8/08/9  So, let's make it hard for them to break the rules.

Jim Schutze has been generating a blow by blow commentary on the Hill trial testimony for the past two days with former Mayor Laura Miller and political consultant/lobbyist Kathy Nealy on the stand.  You have to read it for yourself:  Laura Miller's Now on the Stand. You Know What That Means: Schutze is Live Blogging (UnFairPark/DallasObserver.com 8/6/9); Ah, See, This is the Laura Miller Schutze Remembers. And Misses, Just a Little. (UnFairPark/DallasObserver.com 8/7/9).  It is amazing that we can have this kind of coverage on an instantaneous basis.  It is more amazing how really funny Jim Schutze is on the cuff.

When you read Jim's commentary, it's easier to get lost in his journalist skills than focus on the topic of the testimony.  The spider web of corruption at City Hall is too painful to consider for any length of time.  When we had to endure the Lipscomb trial where he had screwed over hundreds of taxi cab drivers for a pitifully small bribe, it was embarrassing for our city.   Then, we got to watch all the local Black politico's and "community leaders" traipsing over to Old Al's newly remodeled house with his new big screen TV where he was serving his confinement rather than in prison.  Then, the conviction was overturned on a technicality.  How does that happen when the guy confessed?

Back when I used nicknames more frequently on DallasArena.com, one of the most appropriate was that given to former councilwoman Maxine Thornton-Reese aka "Brain Dead".  I wrote about one of her most stupid days at City Hall in  07/15/05 Brain Dead -- no cerebral activity!   It really would help for you to stop and go back and read that commentary to really appreciate what Mayor Miller (as reported by Jim Schutze) says about that meeting in her Thursday testimony:

Kathy Nealy mentions that eventful day in her testimony on Friday (as reported by Jim Schutze):

Ted Steinke, who once was Mr. Ethics in the DA's office, is representing  one of the dirt bags (Darren Reagan).  That offends me.  I know every crook has as a right to legal counsel, but Steinke could have passed on this one. 

There are a lot of things that Laura Miller did well on the city council and as mayor, but none were as important as her willingness to go it alone to fight for right when everyone else sat on their hands.  Every member of that council (excluding James Fantroy, Brain-Dead T-Reese and Don Hill) should have been outraged that Fantroy would openly defy conflict of interest rules and use T-Reese like a puppet to get a zoning case passed where his company was profiting.  Only Laura Miller objected and was treated like a pariah for looking out for the citizens of Dallas.  It was like that when she tried to block the $6 million+ tax abatement to Ray Hunt, only to have the entire council (except Rasansky) attack her.  See 10/20/05  Ray Hunt's City Council:  Those with the Gold - Rule!  

When you read the questions from the defense counsel and Schutze's description of their theatrics, it's easy to assume they are just defending their clients.  The reality is their clients and a whole bunch of their supporters and fellow crooks agree with everything coming out of these lawyers.

It's not that Don Hill, Darren Reagan, D'Angelo Lee, et al, did not know they were doing wrong and abusing their offices.  They knew exactly what they were doing, but didn't think the rules and applicable laws applied to them.  They still think they are above the law.

That attitude is a direct result of single member council districts and the related ward politics.  Way too many council members think they have been elected czars/czarinas of their districts.  They develop tight partnerships with their plan commissioner, who see themselves as deputy czars of the district in terms of all matters related to zoning.  If you are out of favor with a particular council member or plan commissioner, you will have no chance at City Hall with a zoning case in their district.  Look at the way Neil Emmons has abused his position on the Plan Commission, with Angela Hunt's blessing.

Speaking of Emmons.  With all the talk of Mayor Leppert making a US Senate race, it is a foregone conclusion that Angela Hunt wants to run for Mayor either to replace him in a special election or against him if he runs again in 2012.  As hard as it is to imagine, Neil Emmons apparently expects to succeed Hunt for District 14.  He's just a plan commissioner, so why is he sitting at the press table in this photo by Sam Merten (UnFairPark/DallasObserver.com, The First Look at the City's FY2009-2010 Budget. But, In Truth, It's Just a Tease.?  Little worm hasn't anything else to do but hang out at City Hall and play his little dirty tricks.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton.

That's what all of this is about.  We had a bunch of mediocre people with unchallenged power who could not control their baseness.  They were not good people gone bad.  They were basic crooks who got in positions of power to make some money on the side, regardless of its negative impact on the district they were elected to serve.

A few years ago, I would have expected Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway to be just like Hill and Fantroy, et al.  I know him better now.  It would have been interesting to have him and Hill on the council at the same time.  Hill and Fantroy played Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese like the helpless puppet she was.  Dwaine Caraway would not have been their puppet.  There's a huge difference between Caraway's partnership with his Plan Commissioner Michael Davis and the Hill/Lee team.  Caraway and Davis have successfully gone after bad businesses (hot sheet motels) to clean up their district.  Hill and Lee went after personal enrichment. 

Hill and Lee aren't the only council member/plan commissioner team to cause great harm to this city and certainly won't be the last.  As long as the plan commission is configured as a single board, the opportunity for corruption will exist.  Politicians don't learn from other's mistakes. 

If the city council votes to merge the Board of Adjustment's 3 panels into 1 panel, or even 2 panels, that board will also be ripe for problems because it is quasi-judicial.  There have been no scandals involving the Board of Adjustment since it became three 5-member panels after Federal Tyrant Jerry Buchmeyer forced 14-1 on this city.

If we know we are likely to have crooks hold both elected and appointed office in the future, why not create barriers to corruption, rather than make it easier for weaklings to trod a wrong path?

We cannot make crooks see the error of their ways.  Sometimes, we can make them afraid to err for fear of the consequences.  We can make it harder for them to succumb to their weakness.

A confessed and convicted crook like Al Lipscomb doesn't understand what the fuss is all about.  Don Hill and D'Angelo Lee probably hope the jury sees life through Al Lipscomb's distorted lenses.  They don't want to go to jail or pay back any ill-gained money, but they don't feel remorse for wrong doing, just getting caught.

sb