11/03/03  City Manager Doing Something Right -- AGAIN??

Granted, it was Halloween, but after an evening of doling out candy to some of the cutest trick or treaters you will ever see -- I pulled up DallasNews.com and saw the following:
 

Benavides resuming ethics inquiry City employees' actions during mayor's race will be reviewed 08:58 PM CST on Friday, October 31, 2003 By COLLEEN McCAIN NELSON / The Dallas Morning News

City Manager Ted Benavides has announced plans to reopen his investigation into whether politically inclined employees behaved inappropriately during the mayor's race.    This year's local elections are long past, but questions about the rules of political engagement for city workers remain unanswered. . . . when the city's ethics commission began hearings to consider similar issues, Mr. Benavides suspended his work, saying that he did not want the two investigations to conflict. . . . The resolution of the mayor's case cleared the way for the city manager's investigation to resume. And Ms. Miller was quick to point that out. . . . The city manager wrote in his memo that his investigation would include an examination of evidence that was submitted during ethics hearings. . . . The mayor said she spent several thousand dollars on public records, including e-mails exchanged between city employees and other communications related to their involvement in campaigns. . . . Council assistant Yolanda Lara, who supported Ms. Poss' campaign, said the presentation was irrelevant to the mayor's defense and suggested that the exhibits were presented in an effort to ensure that they would become part of the city manager's investigation. . . . The mayor said only a few employees have openly and inappropriately politicked. But Ms. Miller said she wants to prevent a repeat performance during the next round of council elections in 2005. . . . Ms. Miller said she has not asked the city manager to terminate anyone's employment.

I thought it had to be a trick or treat joke.  If Friday had been April 1st rather than October 31st, I would have thought it was BELO doing an April Fool's joke.  To be sure I wasn't hallucinating, I called several friends and read it to them.  It was real, all right.
 

What Yolanda Lara and her cabal did during the city council and mayoral campaigns was just plain wrong.  They used  city hall computers, e-mail and phone lines to contact other city hall employees and instruct them on campaign assignments.  Lara is the Administrative Aide to Councilwoman Elba Garcia.  When complaints were made about Lara's doings, she claimed she used her own lap top on her lunch hour to do the e-mails. 

Below is a copy of an 4/3/03 message I sent out with Yolanda Lara's e-mail attached.  Lara's e-mail went out on April 1, 2003 at 2:07 pm.  That was a Tuesday.  In real people time, that's a work day and well after lunch.  The e-mail is both deceptive but clearly reflects Lara's double standards. 
 

Thursday, April 03, 2003 5:16 PM - Yolanda Lara illegally using city e-mail list      Attached is an e-mail that Yolanda Lara (Dr. Garcia's AA) circulated to scores of city employees regarding volunteer work in various campaigns and impugning several candidates, including the Mayor, Loza, Housewright and me - Boyd.    Lara lets Oakley off because he said he voted to cut SIP w/o proper info and would never do that again.  She's blasting me because I'm friends w/the Mayor.    Lara mailed the e-mail from her personal e-mail, but sent it to a list of employees at city e-mail addresses.  Note the time of day of the mailing.  She did the mailing at City Hall on City Hall time.  Even if she carries her laptop around with her --- unlikely.  She made an illegal use of confidential city information -- staff e-mail addresses.  She is calling for city employees to gather at a city rec center on behalf of Steve Salazar.    This has got to stop.  Sharon Boyd

There may be some lap  tops somewhere that can transmit e-mails by air without any linkups, but it is very unlikely that Yolanda Lara has one of them.  She used the city's employee e-mail list and she used the city's internet connection.

This woman has been around City Hall a long time.  She knew exactly what she was doing. Except, she is a stupid idiot!  Granted, I have a bit of personal involvement since she singled me out.  As an individual, it would have been fine for her to prefer Steve Salazar to me even though she does not live in District 6.  But for her to organize other city employees against me and to claim I would "vote against employees because she is told to do so by Miller" was a violation of the City Charter and untruthful.
 

Anyone who thinks I will ever do as "told to do so", does not know me or is a liar.  Yolanda Lara is a liar and a racist.  Lara singled me out in particular because she knew poor little old District 6 was so gerrymandered by Joe Thug May and Mad Max Aaronson (Redistricting Commission) that a few hundred vote-harvested ballots could win the district.  Like a couple of other groups that went with Steve Salazar, it was more to embarrass the Mayor than about me or Steve Salazar.  Laura did not endorse in District 2, but has a good relationship with John Loza. 

Like Joe Thug May, Yolanda Lara is a racist and believes in racial politics.  Never mind about good government or fiscal responsibility.

If Yolanda Lara could comprehend what she reads on DallasArena.com (and we know she does), she would know I put cops and firefighters above everything in the budget and civilian employees next and then street and park maintenance and way down the list arts and acquiring new properties.  I would spend money on city employees before one cent gets diverted to the street bums.  But, Thank God and apparently Liar Lara, I am not on the city council.

Whether I or anyone else is the subject of a city employee campaign of lies, it is a very dangerous precedent.  Our Charter prohibits political activity or unions by civilian employees.  There's a reason. 

Councilwoman Garcia's Administrative Aide used city equipment and the city's e-mail list to spread untruths about me and to organize political action against me.  That's a violation of my rights.  I pay taxes and some of my taxes paid for the equipment and phone system she used, not to mention the e-mail list she used against me.  My supporters pay city taxes as well.  They were as victimized by Liar Lara as me. 

The City Manager should have put a stop to this and reprimanded her back in April when all this was going on.  She may have sent the e-mail out on April Fool's day, but it was no joke and it is still not funny.

To have Yolanda Lara and Mary Hasan (Administrative Aide to Beat that Indictment Fantroy) playing even more diabolical games since the election only makes it more imperative to get those women out of City Hall and off the city's payroll.
 

Those two secretaries should have known better than to notarize those two Complaints that Hasan prepared for Lovie "I have no personal knowledge" Lipscomb.  Granted, they probably feared for their jobs if they refused Hasan, but that's the real world of City Hall.  If you put expediency and self-protection before following the rules and doing what's right, eventually you are going to be in trouble and your job in jeopardy.

Yolanda Lara sat in on the Miller hearing before the Ethics Commission the entire day.  She very well may have taken vacation time to do so, but it was inappropriate.  Lara and Hasan have been insolent and outright confrontational and abusive toward the Mayor.

The Mayor was elected with significant margins of victory in 2002 and 2003 by the voting citizens of Dallas.  As a city employee, Lara and Hasan are being insolent and confrontational and abusive to Dallas voters when they insult the Mayor.  Laura Miller is the only person on the council elected citywide.

DallasArena.com certainly was less than respectful toward Con Jerk when he was Mayor, but Sharon Boyd is not a city employee and DallasArena.com is not city funded.

If Liar Lara and Harpy Hasan want to do what I do, they should quit their city jobs and go to work in the private sector.  They can then shell out the money to have a web site, pay for their own internet service and say whatever they want.  Until the City Charter is revised, individual city employees may not endorse or donate $$ to city council or mayoral candidates.  A city employee absolutely cannot use city equipment to campaign for or against a council or mayoral candidate.  Other than cops and firefighters, city employees CANNOT form unions or political groups to campaign for or against a council or mayoral candidate. 
 

	Civilian City Employee Yolanda Lara endorsed candidates.
	Civilian City Employee Yolanda Lara used the city's internet connections to spread her deceptive e-mails to city hall workers.
	Civilian City Employee Yolanda Lara organized a group of city employees into a political and apparently on-going union.

In baseball, that would be 3-strikes -- she should be out.