It's getting to be that time of year when City Hall pretends it listens to you and me

The Dallas City Council takes the month of July off and the city staff uses that time to assemble and refine the City Manager's proposed budget that it will present as soon as the council gets back together in August. Right after that presentation, the various city council members schedule meetings during which an assistant city manager presents an unimaginative slide show (copies of which are handed out to everyone who attends the meetings in another example of a terrible waste of paper and taxpayer money) that says "here's the way it's going to be." Then attendees are given the opportunity to say, "No it shouldn't be that way, you can't cut that service." And the assistant city manager has to say "Yes we can, because we don't have enough money to fund it." Meanwhile, the city council person pretends to side with complaining constituents knowing all the while there is nothing that can be done to satisfy them.

I've been attending this meetings all over the city for about 10 years and I always see the same faces there. I like going to ones in different parts of the city because it's always fascinating to see attendees in the southern sector saying "Yes, go ahead and raise property taxes if that means keeping my rec center open on its current schedule" while those in the northern sector don't care a whit about rec centers -- those are for poor folks -- but pay lip service to libraries and cultural affairs, as long as supporting them doesn't involve raising taxes.

For those wishing to participate in one or more of these charades and are interested in when (between Aug. 9 and Sept. 7) and where these parties are being held, you can find out here. Last year, as I recall, Council member Vonciel Jones Hill scheduled the most meetings. Not this year. Our favorite demagogue, D-Wayne, has scheduled six meetings to Hill's five (and one of those is a joint meeting with Tennell Atkins, whose meetings are usually my favorites). Atkins, along with Carolyn Davis and Dave Neumann have scheduled four meetings; Ron Natinsky and Steve Salazar, three each; Pauline Medrano, Angela Hunt, Sheffie Kadane, Linda Koop and Delia Jasso, two apiece (some of them joint meetings with one other council member); and Ann Margolin figures just one meeting is all that's needed to convince her to vote against the budget again this year,