Michael Davis
                             

8/6/8   Stop picking on Dwaine and Betty!

For the past several days, two friends of mine have been taking a lot of abuse.  Totally unwarranted abuse.  I'm tired of it.

Maybe it's the heat, but I have just not had the energy to respond or go to bat for them.  Guess I thought it would all go away, but people keep throwing stones at my friends, Betty Culbreath and Dwaine Caraway.  I want it to stop. 

They are both capable of fighting their own battles, but it's hard to respond to such pettiness without giving it plausibility.  Betty Culbreath and Dwaine Caraway are two tough people who want to make their hometown better.  They are Dallas born and raised.

Betty Culbreath chairs the Dallas Housing Authority, and Dwaine Caraway is Deputy Mayor Pro Tem of the City Council.  That makes them targets.

Until her resignation, Ann Lott ran the DHA.  Betty Culbreath has not been trying to get rid of Lott, but she wanted things fixed at the DHA.  Lott seemed to be bullet proof.  She was so inept at management, the DHA had two different computer systems that "didn't talk to each other".  That's how you get millions in rent subsidies (our tax dollars) paid out to dead people.

Having served on a couple of non-profit and civic boards myself, I know how frustrating it is to work with an administrator who is more adept at playing politics than administration.  A board of directors is usually a group of people with various degrees of experience or interest in the organization they are supposed to be overseeing.  Inevitably, at least a third of the board are just building their resumes and will move on as soon as a more prestigious spot opens up on another board.  Then there are the ones who mean well, but are just clueless.  The remaining third are the go-getters. 

You would think the go-getters would dominate the decisions and make things happen.  Doesn't work that way.  They do their homework.  They have plans and ideas.  They do not always count their votes.

The ones who really control boards are the resume builders who do not want anything to happen that will reflect badly on them.  They talk a good story with the go-getters, but push come to shove  they will pull the rug out from under the best thought out plans.

The clueless bunch are the ones who make me crazy.  They don't know why they are there.  They don't want controversy.  They don't want to know about bad stuff or details.  They are more undependable than the resume builders.

Because of my business, more than once as a board member of various organizations, I had to take over the group's books when the administrator dropped the bucket.  When you see the way some people keep their records and operate, you have to worry about them out on the street operating a car.  Their inability to multi-task makes is mind-boggling.  But -- they absolutely know how to smooze up just enough of the board members to cover their rears.

Betty Culbreath did not fire Ann Lott.  Betty Culbreath did not force Ann Lott to resign.  Probably should have, but she didn't.  Ann Lott was about to get a serious reprimand from the auditors.  I don't think she expected the Board to accept her resignation.  I don't know why they gave her that big termination package of $90K.  But, she needed to go, and she's gone -- and that's good.

For some reason, former DART Board member Joyce Foreman weighed in on this dustup and managed to take a shot at Councilman Dwaine Caraway in the process.

With the caveat that Michael Davis is Dwaine Caraway's appointee to the Plan Commission and they are close friends, I still recommend you read his comments in, There is No Profit in Getting Along...for some.   He comes out swinging at Dwaine's critics with valid comments.

Dwaine is capable of seeing the "big picture", but he's also a guy who understands the importance of little successes and obtainable goals.  Everyone poo-pooed Dwaine's campaign to get young males to stop wearing the saggy britches that look so stupid.  He was absolutely on target.  I'm won't call those baggy britches wearers "young men" because it takes more than a pair to make you a man.  If they were "young men", they wouldn't wear such ridiculous uniforms.  Dwaine thinks the saggy pants are disrespectful toward women, but they really reveal a self-disrespect for the male wearing the saggy pants uniform.  Unlike some former and current  "minority leaders", Dwaine wants to elevate young people to a level of personal respect.  

It's the same attitude that makes him want merchants to clean up the appearance of their store fronts.  A papered up store front is as disrespectful to the community as are baggy pants.  It tells the community the store operator does not respect the neighborhood where his patrons live.  May sound like small potatoes to you, but little steps lay the ground work for big agendas.

I've been close enough to local politics to see things from the inside and outside.  I've seen and heard the big agendas, the big promises, with most of them still just pretty brochures.  When you want to make things better like Dwaine wants for South Dallas, you start with the small stuff.

When Oak Lawn and Lemmon Avenue were getting seedier and declining, those of us who believed it could be saved focused on trees.  We believed adding trees to the area would enhance it.  If someone wanted our support for a development, they had to be prepared to over-plant trees.  Everyone thought we were silly, but look at what 20 years of tree planting has done for Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek and Uptown.

Ed Oakley and Mark Shekter are responsible for the trees on Cedar Springs. 

With all the density in Oak Lawn and Uptown now, the abundance of trees softens the impact and gives the area an urban neighborhood feel. 

With Dwaine focusing on "do-able" stuff like closing "hot-sheet motels" and seemingly small picture agendas, some dismiss his effectiveness.  I think he is extremely effective.

In one of her blog messages, Joyce Foreman suggests Betty Culbreath may be replaced as Chair of the DHA Board over this Ann Lott mess.  Joyce mentions some of Betty's powerful friends, including Dwaine Caraway.  Betty Culbreath does not need the aggravation of that chairmanship.  She does it because there is work to be done, and she knows she can get it done.  Her friendship with Dwaine is not political -- it is a real bond.

When Betty almost died a couple of years ago, Dwaine Caraway was with her 24/7 until she was out of the woods.  She was so medicated, she didn't even know he was there, but he was there.  We should all be so lucky to have someone watching our back like that.

You know what?  I am that lucky, too.  Both of them would be there for me if I needed them.  I have other friends who have proven true and strong.  That makes me more than lucky, it makes me blessed.

One of the points Michael Davis makes is the skepticism many "liberals" have about a Black man's motives.  Limousine liberals talk a good story, but they really like to keep minorities in subservient and needy situations.  They are very tolerant of crooked Black politicians who carry water for the establishment, but they resent and question someone like Dwaine who runs around taking care of the small stuff that impacts his constituents' quality of life. 

That Dwaine Caraway gets along with the Mayor is not a bad thing.  We have had 20 years of Black council members being at odds with various mayors.  What did they accomplish?  Not much!

There is so much to be done in Pleasant Grove and South Dallas and West Oak Cliff.  Why would Councilman Caraway not want Mayor Leppert to be on his team?  I guarantee you Dwaine Caraway would have had a good relationship with Laura Miller had she run again and been re-elected.  That's just who he is. 

It's too hot!  We need to all chill out and be thankful that people like Betty Culbreath and Dwaine Caraway are willing to do what they can to make this city more livable.

sb