Citizen D is a City Hall Employee

06/18/02 Civilian Employee Demonstration

As usual, you ask the right questions.  What the news media did NOT report was that most of us used our lunch hours to participate.  Some used comp time and many others worked a little later to make up the time we spent at the march.  Your question is a good one and DESERVES a forthright answer.

MOST of us know that Laura Miller is not the cause of the problem and ultimately is not the solution.  We DO need a tax increase, BUT, we also need to RESTORE integrity and TRUST to our  citizens.  

Reality check -- 80% of police and firefighters DO NOT live in Dallas.  HELLO!  This is not a good thing!  

60+% of civilian City workers DO NOT LIVE IN DALLAS!  This is a problem, too.

I feel that stakeholders make better decisions than non-stakeholders.  

Did you know that about 50% of the City's Directors and Assistant Directors DO NOT LIVE IN DALLAS?!  Hence the poor quality of decision making and policy that flows from City Hall.  

At the risk of rambling, I want to point out that DISD and the County cut a deal yesterday whereby 5,000 truancy cases have been dropped because they do not have the resources to take them through the court system.  

Their solution -- Start over with a slightly cleaner slate (there are still about 18,000 files that are part of a backlog that did not make it to an actual court charge) and let the City of Dallas Municipal Courts handle the new ones that come up!  As YOU ask -- "What are they smoking?!" Even more alarming to me is that the City is proposing HIRING two additional judges to oversee these truancy cases!  DID IT EVER OCCUR TO THESE MORONS TO DO THE SAME THING FOR HOUSING AND CODE COMPLIANCE!?

Our municipal judges are just too easy on code violators BECAUSE they hear all sorts of other cases as well.  With the backlog we have and with the severe HARM code violations do to our city, the Council (not just Mayor Miller -- this was a BIG problem long before she came on board) need to set up a dedicated court that ONLY hears these kinds of cases.  I lay the blame wholly at Judge O'Neil's feet.  He sets the cases and assigns (or NOT) the judges.

The presence of four council members at the protest was just a photo-op for THEM!  The Police there just smirked at us (probably on overtime pay).

Maybe you should start charging me to e-mail you. It would still be cheaper than therapy -- smile.

Take care and keep up the good work.  I wish that you did not have to, but I am glad that you do.