Tuesday, October 1, 2013

CCRs dwT #41: Express to Excess


Dylan sez…
(a short and timely jotting for CCR twits Tweeters)

10-01-13

dwT #41:  Did the conductor speed up the Dean/TRE ‘gravy train’ as it whistled through Irving?  And was that David Dean grinning and waving as the train roared past city hall without stopping?

     Backstory clue for the information impaired:   Item #23 on the Irving city council agenda for October 3, 2010 reflects the following:

#23  Resolution -- Approving a Fee Agreement with Dean International, Inc. for Assistance in Transportation and Infrastructure Public Policy Services for an Amount Not to Exceed $600,000.00

For readers suffering from PADD (Political Attention Deficit Disorder), it seems that in recent campaigns the hyperbola was that Dean International consultant services might be secured at lower cost utilizing RFPs.  And the services for Irving should not be bundled with other cities that Dean International might also have a consultant contract with...thereby, making Irving reports questionable as to the actual efforts expended on the city’s behalf.  Of course, the RFP issue was not favored by some who might receive indirect fringe benefits from Dean International...via serving on one of his ‘committees’ or maybe taking advantage of any travel junkets he offers.  

Should this consultant contract pass, in its present form, then tax payers could be assured that it is ‘business as usual’ by the council members who approve the measure.  Wasn’t this one of mayor BVDs campaign issues to correct?  (Sorry, for a moment there staff of the CCR relapsed and started to believe that council candidates would actually follow through with blather spouted during a campaign.)  And where are all the other members of the council when it comes to understanding that the fox has the key for the hen house lavish parties, travel junkets and ego inflation?  

If staff of the CCR read the agenda correctly, then this consultant contract is for Transportation and Infrastructure only.  This does not include the Water consultant contract that the council has previously awarded to Dean International...pushing this sole vendor take to well over $1 million.  And so it goes...as it has been for the past several years!  Do you ever wonder when tax payers will become one of the “good old boys?”  

Solution:  Instead of spending $600,000 bucks for ‘assistance’ for a Traffic and Infrastructure consultant contract, staff of the CCR has two workable and significantly cheaper (only $125 flat fee) suggestions for the council’s consideration: Take DART and fill all the potholes.  Both problems solved.  Next item?


A note from counsel: Some “Tweets” from Dylan Westie have been injected with fabricated nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, adverbs, modifiers and maybe a few dangling participles….Mark Holbrook