All the Gory Details

*** Draft for Discussion ***

Version 1.6

as of 8/11/2022

an opinion piece

by Joe Carter

Stephenville Citizen and Taxpayer

contact: carter@SeniorsTree.org

[Editor’s Note: Due to the overt lack of transparency by the Stephenville City Council, it has been extremely difficult to get information about the Senior Center / Council Chambers construction project. The following represents our best efforts at getting information about the project. Before this website was released to the general public, we gave the City Council exclusive access so they could suggest corrections and clear up any misunderstandings on our part. They chose to not comment. If the Council becomes more transparent and provides additional details that change our opinions, we’ll gladly revise this piece to reflect the changes.]

In the Tom Hanks movie News of the World, Hanks’ character Captain Jefferson Kidd travels around Texas in 1870 narrating the latest newspapers to the news-starved inhabitants. When he reaches Erath County, Kidd is forced to read the local news published by the local strongman Mr. Farley, and nothing but that news. The movie depicts Erath County inaccurately as a hellhole under the bullying domination of its leader Mr. Farley, an early practitioner of the fine art of fake news. Who would've thought that a fictional Hollywood dramatization would actually contain some relevance to real-life events playing out today in Stephenville Texas, the county seat of Erath County?  As I’ll describe in detail below, some of the movers and shakers of Stephenville appear to have been manipulating information to pull a fast one on those of us who aren’t insiders. 

If Captain Jefferson Kidd had been a real life character passing through Stephenville in 1870, it’s possible that he would have read the news to the populace under the shade of a huge live oak tree that still stands near the banks of the Bosque River on North Vine Street. The tree would have been near the epicenter of the early settlement.  At approximately 250 to 400 years old today, the tree would have been a large mature shade tree in 1870. Today, it’s even more huge with a circumference over 16.5 feet, a diameter over 64 inches and a shade canopy over one hundred feet. It's perhap 4 to 5 times as old as our most senior living human citizens. It could well be the most senior living thing in the city.  The fact that it's been standing in that spot since the first settlers arrived is a testament to the early settlers' appreciation of its shade and beauty. Even though it occupied valuable real estate near the center of the settlement, early inhabitants chose to let it live rather than sacrifice it in exchange for buildings or prime cropland. Unfortunately, the Establishment leaders of current-day Stephenville aren’t nearly so wise.

Unlike many other heritage oaks in Texas, the tree on Vine Street doesn’t have a name. For the sake of this discussion, let’s call it The Stephenville Seniors' Tree. We’ve chosen to call it the Seniors’ Tree because it’s ultimately up to our local community of senior citizens to decide its fate. At present, it is being sacrificed on their behalf by the City Council.  They are ultimately the only force in the city who can stand up to the City Council and tell our city leaders that they don’t wish to trade the tree for some quilting classes and bingo games. The price is too high, especially since there are other low cost alternative locations for the new Senior Center. These alternate locations would be better suited to meet the Seniors’ needs. even if the Seniors’ Tree wasn’t taken into account. We’ll discuss the reasons why the alternates are better suited further down in this discussion. 

 As I write this, the Seniors' Tree is fighting for its life. Due to the shortsightedness of city leaders and influential Stephenville insiders, a major construction project for a new Senior Center is underway over the root system of the tree. Every day that passes brings it closer to the point of no return. Concerned citizens need to act fast to prevent its ultimate demise. How this state of affairs came to pass is a sordid tale. I’ll describe it below. 

I’ll pick up the story with recent history. Stephenville has long had an active, vibrant community of senior citizens who love doing things as a group. For many years, the center of their activity has been the Senior Citizen’s Center on East College Street. That building has a bad roof, an uneven floor and many other problems. Experts say further patching and upgrading is not a good use of funds. In short, the seniors need a new building. Accordingly, a bond issue to remedy the problem was placed before the voters in May 2021.  A new senior center was to be included in a multi-purpose complex that also included a library and a recreation center. Unfortunately, the bond measure failed. 

Undaunted by the failed bond measure, city leaders continued to search for a solution to the Senior Citizen Center problem. Many of the seniors who frequent the old facility provided feedback that they had not been comfortable with the multi-use building anyway. They wanted their own separate facility where they didn’t have to compete for parking and be jostled around in large crowds.  The city leaders took this constructive feedback into account and made plans for a stand-alone senior center building. They located a million dollars of excess sales tax revenue and they inventoried city-owned real estate.  They even identified an unused building that could be torn down to supply structural steel for a new building. They began working with a builder to meld these resources into a solution for the seniors. At a special called meeting on September 30, 2021, they announced the plan. The following was recorded in the Stephenville Senior Citizen Center Advisory Board (SSCCAB) meeting minutes: 

“FACILITY DISCUSSION: Chairperson Smith asked Daron Trussell, Chair of the Parks & Leisure Services Committee, to begin the discussion. He and Councilman Thurman proceeded to give information on the proposed new senior center, saying the City Council has a One-million-dollar budget and is working with Jim Burgeon of Rocky Creek Builders. An artist’s rendition of the front and back of the building as well as a diagram of the floor plan was given to each person in attendance. Councilman Trussell continued by saying steel from a building being torn down at the Airport can be reused for this facility, reducing the cost to the city. The new building will be located to the right at the end of East Tarleton Street.  {Emphasis added} The back of the building will face the Bosque River Trail and be near the Stephenville Historical Museum on land already owned by the city, the front would face west. There will be parking at the front of the building with other parking area in consideration. The building will be approximately 4500 sq. ft. with a lobby, lounge, office, one large classroom, one smaller classroom, kitchen area, ladies and men’s restrooms and storage. Both classrooms will have partition availability to reduce or enlarge their size. The flooring is planned to be polished concrete or luxury vinyl. A fenced back yard and/or a fireplace for the patio are alternate ideas. Board member Debby Watson suggested an outside storage building, which Councilmen said could be considered. “

Further down in the minutes, we find this item:

“The City Council will vote on this proposal at 5:30 p.m. October 4, 2021. Bids will be called for to receive the best value. It is hoped construction can begin by the Spring of 2022.”

To review the complete minutes of the September 30, 2021 meeting for yourself, click on this link.

So far, so good. The city leaders had shown great initiative and creativity in putting this plan together for the seniors. The seniors had their own separate facility that met their desires. All incentives were in alignment and everyone’s motivations were commendable. Then the funny stuff started. 

Per the minutes of the September 30, 2021 SSCCAB meeting, the plan to build the new Senior Center on E. Tarleton Street was supposed to be voted on in the October 4, 2021 Council meeting. That meeting came and went with no vote on the matter. To review the complete minutes of the October 4, 2021 meeting for yourself, click on this link.

At some point, the plan went through major changes. The location was moved from Tarleton Street to Vine Street. The building went from a dedicated seniors’ facility to a combination senior center / city council chambers / private party rental facility. The building increased in size from 4500 square feet to 5700 square feet. The price tag went up by $180,000. The parking plan changed from easy-access front door parking to 8 parking spaces near the front door and 25 spaces in a side lot.. 

Here’s the entry in the November 9, 2021 SSCCAB meeting notes announcing the major revisions to the plans for the facility:

“Darron [sic] Trussell clarified the new location for the new Senior Center. He reported that the RRQ [sic] was due today (11/9/2021) by 2:00 p.m.  Elizabeth Johnson requested that updates on the progress of the new Senior Center be added to each month’s agenda.”

The differences between the two sets of meeting minutes are palpable. The Sept 30, 2021 minutes contain a detailed description of the plans for the new Senior Center. The Nov 9, 2021 minutes contain literally no details, including the most important detail of all, its new location on Vine Street.  The ostensible purpose of the entry in the minutes was to “clarify the new location.” OK, so what’s the new location?  Whoever recorded the minutes almost surely left that information out on purpose. If this was an isolated incident, we could write it off as mere incompetence, but it wasn’t isolated. 

Following is another flagrant example of the information blackout. The following is an excerpt from the agenda for the January 4, 2022 City Council Meeting: 

REGULAR AGENDA

• 2. PUBLIC HEARING

• The City Council of the City of Stephenville is Considering the Voluntary Annexation of a Property in Response to a Petition Requesting Annexation by Area Landowners for a Tract of Land, being 5.339 Acres out of A804 of the Williams Survey, said Property Being Parcel No. R77375, Located at 0 N US 281 in Erath County, Texas

  • 2021.12.14 Petition.pdf (1.23 MB)

• 3.Consider Approval of an Ordinance Annexing 5.339 Acres out of A804 of the Williams Survey, Erath County, Texas, said Property Being Parcel No. R77375, Located at 0 N US 281

  • 2022-O-01 Voluntary Annexation Full.pdf (1.81 MB)

• 4.Consider Acceptance of a Request for Proposal for Construction of a New Senior Citizen Center

There were 3 items on the regular agenda for that night’s meeting. Item 4 on the agenda concerned the new Senior Center. Items 2 and 3 concerned other items before the Council that night. Note that for the first 2 items, there are links to attachments that provide details on the item to be discussed. For the last item having to do with the Senior Citizen Center, zilch.  

The Council was approving an expenditure of over $1.1 million in taxpayer money that night, but they and the citizens didn’t need any details? Neither the Request for Proposal nor the builder’s bid was attached for review. Excluding presentations and recognitions, there were 10 business matters in total on the Council’s agenda that night. 9 of the 10 had attachments that provided further details to the Council and the public. Only the Senior Citizen Center item did not have an attachment.

The new Senior Center is next mentioned as an agenda item in the January 11, 2022 meeting of the SSCCAB:

“2. Discussion of New Senior Center”

There are, as of today, no minutes in the record for this meeting. Whatever was discussed at this meeting is a blank as far as the public is concerned.

Further, if you review the entire public record from the initial announcement on September 30, 2021 until the start of construction on May 3, 2022, you won’t find reference to the new Vine Street location. There have been 2 news articles on the new Senior Center, multiple Senior Citizen Center Advisory Board (SSCCAB) meetings and multiple City Council meetings. Nowhere is the new location mentioned in the public record. In addition, the construction company hired by the city failed to post legally required notices at the site in advance of construction as required by law under penalty of daily fines.

Based on the available information in the public record anyone not in the Stephenville insider group would be justified in assuming that the location was still on E. Tarleton Street. Somehow a near complete blackout on information about the N. Vine Street location was achieved. 

In addition to the information blackout, the entire process the City Council followed appears to violate basic rules of order for conducting city business. The normal process on a million dollar taxpayer-funded building project would be for the City Council to vote on the matter before tendering a Request for Quote (RFQ). Then the RFQ would go out and the Council would vote again to accept or decline the winning bid. In the September 30, 2021 SSCCAB meeting notes Councilman Trussell is quoted as saying,

“The City Council will vote on this proposal at 5:30 p.m. October 4, 2021. Bids will be called for to receive the best value. It is hoped construction can begin by the Spring of 2022.”

Per the meeting minutes, the October 4, 2021 City Council meeting came and went with no vote on the matter. Judging from the City Council meeting minutes, the vote to approve tendering an RFQ for the Senior Center project never happened. The next we hear of it is in the minutes for the SSCCAB meeting on October 12, 2021:

“V. New Senior Center — Daron Trussell reported that Mr. Barnes, the City Manager would be posting a Request for Quote (RFQ) for the new Senior Center.”

So the RFQ evidently was sent out for bids without the Council ever voting to do so.

The Request for Quote contained the following description of the construction project:

“SCOPE: … The new Center will be located at an address to be determined later, but located near the intersection of Tarleton Street at Vine Street, Stephenville, Texas 76401. … The building is expected to be approximately 4400 square feet of floorspace along with parking area and back patio area.

…

“ESTIMATED BUDGET: The final Senior Citizen Center design and construction must fall within the budget established by the city. This budget will not exceed $1,000,000. “

Note that the wording appears to purposefully obfuscate the true location of the building project which is actually near the center of the 200 block of N. Vine rather than at the Tarleton intersection.

The next we hear of the RFQ, a bid is rejected during a special City Council meeting on November 16, 2021 because it exceeded the $1 million budget.

The next we hear of it, the city accepts a bid without competitors on January 4, 2022. The accepted RFQ posted on the City’s website at this link contains all the same wording as above with respect to location, square footage and budget. The meeting minutes provide no details, but we understand from other sources that the winning bid was for $1.188 million. We also understand that the building is to be 5700 sq feet and the location is near the middle of the 200 block of N. Vine rather than at the intersection.

In summary, the Council never voted to send out an RFQ for a $1 million, 4400 sq ft building near the intersection of Tarleton and Vine, but they rejected a bid over the $1 million budget that was never voted on, but they subsequently voted to approve a bid for $1.188 million for a 5700 sq foot building near the middle of the 200 block of N. Vine. The voters were never provided any details about any of the backroom antics that went into this mess, even after the vote to approve it.

“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”

— US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

The State of Texas has two “Sunshine Laws” that are designed to prevent backroom dealing and allow citizens to maintain oversight of politicians and government bureaucrats. These laws are the Texas Open Meetings Act and the Texas Public Information Act. Under these laws, politicians and bureaucrats are certainly allowed to deliberate behind the scenes, but major decisions must be made in the light of day. And citizens are supposed to be kept informed.

The Open Meetings Act states that any gathering of a quorum of the members of a public body with the intention of deliberating and deciding on public policy is considered to be an open meeting. The public must be informed about open meetings 72 hours in advance, minutes must be recorded and minutes must be published. Executive sessions can be called within an open meeting, but no final action can be taken during a closed session. Closed sessions must have an agenda and audio of the closed session has to be recorded. If any provisions of this act are violated and action was taken during the illegal meeting, the action can be voided. Violators are subject to judicial review and can be found guilty of a class C misdemeanor which is punishable by fines of $100-$500 and/or jail time between 1 month and 6 months.

One can reasonably assume that a quorum of the City Council would be required to approve sending out an RFQ for a million dollar project. Otherwise, a couple of rogue council members could decide to send out RFQs at random. Did the decisions concerning the Seniors Center project violate the Open Meetings Act?

The question of whether the information blackout on the Senior Center location and the process by which the funding was approved violate the letter of the Sunshine Laws is up to the City Attorney and Texas Attorney General to sort out. There is no doubt they violate the spirit of the laws.

Sidenote to the winning bidder: “A contractor forfeits its right to payment if it performs work knowing that the local government did not follow the public procurement laws.”

Dogs that Don’t Bark

One of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories contains the following exchange between Holmes and a Scotland Yard Detective: 

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

In the Sherlock Holmes mystery a crime had been committed while a watchdog was on duty. The dog had not barked. Holmes drew a conclusion from a fact that did not occur, or for the purpose of this discussion, an expected fact absent from the record. In the case at hand, we have a similarly curious dog-not-barking situation. One could reasonably assume that the new Vine Street location would be mentioned, but at every location you would expect to find it, it is mysteriously absent.

Why do we have total radio silence on the building location? The answer is the Stephenville Seniors' Tree located at 200 North Vine Street in Stephenville.  The tree is a few feet from the planned foundation of the new Senior Center. The new building’s foundation, sidewalks and asphalt parking lot will almost certainly kill the tree by covering and compacting the soil over its root system. They will starve, dehydrate and smother the tree sooner rather than later. If compaction doesn’t kill it outright, pruning may complete the deed. To accommodate the building envelope, the tree will have to be trimmed back significantly on the south and east sides. This pruning will take place during summer, thus exposing the tree to insect pests and oak wilt fungus. 

If the Stephenville public had known these facts in advance of construction, they would have raised objections to the proposed location. Had they known that there are at least 2 other suitable city-owned lots nearby on Tarleton Street and Mason Street, they would have been furious. Had they known that the 2 other sites would be better suited to satisfy the senior citizens’ needs, their fury might have turned to rage at city leaders. Thus the need for secrecy. 

It appears that some members of the Stephenville City Council and other Stephenville insiders purposely withheld information about the Vine Street site and its proximity to the Seniors’ Tree, hoping that the public outcry would come too late to block the project. Once the tree is dead or dying anyway, what’s the point?  The perpetrators will claim the tried-and-true government incompetence defense as in “Oops, we killed the tree. Sorry. How were we supposed to know the tree was going to die? We didn’t cut it down. We’re city council people, not arborists.” 

As we know from the Watergate investigation, the coverup is worse than the crime. Obviously, this is no Watergate in terms of consequences, but the scope of the coverup is even more egregious. It started well before the crime, it shows that the crime was premeditated, it abetted the crime and it involved a large cast of players acting in concert.

To establish guilt, we first need to establish a motive. What are the motives of the players in this murder mystery?

City Council Members’ Motives: 

The city government is short of office space for city staff. Council members saw an opportunity to convert the existing council chambers space into city staff office space if they could move their council chambers into the new Senior Center space.  The only problem was that the original building plan for the Senior Center on Tarleton Street wasn’t large enough to accommodate city council meetings. They had to add another 1200 square feet to the building, increasing its size from 4500 sq feet to 5700 sq feet. 

The larger square footage introduced the further complication that the Tarleton Street parcel wasn’t large enough to accommodate a building that size and a larger parking lot. In order to fit the larger building, they had to move it to city owned property on Vine Street. The Vine Street parcel, while larger, is severely constrained. It is boxed in by the Bosque River floodplain, a narrow residential street, a stormwater drain, a ravine and the Seniors' Tree. The only way to fit a 5700 square foot building on the site is by crowding the tree.  

The Council’s motivation to achieve objectives outside the seniors’ needs is so strong that they’re willing to risk flooding, drainage, foundation and structural issues at the site. The foundation is being built on fill dirt right up to the edge of the Bosque River floodplain. Longtime Vine Street residents have observed the building site and parking lot site underwater multiple times in the past.  The Tarleton Street location, on the other hand, is flat solid ground and is well out of the floodplain.

Subsequent to changing the location from Tarleton St. to Vine St, but before commencing construction, the city traded for another nearby vacant lot that faces Mason Street between N Vine and Floral Street. Further on in this discussion, we’ll outline how this location could be turned into a near perfect solution that beautifully satisfies both the Seniors’ objectives and the City Council’s other objectives. We won’t assume any bad motives for the city’s failure to consider this alternative. It was probably just a case of groupthink and inertia that blinded them to the possibility. 

Stephenville Senior Citizen Center Advisory Board (SSCCAB) Motives: 

The SSCCAB’s motives are hard to fathom. The planned Tarleton Street location provided a facility that served the seniors’ needs well. As of September 9, 2021, it was a fully-funded, self-contained packaged deal that met all of their requirements.  They should have taken it and run with it.  It has easy access paved parking on a flat parcel of land. It’s on a wide street that can be widened further. It would provide the seniors with a facility of their very own that didn’t have to be shared with other parties. On the other hand, the Vine Street location is on a sloped site with only 8 parking spaces near the door. The main parking lot at the location will be unpaved for many months because the city is building a sewer line through it next year. The seniors will have to navigate around the sewer line construction for several months. Vine Street is a narrow 1.5 lane residential street that will be hard for seniors to navigate. It can’t be widened. The other two alternatives are on wide streets that can be widened further if necessary..   

By letting other priorities override the priorities of the seniors, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It also appears that they colluded with City Council members in hiding the location of the Senior Center building adjacent to the Seniors’ Tree. But they could easily redeem themselves by getting behind one of the other two alternative locations. 

Senior Citizens’ Motives: 

We have to assume the motives of our seniors are pure throughout this mess. They want a place under their oversight where they can socialize with old friends and meet new ones. It needs to have easy street access and convenient parking.  They certainly don’t want to have to deal with flooding, building foundation or drainage issues that they are likely to encounter at the Vine Street location. We have to assume their leadership kept them in the dark on these issues. 

Unfortunately, even though they’re not at fault, the seniors will have to bear the brunt of these bad decisions made by others.  As they walk to the front door of a Senior Center built on Vine Street, they’ll see the massive tree dying slowly. Eventually it will become a hazard and have to be cut down. The enormous stump near the front door will be a constant reminder that the city sacrificed a 250 year old tree in perpetuity so they could play bingo. Seven generations of grandchildren have enjoyed the shade of that tree, but theirs never will.  

If they want to keep this crime off their collective conscience and avoid the inconveniences of the Vine Street location, the seniors need to implore city leadership to abandon the Vine Street location and begin construction at the Tarleton Street or Mason Street locations ASAP.

What’s to be done at this point? 

Tom Hanks’ fictional encounter with Erath County in his News of the World movie has little to do with reality in Erath County either today or in 1870, but it does describe our national level politicians and bureaucrats fairly well. Like Mr. Farley and his enforcers in the movie, our federal politicians and bureaucrats are increasingly shown to be lying, incompetent bullies.  While there’s little we can do to fix this problem at the national level in the near term, it’s fully within our power to expeditiously nip it in the bud at the local level. 

The plan to build a Senior Center / Council Chambers / Private Party Facility on Vine Street was arrived at via lying, incompetence and bullying by local players. The players may have started out with good intentions, but the means by which they pursued their ends were clearly lying, incompetence and bullying. The ends can’t be allowed to justify the means. If we reward lying, incompetent bullies by allowing them to proceed with an ill-conceived project, we can expect more lying, incompetence and bullying in the future. You get the behavior you reward. Reward those behaviors and we might as well be the Erath County depicted in the movie. We have to require that city leaders cease work on the current tainted plan and select one of the other 2 alternatives. 

The Mason Street site may well be the best choice for all concerned. It’s a large lot on flat land well outside the Bosque River Floodplain. It has street access from 3 different streets - Floral, Mason and N. Vine. Floral is a wide mixed-use street. Mason and Vine are both narrow at present, but they could be widened near the building if necessary. 

A possible complication with the Mason Street site is that it may not provide sufficient parking space if it’s to be used for large council meetings. If additional parking space is needed, the city can likely obtain the needed parking space in the same way they obtained the Mason Street lot - by trading for it. The city traded land they own near the wastewater treatment plant for the Mason Street property. They can execute a similar trade for a parking lot. Directly east of the city’s Mason Street property is a large flat vacant lot at the south end of N. Vine Street. This lot is owned by private parties. Its potential for residential or commercial development is limited because it borders the Bosque River floodplain, but it would be great as a parking lot. The city could offer to trade their vacant lot at the east end of E. Tarleton Street for the vacant lot at the south end of N. Vine Street. This would be a win-win for the city and for the current owners of the property nearby. The city would get a large parking lot for its new Senior Center / Council Chambers. The Vine Street property owners would get a nice lot on E. Tarleton that’s much better suited for commercial or residential development. 

The beauty of this proposal is that it solves all the problems of the Vine St. site and still satisfies all the needs of the seniors and the city council without compromise. We could even include a spur off of the Bosque River Trail that winds through the woods from the Historical House Museum to the new building.

Since there are problem-free, city-owned, shovel-ready sites for a Senior Center on Tarleton Street and Mason Street, here are the actions we as Stephenville citizens need to require our politicians and city staff to undertake immediately: 

1. Cease construction immediately at the N. Vine Street site to save the Seniors' Tree from further damage.

2. Initiate negotiations to trade the city-owned vacant lot at the end of E. Tarleton St. for the vacant lot at the south end of N. Vine St.

3. If this negotiation is successful, begin construction of the Senior Center / Council Chambers building at the city-owned Mason Street property 

4. If the negotiation is not successful, begin construction of a dedicated Senior Center-only building at the city-owned E. Tarleton Street location. Abandon the aspiration of building new Council Chambers space into the Senior Center. Abandon the aspiration of using the Senior Center for Private Party Rental Space. Abandon the plan to repurpose City Council Chamber space as city staff office space. Use the $180,000 that was going toward new Council Chamber space to build or rent some economical office space for city staff. City staff estimates their office space needs will cost $30,000/year for rental space. That gives the city 6 years to come up with a permanent solution for staff office space. ($180,000/$30,000=6 years) Surely they can figure it out in 6 years time. 

5. The city needs to hire an arborist to fix the damage that’s already been done to the Seniors' Tree during the site preparation work. 

Epilogue

With the distribution of this opinion piece, the Stephenville City Council is on notice that their actions are highly likely to kill The Stephenville Seniors' Tree. When that tree-in-a-forest falls, it won’t go unobserved.  In addition, they’re on notice that the Vine Street location is problematic for seniors due to parking and access issues. Seniors are unlikely to be happy with these issues. Further, they’re on notice that the site is prone to flooding and drainage issues that may well lead to foundation and structural issues in addition to near-term inconvenience for seniors. 

Future City Council claims of mere incompetence are not going to cut it when any or all of these eventualities occur. “Oops, I’m sorry. It was the builder’s fault. Stuff happens,” is not going to be a sufficient future explanation for the poor decisions they’re making in the present. The jig is up. The citizens of Stephenville now know that future mea culpas are lies waiting to happen. To avoid having to lie in the future, City Council Members should alter course in the present. 

If they wish to avoid future recriminations, City Council needs to change course immediately, take a loss on preparatory construction work to date, give the seniors highest billing on their priority list and begin work immediately at one of the 2 alternate sites.