Conflict of Ethics

10/02/03 James Fantroy Gets Away with It!

Councilman James Fantroy was accused of (and has not denied) securing several contracts for his security guard company with Provident Realty (a company needing the city's approval to secure $15 million in state funding).

Seen anything about it in the Dallas Managed News or Dallas Observer? Nope.
The only TV station that covered it is KTVT-11 - Sarah Dodd 9/8/03.

Is the council going to do anything about it? Nope.

The council did discuss the matter in closed door executive session. They still ultimately approved the deal -- Fantroy didn't get censored -- more corruption to follow.

After the Fantroy-Provident Reality contracts were disclosed, Fantroy recused himself from council discussions. The only problem is by that time all council members knew Fantroy wanted the council to approve the state loan to Provident. Since council votes are public record, every council member knew Fantroy will retaliate against anyone who voted against the Provident approval.

Provident wants to do an apartment complex in Fantroy's District 8 -- a huge 280-unit apartment complex of affordable housing. In April, Fantroy sent a letter of support for Provident to the state. In July, Fantroy's company signed a contract with Provident under which they had paid Fantroy's company $5,000 through early September for security guard work.

Fantroy's company signed the contract with Provident almost 4 months after Fantroy sent a letter to the state supporting Provident's request for $15 Million bond funding. He knew his company should have never done a contract with Provident, and so does our city council.

Gary Turner:
   Your article on Councilman Fantroy is right on the mark. Sara Dodd and the Channel 11 News team deserve a lot of praise for such a good story about corruption at City Hall.
    I believe since the story involves an African American council member, and we've just gone through the Terrell Bolton race card scheme, the rest of the press in Dallas are too intimidated to report on Mr. Fantroy's obvious conflict of interest. Had Councilman Mitchell Rasansky profited from such a deal the story would be on the front page of the Dallas Morning News, all over local TV news, and talk radio. On top of that the rest of the council would have been demanding his resignation.
    To me the lack of action on Mr. Fantroy's very profitable conflict of interest is an insult to the law abiding citizens that just see another corrupt official getting away with such a blatant example of a bribe. Provident Reality can just pass the cost of this bribe along to it's future 'affordable housing' tenants.

Before we go on with the conflict of interest issue, how can anyone at City Hall support a 280-unit apartment complex in Oak Cliff? I live in a part of the city overwhelmed with apartment complexes that some consider "affordable housing". Before the 3-story apartment buildings were built in the Webb Chapel-NW Hwy area, we had stable single-family neighborhoods. Some of the 2-story apartment buildings go back to when the area was popular with men and women working for the airlines flying out of Love Field, the 60's and 70's. None of these apartments were intended to be occupied by families. When they were built, the apartments could actually exclude children.

It doesn't matter whether apartments are built for singles or built as "family friendly", they are problems waiting to happen. When apartments begin to age and other areas become more popular or newer complexes are built, rents go down as maintenance costs increase. You know what happens next. If you don't know, drive North on Webb Chapel from NW Hwy to Walnut Hill, where we have an abundance of over-populated, poorly maintained apartment buildings.

Some of the remaining single-family neighborhoods are stable and attractive, despite the pressures directly related to the apartment complexes. Some neighborhoods are crumbling under the load.

This was once a stable, upscale part of the city and is now barely holding on against the negative impact of aging apartment complexes near our neighborhoods. Stable or upscale is hardly how you would describe the neighborhoods of District 8 near this proposed 280-unit project.

You could almost understand state bonds funding a single-family development in District 8 to the tune of $15 Million -- if we had $15 Million to spare. Bonds used for one ill-advised project are bonds that should be going to projects which are not disasters waiting to happen. The last thing Dallas needs anywhere are 280 apartment units classified as "affordable housing". Oak Cliff may need 280 affordable homes, but not 280 apartment units. That said, we come back to James Fantroy's company taking contracts from a developer dependent on Fantroy's good graces to get $15 Million from the State. Fantroy and his son run a security company -- that's "security" as in security guard as in "rent-a-cop". There is no way James Fantroy did not know about a sizeable contract his son cut with Provident Reality or any other company.			Mrs. DPD: I have been reading DallasArena.com for a few years and mostly love everything you write and stand for. My husband (DPD officer of 25 years) told me about DallasArena.com, and I have been an avid reader since. I just wonder why you don't hold Mayor Miller responsible for some of the bad deals going on in the city. She has turned into a political machine with the same amount of integrity as Ron Kirk. You might think I am biased against her because I am married to a Dallas police officer, but actually I thought she was the best candidate for the job. At least, she is not an embarrassment like the rest of the buffoons at city hall. She speaks intelligently and dresses appropriately. She needs to focus more on cleaning up city hall and less about patting people like James Fantroy or Al Lipscomb on the back.
			Editor's Comments: Although I frequently disagree with the Mayor's decisions, I never question her integrity. She voted against Lipscomb for the PRB, and voted NO to the entire slate of appointments rather than vote for a confessed bribe taker. sb

According to Sarah Dodd's Sept. 10 report, "Laura Miller is accusing a council member of using his power at City Hall to make a deal to benefit his private company."

Dodd interviewed Mayor Miller on camera and got the following quote:

It wasn't just one contract, or that initial $5,000 retainer windfall to Fantroy for supporting Provident's $15 million in state bonds, there are TWO contracts between Fantroy's company and Provident Realty worth ONE HUNDRED SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. Because Fantroy's son supposedly negotiated the contracts, they claim there is no conflict of interest. Sure!

Fantroy not only should resign from the city council over this mess, he should be prosecuted by our County District Attorney. Our courrent weanie Federal Prosecutor is not going to do anything important or risky, but DA Hill has an opportunity here to show Dallas citizens he is looking out for our interests and not afraid to take on another crooked official.

What does Fantroy think should happen over his arrangement with Provident Reality? In an on-camera interview with Sarah Dodd, he said:

How is this possible? How can we have a confessed and convicted bribe taker sitting on the Police Review Board? How can we have a councilman getting $160,000 worth of contracts from a company dependent on his official support for their efforts?

It could all go back to Ron Kirk getting $750,000 worth of stock options from Tom Hicks before Kirk and John Ware negotiated the arena deal with Tom Hicks and Ross Perot, Jr. The Dallas Managed News sat on that story, too.

Then, it could go back to James Fantroy beating his previous indictment for alleged wrongdoings. He may think he's above the law.

Then, it could be all those years Our Downtown Betters subsidized and/or bribed Al Lipscomb to carry their water at City Hall. You need to read Jim Schutze's 10/2/03 column:

	Color Bind; Who says the mayor is a racist? You'll be surprised by the answer. BY JIM SCHUTZE
. . . And what does that word, racist, really mean, anyway, in Dallas in 2003? Why is a Yankee liberal carpetbagger more likely to run afoul of it than an old-style segregationist? And why is it the black people who have really done battle with Miller--up close and for stakes--won't use that word, even when they attack her?

This Fantroy cover-up is exactly how we got in the Lipscomb fiasco and why Terrell Bolton thought he was bullet proof. We have a city run by people who think we are not mature enough to deal with the facts straight up. They think it is better to sweep the dirt under the carpet than to rip the dirty stuff out and install clean, new material. Worse, you have a city where Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) think all African-Americans are as crooked as Al Lipscomb and James Fantroy.

Today, I took a vacation day and went to the State Fair. I left a dear friend, who happens to be African-American, doing some painting inside my house. My friend is not like Lipscomb or Fantroy. My friend is a typical African-American citizen of Dallas -- honest, hard working and God fearing. Too bad, the ODB only know the likes of Lipscomb and Fantroy. They could have saved themselves a lot of money and this city a lot of anguish by supporting honest men and women for public office, rather than a couple of crooks.

It is numbing to keep dealing with this stuff -- to lose respect for elected officials and government itself. What is our alternative? Do we just accept corruption? Do we turn to anarchy? NO -- NO -- NO to both.

We keep fighting corruption and we do it lawfully.!

It has been over 5 years since the arena war, but not long enough for us to be over the anger. Whenever it feels like time to let it go, new salt gets added to the wound.

Old Grandpa Jones is already starting his PR dog and pony show with promises of millions in tax revenue in exchange for Dallas taxpayers slapping it to the hotel/motel and car rental people again.

"Seems like we've heard that song before, the lyrics said ...".

All the warnings from Bad Dealers about consequences of the arena sales tax scheme were understatements -- the results speak for themselves. The impact on our convention business has been so devastating, this time even the cowardly motel/hotel association is coming out against another tax on their industry.

Know what's happening in California? The local sports mafia is even more brazen than Grandpa Jones:

	TOTAL RECALL Gray Davis quid pro quo?
NBA team owners make $100,000 donation as bill for new arena sits on governor's desk Posted: September 30, 2003; 5:00 p.m. Eastern; By Jon Dougherty; ? 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
The owners of the Sacramento Kings professional basketball team have made a $100,000 donation to the "No on Recall" campaign of Gov. Gray Davis, just as a bill that would involve taxpayers in financing a new arena for the NBA franchise has reached the governor's desk.

Somewhere, someone has to take a stand against public corruption.

Let's do it here!

sb