Posted on 04/23/2005 8:37:42 PM PDT by TrebleRebel
On May 7, voters who have twice elected Ms. Miller mayor will decide whether to approve Proposition 1, which rewrites vast sections of the city charter and grants her significant new powers effective in September.
Laura Miller the "strong mayor" could hire and fire public employees, appoint most of the city's hundreds of board and commission members and draft the municipal budget – duties today controlled by Dallas' city manager or the council. And unlike the unelected city manager, whom the proposition would dismiss, a strong mayor would answer directly to Dallas residents instead of a horseshoe of council representatives.
Both advocates and opponents often insist the strong-mayor debate is one over Dallas' government structure for decades to come – not about Ms. Miller personally, who at most could remain mayor for six more years.
But history remembers firsts. So the question looms: If Laura Miller becomes the first strong mayor of a system never-before tested, what kind of Laura Miller will she be?
Lousy workers won't work for long, she said, although the city's civil service system (which the mayor wants to disband but says she won't) provides an appeal process for most employees. Most high-ranking staff officials have no such protection, however.
Good employees, she added, would reap rewards in the form of promotions and pay.
Local Politics Ms. Miller said such an environmentwould create a more efficient, responsive government that at once tackles Dallas' mundane challenges – filling potholes, collecting trash, prosecuting code violations – while better administering such vast undertakings as crime reduction and the Trinity River Corridor project.
And if she fails, she said, voters could kick her out in 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
would she also call all the plays for the Cowboys ?
She could if they were playing at Fair Park..........
I think she maybe alright. She didn't back down from calling Bolton the idiot he is.
That comment could do nothing but help her. But like the articles said, she knows the value of a good sound bite. I guarantee that when the cameras stop rolling, she suddenly becomes professional.
If a strong mayor is ever approved and if that mayor actually does anything, there will be endless claims of racial bias. A Republican federal administration might go with the facts, a left-wing dem crapweasel scumbag administration would turn the city back over to the black thug politicians and to some Spanish speaking thugs.
It is likely that the one major reason that the Dallas Cowboys did not move from Irving to Dallas but chose Arlington, Texas instead, is that the black thugs who run Dallas all wanted too much under the table in return for a sweetheart deal. My bet is that the strong mayor election will fail!
It wont pass. Dallas proper is full of democrats, and they like to keep the power with the city council.
I feel like either way, we're screwed.....
You're only now realizing this? That's why I moved out of Dallas to the suburbs.
I like the way you all have been runing Dallas because all the good companies and good people are leaving there and coming over here to Tarrent county and Fort Worth where they are appreciated. Keep up the good work and if you really want to see a good baseball game come see the Cats.
spell check is our friend!
I'm sure living in the suburbs means you never, ever, again have to worry about what goes on in Dallas, doesn't it? I also live in the suburbs, but concerned enough to know that DART rail is the biggest non-profit scam in all of Texas, that the smoking bans affect where I want to eat out in my community, that where liquor is selling affects my life and economy, etc.......I think you get the idea.
Mr. Moncrief, is that you?
Wasn't it a Fort Worth mayor that stated (paraphrasing), "Fort Worth is where the West begins, Dallas is where the East petered out".
Uooooh .... a Texican educrat. What's yu gona do when Kinky runs the guvment?
Want to know how politics works in Texas?
Look a Ms Miller.
Follow the money.
Hey, who is her husband? Did he play a part in the deregulation?
a=at, no excuse
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