Yesterday we talked about former city manager Mary Suhm and the ill-considered secret side deal she struck many years ago with an energy company to let it drill for gas on city parkland. The deal fell through, and the company, Trinity East Energy, sued the city. Back in 2014, Mayor Mike Rawlings thought the lawsuit was bunk because the low price of gas would have prevented the project from making financial sense. He said, “I believe they were not going to drill because of the business situation and that a game of poker was being played. And the only way they could win is if we folded our hand.”
Welp. We didn’t fold. For a decade we held our cards. This morning we lost the hand. It will cost us $55 million. And we have to borrow the money to pay our legal debt.
Here’s what has me scratching my head: at City Council this morning, they didn’t even discuss the matter before council members voted to pay the money (by issuing a bond). There’s a thing called a “consent agenda” at council meetings. In the interest of running an efficient meeting, that’s where they put all the items that don’t require discussion. For example, this morning the consent agenda included an item to allow a property owner to “install, maintain, and utilize 15 bollards without illumination on a portion of Knox Street right-of-way located near its intersection with McKinney Avenue”; a one-time fee for the bollards will bring the city $100.
Lumped in with that matter concerning 15 bollards and 100 bucks was the matter of giving away $55 million to a fracking company because a jury agreed with the company’s claim that Mary Suhm (and the city of Dallas) screwed them. No apologies, no regrets, no feet held to fire, no assurances that the city doesn’t do secret deals like that anymore.
Just unanimous agreement and lowered heads and—pffft—$55 million flying out the door.
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