Politex

Davis re-states intention to run for Senate

   In a TV interview that aired Sunday, Sen. Wendy Davis said she has no plans to run for governor in 2014 and restated her intentions to seek another term in the Senate next year.

   The Fort Worth Democrat's comments on Austin's KXAN repeated what she told the Star-Telegram in January.   Davis, who has been frequently mentioned as a potential Democratic contender for governor, immediately focused on being re-elected to the Senate after she drew a two-year term in the Senate.

    The drawing for either two- or four-year-terms is a constitutionally mandated Senate ritual that occurs after once-a-decade redistricting, when all 31 senators start in newly drawn districts.

    "I am running for my Senate district in 2014 and...hopefully earning the confidence of my community once again, and being re-elected to that seat," Davis said on Sunday's edition of KXAN's In Session, In-Depth.

    A story by KXAN staffer John Moritz, a former Star-Telegram correspondent, said the interview was conducted last week in the back lobby of the Senate.  She was interviewed by KXAN correspondent Josh Hinkle, who moderates the station's Sunday political program on the Legislature.

    Davis, who survived a fierce re-election battle against former State Rep. Mark Shelton of Fort Worth in 2012, has continually been touted as a rising Democratic star.  She was one of two senators to vote against a Senate version of the proposed state budget on March 20 and has gained widening attention for attempting to restore Republican-led eduction cuts imposed by the 2011 Legislature.

    "If I'm in the spotlight for supporting public education, I'm very proud to be there," she told Hinkle.         Davis was also asked how she thinks Democrats will fare in upcoming statewide races.

  "I don't know," she responded.  "Too soon to tell at this point but I do think there's certainly some concern about some of the partisan policies that we've seen from Republican leadership here in this state."

    Those policies, she said, have had a "discriminatory impact on our  Latino population."  She also criticized Republicans for "not supporting fully the investment in the most important capital we have - our human capital."

-- Dave Montgomery

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/01/23/4570662/davis-hancock-draw-short-terms.html#storylink=cpy

 

Fort Worth's water task force to hold first meeting as city considers outsourcing service

The first meeting of Fort Worth’s water utility task force, appointed by Mayor Betsy Price and the City Council to look into the feasibility of privatizing parts of the city’s water and wastewater services, will be 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday in pre-council chambers at City Hall.

The task force is chaired by Freese and Nichols CEO Bob Pence. Other members: Lairy Johnson, of major water user Miller Brewing Co.; Marty Leonard, representing the Tarrant Regional Water District; engineer Raul Pena; former city development director Bob Riley; former assistant city manager Vernell Sturns; Cantey Hanger environmental attorney Sarah Walls; former assistant city manager Libby Watson; and former City Councilman Jeff Wentworth.

The City Council on March 5 approved a $328,622 contract with EMA Inc. to study the city’s operations and develop and manage the process of soliciting interest from potential private providers. The council also named the task force at the same meeting.

The city department is already operating at a high level of efficiency, Fernando Costa, assistant city manager, told council members at the March meeting (See video). EMA, in a 2010 study of Fort Worth, found there were “significant opportunities to realize greater efficiency” in only 5 percent of the department’s budget, Costa said.

The median among comparable departments nationally was 25 percent, he said.

“This study is not about any large-scale inefficiencies in the water department,” Costa told the council. “We have a great deal of confidence in the water department. It’s running very, very well, but, as always, we want to make sure that we pursue any opportunities that we might find for greater efficiency.”

Of the department’s $201.1 million operations and maintenance budget, $20.4 million is now outsourced to private providers.

Those services include sewage treatment in far North and East Fort Worth; operation and maintenance of energy generation facilities; residential meter reading; bill production and mailing; large-diameter sewer pipe clearance and condition assessment; industrial, commercial and institutional water use audits; root eradication services; and pump and motor maintenance.

Potential partnerships could involve long-term lease of infrastructure, service provision, and upfront payment or debt reduction, Costa told the council.

“We do not anticipate under any conditions that would involve the sale or transfer of infrastructure,” Costa said. “We’re not talking about selling the water system.”

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth arts funding task force finishes work, focuses on gas well revenues

Here's today's Star-Telegram print story on the final recommendations from Fort Worth's arts funding task force.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth taking long look at possible jail partnership with Tarrant County

Fort Worth expects to take another six months' look at a possible jail partnership with Tarrant County, and will likely let its contract with Mansfield renew for another year, Police Chief Jeff Halstead said Tuesday.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth trying to figure out what to do with NBC 5 site in West Meadowbrook

The city is having a Thursday night meeting with Meadowbrook residents regarding the future of NBC 5's scenic site, which Fort Worth is receiving in trade as part of an incentive agreement keeping the station in Fort Worth when it moves to CentrePort. One possibility: Police department offices.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth's Thistle Hill getting new food truck park beginning May 1

Fort Worth's newest food truck park is coming to the historic Thistle Hill on the Near South Side beginning May 1. (The date was announced as April 1 during today's City Council meeting, but Thistle Hill says it's May 1.)

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth, police officers association sign off on four-year contract

The Fort Worth City Council approved a four-year contract today with the Fort Worth Police Officers Association.

Then at 1 p.m. in Pre-Council Chambers at City Hall, POA president Steve Hall, Mayor Betsy Price, City Manager Tom Higgins, and Assistant City Manager Susan Alanis, who took the city's lead in the contract talks, (left to right in top picture) met to sign the agreement, shake hands, and pose for pictures.

"And we survived it all, and we're still speaking," Price joked with Hall after the signing.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth City Council considers police contract Tuesday

City Council members look like they're ready to approve the new four-year police contract.

Here's the summary on the council agenda.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth considers shifting Z Boaz mini golf course rent to park improvements

UPDATE: The City Council approved this at its Tuesday meeting.

The Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday will consider shifting the rents paid by a Putt-Putt mini golf complex on Z Boaz park property to help pay for future improvements at the park.

The Putt-Putt has operated since 1990 on part of the park property that was the city-owned Z Boaz Golf Course until last September, when the city closed the golf course and re-opened it as a park. Putt-Putt lease revenue, $45,000 for the current fiscal year, has been used as general revenue in the city's golf enterprise fund.

The city is trying to squeeze parks projects into the upcoming 2014 bond package, but funding for improvements at Z Boaz may on the outside looking in. Here's a full list of unfunded parks projects on Fort Worth's five-year wish list.  Here's what's in the Z Boaz park master plan.

- Scott Nisnimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Frozen meats coming to Fort Worth farmers markets

Coming soon to the Fort Worth farmers markets near you: frozen meats, cheeses, yard eggs, and baked goods.

The City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to broaden the list of items that can be sold at farmers markets to include those items, most notably frozen meats, long demanded by consumers.

The old ordinance allowed only whole fruits and produce. The city has previously permitted certain foods considered less potentially hazardous - eggs, breads, and hard cheeses - by exception. The new ordinance allows those foods, including all cheeses, in. And it slashes fees.

The city wanted to accede to consumer desires, acknowledge the growing popularity of urban markets, and help pass along the benefits of direct-from-farm foods, while maintaining health protections, Scott Hanlan, an assistant code compliance director for the city, said.

Besides being frozen, for example, meat products must “come from an approved source,” Hanlan said. “We will have to see that the state or USDA approved those products and has that stamp on it before it can be sold here.”

Instead of $175 for a six-month temporary permit, the new ordinance includes a $175 annual permit for farmers market vendors.

The city will conduct periodic inspections of the permitted vendors to ensure they’re maintaining property temperatures and foods have the appropriate packaging, Hanlan said.

“We really think it’s going to be a wash,” Hanlan said of the costs of conducting the inspections compared to the fee revenue.

The new ordinance will likely take effect in the next few weeks, ahead of the Spring season for the markets, Hanlan said.

Gwin Grimes, president of the group that runs the Cowtown Farmers Market at the Benbrook Traffic Circle and outside the Federal Building downtown, said the ordinance changes should increase sellers and customer traffic and help spawn new businesses.

“Farmers markets forever have been an incubator for food-based businesses,” said Grimes, owner of the Artisan Baking Co. in Fort Worth.

Allowing frozen meat addresses the biggest demand of consumers, particularly given that other cities around Fort Worth allow frozen meats to be sold at their markets, Grimes said.

“That is the one question we get every week: Why don’t you have any meat vendors?” she said.

The ordinance bars the resale of foods from retailers and wholesalers. That means frozen meats would be coming from the rancher, Grimes said.

The ordinance still bars farmers market vendors from selling foods considered of high risk, including raw milk, raw fish, and other seafood.

Besides the Cowtown Farmers Market, Fort Worth has two other farmers markets: the Tarrant County Public Health Farmers Market at 1101 S. Main St., and the Southside Urban Farmers Market at 106 E. Daggett Ave.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura