Dallas Housing Authority

Betty Culbreath is no longer the chairwoman of the Board of Dallas Housing Authority. I knew she would not be after working on behalf of Mayor Tom Leppert to oust Ann Lott. That is just the way those things work. You do the dirty work and then your are no longer needed.

There is a part of me that wants to gloat and say "I told you so, and no better for you", but the christian part of me has empathy for people who are used and then discorded, no matter who they are. It is amazing how that works in this town.

Mayor Tom Leppert has appointed Terdema L Ussery, President & CEO of the Dallas Mavericks to replace Ms. Culbreath as chairman. What is most interesting is that he is the replacement. We all recall there was concern about Ms. Lott fighting with the business community about the sell of Little Mexico (she wanted to preserve the history) and this property is very close to the American Airlines Arena where Mr. Ussery's team, the Dallas Mavericks, play their basketball games. It will be interesting to see how soon Mayor Tom , Mr. Ussery and the gang will make a move on selling the land where Little Mexico sits, and who the buyer will be?

Why does the mayor get to appoint all 5 members of the board? Change the charter Dallas City Council.

A Hit Dog Will Holler

My mother, rest her sole, always said "A hit dog will holler", and it looks like a lot of hollering is going on. My position has not changed about Dwaine (Dewayne, Dwayne) Caraway and Betty Culbreath.

There are two people that have openly disagreed with me and they are Sharon Boyd and Michael Davis. Michael Davis is a person who lives in District 8 and is appointed to the Dallas City Plan Commission by Dwaine Caraway to represent District 4. I think Michael is a bitter guy who is trying to make his way in politics in Black Dallas. Check him out, he is always defending Dwayne as if his life depends on making sure that anyone who says something negative about Dwaine will get his raft. Who cares about his raft?

Sharon Boyd's opinion is hers, and I hope she remembers how she has maligned many African Americans in the past few years, including Dwaine(Dewayne,Dwayne) Caraway. I do not agree with all of her assessments, but I never commented. Some of the people that she has spoken negative about are my friends and mentors, but sometimes its better to leave things alone. I live in the black community, I have worked on community issues since the late 1960's and I know that I have a better feel than Sharon for what is going on in the black community. I believe that Sharon Boyd's opinion about what is going on in Black Dallas has no relevance in my community.

There is not just one opinion in the Black community, therefore everyone is not going to agree with me, but "I say what I mean and mean what I say".

Goodbye Ann Lott

Tuesday's DHA board meeting escalated into heated words between the Chairwoman of the board and the President of Dallas Housing Authority over something that normally would not be so volatile. The big to do was about the Chairwoman proposing a policy that would prohibit staffers from adding religious messages or personal opinions to their official e-mail. The policy also would require that commissioners review agency newsletters, event programs,
invitations and other communications before they are made public. Ms. Lott, the President of DHA, took exception and felt the board would be taking control of the day to day operations of the agency.

It is reported that Betty Culbreath at one point referred to Ann Lott as "girl." Ms. Lott of course took offense to that. She wanted to be clear that she would not be spoken to that way.

Remember that Mayor Tom Leppert is the person who appoints all 5 of the board members and months ago he rushed over to the Housing Authority meeting for a photo op of him telling Ms. Lott that she had 6 months to put in place management tools to correct the accounting of the 3.8 million it received from HUD. There has never been any allegations that the money was taken just that it was not accounted for appropriately. Ms. Lott along with the board began to make what was reported by HUD and Ms. Culbreath as significant strides to improvement.

Mayor Tom Leppert is waiting to reappoint 3 of the members. If they do not vote to take Ann Lott out he will not reappoint them. We have seen this move before when he refused to appoint committees on the council until he got some votes done and then he punished council members who were not with him.

Ann Lott, has done a good job for DHA, but she is not apart of the INNER CIRCLE and will be fired by Mayor Leppert's board.