The Globe-News: from deplorable to pathetic

I almost had to call an ambulance this evening. Really. You see, I just read Robert Stein’s Amarillo Globe-News story, “Mayor wants to know who leaked information,” posted to the one of the news pages on the third-rate media outlet’s website. I had trouble breathing; I just couldn’t catch my breath from laughing.

As if Globe-News editorials weren’t bad enough, replete with poor writing and facts harder to find than a diamond in a Florida swamp, we now get an article that starts editorializing in the first sentence. Then, it goes on to whine in chorus with Paul Harpole, our Trumpian mayor, about a leak from a City Council executive session. Harpole’s panties are all in a wad because ABC7 Amarillo had a scoop from a confidential source on the council choosing a new city manager.

Harpole, who is of that Amarillo-type paternalistic ilk who think they know better than the citizenry which is mostly beneath them, is in high dudgeon about ABC7 Amarillo having information before Hiz Honor could control it as the hero of the staged news conference. In the past, that TV station has popped stories that angered Harpole: KVII broke a story about United Way a few years ago that set Harpole on a course of undercutting ABC7 Amarillo whenever he could. He usually passed news tidbits to the Globe-News when he got wind that the TV station was nosing around. It’s fair to say that the Globe-News has been one of Harpole’s useful idiots.

But what ABC7 Amarillo did on this story, and others, was in the finest traditions of American journalism. Think the Pentagon Papers. Or Watergate. Confidential sources are part of the lifeblood of reporting and if it were not for people willing to leak information, the United States and Amarillo would be the worse for it. How ironic that this dust-up about something secretive has to do with Texas’ inferior Open Meeting Act.

Of the 25 years I’ve been a journalist, I’ve lived in Amarillo almost 14 years and I’ve never seen a community so culturally ignorant about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The understanding of what a free press is to society lives only in lip service to the denizens of public and large private institutions here. And as for the separation of church and state? I guess cinching the Bible belt tightly around “church” and “state” to keep them together is part of the problem.

So, let me throw a little shade at the Globe-News on this attempt at newswriting.

“Amarillo City Council members are once again showing their dysfunctional and, perhaps, petty sides.” — What place is it of a news page to label “City Council members” dysfunctional? And which members, if it’s going in the lede — that is, the first paragraph? In whose judgment, too, is behavior petty? Seems to me that bringing transparency to the most important post on the city payroll is what should be done. Folks, this is about control, and we all know that.

Then, the story goes on: “On Thursday, the sole finalist for Amarillo’s city manager position and details surrounding his hiring were leaked to local media following a Tuesday afternoon executive session of the council, a headhunter and the city attorney.” — Actually, the leak wasn’t to local “media” because “media” is plural. The information was leaked to only one outlet. The sentence more accurately should have read, “On Thursday, the sole finalist for Amarillo’s city manager position and details surrounding his hiring were leaked to one of the local TV stations while the rest of the media stood around with their pants down. This followed a Tuesday afternoon executive session of the council, a headhunter and the city attorney.”

When the Globe-News quoted Harpole thus: “It was apparent to me pretty quickly that someone on the council had breached executive session,” it showed Hiz Honor has a firm grasp of the obvious.

I wonder if the Globe-News had scooped a story if it would have written the word “sources” in quotes like this story did. All I could think of was Dr. Evil and his air quotes. Excuse me, I have to stop a minute to catch my breath again.

I am going to give a pass on some of the other material to get to this: “Harpole stopped short of saying Friday that Councilman Randy Burkett leaked confidential information to a local television station, but said he certainly released information that shouldn’t have been made public to the Amarillo Globe-News, which published a story with on-the-record sources.”

Oh, for God sakes, how did Harpole “stop short” if the Globe-News named Burkett?” Why not publish the whole quote?

Now, Robert and your editors, please don’t break your arms patting yourselves on the back. You don’t deserve it. You all are just upset that ABC7 Amarillo has a better news team than you do. And, having worked at the Globe-News for as long as my ethics could stand it, I know about the policy about anonymous and confidential sources. It’s too stringent and it’s gutless and it deprives Amarillo of real news.

Here are the next two paragraphs:

Burkett told the Globe-News that the council would give Miller a non-voting seat on the board of the Amarillo Economic Development Corp.

“He does not have the right to release info like that. He also does not have the right to unilaterally make decisions on behalf of the council. That’s wrong, and it shouldn’t be tolerated,” Harpole said. “While there is not a lot we can do about it, I think the public should know (Burkett) is willing to breach executive session over and over and over again.”

I wish I could have been there to see Ole Harpy get red in the face with that one. The way I see it, if a councilor doesn’t like the way the mayor is handling things, and clearly Burkett doesn’t, there isn’t any reason for him to remain silent. After all, the past commissions and councils walked in lock-step and look where it got us. Downtown Amarillo Inc., Wallace Bajjali, the Local Government Corp. and millions in tax money wasted.

“It does, however, present the city with possible issues of civil liability, violation of the council’s own policy and procedures as well as breach of the public trust.” — This is one of those sentences that begs for attribution because, given we know this story is slanted, we need to know if the city attorney said it or if Stein is just dropping in an opinion.

“Harpole and Burkett said they asked and that a local television station refused to reveal its source of information to them.” And “The Globe-News attempted to reach KVII news leadership multiple times Friday and Saturday, but calls, social media messaging and email were not returned.” — Excuse me. Had to catch my breath again.

Why in the world would a news outlet tell anyone? When The Amarillo Independent came across confidential information from the Amarillo Police Department a few years ago, the department’s Internal Affairs officer called to ask where we got it. The Indy didn’t give up the information and no good and decent media outlet would. If the Globe-News had that kind of information, it wouldn’t give up the source either — which would be the exception to the ethical and decent label.

Also, what’s up with this cute little tactic of alternately writing “a local television station” and then “KVII” when everyone knows from earlier I the story that it’s ABC7 Amarillo. Calling councilors petty and then being this petty about a TV station?

Sometimes, readers will see an editorial note at the end of a story. Maybe if material not reported directly is worked into the story, you’d see a note such as, “The Associate Press Contributed to this story.”

In this case, Stein’s story should have the editorial note, “Paul Harpole contributed to this story because the Globe-News agree to be his mouthpiece.

Wallace Bajjali double speak -- and look who's complicit

Here is a good example of the Wallace Bajjali double-speak. I found this rummaging through some old files.

The ethical bankruptcy of everyone on this email is obvious. Congrats to to the old city commission on being country bumpkins.

Wallace Pitner Email

AA baseball for Amarillo?

ABC7AMARILLO has learned plans are in the works to bring the San Antonio Missions baseball team to Amarillo. Watch for team coverage on ABC7AMARILLO at 5, 6 and 10.

Why the downtown cartel isn't interested in Route 66

Many may have wondered why the city of Amarillo and those pushing the Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News plan for downtown have given such short shrift to Route 66 as an economic driver. And my interest in this matter came up because an advocate of the Wallace Bajjali plan spread some false information on Facebook.

Here is the text of the post and linkto Facebook:

There are limited uses for HOT, which Lissa apparently doesn't understand. Demerson is right about San Jacinto, but he's fighting an uphill battle, and that is a battle against the way the city promotes and supports development. The city in general does not proactively manage growth here, mostly it sits back and watches development happen and capitalizes on that by instituting lots of silly building ordinances and collecting building permit fees. I can't imagine the city becoming proactive about development planning; it would seem far too "liberal" and interfering for the locals. But maybe he will draw attention to our city's need to maintain its historical neighborhoods. We'll see.

Well I have a theory. I just did a PRAD search of Southwest Sixth Streetand not one of those properties is overtly owned by the downtown development cartel members like the Wares, ANB, Joe Bob McCartt or Alan Rhodes. Some of the owners along that stretch of the Mother Road (that’s what it is) are clearly non-Anglo, non-Panhandle pioneer names. That should explain a lot about why the power elite in Amarilloaren’t promoting Route 66.

The assertion that the city doesn’t “proactively manage growth” here is so false on its face that I can hardly respond. The entire rationale of the downtown development debacle and the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News plan is to “proactively manage growth.” Unless, of course, economic development isn’t growth. Oh, wait, it is growth for the insiders’ bank accounts who knew what the then-City Commission and prior City Council had planned.

The city has been overtly picking winners and losers for at least the last eight years — with nothing but a cascade of lies falling on more lies. And, Colin Cummings, your post above is a good example of the lies, disinformation and propaganda the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News cartel continues to spread, Goebbels-like, including throwing down the “L” word in order to paint the resistance to the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News plan as bad for Amarillo.

If you want to throw down the “L” word, thrown it at the then-City Commission, prior City Council and the city administration who bought the prostitute services from Wallace Bajjali with the Globe-News and DAI serving as main pimp and madam.

Resignation and honor, an example to follow

One of the reasons I’ve not attacked Paul Matney about his support for the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News ballpark is that at the base of it, I judged him an honorable man. And, he proved himself that today by resigning from the DAI board.

However, DAI still has a major problem with its executive director and board treasurer. Melissa Dailey, I believe, continues to violate state election laws, her organization’s own by-laws and city conflict of interest rules by doing all the advocacy for her Wallace Bajjali-inspired plan. This conflict has arisen since the City Council placed the advisory vote on the ballpark on a city ballot for a Nov. 3 vote. Dailey should have immediately and radically modified her behavior.

As for the DAI board treasurer, Les Simpson, he is in a similar position to Matney. Either he has to leave the DAI board immediately or he must henceforth restrict any mention of the Nov. 3 election to the outlet’s news pages. Any advocacy of for the Wallace Bajjali ballpark must stop forthwith. Otherwise others should, and likely will, file formal complaint with the proper authorities. Given the Globe-News’ track record for journalism ethics, I don’t hold out much hope for either of those events to occur.

Lies, damn lies and the Amarillo Globe-News

Not too many years ago, corrections or retractions of articles in a daily newspaper were rare. And less

frequently were legitimate accusations of news stories containing outright lies for propagandizing. In addition, when running either opinion pieces or editorials, facts and some semblance of truth informed the newspapers’ opinions. Somehow in Amarillo, we have fallen far from those standards.

The Sept. 20, 2015 version of the Amarillo Globe-News offers readers two examples that should have never seen the light of day.

The first is the long and winding editorial, about defunding Planned Parenthood and the videos that purported to show that the organization is “hit with a scandal involving the sale of aborted baby parts.”

The editorial continues with this entirely false one-sentence paragraph, “Speaking of the videos, there really is no debate justifying an investigation, not if you look at the videos from a logical and nonpolitical perspective.”

This line is such an outright lie that I don’t care if someone thinks my criticism is discourteous and unseemly The videos made public were from a rabid anti-woman group that secretly recorded and edited content in the worst way possible — to portray the exact opposite of the facts. It isn’t news when it’s done that way. It is fomenting lies based on the kind of propaganda Joseph Goebbels promoted against Jews during World War II. (Yes, I am playing the Nazi card here, because that is how low the Center for Medical Progress and the Globe-News stooped to put out their lies.)

As LauraBassett points out in her Huffington Post piece, a forensic analysis of the videos on which the Globe-News relies “found they are so egregiously manipulated that they would never be accepted as evidence in a court of law.” It is bad enough that the Globe-News is going to conclude those videos are nonpolitical and a logical basis the basis for an investigation. Congress has asked for the full and unaltered videos from the Center for Medical Progress. We’ll have to see what those show and whether the Globe-News will have the ethics and decency to make that information public.

And speaking of ethics, let’s look at our controversial local issue: the downtown development debacle and the upcoming vote about the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News ballpark. In a story about DAI’s Facebook page, the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. propaganda rag has this line, “But voters in a Nov. 3 election will decide the fate of the $32-million MPEV.”

That is flat-out incorrect and, given the Globe-News’ position on downtown development and Wallace Bajjali, its publisher’s role in the Wallace Bajjali and Downtown Amarillo Inc., one can only conclude this is misleading on purpose. In other words, it’s a lie. For those interested in facts, the vote is advisory; it’s non-binding on the City Council.

The DAI Facebook, page, by the way, states, “DAI does not take a position on ballot issues and will not provide a forum for any positions.” That is also a lie. DAI has advocated for the Wallace Bajjali plan all along and the entire Facebook effort by this taxpayer-funded organization is advocacy for Wallace Bajjali and the fraudster firm’s plan. The law is clear on who can and can not advocate on a ballot measure and it is possible DAI’s role on Facebook and elsewhere bears investigation by the Texas Ethics Commission. Given what some of the councilors know and will learn more about DAI and Wallace Bajjali, the council may kill of the entire project and DAI no matter the outcome of the Nov. 3 vote.

And, trust me folks, when the community learns more about Wallace Bajjali and DAI, people will applaud the action that the City Council must and will take to end this fraud upon Amarillo. Stick with me on this one, folks. The Amarillo Independent was right in 2010 and is right about Wallace Bajjali and DAI in 2015.

Meanwhile, just like there are lies, damn lies and statistics, there are also lies, damn lies and the Amarillo Globe-News.

More misguided propaganda -- and a deconstruction of it

Nick Gerlich, a professor of marketing at West Texas A&M University, posted in his blog a discussion of the Amarillo Millennial Movement, comparing these youth to the Baby Boomers who protested the Viet Nam War. Gerlich portrays these youth as victimized by the older generation because the some of their elders are not taking them seriously.

But, Gerlich is as misguided as this youthful friends. Herewith is a deconstruction of his blog post.

A Different Voice

I am a Baby Boomer. Born in 1959, I was one of the later ones to call this cohort mine. We were a rambunctious group of ne-erdowells. We played our music loud. We protested the View Nam War. We indulged in the free-loving culture of the day. And we wore our hair and clothes in ways that made our parents cringe.

I am a pre-Baby Boomer, technically, with a 1945 birthday, but see myself more of a Boomer than a pre-Boomer. That said, Nick, I also didn’t like the Viet Nam War (maybe the View Nam War refers to it as the first real war brought into the nation’s living rooms on TV. Quite the Freudian slip for you.) However, wearing clothes and listening to music that outraged our elders was not the exclusive domain of Boomers. It’s always been a generation thing. Do study history.

But more than anything, we just wanted people to listen to us. The status quo was to be defied. Our mantra was Question Authority (and sometimes more vulgar).

Again, not the exclusive domain for you.

Somewhere along the line, though, we got a bit older, cut our hair, started families, bought houses in the suburbs, and became Republicans. In other words, we became our parents.

No we didn’t. We became somewhat more permissive and a lot more thoughtful than our parents. And less harsh and more nuanced in our child-rearing. In part, it’s because we didn’t endure the Great Depression like our parents did. Or flee our homeland; or, fight World War II, which was seen as a legitimate war.

History has a funny way of repeating itself, though. Today’s Millennials (those born more or less  between 1980 and 2000) are in many ways like my generation: vocal, passionate, and desirous of change. I see that spirit (and yes, it is a spirit!) in Amarillo among a youngish crowd seeking change in our downtown. The Amarillo Millennial Movement has mobilized its forces, has a social media presence on Facebook, and is actively campaigning for downtown development and anything else that will help make Amarillo a place that they want to live.

No, Nick. You really have this quite wrong — unless as a professor of marketing you have hard data to back up your assertions. But as a long-time journalist and one who has extensively covered downtown development, Wallace Bajjali and the poor judgment of the then-City Commission and now the City Council, I see this differently. If you knew the connections between Brian Eades, one of the city councilors responsible for the downtown development debacle, you’d know these kids are not on some spontaneous spirit-inspired epiphany. It’s a calculated political move, in part evidence by the fact that the AMM is registered as a type of PAC.

And it isn’t pushing for downtown development in total. It’s pushing for the so-called MPEV. A glorified ballpark. They didn’t give a damn about the downtown development until the new City Council was elected and the supporters of the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News plan was put on the ballot for November, thus jeopardizing the insiders’ deals.

How do I know this? I’m an investigative reporter and I’ve seen documents. Have you?

And not move somewhere else.

Yes, they will. For reasons other than some pathetic ballpark. It’s because Amarillo doesn’t have the upscale jobs base for the good kids from good programs that WT and AC are turning out. Oh, sure. Some of the teachers and health care grads will stay here because we do have the jobs base. So will some of the ag-related majors. But don’t kid yourself. We really don’t have the jobs base they really need.

The only problem is, their Baby Boomer elders are being less than receptive to this new voice, in spite of the fact that we belly-ached for change ourselves some 40-50 years ago.

We have a lot of people the same age as those active in the AMM who disagree with the AMM’s entire approach and premise and see through their charade. And, perhaps the elders who aren’t listening to the AMM, such as me for example, is because I believe they are ill-informed, manipulated and basically too naive to realize they are merely pawns in a larger battle.

Critics respond that Amarillo Millennials do not work, do not pay taxes, and by virtue of this, do not have much of an economic impact at the local level. That was true of my generation years ago, too, but that never stopped us from being loud…and being heard.

See above. The critics I know take issue with the AMM for the reasons I outlined above.

Our local activists want a town that appeals to their sensibilities. They want downtown entertainment. They want downtown living. They want a pedestrian-friendly downtown. They want downtown shopping and dining. They are in favor of the new MPEV (Multi-Purpose Event Center), parking, and retail district.

You really have that quite wrong, as I pointed out above. Their interest in the other elements of downtown development arose only in conjunction with them being sucked into supporting the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News stadium. In fact, I’ve had Facebook conversations with some of the AMM members who have misquoted me, misquoted The Amarillo Independent and relied only on information from Downtown Amarillo Inc. You know, the DAI leadership of Les Simpson and Melissa Dailey who brought us Wallace Bajjali. You know, the DAI and Globe-News that claimed due diligence. And, trust me on this prediction, the people who are still wedded to Wallace Bajjali’s ideas will face massive embarrassment.

And all they get are complaints about how or why this won’t work in Amarillo. It might cost taxpayers a few bucks. It’s too hot in Amarillo. Cold. Windy. No one lives there. No one wants to live there. It’s too dangerous downtown (Really? I grew up in Chicago. This place is soooo safe!).

Whatevs. Just tell us you don’t want change, and you will be a lot more believable.

“Whatev.”

Really? Nice try at humor, but the situation isn’t funny. Those “complaints” you so cavalierly dismiss are legitimate. Just saying they aren’t, or calling us negative and all the other well-worn Joseph Goebbels propaganda techniques won’t change the facts or the overall truth derived from those facts. In part, every time we learn more facts, we also find that Dailey, Simpson, DAI, the Amarillo Economic Development Corp., the Local Government Corp. and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone have misrepresented the plans and contracts — misrepresented, hell, they have lied. That, too, is on will be revealed because, as a journalist, I have faith that in the end the truth wins out. Oh, and then there’s that pesky FBI and grand jury investigation. Oops.

As an educator, I have always sided with youth. After all, they have a lot more future to live than my cronies and I do. I may be getting a little bit on the old side, but my heart is still young…and it is kept young by my students. I believe in them. I trust them. I love them. They can see the future from here, while my cohort has a better view of the past.

That’s all very sweet. It’s all well and good to love, trust and side with them, but it’s misguided in two respects. First, if their view of the future isn’t informed by the past, then they are condemned to repeat the errors of the past.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana, “The Life of Reason,” 1905.

Further, the youth you mention have no monopoly on seeing the future. Alvin Toffler was age 42 when he published “Future Shock” in 1970 and 52-years-old when he published “The Third Wave.” Those are both futurist works, looking to the future with a respect for the past.

Second, while as an educator you can side with the young, you also have a leadership responsibility toward those same young people. And part of the responsibility is as a role model. To me that means showing more respect for the facts, evidence and “truth” rather than the emotions which the writing above reflects.

And I want to see more of these brilliant Millennials stay in Amarillo. The future is theirs, not mine. Too my contemporaries dismissing the redevelopment project out of hand, I say it’s time to let go.

Let go? Of what? That’s the same rhetoric the AMM and Advance Amarillo people are using. And I counter that the elections in May have consequences and no amount of denial will change the implication — that voters in Amarillo saw through, finally, the lies and spin from the Globe-News, DAI and the now former members of the City Council.

Let go? Maybe the AMM people would face that facts and let go of the illusion that they aren’t any more than useful idiots — pawns in a greater scheme. A scheme, I might add, that could be more embarrassing for the city’s leadership than anyone imagine. And a revelation that some people think they are untouchable either by the law or by democracy.

You know. Kind of like we begged of our parents and grandparents.

Dr “Move On“ Gerlich

As Toffler pointed out in “Future Shock” by quoting Herbert Gerjuoy: “The new education must teach the individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new direction — how to teach himself.”

Peace out.

No regrets about Real News and Honest Journalism

A small thread on Facebook became the appropriate, if not perfect, place and opportunity to remind you all that The Amarillo Independent survived for six years but never thrived because the conservative business majority wouldn’t support it. Those few who did bless us with advertising recognized that the progressive editorials and opinions were well-walled off from the journalism, which we practiced with unparalleled integrity. I

look back and realize that the best advice I got and biggest regret I have over lot listening to it was from Claudia Stravato, who told me to run the Indy as a 501(c)3 nonprofit — that the old news business model was dying. She was right.

But that aside, and I know I am harping on this, the Indy’s stories and warnings about Wallace Bajjali were right and had the decision-makers here listened, well … .

The Wallace Bajjali stories weren’t the only investigative pieces that broke ground in this vast journalistic wasteland. We exposed Baptist St. Anthony's Health System’s lack of true charity care. When the Texas Medical Board took action on local physicians, we reported it, including a more in-depth look at why Dr. Roby Mitchell lost his license. We also exposed Amarillo ISD’s unfair treatment of the LGBT community; we exposed the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce for shilling an inferior health insurance plan to its members and, in another story, how the city almost shut down the chamber’s big barbeque event because of food handling problems.

I don’t regret a moment of the six years I worked so hard to practice a craft with passion and to give the community an outlet that truly represented “Real News, Honest Journalism.” And I don’t regret for a minute that I shut it down so my wife and I were no longer shackled to the City Council’s meeting schedule and the (in this case, I am proud to use the word) newspaper’s production timetable. Sometimes I wish I’d been more civil along the way, but in my heart I believe journalism was a higher a calling than the Episcopal priesthood, which I decided to not pursue.

Remember that a free press built and sustain the United States’ form of democracy and freedom and it’s as important locally as it is nationally.

Here is more background on downtown you might have missed

Back in February, ahead of Amarillo’s municipal election, I established another blog called “The postexplained why I felt I needed a more personal blog that was distinct and a little more distant from The Amarillo Independent. I re-affirmed that explanation in a brief poston April 30 on the Indy blog.

Quintessential Curmudgeon.” My initial

The elections are long behind us — at least that’s how it feels to me. And I have returned to The Amarillo Independent as my main blog. However, the discussion of the upcoming Nov. 3 election concerning the $32 million Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News-inspired ballpark for downtown on social media and the Indy’ reaching out through social media has generated more interest in the Indy blog. In light of the continued and increased interest in The Amarillo Independent, readers may wish to look at the posted on the Curmudgeon blog. Consider this one of those ICYMI — In Case You Missed It — posts.

One of the key issues in the past elections, and indeed since the start of the downtown development effort, is the role the Globe-News played over the past eight or so years. Understanding how the paper and its publisher fit into Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Wallace Bajjali narrative is important information. As I noted, Readers should treat “information” and opinions in the Amarillo Globe-News like “Seinfeld” episode “The Bizarro Jerry.” Do the opposite and you’ll be better off for it.

I posted a foreshadowing of my recent open letter to the current City Council (“Tale of Two Cities”) on Feb. 27, a month after Wallace Bajjali vaporized itself leaving Joplin, Mo., and Amarillo holding the proverbial bag. Shortly thereafter, I commentedthat we had every incumbent challenged and that we could have a framework for the election’s issues. That posting also introduced publicly the notion of a forensic investigation of downtown development but it wasn’t until April 27 that I posted information I had found the provision in the City Code that enables the City Council to conduct the kind of probe this city desperately needs. By that time we were well aware of the FBI and grand jury investigation of Amarillo’s Amarillo Economic Development Corp., but for the latter, we’ll just have to stay tuned and hope for the best.

This was also a time I we notedthat the Globe-News became schizophrenic on us — and continued its lies, this time about the ability of the council to give the people a voted on downtown development. And with the now-discredited council in our rearview mirror, the post also pointed out that Mayor Paul Harpole had promised a vote as far back as 2011. It was also a time when none of the former city councilors would acknowledge their culpability in the Wallace Bajjali, although later some said Councilor Brian Eades did so. Still, since the start of the downtown development debacle, people called the old council arrogant and we all know why. It just needed to be pointed out. I also pointedout that Eades, who ultimately survived a challenge, couldn’t really address the issues that led to the council’s flawed decision of hire Wallace Bajjali and cozy it up with DAI. By the way, he never answered my questions at the bottom of the post.

As information about the terms of the various contracts, deal and other obligations for downtown development became public, some revelations a surprise and other information showing the downtown development leadership conducted a variety of disinformation campaigns, we posted a specific storyabout the Liberty theatre and how DAI wasn’t to be trusted. Speaking of distrust, during this time the comments on the Globe-News website flew fast and furious. DAI’s executive director pitched in on comments using an identifier that was based on her maiden name. We bustedher because The Amarillo Independent had done our own due diligence, unlike DAI in recommending Wallace Bajjali.

Less than two weeks ahead of the May 9 election, it must have been clear the downtown development cabal was concerned about losing the lock-step-let’s-support-DAI-and-Wallace Bajjali majority. Grasping at straws, DAI’s board chairman, John Lutz, suggested the old Santa Fe Depot could be an “intermodal” transportation center. The suggestion not only showed how ill-informed and ignorant the leadership of DAI is, but it pointed glaringly to another sad fact, one we have overlooked in all this discussion about downtown development.

What is that fact? The fight over this misguided effort has distracted the city’s leadership from making meaningful contributions to Amarillo’s economic development. No real effort to work with the Texas Department of Transportation, BNSF and Amtrak on a re-route of the Southwest Chief. No real attention to developing and fostering Amarillo as a railroad destination; or as a Route 66 destination; no effort on promoting the cowboy heritage with the various guest ranches in the area; no visible effort to make Palo Duro Canyon more visible. And we could go on.

As we continue toward an advisory vote Nov. 3, I am sure more will come out. However, the links and information in the Curmudgeon blog might be helpful to those still trying to decide about downtown development and whether to support the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News plan or to reboot and do something for the whole city.

A Tale of Two Cities: An Open Letter to the Amarillo City Council

An Open Letter to the Amarillo City Council:

I am sending this letter to you and posting it to The Amarillo Independent blog for a specific reason. I

had thought about coming before the council during its session in the Council Chambers to read this. But I chose not to for a few reasons. First, what I have to convey, even if read very quickly, will likely take longer than the three minutes. Second, after watching the former commission and now council, I am quite aware how Mayor Harpole treats those with whom he disagrees. I thus choose to not subject myself to the highly likely interruptions, verbal abuse and boorish behavior that characterizes the way he runs these meetings.

As I write this, I’ve just returned from a week-long camping trip. I only followed the news alerts about Wallace Bajjali sporadically. Now I’ve caught up about Wallace Bajjali’s situation in Joplin, where the now-defunct firm was also a master developer. If anyone wishes to get caught up on that situation, all they need do is Google “Wallace Bajjali” and Joplin or go to The Turner Report. Turner provides a pathway to the media coverage and the damning Missouri State Auditor report. In fact, the findings in Joplin are so bad they have been turned over to a prosecutor for possible criminal action. If you and other leadership haven’t studied the information you best do so.

The audit found that Wallace Bajjali seemed to have an inside track in Joplin, aided in part by the Chamber of Commerce months earlier giving information to Wallace Bajjali firm to respond to the RFP. According to the audit, “It is unclear how Wallace Bajjali was able to obtain 11 letters of intent for various projects within the redevelopment area before the concept of a master developer was presented to the city council or a RFP was issued unless the firm had prior knowledge of potential project details.”

As I’ve written before, much of what happened here and in Joplin are uncannily parallel.

The audit also faulted the decision-makers in Joplin for ignoring the Wallace Bajjali’s problems with regulators, financial liabilities, failures here in Amarillo and other warning signs. In Joplin, Wallace Bajjali won the deal over bidders with no liabilities; their City Council, like ours, ignored warnings, including those that told them engaging Wallace Bajjali would be a huge error. And, in Joplin, that information was kept from the public.

Of course, how Amarillo ended up with Wallace Bajjali remains murky at best, what with so many meetings behind closed doors. But, in November 2010, The Amarillo Independent’s story raised the same issues that later unfolded in Joplin and at the then-Amarillo City Commission Nov. 16 meeting, Downtown Amarillo Inc.’s Melissa Dailey, with Amarillo Globe-News Publisher Les Simpson, who was her board president, said DAI had done due diligence. Dailey downplayed the Independent’s findings. Now, of course, we must raise the same questions about Wallace Bajjali’s selection here. It is a fair question to ask what DAI's Dailey and Simpson knew and when they knew it.

Then there is a matter of the $947,000 in so-called “pursuit costs” the city paid to Wallace Bajjali, even as some councilors knew the firm wasn’t delivering on its promises. What we know now from Joplin is that David Wallace and his firm submitted invoices for such things as a $161 pair of dress shoes for Wallace while in Springfield, Mo.; a hotel stay in Springfield for $333; and, booze for Wallace, Costa Bajjali, a then-city councilor and then-city manager and Joplin Chamber of Commerce employees. Even more incriminating was an invoice for hotel costs in Arkansas for $222 four months before the city issued an RFP. But in Amarillo, we’ve never seen a public itemization of those costs so we don’t know any of those details. Do we have the same issues here and we just don’t know it — yet?

This tale of two cities continues with “newspapers” of record being lapdogs instead of watchdogs. The Joplin Globe, like the out-of-town-owned Amarillo Globe-News, was in the tank for Wallace Bajjali from the start. And while the Joplin paper, as best I can tell, was simply egregious in slanting or not reporting about Wallace Bajjali and downtown development, the Globe-News here was grossly unethical in its participation in downtown development. With its publisher on the DAI and Local Government Corp. boards, how could anyone expect anything but lapdog behavior and boosterism?

It’s time for all of us to know more about this Wallace Bajjali-“catalyst project” albatross around our collective taxpaying necks. So, I am once again calling on the City Council to take decisive action on downtown development:

·Invoke Sec. 19 of the Amarillo City Code and launch a full investigation on the entire eight-year-with-nothing-to-show-for-it effort, issuing subpoenas to all concerned for documents and testimony about their roles in downtown development.

·Suspend any further development on the hotel and parking garage — contracts be damned because if the deals were put together illegally they are void.

·Investigate the investors in the hotel and determine if they have acted with “insider” information equivalent to what would constitute insider information under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Texas Securities laws.

·Investigate who and what is behind the treatment of the Herring Hotel and why the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone provided abatements to Wallace Bajjali and subsequently the Patel group without them submitting applications as others have done.

·Freeze all payments to Downtown Amarillo Inc. until further notice.

·The Nov. 3 vote on the “MPEV” is advisory only and poorly worded. No matter the vote, freeze any decision until the Sec. 19 investigation is completed.

This entire downtown development effort has been tainted from the start. And throughout, the advocates of the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. approach, including former Mayor Debra McCartt and former councilors, Mayor Harpole, Councilman Eades, City Manager Jarrett Atkinson and members of the DAI, LGC and TIRZ boards have been more than disingenuous — they have been dishonest. No taxpayer money was the biggest lie, but each week we get a new revelation that oozes from one of the contracts.

The City Council with three new members elected can not only stop this insanity and reboot the planning process. But it can also restore trust in city government. I beg you to do so.

TIRZ action on Herring Hotel tip of iceberg

It’s been about 10 months since the FBI served the Amarillo Economic Development Corp. with a

grand jury subpoena, launching a probe into some of the activities associated with the so-called downtown revitalization project. Since then, we have heard nothing about the investigation into the deal involving Alan Rhodes, a shareholder in the Underwood Law Firm, and the AEDC. The deal at issue is a transaction involving the Commerce Building, West Texas A&M University and local property owners.

Secrecy is a common characteristic of this type of scrutiny. But in addition to learning about the probe, we have learned much about the tentacles gripping downtown development:

· Alan Rhodes and Joe Bob McCartt, the husband of former Mayor Debra McCartt, are involved in a deal to invest in the Newcrest Images/Supreme Bright convention center hotel. That information became public last month despite Chuck Patel, the chief financial officer for Newcrest, telling us who are the investors in the publicly subsidized part of the project that the information is none of our business;

·Statements by the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. crowd have claimed, in too many places to document here, that neither the Xcel Energy building now under construction nor the convention hotel would proceed without the ballpark and other guarantees. And yet we recently learned that Newcrest/Supreme Bright has told Richard Brown, the point person on the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, that construction begins this fall despite the vote on killing the ballpark part of the MPEV being on the ballot;

·The contract with the city of Amarillo for the heavily subsidized convention center hotel, part of the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-inspired trifecta that includes a ballpark and parking garage, includes a non-compete clause barring the public assistance of any type for another downtown hotel;

·The parking garage contract with the now defunct fraudster firm of Wallace Bajjali includes the city’s requirement to eliminate free street parking downtown with parking meters. One implication not fully explored at this point are the costs and scope of that requirement give nthe large area in the “downtown” definition established eight years ago;

·In a scurrilous act of betrayal of the public, the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone has sat on the Herring Hotel’s request for a tax abatement for three years. And, in a more despicable move than a civil tongue bars other words, on Thursday finally denied the iconic hotel’s request.

What we know about FBI-grand jury investigations in general are they are carried out secretly — that neither the FBI nor grand juries make information known to the public during their process. What is less well known here is that the investigation may well delve into more than the Commerce Building. I have it on good authority that the FBI is fully aware of the situation with the Herring, including the possible anti-trust implications. Of course, no one on the outside knows about the progress or depth.

But I have a couple of theories that I have mentioned to an attorney or two and, while I may not be right about these as I was about Wallace Bajjali, those hypotheses make sense.

First, I believe the “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” cliché is plausible here. Had the federal level investigation cratered early on, it would have stopped; the public would have known, in part, with the release of information about the lack of indictments. That may be a bit simplistic, of course.

Second, I think there is a fair chance this investigation is being done under the framework of RICO, or the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. This law, born in the 1970s to for after the Mafia, covers far more than the Goodfellas these days.

As the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. plan advocates move forward and we see Amarillo divided in a war within itself, one can only think the famous Winston Churchill line: “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

It also brings to mind another observation about the truth: The advocates of the Wallace Bajjali-DAI plan for downtown development find the truth so precious that they use it sparingly.

I wonder when the facts will emerge to give us the truth.

Did a Wallace Bajjali plan derail another approach to downtown revitalization?

My friend, John Kanelis, works part-time for KFDA-Newschannel 10. He has posted a storyabout

Santa Fe Railway's Madame Queen at
the city-owned mini-park downtown

Walter Wolfram, an Amarillo attorney who has tried for years to establish a railroad museum here. After all, Amarillo was a huge railroad town and remains an important part of BNSF’s Transcon route.

Wolfram has proposed to the city of Amarillo using the old Santa Fe Railway depot for such a nonprofit enterprise. You remember the Santa Fe depot that the city bought for $2.3 million from Bob Goree, the auctioneer, in September 2013. At the time, ABC7 News/KVII reported that now-former Commissioner “Lilia Escajeda said even though the city has no use for it right now, there are definite plans for the future.”

Escajeda went on to say the building and six contiguous acres might be used for the Civic Center and, at that time, also made clear the deal was no intended to attract Amtrak. At the time, Amtrak’s Chicago to Los Angeles Southwest Chief route through Colorado and New Mexico was in jeopardy and sending the iconic train through here on the Transcon was a possibility. However, as far as I know, the city made no real effort to further that possibility. And now, that train has left the station since then Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico have worked out an agreement with Amtrak and BNSF to keep the current route.

But I got sidetracked, didn’t I?

According to the Kanelis story, “Wolfram submitted his proposal to the city this past March. He’s waiting for a response.”

Once again, we can see the damage to the city from the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-inspired ballpark. Even were the Southwest Chief always a lost cause for Amarillo, the entire issue and controversy about an under-sized ballpark has distracted the downtown development advocates away from a viable form of economic development. Train tourism is a big deal and with a museum in the historic depot as a nucleus, more development could follow. It is certainly no more speculative that vying for convention business against cities with far more to offer.

More instructive to those watching the performance at City Hall is that five months later, Wolfram hasn’t heard from the city. That’s just plain rude. At a minimum, good manners would call for an acknowledgement of receiving the proposal.

I guess, that too, is too much to expect until the culture at City Hall and the city’s leadership changes.

What did we get for our eight years of work?

Tuesday evening’s Amarillo City Council meeting gave voters that which they’ve been begging for

these past eight or so years — hearing the voice of those with a vested interest in the overall health of the city instead of those vested in the health of their and their friends’ pocketbooks. On a 3-2 vote, Councilors Elisha Demerson, Randy Burkett and Mark Nair fulfilled their campaign promise to place the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. plan for a ballpark on a November ballot.

Bill Gilliland’s and Laura Street’s last-minute attempt to keep the question of building a ballpark away from people who are now seeing through the charade this entire downtown development fell short — as short as the fund-raising they did for the Globe-News Center a decade ago. What is illustrative of how failed this downtown development effort came in the reportby the Amarillo Globe-News, the Wallace Bajjali-DAI public relations arm. The paper’s website showed that these two local high rollers and their allies pushing the ballpark couldn’t tell us what we’re getting for the public and private money; but that isn’t different from what we’ve heard from all of the leadership on the ballpark.

Why no one seemed to question Tuesday night why we know so little after eight years is astonishing. When Wallace Bajjali cratered in January, the City Council spun the almost $1 million of our tax money paid to the fraudsters as a worthy expense. But no one has really explained what we got for the money and, at this point, we’re looking at a ballpark that is more a figment of imagination than a playing field. Field of Dreams? More like a Field of Nightmare. Nor, after the Gilliland and Street act Tuesday, did anyone question where these big spenders were over the past eight years. Why, if so eager now to build the mystery MPEV, did it take the moneyed crowd so long to line up the capital?

It’s clear that The Amarillo Independent’s warnings about entrusting revitalizing downtown to the former City Council leadership and its alphabet soup allies would fail are coming true at each step of the way. The path is littered with missed deadlines, revelations of changed plans, misinformation and disinformation and egregious incompetence. And those critiques are charitable.

We are now going to move into a three-month battle sure to be riddled with propaganda and continued name-calling. The election, ostensibly in November 2015, will hinge on turnout and turnout will also hang on how angry and motivated each side remains. Certainly the Amarillo Millennial Movement representatives’ disrespectful behavior and magical thinking won’t help their cause, whatever they believe it to be. Mayor Paul Harpole continuing to show his colors made no friends among those who want a responsive city government.

But the outcome of the election will also hang on the wording of the resolution put before the voters. The city will best serve its public to make that resolution honest and straightforward. In addition, we’ll need to keep our eye on everyone involved, especially the City Council, DAI and the LCG, so no violations of the election laws that bar using public resources to advocate on this matter occur.

We can but hope.

Wallace Bajjali-DAI ballpark plan goes to November vote

The people of Amarillo will now have their chance to directly express their opinion on whether the

downtown development should include the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-inspired ballpark. The non-binding referendum is scheduled for November will give the people of Amarillo what they’ve been asking of City Hall and the City Council for years — to be heard.

ABC 7 News/KVII made the meeting available over the Internet with a live stream, with far better quality than the city feed to Suddenlink.

The measure passed on a 3-2, with newly elected Councilors Mark Nair, Elisha Demerson and Randy Burkett prevailing after also defeating Councilor Brian Eades’ attempt to move the election to May 2016. The three new members lived up to their campaign promises to be more responsive to the voters while Eades and Mayor Paul Harpole continued to fight for the status quo. 

However, an Eleventh Hour stunt showed just how panicked the moneyed, establishment old guard is about the people of Amarillo having a say in their city government. Bill Gilliland and Laura Street “surprised” the packed Council Chambers by saying their mover and shaker friends had worked over the weekend to get pledges of about $2 million to contribute to “something” — but exactly what wasn’t clear. And, Gilliland and Street had a proviso: The money would come after construction. Other terms of the rich and famous crowd weren’t clear. Don’t forget, it was the same two people who, some 10 to 15 years ago pushed for the Globe-News Center with a plan then to raise about $30 million. The fund-raising came up short in 2005 by $1.8 million and the City Commission at the time made up the difference. That’s the same amount of money being bandied about for a ballpark about which no one seems to know anything.

I am glad the three new members adhered to their promises. I wish they had run on a promise to vote the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-based plan down. But, nevertheless, it is where we are and now we’re going to have another three months of campaigning, lying, spinning and name-calling — all in the shadow, by the way, of an FBI and grand jury investigation on part of the downtown plan.

Hang on, folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Another Wallace Bajjali-DAI City Council sleaze move exposed

I don’t normally use KAMR, Amarillo’s Channel 4 NBC affiliate, as a source for my blogging. In this case, however, the station’s storyThursday did the community a real service by exposing another sneaky and sleazy move by the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. downtown development gang.

The comments under the story on KAMR’s Facebook page are the ones to look at because, interestingly, no one commented on the story on the station’s own website. That aside, the revelation adds to the screams for a deeper more thorough investigation into the entire downtown development planning process, the role that former city councilors/commissioners have played and for exactly whom Melissa Dailey is carrying water.

This one provision alone should be the proverbial “straw that breaks the camel’s back” to kill of the entire Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-inspired debacle.

Spread the Word

Now that the Amarillo Globe-News has disabled comments, it’s hardly worth going to its website. EXCEPT, the paper keeps propagandizing on its news and opinion pages. I suspect the reason was so much push back from commenters who joined me in calling out the lies and deconstructing the spin.

I have done several posts that deconstruct the Globe-News content and, to the extent possible, will continue to do so. I would like to ask a favor of all of you who are reading the posts, either directly or after being directed from my two Facebook pages. Please feel free to comment and please share these as far and wide as you can. We must neutralize the insider propaganda machine. Remember one of my favorite quotes, from “Markings,” by the late United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, “The madman shouted in the market place. No one stopped to answer him. Thus it was confirmed that his thesis was incontrovertible.”

Deconstructing the AGN propaganda

I will continue to be relentless in calling out the Amarillo Globe-News for propagandizing and acting

without the slightest speck of journalism ethics. If you look at the last few posts to this blog, you’ll see I gave no quarter.

So, again, Sunday, the paper’s editorialattempts to sway opinion — as is its right — with a sleazy tactic of condemning something in total ignorance and undercutting it with “information” that wouldn’t survive critical thinking.

The editorial refers to the public forum Monday featuring University of Texas at San Antonio Professor Heywood Sanders, author of a book entitled “Convention Center Follies;” the book questions whether convention center projects engender economic, or in Amarillo’s cases, downtown development. Propagandist-in-Chief Dave Henry, carrying the water for Mr. Conflict-of-Interest Les Simpson, asserts that Sanders’ information should be discounted a priori (Hey, Dave and Les, that means ahead of hearing the information). The Globe-News believes that two guys with a consulting firm whose business is built on fostering the building of convention, sports and other venues carry equal weight to a professor. In other words, the Globe-News is telling you to discount an academic with no dog in any of these fights and accept the word of guys whose livelihood depends on cities suffering from an edifice complex.

If anything about the Globe-News’ position in this downtown development debacle should make the public angry, it’s the clear message from this hack-led paper: We don’t believe the readers of the paper and the people of Amarillo are smart enough to think critically about downtown development.

Then, the editorial goes even further. The Globe-News asserts the city can’t bring conventions here simply because it lacks a convention center hotel.

“Even those who oppose the overall downtown development project (a convention center hotel, parking garage and multipurpose event center) cannot dispute this disadvantage Amarillo faces,” Henry writes, continuing by quoting Dan Quandt, who heads Amarillo’s Convention and Visitor Council. Quant, of course, also has a dog in this fight.

Truth is, many of us can dispute these assertions.

First, the presumption that conventions will drive economic and downtown development and raise all the vessels in Amarillo’s harbor is fallacious. The disadvantages to bringing conventions to Amarillo arise from: Poor airline service, with difficult connections from the three remaining carriers at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport; no Amtrak service; and, Greyhound being the only other long-distance public transportation.

The Amarillo Economic Development Corp.’s penchant for insider deals instead of working to make public transportation, specifically at the airport and with Amtrak is one more reason to restructure the entire AEDC.

Second, even if (and it’s a big if) the current Civic Center could reasonably host large conventions, and were the only reason for conventions coming to Amarillo, the hotels along Interstate 40 are not that far from downtown. And, the $45 million for the out-of-town version of a Patel-hotel would buy plenty of high quality shuttle bus services into the city center.

Finally, the presence of a hotel and ballpark, or even a nicer Civic Center, aren’t what will bring conventions to Amarillo. It will be the collateral amenities, such as tourist-attracting sites and activities. And, I might add, emphasizing tourism would have more effect than conventions.

The editorial also asserts that perhaps Amarillo loses out on 1,300 conventions, but concedes that number is vapor.

The one thing the opponents of the current Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. downtown development debacle agree on is we need a more vibrant downtown. We just don’t need a corruption-fertilized “catalyst project” to do so.

Henry and Simpson ask this, “If a downtown convention center hotel (and a parking garage and MPEV) will not work for Amarillo, what is their plan for downtown redevelopment?”

·Value the past by emphasizing Amarillo’s Western/cowboy history, railroad history and Route 66 history by developing those elements as reasons to visit.

Ø  Bring together the railroad history interests to consolidate as many of the museum activities as possible around the city-owned property that now houses the Madame Queen.

Ø  Work with the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum and other interests to make travel to PPHM possible by public transportation and make the National Center more prominent in Western activities.

Ø  Clean up and help businesses along Sixth Street and Route 66 by working more closely with them and their organization.

Ø  Foster the development of the Herring Hotel as part of the city’s golden era in railroads, cattle and Route 66 and stop putting the squeeze on the hotel’s owner.

Ø  Shift the CVC’s marketing emphasis away from conventions and full-out, heavy marketing for the elements outlined above.

·Make downtown more attractive to the local population by enhancing security and encouraging viable development by:

Ø  Renovating the Civic Center to host better and bigger events, more name entertainment and update the infrastructure systems to make events more enjoyable (e.g., sound systems);

Ø  Increasing police presence downtown.

Ø  Place a premium on making Polk and Sixth streets the centerpieces of redeveloping downtown;

Ø  Work with Potter County to renovate its stadium and set up public transportation infrastructure to make the ballpark more accessible from all parts of the city.

·Add marketing Palo Duro Canyon, the city of Canyon, PPHM, Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Lakes Meredith, Greenbelt and McKenzie to the CVC’s portfolio.

That answer your question, Dave and Les?

Amarillo's cancer: What's the cure?

I’ve been thinking about this post for a long time. And, I believe I am putting myself at personal risk, as much or more risk than since The Amarillo Independent did a story with KVII in 2008 on a molestation accusation involving former Potter County Commissioner Joe Kirkwood. At the time, several people warned me that the Potter County sheriff’s office and possibly the Amarillo Police Department could be used against me. Given the recent events involving law enforcement in Amarillo and elsewhere in the United States, it’s clear that anyone, but especially a person of color, can be one punch, fist strike, baton blow or one Taser jolt away from death. And for no legitimate reason. That said, this isn’t a condemnation of the good and honest law enforcement personnel, although the blue wall of silence puts the good ones at risk for speaking out.

But the recent events in Amarillo are indicative of a more metastasized cancer in our community than some bad cops. So, bear with me as I connect the dots.

To understand the sources of this cancer, it’s necessary to understand Amarillo’s media landscape.

It’s no secret that I’ve viewed most of the Amarillo media as lapdogs rather than watchdogs, at least until The Amarillo Independent came along and then Sinclair took over KVII and brought Ryan Hazelwood in as news director a little more than two years ago. The cancer infecting the local governments and institutions could have been prevented or treated early had the media — and especially the Amarillo Globe-News — lived up to their journalistic responsibilities. The Globe-News, as the oldest and largest outlet in town, betrayed its community and its legacy for many years. Do you know what the paper’s motto is and what is carved over the door of the Globe-News building? It’s a quote from Gene Howe, “A newspaper may be forgiven for lack of wisdom but never for a lack of courage.” The paper is no longer a newspaper and has abandoned wisdom and courage.

The implications of the news media culture in Amarillo meant the governments and institutions that should be accountable to the public saw themselves entitled to use the local media as PR mouthpieces and any coverage that wasn’t glowing, “positive,” and a reflection of that they wanted public was called out as “negative,” inaccurate and divisive. Those same words are being used now by those fighting to retain the power to shove the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. fraud-infested plan for downtown development down the city’s throat.

And so, all of the problem that have festered over the years got a pass, with the various City Commissions either kept out of the loop by city employees or by willful ignorance — matters the commissioners couldn’t have ducked had problems been made public. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that institutions of all stripes strive to create positive images and defend themselves against attempts to reveal their flaws. But with accountability, those revelations would be fewer a more superficial than we are finding now. Which brings us back to the story that triggered this essay.

The recent accusations against the Amarillo Police Department for brutalizing Robert Johnson and planting marijuana on him aren’t the first of similar allegations against local law enforcement. Ask any reporter and he’ll tell you that those stories come up often but “off the record” because of fear of retribution from not only the police but also the other powers of city government. How telling is that?

This time, however, the advocates for Robert Johnson are Jeff Blackburn and his associate Ryan Brown, passionate advocates for justice and fair treatment. And formidable adversaries for those who would trample the rights of the less powerful.

Blackburn points out in several posts for his Amarillo Citizens for Open Government that the validity of the Amarillo Police Department investigating itself is ludicrous, a position echoed by others in the community, including yours truly. That the APD would have the hubris to pull this kind of stunt reflects the legacy of the lapdog media landscape, with the almost paranoid reaction engendered by that sense of entitlement. And the fact that City Manager Jarrett Atkinson would let the APD handle the entire matter internally and not scotch the public relations push the APD used is telling of his poor judgment. Was Atkinson or anyone else so asleep at the switch that they didn’t think to ask the Texas Rangers to investigate? Or, did they think of the Rangers and then decide an internal investigation would permit a cover-up?

I saw a similar reaction from APD Chief Robert Taylor several years ago when the Indy did a story on city salaries, but it was decidedly lower-key.

In fact, in this context, I can share other instances leading me to question why Taylor is qualified to continue in his job. During the 2008 presidential election, after the Indy endorsed Barack Obama, I received a written death threat. To say the APD response was lukewarm is an understatement. It took four hours for anyone to show up and the department did nothing to follow up. Then, when I spoke to Taylor and Atkinson about the danger of traffic barreling off the westbound Interstate 40 exit to Crockett Street, I was promptly “blown off” but both public servants. In fact, at the time, Atkinson said he had full confidence in Taylor.

And that brings us back to the current City Council that now sits at a crossroad, faced with treating such a devastating cancer.

I believe the three new councilors were elected to make significant changes in both the operational leadership at the city and in the direction of downtown development. Randy Burkett’s and Elisha Demerson’s victories over incumbents were clearly a message that citizens wanted more transparency, more competence and less tone-deafness from the City Council, especially a mayor who bullies anyone who disagrees with him. Burkett and Demerson rode in on a wave of events that included bad hires at the airport and traffic engineering, Wallace Bajjali cratering, scandals with the new city logo and at animal control. By the time Mark Nair’s runoff election against establishment toady Steve Rogers, the electorate had also suffered the mismanagement of the water billing system, including a draconian firing of meter readers.

When Nair took office in June, we had another media explosion — this one confusing. Did Nair and the other new councilors call for Atkinson’s resignation in a public meeting? Or, did they think they were still in executive session? And, did they call for his resignation or did they ask for his evaluation ahead of the scheduled review in January? Reports from all the media were confusing, as I noted. But the optics of the move as portrayed, especially by the schizophrenic Globe-News, led the three to back off. Why do I call the Globe-News schizophrenic? Because it endorsed these three as candidates. I don’t know what Simpson and the Globe-News expected. But in typical Globe-News fashion, it turned on the three and made them look as bad as it could. The Globe-News did something else equally stupid in a recent editorial. It tried to separate the operation incompetence from downtown development, calling them different issues. As usual, the Globe-News is wrong. Don’t forget, it was the city and the paper that collaborated on hiring Wallace Bajjali, establishing all the alphabet soups of DAI, Local Government Corp. and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone.

After this latest episode with the APD and the way the city handled the matter, I am have doubts the three new councilors should have backed off. In other venues, I’ve called for a full-blown investigation of some of the city matters. I believe that is the right way to go; but I am not sure the City Council needs to wait until January to take action on the city leadership.

It’s time for the behaviors in Amarillo to reflect the values we saw characterized the Panhandle.