It's all about Politics.

We have had quite a week. Larry Duncan's good news from the Appeals Court. The Ethics Commission ruling on Allen Gwinn's complaint against Mary Poss's handling of her campaign funds. The deadline for the School Board Elections resulting in multiple choices in every district. This is incredible news for Dallas.

The importance of the efforts of Larry Duncan and Allen Gwinn cannot be stressed adequately. These two citizens went out on a limb to stand up for good government and fair elections when it would have been easier to just walk away from a wrong.

When was the last time you risked ridicule and likely failure but charged on ahead to get something righted? That long?

Everyone told Larry Duncan it was hopeless for him to challenge Maxine Thornton Reese (T-Reese) even though it was obvious on election night that someone had played dirty with absentee ballots. It was astounding when the District Court ruled in his favor, even though the physical evidence of vote fraud was overwhelming. Many of the local district judges would have dismissed Duncan's case for political reasons -- not on the merits of the case. It was great for him to have a visiting judge hear the case. Still, at any point of Duncan's fight to remove T-Reese from his council seat, someone with lesser will would have given up. That's not Larry Duncan.

Don Maris:
You do a wonderful job of spreading the news. I hope some of Laura's problems on the city council will be defeated or replaced by people who really want to help their city and their own areas. Seems like many on the council must be getting free sports tickets, promised votes or promised money for future elections, etc. They vote to give away the city piece
by piece with no thought to the people they are suppose to represent.
_______________
Dr. Wm K Gordon:
For the first and probably the only time, I have to agree strongly with Maxine Thornton-Reese: There is no comparison (actually she appears to have meant "similarity") between Ron Kirk and Laura Miller. Mayor Miller is an honest public servant of integrity and class; these character traits separate her by light years from the "former mayor."

Nor is it Allen Gwinn. When Allen Gwinn started Dallas.org, it was an independent effort. Never met him before that time. Allen is a cute guy, married to a cute girl and they have two smart, cute kids. He has a very important high-tech job, he volunteers with the McKinney Ave Trolley and he goes after crooked politicians. He believes in the process. Being a computer nerd like Duncan, Allen thinks things should run correctly according to the rules. If something is going haywire in a computer network system, it messes up (corrupts) operations for everyone. He applies that logic to his life and the world around him.

It's a simplistic concept, but it's how things should be. There's right and there's wrong. There are rules and there's chaos. No gray areas for Allen Gwinn.

If more of us had Duncan's will power and Gwinn's focus, this city would not be in our current mess.

Speaking of messes -- You would think after two humiliating court opinions confirming that she was elected with fraudulent mail-in vote ballots that Brain Dead Maxine Thornton-Reese (T-Reese, like in T-Rex) she would be somewhat subdued at council. Not! She made a totally unacceptable swipe at Mayor Miller.

In support of Mayor Miller's efforts to use federal Community Block Grant (CBG) money only for bricks and mortar efforts (park maintenance, pools, recreations centers, etc.), Alan Walne mentioned Ron Kirk's efforts to wean the non-profits off the CBG monies for the same reason. T-Reese piped up that there was no comparison between the former mayor and the current mayor -- very nasty, very stupid.

It was six years of priorities of the former mayor, Ron Kirk, that got us in a position where we are $85 million in the hole. Jim Schutze is on the same tear as DallasArena's Spending Money, when he questions the sincerity of Poss, Oakley and Walne's crocodile tears over our budget shortfall and calling for people to spend in Dallas for sales tax revenue. They gave away $43 million in future tax revenue two weeks ago. They have all voted for other tax abatements where the recipient has not delivered on promises made.

Schutze
Cain't Say No BY JIM SCHUTZE
Girls and boys of the city council get "in trouble" 6/13/02

First, city council members Mary Poss, Alan Walne and Ed Oakley are leaders of the pack in giving away $43 million in tax money to two billionaires, . . . . When the billionaires finally do get the boodle they want, they promise in return that they will build an ultra-luxe professional sports-cum-lingerie mall on a toxic waste dump near downtown. . . .
But then barely a week after the big giveaway, the Dallas City Council gets the news that it is badly, horrendously, stupendously broke. And so for several evenings in a row we have city council members Mary Poss, Alan Walne and Ed Oakley on the telly every night shucking and clucking and waddling around with sky-is-falling looks on their faces, going on and on about how terrible it is that we seem to be facing a "shortfall" in the budget.
Well, what...what am I missing here? . . . Mary, Ed, Alan: You gave the money away. I saw you do it. It was on television. That's how you get shortfalls.

Last year, when Send Me Some Money Loza was happily championing the second Million+ tax abatement for Yahoo.com, when they had not delivered on their promises for the first Million+ tax abatement (almost $4 Million total), no one other than Laura Miller and Donna Blumer seemed the least concerned about the fact that Yahoo had reneged on their first deal. This week at council looking at this "horrendous" budget shortfall, no one mentioned that Yahoo laid off hundreds of employees rather than created 600 jobs or suggested we make them pay their property taxes like everyone else. (This council thinks the "rich are different".) Check out Ed Oakley's explanation of his vote for Palladium.

Did not hear a single word from our City MisManager about Yahoo's default or any other tax abatement recipient's non-compliance, but he did point out that revenue from police tickets is down $2 Million+. He just notice that? Where has he or Chief TB been for the past year? The $2 Million is not since the election -- it is for the past budget year.

Alan Walne, who never shows concern about non-complying tax abatees, wants someone to look into why ticket revenue is down. Well, Duh! We don't have enough police to answer burglary or assault calls. They are spread too thin to be out chasing speeders. They do have time to issue parking tickets. My best friend from Tyler was in town and parked the wrong direction on my street Saturday night. She got a parking citation. Good news/bad news. Certainly was evidence that my little neighborhood street is getting patrolled on Saturday night, but what really bad area was not?

But, back to the CBG money. Laura Miller won that effort on a 10-5 vote, even though Atty Don Hill questions her "coalition".

James Ragland 06/12/2002 /
The Dallas Morning News
Mayor busy engineering Bridges

. . . But back on the home front, Ms. Miller is still swimming in unsettled political waters, as mayors often do.
She's working hard to build bridges with the African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American communities, in part by promising to get more of them on city boards and commissions. She's asked for the resumes of 100 candidates from each group and, so far, "they've come in a trickle," she said. . . .
Ms. Miller also is struggling to find a solid coalition on the council that will support her. She doesn't have eight votes in her pocket, as her predecessor did.
"I worked hard to build a coalition within the first two weeks," she said. "I've been able to deliver on every issue that's come up, except Palladium [the arena project development]."
Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill said Ms. Miller got a strong start out of the gate.
"I think that she is obviously a very strong person politically," he said. "The thing is, I'm not sure what her coalition is just yet."

Did you know that one non-profit that is a recipient of $75,000 CBG money, and that group lists council member "Beat that Indictment" James Fantroy, with BTI Fantroy's appointee to the Plan Commission as the non-profit's Vice President. It is such an important group, it does not even have a president, but it has $75,000 from CBG funds. That's the kind of crap that Mayor Miller is trying to eliminate by using those federal funds on REAL needs for all Dallas residents to enjoy and utilize.

That is in keeping with her campaign promises of clean government. Shakedown Chaney, Beat that Indictment Fantroy and T-Reese all see CBG money as power goodies to be distributed to their allies for political gain.

This is another reason that we can NEVER, NEVER DO AWAY WITH TERM LIMITS.

The School Board would be much better off if they had specific term limits. Some people on the Board consider it a lifetime position. Look how long Kathlyn Gillum was there, and some of her contemporaries. DallasArena.com is only endorsing two School Board incumbents -- Ken Zornes and Rafael Anchia. The School Board needs a change.

The council needs a change. We need people who can apply common sense to their decision making process. We need people who believe in honest government.

In the next few weeks, we will be electing a new school board -- and possibly a new council member from District 4 the same day.

	It would save us about $35,000 to have the council election simultaneous with the school board race, but there is too much at stake to count pennies when we blow millions on billionaires. With the corruption that was behind getting T-Reese on the council, all eyes must be on that election on a stand alone basis. Duncan won the "walk-in" vote, so it's not on election day that the votes are stolen. It's those mail-in ballots. Dallas has the problem with those mail-in ballots, but they are holding townhall meetings about it in Plano? This council election should be held separately from the school board election.

It may be petty to some people, but politics is necessary to determine who governs us. As a DallasArena.com reader, you know that, but you need to make sure your friends know it as well. I personally don't want anyone voting who does not care about the issues, but with mail-in ballots from comatose nursing home residents, we have to force the uninvolved to get involved.

Right now, you need to determine which DISD district is yours after redistricting. You need to determine which candidate in your DISD district you are going to support. DallasArena.com endorsements are listed on School Board. It's only a few weeks to July 27 -- you can help tremendously by helping your preferred candidate. So few people will be voting!

Just as important, you need to get in touch with Larry Duncan's campaign by calling Sunny Letot @ 214.946.3606. Whatever you can do to help Larry financially or with physical assistance (walking neighborhoods, phone-banking, etc.) will be time and money well spent. This is not about whether or not you like Larry Duncan personally. This is about honest elections and whether or not T-Reese can vote on issues that impact your life and property when she was elected with phony votes.

If you think you are above politics, you are a fool and beneath contempt.