Our View: A drought of ethics at water district

Contracts should go to the lowest bidder - at least that's the rule of law under which cities and other local governments operate.

[Andy K]

I would agree with you on the particular case you described due to many factors. Your comment that "contracts should go to the lowest bidder" in my opinion is not appropriate for a city or the private sector. Many factors should be considered such as experience, evaulation of prior similar jobs, financial stability of the contractor, reputation and many other factors. If that is your belief as stated above its no wonder that our public sector is going broke.

[Old Water Buffalo]

If Upper District went away, most of us wouldn't notice.

[Sheesh]

Old Water Buffalo wrote:

If Upper District went away, most of us wouldn't notice.

Actually, you would when the water from your tap stopped flowing.
Are contracts for relavatives shady? Yes

Is getting rid of a water district a smart response to a bad practice? No.

Go sit in the back of the classroom while the adults try to solve the problem little boy.

[Journalistic Charade]

Friday's Tribune Water District Editorial is proof the Trib has gone tabloid. They throw journalistic balance and ethics out the window in their eagerness to get district board president Contreras.
The 'virtuous' Trevino-Fellow duo, board-members lauded in the editorial, wasted $200,000 plus in public funds at the very same meeting reported upon in the Trib's screed by refusing to grant construction contracts to the lowest qualified bidder. Instead construction contractor Montgomery-Watson was the beneficiary of the District largess. Pay back will come as usual as political contributions, when this virtuous duo runs for re-election in the next years. The public interest get sold-out for pennies on the dollars. The Tribune stands dumb and mute since they can't find their voice to report this abuse.
But its worse. The real motive behind the editorial: Contreras won't support the 125,000 annual grant for the Tribunes advertising contract unlike the past many years.

Fellow-Trevino also support wasting a million dollars on a brand new tax dollar wasting board room, funds which could better be used for mitigating current ground water supply reliability problems. Note that the ground water is hitting record low levels every month now. And this problem will eventually impact almost all valley water bill rate-payers. Fellow-Trevino don't appear to care, they just want an unnecessary new boardroom and fancy new chairs probably.

Sure the Upper Districts recent policy actions stink plenty. But the Tribune only shares one half of the truth or maybe even one third of the truth with the public.

The Trib doesn't disclose that they are waiting in line for water district money as well. They are pissed and are trying hard to stop Contreras. Ethical journalism is dead. The poor public can't even get a small bit of the truth. What a charade!

[Journalistic Charade]

Friday's Tribune Water District Editorial is proof the Trib has gone tabloid. They throw journalistic balance and ethics out the window in their eagerness to get district board president Contreras.
The 'virtuous Trevin*-Fellow duo, board-members lauded in the editorial, wasted $200,000 plus in public funds at the very same meeting reported upon in the Trib's screed by refusing to grant construction contracts to the lowest qualified bidder. Instead construction contractor Montgomery-Watson was the beneficiary of the District largess. Pay back will come as usual as political contributions, when this virtuous duo runs for re-election in the next years. The public interest gets sold-out for pennies on the dollars. The Tribune stands dumb and mute since they can't find their voice to report this abuse.
But its worse. The real motive behind the editorial: Contreras won't support the 125,000 annual grant for the Tribunes advertising contract unlike the past many years.

Fellow-Trevin* also support wasting a million dollars on a brand new tax dollar wasting board room, funds which could better be used for mitigating current ground water supply reliability problems. Note that the ground water is hitting record low levels every month now. And this problem will eventually impact almost all valley water bill rate-payers. Fellow-Trevin* don't appear to care, they just want an unnecessary new boardroom and fancy new chairs probably.

Sure the Upper Districts recent policy actions stink plenty. But the Tribune only shares one half of the truth or maybe even one third of the truth with the public.

The Trib doesn't disclose that they are waiting in line for water district money as well. They are p*ssed because they can't get the money (largess they've grown to depend upon) and are trying hard to stop Contreras. Ethical journalism is dead. The poor public can't even get a small bit of the truth. What a charade!