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F. Bracken
Rad Field
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01/18/05 Rules, like taxes, are only
for the little people, not our Park Cities Cabal!
How smart do you have to be to follow simple
rules? We've got two supposedly really smart lawyers who sit around
talking about how the two of them can take over Dallas City Hall and make it run
as perfectly as things go everyday in the Bubble of the Park Cities.
Our legal eagle civic do-gooders are so smart they sat down and completely
rewrote our form of local government, even though hardly anyone who actually
lives in Dallas asked them to do so. Our legal eagle civic do-gooders are
so smart they found several other equally smart and civic-minded rich guys to
pony up some big bucks to be doled out to some outfit that will charge them big bucks to send out an army of flakes to collect enough signatures to get a
referendum on the ballot, so they can take complete control of our city.
Our legal eagle civic do-gooders are so smart
they enlisted the support of Our Mayor, who was in a bit of a snit because
she has no allies on the city council who would support her plan to
strengthen the mayor's office.
Unfortunately, the problem with being so smart is that you tend to only talk
to your buddies and other elitists, who seldom bother with the mundane
things like rules and laws. Rather than take a few minutes to read up
on election laws and restrictions, our legal eagle civic do-gooders spent
all of their time and resources getting the 20,000 signatures (by hook or
crook) to get their proposal on our ballot in May.
According to my real smart friend who knows more about election law than
almost anyone, you can't raise any money or spend any money for your cause
until you designate your Treasurer with the City Secretary's office.
Our legal eagle civic do-gooders are so smart they wanted to delay
designating their Treasurer so they could collect signatures during last
Fall's early voting and election. Being so smart, they knew
there would be limited time to collect the 20,000 signatures they needed to
do their civic duty.
Still, it would have been a lot smarter of our legal eagle civic do-gooders
to have talked with some regular people who occasionally vote. They
might have learned some helpful information. |
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Anonymouse:
Why the Blackwood "Strong Mayor" Proposal is Bad for Dallas.
It throws out the present City Charter and replaces it with one little-known
individual's preferences.
It eliminates entirely the office of a professional City Manager, who is
responsible for the day-to-day delivery of services.
It gives the Mayor power to issue "Orders" without Council approval.
Such "Orders" can be any change in policy not requiring a direct
expenditure.
It gives the Mayor unlimited power to hire and fire all major officers,
including the Police Chief, Fire Chief, City Attorney, City Secretary and
directors and heads of departments without cause.
It gives the Mayor the power to appoint all members of City commissions and
boards (except Planning and Zoning), as well as MUNICIPAL JUDGES.
It gives the Mayor power to establish and abolish departments at will.
It gives the Mayor power to hire and fire all professional and secretarial
assistants to the City Council.
It reduces council members' roles to the degree that neighborhoods and
ordinary individuals will have not effective advocate at City Hall. (A
council member's only power in this proposal appears to be to find
majorities to override the actions of the Mayor, where possible.)
It provides for a coup of two-thirds (10 members) of the Council to oust the
Mayor. An ousted Mayor cannot be replaced except by a special
election.
It increases incentive for moneyed special interests to spend whatever it
takes to elect "their" powerful mayor.
IF THE BLACKWOOD PROPOSAL IS PASSED, ALL OF ITS PROVISIONS WILL TAKE EFFECT
ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2005, WITH NO REVISIONS. THERE WILL BE NO OPPORTUNITY
TO CHANGE ANY OF IT EXCEPT BY ANOTHER CHARTER ELECTION, WHICH CANNOT TAKE
PLACE IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS, OR BY A COURT CHALLENGE. |
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You see, there's this pesky
little rule about campaigns, even for "Specific-Purpose Committee" campaigns.
You can't spend any money or raise any money until you designate a Treasurer.
Bah! Bah! Blackwood designated her husband Tom Thomas as Treasurer on November
1, 2004. Bah! Bah! and Tom started raising and spending money on October
11, 2004.
According to their January 17, 2005 report, Bah! Bah! and TT raised $180,000 and
spent $177,466.90, leaving them only $2,533.10 at 12/31/04.
Its a little tricky using the word "raised" because it looks like
nobody actually "contributed" a penny to Bah! Bah!'s cause. All the monies
are listed as LOANS, with no interest UNLESS PAST DUE, THEN 10%, but the
maturity date is not specified other than ON DEMAND. Now, I've been part
of a lot of campaigns and filed several campaign reports, but I've never seen
anything like an entire campaign being funded by loans, rather than
contributions.
Then there are the expenses:
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$36,242.21 |
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For copying |
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$64,150.00 |
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Signature
gathering |
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$15,000.00 |
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Consulting |
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$21,549.92 |
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Legal services by
Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal |
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$30,000.00 |
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Opinion poll
(paid for by and reimbursed to Tom Thomas) |
None of the checks to National
Voter Outreach (signature gathering) were dated on the report, which is also a
big "no, no" in reporting rules.
This is stuff we need to sic Allen Gwinn onto, but Ace Reporter Sarah Dodd (CBS
11) jumped on it before anyone else took notice. She not only noticed the
outrageous expenditures, but Sarah Dodd was the first to note that Bah! Bah! has not
actually received any contributions for her efforts, just some loans.
This may be the way things are done in the Park Cities. No one really uses
their own money to buy stuff, they just loan some here and loan some there and
hold each other's markers.
That's what they want to do to us. The Park Cities Cabal don't really want
to spend any money on their coup d'?at. They are going to make some
loans, spread some markers and get their money back when they take control and
own our town and reduce us to serfs.
One good thing coming out of all this (besides a bunch of Park Cities cash being
spread around) is that the Park Cities Cabal is actually unifying our city like
nothing has in a long time. That probably was not their intent. They
planned to split the city apart on racial lines to get their way, but that's
bubble-thinking.
I believe their bubble is about to be burst.
sb
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