The Tarrant Regional Water District leaders honored the life and legacy of board member Jim Lane on Tuesday and then pivoted to discussion of his replacement.
A longtime Fort Worth attorney and public official, Lane had served on the TRWD board for 16 years prior to his death Nov. 27 following a lengthy illness. He was 78.
Lane’s unexpired term is due to end in May but the Texas Water Code requires that board vacancies be filled within 60 days after the vacancy occurs, TRWD attorney Stephen Tatum told the board.
How to fill the term is up to the board, Tatum said,
After meeting behind closed doors, the four board members voted unanimously to approach the four candidates who were defeated in the most recent water board election (2021) about filling the vacancy.
In that election, board members Leah King, and James Hill were re-elected along with Mary Kelleher, who had lost an earlier re-election bid in 2017 but was returned to office in the 2021 election. King is the current board president and Hill is the vice president. Lane was board secretary.
Hill said tapping a former candidate is more transparent than having the board choose a successor without input from the public.
The board also agreed to adopt a policy to determine how board vacancies would be filled in the future.
Members are elected to the TRWD board based on the vote totals in an at-large field. In the 2021 election, seven candidates ran and the top three were seated. In the May 2023 election, two candidates will be chosen.
In opting to choose Lane’s replacement from among the four unsuccessful candidates, board members rejected a plea from the watchdog group, the Water District Accountability Project, to choose an interim replacement who would not seek to run for election in 2023, thereby eliminating the advantage of incumbency in the May election.
“If the board feels compelled to appoint someone, they should seek out any number of community leaders that agreed to serve on an interim basis to finish Jim Lane’s term but not seek election in the spring,” said former State Rep. Lon Burnam, a leader of the Water District Accountability Project. “There are, in fact, any number of other community leaders that are willing to serve in this way.”
The watchdog group presented a list of six potential appointees to fill the seat, including Deborah Peoples, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, who ran unsuccessfully in November for Tarrant County Judge.
Burnam said “it blew my mind” that the board opted to choose Lane’s replacement from the losing TRWD candidates in 2021 because former board president Jack Stevens was among that group.
Stevens was the last-place finisher in the election as a result of his role in attempting to circumvent the board and pay former TRWD General Manager Jim Oliver more than $320,000 for hours of leave time for his tenure. When the board learned of the plan, the payment was revoked.
The water district ultimately agreed to a $257,000 settlement with Oliver in exchange for Oliver’s commitment to not sue the district.
The fourth-place finisher behind Kelleher in the 2021 election was Charles “C.B. “Team, who also ran unsuccessfully for the water board in 2019. Team is a principal with the commercial real estate and investment firm of Ellis & Tinsley Inc. Finishing behind Team, in order, were Glenda Murrary Thompson, Jeremy Raines, and Stevens.
The board honored Lane’s memory by presenting a frame proclamation to his widow, Janet Lane. The proclamation recalls Lane’s long history of service to the city of Fort Worth, where he had served as a City Council member as well as on the TRWD board. Lane was a strong advocate for the rejuvenation of the Stockyards and the return of his beloved minor league baseball team, the Fort Worth Cats.
“Jim loved the Northside and will always be a part of this place,” Janet Lane told the board. “I hope whoever fills those boots up there does a good job.”
