Short Season of Richardson Idol Starts

Given that only two seats on the Richardson City Council are being contested this year, and all the focus has been on the mayor's decision not to serve another term, although she is running unopposed, this season of "Richardson Idol" will necessarily be an abbreviated one. That's not to say it won't be an exciting one.

The April 2015 edition of Richardson Today listed a "Highland/Terrace N.A. Council Candidate Forum" for April 7. I made plans to attend. Then I read this comment by Shelley McCall on Facebook:

We are holding a "Neighborhood" only Forum and [Mabel] Simpson never even had the courtesy to respond to our invitation. I suspect she was told she didn't need our votes.

Source: Facebook.

There were two things I found strange about that. First, that a candidate forum wasn't open to the general public. Second, that the president of the neighborhood association that was hosting the forum would make negative comments about one of the candidates and cast aspersions on her motives.

Luckily for me, Shelley McCall added later in the same Facebook thread, "our Forum was for our neighborhood only but we have opened it up to the rest of the city's residents." So, off I went.

OTBR: Las Vegas Skyline

Latitude: N 35° 56.556
Longitude: W 115° 08.556

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Mayor Won't Serve. Is That the End of It?

Last week when I wrote about the "Local Government Officer Conflicts Disclosure Statement" filed by Mayor Laura Maczka, I said that her business relationship with the developer of Palisades demanded further explanation, sooner rather than later as she was running for re-election. Then, suddenly, she announced she won't serve another term as Mayor.

So, is that the end of it? I was inclined to think so. Forcing an officeholder out of office is often the end of most political scandals, and in this case, there wasn't even evidence that anything illegal occurred, so even the use of the word scandal is presumptuous. Richardson residents might be disgruntled, but with Laura Maczka gone, she's no longer available to punish.

But what about others? The above reasoning is premised on the assumption that the timing of Mayor Maczka's announcement was coincidental and based solely on issues in her personal life. It's possible but how likely you believe that to be probably depends on how likely you buy into conspiracy theories. So, with apologies in advance, let's indulge.

Force Majeure (2014)

IMDB

Force Majeure (2014): Different reactions to skiing avalanche split family. Not a disaster movie, but OK psychological study of stress. C+

Mayor's Conflict of Interest

Source: City of Richardson.

Two documents have been filed with the City of Richardson that demand further explanation.

1. Local Government Officer Conflicts Disclosure Statement by Mayor Laura Maczka
2. Conflict of Interest Questionnaire by Mark Jordan of JP Realty Partners

In the first, filed March 19, 2015, Mayor Maczka discloses a business relationship with JP Realty Partners involving "leasing, marketing & communications." In the second, also filed March 19, 2015, Mark Jordan discloses that Mayor Maczka is "receiving or likely to receive taxable income" from JP Realty Partners.