And then the you-know-what hit the fan

“Fascinating.”

That was a favorite term that the late Leonard Nimoy’s character, Spock, used on the iconic “Star Trek.” it was reserved for observations that had no obvious explanation but nevertheless were unusual or interesting.

It can also be applied to the goings-on at Amarillo’s City Hall in the wake of a new majority on the City Council. Let’s recap briefly.

In May, two incumbents who supported the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. downtown plan fell to challengers. You remember Wallace Bajjali? It was the master developer firm of fraudsters the old City Council hired, despite warnings. And then Amarillo joined Joplin, Mo., Waco and Kingswood as victims of these snake oil salesmen. But, the status quo candidates, who spun the Wallace Bajjali mistake as inconsequential, lost decisively to challengers who don’t want the status quo or the full plan without more public input. A month later, the third anti-status quo, pro-transparency candidate beat the “establishment” candidate in a landslide.

On June 30, the new majority called for the resignation of an assistant city manager (which they got), the city manager and members of the Amarillo Economic Development Corp.

And then the you-know-what hit the fan.

The supporters for the Wallace Bajjali and Downtown Amarillo Inc. plan have launched a major public relations campaign to impugn the new councilors, stooping to dragging out the old epithet “CAVE,” meaning Citizens Against Virtually Everything. The name-calling is but one of the tricks of the propaganda trade the pro-Wallace Bajjali plan supporters are foisting on the community. Another piece is to claim the new members of the City Council haven’t done their homework, are acting too precipitously and must slow down and that they don’t have the facts. Still another is to trot out a bunch of naïve high school and college kids as part of stacking the audience at the July 1 Kabuki Dance dog and pony show at the obsolete Civic Center. These are the “millennials,” say the pro-Wallace Bajjali plan people, who think a convention center hotel, parking garage and undersized, empty-in-the-winter ballpark are keys to the insiders building them a new generation’s nirvana.

Two years ago, the same cabal made much of a city election that retained the pro-Wallace Bajjali, vote-in-unanimous-lock-step, on the council. The election was an affirmation of their vision and leadership, they said. But since the election, despite the efforts to hide the Wallace Bajjali-inspired plans, the voters learned the downtown development deal was for insiders all along; that the Wallace Bajjali work in Joplin resulted in corruption that may yet see public officials there indicted; and, that the Amarillo AEDC’s work with the former mayor’s husband and a prominent Amarillo lawyer triggered a federal grand jury probe and FBI investigation. Taxpayers also learned that city management has stumbled badly, to put it charitably. Bad hires; plagiarism for the city logo; egregious, if not criminal, problems at the city animal shelter; huge problems with getting the right contractors for rebuilding streets; and, of course, what many believe to be the final straw: the water billing debacle.

As I write this, we learned Monday morning that the city attorney has resigned. As the news spreads across Amarillo, with some of the media spinning this as a tragedy, we hear lamentations that this is the first of many to leave City Hall and these exits will devastate city government. I’d suggest the supporters of Wallace Bajjali’s plan for Amarillo and for the status quo take a deep breath. If major turnover indeed devastates city management in any objective sense, that speaks volumes about the former City Council and management of the city. Any large organization’s leadership that hasn’t considered these types of contingencies has foundered in its fiduciary duties. I know some of the new leadership has given thought to those contingencies.

In light of this, the psychotically apoplectic reaction to the result of the 2015 municipal elections is (back to my main theme) “fascinating.” After all, how does one claim one election is legitimate and the other not? And how, in a representative democracy, how does one not accept the legitimacy of the most precious right of a United States citizen — the right to vote?

Instead of impugning those who have spoken and telling those of us who now constitute the majority of the voters to back off and slow down, I suggest they open their eyes and look for ways to be honest and help repair the damage to this city from the insider-trading, paternalistic, status quo and anti-open government cabal that has taken us down this path.

Lessons from the sessions

Advance Amarillo is on Facebook crowing about the great turn out and support for the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc. plan for downtown development.

“A big thank you to everyone who voiced their support for the plans to revitalize downtown today, it was a good day!” reads the post. And one of the supporters, a Sally Jennings, responded, “Today was a great day for the citizens of Amarillo!! Those that want to create and do something good and make this a great city spoke up and were heard. 99% positive comments!!!!”

Here are some major takeaways about the Wednesday session.

• While the turnout was good at the start, let’s remember that the purpose of the all-day dog-and-pony show was to sell and/or pressure the new councilors to buy into the Wallace Bajjali-DAI plan. By the way, one of the speakers said the ballpark wasn’t a Wallace Bajjali idea, but that was one of the many pieces of disinformation. The so-called three-legged stool is the cookie cutter approach Wallace Bajjali peddled elsewhere.

• The daylong meeting was designed to bring out the supporters who had pecuniary interests in the plan and to exclude those who would have spoken against the ballpark in particular. Amarillo’s working stiffs had zero chance of sitting through this disinformation campaign.

• After almost 8 hours of the advocates representing Center City, the Local Government Corp., Downtown Amarillo Inc. and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone as well as the city itself with the mayor touting elements of the plan, the public comment session began 2¾ hours after the originally scheduled 3 p.m. start time for public comment. This was a transparent ploy to wear down the outnumbered opponents of the Wallace Bajjali-DAI plan.

• It became clear that the public comments portion of the day was also a setup when participants learned about the City Council’s sacred three-minute time limit, wired to favor the advocates of the Wallace Bajjali-DAI plan. The setup included “youth” with clearly scripted speeches that conveniently fit the time limit. When was the last time you heard a high school or college kid refer to “catalyst project?”

• And, speaking of three-minute time limit, it was impossible for anyone sitting through the 8 hours of presentations from the advocates talking without time limits to come up with an equally balanced critique of the disinformation.

• While one of the key pitches to the public, and made by several at the meeting and after as presented on ABC 7 News Nightside, the purpose of the meeting was transparency. But when some key questions came up, there was not transparency. Case in point: Who are the investors in the convention hotel? NewcrestImage’s Chuck Patel said it was no one’s business. But newly elected Councilor Randy Burkett got a confirmation that Joe Bob McCartt, former Debra McCartt’s husband, and Alan Rhodes, of the Underwood Law Firm, were two of the 30 investors in the hotel. And McCartt and Rhodes are also involved in the Commerce Building scandal that has triggered an FBI and grand jury probe.

The new City Council members — Mark Nair and Elisha Demerson — have joined Burkett in the first shake up at City Hall. They called for and got Assistance City Manager Vicki Covey’s resignation on Tuesday and succeeded in getting City Manager Jarrett Atkinson’s job status on the agenda for next week’s council meeting. They also called for the resignation of the entire AEDC board. I can’t imagine that the DAI and LGC boards are far behind.

But ultimately, the meeting, while cordial, generated more heat than light. We still lack in-depth and, perhaps, honest answers about:

• Why the city didn’t move to rebuild the Civic Center first.

• Why it focused Wednesday so much on “millennials” while throughout the process until now we’ve not heard about those folks.

• How the “millennials” would drive conventions and hotel usage and how that relates to the ballpark.

• Why the budgets after eight long years of planning are so tentative.

• Why the city is stonewalling the Herring Hotel and who is behind this attempt to put this kind of squeeze on the owner.

• Who the other local investors in the hotel are and what ties they have to public money and local decision- and policy-making.

• Who the organizers of Advance Amarillo are and the interests those people have in property downtown.

• How DAI’s Melissa Dailey came up with Wallace Bajjali and has contributed to some of the enmity toward her, going back to the 2007-2008 years with her treatment of people objecting to the design standards.

• How Dailey has also misled (some have told me she lied) about some of the plans.

The City Council, it turns out, has the power under Section 19 of Amarillo’s Municipal Code, to “investigate the financial transaction of any office or department of the City government, and the acts and conduct of any officer or employee. In conducting such investigation, the Council may compel the attendance or witnesses, the production of books and papers, and other evidence, and for that purpose may issue subpoenas or attachments which shall be signed by the Mayor; which may be served and executed by any officer authorized by law to serve subpoenas or other process, or any peace officer of the City.”

In the 12 years I’ve lived here, I don’t remember anyone using this provision. But, if that is what it takes to get answers to the questions that may make the citizens and taxpayers of Amarillo more trusting, then I hope the new council will do so.

It is a dog and pony show

As I begin to write this at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday as I follow the ABC 7 News/KVII live streaming, Richard Brown, one of the key players on the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, Local Government Corp. and the lawyer who helped establish Downtown Amarillo Inc., is wrapping up his presentation.

It is now 3¾-hours past the time for public comment. It is a typical ploy to wear down the opposition to the topic of this. Further, the three-minute limit is a further ploy to stifle opposition to the agenda of the dog-and-pony show.

I urge the new councilors to stand strong on this.

I also know that the City Council has the power to conduct an investigation, using subpoena power and ability to put witnesses under oath. I urge them to do so to drill further down on some of the presentations today.