What?  a Riot?
Gehrig & Gwinn
CBS-11
                             

08/18/05  A majority of the council condones corruption.

What a sad day this has been for Dallas!  I don't want to hear that Mayor Miller should not have pushed for D'Angelo Lee's removal from the Plan Commission, that she should have waited.  That's just baloney!

Mayor Miller told the council today:  "The public does not want to think that you are voting a certain way because you are getting a $5,000 consulting fee or luxury cars to drive."  She's right!

If Al Lipscomb or James Fantroy were to seriously call for rioting in the streets, what we would have would be a bunch of aging activists with gray hair and walkers taking to the street.  The majority of Dallas citizens, regardless of ethnicity, would not tolerate any violence or destruction.  It would be like throwing a party and nobody showing up. 

James Ragland:  Blacks skeptical, but riot threat is silly 10:49 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 17, 2005

... Just one more idle political threat – or promise, depending on which side of the fence you're on – that didn't come to fruition.    That's why the assistant restaurant manager isn't going to sit around and wait for the big riot that Dallas City Council member James Fantroy alluded to Tuesday. ... George Bridges, a patron at the diner where Ms. Chandler works, said he never took Mr. Fantroy's riot remark seriously. ... "If they try to tear down what it took decades to establish, that could be a problem." ... Most folks said they just know the basics: The FBI is investigating low-income, tax-credit housing projects in Dallas. ... This much is clear. Mr. Fantroy is right about the high level of skepticism in the black community. It's real.    But he's wrong about folks being so worked up about the FBI inquiry that they are, in his words, "going to make the Los Angeles riots look like a picnic." ... "Oh, there won't be no riots," said Linda, a 62-year-old woman at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center who didn't want her last name used. "If there were no riots in Dallas when we were coming up, there won't be any now." ... It hardly sounds like we need riot gear.

Is it just me, or has anyone heard anything from County Commissioner John Wiley Price?

As I scanned the local media webs, there was a story about protestors in South Dallas trying to rid their area of prostitutes. 

Protesters urge prostitution crackdown 08:27 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 By BRAD WATSON / WFAA-TV

South Dallas residents gathered Wednesday morning to call for a crackdown on prostitution in the area.    The protestors' specific target is the Interstate Motel at Overton Road and Interstate 35E, which they say is a haven for prostitution. It is located near two DISD buildings, South Oak Cliff High and the Nolan Estes Plaza. ... "We're gonna shut down this motel, OK? (We want to) keep it away from schools and the community," said protester Dwaine Caraway, a local activist and former City Council candidate.    The motel's special-use permit comes up for renewal before the City Planning Commission on November 10, and they don't want it to be renewed.    "This motel and other hot-sheet motels ... get rid of 'em," Caraway said.    Dallas ISD officials told News 8 the district sides with the homeowners, and wants the motel to close.    Representatives of the Highlands and Cedar Crest Village neighborhood associations said the kind of customers the motel attracts puts children at risk. However, the owner of the Interstate Motel, who declined an on-camera interview, denies there's a crime problem. ... Caraway likened the motel to sexually-oriented businesses that have been shut down in other parts of the city; he said the same should happen in this case. ... Caraway said his group plans frequent protests in front of the motel until the Nov. 10 meeting.

See, these are regular people trying to do something FOR their community -- rather than trying to figure out how to enrich themselves.  Regular people who don't want prostitutes in their neighborhood.

Former Chair of the City Plan Commission, Betty Culbreath spoke out today on the Mayor's behalf.  She said the African-American community deserves honest officials, and those who violate their fiduciary responsibilities should be removed from office. 

The problem is we see the same people at the podium pretending to speak for the African-American community, when they only represent a political mafia.  Joyce Foreman criticized Mayor Miller for going after African-American elected officials.  Ms. Foreman, why haven't you made some effort to clean house at City Hall?  Ms. Foreman, why do you think the African-American community should only be represented by crooks and grifters?  Ms. Foreman, why do you defend a man who another African-American woman has confirmed took a $5,000 consulting fee on a P&Z case and then voted on the case?

Split council delays Lee's removal vote; Blacks allege bias in FBI probe; Miller cites corruption, not racism Wednesday, August 17, 2005 By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

... "Today was our chance ... to assure the public we do not put up with corruption," Ms. Miller said after the meeting. "The majority of the council did not send that message today." ... Since Friday, Ms. Miller has argued that Mr. Lee should either resign or be removed from the City Plan Commission – not because of the FBI investigation alone, but because of allegations that have surfaced against him in the last two months. She said these include voting on zoning cases in which he was being paid as a consultant for one of the parties, and not reporting a vehicle that was "given as a gift." As of June 20, Mr. Lee also owed the government nearly $20,000 in personal income taxes, according to a notice of a federal tax lien filed by the IRS. ... "Even if there was no FBI investigation, we would have this vote, because we have standards of behavior at City Hall," she said. ... "We're not voting here to convict him of a crime. We're not voting to give him a fine," Ms. Miller said. "We're voting to say simply that this man no longer has the public trust and shouldn't serve anymore in a position of public trust." ... Council member Steve Salazar said he wondered why, if Mr. Lee's infractions are so serious, no one has filed a complaint.    "If none of us have initiated a complaint, it just means it hasn't risen to that level. Where's the fire? Show it to me, and I can move on with it," he said.    "If a tree falls in the woods and no one heard it, did the tree not fall?" Ms. Miller fired back. "Because your vote today will say loud and clear that it's OK that that happened. And it's not." ... Council member Angela Hunt, who also supported the mayor's motion to remove Mr. Lee, said the City Council has an obligation to uphold the ethics code and "keep our own house in order."    Council member Ed Oakley made the successful motion to delay the vote for three weeks, saying he wanted to see if Mr. Lee reapplies for the post or if anyone files an ethics complaint. ...  Ms. Miller called Wednesday's discussion "the most telling conversation that I have been involved with in my seven years on the City Council," and said she wished she was still a journalist so she could watch "the embarrassment that's being played out among the 15 of us."    "You are what you vote," Ms. Miller said. "You either condone this behavior or you don't."

Well, someone has filed an ethics complaint.  After the contentious hearing where he flip flopped and voted against Mayor Miller, Councilman Bill Blaydes filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission.  See Mayor's effort to remove plan commissioner fails for now, reveals racial divide.

Thursday, Jesse Diaz will also file a complaint with the Ethics Commission:

There were some heroes at City Hall today.  Angela Hunt spoke out and stood strong when she said:  "the City Council has an obligation to uphold the ethics code and keep our own house in order."  Very encouraging that she would stand up.

We got to see Laura Miller at Wednesday's briefing.  Firm, controlled and righteous!  No making nice, no backing down!  She didn't lose!  She stood up against wrong doing.  Unfortunately, NINE council members did not stand with her.

We need to remember the good guys:  Councilman Mitch Rasansky, Councilwoman Angela Hunt, Councilwoman Linda Koop, Councilman Ron Natinsky and Councilman Gary Griffith.

Tuesday, she was on with Mark Davis.  He asked her why not call for Hill's resignation, too.  She said "he's an elected official".  She has been careful not to criticize Don Hill, who deserves a big kick in the rear for being criminally stupid.  Councilman Hill has not been reticent about criticizing Mayor Miller.  He kept bringing up campaign contributions she has gotten from Potashnik (one of the developers targeted by the FBI along with Hill and Fantroy).   They were campaign contributions, duly reported on her financial reports.  Mr. Hill doesn't understand that much of his problems would not exist if he just reported all of his "assistance" received as campaign contributions or taxable income on his IRS returns -- like the use of a BMW.

One very smart man about town pointed out to me that conflict of interest can be very one-sided.  He said there doesn't seem to be any illegality about working for one developer and voting against his competitors on other zoning cases.

This just gets messier and messier.  We need to completely change the way the P&Z operates.  Let's split it into 3 panels of 5 like the Board of Adjustment, and make it quasi-judicial so that no one can lobby any commissioners.  Let's do away with all those P&Z subcommittees and get it back to a one-day per week commitment.  If the panel is split like the BOA, then each commissioner would only be at City Hall one day per month.  That would make service on the P&Z more attractive to people with REAL jobs who aren't looking at it as an income opportunity.

To have D'Angelo Lee sitting on the P&Z for three more weeks is wrong.  Everyone who helped make that happen should be ashamed of themselves.

Those who voted against the Mayor have made it clear they do not respect their positions, they do not respect their fiduciary responsibilities and they do not respect the citizens of Dallas.  The only good news is that Hill, T-Reese and Shakedown Chaney are termed out.  No matter what, they ride off in the sunset in 2007.  Unfortunately, they have proven they can do a lot of harm in 22 months.

One last item, some of the same people who went against Mayor Miller's efforts to remove D'Angelo Lee from the Plan Commission also thwarted her efforts to get control of the South Dallas Slush Fund, which has been mismanaged and ill-used for too long.

If Mayor Miller does nothing more than keep the light on the cockroaches scurrying around at City Hall, then she will have done what we elected her to do.  It is ludicrous for Councilman Hill to try to turn his problems around by blaming his own stupidity on Mayor Miller.

The lame explanations he has made about the BMW he drives are just flat out embarrassing.  For a lawyer to not have his car properly registered is really puzzling.  If the car isn't registered to him, who pays the car insurance on it?  Is Councilman Hill driving an uninsured vehicle around town?

There is so much that needs to be done at City Hall.  Unfortunately, the city's business will likely take a back seat to all the shady business that is being exposed on a daily basis.

Removing Lee would have been a big step in the right direction toward restoring citizens' faith in the integrity of our elected officials.  Unfortunately, the votes made today say that NINE council members condone Lee's unethical behavior on the Plan Commission.

sb