Promised Land reality show in Dallas, Texas

Hot off the press!

In 2008, when the city of Dallas first entered into its controversial gas drilling lease deals, City Manager Mary Suhm publicly assured the City Council that she would not support drilling operations on city parkland — even as, days earlier, she privately assured an energy company she would help them win that right.

Dallas city manager acknowledges that her staff added parkland to ’08 drilling lease without City Council’s OK
By Rudolph Bush
Dallas Morning News

Suhm’s says her staff is trying to figure out what happened because they are confused. The city council signed a lease agreement with Trinity East (TE) for drilling on city property but the 22-acre parkland was not part of that agreement. TE wants to build a compressor station and gas processing facility on the parkland.

City Council member Scott Griggs, an attorney who opposes drilling on parkland, said Suhm’s actions were improper and have put the city in a legal gray area. “Our city manager and staff should have brought the lease back to the City Council” if they wanted the 22 acres included in the final lease, he said. Instead, he said, Suhm and her staff appear to have made material changes to the 2008 lease by adding the tract without the council’s authorization. “The issue will be: Is this extra-legal action that was not within the city manager’s authority?” Griggs said. He added that Suhm’s apparent action “complicates issues” because of “the saber-rattling we are hearing from Trinity East” about possible legal action.

There is a lot more to this story… And it is one hell of a story.

Important decisions that would allow heavy industry with their brain melting toxins into our neighborhoods are in the hands of people who, pick one:

• have compromised ethics
• poor judgment
• are not too bright
• all of the above