Spring Cleaning

Not everything at City Hall is going wrong. They are going forward with creating 5 satellite Code Enforcement offices to keep the agents closer to their assigned territories and save on personnel time and fuel costs. This has been a pet project of my councilman, Steve Salazar, and it is a big deal. When you have people assigned to one area of the city, but they must travel from Oak Cliff every day to get to their assignments, it limits how much time any code enforcement officer can apply to keeping our neighborhoods up to snuff.

Dallas officials divided on new impound policy for uninsured vehicles
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News 4/3/8

In other council news, the city?s Code Compliance Department requested an 8 percent boost in funding this year to assist in reorganizing the troubled department.

Acting Code Compliance Director Forest Turner needs more than $1.8 million to help pay for a plan that would shift code compliance offices from central locations downtown and in South Dallas into five districts of the city, potentially saving code officers hours of travel time per day and keeping them on the streets longer.

All too often people at City Hall ignore the simple solutions and mundane problems in favor of creating new bureaucracies or granting more tax abatements to billionaires. My part of town is going through the typical struggles of aging neighborhoods with housing stock that was built over 50 years ago. It's the little stuff that most of us find so frustrating -- like the city allowing landlords to operate group homes in single family houses without a license or an SUP. One or two of these illegal operations can destabilize a neighborhood in a hurry. That's why I find it so laughable that some people are concerned about a fancy big house being built in their neighborhood. If I have a choice between a McMansion going up on my street or one of our older houses being used as a multi-family rental for several unrelated adults, the McMansion gets my support every time.

Tell you what is NOT GOING TO GET MY SUPPORT - the DISD Bond Package for May. That bunch of bozo's must be smoking illegal something or other if they think Dallas voters are going to give them more of our money to waste. The bond election is not about educating kids. It is a giant construction project with lots of contracts for the ODB and their friends.

DISD trustees waive residency requirement for 11 administrators
By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News 3/28/8

Dallas school trustees waived, for one year, the district's residency requirement for 11 top administrators Thursday night on a 5-4 vote.

... In October, the board voted to require employees at or above the executive director level to live within the Dallas Independent School District. The policy trustees approved allows the board to waive the policy for employees upon the recommendation of Superintendent Michael Hinojosa.

Dr. Hinojosa's waiver request this month was the first time he has asked the board to set aside the residency rule for his subordinates.

But board members who voted against the request Thursday did so, they said, because they still think that employees should not be given exemptions from the rule, even though the policy allows it.

Where administrators live "says something about their commitment," trustee Lew Blackburn said. "It's not just a job. It's not just a paycheck. If you live amongst us, you also thrive with us or you suffer with us."

Dr. Hinojosa is a disaster. He can't find people to work for him who will live in our school district, even though we pay them 6-figure salaries. The people he does hire can't get us an audit report and can't get our students a graduation certificate.

That's a shocker! Well, not really! We know our DISD students are not finishing their education. They are not getting an education - period! I frequently mention my neighbor's son who I tutored one Summer to teach him how to read. He had failed the 8th grade. It wasn't rocket science. I taught the kid how to understand that words mean something. He knew how to "sound out" words, using phonetics, but that was not the same thing as reading for comprehension. We followed a college Basketball story that lasted for several weeks. Reading the continuing story and having it reinforced on TV, made words come alive for him. That's how my grandmother taught me to read at 4 back in the days when few US kids went to pre-school or kindergarten or any government program before the first grade. Yet, all these 6-figure "educators" can't come up with a program to teach DISD students how to read or to inspire them to finish their high school education through graduation. My neighbor's son is graduating from high school this year.

Nope! Not voting for another penny for DISD until they deliver some positive results.

I remain a big fan of Angela Hunt, but we surely differ on how zoning cases are handled at City Hall in general and by her in particular. She continues to allow Neil Emmons to run amuck on the Plan Commission and refuses to reign him in, even with numerous examples of him overstepping his authority as a Commissioner and using his office to intimidate people. Last week, that Fairfield project was debated. See Political Games at City Hall (Neil Emmons needs to go!) Rather than making a decision, Councilwoman Hunt sent it back to P&Z, but said she intends to support the project eventually. That doesn't bother me. What did disappoint me was her monarchal response to Councilman Natinsky who made a substitute motion to approve the project that day. His amendment failed because the control freaks on the council backed Angela as the SOLE VOICE FOR ZONING IN DISTRICT 14.

Editorial: Dallas City Council should abandon fiefdoms
The Dallas Morning News 4/1/

All members should have a say in zoning issues

The rule can't be found in any Dallas city code.

But for too long, City Council members have abided by an unspoken commandment: Thou shalt not mess with colleagues' zoning cases.

When contentious questions about what to build where make their way to the council chambers, city leaders often tiptoe around one another, subtly deferring to the representative whose district is affected. If a council member wants to approve, reject or delay a project in his or her district, other elected officials generally acquiesce.

But last week, council member Ron Natinsky dared to diverge from the script.

When colleague Angela Hunt sought to delay voting on a controversial development in her district, Mr. Natinsky had the audacity to express his opinion. He urged the council to approve the proposal.

Mr. Natinsky was right to offer an explanation for his support. Some of his colleagues, though, recoiled at this perceived breach of etiquette.

Ms. Hunt's rebuke was swift and sarcastic. "Well, thank you, Mr. Natinsky," she said. "And I do appreciate your interest in District 14 zoning cases."

Council member Vonciel Jones Hill deemed it "presumptuous" for an official to wade into a zoning case in another district.

To their credit, Mayor Tom Leppert and Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia came out against fiefdoms and offered support for the idea of one person, one vote. We agree that all 15 council members should have a say in zoning cases.

Unfortunately, the independent-minded still appear to be in the minority on the council. Too many city leaders are loath to rock the boat on issues in other districts, lest their colleagues interfere with their own pet projects.

Elected representatives should be attuned to the needs and wishes of their districts, so their insights and opinions about their neighborhoods should carry weight. But a single council member should not dictate decisions in a district.

Council representatives are elected to serve all of Dallas. And we'd be better served by leaders who favor a citywide vision rather than parochial protocol.

After the Trinity campaign, I do not have the same affection or respect for Councilman Natinsky, but on this one zoning case he was right. On the big picture of ward politics, Angela was wrong. Her tone and decision-making (which includes keeping on Neil Emmons) gave the DMN an opportunity to take another shot at her.

Ward politics is the Devil's key to the soul of the city council. It is how some council members have got themselves in trouble in the past, and it is the bait that will get others in trouble in the future.

The Dallas Managed News is not going to miss a chance to take a shot at Angela Hunt. They are scared she is already plotting to run for Mayor. She gave them ammunition over the way she handled this zoning case. They will never forgive her for fighting their Trinity Tollway Project. I said at the end of the campaign when we TECHNICALLY lost that we ACTUALLY won. Our intent was to stop a dangerous project. I am convinced the exposure we put on the Trinity Project and the related waste of tax dollars is going to be the poison pill that kills this sick monstrosity. Even the DMN has had to report the project is considered "pork".

So, stuff is popping all over town. Just like the way we must tend to all the Spring growth in our flower beds an front yards, some of the bad stuff going on needs to be pruned back.

sb

Dallas officials divided on new impound policy for uninsured vehicles By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News 4/3/8

Dallas officials divided on new impound policy for uninsured vehicles
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News 4/3/8