the Controversial Committee Report
“We don’t raise sacred cows...we just butcher them.”
“Let It Shine”
Hello, Councilman Meagher, are you there?! Irving citizens are calling and need your attention to a matter you were so hot-to-trot to discuss a few weeks back.
Recently, ARK appeared before the city council to seek approval for a minor zoning change. Councilman Meagher slyly wanted to raise the discussion to a different level by having the council consider the original contractual agreement with ARK...as applicable to the TIF funding due them.
While he was unsuccessful in doing so, his campaign fund-paying bro, Chris Allen, did rant and verbalize stale and weak talking points which were not particularly germane to the zoning case!
In fact, the very next day Chris Allen with his inappropriately named(?) group, Irving Taxpayers Matter, filed a lawsuit against the city and ARK. And his talking points from the council meeting, while discussing the zoning case, were part of the legal documents filed.
Remember, Chris Allen and Billy Bob are utilizing the same lawyer for these legal actions against the city and ARK. Collusion? Both parties are seeking to dig their claws into the TIF funding which the city council previously approved for ARK!
To the issue at hand. There is currently a move, by an interested citizen, to place the ARK TIF funding matter on a council agenda. The legal points, as to why the city should end this backdoor blackmailing of ARK, needs to see the light of day.
And the legal points, in the request for placement on the council agenda, appear to be spot-on.
As it takes three council members to place an item on the agenda, one has to ask: Why isn’t the mayor and Councilman Meagher rushing to join other council members who want to shine light on an issue that is: floundering in the city’s legal and administrative bureaucracy, smoke filled rooms, and donor kowtowing…with paltry, maybe nonexistent, coverage by any local media?
While a petition to the mayor and council members, to place this item on the agenda from citizens, would be appropriate, time is of the essence. The next council meeting is September 6, 2018. And filing a citizen’s petition, to request this agenda action, could be impractical.
So, the next best alternative would be to contact each council member directly and request they either place the ARK TIF funding discussion on the upcoming agenda, or have the mayor call a special council meeting to openly discuss this issue. And this discussion needs to be in the public eye.
Otherwise, the citizens’ business will continue to be put aside in dark, deep bureaucratic and political pits…void of sunlight. And all the grand accomplishments ARK has generated, for the city since the opening of the Irving Toyota Music Factory, will be blemished by negative PR and flaky law suits.
Here is the council contact info:
Alan Meagher
(972) 313-0909
David Palmer
(972) 861-0112
Phil Riddle
(469) 781-7116
Rick Stopfer
(214) 876-7172
Kyle Taylor
(214) 641-9690
Oscar Ward
(214) 537-4944
Al Zapanta
(972) 506-9199
Dennis Webb
(972) 849-9421
John Danish
A couple of council members may have apparently registered their support of letting citizens know what is going on by placing this issue on an agenda. They are also concerned with demonstrating the city’s legal and administrative bureaucracy is held accountable by desiring to put the brakes on the stalling of holding ARK hostage for their TIF funding…which was previously approved by the city council.
Transparency and open government can only occur when elected officials do what they were elected to do in the light of day! And when this fails, citizens must take an active role to ensure the light of day overpowers the bureaucracy, campaign finance and string pullers, and political agendas irrelevant to the issue at hand.
Placing the ARK TIF funding issue on the council agenda will go a long way to reflect Irving’s City government is open and properly addresses issues which have a significant impact on its citizens. The last thing the city needs is to be featured in the Dallas Morning News like Dallas has been recently.
Isn’t it time for ‘beautiful downtown Irving’ to have a burst of sunshine from their elected officials on this critical ARK issue?
………………………….Mark Holbrook
