Andrae Cox
Anonycop
                             

07/22/04  ODB and Our Stepford Mayor going for an end around.

People can sometimes just get too clever by half. 

Our Mayor could not get what she wanted from her Charter Review Commission, so her new ODB friends are going to spend some of their large $$ to change our city manager form of government to a strong mayor system.  Rather than accept her will may not be that of the city at large, Our Mayor has turned to Our Downtown Betters to come at us from the back door of a high dollar public relations campaign and the vote fraud the ODB are willing to fund.

It's hard to get accustomed to my adversarial relationship with Laura Miller.  Everything she does is a new shock to me, even when it's the same thing she did the week before. 

Wednesday evening, WFAA/Ch. 8's Chris Heinbaugh broke the news that David Laney was organizing a petition drive to get a charter amendment on the May ballot to replace our city manager system with the ODB preferred strong mayor system.  Mayor Miller appointed Laney to Chair the Charter Review Commission, which did not recommend changing from our city manager system.  African-Americans on the Commission were adamantly opposed to a Strong Mayor System.

So am I!

City charter changes could come down to vote Wednesday, July 21, 2004 By Chris Heinbaugh / WFAA-TV

In a move that could turn Dallas city governemnt on its head, voters may get to choose or reject a strong mayor form of government.    However, the effort may not come out of City Hall; it may be a referendum instead.    Since 1931, Dallas has been run by a string of city managers. Some feel it's time for a strong mayor to run the show instead. but the City Council has not moved to change the city's charter. ... Attorney David Laney, the former head of the Charter Review Commission, is exploring the idea for a group of business leaders. ...  told News 8 it would be "a test before the electorate, something that has not been diluted and filtered by the City Council." ... James Fantroy promised he'll sue in federal court to stop it. ... John Edmonds of the Foundation for Community Empowerment thinks the City Manager system no longer works for Dallas. He said voters may have to make the change themselves. ... Mayor Laura Miller may be a likely cheerleader; she has long called for a strong-mayor system. She said she's not involved in the effort, but in an e-mail said, "I think it is critical for the future ... I think it would be approved by voters." ... To take a city charter change to voters, they must first gather supporters and campaign cash, then assemble 59,000 signatures of qualified voters in 60 days. ...

Don't you believe for one minute that Laura Miller is "not involved in the effort".  With what we've seen from Our Stepford Mayor, you cannot believe anything she says.  I'm still convinced she is a stand in for the Laura Miller who was elected to the city council.  Then again, maybe she's the Manchurian Candidate of Dallas politics.

David Laney is part of the ODB group who want to put Downtown Dallas under a separate governing commission that can levy taxes, etc.  Oh, sure, some claim the council will have the final say, but this council will rubber stamp everything that commission puts before them.  There's no way people like Gary Griffith, et al will thwart the biggest campaign donors in town.

Half the commission will not be required to be Dallas residents.  Finally, the Park Cities crowd who have always controlled Dallas City Hall and how Dallas tax money is spent will have a seat at a real table, rather than just pulling the strings of whichever mayor is in office at the time.

	Walter Mensch:    This was published in the Letters to the Editor of The Dallas Morning News during Our Mayor's last campaign.    I was puzzled when I first read it, but  saved it for future reference.  Sure enough, Donna Blumer was absolutely correct in her assessment, and the rest of us dead wrong.  We need to draft this woman to run for mayor next time.  I don't think Donna Blumer would dupe us.    Meanwhile, I'd like to get a refund of my hard-earned contributions to Miller's campaign, as they were apparently obtained under false pretenses.

Had I been ambivalent about the city manager vs. strong mayor issue, having the ODB come out so brazenly supporting "strong mayor" would settle the matter for me.  Since I already knew where I stood, Laney's declaration is like waving a red cape at a steer who was already agitated. 

This is as close to a coup d'?at as we have seen in Dallas.

Group pushes to give mayor more power: Lawyer: Dallas business group wants insight on amending city charter  Wednesday, July 21, 2004 By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

...  David Laney, a Dallas lawyer and former chairman of the city's Charter Review Commission, confirmed that businesspeople have asked him to research how to best conduct a referendum ? presumably in May 2005 ? to amend the city charter to create a stronger mayor.    "There's clearly some interest," Mr. Laney said. "I just don't know how broad or deep this runs." ...      While Ms. Miller said she was not involved in the referendum effort, she reiterated her support for strengthening the mayor's office.    "The citizens want the change. The only citywide elected official should have the ability to implement his or her vision that he or she was elected on," Ms. Miller said by phone while vacationing in California. "So often now, it's such a stalemate."    The mayor said she supports a change in mayoral powers that would take effect immediately after passage or at the end of her term in 2007. ... In 2003, the Charter Review Commission recommended maintaining the city manager/city council style of government. ... John Cappello, president of the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce. "If they could put money behind a strong mayor, they'll have more control over that mayor, more power. It would really open the city up to special interests." ...  Mayor Pro Tem John Loza said, the issue of creating a more powerful mayor is worth debate. He supports the idea, he said, and thinks a majority of residents might, too.

Stepford Laura Miller is estranged from "the citizens" and does not know what we want.  She has been programmed by Our Downtown Betters to see things through ODB eyes, which means she sees her ODB friends as "the citizens" and she sees you and me (taxpayers) as the "serf class" who are supposed to stay in our place, pay our taxes and watch our superiors waste our money and ruin our city.

Our Mayor promised the council if they would support changing to "strong mayor" that she would support having it not go into effect until 2007.  Her promise did not sway her colleagues.  With the ODB planning to take this away from the council, she is not bound by that 2007 date.  If the ODB's referendum were to pass, she could be Queen as early as June, 2005.

This referendum is dead in the water from the get go.  The ODB have no idea how hard it will be to get 59,000 signatures.  Granted, it is more efficient to do your petition drive during an election when most people have their voter registration card available, and you can be pretty sure you are talking to registered voters.  However, you must have people willing to stand at the polls collecting those signatures like the cops and firefighters did to get their referendum on the ballot. 

This is going to be a hot election in November.   Kathy Neely and Joe Thug May will be busy harvesting votes for various congressional and state campaigns, so their thugs will not be able to waste time standing in front of voting places trying to explain the issue to voters.  They will be filling in the ballots they have coerced or stolen from old people (some comatose in nursing homes).   The thugs who work for Neely and May do not expose themselves in public places too often, particularly in the light of day.

To make it more difficult for Our Mayor and the ODB to get their way, Councilman James Fantroy told Heinbaugh he would fight it all the way to filing a federal lawsuit.  The ODB might be able to buy off Old Al Lipscomb, but Fantroy has been too vocal against this to back down.

Oh, My God!  I'm going to be on the same side as as James Fantroy!  I guess having John Send Me Some Money Loza backing Our Mayor and the ODB balances the matter.

SMSM Loza has said he will run for Mayor or County Commissioner after he goes off council next year (term limited).  Commissioner John Wiley Price is surely quaking in his boots at the thought of a primary contest with Loza.  Is there anyone retiring from this council next May who is not running for Mayor?

There are many reasons to keep our city manager system.  Like having a professional run our city rather than a temporary politician.  This is a three-prong threat. 

As soon as we went to a strong mayor system, the same ODB forces will start pushing to end term limits so they can keep their puppets in office.  With our gerrymandered districts drawn by Mad Max Aaronson and Joe Thug May, the only chance we have of ever getting rid of these flakes are term limits. 

With the end of term limits, they will start agitating for pay raises for council members so the ODB won't have to fund their puppets so heavily and Joe Taxpayer will be forced to make up the difference.

Please don't think this will be an open, honest debate if the ODB get their 59,000 signatures.  They control what gets printed in Belo's Dallas Managed News.  They already have Park Cities resident Wicked Allyson on their team (he's such an ODB wanabee), so D Magazine  will promote "strong mayor".  None of the local talk jocks on the major stations have been here long enough to understand the issue.  Those who have been here more than 5 or 6 years live outside of Dallas.  They will get on board because they don't respect Dallas anyway. 

It's going to be tough for Our Stepford Mayor to focus on two referendums at the same time:  the Jonestown sales tax and the charter change to strong mayor.   Both issues will give people who are really mad at her for betraying us a chance to let her know at the polls how we feel.  We won't have to wait until 2007, or earlier (if she resigns to run for higher office) to express our displeasure.

Laura Miller knew our form of government when she ran for Mayor.  Laura Miller knew our budget woes (3 years on the council) when she asked for and got endorsements and support from Dallas cops and firefighters, and then a month later betrayed them.  Laura Miller doesn't know she has lost her base in this city.

This latest ODB/Miller trick will be the catalyst that pulls divergent groups together to Just Say No to Laura Miller, Jerry Jones and the entire ODB apparatus.


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