Tom Perkins

Mary Suhm Earns Her Money

Pointing -- and Shooting -- the Finger at City Hall

Schutze's Index

The Whore Truth About Tomorrow's City Council Meeting

Leppert Throws DART Board Appointments Under the Bus Today

Today, Mayor Tom to Deal With Downtown's Empty Buildings

Mayor Tom, City Council to Take on "Renegade Towing Companies"

Another Chapter Unfolds in the Rasansky-Leppert Hotel Feud

Before Council Votes to Ban Smoking, a Lot of Smoke is Blown at City Hall

After nearly three hours of discussion, the city council wrapped up yesterday's briefing on the proposed strengthened smoking ordinance seemingly prepared to vote on the item at next week's agenda meeting. Council members appear poised to approve a ban on smoking in bars, pool halls and within 15 fe ... More >>

Why the New Smoking Ordinance Should Have Been Delayed, and Sorting Through the 10 Amendments

There's a line where government stops and the rights of the people begin, and when Mayor Tom Leppert and nine of his council colleagues voted to strengthen Dallas' smoking ordinance, that line wasn't blurred, they drove right past it as if it didn't even exist. But no matter where you stand on the ... More >>

Downtown Dallas at the Crossroads

The city's effort to clean up downtown could cost us important parts of history.

Just Say Yes to the Trinity Toll Road?

Think positive. Be optimistic. Say yes on next month's referendum.

Busted

It's not just us; two state legislative committees find a culture of corruption at City Hall.

Don't Bet on It

Your money, plus city council, plus gambling--it's enough to make your skin crawl

Statler Hilton Has Cleaned Up Its Act, Says City, Which Will Sue Owners of 508 Park Ave.

View Larger MapChris Heinbaugh, Mayor Tom Leppert's chief of staff, told us a few weeks back that the city was close to working out deals with a few of those vacant buildings the mayor was none too happy about last October, when he gathered city officials -- including City Attorney Tom Perkins, Assi ... More >>

City Tells 508 Park Avenue Owners: Clean Up or Pay Up ... A Small Fortune, Every Single Day

As promised here's the city's complaint brought against Colby Properties today in Dallas County District Court. In the complaint -- and the request for a temporary and permanent injunction against the owners of 508 Park Avenue -- the city is seeking $1,000 per day for every listed violation of both ... More >>

Once Again, the Mayor Had the City Attorney Rewrite Rules for Council, Public Speakers

Natalie Dee​I see Rudy's already posted his item about tomorrow's vote on Dallas City Council rules changes, which showed up earlier this week on the addendum for tomorrow's meeting. (It's Item No. 2.) But what he doesn't get into is why the council will vote on reducing and, in some cases, elimin ... More >>

Five Council Members Lobby for Transparency at Dallas City Hall. Good Luck With All That.

Psssst, Carol Reed, they're talking about you ... ​Five Dallas City Council members want the city to think about requiring people to register as lobbyists if they get paid to influence the council. The ongoing Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial has brought a series of revelations about s ... More >>

Dallas Has A Dirty Secret: It Acts As If Supports the Community Gardens Movement, But That's Not the Real Truth.

Psssst, Carol Reed, they're talking about you ... ​Five Dallas City Council members want the city to think about requiring people to register as lobbyists if they get paid to influence the council. The ongoing Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial has brought a series of revelations about s ... More >>

In the Zoning, or: Someone Dipped Their Dallas City Council in My Ethics Reform.

Carol Reed said to Schutze last month, there's no need for lobbyist registration: Because, look, "anybody knows that when I come down [to Dallas City Hall], I'm getting paid."​The council's talking ethics reform again this morning -- specifically, lobbyist registration, restrictions on campaign co ... More >>

Tooth Marks: The Brawl at City Hall Over Real Ethics Reform Is Only Just Beginning

Patrick MichelsDallas City Attorney Tom Perkins​Angela Hunt is putting the bite on the mayor today on the issue of ethics reform.The council is being briefed on possible new ethics rules growing out of the City Hall corruption case. Council member Hunt and four other members signed a letter a coup ... More >>

The Waters Are Murky as Dallas City Council Seeks Clarity Before Ethics Reform Vote

Sam MertenCouncil member Carolyn Davis talks to zoning lawyer Kirk Williams as Willie Cothrum (right) listens.If nothing else, the city council's hastily planned ethics reform briefing early this morning showed that this group is capable of a spirited debate. For the most part, Mayor Tom Leppert has ... More >>

Both Sides of the City of Dallas's "Billion-Dollar Lawsuit" State Their Case

​No doubt you'll hear plenty more about the city's billion-dollar lawsuit between now and the spring or summer of 2010, when the Supreme Court of Texas rules on whether the city is immune from rescue workers' claims stemming from a 1979 referendum concerning pay raises and two subsequent lawsuits ... More >>

Take One Guess Why Council's Messing With Judicial Nominating Commission

​Interesting item on the Dallas City Council's agenda this morning: "Judicial Nominating Commission." (It's Action Item No. 5, for those playing along at home.) City Attorney Tom Perkins is offering the council three alternative ways to fix the body that vets candidates for municipal judgeships. S ... More >>

Judge's Ruling in Massage Parlors' Lawsuit Rubs Spa Owners the Wrong Way

​Long story short: Back in December, D ran a story by former Observer-er Tom Korosec about the city's efforts to shut down nine brothelsmassage parlors, among them the Cleopatra Day Spa, Moon Night, The Passion, 333 Bodyworks and 7th Heaven starring Stephen Collins. Around the same time, the massa ... More >>

City Hall Wants to Make It Very Clear: We Don't Need No Lousy Bids at Love Field

A conceptual rendering of Love Field after it undergoes its extreme makeover​Still haven't heard from City Attorney Tom Perkins concerning the legal above-boardness of those no-bid concession contracts at Love Field Airport, which the council will vote on tomorrow. But outta nowhere a a little whi ... More >>

City Attorney Tom Perkins Responds to Beer, Wine Referendum Foes' Writ: "The Courts Should Not Intervene in an Ongoing Election."

Patrick MichelsDallas City Attorney Tom Perkins​A couple of weeks back we mentioned that Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals Justice Elizabeth Lang-Miers ordered the city of Dallas to respond by no later than July 19 to attorney Andy Siegel's writ of mandamus in which he claims, among other thi ... More >>

City Attorney Explains Why "Drug Paraphernalia" Added to Fake-Dope Ordinance

Sister Mary Jane​As Andrea noted earlier, when it came time for the city council to discuss banning K2 and other synthetic cannabinoids, there was no mention of bongs, pipes and other paraphernalia -- the other half of the ordinance drafted by City Attorney Tom Perkins. I finally spoke with Perkin ... More >>

Is This the End for 807 Elm Street?

Justin Terveen​That's 807 Elm Street at right, captured last month in a photo taken by our old pal Justin Terveen. Built in 1925, the building occupies 20,025 square feet in a parking lot between N. Austin and N. Lamar Streets facing El Centro. It was, once, among the assemblage of buildings known ... More >>

Liveblogging Quality of Life, As Code Violations and Animal Services Are on the Agenda

This is Weezer, among the kitties and doggies on Dallas Animal Services' "Very Special Pets" list. Meaning: Time's running out.​Middle o' the day to you, Unfair Friends. I'm here at good old 6ES inside City Hall, liveblogging today's Quality of Life Committee meeting, featuring Pauline Medrano, wh ... More >>

Sure, You Think Dallas is All-Wet. But Some on Council, And Attorney, Still Ain't Having It.

​I've been trying on and off throughout the afternoon to keep up with the city council's attempts to canvass the results of last week's election -- specifically, the votes overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition 1 allowing for the off-premise sale of beer and wine citywide. About half an hour ago, ... More >>

Seven Council Members Tell Suhm: Find Some Way to Allow Free Public Parking at City Hall

Patrick Michels​Seven council members have signed a memo to Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm telling her to figure out some way not to bar the public from parking in the garage underneath Dallas City Hall (well, the fountain, actually). Unfair Park was told that more members would have signed it, but ... More >>

Drink up, Dreamers: As TABC Preps Permits, Judge Sets January 18 for Wet-Dry Hearing

​Swear, this is the last item about the wet-dry legal fight you'll read here for the rest of the year. (Maybe.)But yesterday, reps from the City Attorney's Office, the attorneys fighting to overturn the results of the November 2 election allowing for the citywide sale of beer and wine and the pres ... More >>

Now That Mayor Dwaine Has Sued Greg Abbott Over Police Report's Release, What's Next?

The gentleman on the right also sometimes goes by "Arthur."​On Friday, the Texas Attorney General's Office told the city of Dallas to give up those police records pertaining to Mayor Dwaine Caraway's pals Arthur and Archie. At which point Caraway's attorney -- Michael Payma of Payma, Kuhnel, & ... More >>

Mayor Caraway Loses Legal Battle to Bury Police Recordings Made at His Home In January

Sam Merten​Arthur and Archie did it. At 8 p.m., after a marathon hearing, Judge Teresa Guerra Snelson shot down Dallas Mayor Dwaine Caraway's request for an injunction barring the release of an audio recording Dallas Police officers made at his home on January 2, when cops showed up to to investi ... More >>

Caraway Rallies Troops to Shutter Hooker-Plagued Luxury Inn, Over Lawyer's Objections

Photos by Patrick MichelsMayor Dwaine Caraway, DPD Chief David Brown, City Attorney Tom Perkins, council members and other familiar faces gather to announce the closure of the Luxury Inn on S. Buckner Boulevard.​If the city's shutting down another hookers-n-drugs party shack around town, you can b ... More >>

The City Council's Group House Party

Click to embiggen​Dallas has been trying to get a handle on group housing for years, dating back -- at least -- to the Boarding House Task Force formed in June '07, which consisted of everything from code compliance to Dallas Fire-Rescue to the City Attorney's Office. That was but one of myriad at ... More >>

The Greatest Sideshow on Earth: When The "Transparent" (Cough) City Council Talks Ethics

​City council members Angela Hunt and Vonciel Jones Hill are kicking ass at today's contentious hearing on the city council's recent unethics reform, which is about to wrap up. (Or not.) The council voted last April 13 to gut its ethics policy and allow political contributions from representatives ... More >>

The Dallas City Council's Ethics Relapse

Two years after passing tighter ethics rules, City Hall tried to loosen them on the sly. You won't believe who blew the whistle.

City Attorney, City Manager Insist They're Not Hiding Trinity Project Docs From Us

Dallas City Attorney Tom Perkins​Just spent 20 minutes getting an earful from Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm and City Attorney Tom Perkins, who insisted, over and over, that the city's lawsuit over those Trinity River records has nothing whatsoever to do with our request to see "all the individual ... More >>

I'm Shocked, Shocked to Find That Ethics Aren't Going On at City Hall. Not Really.

​On May 12 I wrote a column quoting Dallas City Attorney Tom Perkins on why he had decided to write a proposed new ethics law for the city council. The new law he wrote was adopted unanimously by the council. It greatly relaxed restrictions on how soon after a city council vote the members of ... More >>

City's Ready to Part, Properly, With Its Surplus Property. And: Look Out, Payday Lenders.

The city needs to auction off this slice of Greenville Avenue.​We've long wondered, including just last month, why the city can't (won't?) unload its old libraries and other so-called surplus properties, and time after time City Manager Mary Suhm has said: The market's just not right. But in just ... More >>

Mayor Mike's Dinner With Council Ain't Open

Photo by Mark Graham​A couple of times, including this morning, we've noted that Mayor Mike Rawlings has scheduled a dinner with the entire city council on Tuesday, which has prompted a few Friends of Unfair Park to wonder: Like, isn't that a violation of the state's Open Meetings Act? Technically ... More >>

It's Getting Expensive As City, Whistleblowing Auditor Wrangle Over Retaliation Claims

​Of the myriad lawsuits involving the city, Doug Moore v. City of Dallas et al is among the most expensive -- and getting a little more pricey all the time. This case, for those not keeping score at home, has already cost the city $2.5 million, paid to the state and the feds in June over allegatio ... More >>

Drink Up: Judge Pours Out Lawsuit Trying to Overturn Citywide Sale of Beer and Wine

Flickr user: Erik Gustafson​Looks like we'll need to find something else to do on September 12: Judge Laurine Blake of Bonham has dismissed the lawsuit hoping to overturn the November referendum allowing for the citywide sale of beer and wine. As we've noted in recent days, the city had filed a mo ... More >>

Heritage to Sell Odd Bit of Cotton Bowl History. Turns Out, the City Has Its Own Stash o' Seats.

Heritage Auction Galleries​For the longest time I've had this auction item sitting on my desktop: a chair said to be from the Cotton Bowl circa 1960-'62, during the Dallas Texans' days at Fair Park. Heritage is parting with the curio this weekend, during the same auction at which it's offering the ... More >>

The City Council's Ousted Muni Judge Brown. She's Not About to Leave Bench Without a Fight.

via.Municipal Court Judge Phyllis Lister Brown​In the end, the Dallas City Council voted this morning to remove Municipal Court Judge Phyllis Lister Brown from the position she's held for 17 years. But she's not about to go quietly. Far from it. Brown landed in a legal tangle with the city wh ... More >>

City Attorney Wants to Make It Much Harder For Strangers to Knock On Your Front Door

​Been trying since yesterday without any luck to reach City Attorney Tom Perkins to talk about his scheduled appearance Monday in front of the council's Quality of Life Committee. The topic, for which 45 minutes have been carved out: "Home Solicitation Ordinance." Which, from the looks of the brie ... More >>

Look Out, Belo: Amidst Solicitation Ordinance Chat, Talk of Fines Over Unwanted Papers

​At this morning's Quality of Life Committee meeting, we finally got to hear about that proposed new home solicitation ordinance with which we wrapped last week. We know what you're thinking, and let us reassure you right away: Your Girl Scout cookies should be unaffected. Exhale. As City At ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway's Looking Out For the City

​On Wednesdays I keep the city council broadcasts dialed up in the office for the high irritainment value. Besides, you never know what'll happen. Take yesterday, for instance. There were a few things I wanted to keep an eye on, but at the bottom of the bottom of the list was Addendum Item No. 10, ... More >>