ODB slant to police/pay fire referendum.

As I voted on Thursday, I left the voting booth very angry. Before I voted, I was handed three legal sized sheets of paper. The first had instructions on what the vote was about, as if I were stupid and went early to vote and did not know what I was doing there. 

Two of the pages had the fire and police salaries levels clearly written. That was an all time first as far as I can remember. 

The longer I thought about it the madder I got. It was like an automatic set up for failure. Of course, Chief Bolton's salary was on the sheet.  I could see if a voter was on the fence about how to vote for the 17% raise across the board and saw the Chief's salary, the voter might vote against it. The people at the voting place clearly knew I was angry. 

When I returned home, I began calling some of my police buddies. I spoke to Scott Cizney at the DPA, and he assured me it had to appear that way as it's the law.  Also, the police are actively checking different voting places to make sure, voters are not being lead to vote a certain way. 

I spoke to another buddy and, of course, the police are cautious about hoping voters will be for the 17%. He also said, we had to think past the current Chief and look to the future, as Bolton will not be with us very long.  We have to think about a Chief who will be worth the high salary proposed. 

You will run into the same thing wherever you vote.  So please don't worry about the Chief's high salary and think about the future.  When you get a chance, please pull up dallasarena.com and undergroundcop.com and get some good information.

Thank you for allowing me to vent, as it is a very frustrating time in the history of Dallas.

Anne Carlson