This wouldn’t be happening if Mitch Rasansky was still alive

Mitchell Rasansky

Where is good ol’ Mitch when we really need him? Hopefully, he’s in good health somewhere in his ultra-conservative North Dallas neighborhood. As a member of the Dallas City Council for eight years, Rasansky made life miserable for many high ranking city officials. First a little background. The City Council’s meeting agenda is split into two sections — the consent agenda and “items for individual consideration.” The consent agenda contains the bulk of the items on the agenda and are considered “non-controversial.” These are items in which the city staff is telling its bosses “No worry here. We’ve crossed all the i’s and dotted all the t’s, so you can pass these items without discussing them or reading the fine — or even the large — print that describes them.” As a result they are passed en masse with one single unanimous vote from council.

Rasansky, however, didn’t trust anyone, especially city staffers who pleaded with him to trust them. Rasansky studied every item and, at the beginning of the council agenda meetings, you could hear the city secretary reading the long list of items Rasansky wanted pulled from the consent agenda so they could be considered individually. He usually pulled every item that required the expenditure of city funds and many others that didn’t. Rasanky went over every single council agenda with a magnifying glass and a hook.

I’m betting if Rasansky was still on the council, we would not be having all this discussion we’re having about the recent vote on an ethics ordinance that now has many council members shaking their collective heads and saying “I didn’t know I was voting for this.” That’s because Rasansky would have pulled the item from the consent agenda and opened the discussion on it when it first appeared on the agenda.

Today we have a Dallas City Council that’s just plain lazy, too lazy to conduct the home study program to adequately represent the people who elected them. Sure, they didn’t have to when Rasansky was on the council, because he did their homework for them — and then some, perhaps too much homework.

But council members Vonciel Jones Hill, Angela Hunt, Tennell Atkins, Linda Koop, Ann Margolin and Sheffie Kadane have absolutely no right to blame D-Wayne Carriedaway because they failed to do their homework. This change to the ethics ordinance came about recently because the agenda item authorizing it was placed on the consent agenda and because Hill, Hunt, Atkins et al were simply too lazy to read the consent agenda and notice the item ahead of time. That’s their fault, not the acting mayor’s.

Tom Perkins

Apparently city attorney Tom Perkins said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows major corporations to buy all the politicians they need to make sure they are protected and the average citizen is screwed extends to the local level and Dallas’ ethics ordinance was preventing these fat cats from purchasing city council members. Perkins says that violates the doctrine of free speech, although when political discourse is purchased it seems to me it can longer be referred to as “free speech.” Anyway, Perkins reasoned, since the Supremes had already ruled on the issue, no dissent should come at the local level so he and Carriedaway had it put on the consent agenda.

To make matters even more embarassing for Hill, Hunt, Atkins & Co., the item was briefed to council earlier this year, but apparently only council members Delia Jasso and Ron Natinsky remained awake during the briefing.

Again, they should not be blaming others for their own shortcomings.