Our Mayor has been doing a little "now you see it, now you don't" dance with the local media and former supporters regarding her plans to support Bah! Bah!'s strong-arm mayor "referendum".  She has been pretending not to be in the middle of the Park Cities plot from the get go, but as of Monday, January 3, 2005, Our Mayor has officially turned her back on Dallas residents and cast her lot with people who prefer to live in the Park Cities and do their business in Dallas.

Several of Our Mayor's Park Cities Cabal have big stakes in Downtown real estate, and almost all of them have big stakes in Our Mayor, having served on her Finance Committee.

Several reporters have been insisting Our Mayor had not definitely committed to support the Park Cities plan to reduce Dallas residents to serfs and the city council to tree stumps.  They must not have been at last month's debate between Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and Our Mayor.  She was absolutely debating in favor of Bah! Bah!'s plan, and she was totally aware she did not have the support of the audience because she became increasingly frantic to win us over.

In Our Mayor's spirit of game playing, let's pretend we buy it that she just decided Monday what she to do about Bah! Bah!'s plan.

Miller backs strong-mayor vote; Mayor considers own fund-raising effort Monday, January 3, 2005 By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

After weeks of maybes and probablys, Mayor Laura Miller said Monday that she would support a May referendum on whether to do away with Dallas' city manager form of government in favor of a more powerful, executive-style mayor. ...  she's considering forming her own strong-mayor campaign and fund-raising effort. ... After Ms. Miller's council colleagues rebuffed her, Dallas lawyer Beth Ann Blackwood submitted more than 30,000 residents' signatures on behalf of an even more sweeping strong-mayor ballot petition. ...  Ms. Miller said. "But I think the issue is that people are hungry for change. People are ready for a strong-mayor form of government. And how much worse could it be? We don't even deliver effective city services." ... Ms. Blackwood said Monday that she was unaware of the mayor's support or her potential interest in a parallel support campaign.  ...  "I'm pleased to see the mayor is for more accountability at City Hall. I really had no idea what she was going to do," Ms. Blackwood said. ...  Council member James Fantroy, who supports retaining the council-manager form of government, pledged to launch an anti-strong-mayor campaign.    Using his own money, Mr. Fantroy said he plans to purchase 100 billboards worth of advertising space and set up phone banks in hopes of thwarting the strong-mayor effort.    "If you're going to try to take power from me, I have the right to use my resources to fight this," Mr. Fantroy said. "This is one of the most critical elections in the history of Dallas elections, ...    Asked if she's worried about alienating supporters who happen to oppose a strong-mayor form of government, Ms. Miller said that's doubtful. ...  "Apparently then, she's forgot the people who elected her who wanted change, but not by coup d'etat. We don't want a dictatorship," said Mr. Adelman, who operates the Web site strongarmmayor.com. "You're going to see a very unusual mixing of people who don't usually work together coming together to oppose this."

Do you know anyone who is "hungry for change" from our city manager system to a strong-arm mayor system?  I mean anyone who lives in Dallas?  Do you know anyone who even favors a strong mayor system?  So, who are the "people" Our Mayor claims are "hungry for change"?  Most of her best friends and financial backers don't live in our city. 

Anyone who stays in Our Mayor's "inner circle" must agree with her on everything.  If you disagree, you are to keep all negative thoughts to yourself.  To be a "friend" to Laura Miller (if you're not a rich big shot), you must hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.  Constructive criticism is only allowed if you own lots of real estate (or inherited big bucks).

Our Mayor's deception in this farce makes me angry, but I am absolutely outraged that a bunch of Park Cities fat cats have taken it upon themselves to change with our city government.  Park Cities Bimbo Bah! Bah! Blackwood and her husband are merely the front guys because I guarantee you this entire scheme was hatched in a fancy living room on Beverly -- from the start. 

From reporters to political groupies, no one who knows anything about Dallas politics believes several members of Laura Miller's Finance Committee organized this Park Cities Cabal and kept it from her.  No one who knows Laura Miller believes all this could have happened without her input. 

Laura Miller is a control freak.  Being one myself, I certainly recognize the condition in others.  The thing that makes me absolutely sure this was Our Mayor's plan from the get go is that all the members of her Park Cities Cabal are rich guys.  Outside of her husband and herself, the only people whose opinions matter to Laura Miller are rich guys.  If you are not rich, Laura can find you useful, but you are supposed to stay in your place and your opinion means little or nothing to her.

If a pack of rich Park Cities white dudes announced to Our Mayor they want to take control of Dallas City Hall, she would likely accept their decision without much of a fuss and adopt it as her own.

Avi Adelman has designed a clever logo for the opposition that really is perfect.  He is organizing one group in opposition, but a group of Downtown businessmen are also coming together to oppose the Mayor's strong-arm plans. I personally know of several individuals who previously played key roles in Laura Miller's successful political campaigns who are not only opposing her in this fight, but will not support her in the future.  Several potential candidates are organizing campaigns to go against her in 2007.

Our Mayor has an immature need to be "liked" by the council.  She wants them to do what she wants because they like her.  Problem is, they don't like her.

Our Mayor doesn't have the will to use the powers she already has -- powers that were very effective for Con Jerk/Ron Kirk. 

So, what's a girl to do?  If she can't make the council like her (much less love her) and she won't punish them by yanking their council committee appointments and/or chair or vice-chair positions (they might like her even less), the only thing left is to have her Park Cities benefactors buy her a new system of government where she can do whatever she wants (or she can do whatever her Park Cities benefactors want her to want).

I would have supported a charter amendment that gives more power to the Mayor, but not now and certainly not this plan.  We don't need to do away with the City Manager.  We just need to make it a little easier to hire and fire him or her.  Rather than let the Mayor exclusively hire and fire the CM, it should be a joint decision of the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem with a 2/3rds override by the rest of the council.  Since the Mayor is elected at large by all of us WHO LIVE IN DALLAS, and the council pick the Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, the council would still have a say, but a bad CM could be sent packing when necessary.

The hard part of all this is that I genuinely care about Laura Miller, at least the Laura Miller we used to know.  I hate it that she's gone South on us.  I hate it more that there's nothing I or any of her former supporters can say or do to reach her and get her back on track.  She is lost to us, and that's all there is to it.

Laura and the Park Cities Cabal planned to turn this strong-arm mayor fight into a black/white contest.  It was to be a fight between pretty white lady Laura and mean old black man James Fantroy (and hopefully Maxine Thornton-Reese).  They were not banking on most of Laura's former supporters opposing her, nor a group of business men fighting to keep our city manager system.

If you really want to understand Dallas, get a copy of Big D, Triumphs and Troubles of an American Supercity in the 20th Century (Revised Edition), by Darwin Payne.  This book has so much information and history.  On page 244, Dr. Payne writes about "A Move to Annex the Park Cities":

The more things change ---  Here we are in 2005, a city of 1,188,204 is about to be annexed by a cabal of tycoons from two cities with populations totaling 30,000, with the assistance of Our Mayor.  If she has her way, we are about to become the official serfs to Park Cities residents, but for all practical purposes they have been controlling us for more than 100 years.

We cannot let these guys take control of our city and reduce Dallas residents to the serf class of the landed gentry of the Park Cities

When many of us worked so hard to get Laura Miller elected Mayor, we thought she was one of us.  Little did we understand in what low regard she holds us.

I never expected Mayor Miller to do everything I wanted, but I did expect her to keep her own promises.  Our Mayor obviously has spent too much time in the Bubble.  She once said she had a "Big Vision of the little things" that make life more livable.  Now, she's caught up in Big Visions of the Park Cities that make their life more livable -- Big Vision stuff that we get to pay for.

That Laura Miller is now openly backing Bah! Bah! Blackwood's Strong-Arm Mayor plan is no surprise.  That Laura Miller expects us to believe she was not in the scam from the beginning is not a surprise either , but it is insulting.

sb

 

 

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