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Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld
Citizen D
CBS11 TV
Officer CS
Another Way
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06/17/04 Contracts and Other Minor
Inconveniences and Obstacles
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In
Robber Barons Duel,
we got to walk down memory lane and do a little "told you so" group dance.
It was amusing, but not really much fun because when it's all said and done
the joke's on us. |
Still, it bears remembering how shocked was Our Mayor
when she learned that John Ware and Ron Kirk locked us in a 30 year non-compete
clause that keeps her from doing a deal for Grandpa Jerry Jones:
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AAC
operators threatened by Cowboys' proposal
Arena concerned new stadium
would host more than Cowboys
Monday,
6/7/04
By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News |
... AAC's operators said that arrangement would
violate a 1998 contract the city signed with the basketball and hockey
teams. That agreement forbids the city from constructing or participating in
the development of another arena for 30 years.
"Our agreement
does not allow municipal dollars to be spent to build a facility that
competes with American Airlines Center,"
... Ms. Miller said city attorneys are
researching AAC's warning, which she said was delivered two weeks ago to
City Hall by Cowboys lobbyists and lawyers.
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The 1998 noncompetition agreement also applies to Reunion Arena,
which is owned by the city. That arena can host only events that AAC has
turned down.
"I
have felt that it was very unfair for them to dictate what we can and cannot
have over at the old arena," Ms. Miller said. "Now they are saying that even
talking about building a stadium could be a problem because of their
contract." |
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There is no way Journalist/then Councilwoman Miller would have been
blindsided by this issue because in 1998 she knew that contract from front
to back -- at least we thought she did. |
Continuing my gleeful "told you
so" moment, even just a regular little old citizen like Sharon Boyd made an
issue of the non-compete clause in my 11/9/97 Viewpoint in
The Dallas Managed News:
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By Sharon Boyd
Dallas Morning News/Texas Viewpoints, 11/9/97 |
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Build it themselves.
Downtown rejuvenation.
Arena people got council to divert DART alignment from East side of the
Arena (where people live) to Stemmons side, which alignment cut off West
End.
Team owners control everything. They get to divert transportation
dollars from essential needs like LBJ repair to their private String Thing
Bridge across Woodall Rogers to nowhere. |
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That $57 million in property
taxes that we don't get annually from the arena would certainly go a long
way toward balancing our budget at City Hall.
I want my property taxes waived for 30 years.
User taxes were the way to go in 1997, and they are the way to go in 2004.
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Nothing has changed in 2004
regarding this ratio, except our convention business is all but shut down.
The Robber Barons got
almost $100 million from American Airlines for naming rights, and then AA
went under. |
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30 years of lost tax revenue,
while you and I do without basic city services, and our cops ride around in
cars that catch fire in the middle of a pursuit.
That pesky venue veto is rearing it's ugly head in 2004 just like I warned.
I was told last week that the contract only kicks in regarding roofed
facilities seating less than 50,000. That's not the way we understood
in 1997, and apparently it's not what the council was told on 6/16/04.
My 5,000 number appears to be the right one.
Grandpa Jones should pay for his own stadium. Texas Stadium never
generated development.
Reunion Arena never generated development.
The Hicks/Perot Arena has not generated development, even from the promises
within the Victory project.
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The venue veto was not just buried in the contract, it was in the letter of
intent. It was a major campaign issue for It's a Bad Deal!!
Laura Miller should have paid attention. |
Just in case it did not really
jump out at you, here again is what I told you in 1997 about the venue veto:
But, then I'm just a regular
citizen who has to pay her property taxes, which our city council squanders on
arts projects and day spas for street bums. What do I know?
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That venue veto that was being dismissed last week by Our Mayor and other
notables about town is now "a major obstacle" to opening our diminished city
coffers to Grandpa Jones. |
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City sees stadium obstacles
Mayor, some on council lament
noncompete clause in AAC contract
11:27 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 16, 2004
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News |
American Airlines Center is a "major
obstacle" to building a Dallas Cowboys stadium in Fair Park, Mayor Laura
Miller and several City Council members said Wednesday.
"We should not have structured the
deal like we did," the mayor said, explaining that a noncompete clause in
the arena's contract with the city is complicating negotiations with the
Cowboys.
"It's a big problem," she said.
"American Airlines Center keeps saying, 'You can't do this; you can't do
that.' Our attorneys are going to continue to work on it."
The city's 1998
contract with American Airlines Center says the city cannot participate in
the building of a stadium that would seat between 5,000 and 50,000 people
and therefore compete with the arena for concerts and family events.
... Ms. Miller's comments followed a closed-door
executive session during which council members said they discussed several
difficulties the city must overcome before opening financial negotiations
with the team, which has proposed building a $654 million stadium at Fair
Park.
... Council member Mitchell Rasansky agreed that
the noncompete clause will make building a football stadium in Dallas
problematic. ... "There are a lot of
obstacles in front of us to put a domed stadium" in Fair Park.
"Maybe the
mayor should have a casual conversation with Mr. Jones," suggested council
member Veletta Forsythe Lill said, ...
Staff writer Dave Michaels contributed to this report.
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Councilwoman Lill (as the
spouse of an American Airlines pilot) should not be in these negotiations or
making public comments about this matter since American Airlines has almost a
$100 million investment in the Hicks/Perot Arena.
We are just kicking off the budget process, and we have over an $8 million
shortfall, caused in large part to bad deals and bad decisions councils have
been making for the past several years.
We have been funding arts and other luxuries and ignoring our basic services and
the needs of our city employees, public safety and civilians. Now, we are
looking at a property tax increase and increases in the cost of our water and
some sanitation services. Of course, they are blaming the shortfall on the
cost of meeting our pledge to police and firefighters for the last leg of their
3-year 5% raises.
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Property tax hike proposed for city
1.99-cent rise won't solve $7.6 million shortfall,
officials say
11:27 PM CDT on
Wednesday, June 16, 2004 By DAVE
LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News |
Dallas finance officials have
recommended a 1.99-cent increase in property taxes to pay for the hiring of
129 police officials.
But even with a
tax increase and spikes in sanitation and water fees, city leaders face a
$7.6 million shortfall in the city's 2004-05 budget, financial staff
members told the City Council on Wednesday.
... Mitchell Rasansky said the city should
employ budget cuts ? and only budget cuts ? to balance its budget.
... council member Veletta Forsythe Lill
suggested the city may need to raise taxes beyond those slated for public
safety to help fund "very visible services," such as landscaping along
streets and sign improvements.
... Meanwhile, Mayor Laura Miller reaffirmed her
assertion that city employees should not receive an automatic pay raise next
fiscal year in order to balance the budget. Any raises, up to 4 percent of
salary, should be based on merit alone, Ms. Miller said.
... "We continue to lose good employees. We
continue having difficulty attracting good employees," Lois Finkelman said.
... City officials bemoaned several issues that
are inflating 2004-05 budget costs.
One is an estimated $23.5 million
increase in city employee and retiree health benefit costs. Mr. Cook fielded
several council suggestions during the two-hour give-and-take on Wednesday,
including spreading costs between city employees and the city.
A third year of 5 percent raises for
police and fire officials would cost Dallas an estimated $22.6 million,
prompting council member Leo Chaney to suggest exploring a raise delay.
Delaying the raises for three months
would temporarily save the city about $5 million.
...The city also is suggesting spending an additional $1.4 million on
economic development initiatives.
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It's not paying our city
employees what they deserve that is causing our shortfall. It's wasting
our limited public dollars funding all sorts of large and small arts projects
and any other public entertainment events. Even as we face an $8 million
shortfall, the council will spend "an additional $1.4 million on economic
development initiatives".
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Please don't roll your eyes and tell me "you have to spend money to make
money". We have been spending millions and millions Downtown since the
early 90's when I was on the Plan Commission, and the results are spotty at
best. |
Don't forget Our Mayor wants to
get PUC approval for TXU to raise our electric rates enough to cover her $100
million she wants to bury utility lines in the Trinity Corridor so future condo
owners on the shore line of the Trinity Sewer will not have to look at unsightly
wires and poles that the rest of us endure. Get a tax increase, get an
increase in your water bill and get an increase in your electric bill, but you
won't get more police on the street or better code enforcement.
It would have been cheaper to fence off the blocks on either side of Main Street
so the street bums can't urinate on everything and spend several million just on
the property inside the fence. The results would be about the same as what
you see in Downtown improvements now.
Did you know the city participates in a Downtown PID (improvement district)?
The city is a big landowner Downtown, both in streets and actual land and
buildings. All property owners in the PID are assessed taxes that are only
spent inside the defined lines of the PID. That means money is pulled out
of the general fund to improve the streets and landscaping in your area or add
police and squad cars for your area. Since the early 90's when the
Downtown PID was established, millions and millions have been diverted from the
general fund to be spent solely on Downtown improvements and rejuvenation.
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Not
much bang for our bucks. |
There have been so many failed
plans -- the sky bridges, the tunnels, the pocket parks, letting the homeless
industry take over Downtown, letting suburban do-gooders turn the street bums
into human pigeons and trash our public areas even worse.
Now, Bob Decherd and other ODB Big Shots want to remove Downtown from the
control of our elected officials and create a Downtown Management Corp. (a local
government control operation).
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It's back to drawing board for downtown management plan
Some
on council balk at having private entity oversee Dallas' renewal
08:58 PM CDT on
Wednesday, June 16, 2004 By DAVID FLICK
/ The Dallas Morning News
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A closely divided and sometimes
skeptical Dallas City Council got its first detailed look Wednesday at a
proposal to coordinate the revitalization of the center city through a
single umbrella organization.
... Mayor Laura Miller asked supporters of
the Downtown Dallas Management Corp. to return in August with a modified
proposal. ... "I'm confident we can come up with
something that will have a large majority," she said. "Because it's clear
we've got to do something."
... The corporation would be governed by a
nine-member board appointed by the council and would have the power to issue
bonds, raise funds, set priorities on downtown projects and execute them.
... Mr. Biegler took pains to assure council
members that they would have extensive oversight over the management board
and touted the plan as a way to free city employees to work on development
of other areas of the city.
... Several council members said they preferred a
15-member board, a size that would allow each council member to appoint a
representative.
Some felt that
all board members should be Dallas residents, rather than simply a majority,
as the plan proposed. Some plainly said they were uncomfortable with
turning over so much power to a private entity.
... Council member Lois Finkelman complained that
most council members had not been kept informed of the planning for the
proposal, and she asked city staff members to investigate other
alternatives.
... Council member Veletta Forsythe Lill said the
management corporation would greatly streamline development of private
projects downtown, which she said were bedeviled by bureaucratic delays.
... "I don't know what we have to lose here," Mr.
Rasansky said. "You need City Council approval for everything but going to
the bathroom."
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Some
felt that all board members should be Dallas residents, rather than simply a
majority, as the plan proposed.
Under no circumstance should a non-Dallas resident ever serve on a City of
Dallas Board. We are already subsidizing all of the suburbs and nearby
counties that do not offer indigent hospital care. We are already
subsidizing Highland Park and University Park residents who use our tax dollars
to build and maintain entertainment facilities that most Dallas taxpayers cannot
afford to use or would be inclined to do so if they could.
I don't care what anyone says. If Paul Fielding were still on the
council, none of this would be happening -- at least not in a vacuum.
He would be raising Holy H! Can you imagine what would be happening at
City Hall if Fielding and Blumer were still on the council? If the
city can resurrect a scoundrel like Old Al Lipscomb with 60+ counts in a
federal conviction, we ought to give Paul Field another chance.
Fielding went to prison and actually paid his debt to society.
Fielding took his medicine, deserved or not, came back to town, went to work
and goes about his business, rather than grandstanding at City Hall like Old
Al. But, we could sure use Paul at City Hall these days.
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The saddest part of all of this mess is that former populist Laura Miller is
leading the fool's parade at City Hall. The only time she wants to cut
corners is when it relates to paying our city employees -- the last place we
should be skimping. |
I'm also disappointed in Mitch Rasansky of late. He can be very dollar
conscious on some issues then just hands over the key to our municipal vault to
another group. Downtown has a PID. If all the stuff we've done in
the past hasn't worked, this new scheme is even less likely to be a success, but
it will be much more expensive and the people making the decisions will not be
accountable to Joe Taxpayer.
Although it may be a blessing in disguise, we are already at a point where the
Arena Robber Barons control what the city council can do for at least 25 more
years. Now, the formerly populist Laura Miller and the once fiscal
conservative Mitch Rasansky are backing another scheme to take power from the
"masses" and give even more control to Our Downtown Betters. I guess this
new plan is supposed to eliminate the necessity of ODB representatives from
having to waste time telling certain council members what to do.
sb
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