11/14/02  Brett Shipp Reports on Tax Dollars Spent in Sex Clubs

      It alarms me that Dallas citizens are not protesting downtown with all the revelations that Brett Shipp has been reporting about mismanagement at the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau.  How sad!  We are used to evil running things that we can accept this.  

     I will not accept this.  Not after all the years we have been fighting the topless bar industry on NW Hwy.  We always knew the topless bars attracted many conventions to our area, but I did not know taxpayers were paying for promoting them.  This is unacceptable.  

     Am I the only one that feels this way?  I hope not!  Otherwise, we are in more trouble then I ever thought we would be.  What hypocrites we are if we sit and do nothing.

     As a background, Brett Shipp has been doing a series on the Visitors Bureau.  Chris Luna (ex-City Councilman who represented Bachman Lake area before John Loza) is the Chairman of the Visitors Bureau Board.  Mr. Luna has always had close ties to the clubs.  He was even a keynote speaker at a Topless Bar Convention in Las Vegas.  

     Mr. Luna and the Burch Corp. (the largest owner of topless bars in the state) have a history of being close that dates back to when he was on City Council in the early 1990s.  I recently learned that Kathy Golden (Controller of Burch Corp.) is a member on the Multicultural Committee of the Visitors Bureau.  This type of appointment disturbs me because it should be given to a person who is working to make Dallas a better place -- not someone who has cost the city of Dallas hundreds of thousands of dollars through lawsuits.  

   It appears that for some people making these appointments it is not important how you make money as long as you have a lot of it.   The arrogance of these people!  Who is minding this bureau?  

    I don't believe my tax dollars are being spent wisely.  This must stop, and we need some accountability here.  Our property taxes are getting so high that I have friends that are selling their homes and moving out of Dallas.  This is wrong.  

     We need to get rid of  incompetent people in leadership positions here in Dallas.  People like Ted Benavidez and Chief Terrell Bolton.  Good things are starting to happen in our city.  We just need to replace all the unethical people we now have.  In their place, we need ethical and honest people to get us back in the right direction.

     Our city situation reminds me of an old tale about a frog.  This frog was put into a pot of cold water.  The pot was put on a stove and the flames were turned on very slowly.  The frog was so comfortable he did not realize he was being cooked.  That is just the way we are now.  

     Back in the days of the evil empire of "that former Mayor", his smooth talking acclimated us to corruption.  He got the citizens used to accepting corruption and lawsuits as a way of running a city.  I will never forget how that former Mayor flew to West Texas with the title of Mayor of Dallas to testify for Al Lipscomb.  Back home, we had a city with police and firefighters unhappy because of un-kept promises made to them.  Well, that was then and this is now.  

    We have a great mayor in Laura Miller.  Mayor Miller needs our help to clean up this mess. Our city is dirty, and a dirty city brings nothing but problems.  That is what we have -- a very dirty and unethical city.  

    I would like to start from scratch with a new City Manager, Police Chief and Chairman of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau.  I cannot understand how people can be happy with what we have?  Have most of us become so complacent that we are willing to accept this and do nothing to change things?  

    Ask yourself where you stand and what are you going to do to make things different?  

    This should not continue to be tolerated.  Each one of us must stand up and be counted.  I urge you to call, write or speak at city council protesting this situation.

            Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld