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To: Dallas City Council Members 8 May 2003
Dallas City Hall
Dallas, Texas
SUBJECT: City Ethics / Code of Conduct
Reference: City Employee Conduct / Election Tampering
Hello Council Members:
It is wonderful that the City of Dallas has an Ethics / Conduct Code.
It took a long time to pass such a code through the Council, in that the
previous Mayor continued to resist the issue. Then, after continued
insistence by Mayor Miller that such a code be passed, substantial portions of
the proposed code were accepted and passed by the Council. All that was
missing was a final review by the City Attorney's Office to assure that the
terms were legal and fully understandable to those who were to abide them.
Therein came a routine occurrence within the City Attorney's Office-- upon
testing of the Ethics / Conduct Rules, few could understand them, and perhaps
the rules would not stand the scrutiny of implementation.
After all the time and effort put forth by the mayor and council members, why
could the City Attorney's Office not review and edit the terms so they
were enforceable? Were the rules "really" that complicated?
How many more rules and regulations that the City Attorney's Office has reviewed
are not truly enforceable?
Above questions lead one to ask simple questions such as:
1. What if the wind blows and deposits irrigation water on a non
vegetation surface (between June and September). Does the $2,000 per day
fine still hold? Is that a true breaking of the law? Is the
law enforceable?
2. What if trash is placed in front of a residence on defined City
schedule, and the city fails to pick it up? Is the home owner rightfully
fined for having trash on the curb after a scheduled pickup? Is the law
enforceable?
It appears that the legal department of the City of Dallas is awash
in confusion and inability to accomplish it's mission. Without a firm
legal foundation at City Hall, our City is primed for continued inefficiency and
confusion (and resulting lawsuits).
Regards,
Rad Field
District 11
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