Todd Bensman & Robert Riggs
                             

06/24/05  Can't a gadfly fly the coop for a few days without the town falling apart?

Most years, June 21 finds me out of Dallas celebrating my brother's birthday wherever he is living at the time.  To see him this year, my husband and I took Amtrak to Chicago and over to Ann Arbor, Michigan.  We had just got there when my cell started ringing with the news that the FBI was after Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, Councilman James Fantroy and a Plan Commissioner.

I was stunned, and yet not completely surprised.  There's been too much smoke, for some fire not to flame up.  Now, where it goes from here, is anyone's guess.

As we were returning home from Union Station on Thursday, the cab driver had his radio on KHVN, Robert Ashley's show.  Ashley was interviewing the city's most parasitic citizen, Roy Williams, an unemployed, NORTH DALLAS resident who tries to play plantation politics in South Dallas.  This same scum bag, who stood up for a confessed and convicted bribe taker and called the prosecution of Al Lipscomb a racist plot and recently campaigned for Old Al Lipscomb, is now saying the FBI would not be doing this investigation (against Fantroy, Hill, et al) if they didn't have the facts.  He said that since 9-11, the FBI is very careful. 

Excuse me?  Investigations are done to get the facts and/or confirm suspicions.  This current investigation is no more or less race-based than was the FBI prosecution of Old Al.  It's an investigation, not a prosecution -- at least not yet.

NORTH DALLAS resident Williams then said Mayor Laura Miller is involved.  He reminded Ashley that Miller wrote The Dallas Observer story on Ol Al (Clueless: For city Councilman Al Lipscomb, taking handouts from power brokers has become a way of life. Is there a problem? by Laura Miller, Published May 30, 1996) story on Old Al.  He claimed her story was the basis for the FBI's investigation and prosecution of Old Al.  Funny, they had been wire-taping Old Al for some time, when they caught him talking with then Councilman Paul Fielding.  Then reporter Laura Miller wrote Should Paul Fielding go to jail?  (The Dallas Observer , by Laura Miller, Published December 26, 1996) was written after Paul had already been indicted.  Paul's indictment was absolutely connected to Old Al's investigation which had been on-going for over a year. 

Had Paul Fielding been willing to testify against Al Lipscomb, he would not have gone to prison. 

NORTH DALLAS resident Williams then said Laura Miller was an investigative reporter and knew how to get information, and she should have found about all this because she's the Mayor and because she did not she is not doing her job.

Again, excuse me?  Laura Miller WAS an investigative reporter, but NOW she is the Mayor of Dallas.  I don't know of anything in the City Charter or even in the Blackwood proposal that requires or even authorizes the Mayor of Dallas to investigate council members.  If NORTH DALLAS resident Williams knows of such an ordinance or Charter regulation, it would be most helpful if he would share the information with the rest of us.

Because we are friends, I have conversations with the Mayor.  I have never heard her say a disparaging word about Don Hill.  No one wants this to be true.

FBI probes bribery allegations: Exclusive: Housing developer at heart of City Hall inquiry 6/22/05 by TAWNELL D. HOBBS and ERNESTO LONDO? / The Dallas Morning News

A federal investigation into possible corruption at Dallas City Hall centers on a real estate development company and allegations that its agents bribed public officials to smooth the way for some of its projects, The Dallas Morning News has learned.    FBI agents on Tuesday continued to search the offices of Southwest Housing Development Co., which specializes in building affordable housing for low-income families and senior citizens. In return for developing affordable housing, the company earns federal tax credits that increase the profitability of its projects. ...    Agents searched the law office, home and City Hall office of Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill. Warrants also were executed at J.L.'s Security and Investigations, a company owned by Dallas City Council member James Fantroy. ...    Lori Bailey, an FBI spokeswoman, also confirmed that agents searched the office of D'Angelo Lee at 1409 S. Lamar, a high-rise building across from the Dallas Police Department. His car also was searched while it sat in a City Hall parking space.    Mr. Lee is a member of the City Plan Commission, the municipal panel that deals with zoning matters that affect Southwest Housing and other real estate developers. Mr. Lee was appointed to the plan commission by Mr. Hill. ...    One of the search warrants, used to search Mr. Hill's vehicle, gave agents permission to collect evidence of, among other things, "theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds."    Mr. Hill told reporters Tuesday that he doesn't own the 1998 BMW that FBI agents searched.    "I'm allowed to drive the car," he said.    The car is registered to Daniel Thorne of Garland, but Mr. Hill said that wasn't the person who gave him the car. When asked who owned it, he declined to answer and became agitated.    "It's not a buyout for a vote," he said. "It's a friend's car ? a car I earned the right to drive." ... ILLEGAL LAND DEAL?    A Dallas school district official said Mr. Lee approached him in February about making an under-the-table land deal, mentioning Mr. Hill's name prominently in the discussion.    The school official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Lee wanted him to arrange for the Dallas Independent School District to sell land to a developer in exchange for compensation. ...    Mr. Lee disputed that version of events. "That is absolutely untrue," he said. ...    He said he has been looking at DISD land near the veterans hospital as an additional site for the city's homeless shelter. ...    The school official said he avoided Mr. Lee after that first ? and only ? meeting, which took place at Mr. Lee's office across from the Dallas Police Department.    "He hunted me down for maybe two weeks," the official said. " ...    Late last year, Mr. Lee approached the Dallas Housing Authority about partnering with Southwest Housing on two multifamily projects, said Ann Lott, authority president and CEO. ...    Brian Potashnik and his family are active campaign contributors to local, state and federal candidates. Most of their money goes to Democrats, according to records. ...    Ms. Miller and her council colleagues have raised questions about the relationship between Mr. Fantroy's security business and southern Dallas developers. About a year ago, council members learned Mr. Fantroy had a business contract with James Fisher, a local developer and president of Provident Odyssey Partners, another company that builds southern-sector housing. ... The city attorney told the mayor that as long as Mr. Fantroy excused himself from council actions involving Provident, the contract wasn't inappropriate.    In September, Ms. Miller accused Mr. Fantroy of a breach of ethics on a similar case ? one that involved Mr. Fisher and a zoning change for a proposed multifamily housing complex in southern Dallas.    Mr. Fantroy, who excused himself from a vote because of a conflict of interest, spoke about the case with council member Maxine Thornton-Reese and asked her to carry the item through to approval for him. ...    Southwest Housing has received tens of millions of dollars from the state of Texas for 43 properties since 1994, according to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. The bulk of that money came through the state's low-income housing tax credit program, with the rest through a bond program. ...    Agent Bailey said investigators finished executing the search warrants Tuesday. No one was arrested in connection with the investigation. ...    Public corruption ranks fourth on the FBI's Top 10 priority list, which was reassessed after Sept. 11, 2001. Terrorism, espionage and cybercrimes are the top three priorities. ...    Mr. Lipscomb's conviction was later overturned on a technicality, and the U.S. attorney's office declined to retry him.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the DMN print a story with a Tawnell Hobbs byline where she actually says Old Al's "conviction was later overturned on a technicality, and the U.S. attorney's office declined to retry him."  That is not the same as he was found innocent.

The "reporters" who questioned Don Hill about the BMW he drives was "reporter" Sarah Dodd with KTVT-11.  Sarah broke the story!  Everybody else is eating her dust!

When all is said and done, this scandal is going to be about City Plan Commissioner D'Angelo Lee.  I hope the idiot will not have destroyed the political future of Don Hill.  It was foolish of Don Hill to appoint Lee to the P&Z, just as it was foolish of James Fantroy to appoint a confessed bribe taker to the Police Review Board. 

You can be friends with a shady character without being tainted, but as elected officials, Councilmen Hill and Fantroy had fiduciary responsibilities to their constituents and should have put aside their friendships with the likes of Lee and Lipscomb.  There are plenty of respectable, honest and responsible people in Dallas who would like to serve on high profile city boards and commissions without resorting to the dregs of the city.

Every council member who voted to approve the nomination of Lee to the P&Z is responsible for our current scandal.  Even the DMN is spreading the blame around the horse shoe on this calamity:  Checks and Balances: City Council has neglected important duty .

You know what?  The blame belongs to all of us, particularly those who don't bother to vote and those who vote one-issue politics. 

I hate to keep mentioning a non-entity like Roy Williams, but he talked about 14-1 in his interview with Robert Ashley on KHVN, claiming it gave "the people" influence at City Hall.  That's baloney! 

If the districts were drawn fairly with reasonable shapes that do not dissect communities and neighborhoods, it might give us a people's government at City Hall.  However, the 14 districts we have had to live with since (then Highland Park resident) Federal Judge Jerry Buchmeyer imposed 14-1 on Dallas have eliminated the opportunity for true community leaders to build power bases that could get them into office. 

Our existing district lines assure that "dynasty" candidates win the council seat after they are endorsed by the out-going incumbent, which effectively disenfranchises the rest of the district's residents.  Dynasty elected officials then only put people on city boards and commissions who are in the dynasty clique.  The incestuous tradition is creating some ugly babies with serious defects in ethics.

This current catastrophe may not permanently hurt Dallas, but it does nothing good for our city.  No one can take pleasure in all this, but we cannot have public officials, elected or appointed, using their offices for personal gain or to the financial benefit of their friends, associates or backers. 

Those are big "ifs", and I am not sure anything good will come from any of this. 

sb