The city council's last big day before going on summer vacation is June 22, when the agenda will be action-packed. On the hefty to-do list: voting on the makeup of the gas drilling task force in advance of its first meeting some time in July, as task force head Lois Finkelman told the council last week. To which councilman-elect Scott Griggs says this morning: Whoa, whoa, whoa, y'all need to hold up.
Because if you thumbed all the way through the latest stack o' council memos you'll have noticed the new council doesn't get sworn in till 10 a.m. June 27 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. And you don't have to look far to find that the subject of gas drilling in Oak Cliff and elsewhere inside the city limits is near and dear to Griggs, who used the issue (among others) to chase Dave Neumann out of office -- the same Dave Neumann who, for some reason, was among Mayor-For-Now Dwaine Caraway's appointees to the motherfracking task force and will help choose its members even though he and Ron Natinsky will be out of the office the first time the group actually convenes.
Anyway.
Griggs wants desperately to be involved in the task force selection process and is asking the mayor and council to back off a mere five days till he can get in office. That's all -- five motherfracking days. He writes:
It is vital that we restore the trust of District 3 residents in our municipal government and provide accountability for decisions made on their behalf. To that end, it is prudent and essential that we delay the June 22 vote on the composition of the Gas Drilling Task Force until I take office on Monday, June 27. I am writing to request such a delay.His whole missive follows.
This five day delay will not impede the Gas Drilling Task Force's timetable whatsoever, but it will ensure that District 3 residents are properly represented on this very important issue.
