Todd Bensman & Robert Riggs
Michael Davis
Lou Nelson
                             

08/08/05  Dallas City Hall is One Strange Place!

Regular DallasArena.com readers know it was a happy day for me when Princess Velveeta Lill moved on to her new life (lay person purgatory before assuming her heavenly role as a zoning consultant).  Unfortunately, she and her gang of preservation nazis have left behind some very problematic regulations, and her successor seems determined to make us miss Princess Velveeta.

Before I report on the doings of District 14's newly elected control freak, here's an interesting development:

Outtakes; A blueprint for dissension Saturday, August 6, 2005 David Dillon

A recent amendment to the city's development code, barely a paragraph long, has sparked a revolt among Dallas architects. The offending paragraph spells out how "accessory structures" ? pool houses, cabanas, studios, greenhouses ? should relate to the main house.    "Exterior siding, roofing, roof pitch, foundation, fascia and fenestration must be compatible with the main building," the amendment reads, with compatibility being determined by the city's building inspection department. The same goes for "materials, colors, shape, size, slope and other characteristics." A compatibility designation gets you a building permit, noncompatibility means back to the drawing board.    The city sees the new rules as a way to clamp down on egregiously inappropriate additions, mostly done by builders and handymen, not as a call for more mimicry. Architects, on the other hand, see them as an assault on their creativity.    "They're well-intentioned but misguided," says Bill Booziotis, whose stunning stainless steel and slate art gallery behind a colonial brick house in North Dallas would have been nixed under the new regulations. "They may keep out the really bad stuff but also prevent anything really good from happening."    Richard Davis, whose slate-roofed cabana for a '60s ranch house was just turned down, is baffled by the whole process.    "I used elegant materials that were far better than anything in the original," he says. "This is just more creeping government control of creative expression."    Former councilwoman Veletta Forsythe Lill, who spearheaded the changes, says the new guidelines were intended to be "very general."    "If we find difficulty in implementing them, or that they are being abused, we can always tweak them."    If that's the case, then let's start tweaking so that we don't have overburdened and underqualified building inspectors deciding whether the fish scale shingles should be mauve or puce. Let them focus on faulty wiring and leaking roofs and give the paint chips to the architects. ...

Unfortunately, things in District 14 may get worse before they get better.  The word on the grapevine is that Hunt is reappointing creepy Neil Emmons to the Plan Commission.  It could have been worse.  She could have replaced him with Mad Maxx Arronson.

The 8/10/05 Dallas City Council meeting was a clue (as in sledgehammer) of what we should expect from Councilwoman Angela Hunt.  For almost a year, there has been planning and meetings and negotiations regarding street kiosks at West Village (Mckinney @ Lemmon).  At today's council meeting where the kiosks were supposed to be approved, Hunt decided to throw a wrench in the process and let everyone know that she's the boss of Oak Lawn now.  She took the relevant cases "under advisement" for two weeks because she is concerned that the city maps that are supposed to be on the kiosks are not convenient for the pedestrians.  I'm not kidding!  That's what she said.

Hunt talked about the narrow sidewalks not being pedestrian friendly.  One councilmember called up City Manager Mary Suhm who is usually pretty unflappable.  She sounded most flapped.  When asked if delaying the approval would be a problem, she said it would not be as big a problem as having to re-negotiate all the kiosks deals because the advertising fees are based on visibility.  If the kiosks must have a city map on the most visible surface, that will substantially reduce the revenue to the vendor and the city from the kiosks. 

Early in the day, Old Al Lipscomb made an appearance asking for city subsidies for his latest scam to help ex-convicts.  He so inspired some on the council that Shakedown Leo Chaney suggested that the city start up a program so that the ex-cons could be hired by the city.  Can you just imagine?  The next code enforcement officer might be an ex-con?  Maybe, it's a job creation program for all those guys who eventually go to jail from what comes out of our current FBI investigation.

Councilman Oakley made a big mistake today, too.  He pushed through a new apartment complex in the Pinnacle Park project.  Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Garcia was eloquent in explaining why she could not support more apartments in Oak Cliff.  Even the DISD had sent a letter asking the council not to approve the project because all the area schools are already over-populated.  It was great fun to hear Willie Cothrum be dismissive of the concerns of one of his biggest clients, the DISD. 

Just what Oak Cliff needs -- more apartments.  Single family homes are selling like hot cakes in Oak Cliff, but the best Councilman Oakley could do for Pinnacle Park are more apartments!

Mayor Miller tried to get Community Block Grant (CBG) funds transferred from one of Shakedown Chaney's Southern Sector front groups to use the monies instead for repairing CITY FACILITIES.  Dave Levinthal has a great blow-by-blow account of the meeting.  You feel like you are right there in the council chambers while reading his report:

Tempers flare in debate on S. Dallas aid; Dallas: Council move to strip money from development group fails August 10, 2005 By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

A debate over funding a business development organization with tax dollars boiled into a racially tinged City Council argument Wednesday evening at Dallas City Hall.    Ultimately, the council voted to preserve most of the South Dallas Development Corp.'s federally funded 2005-06 community development block grants that Mayor Laura Miller and several council members had sought to strip ? but not before council member Maxine Thornton-Reese accused the mayor of practicing racial politics.    "She didn't ask nobody from the south," said Dr. Thornton-Reese, accusing northern-sector council colleagues Mitchell Rasansky, Bill Blaydes and Ron Natinsky of carrying out the mayor's will by sponsoring measures that would have transferred more than $1.1 million from the development corporation to repair city buildings. ...  "My integrity has been questioned. This has nothing to do with race, and it has everything to do with spending public dollars," Mr. Blaydes told Dr. Thornton-Reese. "My wife told me not to get baited, but damn it, this is the time to get baited. I thought you knew me better than that. Nobody tells me how to vote."    Ms. Miller panned the development corporation for dropping city-appointed representatives from its board and defaulting on a loan. The development corporation therefore shouldn't receive city-controlled federal funds if it can't even manage its books properly, the mayor argued.    "I am really sad that once again, instead of talking about how we spend money, we start talking about division ..."    "That you are making," Dr. Thornton-Reese, who is black, interjected.    "... and personalities ..." Ms. Miller, who is white, continued.    "Division that you are making!" Dr. Thornton-Reese said.    "... and we go way off track," Ms. Miller said. "It's an interesting diversion, and it's very unfortunate." ... The 6-6 vote meant that a measure to transfer the $1.16 million elsewhere failed. ... Dr. Thornton-Reese, Dr. Garcia, Mr. Hill and council members Angela Hunt, Ed Oakley and Gary Griffith voted against the transfer. Ms. Miller, Mr. Blaydes, Mr. Rasansky, Mr. Natinsky and council members Steve Salazar and Linda Koop voted for it. ...

So much for a new day at City Hall.  Angela Hunt has teamed up with smarmy Gary Griffith and Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese to stick it to the Mayor.  What a shock! 

We didn't hear much from Linda Koop, but Ron Natinksy was very vocal all day, asking good questions.  He will not be another Sandy Greyson, but Angela Hunt may be very much like Princess Velveeta, only worse.  So far, the only good things I can think to say about Hunt:  she's more attractive than Lill and doesn't sound like some drama queen when she speaks.  Guess, we have to be grateful for small favors.

Hopefully, Mayor Miller is going to keep going with her new get tough approach.  We all liked and/or loved Annette Strauss, but we didn't vote for an Annette, Jr. when we backed Laura Miller.  Just for the record, Mayor Strauss lost lots of votes as Mayor.  I would rather have Mayor Miller lose some votes and take a strong stand in opposition than to go along to get along.  She lost the Pinnacle Park apartment vote and the CBG vote, but she got her message out.

One last development that just cannot be ignored, even if it is not directly a City Hall matter:

No vouchers for unsafe rentals in Dallas; Housing agency to exclude properties in high-crime areas 07:25 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 By KIM HORNER / The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Housing Authority has warned landlords that it will stop sending people who receive subsidized rent vouchers to live at their properties if there is too much crime in the area.    The agency plans to exclude properties where the crime rate within a quarter-mile exceeds the city's average crime rate for six months. The housing agency also will allow residents already using vouchers in crime-heavy areas to move. ... The goal is to ensure that people in the Housing Choice Voucher Program ? formerly called Section 8 ? live in safe, decent housing, said Mike Daniel, the plaintiff's attorney in the desegregation case.    "You could be a perfectly lovely landlord, but if the housing you're offering is in a high-crime area, then there is absolutely no justification for spending Section 8 money to place families in that high-crime area," he said. ... A number of properties that accept vouchers had higher-than-average crime rates in June, according to a Dallas Housing Authority report.    The housing authority owns two: Roseland Estates and Roseland Townhomes, both on Munger Avenue near downtown. Each property had 25 crimes per 1,000 people in June ? more than three times the city average of 7 crimes per 1,000 people in a month.    "We must abide by the rules also," said Dallas Housing Authority spokeswoman Michelle Raglon. ... Several property owners reached Tuesday would not comment publicly about the housing authority policy and expressed concern over being held responsible for something they cannot control.    They cited the city's recent use of public-nuisance abatement laws to crack down on business owners and homeowners who allow crime to happen on their properties. A Texas House committee charged with looking into allegations of official corruption plans to hold public hearings on whether the city of Dallas used the laws to intimidate and shake down businesses. ...

Now, what usually follows Section 8 vouchers?  That would be crime!  Not that the Section 8 recipients are all criminals.  They are frequently the target of a criminal -- a criminal to whom the  victim may be related -- or at least the victim's kids are related to the criminal.  If two DHA properties have "higher-than-average crime rates", is the DHA going to withhold rent vouchers from its tenants who cannot afford to move and likely don't want to move?  Alice in Wonderland would feel right at home among such addled thinking.

Jim Schutze (Payback, 8/4/05) has been writing some hard stuff about how the City of Dallas has abused the public-nuisance abatement laws.  Apparently, someone at the DHA is not keeping current with the Dallas Observer.

This is all just too strange.  I'm going to bed.  Hopefully, I will wake up in the morning and it will all have been a bad dream caused by that club sandwich I had for dinner.

sb