08.01.06 – CorridorWatch.org MEMBER NEWS
Have you seen the Waco and Temple television news coverage?
If not, we have links on CorridorWatch.org – Check It Out!
WACO: http://www.kcentv.com/video/7-24/mon/meeting2_724.wmv

TEMPLE:
http://ww2.kwtx.com/global/video/popup/ ... 4&H1=TXDOT

I was able to watch the first video. It has a computer generated example of the TCC in a clip. Might give you an idea of how big it is. I did not see the second video because the daughter is hogging our download resources.
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Note: The Fort Worth Mayor was a member of the Texas State Legislature, before becoming mayor. He knows how the transportation system in Texas once worked.

Things don't look any better on the Fort Worth side of the Metroplex.

Read what the Ft.Worth Mayor had to say in June:
"TxDOT's understanding of the new CDA approach to road building is that
local branches of government and the Legislature are no longer part of
the process. According to the TxDOT view, once an agreement is made
with a private partner, TxDOT and the provider alone are empowered to
makes decisions concerning road alignments. This is a staggering change
from the way we have historically made these decisions. These projects are
too important to not allow the citizens to participate through their
various voices in government. This is a fundamental issue of the
separation of powers and checks and balances in the system. I have had the
unique honor of serving the citizens of Fort Worth and Tarrant County as
county judge, state senator and now mayor of Fort Worth. What I have
learned through serving in these various capacities is that this
fundamental issue of separation of powers should not so casually be cast aside.
Every level of government has a unique perspective, which serves !
to express the complex voice of our citizenry." - Ft. Worth Mayor Mike
Moncrief (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, June 18, 2006)

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson is proud that they have pushed
the TTC through the legislature quickly and effectively trampling public
input and transportation officials across the state. Read what the
Chairman said:

"The Governor did ask us to move quickly and as I have a personal
relationship with the Governor, I can speak with [for] him in this regard.
Once the Governor decided that this is where we needed to head, he
wanted to remove it from the political flow of the state, he wanted it to
become policy as opposed to politics, and that was one of the reasons he
asked us to move so fast, and we've done an admirable job" - Chairman
Ric Williamson, Texas Transportation Commission meeting (June 27, 2002).

The "political flow of the state" the Governor wants to avoid is the
very process that allows for self-governance. It is the process that
allows the citizens and their representatives to debate public policy and
reach informed decisions through consensus. It is the stuff of which a
democracy in made. -- CorridorWatch.org