Ringo to turn 75! Gulp, some of us are old!

Ringo Starr

I don’t feel all that old old, but I guess I am.

So, then, must this guy be old. Ringo Starr turns 75 next Tuesday. You remember him, yes? He used to play drums with The Beatles — and surely you’ve heard of them.

How old do I feel today? Quite old, actually.

Consider this little tidbit.

I’m at work this afternoon. I spot a couple — Jack and Pat. They’re friends of mine. They’re shopping for a vehicle. After a lengthy session with the sales rep who sold them the vehicle, I walked up to Pat and told her, “Hey did you know that Tuesday, Ringo Starr turns 75 years of age?” She laughed and said, “We’re getting old.”

I turned to the sales rep. “Did you know that?” I asked. The rep — get ready for this — didn’t know who Ringo Starr is.

Pat said, politely, “He used to be a drummer. He played with The Beatles.”

I do not know the age of the sales representative in question. I’m guessing about 30. Hmm. Old enough perhaps to have heard from Mom, Dad — or perhaps Grandma and Grandpa about the “good old days” when bands such as The Beatles were making music that transcends generations.

That’s OK. I’ll give my colleague a pass. But as I’ve noted many times, he and his band mates — John, George and Paul — helped raise me.

If only it didn’t make me feel so old.

Is it time to put up … or then shut up?

Accusations have been flying all over Amarillo of late.

They have involved the sale of the Commerce Building downtown and whether the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation overpaid for the site. They also have involved allegations of secret meetings, back-room insider deals, back-scratching among ultra-rich friends.

The downtown Amarillo redevelopment effort has begun moving forward. There’s now some talk of it all being stalled — or perhaps blown apart — if the top level of city management is forced out. There might be some kind of vote to decide if residents really want to build multipurpose event venue planned for a vacant piece of property just south of City Hall. The vote might occur against the backdrop of the allegations that have been leveled.

I haven’t yet seen any evidence of something improper, let alone illegal, going on here.

We’ve had a well-publicized public forum at the Civic Center. We’ve had public hearing after public hearing on the three-pronged project — MPEV, downtown hotel and parking garage. We’ve seen detailed analyses of how the city believes the MPEV can work for the city, how the hotel proposal is tied to the MPEV’s construction and how economic developers intend to convert Polk Street into an entertainment district that could be an inducement to keep young people from leaving their hometown for places that boast of a little more pizzazz.

The doubters persist. They continue to cast aspersions not just on the project, but on the motives of those who support it.

I’m just a guy who lives in Amarillo with my wife. We pay our taxes regularly every year. We enjoy living here. We also want to see our city develop, evolve and become something more than just a place along Interstate 40 where people stop overnight en route to points east and west.

These allegations are troubling to me only in this regard: They come with zero evidence, just assertions.

I welcome healthy debate, as we all should welcome it. I do not welcome the ugliness that crept into it long ago and which persists to the detriment of what many of us want for our city.

Can’t we get a do-over?

Paul Burka apparently came out of retirement — perhaps just briefly — to write this scathing critique for TexasMonthly.com of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/ken-paxton-problem#.VZaoXwXb5tI.twitter

To sum up Burka’s analysis: Paxton’s public service career has been totally without accomplishment, yet he won the race for AG this past year because the state’s current TEA party golden boy, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, endorsed him.

Now the AG is facing a possible criminal indictment in his hometown of McKinney. A special prosecutor is going to take a complaint of securities fraud to a Collin County grand jury. If the attorney general is indicted, what happens then?

Burka noted that a Texas Monthly colleague asked Gov. Greg Abbott that question, and the government couldn’t/wouldn’t answer.

This appears to be one of those times when Texas voters should ask for a do-over from the most recent election.

I know it’s not possible, but I can wish for it anyway … can’t I?

 

Can politics drive a no-bill?

Let’s play out a possible drama that’s developing down yonder in Collin County.

The state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, is being investigated for securities fraud. He admitted to doing something illegal while he was running for AG. He got elected anyway. Paxton has acknowledged that he steered investment clients to a friend without reporting it to the state. There could be a felony indictment in Paxton’s future … or perhaps not.

A special prosecutor has been named and he is likely going to seek an indictment from a grand jury in Collin County, which Paxton represented in the Texas House of Representatives before being elected to the statewide office. Paxton says, not surprisingly, that “politics” is driving this investigation.

So, would “politics” result in the grand jury deciding against an indictment of the Republican AG, given that Collin County also is a heavily GOP county?

I ask only because of the furor that erupted when a Travis County grand jury indicted then-Gov. Rick Perry last year on abuse of power and coercion charges. Travis County is a reliably Democratic part of the state; Perry, of course, is a Republican. The governor accused the grand jury — and the special prosecutor, who also is a Republican, by the way — of political motivation.

Does this politicization allegation work in reverse?

I’m just askin’.

Hold on for bumpy ride at City Hall

My cell phone rang this morning. I answered it and on the other end was a friend of mine who works at Amarillo City Hall.

We chatted for a few moments about some blogs I’d written about the new City Council makeup, the potential fate of City Manager Jarrett Atkinson and a few other things.

I told my friend, “I don’t feel good about what I’m seeing happening at City Hall.”

My friend answered, “It’s going to get a bit bumpy around here.”

My final response to my friend was to “keep your head down.”

Later in the day, I visited with another friend who recalled when he first came to Amarillo, one of the things he had heard about city government was “how well everyone worked together.” He talked of the espirit de corps that existed among city leaders, the business community and just plain folks.

Is all of that gone now that we have a new City Council comprising three new guys who campaigned for “change”?

Three new council members have taken their oath and two of them have called for the resignation of the city manager, whose status will be the subject of a City Council meeting next Tuesday.

The stakes, though, go far beyond the fate of one man. Jarrett Atkinson might survive this tempest. If he does, then he’ll have a majority of the council — if not all five of them — watching his every move.

If he doesn’t survive, if he quits or is let go, what happens then to the grand plan that’s already begun its forward movement? The effort to revive downtown already has begun.

The Coca-Cola distribution center has been vacated to make room for construction of that multipurpose event venue; Xcel Energy has broken ground on its new office complex; the block that used to house the city jail has been cleared away to accommodate construction of a convention hotel.

Do we really and truly have the stomach to see all of the hard work that went into this proposal tossed aside?

If the need arises and we need to look for a city manager, the process is going to take months — perhaps many months. Is anyone going to rise up from within the ranks to take the job? You can stop laughing. I get it. Of course not.

My friend was trying to be diplomatic with the description of a “bumpy” ride coming up.

We’d all better hold on with both hands.

Oh, and that spirit of cooperation? Well, that’s a goner, too. I do not object to healthy dissent and debate — along with constructive criticism. I fear the potential for a City Hall donnybrook.

AG Paxton faces possible felony indictment

Do you ever wonder why people vote for political candidates who actually admit to doing something that could get them into serious legal trouble?

How did Texans, therefore, manage to elect a state attorney general — Ken Paxton of McKinney — who had acknowledged he solicited investment clients for a friend without giving the state proper notification?

It’s called “securities fraud.” It’s a serious deal. A Collin County grand jury is going to decide — maybe soon — whether to indict the state’s top lawyer on charges that he committed a felony.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/01/potential-case-against-paxton-appears-grow-serious/

Now, before you get your underwear all knotted up, let’s understand a couple of things.

Paxton is a Republican. Collin County is a heavily Republican county north of Dallas. A special prosecutor — ostensibly an independent-thinking individual — has been brought in to present the case against Paxton, a former state representative from McKinney.

This really and truly isn’t the partisan witch hunt that’s been alleged in Travis County, where another grand jury indicted then-Gov. Rick Perry of abuse of power and coercion of a public official.

No. This case ought to smell differently to those critics.

The most damaging element of this probe would seem to be Paxton’s own acknowledgment that he did something wrong.

And on top of all of that, he’s hired a high-powered former federal judge, Joe Kendall of Dallas, to represent him.

I don’t know what that tells you, but it tells me that Paxton thinks there might be something upon which the grand jury would indict him. He’s going to need the best legal help he can get.

Getting back to my initial question, given that all this was known prior to the election this past November: How in the world did Texans elect this guy?

 

This man embodied greatness

Nicholas Winton lived 106 years on this Earth.

And for part of that long and glorious life, he managed to do something so astonishing it boggles the mind. He saved the lives of 669 children from death at the hands of the Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/europe/nicholas-winton-obituary/

Queen Elizabeth knighted Sir Nicholas in 2003 for the deed he performed during the late 1930s. He had been to Czechoslovakia and had seen the threat being posed to Jews throughout Europe. Many of them were children who were certain to die at the hands of the Nazi monsters.

He went home to Great Britain and set about to organize the systematic evacuation of those children. He saved their lives, giving them a chance to grow to adulthood and bring families of their own into this world.

His modesty was legendary. He hardly ever spoke about what he had done. “60 Minutes” profiled him a couple of years ago. And in the segment, the news show broadcast a reunion he had with dozens of the people he had saved. He sat among them at a gathering, not knowing these middle-aged individuals were children who owed their very lives to this humble stockbroker.

When they stood up — surrounding him — to recognize what he had done and to thank him publicly, this giant of humanity wept.

Sir Nicholas died today.

As British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “The world has lost a great man.”

Watch this video and you get a look at true, unvarnished greatness.

Has a Hillary alternative arrived … finally?

Count me as one who welcomes the entry of Jim Webb into the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

It might be his military experience, although as an Army veteran myself, I cringe — good naturedly, of course — at the idea of a Marine running for president of the United States.

Perhaps it is the fact that he has executive experience running the Department of the Navy.

Maybe it’s his understanding — gained through his experience serving in Vietnam — of the trials and fears of the young men and women we send into combat.

Hey, it might even be that he served in a Republican administration, which gives him an appreciation of the need to reach across to those on the other side of the political aisle.

Webb jumped into the race today. He’s now the fifth Democrat to declare.

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/former-virginia-sen-jim-webb-announces-candidacy-123048280886.html

Yes, he frontrunner remains Hillary Rodham Clinton, who’s no slouch herself in the realm of government experience.

The other three are running to the left of HRC, led by avowed “Democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders. Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee are seeking to join Sanders on the fringe left edge of their party.

Meanwhile, Webb — a former U.S. senator from Virginia — is camped out squarely in the middle.

Still, it well might be that Webb’s own military experience in combat during the Vietnam War has prepared him to avoid future blunders abroad. “I warned in writing five months before that (Iraq)  invasion that we do not belong as an occupying power in that part of the world, and that this invasion would be a strategic blunder of historic proportions, empowering Iran and in the long run China, unleashing sectarian violence inside Iraq and turning our troops into terrorist targets,” he said in announcing his presidential campaign.

Does he have a chance of derailing the HRC express? Maybe, to borrow a phrase, a puncher’s chance.

But I’m glad he’s in.

 

Are we clear now on downtown plans?

Well, that explains it, correct?

Amarillo officials teamed up with business and civic leaders to go through downtown’s revival plans in minute detail. They explained a lot, answered questions, heard gripes and compliments. Roughly 300 residents gathered at the Civic Center’s Heritage Room to hear it all.

End of debate? Not even close.

Now, for the record, I wasn’t one of the attendees; work commitments kept me from going downtown to hear the pitch and to watch the reaction. I cannot comment specifically on the details of the hearing. Having stipulated all of that, I’ll now tell you that I continue to scratch my head over this notion that the city is somehow conducting all this stuff in secret.

I’ve looked at some of the online comments posted on Amarillo.com; I still am amazed.

The downtown project needs a couple of starters to keep it going. One of them is that multipurpose events venue, aka MPEV and/or “the ballpark.” Without the MPEV, there likely will be no downtown hotel, which would be built and operated by a Dallas-based hotelier. Without the hotel and the MPEV, there’s no parking garage.

The project would be done.

And yet …

Some folks in high places think the MPEV is a bad idea. They’ve dislike the notion of building a convention hotel downtown without first expanding the Civic Center to make it more conducive to conventions they say are going to other cities.

Weaving through all of this is this notion that the city has done things under cover. They’ve kept vital information from the public.

From what I have heard about the daylong public meeting Wednesday at the Civic Center, nothing of the sort can be validated. Yet the cynics out there — as illustrated by some of those online comments — keep insisting the meeting was a put-up job, meant to paper over the “real issues” relating to the downtown development proposals.

The project was estimated originally to cost $113 million — give or take a few hundred thousand bucks. I understand it’s been reduced to around $92 million. It’ll be financed by private investors, who’ve been given tax inducements from city and county governments. The city will put hotel-motel tax revenue to work in helping finance the project.

Oh, and let me add as well that the tax revenue in question comes from people who come here to, uh let me think, attend conventions or other entertainment-related events.

Those tax inducements? They involve tax abatements, contrary to what one leading local — and vocal — businessman, Craig Gualtiere, said recently, do work. They actually do provide incentives for business to come to communities, set up shop, build things, hire people and provide whatever service they are in business to provide. OK, so we exempt those businesses from paying property taxes for a few years. Then they join the tax rolls. Amarillo is not creating a new invention with this device; it’s been tried and proven all across the nation.

Yes, one can overdue tax abatements, but do you really think city and county officials are unaware of that risk?

So here we are. The community has heard from the downtown redevelopment brain trust.

Let’s proceed.

Council member makes waves right off the top

Mark Nair might not like being called this, but he’s turned into a rabble-rouser.

The newest member of the Amarillo City Council stirred ’em up this week with a call for City Manager Jarrett Atkinson to resign. He did so just after he took his oath of office. He took his seat on the council, participated in a public meeting — then tossed the grenade right into the public’s lap.

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/29455295/what-do-potential-resignations-mean-for-downtown-development

This is not the fellow I understood was running for a spot on the council. His friends and allies call him thoughtful and deliberative. Yes, he said he sought “change” at City Hall. I recall reading a news report immediately after he won the runoff for the Place 4 seat on June 13 in which he said he didn’t even know Atkinson, but that he looked forward to seeking answers to key questions about the way the city administration is run.

OK, then. He takes the oath and immediately calls for Atkinson’s resignation?

I’ve met Nair once, at a downtown Amarillo coffee shop. He was running for the council. Some friends of mine introduced him to me. We exchanged pleasantries. That’s it.

So, I’m not going to scold Nair too harshly here. I just would caution the young man about the land mines that await him if he becomes too out front on some of this get-rid-of-Atkinson rhetoric without knowing (a) the man about whom he is speaking and (b) all the details of what goes on at the highest levels of city government.

As a council member, he and his colleagues have authority to demand the manager’s resignation. They set the policy and the manager implements it on their — and our — behalf.

However, he’s one of three brand, spanking new members of the City Council. None of them has serious management experience, although Place 1 Councilman Elisha Demerson did serve a single term as Potter County judge — more than 20 years ago!

I was hoping for a go-slow approach when the new council members took office.

My hope has been dashed.

Those agents of change out there are happy, I reckon. Fine. Be happy.

Me? I’m hoping we can maintain some continuity as we move forward and start pondering our careful next steps in this downtown revival effort.