Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez talks to Wayne Kirk, right, as Council members toured The Texas Horse Park, the city's equestrian center being built in southern Dallas (Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News)
Enough is enough. Dallas City Hall and a number of Dallas council members are just so eager to get a new horse park up and running in southern Dallas that they have put on blinders to a problem the rest of us can’t afford to overlook.
Wayne Kirk, the man City Hall selected to run this city-owned horse park, is simply the wrong person for the job in my view. The time has come to acknowledge that and move on with the hope, if not the certainty, of finding someone else.
The latest news about Kirk came this morning from reporter Roy Appleton.
The city warned Kirk about “unauthorized vegetation and tree removal” in the sensitive Trinity Forest where the park is located. It also appears his River Ranch Educational Charities has violated its contract with the city by illegally erecting a barbed-wire fence.
There’s another problem too. Even though the park was supposed to be opening, Kirk has yet to purchase necessary insurance.
Keep in mind, this is a man who was convicted in McKinney Municipal Court of cruelty to a horse.
It boggles the mind that he was ever even considered for this job. But the city was desperate for someone to take on the business of running a horse park that didn’t generate the kind of interest it was supposed to in the first place.
Whatever happens to the park, the city of Dallas cannot go forward with Kirk. The place hasn’t opened and he has shown he either doesn’t understand or is indifferent to city code. Barbed-wire fencing? In the Trinity Forest? That shows a lack of judgment that Dallas should distance itself from.
This morning, City Manager A.C. Gonzalez wouldn’t say what steps he will recommend next. If it’s anything other than moving on without Kirk, that’s a problem.