARTICLES ON COUNTY RACES
- Collin County Campaign Websites
- Collin County Court 2
- Collin County Court 3 (Collin County Observer)
- Collin County Court 4
- Collin County Court 6
- 219th District Court
- Collin County District Attorney
- Collin County Legislative races (Collin County Observer)
- Collin County Commissioners Court (Collin County Observer)
- State Board of Education (Collin County Observer)
Hunter Biederman is a DWI / Criminal Defense Attorney in Collin County. He publishes his blog (www.friscodwilawyer.com) which focuses on the Collin County and Texas legal system. He can be reached at friscolaw@gmail.com or (888) DWI-FRISCO.
Solutions to traffic woes anyone?
December 31st, 2009According to this editorial from The Dallas Morning News, the quality of Texas highways sunk from 8th to 17th in the nation.
In DFW toll lane miles will grow from 520 to over 3,300 miles by 2030. Many of these lanes will charge tolls in excess of $1/mile.
There are no major highway projects planned for the Collin county area that are not dependent on the collection of tolls for financing. Most of these new roads will be built and managed by private enterprise, not government. These new roads will require that they make investors a decent profit - if they don't, tolls will rise.
Collin County will be seeing its share of these managed lanes and toll roads. Frisco is already almost completely locked in by toll roads, and if the Central Expressway expansion is tolled (as is likely), all of our larger cities will be largely inaccessible without the paying of tolls.
If nothing is done, our citizens will live in continual traffic gridlock, and our air quality will worsen. Our continued growth will stall if we do not have the necessary transportation infrastructure to sustain that growth. We simply will not be able to attract major corporations, if their employees can not get to work.
Yet, we've heard very little from our County Commissioner candidates and incumbents on their plans to prevent Collin County from, in effect, becoming a "Gated Community" with a $20 price of admission in tolls for a daily commute.
It would be easy to simply place the blame on the state and federal governments. But here, in one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, just blaming someone else does nothing to solve our problems.
The Collin County Observer will be pleased to publish, unedited, any statement from a commissioners' court candidate or incumbent on planning and/or financing the needed expansion of our transportation systems.
Bill
also see:
DMN - NTTA leaders fear Dallas area's push for toll roads is moving too fast, CCO ,December 28, 2009
Mass transit sinking in Collin County?, CCO, October 11, 2009
DMN - North Texas Tollway Authority OKs rate hike, CCO, July 17, 2009
==========================
Editorial: Solutions to traffic woes are scarce
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
As if we need reminders that traffic around here is a drag.
The Texas highway system has slipped several notches in new state rankings from the free-market Reason Foundation. Rated for performance and efficiency, Texas has fallen from eighth in the nation to 17th.
The reason: urban congestion. Texas' metro highways now rank as the 11th most congested in the nation, according to the Reason analysis.
That's bad for business, bad for the air, bad for the quality of life.
At least the bad news helps remind state leaders of their negligence in protecting urban economies from the corrosive effects of impossible traffic.
Too little state money has been flowing to metro areas to complete and improve regional highway grids, and top leaders are generally bankrupt of bold, definitive ideas to reverse the trend.
That leaves North Texas with few options to building a massive system of tolled and partially tolled highways.
Just how massive may come as a shock to drivers whose monthly TollTag? charges rival their utility bills:
•Today, North Texas has 520 miles of tolled lanes.
•In 2030, the region is expected to have 3,379 miles of tolled lanes.
Those include hybrid projects like the massive LBJ rebuild, which will provide free lanes as well as toll lanes for drivers willing to pay for guaranteed speed. That's a useful traffic-management tool, even if people with toll fatigue won't see it that way.
It's hard to get state lawmakers to admit it, but the widening web of tollways is preordained by their refusal to boost the main source of state road revenue: the motor fuels tax.
That tax was last raised, to 20 cents a gallon, in 1991. Since then, inflation has eroded the buying power to about 13 cents.
The Senate transportation chairman, Sen. John Carona of Dallas, has the guts to call for an increase of 10 cents a gallon. But few others have been interested in discussing that obvious step, preferring to focus on new borrowing programs.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is reviving talk of financing projects by borrowing against additional sales taxes that would be generated along a new roadway. He also wants to analyze whether money now dedicated to rural roads should be shifted to fighting urban congestion.
Both ideas deserve careful consideration by lawmakers, but we doubt they would bring enough money to avert a predicted cutoff of new state highway projects come 2012.
Neither do we see funding initiatives among transportation ideas announced yesterday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in her run for governor. She said she is skeptical about the need for new money and wants to concentrate on an audit of TxDOT?. Gov. Rick Perry has made it clear that he thinks roadways are underfunded, but he has stopped short of calling for specific new sources of money.
If state leaders are unwilling to own the problem and point the way to a solution, they may someday have to deal with a threat that Carona pointed out in the Reason study: Mississippi is gaining on us.
CBS 11 - Family Of Victim Outraged Suspects' Bond Lowered
December 28th, 2009Family Of Victim Outraged Suspects' Bond Lowered
CBS Channel 11 / TXA Channel 21
December 27, 2009
ALLEN (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― A North Texas family is desperate for answers after learning their son's accused murderers are free.
The accused killers posted bail after their bond amounts were reduced.
"I miss him every day, I cry every day; I miss him a lot" says Sania Khan.
It is a pain no mother ever imagines, yet one this heartbroken mother must endure.
"They took away 21 years of my life," says the mother.
Her son, 21-year-old Faran Khan, was killed last month in an Allen park. Investigators say Khan was attacked and killed while practicing cricket.
Police arrested and charged two men with his murder. Bond was set at $200,000 for each. Yet this month both suspects, Richard Hughes and Jefferson Medina-Diaz, were able to post bail after a judge reduced their bonds to $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.
"These boys don't deserve to be out in the streets, they are murderers, they are killers. What judge in his right mind would do that?" cries Sania Kahn.
Her husband Agha is equally frustrated by the move. "Instead of lowering the bond, it should've been increased."
In an effort to raise awareness about the bond reduction and in hopes of spurring a change in the legal system, a Facebook page was created. It seeks justice for Faran.
"We wanted to make sure people had a place to know what was going on and to seek the truth" explains Faran's uncle Najam Khan.
Now the victim's family is making an emotional appeal to the Collin County District Attorney, wanting to know why their son's accused killers were able to get out on reduced bonds.
"The DA needs to put pressure on the judge that these guys need to be behind bars" says Agha. "Justice has to be served, they have to do this for Faran."
Collin County District Attorney John Roach was unavailable for comment Sunday night.
read the rest of this story at CBS 11 / TXA 21....
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Earlier media coverage by the Dallas Morning News at "2 held in fatal stabbing of cricket player in Allen"
Additional coverage at "Texas cricketer Faran Khan brutally killed in a park where he often practiced bowling"
DMN -- NTTA leaders fear Dallas area's push for toll roads is moving too fast
December 28th, 2009My only comment is "duh!"
Bill
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"People are going to realize that every new road in the metroplex is going to be a toll road."
NTTA vice chairman Victor Vandergriff
NTTA leaders fear Dallas area's push for toll roads is moving too fast
Sunday, December 27, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
As the Dallas area rushes forward in pursuit of more toll roads, warnings that it may be doing so at its own peril have been emanating from an unexpected corner: the top leaders of the North Texas Tollway Authority.
Even as the NTTA enters the final weeks of negotiations that all sides expect will conclude by Feb. 28 with a multibillion-dollar deal to build two new giant toll projects in Dallas and Tarrant counties, the agency's two top board members have been warning that the region may be moving too fast on toll roads.
"People are going to realize that every new road in the metroplex is going to be a toll road," NTTA vice chairman Victor Vandergriff said at a recent meeting of the NTTA board.
He was only exaggerating a little.
The Regional Transportation Council approves a 25-year plan for area transportation projects every five years – and the current plan has included a map with precious few free roads. Roads paid for with taxes have emerged as something of a luxury, one that the RTC no longer sees as affordable, given the rising needs and insufficient funds from Austin and Washington.
A new plan is in the works now, and officials say it could shift away from tolls.
But for now, tolls are fast becoming the dominant way local officials hope to move Dallas area residents from one place to another.
The NTTA already manages three major toll roads – the Sam Rayburn Tollway, the Bush Turnpike, and its oldest and still most lucrative, the Dallas North Tollway – and is collecting tolls on the first stages of a fourth, State Highway 161 in Dallas County.
Over the next six weeks or so, NTTA is expected to reach an agreement with the state Department of Transportation to complete Highway 161 and build the Southwest Parkway and Chisholm Trail toll roads in Tarrant County. A major expansion of the Bush Turnpike is under way now, and officials in Dallas continue to hope that NTTA will build the Trinity Parkway near downtown. State officials have said they want to add new tolled lanes to Interstate 35 between Dallas to Denton, as a means to pay for the expansion of that highway.
In addition, two major private toll roads, the region's first, are expected to begin construction during the next 18 months. The Spanish toll road developer Cintra has teamed with other investors to rebuild LBJ Freeway in Dallas and Interstate 820 and State Highway 183 in Tarrant County, and will add what will probably be the costliest toll lanes in Texas on each.
Both toll projects are expected to be completed by 2016 or sooner.
"Even our free roads will soon have a toll component," Vandergriff said.
Both Vandergriff and NTTA chairman Paul Wageman, who has also voiced reservations about the extent of tolling in Dallas, say toll roads are essential as Texas tries to keep traffic moving in the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S.
But they worry that adding too many tolls, too quickly, could erode the one thing that makes them such a valuable tool in the first place: the willingness of drivers to pay their tolls.
"I do have concerns ... that the public will only tolerate a certain amount of tolling," Wageman told reporters at a news briefing in Arlington earlier this month. "We understand that to get the roads built, there is going to be a tolling component [to help pay for them]. But we are concerned because ultimately we must have public receptivity to tolling. We do not want to be in a position where that receptivity goes away, as that ultimately affects the business we are in."
Toll roads remain a daily trade-off for hundreds of thousands of NTTA customers, who pay to save valuable time getting to work or the airport or to a meeting after school.
But will they remain popular, in the face of rising rates and as they spread to every corner of the region?
Vandergriff and Wageman voiced their worries separately this month as negotiations over Southwest Parkway and Highway 161 accelerated and brought into focus the debt required to build those roads, on top of the $7 billion NTTA already owes.
All that debt will be paid for by tolls – and if the tolls don't produce enough revenue to satisfy bondholders, the rates would probably have to jump, just as they did earlier this year when NTTA increased rates by about 23 percent.
But raising rates will only work if enough drivers are willing to pay the higher rates to offset those who abandon the toll roads.
read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News....
PSC - Duncan Webb announces bid for county court seat
December 23rd, 2009Webb announces bid for county court seat
By Staff reports / Plano Star-Courier
Thursday, December 17, 2009
On Wednesday, Duncan Webb filed as a candidate for the office of Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 4 in the Republican Party primary.
Webb decided to run because he feels that "Collin County is at a crossroads, and needs strong civic leadership, integrity and business experience to lead the county out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression." He said conservative fiscal policies alone will not keep the county's tax rates low. It will require innovation, efficiency and cooperation to keep taxes low, government minimal and economic development and job creation strong.
During Webb's 12 years on the Board of Trustees for Plano ISD, the district experienced substantial student growth and diversification, increasing state recapture of its property taxes and increasing costs. Through his hard work, fiscal responsibility and innovation, Webb helped keep the district's property tax rate among the lowest in the region while retaining its recognition as one of the best public school systems in the nation.
Webb said his unique qualifications will help him address the issues facing Collin County. Those qualifications include his years of community service and his experience in representing businesses and professionals in legal, financial and real estate matters.
"I feel strongly that my legal experience and training in representing clients in business matters has served me well. My philosophy of listening to all sides, being well-informed, keeping an open mind and balancing the variables to come up with an appropriate solution is at the core of my success," Webb said.
For the past 15 years, Webb has been the president and sole shareholder of the law firm of Webb & Webb, P.C., located in Plano. He has been a Plano resident for almost 27 years. Duncan and his wife, Beth, have two daughters who both graduated from Plano West Senior High School. The Webbs are longtime active members of Christ United Methodist Church in Plano.
The two are well known for their leadership roles in their church and numerous community organizations including the Medical Center of Plano; Plano ISD Educational Foundation; The Junior League of Plano; Assistance Center of Collin County; Plano Library Advisory Board; Leadership Plano Advisory Board; Plano Family YMCA Board of Directors and The Classics Board of Directors.
The Webbs were recently honored by the Plano Chamber of Commerce as the "2008 Plano Citizens of the Year." Previously, the Webb family was chosen by the Plano Family YMCA as "1997 Plano Family of the Year."
DMN - Frisco city officials fear battery recycler's expansion plan would worsen lead levels
December 22nd, 2009Frisco city officials fear battery recycler's expansion plan would worsen lead levels
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG and VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
Staff writer Randy Lee Loftis contributed to this report.
"Frisco conducted a health risk assessment in 1994 and a follow-up in 1995 that focused on three families who lived a few blocks north of the lead smelter and east of the new City Hall. The studies found elevated levels of lead in three children but couldn't conclusively connect them to the plant's emissions."
"'I believe we may have the distinction of having the only wastewater treatment plant in the country that ever produced hazardous waste,' Purefoy said."
Thousands of people in the heart of Frisco are exposed to toxic lead pollution from a battery recycling plant that wants to expand production.
Exide Technologies Inc. operates the decades-old lead smelter that's flanked by Frisco's downtown, a high school and several neighborhoods and businesses. Its lead emissions make Collin County one of only 18 counties nationwide not expected to meet new, more stringent air-quality standards. It is expected to be the only such designation in the south-central United States.
Recent research shows that lead poses a greater risk to people than scientists once thought. And it's especially detrimental to children, who can suffer from learning problems, diminished IQs and brain damage.
Exide, whose plant is not in violation of current air-quality standards, responded to only a few specific questions. Exide also declined a request to make available Don Barar, its plant manager in Frisco.
The company issued a brief statement that said in part: "The desire and intent of Exide Technologies is to operate responsibly and in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements."
Frisco officials object to the production increase and are challenging Exide's plans through a trial-like contested case hearing with state regulators. Their letter to state officials says the expansion "will have a negative impact on the City and its residents."
Late this summer, Exide officials proposed spending more than $1.3 million to reduce the plant's lead air emissions in hopes of moving its application forward. The projects outlined in documents sent to the state would capture so-called fugitive emissions – the lead released through cracks in a building or by vehicle traffic leaving the plant.
But City Manager George Purefoy said, "I don't understand logically how they can increase production and not increase the amount of emissions going out of the stacks."
City grew up with plant
Frisco is in a unique position: Few, if any, burgeoning suburban cities nationwide have a lead smelter in the middle of town.
Gould-National Battery Inc. originally built the plant in 1964 on 55 acres along South Fifth Street with views of rolling prairies. At the time, the city's population was less than 1,900.
But Frisco grew up. Farmland has been eaten up by subdivisions. And the city's population has exploded to more than 106,000.
Exide Technologies acquired the plant in 2000. It's one of nine battery recycling plants worldwide operated by the company based in Milton, Ga. It employs 130 people.
The Frisco plant crushes used automotive and industrial batteries, uses heat to extract the lead and converts it into lead oxide to make recycled batteries. The process releases some of the lead into the environment.
A year ago, Exide submitted a request to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to allow the Frisco plant to break down more batteries. Finished lead production limits would increase to 500 tons a day, up from the current limit of 400 tons a day.
The commission is still reviewing the request. Officials there said they cannot comment on pending permits.
A key question remains unanswered: What impact would a production increase at Exide's plant have on already elevated lead-pollution levels?
In its application to the state, Exide said its production change wouldn't increase the plant's lead emissions, but it didn't offer any evidence.
Exide's 100-page application to Texas regulators didn't include an air modeling study – common in such applications – that estimates lead levels in the air around the smelter.
In addition, the map Exide sent to state regulators to show what's near the plant is so outdated that the Dallas North Tollway isn't listed. Neither are Pizza Hut Park, Frisco Square, Frisco High School and several newer neighborhoods.
Purefoy said the city didn't know about the expansion proposal until after Exide submitted it in October 2008. Later that month, Purefoy fired off an e-mail to Mayor Maher Maso after a meeting with Barar, the plant manager.
"I told him that the city was committed to reducing the emissions falling on our citizens every minute from the plant," Purefoy wrote. "And if Exide wasn't committed to the same goal, then the relationship between the city and Exide was taking a dramatic change of course."
Stricter standards
In November 2008, the EPA gave notice that the federal air-quality standard for lead emissions would become 10 times more stringent – from 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air to 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter.
"After being quiet for 15 years on the lead front, it's now a priority for the EPA," said Guy Donaldson, chief of the planning section for the agency's Region 6, which covers a five-state area that includes Texas. "It's happening now because the scientific evidence says you have health effects at these levels."
The new standard for lead, which wouldn't be enforced in Collin County until 2012, is the level expected to protect public health.
A monitoring station on Exide's property recorded violations of the 1.5 standard in 1985, 1989 and 1990. The plant, then operated by another company, received violation notices in 1989 and 1990. A year later, the EPA designated the facility a nonattainment area, meaning it violated air-quality standards. The area was declared back in compliance in 1999.
The new proposed nonattainment area is at least twice as big as the one designated in 1991.
'Any exposure is bad'
In recent years, the tools for measuring the effects of lead exposure in people have become more precise, allowing scientists to detect lower levels in blood and measure damage in greater detail.
"Lead is toxic even at the lowest levels we can measure," said Philip Landrigan, an international leader in public health and a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. "Any exposure is bad, but more exposure is worse."
Health effects are particularly acute in children, who breathe in more air than adults relative to their size. Lead exposure can cause learning disabilities, decreased growth, hyperactivity and brain damage.
In adults, high lead levels can contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease. Pregnant women exposed to lead also put their unborn babies at risk.
While lead-poisoning symptoms aren't always apparent, Landrigan said, there could be some underlying health effects. The only way to know for sure is to test the amount of lead in a person's blood, he said.
Frisco conducted a health risk assessment in 1994 and a follow-up in 1995 that focused on three families who lived a few blocks north of the lead smelter and east of the new City Hall. The studies found elevated levels of lead in three children but couldn't conclusively connect them to the plant's emissions.
Purefoy, Frisco's city manager, said last month that he hopes to conduct a larger health study to determine any effects from lead.
read the rest of this informative article on The Dallas Morning News' website....
Reuters - Diebold sale challenged
December 20th, 2009Collin County has used Diebold's electronic voting machines for several years now, and not without incident. In the 2004 presidential election, a Diebold machine "locked-up" at one polling place, and election officials were unable to get the vote counts from the memory card. The votes were finally counted a week later, but only after the memory card was secretly sent to a Canadian lab for analysis.
Recently, ars technica reported, "Diebold machines have been responsible for dropping votes and derailing elections in several states, including Ohio and Alaska. These high-profile failures and repeated findings of low reliability and poor security during tests have compelled several states to ban Diebold voting machine products. The company has also been sued for a wide range of misconduct associated with its voting machine business, including fraud and even GPL infringement."
Nevertheless, in 2008 Collin County bought 410 more Diebold machines for use in future elections. The county now owns over 1,400 o these "AccuVote" machines.
A couple of years ago, Diebold, concerned of the unlimited legal liability that could ensue from machine errors in contested elections spun off the elections division after it was unable to find a buyer. Renamed Premier Elections Solutions, the old election division was then sold this year to rival Elections Systems and Software, Inc.
Bill
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U.S. opens probe of Diebold unit sale -report
December 19, 2009
Reporting by Ben Klayman, editing by Eric Beech / Reuters
CHICAGO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice and 14 states have opened investigations into the sale of Diebold Inc's (DBD.N) voting machines business to Election Systems & Software that could lead to the unwinding of the September sale, the New York Post said on Saturday.
The deal was too small to require government approval at the time, but it gave ES&S a 70 percent share of the voting machine market, the newspaper said.
However, now the Justice Department could file a lawsuit to unwind the deal and New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer was planning to hold hearings on the matter next month, the paper said, citing a source with direct knowledge of the process who was not identified.
Diebold spokesman Michael Jacobsen said in an email that the company was cooperating with the Justice Department review of the sale. A department spokeswoman declined to comment and ES&S could not be reached.
Critics are concerned ES&S will raise prices on voting machines and have little incentive to improve their products, making it harder for states and cities to run efficient elections, the newspaper said.
On Sept. 1, Diebold, known for its automated teller machines, sold its U.S. voting machine business, which represented almost 3 percent of the company's 2008 revenue, to ES&S for $5 million in cash plus future cash payments.
link to article on Reuters News site....
PSC - Doug Shockey files for Plano Council, Place 3
December 17th, 2009By Zach Markovic / The Plano Star-Courier
December 15, 2009
In the wake of former councilmember Mabrie Jackson’s departure from Place 3, interest is beginning to grow in her vacated position.
Doug Shockey is the third candidate to file for a Place 3 candidacy.
“I wanted to run for years,” Shockey said. “I liked Mabrie Jackson and I was going to wait for her seat to open when her term was finished.”
While initially stunned by Jackson’s early departure, Shockey said, he felt he had enough support behind him to go ahead. Plus, he felt everyone else was also caught off guard, so all other candidates would be on the same page getting their campaigns together.
“I was totally surprised that she or anyone was stepping down at this point. I do believe she was a voice we needed. I understand the opportunity she has at a chance to move on,” Shockey said of Jackson. “I am disappointed she is leaving because she was good for Plano.”
Shockey has lived in Plano since 1979 when his family moved here while he was in 7th grade. He went to Baylor University for his accounting undergraduate work. Afterwards he would receive a masters in taxation.
He would eventually return to Plano and work for JCPenney for four years. Shockey decided he would have better opportunities with his own business, so he and his brother started a real estate investment company.
Having worked in the Plano community but not specifically in a public service capacity is something Shockey considers as a strength.
“I enjoy politics, but I am not a politician. I consider myself an outsider of the council, not an outsider of the city.”
It is this new blood mentality and new mind set that Shockey wishes to bring to the council. He said his work as a consultant has really helped him in this capacity. JCPenney would occasionally bring him back on to be that new voice and to make sure ideas stayed fresh.
“By no means do I want to be a disruptive voice on the council, that doesn’t do anyone any good,” Shockey said. “But, I want to challenge the status quo and ask the hard questions.”
While the election cycle is just beginning, interested candidates have until the end of the month to file, Shockey does see one point where he already differs from the other two announced candidates. He said of the candidates he is the one who is probably the most fiscally conservative.
The budget is under a fair amount of scrutiny as Plano is facing a deficit. Shockey, feels a deeper look needs to be taken into the budget, for the sake of the citizens.
“I want to make sure we look at all of the ideas on the budget and don’t tell the citizens we don’t have an option. If there is something that needs to be done we need to be able to justify it,” Shockey said. “There seems to be so many more things that can be done before, say, cutting funding for senior transportation.”
read the rest of the article in The Plano Star-Courier....
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Bill notes that an item in the Plano Blog at the Dallas Morning News puts the cost to the taxpayers of the special City council election at $80,000
Bill
PSC - Revised Option 3 receives harsh criticism, further divides east
December 17th, 2009Plano ISD: Revised Option 3 receives harsh criticism, further divides east
By Kim Nguyen / Plano Star-Courier
December 16, 2009
With two boys at Miller Elementary School and one son at Murphy Middle School, Carolyn Alvey said she is blessed that the recently approved feeder plan keeps her children attending their neighborhood schools.
But despite how her family benefited from the plan, Alvey is still actively criticizing the Plano Independent School District board of trustees for their decision Tuesday evening.
Alvey is just one voice in the debate, but she speaks for many who live on the east side of town who were dismayed to learn the district’s plan calls for drawing the lines on the east side in such a way that many children won’t attend the elementary or middle school that is closest to home. Shuffling students in east-side neighborhoods in this way is expected to create more diverse student populations.
“It’s purely socio-economic engineering,” Alvey said. “Socio-economic engineering disguised as an attempt to keep neighborhood schools. The board never anticipated what the challenges were in the east side. As a result, they showed a great lack of leadership.”
In the East Cluster under the approved plan, the new Otto Middle School will include students from Mendenhall, Schell and Stinson elementary schools. McMillen High School will include students from Armstrong and Murphy middle schools once it opens for the 2011-12 school year.
Alvey said in speaking with district officials prior to the Tuesday meeting, they indicated using FM-544 as the natural boundary to create feeder patterns, allowing Miller, Stinson and Schell elementary schools to feed into Otto Middle School.
“Schell students living less than 1 mile from McMillen will now be bused 7 miles to Williams to satisfy socio-economic engineering,” she said. “There’s no basis to send Otto students to Williams other than that.”
Before the vote, Alvey and other northeast Richardson parents had met with various officials in the Plano ISD administrative office to discuss the pros and cons of different feeder patterns and the roles of the board’s guiding principles in redrawing boundaries.
“Plano ISD lawyers told the trustees that they can’t apply socio-economics to any part of town unless applied district-wide,” she said. “What we want to know is how did they get away with socio-economic engineering without having to apply it to the rest of the district?”
Alvey said she and the other Stinson and Schell parents were shocked when the board announced the revised feeder pattern, saying it was completely unexpected and unfair.
“If the west side gets a choice, the east side should, too. Otto parents were given absolutely no choice,” she said.
Additionally, Mendenhall parents have also joined in on the debate, voicing their dislike of the new feeder plan.
“Mendenhall should continue to feed into their neighborhood school, which is Bowman,” Alvey said. “Students can walk to school and bike to and from their extracurricular activities. Everybody asked to stay in their neighborhood, but the board missed that.”
Alvey said she thinks eastside parents are very upset about the board’s decision and parent groups have already begun talking with representatives from all levels of education agencies, including the Texas Education Agency and the Department of Education, as well as reaching out to the Plano ISD school board trustees.
“It’s demeaning to us to have gone through the public input sessions and not have our voices heard for no reason other than ‘satisfying the formalities,’” Alvey said. “How are the board members satisfying and listening to their constituents when not everyone is being heard?”
read the rest of the article at the Plano Star-Courier....
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Bill comments -
WFAA has a video and print story, Parents considering suit over Plano ISD boundary plan
The Dallas Morning News posted an excellent article, Quick approval of Plano schools boundary changes baffles parents today. The article asks, "The events of Tuesday night's meeting appear to be within the law. But was the public served? And how much debate is owed the public before such a controversial decision?" A good question.
The article then goes on to say, "Government experts and former elected officials say Tuesday's meeting highlights the differences between what elected officials are required to disclose and the expectations of the public.
"We're not talking about what's legal, but what's ethical and good government," said Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the Missouri School of Journalism.
"Everybody in the room knows that some pre-debate occurred behind closed doors," he said. "Essentially, public policy was hashed out privately and then it was promulgated publicly. That, to me, is a minimal approach to government transparency."
The Dallas Morning News story, Plano school board approves boundary changes was posted in yesterday's Collin County Observer.
Bill
DMN - Plano school board approves boundary changes
December 16th, 2009Plano school board approves boundary changes
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
After months of contentious debate and divisive public hearings on proposed school boundary changes in Plano, the school board unanimously approved new attendance zones without debate or comment.
The district presented the boundary proposal publicly for the first time before the board voted, leaving little time for the hundreds of parents in attendance to see the final version. After the 7-0 vote, school board members immediately went into executive session to discuss the rest of the night's agenda.
"We didn't know about the changes before tonight," said Kelly McBrayer, who lives in east Plano.
The plan shelves an idea to create Plano ISD's first magnet school. The finalized boundary model represents a less-ambitious proposal that merely re-draws attendance zone lines based on locality, population and other factors.
Under the plan, enrollment numbers at the district's senior high schools would become more evenly distributed, students would generally attend their neighborhood campuses and parents at one central Plano middle school would have school choice.
The changes, which are required to balance student enrollment across the district because of two new schools on the east side, would go into effect for the 2012-13 school year.
District officials said they would revisit the idea of creating a magnet school this spring.
The proposal also aligns two high schools with each of Plano ISD's three senior high schools. The latest plan eliminates so-called split-feeder arrangements, which send students at a high school to two different senior high schools for 11th and 12th grades.
But it would give parents whose children attend Schimelpfenig Middle School the option of attending Plano Senior High School or Plano West Senior High School. Parents would have to decide by the time their children attend eighth grade.
No other part of Plano ISD would have that type of arrangement.
The approved boundary changes come with additional costs. District officials said they probably would need to spend $5 million from a previous bond package to build more classrooms at Plano West Senior High School.
The school board's 7-0 vote at the Sockwell Center in West Plano capped a chaotic three months during which officials redrew the district's original attendance zone changes after several fiery public hearings that attracted thousands of parents.
Dozens of residents told school leaders before the vote Tuesday that they supported the proposal, saying it would guarantee their children attended nearby schools.
"There is not a perfect solution," said David Johnson of Parker. "But this is the best solution."
Yet scores of parents, mostly parents from the district's eastern side, urged trustees to wait on approving new boundaries for that side of Plano ISD. They said they didn't like that the plan sends some students from East Plano neighborhoods miles away to Williams High School near the city's downtown.
read the article and other links on the Dallas Morning News....
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Related coverage is also on CBS11tv.com, The Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog, and video coverage is on the33tv.com site.
Bill
DMN - GOP hopefuls get litmus test in Tarrant, Collin, Denton counties
December 13th, 2009GOP hopefuls get litmus test in Tarrant, Collin, Denton counties
Saturday, December 12, 2009
By GROMER JEFFERS JR. / The Dallas Morning News
Republicans filing to run in the March primaries in several local counties are being asked to take a party-platform purity quiz.
Republican parties in Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties are supplying the 10-question form, with items taken from the Texas Republican Party platform. The candidates can either answer the questions as they file or return the forms to the local party.
And while the test is optional, the answers are kept by party leaders, who say they will probably make them available to voters.
"It becomes a good way for us to know are these people who are really Republicans philosophically, or are these Republicans opportunistically?" said Denton County Republican Party Chairwoman Diane Edmondson. "It's a good way for us to make sure we are returning our party to our core principles."
Dallas County GOP Chairman Jonathan Neerman is not making the survey available to candidates, saying it's unnecessary.
"In my mind, the voters are the best judge of character for candidates. They will be the ones to do that in the primary," Neerman said.
The statements are fairly broad, covering topics such as human life, marriage and family, and the size of government, and candidates can indicate that they agree or disagree and add comments if they choose. Statewide candidates are also asked to take the test, officials said.
Bryan Preston, spokesman for the state Republican Party, said that when candidates file for office at state headquarters in Austin, they are given a packet of information that includes the questionnaire. He said candidates can fill it out and mail it back to the party, but as of midweek, none had been received. But the filing period at the time had been open for less than a week.
"It's voluntary homework," Preston said. "When a candidate files, they get a survey. If they want to do it, they do it."
As of Friday, neither incumbent Rick Perry nor Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, rivals in the race for governor, had received or turned in the questionnaire. Perhaps because of the hoopla surrounding their visit to the party to file candidacies, they didn't immediately get the tests.
Democrats have no similar document.
"It's another example on how the Republican Party has moved from being the right wing to the off-the-edge-nutty right wing," said Democratic strategist Matt Angle. "Crazy has become mainstream in the Republican Party."
Rebuilding process
The surveys come at a time when Republicans, both nationally and locally, are trying to rebuild the party and shake off recent electoral losses, including last year when Barack Obama paced the national and local tickets.
At the last Texas Republican Party convention, activists sought to require candidates to take such quizzes. The result was a watered-down rule that allowed for a 10-question document called Republican Platform Principles to be given to state and local candidates.
Some Republicans, like Edmondson, believe that making sure candidates are on board with the party's core values is important to ensuring good government and building trust with conservative voters.
She says it also guards against nonconservatives infiltrating the party. Denton County is a solid Republican area, and candidates under the Democratic banner rarely win elections.
"I have on occasion let Republicans know that a Democrat was running on the Republican ticket," she said. "If we find there are certain issues with which a candidate disagrees, then the party can make that known and it will be up to the voters to decide where they want to go with that."
Collin County Party Chairman Fred Moses said he would probably store the tests and make them available to voters.
"If any voter wants to see them, they can," Moses said.
WFAA - Farmersville family left in cold after city orders 'green' system cut off
December 9th, 2009Farmersville family left in cold after city orders 'green' system cut off
December 9, 2009
STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV
FARMERSVILLE - Rex and Sherry Thain have lived in their Collin County home for 19 years. They decided to go "green" 10 years ago and installed a geo-thermal heating and cooling system.
The Thains said it seem like a good idea at the time, and so did the former Farmersville city manager. But, times change and so has the city manager, and that's the problem.
The Thains live in one of the oldest homes in Farmersville near Lake Lavon. They received a letter from the city saying their geo-thermal system is illegally connected to the city's water line. The city said it violates ordinances and the safe drinking water act. The new city manager, who believes the Thain's connection to the city water line is illegal, ordered them to disconnect from it immediately.
"The new city manager said he doesn't know why the original city manager authorized it," said Rex Thain.
With no water coming into their geo-thermal system, the Thains cannot heat their house. So, when the temperature dropped, they moved in with some friends.
"It's just shocking, really," Thain said. "We can't comprehend it."
The family's supporters came to Farmersville City Hall Tuesday night holding signs and wearing T-shirts that read: "Never Give Up."
"To do this in the middle of the winter season to this community is very unfortunate and completely unacceptable," said Gwen Snyder, a family friend.
The Thains could solve the problem by digging 10 wells. But, they said it would cost more than they could afford. They fear if the city doesn't provide some relief, they could wind up losing their house.
"I understand when people steal cable or do things they shouldn't be doing, but everything we did was above board," Thain said.
The city wouldn't comment at Tuesday's meeting because of an insurance claim that has been filed.
DMN - Collin ISDs find redrawing attendance zones is thankless task
December 8th, 2009Collin ISDs find redrawing attendance zones is thankless task
Monday, December 7, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
Efforts to redraw school attendance zones in Plano have fueled a furor that has shifted with the prevailing wind.
First, some parents blasted district officials for drawing lines they said segregated rich from poor. Others complained their children wouldn't be able to attend their neighborhood school. When administrators responded by redrawing the lines, a new set of perturbed parents emerged and assailed school leaders.
While the debate in Plano this fall has been especially contentious, these high-drama episodes play out almost every year. And one thing is inevitable: When the boundaries are finalized, someone goes home unhappy.
"No matter the district, it's a challenging process," said Richard Wilkinson, the Frisco ISD's assistant superintendent for facilities and finance. "We do know that as hard as we try, we can't please everyone all the time."
For evidence, look no farther than Collin County, where the population has skyrocketed and districts such as Frisco have opened up to six new schools a year to keep up with a steady surge in enrollment.
Each new school needs students, and those students have to come from the existing schools.
Last year in Allen, the opening of two new elementary schools brought an angry response from parents who didn't want their children to move. Doing so could mean longer bus rides, or separation from friends.
"People like the schools they are in," said Tim Carroll, spokesman for the Allen school district. "It's a personal issue, and they don't like change."
Usually it's the parents – not the children – who are most upset about possible boundary adjustments, said McKinney ISD Superintendent Tom Crowe.
"The parents, they just get real nervous about it," he said. "But the kids adjust so quickly."
In McKinney, school boundaries controversy is constant, seemingly by design. The district places such a high value on balancing the socioeconomic levels of secondary students that it uses busing to achieve it.
An online petition against that policy has hundreds of signatures but, so far, has been to no avail. However, McKinney school leaders will soon try to decide whether the policy should remain in place as enrollment climbs.
"That will be the question to answer in the future," said Crowe, who is retiring at the end of the month. "But I think diversity in schools is good for many reasons."
Deep divisions
The proposed boundary changes in Plano have sparked vitriolic debate that has divided neighborhoods. The district presented a first set of district wide adjustments in October to account for students moving into the district's eastern side and two new schools there.
During the three-month saga, the most vocal opponents of Plano's plans might have played a role in district leaders' decision to alter them.
Meanwhile, a large group of central Plano parents rallied against boundary models that would have made their children change high schools. Last month, the district presented a new attendance zone option that kept those children in the same schools.
Dora Potluri, who has two sons at Mathews Elementary School, said he voiced concern over the earlier models because his sons had already had to change schools once before.
"Enough is enough, and sometimes we feel that we were rezoned way too many times," Potluri said. "I wanted to bring stability to my kids that I didn't have."
Plano ISD's new attendance zones have brought relief to Potluri and his neighbors. But they have attracted animosity from hundreds of east Plano parents who say their children now would be shortchanged.
"I know that some people are frustrated," said Superintendent Doug Otto. "It saps the strength out of all the parents and teachers and all of us. It's something that we are really going to have to find a resolution for."
read the rest of this article at the Dallas Morning News....
PSC - André Davidson announces race for Plano City Council
December 8th, 2009Long-time community volunteer announces candidacy for Place 3 seat
By Kim Nguyen / The Plano Star-Courier
Monday, December 7, 2009
André Davidson, a 30-year Plano resident, announced on Friday her intention to run for the Place 3 seat on the Plano City Council.
The seat has been vacant for two weeks after former Councilwoman Mabrie Jackson resigned to run for the state legislature.
“I had thought about running for a place on the city council before, but the timing wasn’t quite right,” Davidson said. “When the seat became available so unexpectedly, I saw it as an opportunity to expand and extend my long history of community service.”
Davidson, Plano’s Citizen of the Year in 2005 and former executive director of Leadership Plano, said her long history of involvement in the community gives her the knowledge and experience to be able to be a voice for the community.
“In my 30 years of being a Plano resident, I have been very active in the community,” she said. “Almost all agencies and organizations I have been involved with I have held leadership positions for.”
Among her numerous civic activities she has served as board chair of the Volunteer Center of Collin County, Plano ISD Education Foundation, Leadership Plano, Mayor’s Community Outreach Task Force and Plano Youth Leadership. She is currently vice president of the CITY House Board of Directors, a member of The Medical Center of Plano Board of Trustees, and is a former member of the advisory boards of the Plano Chamber of Commerce and the Junior League of Plano.
In addition to being named the 2005 Plano Citizen of the Year, Davidson has received the Collin County Children’s Advocacy “Thanks for Mentoring” Award, the Community Leadership Association Distinguished Leadership Award and was recognized as a University of Texas at Dallas General Studies Outstanding Alumnus.
In the fall of 1997, in recognition of her dedication to the Volunteer Center and the community, Davidson was honored by the Volunteer Center of Collin County as the namesake of the André Davidson “Spirit of Volunteerism” Award which is presented annually to an outstanding community volunteer whose achievements exemplify the “passion, enthusiasm and spirit of volunteerism.”
“I have seen this city grow from a population of 30,000 to more than a quarter of a million and have had the privilege of serving my community in many roles. I see this opportunity as a continuation of that call to service and believe my proven leadership and community experience qualifies me for this position,” Davidson said. “I look forward to working with the dedicated members of the council as we address the challenges facing our maturing city: quality city services, public safety, economic development and neighborhood revitalization. I will be fiscally responsible in planning for Plano’s future and am committed to maintaining the quality of life our citizens expect.”
FDWIL - The Race for Collin County District Clerk
December 4th, 2009In his continuing series of profiles of local races, Frisco's DWI Attorney, Hunter Biederman takes a look at the candidates in the race Collin County district Clerk.
His original article can be read on his blog, The Frisco DWI Attorney & Lawyer Blog.
Bill
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The Race for Collin County District Clerk
Posted on December 2, 2009 by Hunter Biederman
The Collin County District Clerk will have a contested primary this election season. The position is the head position of the clerks office, and has the duty to "protect the judicial records of the Collin County District Courts in compliance with the state constitution and state statutes." The District Clerk indexes and secures all court records collects filing fees, and handles funds held in litigation and money awarded to minors. They also compile the list of potential jurors for jury service. The District Clerk is responsible for issuing jury summons and maintaining a list of persons qualified or disqualified from service.
And now for the candidates. . . .
TERRYE EVANS
Terrye Evans currently serves as the Court Coordinator for the 219th District Court. Terrye is committed to remaining vigilant and will commit her office to new technologies that will aid in everyday office practices. Basically working smarter so as to deliver the best work-product possible to Collin County’s citizens, lawyers, judges and other county departments.
Terrye believes that, "we as taxpayers cannot afford to take the attitude that things are 'good enough'. The District Clerk's office should be in a continual state of improvement, working smarter to make customer and citizen interactions positive and helpful, rather than perplexing and puzzling."
More about Terrye and her plans for the office can be found on her campaign website at www.electterryeevans.com.
ALMA HAYS
Alma Hays begun her career at the District Clerk's Office. She is a graduate of Grayson County College with an Associates Degree in Business. Alma has worked as Paralegal and Office Manager for the Law Offices of Michael Sloan, a Court appointed Visitation Supervisor for children with at risk parents, and a Texas Supreme Court Process Server.
"I have developed a plan for moving the District Clerk’s Office into the future. I intend to incorporate a more progressive management style within the District Clerk’s office regarding the training of both management and staff, stressing the importance of customer service and effective use of technology. The result will be a more professional, efficient and customer oriented office, something that any taxpayer should expect and deserve."
More about Alma Hays and her plans for the office can be found at www.electalmahays.com
PATRICIA WYSONG CRIGGER
Patricia Wysong Crigger has served for 23 years in the District Clerk’s Office, the last 14 as Chief Deputy District Clerk. She holds a BBA from the University of North Texas.
"The District Clerk’s Office is effectively managed and fiscally responsible. As the old saying goes, 'If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.' While our county continues to grow, so will the challenges faced by our office. This is not the time to change management on a whim.
More information about Patricia Wysong Crigger and her plans for the office can be found on her campaign website at www.votecrigger.com.
PAST ARTICLES ON COUNTY RACES
- Collin County Campaign Websites
- Collin County Court 2
- Collin County Court 3 (Collin County Observer)
- Collin County Court 4
- Collin County Court 6
- 219th District Court
- Collin County District Attorney
- Collin County Legislative races (Collin County Observer)
- Collin County Commissioners Court (Collin County Observer)
- State Board of Education (Collin County Observer)
Hunter Biederman is a DWI / Criminal Defense Attorney in Collin County. He publishes his blog (www.friscodwilawyer.com) which focuses on the Collin County and Texas legal system. He can be reached at friscolaw@gmail.com or (888) DWI-FRISCO.
DMN - Murphy city officials defend officers' response in boy's death
December 4th, 2009Fox4 TV aired a short piece tonight about the sad case of Matthew Cantrell, the young boy from Murphy who was strangled in a back yard soccer net. Matthew's Parents filed suit in a federal court earlier this year charging that Matthew's death could have been avoided, but that the city's 911 response and police failed to help.
The Dallas Morning News followed up with the article below mostly airing the City of Murphy's position.
Last May, The Collin County Observer posted a copy of the law suit (it is very disturbing reading) and a press release by the parents. We also published the City Manager's report on the incident.
In their latest filing with the District Court, the City of Murphy has asked the court to dismiss the suit.
Bill
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Murphy city officials defend officers' response in boy's death
Thursday, December 3, 2009
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News
Officials with the city of Murphy on Thursday defended the handling of a situation two years ago in which a toddler died after becoming ensnared in a backyard soccer net.
The city released testimony and a 911 recording from the October 2007 incident. The boy died in a hospital three days later, and his parents subsequently sued the city.
"This is a tragedy, and our hearts go out to them," City Manager James Fisher said. "But our employees did the job they were trained to do. They went out of their way to help as best they could."
The city said it filed a motion last week in a federal district court in Tyler to dismiss the case.
The plaintiffs, Michael and Ave Cantrell, contend that police officers and paramedics reacted too slowly to save their son Matthew. The lawsuit names specific officers and East Texas Medical Center, which provided additional assistance.
On Thursday, Fisher said Murphy is free of blame. Its motion states that Ave Cantrell's hysterical 911 call made it difficult for the dispatcher to respond to her cries for assistance. Records show police still arrived at the Cantrell home about three minutes after the call.
"It's wrong in the assertion that officers didn't do anything to help them," Fisher said. "In a very emotional call, the dispatcher moved as fast as possible."
Cantrell defended his wife.
"That they are coming out with this press release attacking the mother is disturbing considering she did everything possible to try and save Matthew," he said. "She received zero medical help from [the dispatcher] or the police who had her imprisoned" in the bedroom as they evaluated the boy, he said. Ave Cantrell cut her son from the net and placed him on a couch at least 10 minutes before officers arrived.
The federal lawsuit argues that police officers prevented paramedics and the boy's mother from helping him. The motion to dismiss counters that both officers checked for a pulse and breathing and one set of paramedics moved into the house immediately upon arrival.
read the rest of the article in the Dallas Morning News....
DMN - Plano ISD parents blast new attendance zone proposals
December 2nd, 2009Plano ISD parents blast new attendance zone proposals
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
Scores of parents Tuesday night criticized the latest attendance zone proposals for Plano schools and the school district's idea of creating a magnet high school.
Dozens of parents implored Plano school trustees to delay the vote on the changes. They said they worried about the cost of implementing a magnet school and had concerns that the suggested boundary changes would create unbalanced student enrollment at the district's senior high schools.
District leaders weren't allowed to respond to the comments.
However, officials previously have voiced their support for the changes, which were first presented a few weeks ago in response to negative reactions to the district's earlier suggested boundary changes.
Only a handful of parents at Tuesday night's meeting said they favored the latest boundary plans.
"I feel like you are about to destroy the east side of Plano," Sharon Davis told district trustees. "We want enrollment numbers to be equal."
Plano ISD has said new districtwide boundaries are needed for the 2012-13 school year to balance student enrollment across the district after an influx of families in the district's eastern side.
The latest attendance zone plan generally would send students to their neighborhood schools. It also would repurpose Williams High School, a ninth- and 10th-grade campus, into the district's first four-year magnet school.
Hundreds of people attended the meeting, and the majority of criticism came from East Plano parents. They said the boundary proposals could decimate extracurricular activities and reduce high-level courses offered at Plano East Senior High School.
The proposed changes would send students at some East Plano schools to Plano Senior High School and would leave Plano East with 1,000 fewer students than the other two senior high schools.
Plano East football coach Johnny Ringo told district leaders that if the proposal were implemented today, 60 percent of his 124-player squad would attend Plano Senior High.
AP - Lost: One Wild Cat in Collin County
November 27th, 2009No, not a politician - but a real wild cat; albeit de-clawed and rather tame. Last seen near Parker Rd. in St. Paul.
From the Dallas Morning News' Crime Blog --
Collin County authorities seek escaped exotic cat
November 27, 2009
Jennifer Emily / Reporter / The Dallas Morning News Crime Blog
Collin County authorities are asking for the public's help to find an exotic animal that escaped from the St.Paul/Lucas area.
The missing serval is privately owned and authorities say it is not considered dangerous. But authorities say that anyone who sees the 40-pound African wild cat should not approach it and call 911. The serval could act aggressively if threatened.
The cat is orange with black spots and is wearing a black collar and red harness. The cat was neutered and declawed. It also has a heart condition.
It was last seen in the area of Aztec Trail and Parker Road. The owners had passed an inspection in August to ensure it was outfitted to house an exotic animal.
UPDATE December 1:
The lost serval was found close to his home and captured unharmed
DMN - Date set for public input on Plano school reforms
November 23rd, 2009From Matthew Haag on the Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog -- PISD calls a public hearing that will mostly cover east side issues. Where is the meeting?
Far West Plano!
You got to love those pedagogues.
Bill
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Date set for public input on Plano school reforms
Monday, November 23, 2009
Matthew Haag / Reporter / The Dallas Morning News Plano Blog
Plano ISD has announced that parents can voice their opinions about the latest school boundary proposal at a Dec. 1 meeting. The meeting will be at the district's Sockwell Center in West Plano.
Plano ISD lists that meeting as the only chance people can public voice their thoughts before the day the school board votes, Dec. 15. Plano ISD hosted three public input sessions in late September and early October. Each of those meetings attracted hundreds of parents, who shared their opinions about the several boundary proposals for the east and central-west school clusters.
The Dec. 1 meeting is a chance for Plano ISD officials to hear opinions about the newest boundary model, "Option 3," which includes converting Williams High School into a four-year magnet school.
link to the post on the plano blog (and some interesting comments)....
D Magazine on Judge Sandoval
November 22nd, 2009Trey Garrison, wrote an interesting piece on Charles Sandoval's reincarnation as a visiting judge in Dallas County after the judge was defeated at the polls and made unwelcome by his fellow jurists in Collin County. He even includes a nice nod to the Collin County Observer.
Bill
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The Worst Judge in Dallas County
How did Charles Sandoval, the worst judge in Collin County, wind up sitting on a Dallas bench?
by Trey Garrison
Published 11.18.2009
D Magazine, DEC 2009
Which brings us to Judge Charles Sandoval, arguably the most ineffective judge working in Dallas County today.
The party that Sandoval won’t let end gracefully started in 1996, when he took over the 380th District Court in Collin County. If history serves as any guide, he should have been able to keep his job for as long as he wanted it. But Collin County voters threw him out 12 years later. It’s difficult to pinpoint any single cause for his defeat. But lawyers who tried cases in his courtroom say he was petty, cruel, inconsistent, and just plain rude.
“Oh, he played favorites, and he would just litigate from the hip with no regard for what the law said,” says attorney Luke Gunnstaks.
Sandoval’s actions on the bench have led to a slew of his decisions getting reversed in the 5th Court of Appeals. In a civil case two years ago, one of the parties actually collapsed in Sandoval’s courtroom, and the paramedics were called. The man decided to go home. His attorney asked for a continuance. Sandoval said no, let’s keep going. The 5th Court recently ruled that was grounds enough to uphold an appeal.
And though every judge has the occasional inappropriate exchange with one attorney in a case in the absence of the other attorney—that’s ex parte communication in legalspeak—Sandoval was notorious for it. Gunnstaks recounts discovering in deposition 12 pages of notes taken by a private stenographer that detailed Sandoval’s ex parte discussion with Gunnstaks’ opposing counsel in Sandoval’s Collin County chambers, covering how the case would proceed...
DMN - Shapiro to file for re-election (and run two races at once?)
November 21st, 2009Shapiro to file for re-election while sights set on U.S. Senate seat
Saturday, November 21, 2009
By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano said Friday that she will file for re-election for her state Senate seat next month, while she keeps her long-range sights set on the U.S. Senate seat now held by Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Shapiro, a Republican, said she will file for re-election on Dec. 3, the first day state candidates can file to run in next year's elections. She has represented Senate District 8, in Collin and Dallas counties, since 1993.
Shapiro is one of several candidates who are having to adjust their plans now that Hutchison has said she won't step down from the Senate until after the Republican primary in March. Hutchison, who is challenging Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP race for governor, had earlier indicated she would resign from the U.S. Senate by the end of 2009 to focus on the contest against Perry.
"I will adjust my U.S. Senate campaign based on the future resignation decision of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison," Shapiro said in a written statement.
Regarding the U.S. Senate seat, Shapiro said she is "very pleased" with the statewide team of supporters she has assembled and that she has raised more than $1 million toward that race.
DMN - Mabrie Jackson to run for state House seat
November 16th, 2009Plano City Council member Mabrie Jackson to run for state House seat
November 15, 2009
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Plano City Council member Mabrie Jackson, a political newcomer who has emerged as a contrarian voice on the eight-member board, plans to resign today to run for the state Legislature.
Jackson said Sunday she will launch a bid for the Texas House this week. Longtime state Rep. Brian McCall of Plano is planning not to run for re-election.
Jackson expressed a desire to work at the state level to represent a community "at a financial crossroads and at a political crossroads."
"When I got into this job, I became very aware of policies that affected our cities that we have no control of. And many of those policies came from Austin," said Jackson, 45, a Republican. "When this opportunity arose, I felt like I had to step up."
Her resignation will take effect immediately. The Plano council will have 10 days to appoint someone to serve out her term. It ends in May 2011.
The vacancy arrives as the City Council faces myriad challenges brought on by slowing housing and commercial growth and the economic squeeze.
In September, a divided council approved budget cuts and a slight property tax rate increase. Plano confronts the prospect of a much larger tax increase next year.
Jackson was one of three members to vote against this year's tax increase and the budget.
While the vote burnished her credentials as a penny pincher, she irritated a number of civic leaders who portrayed the measure as necessary to Plano's financial health.
Last year, she and council member Pat Miner also kept a campaign pledge by hosting regular community round tables at City Hall in hopes of engaging constituents.
The sittings often drew just a handful of citizens, sometimes none.
"I hope that I stayed true to my promise that I would be fiscally conservative, responsive and available to everybody," she said.
Jackson won her council seat last year following an energetic campaign, capturing about two-thirds of the vote in an upset over incumbent Loretta Ellerbe.
Beyond the council, she has worked in sales and marketing and served on a number of civic boards. She is married and has two children.
City Council member Ben Harris, who was Jackson's campaign manager before becoming a council member himself, said he was surprised by the announcement's timing. He said the council would miss Jackson.
"She's done a great job during her year-and-a-half on the council," he said. "We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors and representing us in Austin."
Jackson is expected to have competition for the House District 66 seat, which McCall, a Republican, has held since 1991.
One candidate has already expressed interest publicly: Republican Wayne Richard, founder of an advertising technology firm and a group called the National Coalition for the Defense of American Sovereignty.
DMN - Frisco plant exceeds new limit on lead levels
November 15th, 2009Frisco plant exceeds new limit on lead levels
November 15, 2009
by RANDY LEE LOFTIS / The Dallas Morning News
Exide Technologies' decision last month not to seek state permission to expand production at its Frisco lead smelter doesn't mean public health concerns are over.
Even with no expansion, airborne lead levels around the 45-year-old vehicle battery recycler are among the highest measured anywhere in the country. As recently as last year, they came close to the Environmental Protection Agency's legal limit for lead in the air.
That limit is being replaced by a tighter, more scientifically robust federal standard that is needed, a huge body of research shows, to protect children and others from a substance known to be toxic in almost unimaginably tiny doses. Lead levels around the Exide plant are routinely five to eight times higher than the new limit.
Hard evidence of how lead might be affecting people who live near the Frisco smelter, however, is just about nonexistent. Public health officials have never tested local children for IQ loss or other subtle but critical effects of lead.
It's been 15 years since they checked some children's blood for evidence of exposure – so far back that experts say any results from then are meaningless now.
Lack of local information makes it difficult for Frisco to judge the potential risks of living near the city's heaviest industry, which melts lead from old vehicle batteries for reuse in new ones. Exide's expansion plans stirred a brief but effective protest, but now the city must decide how to reconcile nearly a half-century of quiet local relations with an avalanche of new knowledge about lead's toxic impacts.
City officials want a state study. "We want to make sure that public health is protected," Mayor Maher Maso said.
Atlanta-based Exide, with operations in 80 countries and annual sales of $3.3 billion, said it is assessing the new lead standard's impact on its Frisco plant. Exide "fully intends to implement measures to attain" the tighter limit, spokeswoman Kristin Wohlleben said.
A local study might be valuable, nationally known experts on lead told The Dallas Morning News. They stressed, however, that enough is already known about the soft, gray metal's effects on intelligence, attention span and even blood pressure to justify a dramatic reduction in Frisco's lead levels.
Frisco residents can rely on an "alarming accumulation of data in other studies," said Dr. Deborah Cory-Slechta of the University of Rochester.
"We certainly know what the blood levels around smelters have been with these kinds of exposures," said Cory-Slechta, a neuroscience and member of an expert panel that pressed the EPA to cut the federal lead limit more than 90 percent. "So we can probably predict that we're going to have them above levels of concern."
Many experts argue that the new federal limit is still too high, so lead readings nearly 10 times the new limit are "clearly a concern," she said. "It should suggest to parents – especially to those who reside in some proximity to the smelter – that they would want to have blood-lead testing done on their kids."
Close to the limit
From 1988, when public disclosure of companies' toxic releases began, through 2008, the latest report year, Exide or predecessor GNB released 76,513 pounds of lead into Frisco's air. That doesn't count releases during the 24 years Exide operated before emissions reporting started.
What is known is that the lead, which enters the air from three smokestacks and 27 other points around the plant, and from dust kicked up by trucks and other sources, has sometimes violated the EPA's limit or come close.
After excessive lead readings starting in the mid-1980s, in 1991 the EPA designated the property around the smelter a nonattainment area – federal jargon meaning an area has not attained the national standard for clean air.
By 1999, lead levels had stayed below the limit – at the time, 1.5 micrograms suspended in each cubic meter of air – long enough for the EPA to lift the designation. A decade later, however, the part of Frisco nearest the smelter is about to become a nonattainment area once more.
Under federal orders, states have listed areas that will have lead levels higher than the new limit. Collin County is Texas' only proposed area; Exide is the county's only big lead source.
Being a lead nonattainment area means little to the general public; there are no restrictions on people's activities or property. The label forces regulators to reduce emissions from major sources and alerts the public to the problem.
Figures show the problem around Exide. From 2005 to 2007, the highest average reading was 0.77 micrograms per cubic meter – more than five times the new federal limit.
From May through August last year, average readings ranged from 0.97 to 1.26 micrograms. That highest reading, in July 2008, was more than eight times the new limit and just below the old one. Those readings came although Exide was emitting only slightly more than half as much lead as its state permit allows.
This summer, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality did a computer study that intentionally overestimated Exide's possible emissions to see how high the lead levels could go in theory. The forecast reached 1.42 micrograms – almost hitting the old, discarded federal limit of 1.5.
Read the rest of the article in the Dallas Morning News (it's worth reading)....
Burka on McCall
November 15th, 2009Paul Burka, the Senior Executive Editor of Texas Monthly magazine is the dean of Texas political pundits. His blog, Burkablog is a must read for anyone interested in Texas political intrigue.
Today, Burka published two posts on the decision of Plano's Brian McCall not to seek re-election. In the second of the two, Burka relates that in a conversation this morning, Rep. McCall disclaimed any plans to seek election to another public office.
The first post reads almost like an obituary. Burka states that McCall, "was the gold standard for how a legislator should conduct himself."
Bill
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Paul Burka, Texas Monthly Burkablog
November 15, 2009
I am sad to see the news that Brian McCall has decided not to run for reelection. Brian made the House better just by his presence. He was the gold standard for how a legislator should conduct himself. When he had a bill on the calendar, he put on a clinic about how to pass legislation, with clear explanations and irrefutable policy arguments. His integrity was spotless. His respect for the legislative process was total.
Next to his character, what he will be most remembered for is his opposition to Tom Craddick. McCall was a charter member of the ABCs, the once sizable cadre of Republican members whose choice for speaker was “Anybody But Craddick.” When Craddick was running for speaker in 2002, McCall sent a letter to his colleagues foretelling the dark side of a Craddick speakership. It proved to be prescient. In 2006, Republicans lost five seats in the November elections, and McCall decided to challenge Craddick’s reelection. But a rapid Craddick counteroffensive turned three key McCall pledges, and he eventually bowed out in favor of Jim Pitts. Craddick went on to win his third term after the key vote — whether the speaker should be elected by secret ballot — went his way by a narrow margin.
Readers know the rest of the story. The 2007 session was one of the most tumultuous in memory. Craddick lost effective control of the House, and his frantic efforts to hold onto power, including firing the House parliamentarians and obtaining a new ruling that he could not be removed during the session, only turned more members against him, including several of his own committee chairs. Those were amazing days; we will never see anything like them in our time.
Through it all, McCall never wavered in his belief that Craddick could not be reelected. Neither, however, could McCall. As the ABCs met to choose their candidate for speaker on January 2, McCall had filed papers to run, but his moment had come and gone. As the ABCs took successive ballots to drop the low vote getters, McCall did not make it to the final round. Still, as the story goes, it was his vote for Straus that determined who the next speaker would be.
While there are no doubt many reasons for McCall’s decision to retire from the House, I believe that the closing of the door on his dream to be speaker must have played a part.
McCall went on to serve as Straus's chairman of Calendars. a position from which he could enforce fairness for members of both parties, so that Republicans and Democrats, and combatants in the 07 and 09 speaker’s races, could feel they had an equal chance of getting their bills to the floor, without personalities or political loyalties. He played an essential role in calming waters that are too often roiled, and his performance earned him a place on the Ten Best list. His departure is a real loss.
DMN - Brian McCall won't seek re-election
November 14th, 2009Veteran Plano lawmaker Brian McCall won't seek re-election
Saturday, November 14, 2009
By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN — Veteran Plano lawmaker Brian McCall, who was a leader of the move to depose Speaker Tom Craddick and restore a more bipartisan tenor to the Texas House, plans to announce Monday that he has decided not to seek re-election.
The surprise move comes less than one year after McCall, a Republican, obtained one of the most powerful positions in the House. As chairman of the Calendars Committee, McCall determined which bills were heard in the House and in what order, and he was credited with helping North Texas lawmakers advance the region’s priorities.
McCall, 51, said he is looking at other opportunities because it is time to try something new after 19 years in the House.
“When I took my first oath of office, Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas and George Bush had never run for state political office,” said McCall?, a businessman and investor.
He said when he first ran for the Legislature, he set a few simple goals, most of which he said he’s accomplished.
“The fifth one was to leave on a high note,” McCall said. “So few in politics know when to get off the stage.”
House Speaker Joe Straus praised McCall as a friend, leader and consensus builder.
“His career has been nothing short of outstanding,” said Straus, R-San Antonio. “He helped set the tone for effective governing in the House.”
In 1999, McCall was the author of a compromise tax bill that is credited with saving taxpayers $3.6 billion. The bill included the now-famous three-day sales tax holiday that precedes the start of school each fall.
The major tax cut helped launch Bush, then governor, into his campaign for president.
Before that, as a junior lawmaker, McCall was tapped by Gov. Ann Richards to carry a bill that would create a criminal penalty for stalking.
He said he recalled traveling the state to speak with sheriffs and police chiefs, and heard repeatedly that stalking is a crime that “happens in Hollywood, not in Texas.”
Regardless, he persisted in educating lawmakers about the prevalence of harassment and threats and succeeded in getting the state’s first anti-stalking bill passed.
McCall said that because he decided not to seek re-election, he is returning all the campaign contributions he raised — about $150,000 — since the legislative session ended in June.
Three years ago, McCall shocked many in his own party by announcing that he would challenge Craddick, a fellow Republican, to lead the House.
While Craddick, a staunch conservative, was revered by the right wing of the party, his strong-arm, take-no-prisoners style was resented by many members. They felt forced into unpopular votes and saw the Republican majority dwindling as a result.
McCall lost and suffered as a result; he had to struggle to pass legislation. But this year, McCall and other renegade Republicans joined with Democrats in elevating Straus into the speakership.
He said he is most proud during his tenure “that I helped restore the process of the House rules and empowered the members.”
Open Government: Plano Style
November 13th, 2009The City of Plano and its Economic Development Corporation spend years stonewalling attempts by Jack Lagos, a citizen watchdog, to obtain EDC agendas, minutes and financial records.
Time and again they stall and raise appeals to the Texas Attorney General trying to keep the citizens of Plano from learning how their tax dollars are being spent. Time and again, the Texas Attorney General rules against the EDC.
They then file a restraining order against Mr. Lagos, charging him (frivolously) with making terrorist threats.
Then they go to court to try to keep him from hiring the attorney of his choice. They lose again.
Welcome to Open Government, Plano style.
Bill
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Judge will allow noted Plano attorney to fight city
Wednesday Nov 11, 2009
Theodore Kim / The Dallas Morning News Plano Blog
A Collin County district court judge will allow noted Plano attorney Howard Shapiro to represent defendant Jack Lagos in a civil case filed by the city's economic development board. The decision follows the board's efforts to disqualify Shapiro from the case because of an alleged conflict of interest.
The development involves a case in which the board and its executive director, Sally Bane, has filed a temporary restraining order against Lagos, a persistent City Hall gadfly and frequent critic of the economic board.
Bane and the board have accused Lagos of making threatening statements during a visit to the board's west Plano offices in August. Lagos, who has characterized the order as a "political witch hunt," in turn hired one of the city's most recognized attorneys to represent him: Howard Shapiro, husband of state Sen. Florence Shapiro.
Attorneys for Bane and the board had argued that Howard Shapiro could not represent Lagos because of a conflict of interest. That's because Shapiro engaged in a phone conversation with Plano Mayor Phil Dyer after the incident. (The plaintiff's attorneys argued the chat was inappropriate as Dyer, a member of the economic board, did not have his attorney present at the time.)
District Court judge Cynthia Wheless took the phone call "under advisement," but has decided not to prohibit Shapiro from representing Lagos, Shapiro said. David Ovard, an attorney for Bane and the board, did not immediately return a voicemail seeking comment.
DMN - More Collin County candidates facing primary challengers
November 8th, 2009More Collin County candidates facing primary challengers
Sunday, November 8, 2009
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Collin County Judge Keith Self bucked the political establishment in 2006, defeating longtime incumbent Ron Harris.
Now Self faces a prominent challenger from a well-connected family.
Plano school trustee John Muns, a real estate developer, wants to unseat Self in the Republican primary in the spring. Muns' father, James Muns, served as Plano mayor from 1992 to 1996. His mother, Betty Muns, sits on the Arts of Collin County Commission.
The Self-Muns face-off tops a long list of contested Collin County races in the March 2 GOP primary. Besides commissioners court, the races include district attorney, district clerk and several judgeships.
Muns, 49, said he would seek to build coalitions between county government and other entities.
"I try to come up with solutions that are a win-win for both sides," said Muns, who has been on the Plano school board for 16 years.
Self, 56, said he has helped lower the county property-tax rate, limit spending and make government more transparent.
"This is a great year to be running as a fiscal conservative, in an era of uncertainty and overreach by the federal government," said Self, who heads the commissioners court.
Self is viewed as representing a new, more conservative wing of the local GOP. Some identify Muns as part of the moderate bloc that has long dominated the party.
In the past, Collin County incumbents often drew no opponents. But with the county's explosive growth, more candidates are emerging.
Republicans still hold all county offices, but Democrats probably will field several candidates, said Shawn Stevens, county Democratic Party chairman.
Two of the four county commissioners are also up for re-election next year, and both face challengers.
Kathy Ward, who has held office for 16 months, faces lawyer Duncan Webb. She was appointed commissioner in July 2008 after the death of longtime commissioner Jack Hatchell. She won election in November 2008 to finish the unexpired term.
Ward represents Precinct 4, which includes west Plano.
"I will continue to work hard for the taxpayers, and I believe that message will resonate," said Ward, a former county GOP chairwoman.
Webb, like Muns, is a longtime Plano school board member.
"I have a lot stronger background and a lot more experience related to business, legal aspects and running a large public entity," Webb said.
In the other contested commissioners race, 29-year incumbent Jerry Hoagland is being challenged by Karl Voigtsberger and Cheryl Williams.
Hoagland said his accomplishments include helping form the Collin County Community College District, consolidating county offices in north McKinney? and bringing Pizza Hut Park to Frisco.
"The growth of Collin County has certainly challenged me and, I think, anybody who has sat on commissioners court," Hoagland said.
Voigtsberger and Williams both say it's time for a change in Precinct 2, which includes east Plano, Murphy and Wylie. Voigtsberger, a former engineer, ran unsuccessfully for county tax assessor-collector in 2008.
"My experience as an engineer in the computer manufacturing sector has equipped me with a mindset that makes logical decisions based on the facts," he said.
Williams served on the Plano City Council from 1995 to 1999. She owns a management and accounting consulting firm.
She said she would improve the county's economic development efforts and transportation planning.
"Over the last several years, I have heard growing concerns expressed about Collin County government," Williams said.
link to article at The Dallas Morning News....
DMN Plano blog - Plano ISD reforms: Trustees look into magnets
November 6th, 2009The Dallas Morning News' Plano Blog has been covering the continuing debate over drawing school boundary lines in east Plano. The trustees are faced with difficult decisions, and they know the parents are watching.
Presently, McKinney ISD buses middle school students in order to balance the demographic makeup of its schools. Plano trustees are trying to balance the socio-economic disparity that exists between older schools in inner East Plano and the newer schools in more affluent suburban neighborhoods.
The DMN's Matthew Haag wrote a very nice piece in the Plano Blog yesterday describing the latest idea for achieving balance while still maintaining the concept of neighborhood schools.
Bill
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Plano ISD reforms: Trustees look into magnets
Thursday, Nov 05, 2009
Matthew Haag/Reporter / The Dallas Morning News
Plano ISD trustees weighing whether socioeconomic factors should be used in drawing school boundaries spent more time this morning on another topic: magnet schools.
Trustee Missy Bender said Plano ISD is at a crossroads. Student enrollment has mostly plateaued, she said, but pockets of Plano have seen aging housing and an influx of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. At schools in those areas, Plano ISD has focused on putting the right set of principals, while also adding needed resources.
That system has worked so far, but Bender and other trustees wondered if Plano ISD could reach a point where doing only that isn't enough to address students' academic needs. So, Bender told fellow trustees John Muns and Duncan Webb, she thinks Plano ISD has three options in drawing the school boundaries.
"This is a defining moment for the district," she said. "I don't think there is a silver-bullet answer."
She said that the district can stay the course, where Plano ISD has tried to assign students to nearby schools. But the overall goal has always been to make sure enrollment figures across Plano's schools are balanced, she said.
The second option, she told the trustees, is to keep the current system but add a magnet school that parents could choose to send their children to. This model has been used at Richardson High School. Students who live nearby go to Richardson High School, but it also offers magnet courses that attract students from across Richardson ISD.
Under that system, such a hybrid magnet school would attract high-achieving students and blend them with students who live in the neighborhood. But trustees wondered if that type of magnet school could work in Plano ISD. Richardson High School has four grade levels, while Plano, of course, has high schools and senior high schools.
"Our system isn't setup like that," Webb said.
But Bender said that Plano ISD could try to perfect this magnet model. If it's done right, she said, it could become an example of what other districts should follow.
"We always talk about doing less traditional things," Bender said. "We have a chance to take that further."
Muns added that Plano would have to make sure there's a demand for this type of school. Attendance would likely be voluntary, so would children show up to specialize in automotive repair, engineering or music, Muns asked.
A third option for drawing the boundaries is to do them based on socioeconomic factors. Mari McGowan, an attorney for Plano ISD, told trustees that the district shouldn't draw such a boundary in just one part of town.
McGowan? said those boundaries would have apply across the district.
"A uniform process is always advisable," McGowan? said.
Webb said he thought those boundaries could cause excess transportation costs and additional busing to ensure diverse students are spread among the district's schools.
The board members then explained three magnet school options they had researched. In Coppell, the district started New Tech High, a school where student learning is driven by projects. (The DMN's Katherine Leal Unmuth wrote about the school last April.)
"It was incredibly exciting," Muns said.
Trustees and deputy superintendent Danny Modisette said the New Tech High model is based on only having 400 to 500 students. Plano high schools, however, enroll thousands of students. But Modisette said that the company that provides the curriculum, training of teachers and model for New Tech High is looking to bring the concept to a bigger schools.
The next magnet opportunity discussed was the one at Richardson High School, where students can specialize in anything from communications to science. As I wrote earlier, the school is also attended by children who live nearby.
The last magnet model discussed was one recently implemented in Spring ISD near Houston. The district started Wunsche High, a school focused on providing numerous career paths students can follow. The school doesn't look like one from outside. It looks much more like a professional office building, and that's on purpose.
At Wunsche, for example, a student would take medical courses there but go back to his/her home school for extracurricular activities or math and English. Bender said the school has generated a lot of energy in that district and has been full since it started three years ago.
The trustees seemed excited about at least looking into the possibility of adding a magnet school in Plano ISD, so I would expect them to further discuss the idea in future meetings.
"There is no one best way to do it," Bender said.
The trustees then closed the open portion of the meeting to discuss the boundary changes with McGown?, the attorney. Trustees aren't expected to vote on the boundary changes until December.
FDWIL - The Race for Collin County Court at Law #2
November 6th, 2009In his continuing series of profiles of the judicial races, Frisco's DWI Attorney, Hunter Biederman takes a look at the candidates in the race for Court at Law #2.
His original article can be read on his blog, The Frisco DWI Attorney & Lawyer Blog.
Bill
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The Race For Collin County Court Two
Posted on November 5, 2009 by Hunter Biederman
The Frisco DWI Attorney & Lawyer Blog
I was informed today that long time sitting judge, Judge Jerry Lewis of Collin County Court Two has drawn an opponent, Sharon Ramage. I spoke with Sharon today who is going to email me some information about her campaign and a photo. However, I am impatient and pulled stuff from her website. I will update as needed. . . .
Considering there are several other open benches, most attorneys in the area were surprised at the news. But it does makes some sense considering each of the open benches have already garnered several candidates. See other posts on County Court 3, County Court 6, and District Court 219th.
Below are the candidates for the race:
JERRY LEWIS
Judge Lewis is the current sitting judge in County Court Two for over 20 years. I pulled his information from a facebook page created on his behalf.
Judge Lewis was first elected in 1986 and has presided over 22,000 cases. Judge Lewis is a former First Assistant District Attorney for Collin County and has ten years experience as a prosecuting attorney. He has served two terms as the Local Administrative Judge, of his fellow Court at Law Judges.
Judge Lewis is a military veteran, with 4 years active duty in the United States Army as a Captain and 5 more in the Reserves. He has been a Boy Scout leader for over 25 years and was awarded the Silver Beaver Award in 2004 - the highest adult honor given by the local Circle Ten Council.
Based on his facebook page, he will have a campaign website up soon: www.judgejerrylewis.com
SHARON RAMAGE
Sharon Ramage has been licensed to practice law since 1992. As a former social worker, Ms. Ramage has practiced law in many areas specific to protecting children since that time. From 1992-1997, Sharon served as an Assistant Criminal District Attorney in Tarrant County, and was assigned to the Crimes Against Children Division from 1995-1997.
After resigning from the District Attorney’s Office, Ms. Ramage opened a private practice in Tarrant County, where she practiced special education law and family law. Since 2000, Ms. Ramage has worked in private practice in Collin County, primarily in the area of family law and adoption. Since 2003, she has also served as a Special Education Hearing Officer and Mediator for the Texas Education Agency, conducing special education due process hearings and mediating disputes between schools and parents.
Sharon is married and the mother of two children adopted from China.
Hunter Biederman is a DWI / Criminal Defense Attorney in Collin County. He publishes his blog (www.friscodwilawyer.com) which focuses on the Collin County and Texas legal system. He can be reached at friscolaw@gmail.com or (888) DWI-FRISCO.
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Bill comments:
Until today, I've been somewhat surprised that it didn't look like Judge Jerry Lewis would face any opposition for the County Court at Law #2 bench.
In both the 2007 and 2005 Collin County Bar Polls Judge Lewis has been rated by local attorneys as the second worse judge in the county.
In 2005 the judge who rated the lowest in "How would you describe this judge's overall performance?" was John O'Keefe Barry in the Count Court at Law #3. Only 13% of the lawyers rated him as "excellent", while 50% voted for "needs improvement.
Judge Lewis fared only slightly better than Barry, with 14% rating him as "excellent and 45% saying he "needed improvement.
In the last bar poll, taken in 2007, Judge Charles Sandoval was awarded the dubious honor of Worst Judge in Collin County. His overall performance was rated "excellent" by only 12% of the lawyers polled, while 29% said he "needed improvement. The next year, Sandoval's re-election bid in the primary was thwarted by Suzanne Wooten.
Once again, Judge Jerry Lewis took 2nd from the bottom billing, with 18% rating his performance as excellent and 32% voting that he 'needed improvement".
The 2009 Bar Poll has not yet taken place. Normally the poll is done in November in election years, and the results are published in December.
Bill
Cheryl Williams announces for County Commissioner, Pct. 2
November 6th, 2009From a campaign press release:
PRESS RELEASE
Former Plano City Councilmember, Cheryl Williams, announced her intention to run in the March 2, 2010 Republican Primary for Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 2, “I am excited to announce my candidacy for Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 2. I have a proven record of leadership, community service and results. While on the Plano City council, I was committed to revitalization in east Plano, re-development in downtown, and economic development that created good jobs. I was also a strong advocate of sound fiscal policies that resulted in lower tax rates.”
Ms. Williams was elected, at large, as the first district representative to eastern Plano. She served during a time of dynamic growth in Plano, which included significant infrastructure investment, corporate relocations, commercial and residential development as well as the implementation of a growth and revitalization program for eastern Plano. Ms. Williams served as Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, was the council’s representative on the Plano Economic Development Board and East Plano Development Task Force. She was also the council liaison to a number of Boards and Commissions including the Planning and Zoning Commission, Heritage Commission,……. Ms. Williams now lives in Richardson and has been working as an accounting and land use consultant since leaving office.
When asked why she wants to return to public service, Ms. Williams responded, “Over the last several years I have heard growing concerns expressed about Collin County government including the need to support economic development initiatives, maintain critical relationships with other governing entities, and plan for and adequately fund our future transportation needs. In addition, the county is facing new challenges – growth is slowing in some of our cities which will result in lower tax revenues from those communities; our economy remains uncertain; and our state and federal governments continue to shift costs and responsibilities to our county. These new and difficult challenges require innovative and creative solutions from the Commissioner’s Court. It has become clear that we need new leadership to proactively shape the future of Collin County.”
As County Commissioner, Cheryl Williams wants to promote economic development and business expansion to create well-paying jobs, build better relationships between cities, towns, school districts and the county, improve county services for citizens and accessibility to elected officials, and expend tax payer dollars in a judicious and transparent manner.
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Her campaign web site is at www.votecherylwilliams.com
Veterans Day Ceremony at future site of Veterans Memorial Park
November 4th, 2009From the McKinney Chamber of Commerce:
Veterans Day Ceremony at future site of Veterans Memorial Park
The City of McKinney will honor all veterans with an emphasis on those from Collin County at a ceremony at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7 at the site of the Veterans Memorial Park in McKinney, 6053 Weiskopf Ave. The event will be a full celebration of all military personnel who have served and are currently serving our country. The service is on Weiskopf Ave. south of Collin McKinney Parkway and the Tournament Players Golf Course Clubhouse in Craig Ranch.
New to the ceremony this year is the Community Covenant presentation, designed to develop and foster continued support of military personnel and their families, both at current duty station and as they transfer from state to state. The program, originated with the Army but extending to all military branches, is tailored at the local level and brought to McKinney by Congressmen Sam Johnson and Ralph Hall, Mayor Brian Loughmiller and Collin County Judge Keith Self.
“McKinney is extremely proud of our hometown heroes who we are memorializing in the future Veterans Memorial Park, those who are serving now, and those who have joined or returned to our community after their service has ended. The Community Covenant and the ceremony on Veterans Day underline our appreciation for the priceless service military personnel give to all of us,” said McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller.
The Veterans Memorial Park in McKinney will honor all veterans and memorialize those who lost their lives from Collin County by engraving their names on a wall to be built at the park. The McKinney Armed Services Memorial Board has raised a total of $720,500 to build the park, including a $350,000 donation from the McKinney? Community Development Corporation. The estimated cost of the project is $1.1 million.
Ronnie Foster, a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran from McKinney and McKinney Armed Services Memorial Board member, also will address the crowd at the Veterans Day Ceremony. Foster generated interest to build the park by gathering names of Collin County veterans who never returned home from wars overseas. So far, 322 names of Collin County residents who died in the service of their country have been confirmed.
To start the ceremony, the McKinney North High School Choir will perform the Battle Hymn of the Republic and God Bless America. The McKinney Fire Department Honor Guard and the Pipes and Drums unit will present the colors. A fly-over in the Missing Man formation by four AT-6 aircraft out of Aero Country Airport in McKinney will end the program.
For more information about how to donate to the memorial, submit a name for the wall or to purchase a brick paver, visit www.mckinneytexas.org.
Don High announces entry into race for Court at Law 6
November 4th, 2009From a campaign press release:
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: HIGH ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR COUNTY COURT BENCH
DATE: NOVEMBER 3, 2009
Plano attorney Don N. High announced his candidacy for Judge of County Court at Law #6 during a campaign kick-off party October 22. McKinney attorney Rick Robertson introduced High, saying, “I have known Don for the past 20 years, and I am very pleased and proud that he has chosen to be a candidate for the bench. Collin County has a great need for qualified people, and Don has participated in the legal process from so many different perspectives – as a DA, in private practice, and as an active member of the Collin County Bar Association. Judges have an enormous amount of power over people’s everyday lives. Don has consistently shown a commitment to helping parties get their conflicts resolved with the least amount of expense.”
A Plano resident since 1989 and municipal prosecutor for the City of Wylie since 1995, High has extensive experience in both law and political activism. After receiving his B.B.A. in accounting and finance from Baylor University and his law degree from Baylor Law School, he began his career as a tax accountant with Price Waterhouse and Company in New York. He passed the State Bar of Texas in 1985 and the New York State Bar in 1987 and is currently in private practice, handling all aspects of legal representation. His additional experience includes serving as Collin County District Attorney from 1988 through 1993 and practicing private law with the firm of Grubbs, High, Goeller, and Associates from 1993 through 2002. Since 2002, High has operated a general law practice in Dallas and Collin Counties as the Law Offices of Don High.
His political involvement includes serving as a Precinct Chair of the Collin County Republican Party, VP of Membership for the Collin County Republican Men’s Club, and as a party delegate to state and county conventions, in addition to his work on various local, state, and national campaigns.
He is also a 2007 graduate of Leadership Plano, a community leadership development program sponsored by the Plano Chamber of Commerce. He has also served on the board for Live from Plano as its treasurer, and has performed in the show for many years.
In his speech to supporters, High introduced his campaign theme, “It’s High Time”, and pointed out the level of criminal law experience required to effectively serve on the bench, noting that over 80% of the County Court’s business is criminal law. Since 1991, High has been a Board-Certified Criminal Law Specialist and even has experience in defending a death penalty case. He has tried over 1,000 cases in his career, either as prosecution or defense – including over 300 jury trials and over 700 bench trials.
"I am pleased to announce my candidacy for County Court at Law #6, a bench that was previously occupied by Greg Willis. I am uniquely qualified to serve as judge in this Court, as I have practiced law for over twenty years, am board certified in criminal law, and thus have the experience, qualifications and temperament to ably serve the citizens of Collin County", said High.
High’s former partner mentioned another important judicial characteristic, saying “The number one thing to consider is whether a lawyer’s moral compass is pointing true north. Don’s soul is right, and that’s what we need in our judges. He is definitely running for all the right reasons.”
Campaign Manager Kay Baird added, “Collin County has had an outstanding judiciary and it is important that we retain that quality. Don’s candidacy will ensure that this level of competence will continue. He will be a proud addition to the court.”
The County Court of Law elections will be held on March 2, 2010. More information about High’s experience and campaign platform is available at www.donhigh.com.
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AP - Texas clinic: Headscarf ban was misunderstanding
November 3rd, 2009Texas clinic: Headscarf ban was misunderstanding
By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer
Mon November 2, 2009
DALLAS – A Texas health clinic operator said it regrets telling a Muslim doctor applying for a job that she couldn't wear her traditional headscarf and will clarify its policy regarding religious accommodations for employees.
Dr. Hena Zaki has said she was shocked when CareNow officials told her last month in person and later by e-mail that a no-hat policy extended to her headscarf, also called a hijab.
Coppell-based CareNow, which has nearly two dozen minor emergency clinics in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, called the headscarf ban a misunderstanding and said it plans to train workers to prevent confusion in the future.
"We look forward to sitting down with Dr. Zaki and discussing potential job opportunities. Bright, young doctors like her are just what we're looking for," CareNow President Tim Miller said in a statement released on Saturday.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote to CareNow, explaining federal law requires employers to reasonably accommodate religious practices of an employee.
"We are pleased that all current and future CareNow employees will have their legal right to religious accommodation acknowledged and respected," said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper on Monday.
Zaki, of Plano, had been on a tour of a CareNow clinic in the northern Dallas suburb of Allen when regional medical director Dr. Martin Jones told her he didn't want her to be surprised during orientation that a no-hat policy extended to her headscarf. After she e-mailed CareNow's human resources department asking about the policy, medical director Dr. Marc Anduss responded that it was correct.
NLJ - When procedure trumps justice
November 3rd, 2009The National Law Journal just published an editorial by a law professor at the Pace Law School criticizing the "gamesmanship" of using procedural obstacles used by the Collin County District Attorney's office to prevent Charles Dean hood from seeking a new trial.
This is not the first case where the John Roach's office has come under fire for refusing to allow the merits of a case to come to trial - instead of allowing the facts to be decided, Roach is accused of playing hard ball with the rules to keep the questions from ever being decided.
Bill
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When procedure trumps justice
The judge and prosecutor were having an affair during his murder trial, but Charles Hood got no relief.
by Bennett L. Gershman
Published in the National Law Journal, November 2, 2009
What could be worse than a capital murder trial in which the trial judge and the prosecutor are having a secret love affair and, working in tandem, cause a defendant to be found guilty of murder and face execution? That incredible scenario happened to Charles Hood. On trial for murder in a Texas courtroom, Hood claimed — correctly as it turns out — that the judge and the prosecutor were having a sexual relationship during his trial and that his right to a fair trial was thereby compromised. A lower court agreed to the extent of ordering a hearing, but the highest appeals court in Texas reversed. Why? Because Hood failed to raise the claim in earlier pleadings, as he could not substantiate the "rumors" of the affair with sufficient proof and, therefore, according to the Texas appellate court, was procedurally barred from raising the claim now. The Texas prosecutor hailed the decision "as a significant procedural victory."
Interestingly, the prosecutor did not say that the defendant's allegation lacked merit because the prosecutor knew otherwise. Indeed, the judge and the trial prosecutor — a different prosecutor from the appeals prosecutor — acknowledged the love affair in sworn depositions taken after Hood's trial. Nor did the prosecutor say that justice was served, which is the legal and ethical mandate of every prosecutor. The prosecutor could not say this, of course, because Hood's right to a fair trial was almost certainly prejudiced by the affair, and the pursuit of justice, at the very least, should have informed the prosecutor that a hearing was necessary, as the lower court had ordered. Nor did the prosecutor appear to be troubled by the fact that the trial judge was later elevated to the same appeals court, and she sat with many of the same judges who denied Hood the opportunity to prove his innocence.
Of all the gamesmanship that prosecutors routinely play, one of the most alarming is to aggressively raise hypertechnical and attenuated procedural obstacles and hurdles that a defendant must overcome in order to get a court to listen to his often meritorious claim that the prosecutor committed misconduct. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has characterized such prosecutorial conduct as "gambling" and "playing the odds" with a defendant's rights, playing "hide and seek" to avoid disclosure of exonerating evidence, and requiring a defendant to engage in "scavenger hunts" to find exonerating evidence of which the prosecutor is secretly aware but has suppressed.
Thus, knowing full well that a defendant's claim is legitimate and meritorious, prosecutors regularly argue that the defendant failed to raise his claim earlier, as with Hood, even though the prosecutor well knew that the defendant could not raise the claim because he did not have the information that, brazenly, the prosecutor had suppressed. Some prosecutors have sought to deflect post-conviction claims of innocence by arguing that the defendant pleaded the wrong theory, or failed to use the correct nomenclature to describe the violation. And too many courts have endorsed the prosecutor's arguments. There are limits to this judicial deference. A few terms ago, in Banks v. Dretke, the Supreme Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which had endorsed another Texas prosecutor's gamesmanship. In a death penalty case, the prosecutor argued that the defendant failed to differentiate sufficiently between his distinct legal claims — in effect, he "didn't say 'Simon Says.' "
Procedural gamesmanship by prosecutors is not a new phenomenon. But with the increasing demands by courts for enhanced and much more rigorous pleading requirements — for example, the Supreme Court's decision last term in Ashcroft v. Iqbal — defendants like Charles Hood are going to find the gateway to justice littered with procedural hoops and mazes of sufficient magnitude and complexity that a defendant may be barred from establishing on the merits that a prosecutor engaged in prejudicial misconduct, that a fair trial was denied and that the truth was lost. And some prosecutors, like the prosecutor of Hood, will champion this result as a big victory.
Bennett L. Gershman is a professor at Pace Law School and the author of Prosecutorial Misconduct (West 1999).
Wendy McMillon Announces Candidacy for 219th District Court
November 2nd, 2009From a campaign press release:
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Wendy McMillon Announces Candidacy for 219th Judicial District Court of Collin County
Plano¸Texas, November 2, 2009 – Long time Plano resident and local attorney Wendy McMillon announced her candidacy for the 219th Judicial District Court of Collin County, Texas this morning. Judge Curt B. Henderson, who has been on the bench for 21 years, previously announced his plans to retire at the expiration of his term. Therefore, the court will be open for a new presiding judge.
Wendy McMillon is an experienced and well-qualified trial attorney who has been in practice since 1994. She is currently practicing at the law firm of McKool Smith in Dallas where she concentrates in the area of intellectual property and complex business litigation. Prior to that, she obtained extensive litigation experience at Cowles & Thompson defending complex healthcare liability, wrongful death, and mental health lawsuits in the firm’s Dallas and McKinney offices.
Ms. McMillon stated that she “is thrilled to pursue this opportunity to serve the public in the 219th where I can put my complex litigation experience to work for Collin County.” She says, “I am confident that I have the experience and work ethic that will address the ever increasing complexity of cases being filed in Collin County. In addition, my goal is to help our courts operate even more efficiently and successfully.”
She is married to local attorney L. Mark McMillon, who practices with The Carpenter Law Firm in Plano, and is the mother of two children, MacKenzie, 10, and Matthew, 9. Ms. McMillon is a member of Prestonwood Baptist Church and is an active community volunteer including service in the Junior League of Plano, Prestonwood Christian Academy, CASA of Collin County, and S.O.S. Save Our Schools teen mentoring program in Plano I.S.D..
Collin County Family Lawyer Melinda Hartman Eitzen with McClure, Duffee & Eitzen, L.L.P. will act as McMillon's Campaign Treasurer. Eitzen states that “the Collin County District Court desperately needs an attorney like Wendy McMillon with a strong civil litigation background. Our District Courts are already strongly represented by criminal attorneys, and an overwhelming amount of the court’s docket involves civil disputes. Please join me in supporting Wendy McMillon in the March 2010 Republican Primary.”
Contact: Wendy A. McMillon at wmcmillon@mckoolsmith.com .
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Tucker announces race for 219th District Court
October 31st, 2009About a week ago, I received an email from attorney Angela Tucker informing me that, "This morning I received a note from a friend saying that you had done a piece today in the Collin County Observer regarding the Collin County Court at Law #3 candidates. I wanted for you to hear directly from me that I am officially a candidate for this race."
Five days later, Ms. Tucker issued the following press release:
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Angela Tucker
Collin County Attorney Angela Tucker Announces Candidacy for District Court #219
McKinney, Texas October 30, 2009 - Local Attorney Angela Tucker has announced her intentions to seek the position of Judge of the 219th District Court. Judge Curt Henderson has presided over the Court for the past 21 years and plans to retire.
After numerous requests and encouragement from various community leaders, business leaders, attorneys, and local Republicans, I am pleased to announce my candidacy, Tucker said. "The citizens of Collin County deserve a well qualified judge with experience in all areas of law handled by this court."
Throughout Tucker's education and thirteen years practicing law, her focus has been on preparing for this opportunity. Since graduating from SMU School of Law, Tucker has practiced both civil and criminal law. After spending four years as an Assistant District Attorney, she opened her law office and currently is a partner in a local firm.
Tucker's legal career encompasses well over 100 jury trials and many more trials and contested hearings before the Court. Her legal experience has included criminal, civil, juvenile, family law, child protective services, mental health and bankruptcy. "I am the only candidate with experience in Death Penalty cases. A judge in this court needs that experience to effectively preside over those matters," Tucker stated.
"I am committed to representing the people of Collin County by serving as the next Judge of the 219th District Court. To maintain high legal standards, it is imperative that we elect judges who have a strong work ethic, high moral standards, and diverse experience.
"Having been involved in numerous campaigns, I recognize the hard work and effort that lies before me. I intend to run a strong grassroots campaign and recognize the importance of strong conservative support in Collin County."
Following the resignation of Judge Greg Willis and his announcement to run for District Attorney, Tucker was approached by community leaders looking for a diversely qualified candidate for the 219th. Although Tucker originally planned to run for Collin County Court at Law #3, the encouragement from local leaders led her to consider this position.
In announcing his support for Tucker, Mac Hendricks, campaign treasurer and local community leader, said "Collin County needs conservative ethical judges committed to the letter of the law, and Angela Tucker embodies that and more. Angela's dedication to family, community, and strong work ethic characterizes the type of judges we need in our county."
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Grits - Does Texas need constables in the 21st century?
October 28th, 2009Want to make a Collin County Constable mad? Compare our constables to those in Dallas County.
I don't blame our guys for being angry and a little embarrassed by the shenanigans and felonies perpetrated in our larger neighbor to the south.
Their issues are not our issues.
Having said that however, it must be noted that most of the problems with the Dallas Constables began after they began a serious effort to enforce traffic laws. And it should also be noted that some constables here in Collin County are trying to embark down the same path. And for the same reason - to raise revenue.
Recently, for example, a vendor gave Constable Chuck Presley the gift of an old clunker police interceptor. It had almost 100,000 miles on it, but more importantly to Presley, it also had a siren, light bars, radar and the rest of the equipment needed to patrol and run radar traps.
Does Collin County need four more police agencies setting up speed traps?
Yesterday, the criminal justice blog, Grits for Breakfast, posted a very interesting article about how some Texas legislators are beginning to question the need for constables at all.
I don't necessarily agree with all its conclusions, but I do think Grits offers an intriguing perspective on an issue that does affect Collin County.
Bill
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Does Texas need constables in the 21st century?
Posted October 27, 2009 by Grits for Breakfast
Here's a pair of must-read articles from Ed Timms and Kevin Krause at the Dallas News on the evolving role of constables over the last 15 years and whether they've seen too much mission creep:
- Dallas County constables' growing ticketing said to boost safety - and county coffers
- With little scrutiny, Dallas County constables have turned offices into de facto police departments
According to the first story:
[Will] Hartnett, a Republican state representative from Dallas, is concerned with what he sees as a "dramatic expansion" of constables' duties. Constituents, he said, are upset about constables "setting up speed traps and stop-sign traps" – more to write a lot of tickets than to enforce traffic laws.
"There's a difference between enforcement and traps," he said.
Traffic enforcement by constables is praised by some community leaders as a public service that makes Dallas County roads safer. But for a county that relies heavily on fines and fees to pay the bills, such energetic traffic enforcement also is an important revenue stream – especially during an economic downturn. And traffic enforcement has contributed to an unprecedented expansion of constables' operations.
Some justice of the peace courts also are helping to get money from errant motorists into the county's coffers as quickly as possible. They do so by offering deferred disposition – with a probationary period of just a day – for some traffic offenses. If offenders complete the probationary period without another offense, the traffic violation stays off their record.
Such practices have produced results.
Constables are responsible for the majority of traffic cases that end up in JP courts. Revenue from traffic cases in JP courts was about $7.3 million in 2003. It topped $25.8 million in 2008 – an increase of more than 250 percent.
It's interesting to me that it's Republicans like Will Hartnett and Bob Duncan who are raising the most poignant and important questions about constables:
"The question is, in modern-day society, do we need independently elected constables?" said [Robert] Duncan, the state senator from Lubbock. "Because they're basically serving the same function as a [sheriff's] deputy could and probably should be serving."
But this isn't a particularly partisan issue, or it shouldn't be, but really a matter of basic good governance. I absolutely agree that constables are redundant in many of their modern duties and also less accountable generally than municipal PDs and county Sheriffs. Constables are relics; one hundred years from now, I've little doubt history will view them as the same kind of quaint joke as the recently abolished county inspector of hides and animals.
DMN - Plano's economic development board seeks restraining order against activist
October 26th, 2009One of the basic rights of Americans is the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This right to watch, lobby and agitate was considered so precious to our liberties that it was enshrined in the very first of the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.
Jack Lagos has been petitioning his government for several years - and he has a list of grievances.
He has consistently challenged the City of Plano, the Arts of Collin County, and the Plano Economic Development Board (PEDB).
His disagreements PEDB over spending and the public's right to know and his confrontations with the City have resulted in several written opinions by the Texas Attorney General that have forced the PEDB to publish agendas and to open its meetings and records to the public.
In a 2007 article, The Dallas Morning News' Theodore Kim wrote of Mr. Lagos' struggle over open meetings and records:
"To characterize Mr. Lagos as a gadfly would be an understatement. He's more like a gadwasp.
"For the past several years, the 65-year-old Plano resident has frequented council meetings and fervently scolded members over rising taxes, government largesse and other issues.
"His latest project? Making public the meetings and records of the Plano Economic Development Board, a city-funded nonprofit group that helps shepherd new businesses to Plano.
"At council meeting after meeting, Mr. Lagos has railed about unbolting the doings of the board. His strident rants – carried live on public access television – often prompt little more than blank stares from council members and city staff.
"But his persistent efforts actually bore fruit last month when the Texas attorney general's office ruled that the board should open its meetings and agendas to public scrutiny.
"The city has long argued that the board is private and not subject to open records laws. The attorney general decided otherwise."
Mr. Lagos is abrasive. His opinions are not always popular, especially with elected officials, but he is persistent and his persistence has allowed him to act as an effective check on government actions.
Typically, Plano and the PEDB have reacted to Mr. Lagos's activism by stonewalling requests for information. Their shortsighted, defensive reactions have only emboldened Lagos and resulted in more open records AG Opinions in his favor.
In a recent clash with the PEDB, Lagos called Mayor Phil Dyer to complain that the Board would not release yet another document. In his tirade with the Mayor, Lagos is reported to have made the comment that a "grenade was abut to go off in the boardroom" and that the "staff would not like his surprises".
The Mayor and the PEDB then acted like a recent hysterical school principal who suspended a first grader for bringing a 2" squirt gun to school. The PEDB went to court and filed a request for a restraining order against Lagos.
The Morning News reports that, "The order took effect Aug. 27 and forbids Lagos from interacting with board staff members, Bane and the seven-member board itself, which includes Dyer and City Manager Thomas Muehlenbeck. The plaintiffs are seeking a more permanent arrangement."
When will Plano learn that building walls of secrecy will not stifle protest? When will they learn that the public's right to know is more important than their agendas? That citizens don't have to be nice to be entitled to the whole truth?
Jack Lagos can be a jerk. But so was Thomas Paine.
Bill
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Plano's economic development board seeks restraining order against activist
Thursday, October 22, 2009
By THEODORE KIM / The Dallas Morning News
Plano's economic development board has filed a restraining order against a local gadfly, claiming harassment and physical threats.
Jack Lagos dismisses the accusations as a "political witch hunt" meant to smear his name and prevent him from examining city records.
And, in a twist, Lagos has hired one of Plano's best-known lawyers to represent him: Howard Shapiro, husband of state Sen. Florence Shapiro.
It is a case rife with intrigue. And it provides a window into a long-simmering row between Lagos, an assiduous city government critic, and the board, which tries to recruit and keep businesses in Plano.
The temporary restraining order, filed in a state district court, stems from a clash over a request for public documents at the board's office Aug. 20.
The board's executive director, Sally Bane, and administrative assistant Linda Thomason contend that Lagos became "abrasive and confrontational" after he was told to put in a records request for a certain document, according to court filings.
Lagos subsequently called Plano Mayor Phil Dyer to complain. What happened next is in dispute.
Bane and Thomason say in affidavits that Lagos told the mayor a grenade was about to go off in the boardroom and that staff "would not like his surprises."
The order took effect Aug. 27 and forbids Lagos from interacting with board staff members, Bane and the seven-member board itself, which includes Dyer and City Manager Thomas Muehlenbeck. The plaintiffs are seeking a more permanent arrangement.
The disputed exchange followed months of disagreements over the board's work in which Lagos' behavior grew erratic, said David Ovard, attorney for the board and Bane.
"Unfortunately, the steps that were taken were made necessary because of his actions," Ovard said. He added that Bane and Thomason feared for their safety and have since bolstered security at the board's offices.
Bane did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment. Dyer declined to comment and referred all questions to Ovard.
In interviews, Lagos and his attorney contend the "grenade" comment is being taken out of context. Rather, Lagos was using a figure of speech to express to the mayor that the documents Lagos was seeking would be damaging – the equivalent of a grenade going off in the boardroom.
Board staffers called police after the quarrel. Lagos said his house was searched by authorities. They found nothing and later apologized, said Shapiro, his attorney. Shapiro added that a grand jury decided not to indict Lagos on criminal charges.
"This is completely being blown out of proportion," Shapiro said. "It was a figure of speech. ... I think [Lagos is] just a thorn in their side. And he probably has agitated them. But that's no grounds for an injunction."
The legal sparring is far from over.
Ovard has moved to disqualify Shapiro from representing Lagos because Shapiro called Dyer after the incident – a potential conflict of interest. In that call, Shapiro said, the mayor admitted he did not feel in danger after the grenade comment.
WFAA - DWI case disappears in Collin County courts
October 24th, 2009This is a very disturbing story.
It involves a DWI case that appears to have been "fixed" by a senior prosecutor in the Collin County District Attorney's office.
DA John Roach's response six months later?
- 'Reassign' the prosecutor accused of the 'fix' and her boss.
- Fire the original prosecutor who had the case taken away from him by his superior and then complained about it, in what sure looks like 'firing the whistle blower'.
- Complain about the laws that allow people found innocent to have their arrest records expunged.
- Order an investigation.
The DWI arrest in question was last November. The 'fix' was in June. How much time does Mr. Roach need to ask his own employees what happened?
Collin County and its District Attorney have a well justified reputation for being tough on law breakers. Unless he wants to be seen as just another good ol boy politician protecting his own, Roach needs to take swift, public and decisive action to bring anyone guilty of a breach of the public trust to justice. Roach says he has zero tolerance for drunk drivers. He needs to reassure the citizens that he has exactly that same amount of tolerance for those who abuses the public trust in the justice system.
DA Roach is retiring at the end of 2010. His actions and that of 2 of his prosecutors should provide grist for an interesting discussion between the candidates who want our votes to become the next district attorney.
Bill
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DWI case disappears in Collin County courts
Friday, October 23, 2009
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV
PLANO — Two North Texas men who tried to get a drunk driver off the streets and into a courtroom are confused and upset.
The seemingly iron-clad DWI case against the driver somehow vanished in the Collin County court system until News 8 became involved.
Adam Bennett and Steven Tibbles were scheduled to tell their story to a jury this past summer, but never got the chance. So they are telling it to News 8.
Last November in Plano, Bennett and Tibbles say they witnessed an apparent drunk driver.
"He swerved over and almost hit us," Bennett said. "Another car passed him and he almost hit him as well. He almost hit several cars."
Tibbles said the driver “obviously was not suitable for driving."
Bennett and Tibbles called 911 and followed the driver to a convenience store, where he was intercepted by Plano police. The incident report spells out what happened next.
The investigating officer said he smelled the "odor of an intoxicating beverage on his breath."
Police said the driver failed the eye test, observing "a lack of smooth pursuit in both of his eyes," which were described as "watery."
On the field sobriety, walk-and-turn test, the officer said the driver "stepped off the line" several times and "raised his arms and swayed."
But the most incriminating evidence in any DWI case is the Intoxilyzer test. In this case, the driver "blew" a 0.14, nearly twice the legal limit.
Despite the evidence, the driver and his attorney insisted on a jury trial.
Bennett and Tibbles were subpoenaed by the Collin County District Attorney's office and were eager to testify. The Collin County prosecutor assigned to the case amassed seven witnesses, gathered all the evidence, and set the trial for June 22.
But ten days before trial, something happened.
The court's chief prosecutor, Kerrie Walker, took the case away from the original prosecutor. Walker dismissed all the witnesses and filed paperwork waiving the jury trial.
She reset the case for July 23, a day the regular judge would be gone. In his place was a visiting judge who had no previous knowledge of the case.
On the day of the hearing, Walker apparently presented no evidence or witnesses.
The driver, who allegedly posed such a threat to the public, was quickly found "not guilty."
No probation. No community service. No fines.
And — according to the witnesses to the crime — there was no justice.
"Where's our justice system?" asked Tibbles. "Why do we have laws if that kind of thing is just going to happen? If people are just going to be able to walk from an open-and-shut case?"
Bennett and Tibbles say they have several questions for Court Chief Kerrie Walker, who abruptly took over the case.
Walker declined to discuss the case with News 8 and referred us to her supervisor, Curtis Howard, who also has declined to comment. Howard was allegedly notified of the disappearing DWI case this summer.
Howard failed to pass along the concerns to District Attorney John Roach, who says he has a zero tolerance attitude toward drunk drivers.
"If we can prove that you committed a DWI, then we are going to prosecute that case," Roach said. "It's just that simple."
Now that the case of the disappearing DWI has come to his attention, Roach said he has concerns of his own. He said both Walker and Howard have been reassigned pending a full investigation.
"Nobody should be making any mistake about what my attitude is and what my policies are here, and people who deviate from those policies without some excuse or justification are going to be investigated," Roach said.
As for the identity of the alleged drunk driver in question, that information will never be made public because the case was legally expunged from the files — all records are purged as if it never happened.
District Attorney Roach said he is frustrated by the Texas expungement laws. He said he has been fighting to have them changed, but he still feels he knows enough about this case to hold his prosecutors accountable.
City of Frisco offers Exide info web site
October 23rd, 2009From the City of Frisco's new "Exide Technologies Information" web page:
Exide Technologies Information
This Web page was created to keep residents informed about issues of concern related to Exide Technologies, which is a battery recycling plant located south of downtown Frisco. This page will be updated as information becomes available.
What's the latest...
On October 20, during its regularly scheduled city council meeting, the Frisco City Council voted unanimously to authorize City Manager George Purefoy to draft a letter to Exide asking for the company to withdraw its permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to expand production at the battery recycling plant.What action has the City of Frisco taken?
On October 19, 2009 Mayor Maher Maso and City Manager George Purefoy drove to Austin to meet with the Executive Director of TCEQ. Click here to read the e-mail from Frisco’s City Manager to the Mayor and Council, summarizing the meeting with TCEQ. *This e-mail was among four documents shared with the public during the Town Hall meeting, October 19, 2009.
On November 24, 2008, the City of Frisco wrote TCEQ about concerns that Exide’s requested permit amendment will authorize lead emissions in excess of the actual current level at Exide’s Frisco facility. The City also specifically requested a contested case hearing on the matter. Click here to read the correspondence in its entirety. *This letter was among four documents shared with the public during the Town Hall meeting, October 19, 2009.
What can I do?
TCEQ advises anyone concerned about the permit amendment can send in a protest letter, adding residents and property owners within a one mile radius of the emissions point (smokestack) should have standing to require an evidentiary hearing at the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
DMN - Frisco to consider health risk study of battery plant
October 20th, 2009Frisco to consider health risk study of battery plant
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG and VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
Frisco's city officials and state regulators agreed Monday to look into doing a health risk study related to lead emissions from a battery-recycling plant in the city's center.
The commitment comes as concerns grow about health effects from lead pollution from the Exide Technologies plant, just south of downtown.
A year ago, Exide submitted an application to state regulators to increase production at the plant, which is on Fifth Street and near several neighborhoods. The city is protesting the permit and has filed a request for a contested-case hearing, which is a legal proceeding similar to a civil trial.
Recently, state regulators gave notice that an area around the plant is not expected to meet the new, more stringent federal air quality standards for lead that go into effect in Collin County in 2012. The non-attainment area is expected to be the only one in the south-central U.S.
On Monday, Frisco Mayor Maher Maso and City Manager George Purefoy drove to Austin to discuss the smelter with Mark Vickery, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The agency oversees the company's operations and is reviewing its application to expand.
Article highlighting application
The meeting, which had been planned for some time, came a day after a Dallas Morning News article highlighting Exide's application and the proposal for non-attainment.
Exide officials declined to comment for the article, saying they couldn't discuss pending applications.
The company has said in documents that a production expansion won't increase lead emissions.
The plant's lead emissions comply with current federal air quality standards, but its emissions make Collin County one of only 18 counties nationwide not expected to meet new, more stringent air quality standards.
No amount of lead exposure is safe, but it's especially detrimental to children, who can suffer from learning problems and brain damage.
Maso said at the start of a town hall meeting Monday night that the discussion with Vickery went well, but he didn't elaborate. Exide was not listed on the agenda, which limited what city officials could say.
Maso said future meetings will be planned to discuss the plant.
"Rest assured we are monitoring it and are on top of it," Maso said.
He noted that the city has been working on the issue for a while.
"I personally don't feel Exide has been responsive to our city," Maso said. "This isn't just a Frisco issue."
He said after that meeting that some residents have demanded that the plant be closed.
"I'm not sure I disagree with that," he said. "If they won't be open and transparent, they have no place in Frisco."
The health risk study, if approved, would be the first in the city since 1995, when a study identified three children living north of the plant with elevated lead levels in their blood. The study could not conclusively connect those levels with the plant's emissions.
The city had handouts available at the town hall meeting that included copies of the city's protest letter and a map with a one-mile and two-mile radius around the plant. The packet also included a format for residents interested in filing their own protest with state regulators.
Maso said people living within a mile of the plant have standing to protest, but he also urged others outside that area with concerns to send one in.
Protest letter
The city's sample protest letter included the following statements:
•"I am adversely affected because the documented degradation of air quality in the vicinity of the Applicant's facility has had a negative impact on me and my family."
•"An increase in the amount of allowable emissions will significantly impact me and my family."
•"My family has been adversely impacted by harmful particulates and odors from the Applicant's facility."
•"Withdrawal of the application will resolve my immediate concerns although I believe Exide's lead emissions are having a negative long term health effect on me and my family."
A summary of the city's meeting with TCEQ also stated that Vickery "agreed to further research the methodology used to determine the designated non-attainment area for the new EPA lead standards and Exide's specific permit amendment."
Exide seeks to boost finished lead production limits to 500 tons a day, up from the current limit of 400 tons a day. TCEQ is reviewing the request.
Built in 1964, the plant crushes old automotive and industrial batteries, uses heat to extract the lead and converts it into lead oxide to make recycled batteries. In the process, some lead is released into the environment.
A few months ago, Exigent proposed spending more than $1.3 million to upgrade the plant's pollution control in hopes of moving its application forward. The upgrades would help trap so-called fugitive emissions – the lead released through a crack in a building or by a truck leaving the plant.
In November 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency gave notice that the federal air quality standard for lead emissions would become 10 times more stringent – from 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air to 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter.
The plant's current lead emissions are projected to exceed the 0.15 lead standard, according to state data.
read more at the Dallas Morning News.....
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Also see: DMN - Frisco officials fight plans to expand lead smelter
DMN - Frisco officials fight plans to expand lead smelter
October 19th, 2009It's been several years since I first heard of Exide and it's Frisco lead smelter.
I did some research on the plant back in 2006. At that time it was (and still is) the largest point source of hazardous pollution in Collin County.
EPA reports detail releases of Antimony, Lead and Arsenic into the air, ground and water around the plant.
Because of Exide Technologies lead emissions, Frisco has been declared Texas' only non-attainment area for lead pollution. (Map of non-attainment area.) In the non-attainment area are homes and schools.
The TCEQ notes on their "Air Pollution from Lead" web page (which includes a lot of data and facts on the Frisco smelter) that:
"Depending on the level of exposure, lead can adversely affect the nervous system, kidney function, immune system, reproductive and developmental systems and the cardiovascular system. Lead exposure also affects the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.
The lead effects most commonly encountered in current populations are neurological effects in children and cardiovascular effects (e.g., high blood pressure and heart disease) in adults.
Infants and young children are especially sensitive to even low levels of lead, which may contribute to behavioral problems, learning deficits and lowered IQ. There is no known safe level of lead in the body."
On January 1, 2010, the rest of the country will be required to adopt a new, stricter lead emissions standard from 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter to one tenth that amount. Collin County, however is exempted from the new standards until 2012. A June, 2009 TCEQ memo shows that sampling around the Exide plant is expected to be 1.42 micrograms per cubic meter or nine times the new standard.
When the EPA TCEQ came to Frisco in April of 2009, not one city or county official attended, no citizens showed up either. The report noted that:
"Commission staff appeared in Frisco at 2:00 p.m. on April 20, 2009, to conduct a public hearing on the proposals. Since no member of the public appeared to make comments on either proposal, the commission did not open the public hearing. During the comment period, which closed on April 24, 2009, the commission received two comment letters, both from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
Now Exide wants to expand its Frisco operations, and the City of Frisco has begun to take notice.
It's about time.
The Dallas Morning News' Matthew Haag and Valerie Wigglesworth have written a well researched and informative article on this important threat to our children's health.
Bill
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Frisco officials fight plans to expand lead smelter
Sunday, October 18, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG and VALERIE WIGGLESWORTH / The Dallas Morning News
Thousands of people in the heart of Frisco are exposed to toxic lead pollution from a battery recycling plant that wants to expand production.
Exide Technologies Inc. operates the decades-old lead smelter that's flanked by Frisco's downtown, a high school and several neighborhoods and businesses. Its lead emissions make Collin County one of only 18 counties nationwide not expected to meet new, more stringent air-quality standards. It is expected to be the only such designation in the south-central United States.
Recent research shows that lead poses a greater risk to people than scientists once thought. And it's especially detrimental to children, who can suffer from learning problems, diminished IQs and brain damage.
Exide, whose plant is not in violation of current air-quality standards, responded to only a few specific questions. Exide also declined a request to make available Don Barar, its plant manager in Frisco.
The company issued a brief statement that said in part: "The desire and intent of Exide Technologies is to operate responsibly and in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements."
City of Frisco officials object to the production increase and are challenging Exide's plans through a trial-like contested case hearing with state regulators. Their letter to state officials says the expansion "will have a negative impact on the City and its residents."
Late this summer, Exide officials proposed spending more than $1.3 million to reduce the plant's lead air emissions in hopes of moving its application forward. The projects outlined in documents sent to the state would capture so-called fugitive emissions – the lead released through cracks in a building or by vehicle traffic leaving the plant.
But City Manager George Purefoy said, "I don't understand logically how they can increase production and not increase the amount of emissions going out of the stacks."
City grew up with plant
Frisco is in a unique position: Few, if any, burgeoning suburban cities nationwide have a lead smelter in the middle of town.
Gould-National Battery Inc. originally built the plant in 1964 on 55 acres along South Fifth Street with views of rolling prairies. At the time, the city's population was less than 1,900.
But Frisco grew up. Farmland has been eaten up by subdivisions. And the city's population has exploded to more than 106,000.
Exide Technologies acquired the plant in 2000. It's one of nine battery recycling plants worldwide operated by the company based in Milton, Ga. It employs 130 people
The Frisco plant crushes used automotive and industrial batteries, uses heat to extract the lead and converts it into lead oxide to make recycled batteries. The process releases some of the lead into the environment.
A year ago, Exide submitted a request to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to allow the Frisco plant to break down more batteries. Finished lead production limits would increase to 500 tons a day, up from the current limit of 400 tons a day.
TCEQ is still reviewing the request. Officials there said they cannot comment on pending permits.
A key question remains unanswered: What impact would a production increase at Exide's plant have on already elevated lead-pollution levels?
In its application to the state, Exide said its production change wouldn't increase the plant's lead emissions, but it didn't offer any evidence.
Exide's 100-page application to Texas regulators didn't include an air modeling study – common in such applications – that estimates lead levels in the air around the smelter.
In addition, the map Exide sent to state regulators to show what's near the plant is so outdated that the Dallas North Tollway isn't listed. Neither are Pizza Hut Park, Frisco Square, Frisco High School and several newer neighborhoods.
Purefoy said the city didn't know about the expansion proposal until after Exide submitted it in October 2008. Later that month, Purefoy fired off an e-mail to Mayor Maher Maso after a meeting with Barar, the plant manager.
"I told him that the city was committed to reducing the emissions falling on our citizens every minute from the plant," Purefoy wrote. "And if Exide wasn't committed to the same goal then the relationship between the city and Exide was taking a dramatic change of course."
Stricter standards
In November 2008, the EPA gave notice that the federal air-quality standard for lead emissions would become 10 times more stringent – from 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air to 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter.
"After being quiet for 15 years on the lead front, it's now a priority for the EPA," said Guy Donaldson, chief of the planning section for the agency's Region 6, which covers a five-state area that includes Texas. "It's happening now because the scientific evidence says you have health effects at these levels."
The new standard for lead, which wouldn't be enforced in Collin County until 2012, is the level expected to protect public health.
A monitoring station on Exide's property recorded violations of the 1.5 standard in 1985, 1989 and 1990. The plant, then operated by another company, received violation notices in 1989 and 1990. A year later, the EPA designated the facility a nonattainment area, meaning it violated air-quality standards. The area was declared back in compliance in 1999.
The new proposed nonattainment area is at least twice as big as the one designated in 1991.
'Any exposure is bad'
In recent years, the tools for measuring the effects of lead exposure in people have become more precise, allowing scientists to detect lower levels in blood and measure damage in greater detail.
"Lead is toxic even at the lowest levels we can measure," said Philip Landrigan, an international leader in public health and a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. "Any exposure is bad, but more exposure is worse."
Health effects are particularly acute in children, who breathe in more air than adults relative to their size. Lead exposure can cause learning disabilities, decreased growth, hyperactivity and brain damage.
In adults, high lead levels can contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease. Pregnant women exposed to lead also put their unborn babies at risk.
While lead-poisoning symptoms aren't always apparent, Landrigan said, there could be some underlying health effects. The only way to know for sure is to test the amount of lead in a person's blood, he said.
Frisco conducted a health risk assessment in 1994 and a follow-up in 1995 that focused on three families who lived a few blocks north of the lead smelter and east of the new City Hall. The studies found elevated levels of lead in three children but couldn't conclusively connect them to the plant's emissions.
Purefoy, Frisco's city manager, said last month that he hopes to conduct a larger health study to determine any effects from lead.
Shift in relations
Exide officials have told Texas environmental regulators that a production increase won't cause a jump in lead emissions. Yet, California air-quality regulators overseeing an Exide plant near Los Angeles say production is directly tied to emissions.
Last year, they ordered the Exide plant there to cut its production almost in half to reduce lead pollution.
"It was a very quick-acting measure to make sure the lead levels were reduced immediately," said Sam Atwood, spokesman for California's South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Federal data from 2007 show the California plant's overall lead emissions were less than those from the Frisco plant. But weather patterns, smokestack heights and other variables can determine how lead emissions affect the surrounding air quality.
Frisco's request for a contested case hearing on Exide's application requires the company to address the city's issues in a formal setting.
The legal standoff represents a shift in relations between the city and the plant.
"Every time we found an issue, a problem, in the past, they have always stepped up and taken care of it," Purefoy said.
In 1992, for example, after it was found that battery pieces had been used as fill decades earlier in building a parking lot, company officials worked with the city to clean up the contaminated material. And later, when contaminated water from the plant's operations made its way to the city's Stewart Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the company took responsibility for containment and cleanup.
"I believe we may have the distinction of having the only wastewater treatment plant in the country that ever produced hazardous waste," Purefoy said.
The wastewater treatment plant was closed in the late 1990s. But some areas at the plant recently have tested positive for lead and cadmium. The city wants Exide to pay the $400,000 to $500,000 in cleanup costs.
FDWIL - Collin County District Attorney Race Heating Up
October 13th, 2009Frisco's Hunter Biederman writes the "Frisco DWI Lawyer and Attorney Blog. Lately, he has been writing some great stuff on upcoming Collin County judicial races.
Today he posted an excellent overview of the candidates lining up for the run for County District Attorney
Bill
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Collin County District Attorney Race Heating Up
Frisco DWI Lawyer and Attorney Blog
Posted on October 13, 2009 by Hunter Biederman
The race for the next Collin County District Attorney is gaining momentum. Yesterday, on the courthouse steps, former judge Greg Willis announced he is running for the soon to be vacant spot.
Greg resigned his former position as County Court Six Judge in order to run for District Attorney. Greg is a former Collin County prosecutor and also private practice attorney.
His announcement places him in the running with several other candidates who have also publicly announced their intentions to run.
K. Jefferson Bray (Jeff Bray), announced his intentions to run for District Attorney. Jeff is currently the senior legal adviser for Plano PD, and former Collin and Dallas County prosecutor. He has a website, www.brayforda.com detailing his plans for the office.
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James "Jimmy" Angelino has also been public about his intentions to run for District Attorney. Jimmy is a former Dallas police officer, and former Denton prosecutor. He is currently in private practice.
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J. Eric Reed has also announced he intends to run for District Attorney. Eric is an attorney in private practice, and former Dallas prosecutor, and former Special Asst. US Attorney.
Rafael de la Garza has also been public about his intentions to become Collin County's District Attorney. Rafael is a former Dallas prosecutor current private practice attorney. He has a website www.delagarzaforda.com detailing his plans for office.
link to story on Frisco DWI Lawyer and Attorney Blog....
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Judge Greg Willis announces for DA race
October 13th, 2009From a press release by Judge Greg Willis:
For immediate release
Judge Greg Willis Resigns Judgeship, Announces Candidacy For Collin County District Attorney
McKinney, Texas, October 12, 2009 – Surrounded by family and supporters on the Collin County Courthouse steps, Republican Greg Willis announced today his campaign for Collin County District Attorney. The County Court at Law Judge resigned his bench and is seeking to fill the seat of current District Attorney John Roach, who recently announced that he was not seeking re-election.
In his announcement, Willis outlined his plans to “aggressively prosecute crimes against children, sexual and domestic assaults, and drunk driving.”
“My experience as a private practice attorney, as well as a Collin County prosecutor and then judge, provide me with the background to serve in an effective and efficient manner from day one,” said Willis, who was twice listed as a Texas Monthly SuperLawyer®. “Now I ask the citizens of Collin County to give me the opportunity to build on the strong foundation established by John Roach and his high-caliber staff. It will be my goal to serve as Collin County District Attorney with the utmost personal and professional integrity.”
“I’ve seen the devastation wrought by those who prey upon our children and our elderly, by those who assault our sisters and our mothers. I’ve seen the senselessness of innocent victims who’ve been maimed or killed by those who refuse to drink responsibly,” Willis continued. “I ask that you give me the chance to lead the fight to keep our families safe, our neighborhoods secure, and our sense of justice intact.”
Joining Willis for the announcement, and offering their public endorsements, were State Representatives Jodie Laubenberg and Ken Paxton and County Commissioner Joe Jaynes.
Willis has also earned the endorsement of numerous mayors from across the county, including Brian Loughmiller of McKinney, Steve Terrell of Allen, Maher Maso of Frisco, Eric Hogue of Wylie, Charles Niswanger of Prosper, Don Smith of Farmersville, Bill Carmickle of Lucas, Jim Lewis of Celina, Joe Cordina of Parker, Reed Greer of Melissa, Johnny Hamm of New Hope, Norma Martin of Lavon, and Johnny Stevenson of Nevada. All four elected Collin County Constables, Paul Elkins, Joe Barton, Johnny Todd, and Chuck Presley have also endorsed Willis.
“I have known Greg Willis for over twenty-five years. He is a true conservative, an excellent judge and attorney, and a dedicated husband and father,” says Representative Paxton. “Collin County taxpayers would be well-served to have Greg Willis as their District Attorney.”
Willis commented, “I’m honored to have earned so many key endorsements in the beginning days of our campaign, and look forward to building an even stronger campaign organization in the weeks ahead.”
Greg Willis was first appointed judge of the Collin County Court at Law #6 in 2005 and was elected for a full term in 2006. In April 2009, Judge Willis was awarded the Patriot Award by the Employers Support for the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), a Department of Defense organization that promotes a culture of employers who support and value the military service of their employees.
Before his appointment as judge, Willis was in private practice with his wife, Jill, at The Willis Law Firm in Plano. He handled primarily criminal, employment, and family matters. Prior to opening The Willis Law Firm, Willis served four years as a misdemeanor and felony prosecutor for the Collin County Criminal District Attorney. Before that, Willis practiced employment law in the Dallas offices of Haynes & Boone, L.L.P., and Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, L.L.P.
Willis, a 1991 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, and an honors graduate of Baylor University, served as President of the Collin County Bar Association (2001-2002), and was named a Texas SuperLawyer® 2004 and 2005 (Texas Monthly). He is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.
Willis and his wife, Jill, live in Allen with their son and daughter. He is a charter member of the Allen Sunrise Rotary Club and previously served on the Leadership Allen Alumni Board. The Willis family is active at Chase Oaks Church in Plano.
DBJ - $60M renovation kicks off at airport
October 13th, 2009$60M renovation kicks off at airport
Collin County facility to add runway, new tower
Dallas Business Journal - by Jeff Bounds Staff writer
After nearly seven years of planning, a $60 million renovation at the Collin County Regional Airport is about to take off.
Set to finish by 2013, the project entails a variety of improvements to the 79-year-old airport, including putting down a new runway that will be 7,000 feet long and 150 feet wide. The current one is 7,000 feet long by 100 feet wide.
“The existing runway will become our parallel taxiway,” said Ken Wiegand, executive director of the McKinney Airport Development Corp., which operates, markets and develops the airport.
In addition, the current control tower, a 33-foot temporary facility that was moved there from Alliance Airport in the late ’90s, will be replaced by a 90-foot tower that will give controllers direct line-of-sight views of the entire replacement runway.
“We’re setting the airport for the future that we know is coming,” Wiegand said. “We know demand is going to increase here ... We’re building the infrastructure we need now, and have planned for, to accommodate increased traffic.”
With the Wright Amendment that limits flight distances from Dallas Love Field set to end in 2014, general aviation traffic “will look for new places to operate,” Wiegand added. “We also believe that some of the business aircraft owners at Addison Airport will look for a less-congested, more cost-effective airport.”
However, traffic at Collin County Regional has dropped in the last couple of years, a trend that’s true across area airports because of the economy, Wiegand said.
Total traffic, as measured by the combination of takeoffs and landings, fell from 106,039 in 2007 to 101,743 in 2008 and 93,570 in ’09, he said. But Wiegand maintains a better number to examine is the falling percentage of flight training out of Collin County Regional, which means that business aviation is growing. Training flights as a percentage of combined takeoffs and landings fell from 78% in fiscal ’02 to about 64% in the last fiscal year.
Collin County Regional has fans outside of McKinney.
“It’s kind of like our premiere airport for (the Dallas-Fort Worth) metro region,” said Karon Wiedemann, director of grant management at the Texas Department of Transportation.
Wiedemann, whose duties include heading up TxDOT grantmaking to airports statewide, said Collin County Regional sits in “a high-growth area. There’s a lot of development in the area ... Land is still available, with (room) to allow for expansion. It’s a really good business airport.”
Where the money comes from
The work at Collin County Regional, which is located in McKinney, will be paid for through federal, state and city sources, along with funding from the McKinney Economic Development Corp.
For the new $57 million runway, for instance, the Federal Aviation Administration is paying $33 million, the state will kick in $11 million and the McKinney Economic Development Corp. has allocated $7 million. The city will pay $5 million.
Wiegand hopes to start construction on the runway in January or February of 2010.
The control tower, meanwhile, will cost $3 million. Some $1.5 million is coming from the FAA, while the city also is paying $1.5 million. Construction will begin as soon as federal funds are appropriated by Congress, Wiegand said. “We expect that to be within the next 120 days.”
Before the airport can put out bids on the construction work for the runway project, however, it must first acquire about 45 acres of land south and east of it for safety buffers and for the relocation of F.M. 546 that runs south of the airport. Wiegand declined to reveal precisely where these land parcels are, but said he hoped to have all the required land purchased by Jan. 1.
A tertiary goal is to prepare the airport for commercial traffic. “Our initial focus is to be the premiere general aviation airport in the Metroplex. Our secondary goal is to prepare for commercial services,” Wiegan said.
Wiegand points out that the airport has spent a little over $3 million to build three taxi lanes that meet commercial standards.
In addition, the new runway will be wider and thicker than the current one to support larger commercial aircraft, up to the size of a Boeing 767, on a regular basis. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to attract a (Boeing 767),” Wiegand said. “We don’t have any current prospects” to have aircraft of that size flying in and out, he added.
The airport’s renovations are part of a broader attempt to overhaul facilities dating back to 2004. Including work done, renovations will total $72 million, Wiegand said.
DMN - ACLU report accuses Frisco ISD of thwarting learning
October 8th, 2009ACLU report accuses Frisco ISD of thwarting learning in Gideons incident
Oct 08, 2009
Jessica Meyers/The Dallas Morning News, Frisco Blog
Frisco ISD disrupted learning by allowing the distribution of Gideons Bibles in schools last spring, according to an American Civil Liberties Union of Texas report.
The organization, which released the report on Wednesday, has been investigating activities by Gideons International evangelical group since May.
The report says that Gideons Bibles were "used to physically and verbally harass Jewish students in both Frisco and Plano ISDs."
It also says Gideons convinced Frisco ISD Director of Communications, Shana Wortham, to keep the distribution plan from principals until a day before to minimize complaints.
That action resulted in increased disruption and negative media attention, said the ACLU report. Nine other districts were investigated, including Plano and Wichita Falls.
District officials explained in May that they had approved Gideons displays as part of a standard procedure that allows local groups to leave community information for student pick up. Gideons violated that agreement when they passed out material on school property, Wortham said in May.
The report recommends that districts revise their non-school literature distribution policies or better enforce current ones.
link to post on Frisco Blog.....
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The report:
Distribution of Gideons Bibles in Texas Public Schools: Impact on Students’ Religious Liberty, ACLU of Texas, October 8, 2009
Lavon toll bridge public hearing on Wednesday
October 6th, 2009The Observer has been following the county's progress towards constructing a controversial bridge over Lake Lavon that will connect Lucas to the eastern shore of the lake and will, if built, provide a route via an expanded Parker Road from Plano to the eastern Outer Loop.
As is also true with the entire Outer Loop project, county officials have no idea how to pay for the bridge - they assume it will have to be a toll road, probably constructed and operated by a private company in what's known as a Public Private Partnership (PPP). Meanwhile however, the county is speculating with $376,000 in bond and reserve funds to finance the engineering studies needed before the bridge and connecting roads can be built.
Opposition to the bridge is already being organized, with a group called "Save Lake Lavon" organizing homeowners and sailing enthusiasts who want to preserve the rural feel of the area. Also, the anti toll group TURF (Texans United for Reform and Freedom) have stated their opposition to the toll bridge in an email sent out last week.
All sides of the debate will have a chance to be heard this Wednesday, when the county and its engineering firm (HNTB) hold a public hearing in Wylie on the proposed "preferred right of way" (preferred route) for the bridge and connecting roads.
The County Toll Bridge Public Hearing is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:30 P.M. at the Wylie Municipal Building, 2000 Highway 78 North in Wylie.
Bill
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The Dallas Morning News published an article by Ed Housewright yesterday on opposition to the toll bridge:
Residents protest proposed bridge over Lavon Lake
Monday, October 5, 2009
By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News
Joe Simmons traded the congestion of Plano for the tranquility of Lavon Lake a year ago.
Joe Simmons worries that a proposed six-lane bridge across the southern end of Lavon Lake would destroy his serene lifestyle.
He moved his family to a home on 3 acres with a lake view. He drives down a secluded road to reach his hilltop property in eastern Collin County.
"I love it," Simmons said. "It's nice and quiet. The air is fresh, and there's lots of wildlife."
He fears that a proposed six-lane bridge across the southern end of Lavon Lake would destroy his serenity.
Simmons and many other lake residents plan to attend a public hearing Wednesday night in Wylie to protest the project. They say it's too expensive, isn't necessary to relieve congestion and would bring unwanted development to the lake.
"One of the plans comes right through my front yard," said Jerry Jones, who has lived on the lake for 21 years. "I'm going to fight it tooth and nail as long as I can."
County officials stress that the bridge isn't warranted now and may never be built. If it is, construction might not begin for 20 years or more, they say.
For now, officials want to select an alignment in case the county's growth necessitates a bridge. Several proposed routes will be presented at the hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Wylie Municipal Complex.
"I think everybody thinks we're going to come out next week and start construction," said County Commissioner Joe Jaynes, whose district includes the lake. "That's just not the case."
Not enough people
The portion of Collin County east of Lavon Lake is largely unincorporated. It doesn't have enough people to justify a major connector across the lake, said Commissioner Jerry Hoagland, who also represents part of the lake area.
Eventually, however, the county's population is expected to more than double to about 2 million people.
"Then it would likely be a viable project," Hoagland said.
The project would actually consist of two bridges. One would start on the lake's west side in Lucas and connect to the peninsula in the center. A second bridge would extend to the eastern shore near the town of Lavon.
Irma Batres has lived on the lake's east side for 12 years. She calls her modest home a "handyman's special," but she doesn't want to lose it to make room for the bridge.
"It's beautiful out here," Batres said. "It's a little piece of heaven. You can see hawks and cranes."
The homes around the lake vary greatly. A new brick house may sit next to a dilapidated frame one.
County Engineer Ruben Delgado said officials have no timetable to acquire right of way for the bridges and thoroughfare. Even if commissioners choose a preferred route after this week's hearing, no design work is planned in the foreseeable future, Delgado said.
"It could stay a line on the map forever," he said.
The Night of the Living Justice?
October 6th, 2009
Back in February of last year, the Observer commented on JP Judge Paul Raleeh holding night court in the old (circa 1874) courthouse on the square - now the home of the McKinney Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
While the Observer noted that night court was a good idea, we questioned the economics of breaking down a stage to convert the theater back to its roots as a court house. It was reported that it took from 12-14 hours of labor to accomplish the re-transformation back to the pre 1979 court room.
It seems that Judge Raleeh has come up with an alternate method. Instead of paying county or MPAC labor to do the work, the McKinney Courier-Gazette is reporting that Raleeh is using defendants who are working off community service committments to set up the court room, thereby saving the county the labor expense.
The next night court is scheduled for 6:30 P.M. on October 27. MPAC's home page is now advertising the session as "Night Court with Judge Raleeh" right between "The Night of the Living Dead" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".
Election years - you gotta love them!
Bill
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Night Court returning to courthouse
By Danny Gallagher, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Published: Saturday, October 3, 2009
Several Collin County residents in need of addressing minor legal concerns will get to have their day in court, or is that their night?
Collin County's Justice of the Precinct 1's Night Court session returns Tuesday, Oct. 27 to the McKinney Performing Arts Center's old courthouse on the McKinney downtown square.
The session starts at 6:30 p.m. in the main auditorium. The session is also free and open to the public, according to MPAC's calendar.
The session is one of several Judge Paul Raleeh has held since April of 2008 at the MPAC's building, making it the first time the MPAC building has been used as a courthouse since the county moved to the McDonald Street building in 1979.
Raleeh said before the court's first official session that he has been trying to find a venue to hold a trial run of a night court because of requests from citizens filing civil court cases who were unable to hold their trials during normal business hours.
"We've had a number of lawsuits filed by people who represent themselves," Raleeh said. "We also have a number of lawsuits where people represent themselves and are defendants in these suits, so you'd find people who were almost the victim twice because they'd have to take off work."
The program went on hold for awhile when scheduling conflicts and a lack of adequate manpower, made it hard for Raleeh's court and MPAC to hold a second nighttime session the following September. Raleeh had to move his night session to his own courtroom in the courthouse annex building.
Raleeh held another night court session last Thursday at the MPAC building. The session took on 13 small claims civil cases, giving the court and the community a glimmer of hope that more night sessions will appear on the court's dockets and MPAC's schedule in the foreseeable future.
The city backed facility and county run court were able to overcome the scheduling and labor costs that prevented the September session by letting some defendants set up the courtroom to finish their community service agreements, Raleeh said.
link to full article....
TI begins hiring 250 for new Richardson plant
September 30th, 2009From a Texas Instruments press release:
TI opens world’s most advanced analog manufacturing facility in the U.S.
Facility will increase volume of energy-efficient chips for customers and create new jobs in North Texas
RICHARDSON, TEXAS September 29 — Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN) announced today the opening of its manufacturing facility in Richardson, Texas. The company expects to begin moving equipment into the facility in October.
Known as RFAB,(“R” for Richardson,“FAB” for fabrication), the fab will be the world’s only production facility to use 300-millimeter (12-inch) silicon wafers to manufacture analog chips, which are essential components in virtually all electronics. The facility will give TI a strategic advantage in high-volume production because thousands of analog chips can be etched onto each of these wafers, more than double the number on the more commonly used and smaller 200-millimeter wafers.
“The time is right for this investment,” said Rich Templeton, TI’s chairman, president and CEO. “Customer demand for analog chips is growing, and there’s tremendous desire to save energy and protect the environment. The chips produced here will help our customers make thousands of electronic products that are more energy-efficient. It is significant that these devices will be made here, in North Texas, in one of the industry’s most environmentally responsible fabs.”
The facility will produce analog integrated circuits based on TI’s proprietary process. Customers will use these chips in electronics ranging from smartphones and netbooks, to telecom and computing systems.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony with local and state officials, Templeton said TI plans to ship the first chips from this facility by the end of 2010. When the first phase of equipment is ramped and producing at full capacity, the facility will be capable of shipping more than $1 billion worth of analog chips per year.
Hiring will begin immediately for 250 jobs in RFAB. “These are high-quality, well-paying engineering, manufacturing and administrative jobs for our North Texas region. The infrastructure that a facility like this requires will create other indirect jobs with suppliers and support services,” said Templeton. “We want to