DMN Story on Allen Gwinn

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	Dallas activist promotes honesty in the face of unpopularity 08/12/2003 By MICHAEL GRANBERRY / The Dallas Morning News
To his supporters, Allen Gwinn, the self-styled Dallas gadfly, is a brilliant technician whose Web sites have angered many a public official. He's a loving father and a caring citizen with a strong sense of right and wrong, his friends say.
Count Sharon Boyd/DallasArena.com as an Allen Gwinn supporter and admirer.
JC: Allen, Thanks for trying to keep the "Little Kings" in line!	Grady Huffman: What a relief to know there are a few people out there who have the guts to fight for what is right!! I didn't know about your web site until I read the article about Allen Gwinn. Sharon, it disappointed me the article did not give a web site for Allen Gwinn. Please provide me with his web site or what ever means that I can communicate with him. I am a strong rebel for what is right. I am currently trying to figure out how to fight a very large, powerful corporation that adversely affects you, Allen, MOST ALL OF US! I'm sure that you don't believe that, but it is true.


To his detractors, this conservative Republican is motivated more by partisan politics than genuine concern, giving a pass to those he favors, such as Mayor Laura Miller, a Democrat whose praises he can't stop singing. Mr. Gwinn, 42, has been in the news lately after filing a complaint against fellow Republican Mary Poss, the former City Council member, with the Texas Ethics Commission. The complaint resulted in a $5,000 fine earlier this summer.
Wrong! Allen worked his tail off for Laura Miller/Democrat and against Mary Poss/faux-Republican. He *WAS* a big supporter of Lois Parrot/Democrat. He opposed Gary Griffith/Republican. I reminded the reporter of these contradictions when he mentioned Ron Price made the above claim. Why didn't he quote the wife beater?
The commission found that Ms. Poss violated the state's election code by incorrectly reporting more than $30,000 in campaign expenditures over several years. Ms. Poss says the issue was a paperwork problem. But Mr. Gwinn, who has criticized other officials, including Dallas school board trustee Ron Price and former Mayor Ron Kirk, calls the fine "a big deal." It's the kind of result he relishes as a gadfly ? a label he embraces without apology. "Because it means I annoy people," he says with his Eddie Haskell grin. "If I do something wrong with my checkbook, if I buy something stupid, it affects me and my wife, my family. But when politicians do something dumb, that affects all of us. And I just won't stand for it."
That $5,000 fine was the largest the Ethics Commission has ever assessed, and only done it once before. Very big deal! If Mary Poss thinks $5,000 is "no big deal", remember she told another reporter she's "never had to worry about money", that someone else takes care of those things for her. And she wanted to be Mayor?
So would he be interested in running for office? "That," he says, "would be the stupidest thing I could do. You see what I do to them? They'd eviscerate me. And I don't take evisceration well."
As great as it would be to have a brilliant and honest person who sticks to his core values on the city council, this town does not usually vote for people who are honest and straightforward as Allen Gwinn. Look at the council race between Roxan Staff and Gary Griffith.
Track record Mr. Gwinn's admirers applaud his commitment to keeping an eye on Dallas politicians at a time when many see commitment as a pain, not a duty. They point to his track record: He helped Southern Methodist University save tens of thousands of dollars by streamlining the system by which it issues parking tickets. He led an anti-smoking campaign a decade before Dallas implemented a restaurant smoking ban. And he pushed to install computers in portable buildings used by the Dallas Independent School District. "The most important thing Allen does is scare the bad guys," says fellow activist Sharon Boyd, who got to know him through her Web site, www.dallasarena.com, which took issue with then-Mayor Ron Kirk, a Democrat, and the deal brokered for American Airlines Center.
Ron Kirk is also a crook who used his office to leverage stock options for himself and his wife and future deals (like the PetsMart Board seat) in exchange for selling out the city with the Hicks/Perot arena and the Trinity Bondoogle. I also said "Allen is just so decent, that the contrast scares them." I used someone else's phrase because it fits Allen Gwinn perfectly. ALLEN GWINN DOES THE RIGHT THING WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING.
Ms. Poss has another view of Mr. Gwinn. "I suspect he favors people who monetarily support him," she says. "The only time I talked to him on the telephone, he told me he would be nice to me if I gave him information on a certain individual," whom she declines to name. Regarding her $5,000 fine, she says: "The ethics commission found no wrongdoing except in the Schedule G's filed by my former treasurer. It was a simple matter of paperwork by a campaign volunteer, not an integrity issue."
That is just an outright lie. My family has an old saying about liars: She would rather climb a tree (if she could) to tell a lie than stand flat-footed and tell the truth.
Mr. Price, the school board secretary, became Mr. Gwinn's target after he was convicted of a misdemeanor family-violence charge stemming from a 2001 incident with his ex-wife. He denies wrongdoing and says he's appealing the conviction. When asked about Mr. Gwinn, Mr. Price says, "I have nothing positive to say about this human being ? at all. "He never once bothered to call me to get my side of the story," he says. "To this day, I have no idea what the guy looks like or sounds like. I just know he loves to attack me. ... "I personally think he needs prayer."
Price was convicted of beating his ex-wife. He has no business serving on the School Board. DISD students deserve better. Price is another convict who likes to use religion to cover his wrongdoings.
Mr. Gwinn says his two biggest detractors are Ms. Poss and the former mayor. "If Ron and Mary could make up a list of their 10 least favorite people," he says, "and you could put them in a room with Ron and Mary getting to fire three bullets apiece, I have no doubt that I'd get all six bullets." And why would Mr. Gwinn feel that way? Maybe it's because he launched a series of Web site attacks on Mr. Kirk, whom he took to task for the financing of American Airlines Center. Mr. Kirk says he met Mr. Gwinn only once, "three to four years ago" outside a Dallas restaurant, where Mr. Gwinn "kept telling me what a good guy he thought I was." Then-Mayor Kirk asked Mr. Gwinn why he and a buddy had chosen to register the mayor's name and several council members' names as Internet domains, thus depriving them of using their own names and titles for such a purpose. "I said, 'If your intentions are honorable, why are you doing this?' " says Mr. Kirk. "But he's flattering himself if he thinks I give him that much attention. If he walked in a room right now, I would not know who he was."
For Ron Kirk to question anyone's honor is laughable. He knows Allen Gwinn full well.
. . . After a year of stop-and-start study at Richland College, he enrolled at SMU, where he struggled as a student but several years later won a job he adores. He's senior director of technology at the Cox School of Business, a position he's held for 14 years. (From 1985 to 1989, he was vice president of a local technology firm.) His first foray into public service was on the Hilltop in 1985, when he sold campus police on a ticketing system that used a hand-held computer and its tiny, built-in printer to generate tickets. University officials say "TickeTrak" eliminated the need for manually transferring onto a computer the 25,000 to 30,000 carbon tickets written annually. They credit Mr. Gwinn with saving them tens of thousands of dollars.
Allen just knows about everything. He can create programs. He can diagnose sick computers. His son, Trey, will be just like him.
In 1985, he met his wife, Terri; they married a year later. After the birth of son Trey, now 10, Mr. Gwinn got involved in Dallas' first anti-smoking campaign. But since his efforts took place in 1993, he takes no credit for the recently enacted city ordinance, which, he says, "has been a blessing to everyone, businesses included."
Allen and Terri are really the perfect couple. Cute, loving and best friends. Anyone who spends a few minutes around them picks up on their chemistry.
'20 steps ahead' As proud as he is of a string of successful "hits," he's almost equally reticent about the fact that he never completed college. Even without a degree, his friends say, he has an IQ worthy of Mensa. "He just notices things before other people do," says former school board trustee Roxan Staff. "Allen's brain is always moving at 90 miles per hour. The rest of us are out there operating at a normal level, and he's 20 steps ahead of us."
Roxan is right. Allen is very bright. The fact that he knows so much and has accomplished so much sans diploma speaks volumes.
He could have stayed in his native Park Cities, or, as many of his neighbors in old Lake Highlands elect to do, sent his children to private schools. But because he sees reform of the DISD as central to the city's "recovery," he says he would "feel like a hypocrite" if his kids didn't attend school in the district. The project he's proudest of brought change to the district's kids. Fully half of all DISD classes, he says, take place in portable buildings, many of which are devoid of computers and access to the Internet. "I engineered the entire solution, top to bottom," he says, noting that three schools will soon have fully "wired" portable buildings. "I got the equipment donated and got 100 volunteers to help me." Mike Moses, superintendent for the Dallas Independent School District, appears to appreciate Mr. Gwinn's efforts. "Allen Gwinn has been an involved parent in the DISD," says Dr. Moses. "Not only that, he has given untold hours of volunteer time in helping to lead efforts to wire some of our schools, including portable buildings, for the purpose of utilizing technology. Allen doesn't just talk; he takes action." Nothing has been more valuable, Mr. Gwinn says, since "you could spend a year and go out and tutor two or three students to help them improve their grades, but you could spend a day with me and make a difference in the lives of several thousand kids. There is no better tool," he adds, pounding his fist on the table for emphasis, "no better classroom on the planet, than the Internet properly used."
Where he finds the time to do all his volunteer stuff, particularly for the McKinney Ave. Trolley and be a family man is the biggest mystery. Yet, Terri and the kids can attest that he is "Daddy" first.
Detractors abound . . . Ms. Gwinn says her husband is "very committed and has the enthusiasm" for shaking things up when no one else will. "Because of that contagious enthusiasm, he's influenced others to get involved," she says.
It's hard to sit on the sidelines, when Allen is out there doing so much.
Mr. Price is not alone, however, in questioning the gadfly's methods. In 1999, Mr. Gwinn and a friend, Avi S. Adelman, drew criticism for tactics used on a "crime watch" in the Lower Greenville neighborhood. Mr. Adelman, who lives in the area, got help from Mr. Gwinn in photographing late-night revelers urinating on public property near Greenville Avenue. They then posted the photos on Mr. Adelman's Web site, www.BarkingDogs.org, to the tune of "Who Let the Dogs Out." They say they did so to protect the interests of homeowners in the area. "There were those who said we were perverts," says Mr. Adelman, 47. "But we are not. We took pictures of people breaking the law. They just happened to have their pants down." Critics say some of those with their pants down were teenage girls. "The goal was to embarrass criminals breaking the law, but it was Avi's effort. I only helped," Mr. Gwinn says.
Excuse me? The perverts were the drunks "dropping trou" in public to relieve themselves in front of others. They took pictures of drunks urinating in public. If there were teenagers among the drunks, who sold them the booze? The technique worked. Much of the public urination stopped -- not out of respect for the residents but out of fear of being outed on www.BarkingDogs.org.
Mr. Gwinn's latest cause is topless night clubs. One such club, hoping to relocate from the White Rock Lake area to the corner of Plano Road and Miller Road in North Dallas, is beginning to upset homeowners. Mr. Gwinn hopes to strengthen Dallas' sexually oriented business ordinance by doing what the city of Houston has done ? invoke a three-foot buffer zone between patrons and dancers, which he contends would help control drugs and prostitution. So Mr. Gwinn has helped place 2,000 signatures on a petition that he intends to take to City Hall.
One owner of the proposed club owned several of the clubs that were so problematic for the Bachman-NW Hwy community. Go get 'em, Allen.
An unabashed supporter of the mayor, Mr. Gwinn says he respects her for "the way she keeps people on their toes. They realize when they appear before the City Council to talk about something, they had better do their homework ? because you can bet Laura has done hers. And if they haven't, she'll eat their lunch. That's what I like about Laura: She's the homework doer."
Allen is very loyal.
Striving for change Sitting in Starbucks, listening to Bob Dylan sing "Blowin' in the Wind," Mr. Gwinn concedes that change comes slowly ? especially in Dallas. "The idealistic side of me says you can solve all of the city's problems, but the realistic side of me says, 'You're a moron! You know that's unachievable.' " And yet, like Don Quixote, he keeps tilting at windmills. If he didn't have them, it might mean having to graduate or, once again, take up shooting, when it's much more fun taking shots at City Hall or causing a ruckus in cyberspace. "All I want to do is make the city a better place for my kids than when I got here," he says. "And yes, I will take some beatings. I already have. You can't go up against politicians and not expect them to retaliate. Believe me, they fight real dirty." He sips on his latte and smiles. "If you're going to be intimidated, why bother? That just takes away the fun."
It is always fun being around Allen Gwinn. He makes all of us who know him better people. I am very grateful for his friendship and devotion to our city.