Whose D-Wayne kidding with this Arthur and Archie fable

It's really no big deal, but I'm simply not buying this Arthur and Archie fable. I don't think anything is going to come of this incident, nor should it, but I wish the councilman wouldn't consider the rest of us as Jugheads. By the way, don't you wish you had the private number of the Dallas police chief on speed dial? Here's my favorite paragraph from the story:

"Caraway said he did not know why experienced investigators mistook a squabble between Arthur and Archie for an incident between him and his wife."

You know what, D-Wayne, the rest of the civilized world is just as baffled over that one as you are.

If it was up to De-Wayne, we would never have parks because he would be afraid of litter

Mayor Pro Tem De-Wayne has come out against a plan that has the potential to add millions to the city's sales tax revenue and thus its general fund and might even result in some decent restaurants coming to his district. But De-Wyane wants no part of that stuff that's "a convience in wealthier parts of town." If he wants to keep his district poor and downtrodden, then so be it.

Caraway's troubling

I'm becoming increasingly worried about Dallas City Councilman Dwaine Caraway. It's not that his constant political grandstanding often comes dangerously close to demagoguery or that his shady dealings in the past trouble me; it's more that he's clearly angling to succeed Da Mayor and, barring some strong, so far unknown, opponent, he just might make it.

Just what kind of mayor would Caraway make? Well, if this kind of meddling is any indication, he would be a mayor that would trample all over the City Charter and city ordinances. My main concern with former Mayor Laura Miller was that she wanted to be both the mayor and the city manager; but, at least, she was up front about it, initiating a city referendum that, if not soundly defeated, would have allowed the mayor  to assume both roles.

I have the same problem with City Council member Angela Hunt. Her interference in the Jenny the Elephant saga of a year or so ago proved that she would overstep the boundaries of a city council member as outlined by the Dallas City Charter. In fact, there's not one single member of the current Dallas City Council that I would support as a future mayor, which, when you think about it, is a fairly strong condemnation of the current  makeup of the city's board of directors.

But Caraway is the one who really scares me. Reading between the lines of this Dallas Morning News story, I got the impression he is incensed because his father got a parking ticket while he was inside a South Dallas house playing poker. Should the police be focusing on ferreting out more dangerous criminals than parking offenders? Probably. But that's the responsibility of the area police commander, the police chief and ultimately the city manager to establish those guidelines. That territory is clearly marked "No Trespassing" when it comes to City Council members. So Caraway is either negligent for ignoring the signs or stupid for not being able to read them. Either option should eliminate him for consideration for any higher political office.


UPDATE: The Dallas Observer's great Jim Schutze weighs in on the person he calls "Dwaine Carried-away," but, although Schutze has convinced me that Caraway is unjustly persecuting Oak Cliff Metal recycling, his constant defense of the Oak Cliff business makes me wonder whether he has some personal stake in the facility's continued existence.

Council members acting foolishly

Granted, I was only giving the the proceedings half-hearted attention because I was also cooking up a stack of pancakes so I'm not sure of the entire story behind this little show, but the site of Dallas City Council members Jerry Allen, Dwayne Caraway and Carolyn Davis dancing around with boxing gloves, pretending to punch each other out over which high school had the best drum line, at today's City Council meeting left me feeling a tad squeamish. Do these elected officials have to stoop this low to make a point?

I guess it could have been done well, but it wasn't on this occasion. Instead, it was embarrassing, especially since Caraway seemed to want to prolong the charade long past its sell-by date. I think it was all designed to announce some major event taking place at City Hall next month involving the high schools in question (I believe they are Lake Highlands, Skyline and Townview, but I really can't be sure about that), but I was so turned off by these three acting like jerks I just tuned out their entire message.

I'm not saying the rivalry bit couldn't have been pulled off, the three just needed a better writer and choreographer.

Caraway urges residents to reclaim their neighborhoods

Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm and Mayor Pro Temp Dwaine Caraway

at the latter's Budget Town Hall Meeting Monday night at South Oak Cliff High School

City Manager Mary Suhm has a heart-to-heart conversation with a laid-off city employee

following Dwaine Caraway's Budget Townhall meeting Monday night

Dallas Mayor Pro Temp Dwaine Caraway didn't say this in so many words, but this was what was between the lines in what he said to his District 4 constituents: "Quit yapping so much about the city's failure to clean up the mess dumped in your neighborhoods and do a better job of taking care of it yourselves."


Caraway's message during his Budget Town Hall meeting Monday night at South Oak Cliff High School came after City Manager Mary Suhm sped through presentation of her proposed budget, figuring, I guess "If I talk really fast, the folks won't realize how bad this is." And when they did realize how bad it was, either Caraway, in effect, told them "You don't realize how good you've got it" or, in the case of one disgruntled city employee who was among those who received a pink slip last week and claimed the city was "putting a higher priority on things than on people," Ms. Suhm simply sat down with him face-to-face after the meeting for a heart-to-heart talk.


Now don't get me wrong. Caraway didn't condescend or make excuses. He made some valid points and observations. For instance, on the subject of economic development he said "I'm not going to try to get a Starbucks located in my district. A Starbucks would probably only hire one person from the district and besides, we can make our own coffee." About the illegal dumping a lot of folks complained about -- especially Code Compliance's seeming inability to stop it -- Caraway said: "People aren't driving here from North Dallas to dump their trash here. This is being dumped by people right here in our own district. You see it being dumped every day. I'm telling you to get the license plate numbers of the people that are doing that or at least the color and perhaps the make and model of the vehicle they are driving. Then report that."

He also said he was going to make an effort to crack down on "slum landlords" by forcing anyone who rents property -- even if it's just one house -- to declare himself a business and register with the city. "Then, if we have a code problem with a rental property we will know who to go to," Caraway said. And Ms. Suhm told all the homeowners in the audience to make sure they made out and filed away a valid will to help rectify property ownership questions.

I have been to three town hall meetings so far this budget season and all have been in the southern sector of the city. I will go to my first one in a northern area tomorrow night. Last week I attended two hosted by District 8's Tennell Atkins. The one common concern I have witnessed in all three is definitely not going to one-day-a-week garbage collection (there has not been the slightest peep about that, possibly because it means a reduction in the sanitation fee), but the cutbacks in recreation center hours. The residents of South Dallas are passionate about their rec centers, seeing them more as overall community centers. I will be interested to see if this concern is mirrored in the town hall meetings I attend in the areas north of downtown. I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be. And, if these suspicions are correct, than I have an idea, borrowed as it is from the so-called Robin Hood school funding theory. Take some more hours from the rec centers in the northern areas and give them to the folks in the south.

The correct answer to the Jenny destination quiz is D): None of the above

Jenny the Elephant -- the Jenny profiled just a couple of days ago in the New York Times -- yes, that Jenny -- will not be going to Tennessee as Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt and her animal huggers want. Nor will she be going to a safari in Mexico, the original plans of the Dallas Zoo. Nor will she, as Dwaine Caraway suggested in last Wednesday's City Council meeting, remain in Dallas to be joined by another elephant or two or three to keep her company. (I actually liked that idea, although I knew it would never happen -- a city that is in as dire financial straits as Dallas is right now can't afford to expand its elephant exhibition at the zoo.)

Paul Dyer, director of the city's Park and Recreation Department (which has oversight over the zoo) has come up with a fourth option and has already brokered agreements with the animal rights folks to go along with his plan. The zoo folks will go along with it because, well, Dyer is the boss of the zoo folks. I have absolutely no idea what The Dyer Solution is, but I know he plans to reveal it soon, perhaps as early as Monday.

Saggy pants may be banned in Midlothian (not that Midlothian)

Dwaine Caraway's campaign is catching on, albeit far from his home. Caraway tried to convince his fellow Dallas City Council members to enact an ordinance banning the wearing of pants that barely rise above mid-thigh. The rest of the council just chuckled and said "That's cute, Dwaine, now go back and play" and nothing really came of it, except that Caraway got national exposure including an appearance on, as I recall, Oprah Winfrey's television program.

Now, according to this story in the Chicago Sun-Times, a town outside of Chicago that has the same name as a town outside of Dallas is considering enacting a nuisance violation punishable by a $50 to $100 fine that would, according to the article, "curb the exposure of body parts rather than merely targeting baggy pants." Of course, a law like that could affect a number of overweight construction workers as well. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

Incidentally, Midlothian would be the second Illinois community (the first was Lynwood where anyone exposing three inches or more of underwear in public gets hit with a $25 citation), to enact an anti hip-hop clothing ordinance.

See what you've started, Dwaine.

Leppert, Caraway get it; Hunt doesn't

I just got to hear the last few minutes of the Dallas City Council discussion surrounding the ultimate destination of Jenny the Elephant, but it was enough to hear council member Mitchell Rasansky do his imitation of another zoo animal and to see that Mayor Tom Leppert and council member Dwaine Carraway understand the responsibilities of a Dallas City Council member, but Angela Hunt doesn't. Although Ms. Hunt certainly does know how to play to the masses -- she grandstands with the best of them and, in doing so, she manages to rally a lot of supporters to her side. It just goes to prove that the right way to conduct city business is not always the most popular way.

Ms. Hunt knows that few Dallas residents have a copy of the Dallas City Charter on their bookshelves; she knows that most Dallas residents have no idea when a city council member violates that charter.

Ms. Hunt has an interesting definition of micro-management. According to her, it's not micro-managing when you interfere in a departmental decision she doesn't agree with. This is like saying she supports freedom of speech as long as the speakers are on the same side of the argument that she's on. Plus, I'm not sure she's even that good of a listener. During today's city council meeting, a representative of the American Zoological Association said the AZA supports the notion that personnel trained in animal management are the proper individuals to make animal management decisions. Right after she spoke, Ms. Hunt said, in effect, "Don't pay any attention to what this woman's telling you; she's biased in favor of this facility in Mexico." The AZA woman didn't even recommend a destination for Jenny the Elephant; Ms. Hunt was criticizing this woman for saying something she didn't even say.

But the AZA woman nailed it. No matter how Ms. Hunt tries to twist it, whether Jenny is sent to Mexico, to Tennessee, down to the 7-Eleven, or anywhere else is a management decision and not a policy issue. And, as Mayor Leppert so perfectly stated it today, "At some point we have to let the people hired to make these decisions actually make these decisions."

Carraway, on the other hand, did move the argument over to a policy discussion. He said it should be the policy of the city council to operate a first-class zoo (something I have gone on record as disagreeing with, and since I have already dealt with that, I see no need to repeat it here) and, the way he sees it, having a first-class zoo means having a first-class top-notch elephant exhibit. He is arguing that, perhaps, the city should not consider getting rid of Jenny at all, that perhaps it should be adding to the number of elephants at the zoo and not subtracting from it.

I know it's not fashionable these days, especially among local bloggers, to disagree with Angela Hunt. But those who agree with her agree on the substance of her argument. I could care less about the substance. The issue here is simply this: She is overstepping the authority given to her by the City Charter by even engaging in the argument. Leppert and Carraway seemed to understand that, at least from the brief moments of the discussion I witnessed today. I fail to see why Ms. Hunt can't grasp that.

It's interesting to note that former Mayor Laura Miller understood it as well, although she didn't like it. She wanted to be free to do what Angela Hunt is doing now. But at least Ms. Miller tried to do it the proper way, by changing the City Charter to give her more authority in daily management decisions. That effort, as we all know, failed at the polls.