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11/21/02  This is a Stick-Up -- 

In the movies, the bad guys warn you before they take YOUR MONEY, and if you cooperate all you lose is some cash.  In real life, the bad guys take YOUR MONEY and frequently shoot you or worse anyway.  At City Hall, they take YOUR MONEY, lose YOUR MONEY and then come back for more of YOUR MONEY.

Wednesday night was interesting internet reading.  There was Dave Michaels' Miller pitches bond plan in The Dallas Managed News about the council's plan to push a $500 Million Bond sale at us in the May election.  There was Jim Schutze's The Emperor's Checkbook in the Dallas Observer  about an Assistant City Auditor suing the city to make city management (City MisManager Benavides) account for monies in and monies out.  At least 10 DallasArena.com readers saw this article and sent me a link.  

I will discuss some excerpts from each below, but you ought to stop and read these articles before you go further.

Miller pitches bond plan; Mayor pledges no tax hike in fall if deal passes; some skeptical 11/21/2002  by DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas Mayor Laura Miller is asking voters to pass a $500 million bond package in May and to brace themselves for the tax increase that it will trigger.    Ms. Miller said Wednesday that most City Council members agree that $500 million is needed to address infrastructure repair, flood protection and construction. Paying back that debt would require raising the tax rate by about 8 percent over three years, according to recent estimates.    "It will really be a meat-and-potatoes package of things that we know the citizens have been wanting us to do," Ms. Miller said.     The mayor is hopeful that residents will approve a bond referendum that requires a tax increase as long as the council does not raise taxes next fall when it approves the city's annual budget. . . .  "I think it's important that we say we are not going to have a tax increase next fall," Ms. Miller said. "You need to have credibility when you go out and sell something."    Several council members said the mayor was making a dangerous gambit by promising not to raise taxes. . . .  "It is way too premature to determine what the tax rate will be in 2004," said Ms. Poss, whom many consider a mayoral candidate in 2003. "And I would not mislead the voters by telling them that I knew the answers." . . .   "You can't guarantee that," said Mr. Oakley. . . .  "Who knows what the economy is doing?" Mr. Walne said. "What if we have a war in Iraq?"     But other members agreed that, as city management continually cuts costs and prepares for lower revenues this year, Ms. Miller's prediction is realistic.    Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill said Ms. Miller was also being politically honest – residents cannot absorb another tax increase next fall, he said. . . .  Most of a $500 million bond program would go toward repairing streets, libraries and parks.  . . .  The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts would probably get about $20 million, city officials said. . . .

Michaels knows who to go to for really stupid comments.  He lets Poss and Walne just be themselves.
 
I don't believe Dallas citizens are going to vote for this Bond Program.  I don't intend to campaign against it, but I think the council should talk more to their neighbors and less to each other.  People are furious at the suggestion of such a large program, when all over town taxpayers are already struggling with their current tax bill.  My own property tax bill is the equivalent of 4 months worth of mortgage payments.  Granted, a big hunk of that bill is DISD, but it is enormous.  Not a smart move combining the several different taxing authorities into one bill.  It hits you harder when you see that one ENORMOUS total.

As concerned as I am about the size of the 2003 bond program and at least one $20 million component, I have to agree with the Mayor there is no possibility Dallas taxpayers would accept another tax increase next Fall if the bond program passes and we get hit with a 2.67% increase, with 2 more coming for the next 2 years.  It is disheartening to have Oakley and Walne say we might have to raise taxes even more than the increase for the bond program.  "What if we have a war in Iraq?"  Duh Walne lives up to his nickname again.  If we have a war, you and I might have income problems of our own.  The city may have to actually get by with less -- instead of providing less while hitting up us for more.  

No point in commenting on anything Mayor PreTend Poss says -- she's as much yesterday's news as that Former Mayor.

	What are they doing with all of our money?  They want to tax us 2.67% more per year for the next 3 years, but that 8% will not increase revenue to pay our city personnel.  We can't expect the civilians to forego another raise in 2003.	Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld: Comments from a friend in California about the Visitors' Bureau spending our tax dollars at topless bars.   "Unbelievable - just another example of the self-righteousness and disregard for what's right and wrong that's so pervasive among politicians at all levels (especially, it seems, in Dallas).   Our government started out to be the best, most just and equitable system in the world.  Far and away, it still is.      It's so big on all levels that it's out of control and only preserves the interests of those in power, and not what's right for the parties it governs."      We must replace City Manager Ted Benavidez and Police Chief Terrell Bolton.  These men are not only arrogant but unqualified for the positions they hold. I attribute our problems to these two men.    We need a clean new start with qualified people who are above reproach.  How much better our city would be with them gone.
That's unreasonable.  The 17% the cops and firefighters wanted was so the DPD and DFD could be competitive in recruiting new hirees.  We don't have enough police officers to respond to our calls promptly, but Terrell Bolton just fired 3 officers who had to use physical force to subdue a wacked out bad guy who was fighting them.   Now, we have 3 fewer officers and needed 30 officers yesterday.  Our taxes are going to be raised 8% over 3 years to cover this $500 million bond program (if it passes), so how do we give raises to our city employees in the next 3 years -- civilian or sworn?

There is so much waste at City Hall.  The Asst. City Auditor who Schutze writes about is only telling us what our last City Auditor Dan Paul told the Council and got forced out by MPT Poss and that Former Mayor for daring to expose bad doings at City Hall.  Thank goodness Robert Reynolds cares enough about Dallas taxpayers and his job to fight back.  Bad things happen to city employees who buck the bad guys at City Hall.  Here's another old story that will curl your toes:

The untouchables; A whistleblower learns the hard way that you don't rat on your betters at Dallas City Hall BY JIM SCHUTZE dallasobserver.com | originally published: November 4, 1999

Back to our World today.  If anyone decides to organize opposition to the $500 Million Bond Package, they only have to print off and distribute copies of the story below by Schutze to every voter -- whether property owner or tenant. 

Reconciling a checking account, whether large or small, 1 or 200, is not rocket scientist stuff.  You mark the cleared checks and deposits.  You note the bank's charges.  You should have a balance equal to the bank statement, plus any deposits and outstanding checks.  If you don't, you made a mistake.  This may be the part Benavides' staff has a tough time with -- if you make a mistake, you find your error -- even better you prove the bank made an error, which they do.   The situation Schutze describes might have been resolved had Mary Poss not forced Ron Paul to seek employment elsewhere.  It may not have been much of a sacrifice for Paul to give up Dallas for Florida, but it was a great loss to Dallas taxpayers.

The Emperor's Checkbook Dallas City Hall finances could be our own little Enron BY JIM SCHUTZE

The Dallas system--weak mayor, strong city manager--is supposed to be businesslike. So why is the city in the financial ditch so badly? If Dallas City Hall is so businesslike, why wouldn't it have seen the economic downturn coming and hedged its bets just a little?   . . .Robert W. Reynolds. Reynolds is the 65-year-old senior auditor with the city of Dallas who brought suit against the city. In his suit he claims his superiors at City Hall retaliated against him for trying to tell the truth about the kind of disastrous internal financial mess he says Dallas City Hall is in right now.     Think about Enron. Why didn't those accountants tell the truth? What happens to an accountant who does?     Taylor, a CPA with a law degree, went to work for the city of Dallas in 1995. Since then he has handled many of the city's biggest and most important audits. Until his recent problems, his job performance evaluations were not just good--they were glowing. . . . His superiors rewarded him with ever larger and more significant audits to supervise, and that was when things began to go south for him, because Robert Reynolds began to find ever larger and more significant problems at Dallas City Hall.     In 1999 Reynolds informed his superiors that the city budget prepared for the council by the city manager was seriously misstating expected sales-tax revenues. You remember this issue, right? It's why we are in the ditch right now. The city manager told the city council earlier this year that the city was facing a $95 million shortfall all of a sudden because of a shocking, totally unanticipated plunge in sales-tax revenues after 9/11.  . . . Reynolds also carried out a major study of cash transactions at City Hall, . . . the city, according to his study, has no real control at all over receivables. It doesn't know who owes it what. It doesn't know whom it owes money. It doesn't keep track of who pays what. There are pools of money all over City Hall that nobody ever checks on or counts. . . .  the city maintains more than 200 separate bank accounts, almost none of which is ever truly reconciled or balanced down to the level of transaction detail. . . .  "The bank deposits are not totaled up correctly; they come from different sources; there are credit card charges unresolved; it's all just sitting out there.  . . .  no way of knowing if a city employee were skimming deposits, . . . .     In Reynolds' suit, he claims the city retaliated against him--denied him a promotion--for telling the truth about these issues. . . .  dallasobserver.com | originally published: November 21, 2002

It comes down to the mindset at City Hall.  Ted Benavides is a shady, unqualified loser who was a pretty good Asst. City Manager -- at least pretty good at covering John Ware's hiney.  Benavides never warned the council (at least not those who would have cared) about Reynolds' 1999 warning about the sales tax over-expectations.  Benavides has a history of deceiving councils.  Here's an excerpt from an article written by Laura Miller in her other life as a journalist.

Lies on Tape  Secret city documents expose arena-study coverup at City Hall.  by LAURA MILLER

. . . The tape reveals the unvarnished behavior behind closed doors of First Assistant City Manager Cliff Keheley, who dished up a load of lies to the council; of council members like Halstead, who too easily embraced his story; of Assistant City Manager Ted Benavides, who remained silent as he listened to what he knew were lies; and of City Manager John Ware, who should have known they were lies, but instead promised to punish the falsely accused. . . . dallasobserver.com | originally published: July 13, 1995

Don't you miss the days when you went looking for an Observer on Thursday nights to see what Miller was writing about?  I had a standing date with my Observer on Thursday nights at Sal's Pizza on Wycliff.  A big plate of real spaghetti, a glass of cheap chardonnay, a couple of roles of bread -- and the Observer.  Just never gets better than that.

So, where are we in Dallas, just before Thanksgiving?  We are being taxed to death and about to get hit with a 2.67% annual increase for the next 3 years.  We suspected and now know there is waste and lost money at City Hall.   All of this might be solved if at least 8 people on the council (a voting majority) could comprehend they are dealing with REAL MONEY.

It's not just REAL MONEY -- it's YOUR REAL MONEY.

When they take YOUR REAL MONEY to fund an entertainment hall for the town's elite, they take a hunk of your disposable money you might have spent at Cinemark or buying a tape or CD -- something that would generate sales tax revenue for the city to pay our city employees - sworn and civilian.  I use low end places for you to spend YOUR REAL MONEY since an average Dallas taxpayer is unlikely to be buying tickets to an event at the Hicks/Perot arena or at the Meyerson or an opera concert anywhere.  If people want a particular kind of entertainment that the market does not warrant and private industry will not supply, they should raise their own money to pay for the whole thing.
·YOUR REAL MONEY should not be spent for entertaining perverts in sex clubs.
·YOUR REAL MONEY should not be spent to provide a place of business for sports clubs.
·YOUR REAL MONEY should not be spent to build another place for the elite to have occasions to don their finery and impress each other.

YOUR REAL MONEY should be spent for basic services, which are not being delivered today, and will be delivered even more poorly next year when we pay more property taxes.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY that councils play with is YOUR REAL MONEY.  It's real, and it's really cutting a hole in disposable income of Dallas consumers who would generate more sales tax revenue, if we had any money left to spend after we fund all the wants and needs of OUR DOWNTOWN BETTERS.

Enough is enough!  

We need to get rid of Chief of Police Terrell Bolton who has cost us millions with those demotions, who will cost us millions with those fake drug arrests (which is totally his fault) and whose recent firing of those 3 police officers (who fought a violent criminal who would not stop resisting) will cost us more millions.  He has cost us well over the $20 Million the ODB want for their opera house.  

We need to get rid of City MisManager Ted Benavides who has cost us millions by allowing Bolton to do those demotions, by not removing Bolton when it became clear he had aided Old Al Lipscomb assistance to that pimp, Nick Rizos and by not running City Hall with even an iota of professionalism.  I doubt there is $20 Million in those funny accounts that Schutze describes, but who knows?  

We are in a place where Dallas residents and businesses cannot expect basic services, but can expect to pay taxes through the nose.

It's no longer a quality of life issue -- it's just about the money, Honey,  

YOUR REAL MONEY!