Darryl Baker

I just read through the article about the City's credit card usage. Overall, I would like to think that the City gets it mostly right most of the time.

My big concern is that over the last 15 years, our City Councils and City Managers have seen fit to "privatize" many functions that really should have remained under the City's control. Purchases that can be made outside the bid process are prime examples of what I consider to be payoffs to private companies with taxpayer money. Too many depend too heavily on City purchases to stay in business. That's bad for the City!

It is NOT government's job to provide contracts to private business! More than a separation church and state, I think we need a major separation of business and government. Don't get me started! The very reason "Dallasarena.com" exists is because sports team owners wanted to subsidize exorbitant player salaries and luxury skyboxes using taxpayer money.

Based on the problems that too many players have with drug and substance abuse, criminal violence and other "bad behaviors", I certainly don't want MY tax dollars used to promote that kind of (so-called) economic development! And, when was the last time any city recognized anywhere near the promised levels of economic development when government helped make these sports deals happen?

Before credit cards became such a major part of our lives, City workers actually did "plan ahead" and knew what would be needed during the budget year. In the case of the credit cards, just "follow the money" to the banks and processing businesses that really benefit from the fees charged for the use of the cards and the "prestige" they market to try and get other big government clients on board.

In my view, it would be better and cheaper to hire back the clerks and bookkeepers who were laid off from the City and let them keep track of what's going on in a transparent and responsive way.

To the critics who object to the use of employee time and effort to provide information -- it is OUR RIGHT to know and it is their JOB! The good employees will have this type of information available at the drop of a hat! The open records rules are just stumbling blocks that incompetent workers and government officials use to cover up the fact that they don't know what they are doing! Make no mistake about it -- this is OUR information, not theirs!

As a retired City employee, I never felt like citizens were a bother. If a question got asked more than twice, then I felt it was a good idea to have the answers ready "in advance" so an open records request was never needed as far as MY job was concerned. I was stupid enough to believe that I really did work for the citizens and THEY were my bosses! Any amount time I needed to spend to satisfy them was time well spent!