Here’s a long, but interesting item from Dallasblog concerning what appears to be a rather cozy relationship between the pro-tollroad people and some city of Dallas people. Channel 11 did a piece on some of the same information last night, too. Sam Merten has done a good job of sifting through a lot of paperwork and asking some questions that need to be asked.
I will say that Rebecca Dugger, the city’s Trinity project director, was helpful and appeared to be honest with us while we were researching our Trinity package. Dugger is a big Texas Rangers fan, and she for years has been in a group of season-ticket buyers with me, so I know her a little bit from that; I’ve always liked and respected her, and I don’t completely buy the "puppet of Trinity Commons" implications implied by Dallasblog’s piece. She’s in a tough spot as a city employee tasked with leading the Trinity issue but surrounded by politicos who unanimously believe the tollroad is the only way to go and who I’m sure use her as a gopher/resource pretty frequently. There were a few times we had to press a question a bit to make sure we received an answer that we could use, as opposed to a general answer that didn’t address the question, but without fail, Dugger gave us what we asked for promptly, didn’t dodge anything and answered questions in an honest manner that didn’t always help the pro-tollroad case.
