Only an hour after new pictures and videos were unveiled at the Vote No! Save the Trinity press conference, the first meeting of Mayor Leppert’s newly-formed Trinity River Project Committee was taking place at City Hall.

Since all council members are allowed to attend committee meetings, Angela Hunt and others took the opportunity to join the Trinity fun. Only Tennell Atkins and Vonciel Hill weren’t there, and I guess you could say Sheffie Kadane was only partially there as he sat behind his colleagues instead of sitting at the table.

Hunt’s attack of a picture (see slide 70) showing trees on a levee was the big talk after the meeting. These pictures have everyone wondering if Dallas is being sold the same sailboats and lies from 1998.

But I don’t want to talk about the pictures. Something else stood out at Tuesday’s meeting. As I sat there looking at the presentation, I found it fascinating to think about who was in charge of the information.

The guy flipping through the 71-page PowerPoint was Michael Bastian of CH2M Hill, the principle construction company handling the project. Bastian happens to be on the board of directors of the Trinity Commons Foundation.

Sitting to his right was Rebecca Dugger, Director of the Trinity River Project. She also happens to be on the board of directors of the Trinity Commons Foundation.

Running the meeting was the new chair of the Trinity River Project Committee, Dave Neumann. Yup, he’s on the Trinity Commons Foundation board too.

Of course, this is hardly breaking news. It’s also well-known that the Trinity Commons Foundation paid $40,000 for blockers during the May election and that all of the council members with the exception of Hunt are co-chairs on the Vote No! Save the Trinity campaign.

As I sat there looking at all the pro-road peeps yucking it up among themselves, a quote from Mayor Leppert at the press conference earlier in the day crossed my mind.

“Somebody said you are known by the company that you keep. Well, the company that’s kept on the side that wants to vote no to save the Trinity, to keep us going forward, is widespread,” Leppert said. "It’s the leadership of this community. It’s the people that understand the issues and put so much time and most importantly want to see Dallas go forward.”

This is a big part of the campaign. Look at all of us on this side and it’s just her over on that side. How can so many suits be wrong?

I’ll get to that in a second, but let’s go back to the committee meeting. More than Hunt’s sharp questions and use of her laser pointer, an exchange between Councilmember Linda Koop and Rebecca Dugger when Koop asked about access to the park peaked my interest.

“We’re working with the North Texas Tollway Authority and what we’re talking about now is having five vehicular access points at Hampton, at Sylvan, at Jefferson, Corinth…” Dugger said.

“Slow down again so we can write that down. [grabs pen and begins writing] Hampton, Sylvan…” Councilmember Dave Neumann interrupted.

“Hampton, Sylvan, Jefferson, Corinth and Martin Luther King,” Dugger said.

“Hampton, Sylvan, Jefferson, Corinth and MLK,” Neumann said.

“So they come down off the bridges, is that the deal?” Koop said.

“Correct, yes. You exit off the parkway onto the cross bridge and you go down from there,” Dugger said.

What struck me wasn’t so much the access points because this was known. Dugger did help explain how the access will not be direct access, but that wasn’t what got me either. I was amazed to see Dave Neumann, the chair of the Trinity River Project Committee, feverishly grabbing a pen to write down the access points.

He is supposed to be in the know. He’s the chair of the committee for crying out loud and he didn’t even know where the access will be?

This brought me back to my July 2 column where I urged Leppert to choose Angela Hunt instead of Neumann as the chair because she was much more knowledgeable about the project. One sentence in particular stood out when I took another look at the story.

Hunt has integrity, her work ethic is unquestioned and determination is unmatched.

Integrity. That’s it! That’s what this whole thing boils down to.

Let’s start with Ron Kirk, who helped sell this deal back in ’98. For those who haven’t seen Kirk and Hunt on “The Gordon Keith Show,” it’s a must see (click on the Sept. 20 episode). Why they decided to involve a former mayor who has fallen out of favor in Dallas and in the black community in this campaign is a mystery to me.

Kirk wants everyone to believe this was a toll road from the beginning, but somehow in May 1998 (merely days AFTER the bond election), talk began about whether or not to keep it as a 45-mph parkway with direct access or change it to a 55-mph toll road with restricted access. Then in September 1998 when Wilbur and Associates conducted a study for the NTTA, Kirk rallied the council around the idea that changing the parkway to a toll road would enable the road to get both funded and built faster.

Joining Kirk is Laura Miller, who introduced the Balanced Vision Plan which was supposed to include 12 access points to the park, but now only five access points are in discussion. Other things have been changed since she helped develop this plan which was ultimately approved by the council, but proponents argue the current plan is very close to the original Balanced Vision Plan.  

Miller debated Hunt April 30 on KRLD and Miller admitted the plan has changed, but stressed that all the changes were for the good. Hunt brought up the emails between Miller and transportation expert Bill Eager and urban planner Alex Krieger, who developed the Balanced Vision Plan. This is what they wrote to Miller:

“…during my most recent visit…what concerned me most was that the engineering of the road was proceeding as if it were a great big interstate highway instead of a parkway and that there was absolutely no evidence of concern for the ‘context sensitive design’ that was promised as part of the Balanced Vision Plan,” Alex Krieger wrote March 22. “Devoting MUCH, MUCH more attention to the design of the roadway -- and making sure that it results in a road worthy of being part of great park and open space environment -- is what I think is most immediately necessary.”

“Alex Krieger’s assessment of what is happening is disappointing,” Bill Eager wrote April 2. “We had a deal to make this parkway of a design appropriate to a park setting.”

So you have Miller patting herself on the back for the Balanced Vision Plan, which has changed and has been questioned by the two guys who developed the plan. In her debate with Hunt, she also argued that the road would have four lanes. There are parts where there will be four lanes (with the possibility of adding more later) and others where there will be six. Miller refused to admit that there would be six lanes at any point in the road.

However, when Vote No! Save the Trinity released its latest FAQ, there was one that stood out.

Is it unusual to have a six-lane road next to a park?

“I think it’s terrific that they’re actually trying to be honest here and say it’s six lanes and admit that it’s actually six lanes by the park,” Hunt said. “But what’s funny about this is how it’s changed since the first debates.”

OK, so maybe I don’t need to sell you on the questionable integrity of Dallas’ former mayors. Let’s move on to State Senator Royce West.

In Tuesday’s press conference, West quoted Gov. Rick Perry’s estimate of a $10 billion of economic impact that will happen in the next 25 years as a result of improvements to the Trinity River Corridor. What he didn’t say is that a consultant hired in 2001 to look at the project’s economic impact said “Dallas would have been better off to stick with its original vision of a low-speed parkway along the levees rather than the high-speed tollway now being studied,” according to a Dallas Morning News story.

West also engaged in the scare tactics used to convince people this project is like a house of cards and once you pull a card out, the whole thing comes down.

“What happens if, for some reason, we here in the city decide not to move forward with this particular project?” West said. “It unravels -- all of the delegate funding associated with putting the other revenues necessary in order to build the facility that we’re talking about. It unravels the federal funding, and also state funding and also some of the county funding.”

Neither West nor anyone from the Vote No! campaign has been able to point out exactly what funding will be jeopardized. But don’t worry about that. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

One person who has threatened to pull $6 million in funding tied to one of the bridges is Commissioner John Wiley Price. However, there is nothing in the agreement with the Dallas County Commissioners stating that a road must be within the levees to receive the funding, only that a reliever route needs to be built.

Another scare tactic has been how pulling the road out of the park will affect Project Pegasus. Price admitted the project could be built using another road alignment, but warned that it would be “cost prohibitive.”

How about Mayor Leppert, who told me he should be one of the most objective people looking at this issue?

Leppert hardly seemed like an objective outsider when he spoke with me after the Vote No! press conference. He dodged my question about whether the project delays were related to engineering concerns associated with putting this road in a floodway. Leppert also had hard time explaining why the current plan is the most affordable since there isn’t a final cost and he danced around questions regarding his decisions about the Trinity Committee.

Leppert talked about how 14 of the 15 council members are in favor of the current plan and in fact, everyone except Hunt is serving as co-chair on the Vote No! campaign. This is troubling because I simply don’t believe that all 14 members have put the appropriate time into researching the project to be educated enough to take that stance.

Those council members who have been around long enough to really know the project are engaging in questionable acts to help get their message across. Dr. Elba Garcia was handing out pro-road propaganda at her budget town hall meeting and Mitchell Rasansky told a city official to make copies of the Trinity River Corridor to distribute at town hall meetings. Despite emailing and calling City Attorney Tom Perkins, I’ve received no response.

Let’s not forget the deception in April when city staff worked behind Hunt’s back on a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. One of the staff members involved, Rebecca Dugger, has also been supporting the toll road plan at the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce luncheon and while speaking to the Northwood Republican Women’s Club.

So, if it’s all about the company you keep as Leppert said, then you really have to question the side selling this road. And if it’s about integrity as I’d say, well, then you REALLY have to question the side selling this road.

Sure, there are going to be people trying to take their shots at Angela Hunt, but she is someone willing to go against all these suits to get what was best for Dallas’ citizens. I was shocked to read the following in a column by Rufus Shaw:

But Hunt’s detractors at City Hall contend that Ms. Hunt has shown nothing but open contempt for Mayor Leppert in some semi-private meetings. These same detractors go on to say that Councilwoman Hunt is abrasive and insensitive to city staffers as well as being an overall pain in the “you know what” to many of her co-workers. By the way, I have not heard that Angela Hunt has any problems with the black folks at City Hall including her fellow black council members. However, that could also change since all of the black City Council members are opposing her on the toll road issue. If Councilwoman Hunt’s detractors are even half right about Ms. Hunt being difficult, arrogant, and condescending, she could be accused of channeling Laura Miller!

I’m not sure where Shaw is getting his information and I’m not in the business of defending Hunt. All I’ll say is this plays right into what the Vote No! campaign is trying to do. Marginalize Hunt in order to marginalize her effort.

What the suits are failing to recognize is that this isn’t just them against her. She has more than 90,000 registered voters on her side. Even if you focus on the number of signatures verified by the city secretary, it’s more than who voted for Mayor Leppert.

The bigger issue here is the question of integrity. You may want a toll road running through Trinity Park, but there is a lack of openness and honesty on behalf of those on your side. This says more about the state of City Hall than it does about the toll road issue.

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