S. Bracken
Michael Davis
Gary Turner
Sarah Dodd
Sarah Dodd
Sarah Dodd
                             

09/02/04  Shakedowns & Tantrums get Rewarded at City Hall

When you tell a lie, you need to say it loud and with frantic gestures and make sure you have a crowd.  If you do all that at City Hall, you can brow beat enough wienies on the council to get a windfall for your buddies.

There is no comparison to the tax revenue to the city between what we get over Texas-OU weekend, as to what is generated by the Grambling-Prairie View game. 

Shakedown Chaney and his programmed idiot would never let logic or facts interfere with his schemes to waste our tax dollars.   This is the guy who drew a $50K+ salary from DISD taxpayers while he spent all his time at City Hall playing councilman.  His DISD position has no job description, no responsibilities, no duties.  Don't you wish you had a gig like that? 

The job's waiting for him when he finishes his role as Shakedown King at City Hall.  He took a leave of absence when Dallas voters approved paying salaries to council members.  No one has been doing his job while he's on leave, because there's nothing to be done.  The perfect job for a shakedown artist.

So, Chaney would have no shame in playing the race card to squeeze more of our tax dollars out for one of his buddies -- the promoter of the Grambling-Prairie View game.

If it had not been for Sarah Dodd, no one would have known that Shakedown Chaney and Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese were making all that noise to hand $50,000 of our tax dollars over to an individual, not to the two schools to defray travel expenses.

It's embarrassing to have this level of deception and corruption at City Hall.

You would hope that this council having learned of Chaney's duplicity would just say no to last week's performance.  You would be an optimistic fool if you expect courage out of this council.

Beat that Indictment James Fantroy said something to the effect "...every time, we can't get it done unless we do say it's racism". 

15-0 to reward Shakedown Chaney's duplicity.

Council opens wallet to keep football matchup: $250,000 deal for Prairie View, Grambling quells racially charged debate September 2, 2004 By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

After three hours of debate before an impassioned crowd, Dallas City Council members unanimously approved spending $250,000 over the next five years to keep the annual Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M University football game at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park. ... "In the scheme of things, this isn't a grand sum, but it's an important sum," Mayor Pro Tem John Loza said of the incentives. "We still have a problem with institutional racism in this city ? a way of sweeping things under the rug."   Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, who questioned some of her colleagues' tactics in supporting the Grambling-Prairie View incentive, ended up voting for it Wednesday. The funds ? which will come from the city's Convention and Event Services budget ? will go to the schools' athletic departments, she said. ... Council member Leo Chaney, whose South Dallas district includes the Cotton Bowl, asked his colleagues to subsidize the Grambling-Prairie View game with $50,000 for each of the next five years and to delay the vote on the Texas-OU game one week. ...  tension rose early this week, when council members learned Mr. Chaney had already negotiated with the State Fair to provide Grambling State and Prairie View with a combined $375,000 over the next five years.    Mr. Chaney said he did not disclose the amount the State Fair had raised for the game because he thought the figures were insufficient. ... "This is not just a game," said County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who attended Wednesday's council meeting. "This is an event in the African-American community for all to enjoy, and the city of Dallas is the beneficiary."    Council members agreed that Grambling State and Prairie View should get the subsidy. But they debated where the money should come from ? the Convention and Event Services budget, or next year's budget for the South Dallas Fair Park Trust Fund.    When council member Gary Griffith brought the second option to the table ? a suggestion that several audience members had spoken against earlier in the meeting ? the chambers erupted.    "They wonder why we raise hell, why we get mad," council member James Fantroy said. "We spoke loud and clear today. You ain't hearing us."    Ms. Miller said after the vote that earlier Wednesday, Mr. Chaney had voiced support for using Trust Fund money to fund the game incentive. But during the meeting, he vocally opposed that option. ... Council member Bill Blaydes said the city has turned this historic game into an issue of race.    "We ought to be ashamed of ourselves," he said. "If we continue to go about our business in this way, we will never overcome race." ... Ms. Miller waited patiently for her turn to speak, holding her tongue at several opportunities. But council members never gave her the chance, cutting off debate with a two-thirds vote.    "If I had been allowed to speak, I would've said we need to respect each other, and not play these games," she said. "When this council has all the information, it makes the right decision."

Shakedown Chaney lied to the council.  He withheld information from their discussion.  He supported using South Dallas Trust Fund money in their private discussions, but played to the audience in the council chamber and opposed it.  He's not just a shakedown artist, but he publicly acknowledges that he is a liar who exploits morons like T-Reese and the rest of the wienies on the council. 

After joining the wienies when it counted, Mayor Miller later showed some of her old strength when she told Sarah Dodd the council was "rewarding bad behavior."

That's what we do in Dallas.  Reward bad behavior.

We have an old crook and bribe-taker sitting on our Police Review Board and then showing up before the council to scream at Our Mayor.  How in the World can that old fool show his face in public?  Why isn't he in jail where he belongs?  He certainly looks hail and hearty these days.  His Sanford & Son act in Amarillo was a real award winning performance.

We have a County Commissioner getting into a physical scuffle in the Flag Room at City Hall.  How many men were holding JWP back and forcing him out the door?  The only reason nothing truly violent happened was because his keepers moved him out.

Don't ever forget the poor White guy whose leg was broken by JWP with a Karate chop while TV cameras were rolling -- and JWP was acquitted by a Dallas County jury.

We have a City Controller writing checks to a non-profit that employs her husband.  Sarah Dodd broke that story, too.  The Dallas Managed News is being forced to eat her dust.

Dallas finance official is put on leave: City says controller's husband tied to group that gets tax dollars September 1, 2004 By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas Controller Regina Givens is on paid administrative leave after city officials learned her husband was employed by a community housing organization funded by city tax dollars.    Interim City Manager Mary Suhm simultaneously suspended funding for the T.R. Hoover Community Development Corp. while auditors investigate the group's financial records.    "There is an inherent conflict of interest," Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said.    "If we give our tax dollars to an organization, and there is a city employee's relative handling the money, that's an automatic problem." ... Ms. Suhm said she got a report from the city auditor last week expressing concern about T.R. Hoover, a community housing development organization based in South Dallas. Community development corporations must agree to a city audit, she said, and the group was refusing to turn over its financial records. ...

Did you ever think this would be the norm in Dallas?  Corrupt council members?  A convicted bribe-taker lecturing the Mayor?  An ethically-challenged high-ranking city employee writing checks to her husband's employer? 

Don't forget that Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze discovered we have several checking accounts at City Hall that no one bothers to reconcile.

It's a pretty bad situation.  It's not likely to get better any time soon because this council just showed a lack of spine and rewarded bad behavior.

sb