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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Briscoe Shuffle
Attention all Fort Worth ISD trustees, don Bart Simpson’s dunce cap and write on the blackboard 100 times: “Those dumb enough to ignore history are bound to repeat it.” It’s a tired cliché, but hey, it’s the one that best fits the father-son construction company team of Leonard Briscoe Sr. and Jr., who stuck a figurative gun to the collective heads of the board this week, threatening to walk off the job as construction managers at six schools unless they are given a lot more money than their contract calls for.
This team’s been embroiled in publicly-funded construction brouhahas since the early 1990s when Briscoe the elder served time as a guest of the feds after being convicted of bribing a HUD big-wig. Son’s multiple tax-financed flops have been well documented in the pages of this paper and the daily. About the only surprise in this latest fiasco is the fact that, after trustee T.A. Sims promised the board back in 2000 that Briscoe Jr. wouldn’t be involved in any of Daddy’s school projects, he’s up to his ears in them. “Our contract’s now with Briscoe Jr.,” a board member told Static. Wonder if that little switcheroo has anything to do with the fact that Briscoe Sr. recently filed for personal bankruptcy? Naaaaa.
Iced T
The T’s recent performance was like an underutilized quarterback who finally gets his big shot in front of a packed stadium and trips over his shoelaces while running onto the field. On the iciest day thus far this winter, folks in Fort Worth could ride the buses and Trinity Railway Express free Tuesday rather than risk their vehicles and less-than-expert ice-driving skills. They could, that is, if they could get through to “the T” to find out about schedules and stops. Many would-be first-time bus riders got a telephonic cold shoulder — dropped calls, terminal hold, and endless recordings. So an opportunity for the bus system to show its stuff was partly missed, even though buses indeed were among the few vehicles on the road that morning, running their regular routes. Among those who couldn’t get through was Elizabeth Moore, the T’s communications manager — who was trying to find out how late the Trinity Railway Express was going to be. “The system was just overloaded,” she said. Or in football lingo: they fumbled.
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