Mayor Bob Dubey has close ties with a major developer with questionable ethics. Their cozy relationship raises ethical questions about Dubey himself. You won't find this developer listed among Dubey's endorsements. That raises transparency questions about Dubey as well. The supporter I'm referring to is Manasseh Durkin, the "largest land holder in CORE District" in Richardson, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Manasseh Durkin is the subject of a lawsuit (Dallas County District Court Cause No. DC-24-19007) filed just last October. The plaintiff is former business partner. Durkin is accused of:
"Stealing funds."
"Charging hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal expenses
to the companies' credit cards."
"Taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in distributions from
these companies for personal use."
"Diverting funds belonging to the companies to their own
personal bank account."
Etc., etc. etc.
Here's the detailed court filing:
IV. SUMMARY10. This case is about Defendants stealing funds from Flynn and taking unilateral actions against Flynn in violations of the contractual agreements between the parties. The Durkins began their business relationship with Flynn in 2018, when he was recruited to collaborate with the Durkins to form a company and collaborate on various construction development projects.
They initially formed a successful partnership, with M. Durkin as the "Manager" over these business partnerships. However, in the last few years the Durkins have used M. Durkin’s access and his Manager position with these jointly owned Companies to misappropriate funds for their own personal use. This includes, but is not limited to, charging hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal expenses to the Companies’ credit cards, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in distributions from these Companies for personal needs (without distributing the proper percentage of funds to the other partners), diverting funds belonging to the Companies to their own personal bank account, and diverting business belonging to the Companies to other shell companies.
In addition, Defendants have improperly and unilaterally distributed funds to other partners/members without proper written consent, and terminated other partners/Members (including Flynn), in breach of the terms of the LLC agreements between the parties.
11. Before filing this lawsuit Flynn attempted to resolve these matters with the Defendants and was assured by M. Durkin – numerous times – that all misappropriated funds would be paid back to the Companies. These promises ended up being false, because instead of working out an arrangement with Flynn to pay him back all monies owed, M. Durkin terminated Flynn under false pretenses and refused to pay back all amounts owed the Companies to Flynn. It has become evident that Defendants are running a Ponzi scheme to avoid having to pay all amounts owed, and this lawsuit is being initiated to rectify the issue.
Source: Dallas County Courts.
Yes, the lawsuit is pending. Everyone deserves his day in court, even Manasseh Durkin. But this is only one lawsuit. What will a proper search turn up? Manasseh Durkin is a businessman. A businessman being sued isn't proof of guilt. I highlight this lawsuit because 1) it's very recent, 2) plaintiff seeks monetary relief over $1,000,000, and 3) it's a business partner who is painting Manasseh Durkin as being, in short, shady AF.
It's not, say, a stranger with whom Durkin had a car accident (in a 2014 case resolved by his auto insurance company). It's not, say, a former tenant (in a 2023 case that was dismissed). It's not, say, a lender (in a case that was immediately dropped after a single phone call). If that had been the history Manasseh Durkin had, I would consider those lawsuits to be minor, even nothingburgers in some cases. But it isn't. Flynn's lawsuit against Durkin is serious. Very serious.
How deep is Dubey involved with this shady developer? As a refresher, this timeline details Dubey and Durkin's history of doing mutual favors for each other.
- 05/06/2023: Bob Dubey is elected Mayor of Richardson.
- 05/09/2023: Three days later, Manasseh Durkin donates $465.20 to Bob Dubey's campaign.
- 02/10/2025: City Council, with Bob Dubey voting yes, approves the construction of 279 apartments in downtown Richardson on land controlled by Manasseh Durkin.
- 04/25/2025: Manasseh Durkin makes a donation in-kind to the Dubey campaign, mailing a flyer supporting Bob Dubey for mayor and attacking Amir Omar.
You won't find any of this on Bob Dubey's campaign website. You won't see any of it in Dubey's mailers. You won't see any of it in the attack ads Dubey and supporters mail to voters, ads bragging that "Only one candidate has a trusted record of Ethics and Transparency — Bob Dubey." More like a record of Hypocrisy and Misrepresentation.
I haven't dug into it, but another questionable donation appeared on Dubey's 8-Day Campaign Financial Report. It's a $3,000 donation from Tod Fobare, President of Fobare Commercial, L.P., and Managing Partner of Skyrise Properties, LLC.
Fobare was behind Eastside and the data center on Collins Blvd. And is involved in the future development at Arapaho DART station. Now, Tod Fobare is giving the mayor's re-election campaign $3,000. Ethical? Our weak Code of Ethics doesn't prohibit this cozy relationship. Transparent? You won't find Tod Fobare in Dubey's endorsements. Or mentioned on his website or mailers. You have to know where to look to find this disclosure on page 12 of the campaign finance report he filed just 8 days before the election. For this voter at least, Dubey has a lot of explaining to do. I hope voters who he is greeting at the polls will ask him to do just that.
Update: 202504/26 15:30. A comment made by Mayor Bob Dubey in a City Council meeting shows his attitude towards transparency. It was in response to a proposal by Councilmember Jennifer Justice to add a reporting requirement to the Code of Ethics. In August, 2024, she said, "I'm in favor of including something in our procedures for transparency purposes, about noting via an email or something that you met with a developer about a potential case on this date and discussed XYZ. I think it's just a good transparency practice." Mayor Dubey rejected the idea:
I trust the Council, and I'm not really certain we need to go that far, but developers call, and I'll even say, in economic development, Mr. Magner and I meet with different companies throughout the month with no idea exactly what they're trying to do, but we're trying to encourage economic development in our city. And so we have those meetings. We don't make any promises, but every one of those meetings would have to go into this.Source: Bob Dubey.
"Every one of those meetings would have to go into this." Exactly. That's not a bug. It's a feature. It's a bug for those with something to hide. It's what transparency is all about. The rule can't be "report only the meetings where bribes are offered." It has to be, "report all meetings" to keep a public eye on them to prevent bribery from happening. I said, "If Mayor Laura Maczka had been required to report all of her 'meetings' with Palisades developer Mark Jordan, history might have been very different."
"Money ties exposed.
Too cozy to be believed.
Integrity lost."
—h/t ChatGPT
1 comment:
The corruption in Richardson has metastasized like a cancer. Richardson needs a CURE — now. If I’m elected, the first order of business will be a full forensic audit and an emergency purge of corrupt commissioners and the ethics language they’re trying to mutilate even further. It’s already a disaster and they’re making it worse. Some individuals need to be terminated on day one. The citizens of Richardson have had enough.
It’s time to Clean Up Richardson Ethics.
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