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COUNCILMAN BILL BLAYDES
FILES ETHICS COMPLAINT
Aug 17, 2005 6:08 pm US/Central
By
Todd Bensman, Robert Riggs and Jack Fink CBS-11
News
A highly unusual vote engineered by Dallas Mayor Laura Miller to remove a city
plan commissioner for ethics violations was stalled after a two-hour,
racially-tinged debate that pitted the council's southern sector minority
members - and a noisy roomful of their sympathetic constituents - against a
coalition of five North Dallas council members.
Mayor Pro-Tem Don Hill's embattled Plan Commission appointee, D'Angelo Lee, was
assured of serving out the remaining two weeks of his term after the council
voted 9-6 against removing him immediately. The council decided to take up the
matter again in three weeks - after Hill has had an opportunity to formally
re-nominate Lee. But under a little known provision of the city charter that was
not mentioned Wednesday, Lee may remain in the post indefinitely until Hill at
his leisure submits another nomination, which he is not obligated to do under
any timeframe. The council would have no opportunity to confirm in this
scenario.
"You are what you vote," Mayor Miller told her colleagues.
After the vote, a disappointed Mayor Miller spoke to reporters.
"Today was our chance to assure the public we do not put up with corruption,?
she said. ?The majority of the council did not send that message today.?
As grounds for putting forth her removal resolution, Mayor Miller cited an
ongoing FBI public corruption investigation and CBS-11 News reports disclosing
conflict of interest allegations concerning Lee's votes on the Plan Commission
and ethical conduct questions regarding two luxury vehicles Lee has been using
but which do not belong to him. The mayor also cited reports by The Dallas
Morning News about other allegations of ethical misdeeds by Lee as well as the
commissioner's failure to pay taxes. Both Hill and Lee are persons of interest
in a wide-ranging FBI investigation of affordable housing deals.
On June 27, CBS-11 News disclosed that Commissioner Lee received $5,000 from the
nonprofit Dallas Urban League as a fee for helping the organization land a
social services contract at a large affordable housing project. Commissioner Lee
then voted to approve the buildings that would house the Urban League's social
services and never disclosed his financial relationship or recused himself as
required by city ethics rules. The FBI has taken Urban League documentation
regarding the incident as part of its investigation.
"That is a direct violation of the city's code of ethics," Mayor Miller said of
the CBS-11 report.
Mayor Pro-Tem Don Hill, who has stood by his appointee, argued forcefully and
repeatedly that the city ethics commission created several years ago should
process the ethics allegations, not the council in a removal vote.
"If we vote to remove Mr. Lee today the reason we removed him, according to what
you are saying, is because Channel 11 ran a story?" Hill asked incredulously.
"Nothing under oath. No facts, they ran a story. That's all? Right now, we're
talking about the facts. We have absolutely no facts in front of us other than a
news story."
The ethics commission was created several years ago after a federal jury
convicted former Councilmember Al Lipscomb for accepting bribes from a taxi cab
owner in exchange for votes favorable to the owner's business. But after much
negotiation, the final resolution creating the commission gave it limited power
to punish wrongdoers or to subpoena records. CBS-11 found that only one
complaint has been filed in the two years ending May 2005.
Former Dallas Plan Commissioner Betty Culbreath-Lister said the push by Hill and
other council members to send the matter to the ethics panel was a transparent
maneuver to diffuse the issue while projecting the appearance of action.
"The ethics commission is a good idea, but without any staff assigned to it,
without any legal authority to take it any place, it's a moot issue," Culbreath-Lister
told CBS-11 in an interview later.
Councilmember Ed Oakley moved to have the council request a full hearing by the
ethics commission on the allegations in three weeks, a resolution that quickly
won passage.
City Councilman Bill Blaydes, who cast a key swing vote against Miller's measure
to remove the commissioner, filed an ethics complaint after Monday's hearing.
Councilmember Blaydes said his complaint cites two CBS-11 reports and one by The
Dallas Morning News about outstanding tax liens.
"I felt like Mr. Lee should have the opportunity to defend himself if we were
going to have this kind of vote. There have been three allegations made, two of
which have been fairly well substantiated," he said.
Commissioner Lee was nowhere to be found Wednesday and did not respond to
interview requests by phone.
Voting for the mayor's measure to remove the commissioner
were: Mitch Rasansky, Angela Hunt, Ron Natinsky, Linda Koop and Gary Griffith.
Voting to keep him in place were: Elba Garcia, Pauline Medrano, Ed Oakley,
Maxine Thornton-Reese, Steve Salazar, Leo Chaney, Jr. and James Fantroy.
In June, the FBI disclosed its public corruption investigation at City Hall with
a series of search warrant raids on the homes, offices and cars of Mayor Pro-Tem
Hill, Commissioner Lee, Councilmember James Fantroy, and various contractors,
nonprofits and at least two developers involved in large affordable housing
projects in southern Dallas. Last week, the FBi expanded its investigation to
cover Councilwoman Maxine Thornton-Reese, her Plan Commission appointee Carol
Brandon, as well as Councilmember Leo Chaney and his Plan Commission appointee
Melvin Traylor. All have strongly denied wrongdoing.
No one has been charged with any crime.
CBS-11 has exclusively reported that the FBI investigation involves a sting
operation in which cash has been supplied to at least one wired confidential
informant who tried to bribe his way into the good graces of City Hall. CBS-11
also has learned that the FBI is playing tape recordings from the sting
operation to at least four people who were tape recorded, in order to leverage
their cooperation in the ongoing bribery, extortion and money laundering
investigation.
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