Don't believe the lies about Souther Sector Votes on the Convention Center Hotel

You have some of the same " wanna be" people spreading lies about the outcome of the Vote Yes for the Convention Center Hotel in the Southern Sector. District 7, 5 and 8 all had the majority of votes for Vote Yes against the Convention Center Hotel. District 4 is the only council district represented by an African American that went Vote No by a slim margin. In fact, District 8 represented by Tennell Atkins lost the Vote No by 10%. That means that the councilman was for Vote No and the citizens were for Vote Yes by 10%. When all of the numbers were aggregated, VOTE YES won in the Southern Sector. That means, VOTE YES WON IN THE FOUR COUNCIL DISTRICTS REPRESENTED BY AFRICAN AMERICANS WHEN ALL OF THE VOTES WERE ADDED FOR THOSE 4 COUNCIL DISTRICTS.

That is what is wrong with our community, we have so many untruthful persons saying that they are working for the community and they are not. If you tell the truth, it will all come out okay whether you win or lose. WIN OR LOSE, DO IT FOR THE COMMUNITY.

"Special Liaison" created by US Corp of Engineers for Dallas Trinity Toll Road

It was reported by Rudy Bush that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is creating a special laison for the Trinity Toll Road Project. This came after a meeting in the office of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison with Tom Leppert and the U.S. Army Corp.

I thought these were tough economic times and that everyone was cutting back. It seems like I was wrong.

I do know that this was all about politics. Senator Hutchison is going to run for Governor and needs all of the support that she can get expecially from a Texas big city mayor. The Trinity Toll Road is tanking and Leppert is doing all that he can to save face. He sold the citizens a bad deal.

The U.S. Department of Education has turned down Dallas ISD's request to move about $15 million in salaries to the Title 1 federal grant program. These salaries are primarily associated with paying coaches for teachers in the district and to reduce class sizes in middle and high schools, which is a part of Superintendent Hinojosa's Dallas Achieves initiative.

When the district's budget came up short last fall (84 million), administrators proposed paying those salaries with Title 1 money which the district receives to improve the educations of low-income kids. There is a process for using those funds and the district did not follow it. Federal money comes through the state to local school districts and can only be used to "supplement" local efforts.

While the district says it is done with the fight, I do not believe them. They will come back another ways as they always do. They seem to be baffled that they were turned down by the feds. They say that they consulted several experts on Title I who advised them that the move was allowable.

I guess now they will just take that money out of the fund balance and leave the district crippled with about 30 million left in that fund. When Hinojosa got here there was about 120 million. I hope nothing bad happens because the district will be in a pickle.

DART-FTA Investigation

FTA - Civil Rights division will be at Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) on February 4th and 5th to investigate allegations of raced based action. It has been alleged that one of DART's top executives gave a mandate to hire Hispanics. There has been at least one lawsuit from a fired employee that made such a claim.

DART should not be allowed to say that their hiring practices are just because they have a large number of African Americans that are bus drivers. The FTA should look department by department as reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Office *EEOC".

I do not know who got them here, but Thanks to FTA for coming.

NTTA Minority Business Director

Anthony Coleman has been named the new Minority and Women Owned Business Director for the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA). The agency made a good choice. Mr. Coleman has a long history of working with Minority and Women Owned Business Programs and he is a person who will attempt to open the doors for all eligible minority and women business owners. He will not be one that will try to hand carry a few and leave others behind.

Good choice NTTA.

African American Business Participation at The City of Dallas

While gathering information on minority participation on contracts, and particularly African American business participation with public agencies, it was striking that Councilman Dwaine Caraway, Tennell Adkins and Mayor Tom Leppert are interested in how well other agencies are utilizing African American contractors and businesses. They appear to want to tell other agencies that they should do a better job at utilizing African American businesses ,but when you look at the city of Dallas's record, you can only wonder why aren't they trying to make sure that equity is spreading within the arena that they have some control over instead of going to other agencies making demands. The city's African American business participation:

FY 2005-2006

African American $14,828,786.............. 5.1%

Expenditures $289,385,589

FY 2006-2007

African American $22,443,183............... 5.9%

Expenditures $377,702,706


FY 2007-2008

African Americans $25,287,511................ 5.4%

Total Expenditures $468,578,222



Total 3 years African American Participation ............. $62,559,480
Total 3 year Expenditures ................................$1.135 Billion
Total 3 year percentage ..................................... 5.5%


Mayor Leppert,Dwaine Caraway, and Tennell Adkins need to make sure that the city of Dallas is doing everything it can to ensure that their is inclusion on the city's contracts instead of going to other agencies telling them what to do. Make sure that your house is in order before going to others to tell them what to do.

DISD Budget Crisis

What is most amazing about the budget crisis is that we now know that the slide started in 2005-under Dr. Hinojosa's watch-but all we hear from the auditors is about the unbudgeted teachers and poor accounting. We still have not been given a detail report on where the money went. Did the district give departments higher budgets or did departments overspend their budget? Was purchasing of goods and services increased? Did maintenance cost go up? Was there also an increase in non teaching jobs? Did the under $50,000 contracts go up (those are the contracts that the board do no approve)? How much in mis-managed federal grants, and how much did the district have to return to the federal government? Did Dr. Hinojosa's Executive team salaries increase from the previous superintendent? Did administrative cost increase?

At the last board meeting when discussions came up over the district paying 116 teachers $397,00 in bonuses that they had earned out of general funds the board had questions. The reason that the bonuses had not been paid was that some principals had not followed the federal guidelines for payment. The trustees had some concern over which line item in the budget the money would come out of. The board was told that the money would come from a line item that was for utilities and stipends. That really did not make any sense. Finally it was agreed that the money would come out of the budgets of the Executive Team and board. I wonder if the budget process is fixed? Why would stipends and utilities be together in the budget? Utilities are operational and stipends are salary related.

We also hear that the fund balance is down from $120 million dollars to $20 million dollars in a short three year period. Just a couple of months ago we were told that because of the 2007-2008 budget shortfall that the fund balance would be at $60 million dollars. What is going on? What happened to that additional $40 million dollars in just a couple of months? Where is the board in all of this, and where are those business executives who have just declared that Dallas most pay more money to the people that they hire in the financial area? I think that currently for 3 positions in accounting they are paying over $500,000 (half a million) in salaries and that does not include benefits. Maybe they think that taxpayers money should be spent the same way that the banking industry's bailout money is spent on private jets,large bonuses, stock option and contract buyouts at the taxpayers expense. If the corporate executives are so concerned, why don't they try helping Dallas ISD by allowing some of their top financial executives to be executives on loan to Dallas ISD?

Why can't we spend money on quality teachers and give our children the best chance for learning ?



TAXPAYERS STILL NEED TO KNOW WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

NTTA- Minority Business

Just heard that Mayor Tom Leppert, Commissioner John Wiley Price, Willis Johnson,Martin Burrell and others went to the NTTA meeting and ask them to delay a contract because there was no African American participation.

The contract was delayed. Katrina Keys with K-Strategies is the MWBE person with NTTA. It will be interesting to see who ends up on the contracts. Will it be the usual people that are associated with K-Strategies or will the door be opened to all African American companies that are qualified?

Speakers Will Not Be Heard

The Dallas City Council has decided that they will no longer telecast the speakers at the end of the meeting. That is very interesting. The only council persons that usually come under their raft are Mayor Tom Leppert and Councilman Dwaine (Dwayne,Dewayne Caraway), so it is logical to assume that the two of them got together to change the rules.

If the people who come to speak at the end of the meeting are wise, and I think they know what they are doing, they should just speak on an item so that they can still be heard.

We are a Democratic Country and I hope that Democracy will not be thrown out the window because two persons on the council can not take the heat. I have been told, "If you can not take the heat, get out of the kitchen"

DART DART

DART is overall a good agency. It is struggling with leadership just as Dallas ISD is struggling. If the person at the top is not competent, the administrative staff is usually lacking. Gary Thomas by all accounts appear to be a good person, but in over his head as the president of DART. When the comparison to Dick Rudell at the "T" in Fort Worth and Gary Thomas at DART is made there is a big difference in their leadership style and ability. You never hear about scandals at the "T" as you do at DART. That does not mean that things may or may not be going wrong at The "T", but the leadership seems to keep things running smoothly.

Part of the reason that DART struggles, is that the mayor of Dallas,Tom Leppert, and city council members like Dwaine (Dewayne,Dwayne) Caraway are interfering with the daily operations of the agency. Things like, Caraway attempting to get the DART board to focus on getting rail to come to the Cedar Crest Golf Course near his house instead of sticking with the current 20 year plan which focus on the access to the Inland Port that has estimated 30,000 jobs will be created. Would you want to get to a golf course or a job via rail? And there is the mayor calling DART Board members telling them how to vote on the pending Bus purchase. It has been said that he is telling the Dallas appointees to vote for natural gas buses which would be fueled by Clean Energy a company owned by T. Boone Pickens.

Now you have the DART President, Gary Thomas,some members of his staff and some of the board members not being good stewards of the taxpayers money when they attend conventions. It is so easy to do the right thing by attending the meetings and finding additional time to attend other functions.

DART also has to deal with its suburban board members who are more politically savvy than the Dallas appointees. They are making sure that DART's president stay in place as long as he is giving them what they want, and that is to make sure that the light rail build out to their cities is on time. It does not have to be on budget, because they are willing to spend more to get it to their cities on time.

And surely the last straw was the allegations that DART Executive Vice President Ben Gomez is telling Human Resources staff to hire Hispanics only. What a shame. Why not hire the best person for the job?

The plan for a regional transportation authority to take over DART,The "T" and Denton County Transit Authority is moving forward with all due speed, and the citizens of Dallas will loose the most because all of the long range plans for DART will go out the window and the planning of new service and building of rail will be to the outlying communities.

Wake up Dallas!

NO TRESPASSING IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS

Yesterday while sitting in my office in Downtown Dallas,one of Dallas's finest (Police Officers) came in with a document that he wanted me to sign. It was a NO Trespassing form that would virtually allow the police to pickup Homeless people who were in front of my business for trespassing. I was shocked. Why would I sign a blanket order for homeless people to be picked up if they were in front of my business? No way would I even consider such a thing.

My office has been in downtown Dallas for almost 30 years and I have come to know many homeless people. Some experiences have been bad, but for the most part, I understand many of their plights and I believe that the city of Dallas is trying to harass the homeless so that they will not be in downtown for the new people who are moving in their lofts,condos,and expensive apartments.

The homeless problem is so complicated, but the city seems to be attempting to make the case that they are all drunks and drug users who are harassing people. They do not seem to care that there are working homeless, women, children, veterans, mentally ill,alcohol and drug addicted homeless people. How can you possibly solve all of the problems that they are facing by using a cookie cutter approach to resolutions? This council does not seem to have the heart or the will to address many needs for the homeless,other than the new facility that they have built,which was on the drawing board before many on the current council was elected. I believe that a facility is not the only answer, and that is why you have over a hundred people sleeping outside each night.

I ask the officer several questions about the initiative that they were working on and he explained everything that he could to me. He was very courteous and listened to my concerns, while not agreeing with my assessment of the problem.

I did not sign the form and hope that other merchants will not blindly sign a form that would automatically give the police the right to accuse the homeless of trespassing and take them straight to jail.

Criminalizing the act of homelessness will not solve the problem.

The Chosen name for Industrial Blvd. is Riverfront

The Dallas City Council, lead by Mayor Tom Leppert, voted yesterday to change the name of Industrial Blvd. to Riverfort. This came with the displeasure of many Dallas citizens who believed that the City Council had ask the public for their input on renaming the street and when the council received the input,they chose to disregarded the public answer which was Caesar Chavez.

While I believe that the street name of Industrial Blvd. did not have the bad connotation that was betrayed by the Council, I was willing to accept the public choice. I did not believe that the street name had to be changed, but the City Council made the decision to ask the public for their input for a suggestions for a new street name to replace Industrial. It is my belief that we live in a democracy and public input is a part of the process. Guess I was wrong.

The City Council also denied naming Ross Ave. for Caesar Chavez which I agree with. The name of a street should not be changed just as a compromise for the failure to get the original process of renaming Industrial right.

I hope that this council can find it within themselves to right the wrong that they have created.

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.

Expansion of Dallas Smoking Ordinance

Contact: Rita Cox, 214-599-0888, cell: 469-855-7283
At the briefing Jay Pritchard, cell: 214.558.6656

For immediate release:

Local Businessman, Personal Rights Advocate Opposes
Expansion of Dallas’ Smoking Ordinance

(DALLAS, TX –November 4) James P. Graham, CEO of Dallas-based Palo Petroleum, Inc. will attend the City Council Briefing, Wednesday, November 5 to demonstrate his opposition of the city council proposed action on anti-smoking bans in Dallas.

Graham believes that the most in depth and scientifically sound studies, such as the Enstrom/Kabat study published in the British Medical Journal, show that there are virtually no health risks associated with exposure to second hand smoke. “The anti smoking zealots' mode of attack, whether innocently or intentionally, is to repeat the lie often enough that it becomes accepted as truth. Nevertheless, organizations like Smoke Free Dallas print and distribute such untrue statements as ‘. . .53,000 deaths per year attributed to second hand smoke…’ This is an absolute, bold face, unsupportable lie based on junk science that will not stand scientific scrutiny,” said Graham.

Graham believes that if there are really little or no health threats associated with limited exposure to second hand smoke, then imposing smoking bans represents a much graver danger to society. The taking of personal property rights and freedoms and the wholesale attack and lack of respect for our free enterprise system by anti smoking folks is the dangerous crime to our society, which must be confronted, exposed and stopped. Graham said, “Enough is enough of these nannyistic usurpers of freedom, and whether a smoker or not, we all need to stand up to them and reclaim the control of our own lives!”

Graham has a long history of advocating for personal and property rights. He is a member of the executive committee of Mountain States Legal Foundation, a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own property and limited and ethical government. Graham’s long record of community involvement includes Chairman of the Dallas Park & Recreation Board, Chair of World Cup Dallas 1994 and Co-Founder of Dallas’ Send A Kid to Camp and many other civic endeavors.

Graham is a strong advocate against junk science. He hosted a briefing in October with Dr. John Dale Dunn, M.D., J. D., who strongly disputes the quasi-scientific claims of deaths or disease attributable to second hand smoke. To contact Graham, call 214.691.3676.

###

Convention Center Hotel

Yesterday at the Dallas County Courthouse there was a young man passing out these fliers . The interesting thing to me was this issue was not on the ballot and from all that I could see, most people were focused on the current election.

On one side of the flyer there was a caption "What OUR LEADERS are saying". The first thing that I noticed was the people on the flyer and their ethnicity. I wondered if they were passing these out in North Dallas?

I Early Voted and encourage everyone to exercise their right to VOTE.

Dallas ISD Meeting with Education Commissioner Robert Scott

The meeting was in closed session last Friday at 3700 Ross. The interesting thing about the meeting was who walked out of the meeting and who did not. We watched Senators Royce West, Shapiro and Corona leave along with Rep. Goolsby, Jack Lowe, Supt. Michael Hinojosa, Commissioner Scott and Trustee Carla Ranger. What we learned later was that Mayor Tom Leppert was on a conference call during the meeting. Guess he did not want to show his face but wanted to work behind the scene.

Dallas Housing Authority

A few months ago Mayor Leppert was rushing to the DHA meetings to give Ann Lott a warning about her length of employment. Now we see that a search is going on for a new Executive Director and Mayor Leppert has not changed the board appointments that were up in March. If the Mayor was going to keep them around, why would he not just reappoint them?

What was most interesting in the James Ragland's article was him mentioning the sell of Little Mexico and how Ms. Lott was against selling that property. Mr. Ragland article states " Now, with Ms. Culbreath in the saddle and Ms. Lott out of the way, the agency is instituting new financial controls. It's also more willing than ever to put all options on he table, including the potential sale of Little Mexico Village. " This board wants to leverage that property and will maximize its value," Ms Culbreath said in a recent post to her online blog." it seems as though that is just what Tom Leppert and the Citizens Council want to hear. Ann Lott stood up to the developers knowing the historical significance of Little Mexico to all of us, but especially to our Hispanic brothers and sisters.

We are all familiar with Ms. Betty Culbreath and her willingness to do the bidding for others. Her record speaks for itself. Review her service on the Planning Commission, DFW Airport and DHA. These were all appointments by Mayor Laura Miller who was Ms. Culbreath's close friend and ally.

In my opinion Mayor Tom Lepperts has pulled many stunts since he has been in office, and they were not in the best interest of the citizens of Dallas. He supported a Ross Perot employee for the DART Board,pushed the for the Trinity Toll Road,pushed for Lynn Flint Shaw to Chair the DART Board, forced Ann Lott out of her job, did not appoint Angela Hunt to chair a committee, supported taking Mike Sorrell off the DFW Airport Board, supported Dwaine (Dwayne,Dewayne) Caraway for Deputy Mayor Pro Tem, supports Michael Hinojosa (DISD Superintendent), supports another layer of government for the Inland Port, supports a taxpayer owned hotel, and supported the DISD Bond Proposal. That is only a few of his positions on issues that makes you go, WHAT?

This current leadership in Dallas is all about construction and contract dollars. Look around the edges and see where all of these people are sniffing. It's the same small pack of people who are pushing these items and they are making out like bandits at the expense of the people.

Dallas Logistics Hub (Inland Port)

The development of the Dallas Logistics Hub (Inland Port) is very important to the citizens of Dallas, but the most affected are the citizens that live in the southern sector of Dallas. We have been waiting for years for the job creation that has been promised by our elected officials. We were told that the Logistics Hub could create at least 30,000 jobs and the development around the area could add an additional 30,000 jobs. It does not matter how you analyze the job creation numbers this would be a win for the cities of Dallas, Wilmer, Lancaster, Hutchins, Duncanville, DeSoto and Cedar Hill.

The creation of jobs and business opportunities in the southern sector will help create a greater tax base, and our elected officials have talked about making sure that the Dallas Logistics Hub is the catalyst for growth in the southern sector. At one point this project was pushed so hard by the previous council that the DART Board made it the number one priority of the Long Range Plan (2030 Plan) for light rail. The council wanted to make sure that there was mass transportation servicing this project.

Mayor Leppert, Dwaine (Dewayne,Dwayne) Caraway, Tennell Adkins and Ron Natinsky seem to be stalling. You have to ask yourself, why? Mayor Leppert has constantly expressed to the community that he wanted to create jobs in the southern sector, but now all the community sees is the mayor and his group of seven on the council holding up progress. Could it have anything to do with the competition that the Dallas Logistics Hub will have with Alliance in Fort Worth? It has been said that Alliance is only 25% built out and the development of the Dallas Logistics Hub (Inland Port) would be serious competition for Alliance. As we all know, Alliance is owned by Ross Perot, Jr. and he has significant ties in the Dallas community. In fact, at one time Mayor Leppert, Dwaine (Dewayne,Dwayne) Caraway and Tennell Adkins supported a person for the DART Board that was an employee of Perot Systems, and that had serious implications because of the need for the Dallas Logistics Hub (Inland Port) to use DART tracks (TRE) to transport goods. That appointment did not happen.

The project still has great value and merit, but the question is who will be in control? The citizens are tired of the political jocking. We want the development to take place now.

Booker T. Washington for the Performing and Visual Arts School

Once again the public was mislead by the DISD Board. It was the communities understanding that the clarification of the name of the Booker T. Washington for the Performing and Visual Arts school would be on today's board agenda. No such luck. Therefore the supporters of keeping the school's current name will be back at the board meeting today with their protest. It just seems like this board is so bad that they can not get it right. It is so simple to get past this issue.

Save Community Television in Dallas

Yes, We Will! Save Community Television in Dallas.



Every great city in America, "land of the free and home of the brave," supports public access to cable television channels. As a model urban city, Dallas should be no different. Once again, I am personally asking you for your immediate action to SAVE community television. The time is NOW, the situation is CRITICAL. The Dallas City Council is working through the proposed 2009 city budget, and Dallas iMedia Network (formerly DCTV) has been reduced to $196,000 dollars. Unless iMedia's budget is restored, our voice will be silenced...and the attack on our free speech will continue to accelerate. Here is a snapshot of how the city has deteriorated iMedia's contract value over the last several years:

2001 - 2005: $700,000
2006: $543,000
2007: $508,000
2008: $300,000
proposed 2009: $196,000

This drastic funding reduction may well end public access television in Dallas. iMedia funding must be restored to the bare minimum 2008 level of $300,000. City Council Members are holding Town Hall Meetings in your neighborhood to listen to citizen concerns. This is an emergency. Please attend and SPEAK. Ask for funding to be reinstated to at least $300,000 for public access television in our community. See the Town Hall Meeting link to the right. Also, mark your calendar to attend the final budget hearings and vote, in Council Chambers, on the following Wednesdays:

August 27
September 10
September 24

Public access television helps local government fulfill its societal obligations. The members of the Dallas City Council need to know YOU and hear YOU say public access television matters in our city! Call 214.670.3738 at least 24 hours in advance to register to speak at the three City Council meetings listed above. In addition, it is vital that you call or email Mayor Leppert and all city council representatives. THE TIME IS NOW, THE SITUATION IS CRITICAL! THE MAYOR AND DALLAS CITY COUNCIL MUST HEAR YOUR VOICE. DALLAS IMEDIA NETWORK MATTERS TO OUR CITY! YES, WE WILL! Save community television in Dallas. Call me to let e know that I can count on you.


Townhall meetings began on August 11 and continue through early September. Please tell us which meeting(s) you plan to attend. Call 214. 631. 5571 (ext 304) or email Lisa Hembry. Mark your calendar to attend budget hearings with the entire council, along with the final vote. Meetings will be held the following Wednesdays at Council Chambers:


August 27
September 10
September 24 Call at least 24 hours in advance to register to speak at these meetings (City Secretary: 214. 670. 3738)


It is very important that you, call, write and email your Councilperson and the Mayor-- they are your public servants, and want to hear from you.
Join our mailing list!


Thank you for your help.
Lisa Hembry
President/CEO
214 631-5571 ext 304