News Topic - University of North Texas
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Bedford elects 19-year-old councilman
By JESSICA DELEON BEDFORD — College student Chris Brown, 19, defeated closed captioning editor Jim Wallace, 35, for the Place 6 City Council seat Saturday, according to complete but unofficial results. Marketing consultant Raymond J. Champney, 67, who was running unopposed, will take the Place 4 seat. The men will replace outgoing incumbents Charles Orean and Bob Whistler, who supported outsourcing management of the library and more lenient natural gas drilling restrictions than the council approved. The council often split 4-3 on such hot-button issues, with Orean and Whistler on the losing side.Brown, a political science major at the University of North Texas, said he tried to meet as many people as he could, addressing issues such as economic development and the pending expansion of Airport Freeway. He said his age also played a big factor."People were hesitant," he said. "But in the end, it was the factor that put me over the top. People wanted that new fresh perspective. ... I think the council is going to be a nicer chamber without the divisive attitudes of the past."Voters overwhelmingly approved the city's 33 charter amendments, which are mostly language changes to keep the charter current with state law. About 6.6 percent of the city's 31,473 registered voters participated in the election.RESULTSPlace 6Complete but unofficial results.Chris Brown: 1,617 votes, 83.7%Jim Wallace: 314 votes, 16.3%Place 4Raymond J. Champney was unopposed.
Star-Telegram.com – May 11, 2008 02:58 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth
By JESSICA DELEON BEDFORD — College student Chris Brown, 19, defeated closed captioning editor Jim Wallace, 35, for the Place 6 City Council seat Saturday, according to complete but unofficial results. Marketing consultant Raymond J. Champney, 67, who was running unopposed, will take the Place 4 seat. The men will replace outgoing incumbents Charles Orean and Bob Whistler, who supported outsourcing management of the library and more lenient natural gas drilling restrictions than the council approved. The council often split 4-3 on such hot-button issues, with Orean and Whistler on the losing side.Brown, a political science major at the University of North Texas, said he tried to meet as many people as he could, addressing issues such as economic development and the pending expansion of Airport Freeway. He said his age also played a big factor."People were hesitant," he said. "But in the end, it was the factor that put me over the top. People wanted that new fresh perspective. ... I think the council is going to be a nicer chamber without the divisive attitudes of the past."Voters overwhelmingly approved the city's 33 charter amendments, which are mostly language changes to keep the charter current with state law. About 6.6 percent of the city's 31,473 registered voters participated in the election.RESULTSPlace 6Complete but unofficial results.Chris Brown: 1,617 votes, 83.7%Jim Wallace: 314 votes, 16.3%Place 4Raymond J. Champney was unopposed.
Star-Telegram.com – May 11, 2008 02:58 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth
Cecero is out as chief at JPS in Fort Worth
By Anthony Spangler and Darren Barbee FORT WORTH -- JPS Chief Executive Officer David Cecero is out after a seven-year tenure that produced multimillion-dollar budget surpluses but also brought escalating tensions with medical staff and increased community concern about patient care.The JPS Health Network board agreed unanimously Wednesday to a deal that allows Cecero to retire when his contract expires in September. But he will be paid his annual salary of more than $700,000 through July 2009 to continue to act as an adviser.Board members did not say they were dissatisfied with Cecero's leadership. Rather, Chairman Steve Montgomery said, the action culminated several weeks of discussion with Cecero about his desire to "exit the organization."In announcing his retirement, Cecero listed accomplishments including expanding facilities and improving financial performance.Since Cecero was hired in 2001, the network's annual budget surpluses have risen from $25 million to $97 million in 2007. Cecero led the expansion of school-based clinics, community health centers and the addition of an Arlington hospital. A new patient tower -- the capstone of expansion efforts -- is about to open.But the expansions and JPS' financial success came at a price.Some doctors and patients said the network was more attuned to dollar signs than vital signs. They complained of squalor in parts of the hospital, intolerable delays and callous treatment of patients, concerns underscored last year in a scathing report by consulting firm hired by JPS.What doctors sayDr. Ronald Blanck, former president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth and now a healthcare consultant in Delaware, said Cecero did much good at JPS that might be overlooked."He was an agent for change and expanded outreach," he said. "He did lots of good things in a hospital system that was ripe for change. They were somewhat in the Dark Ages in terms of how hospitals should be run."Unfortunately, coupled with that, he alienated lots of physicians in the community and didn't, it seemed to me, reach out as much to the other hospitals in town. So, lots of the good that he did wasn't as effective as it could have been."Some JPS physicians have told the Star-Telegram that they resented pressure to bring all their private practice patients to John Peter Smith Hospital. They also said the poor were displaced by the commercially insured patients at the hospital.The president of the Tarrant County Medical Society criticized JPS for shifting resources away from the indigent. JPS' intended mission, Dr. Greg Fuller said, "is to take care of the uninsured and underinsured, in which they are doing a below-average job."Physicians and community leaders questioned the district's purchase of a $14.7 million Arlington hospital, which was intended to attract patients with private insurance. The patients didn't come, and in part because Arlington has no public transportation, neither did the indigent.Dr. Chuck Webber, a longtime trauma surgeon at JPS, said Cecero did many good things but went about them the wrong way."He alienated practically his entire medical staff, and he alienated himself from the employees because he treated everybody like they were widgets," he said."I think it's time for a change," said Webber, who also retired Wednesday. "I think leadership starts at the top."What Cecero saysIn an interview last month, Cecero said that the hospital district has "expanded access, in terms of facilities, technology, locations and personnel." The district has also made strides in emergency medicine, women's services, behavioral medicine, cardiology and cancer treatment, he said."What we have accomplished in the last seven, eight, nine years has been, I think, far and wide," Cecero said.
Star-Telegram.com – May 1, 2008 11:58 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth
By Anthony Spangler and Darren Barbee FORT WORTH -- JPS Chief Executive Officer David Cecero is out after a seven-year tenure that produced multimillion-dollar budget surpluses but also brought escalating tensions with medical staff and increased community concern about patient care.The JPS Health Network board agreed unanimously Wednesday to a deal that allows Cecero to retire when his contract expires in September. But he will be paid his annual salary of more than $700,000 through July 2009 to continue to act as an adviser.Board members did not say they were dissatisfied with Cecero's leadership. Rather, Chairman Steve Montgomery said, the action culminated several weeks of discussion with Cecero about his desire to "exit the organization."In announcing his retirement, Cecero listed accomplishments including expanding facilities and improving financial performance.Since Cecero was hired in 2001, the network's annual budget surpluses have risen from $25 million to $97 million in 2007. Cecero led the expansion of school-based clinics, community health centers and the addition of an Arlington hospital. A new patient tower -- the capstone of expansion efforts -- is about to open.But the expansions and JPS' financial success came at a price.Some doctors and patients said the network was more attuned to dollar signs than vital signs. They complained of squalor in parts of the hospital, intolerable delays and callous treatment of patients, concerns underscored last year in a scathing report by consulting firm hired by JPS.What doctors sayDr. Ronald Blanck, former president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth and now a healthcare consultant in Delaware, said Cecero did much good at JPS that might be overlooked."He was an agent for change and expanded outreach," he said. "He did lots of good things in a hospital system that was ripe for change. They were somewhat in the Dark Ages in terms of how hospitals should be run."Unfortunately, coupled with that, he alienated lots of physicians in the community and didn't, it seemed to me, reach out as much to the other hospitals in town. So, lots of the good that he did wasn't as effective as it could have been."Some JPS physicians have told the Star-Telegram that they resented pressure to bring all their private practice patients to John Peter Smith Hospital. They also said the poor were displaced by the commercially insured patients at the hospital.The president of the Tarrant County Medical Society criticized JPS for shifting resources away from the indigent. JPS' intended mission, Dr. Greg Fuller said, "is to take care of the uninsured and underinsured, in which they are doing a below-average job."Physicians and community leaders questioned the district's purchase of a $14.7 million Arlington hospital, which was intended to attract patients with private insurance. The patients didn't come, and in part because Arlington has no public transportation, neither did the indigent.Dr. Chuck Webber, a longtime trauma surgeon at JPS, said Cecero did many good things but went about them the wrong way."He alienated practically his entire medical staff, and he alienated himself from the employees because he treated everybody like they were widgets," he said."I think it's time for a change," said Webber, who also retired Wednesday. "I think leadership starts at the top."What Cecero saysIn an interview last month, Cecero said that the hospital district has "expanded access, in terms of facilities, technology, locations and personnel." The district has also made strides in emergency medicine, women's services, behavioral medicine, cardiology and cancer treatment, he said."What we have accomplished in the last seven, eight, nine years has been, I think, far and wide," Cecero said.
Star-Telegram.com – May 1, 2008 11:58 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth
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