"For Laura to say we're confusing people is so insulting," says Boyd, Miller's former ally when they opposed the use of public funds to build the American Airlines Center. "It's elitist to think people who can go to their jobs every morning and feed their kids and get them to school and pay their taxes are so easily misled. If there had been any confusion and misleading, it was done by the Blackwood crowd and the mayor initially. We have been able to get the true message out...People get it. They do understand this was done behind closed doors, and it's bad policy to do government that way."
Out in the open, the city council, with the behind-the-scenes prodding of Ron Kirk and the Citizens Council and others, has come up with its own alternative. Last week, all 14 members agreed to a proposal that would allow the mayor to hire and fire the city manager, with whom the mayor would also draft the city's annual budget. But their alternative is far from a done deal: The council will take a non-binding vote on the proposal April 13 and then work like hell to convince voters it's a stronger-mayor alternative as opposed to a dolled-up version of the same-ol'-same-ol', as Miller keeps insisting.
Mark Graham
Ron Kirk was initially reluctant to get involved in the
anti-Blackwood movement for fear of creating "Laura vs.
Ron Round 2," as he puts it.
Mark Graham
Local attorney Darrell Jordan is one of the most
recognizable faces in the coalition. But he's also the guy
who wanted to dome the Cotton Bowl.
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And then there's the problem of how the black council members will vote on their own alternative, since they know most of their constituents want to keep things just as they are. Better a seat at a messy table than a spot on the floor.
"In the African-American community," Shaw says, "we don't have everything we want, but we at least know the system. If we give it to somebody who has not been a friend of the African-American community, then chances are we won't get anything, and that's not an option for us. If you're looking at Blackwood from the position that one person controls virtually everything and you're not friendly to that person, where do you think we'll be?"
Uh, screwed?
"Yeah," Shaw says. "But right now, our whole mission in life is to focus on defeating Blackwood. On May 8 this coalition will no longer exist. If there are others that want to form something else to push another agenda, they will do that."
"Now, we're not each other's best friends and won't be after this is done," says Boyd, whose Web site www.DallasArena.com catalogs a litany of disparaging nicknames for current council members and a former mayor with whom she now finds herself allied. There's James "Beat that Indictment" Fantroy, Maxine "Brain Dead" Thornton-Reese, Lois "Finkelwitch" Finkelman and, of course, "Con Jerk," her favorite pet name for Ron Kirk.
"Everyone was watching to see if we'd be polite," Boyd says, "and, of course, we are, because we're grown-ups."
