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10/31/03
Witches Brewing Mischief at City Hall!
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Lots of scary stuff going on at City Hall -- city
employees conspiring to unseat a Mayor Dallas voters have twice elected in
less than two years. It confirms our fears
about who's running the show down there, and who are just running. |
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The only good thing that came out of the Ethics Commission
hearing was exposing how far Mary Hasan (Administrative Aide to Councilman Beat
that Indictment James Fantroy) and her cohorts will go in their vendetta against
Mayor Laura Miller. There is no way Hasan's actions did not have the
sanction of BTI Fantroy.
The people who should have been on trial before the Ethics Commission were James
Fantroy for his conflict of interest doings with that apartment complex
developer, Yolanda Lara for using city equipment to campaign against me in my
District 6 race and Laura Miller in her mayoral campaign and Mary Hasan for
using city equipment and personnel to pursue her intentions to bring down the
Mayor.
It is still amazing the Ethics Commission would throw out Allen Gwinn's
complaint against Yolanda Lara for her obvious use of the city's computer system
to e-mail political instructions to other city employees -- on city time and yet
hear this bogus Complaint of the likes of Lovie Lipscomb, who has been the
subject of several questions regarding her position at Johnie's Manor, a
non-profit social agency. |
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Steve:
Witches & Kicking Butt --
Hooray for this most recent piece. I too worked my
tail off for our esteemed mayor, and I
still like her, but I can't figure out what the
hell she's doing on some of these vital Dallas
issues.
City Hall IS a
mess -- it is
rife with racial politics and that's wrong and
very unfair to all the citizens of this community.
I had hoped she would be a Guiliani
type and really change things around here.
Haven't seen much evidence of that yet. I hope
she'll do as you suggest soon
-- start playing hardball and quit prissing
around all these issues trying to be liked and
beloved by everyone --
isn't that just Sooo Dallas?
She'll
never be an effective mayor like we need if she
doesn't get on with it and quit worrying about her 2nd
term and her supposed place in history in Dallas's
screwball local politics.
Dallas hasn't even begun to
have retreated from the brink of
self-destruction. Some new in-town housing
and the Nasher are great, but this city is
losing businesses and middle class taxpayers by
the droves.
I loved it when V. Lill remarked she
didn't know Haggar slacks was leaving for Farmers
Branch. Why not? Everyone in Oak
Lawn knew Park Place Motorcars was buying
the Haggar site -- and
yet nothing was done to ask this old, established
successful Dallas company to stay.
These people are clueless when it comes to city
building.
That's my rant for now. Keep up the
good work. |
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That the
Ethics Commission would take this Hassan/Lovie Lipscomb complaint seriously
and dismiss a complaint filed by an honest citizen is more frightening than
anything else. |
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Some of us have always been concerned that the Ethics Commission would be used
as a political weapon, and this farce of a hearing against the Mayor pretty much
validates our worries.
Nothing works the way it is
supposed to at City Hall. Few of the Mayor's good intentions have
delivered the results she intended.
She wanted to change the City Charter to go from City Manager to Strong Mayor
government, although there has been no citizens' hue and cry to do that.
It was getting the cart before the horse. We should have had a referendum
with some of the endless elections we have had in Dallas this past 24 months
asking whether the citizens wanted to change our form of government.
Likely, it would have been a majority saying YES, because people who pay
attention to things like elections and stuff know there's a problem at City
Hall. With a referendum behind her, the Charter Review Commission might
not have been so quick to drop the Strong Mayor issue and run down all those
rabbit trails they got off to.
Had the referendum gone NO on changing the Charter or even been a close vote the
other way, the Mayor could have dropped the matter and gone to more important
things.
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Her good
intentions for Charter Amendments went South and gave her enemies another
round. |
Rather than play hardball with her enemies, our Mayor tries
to charm them. That's what got her in hot water this week over her
comments on KHVN.
Her enemies do not recognize her hands out approach as a sign of friendship,
they see it as weakness and an opportunity to go after her again. When her
friends warn her, she rejects their counsel and sticks her hands further into
the fire.
There's no doubt our Mayor is charming, attractive, articulate and smart, but
her Achilles' heel is not being smart enough to know her limitations and not
respecting her enemies or her friends.
Because many are charmed by her and have always been her entire life, she does
not believe she can't win over everyone. She honestly believes that she
can have a working relationship with Ron Kirk. He is her enemy. He
is immune to her charm.
Like many of her political persuasion, she truly believes she has a
responsibility to TAKE CARE OF minority citizens. Patronizing concern is
not appreciated or desired by anyone.
The old guard of self-appointed minority leaders are losing their control and
are desperately fighting back new thinkers who want honest people representing
them. That old guard use Laura Miller as a battle cry to protect their
power base and keep down new faces. She gives the old guard credibility,
when she reaches out to the crooks in a show of graciousness,
It is time for the Mayor to play hard ball. It is time her to protect
herself and vicariously protect Dallas citizens from political conspiracies
among city hall workers.
The Mayor has been grievously wronged by Yolanda Lara and Mary Hasan. She
needs to file her own Ethics Complaint against Hasan in particular for this
Lovie Lipscomb fiasco. It is obvious Fantroy's Aide used city equipment,
city time to go after the Mayor. There is proof she forced a city employee
under her to notarize Lovie Lipscomb's Complaint against the Mayor. If the
secretary notarized the Complaint willingly, then Hasan is still at fault for
allowing it to happen. The secretary's notary bond is paid for by
taxpayers and her notary position is not for her personal use or political
activity.
The City Secretary's Office could have properly notarized that Complaint.
That is where political activity is supposed to happen, not in the hall outside
a council secretary's office.
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Those of us who supported the Mayor and worked our tails off to get her elected
did so because she has always been tough and straight forward.
We did not campaign for a new version of Annette Strauss.
We wanted a Mayor who would kick butt and take names. |
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Chip Northrup:
Bottom line -- Council is now as racially
polarized as it ever was under Bartlett, and just
as fractious; even includes some of the same characters - namely Chair
Throwing Al. There's a solution for this, but the make nice attitude of
Annette Strauss ain't it. |
We did not campaign for a new version of Annette Strauss.
We wanted a Mayor who would kick butt and take names.
She knows who the bad guys are at City Hall. Call them out.
Expose the bad guys. Cut through the spider webs.
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We
need our Mayor to get back to being Laura Miller and fight the evil forces at City Hall. |
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