Austin Wood
Audio By Carbonatix
Long before Mike Hinojosa saved the Dallas Independent School District from itself, he called in amateur baseball results a couple of nights a week during the summer to the sports desk at the old Dallas Times Herald. “This is Mike Hinojosa with the DABA,” he said, and then one of us who worked on the desk would type in the scores from the Dallas Amateur Baseball Association as he recited them.
What matters about this is that Hinojosa never missed a night. If baseball games had been played, he’d call us. Which, given that he wants to be Dallas’ next mayor at a time that is shaping up to be the worst in my 40 years living here, strikes me as perfect.
We need a mayor who is going to call in the results, regardless of anything else. This would be in stark contrast to the city’s past several mayors, most of whom seemed more preoccupied with boosting their careers instead of trying to save the city from itself.
Because Dallas certainly does need saving, and it especially needs someone to save it who has the neighborhoods’ best interests at heart. The city budget is a mess; police department hiring is mired in a legal quagmire that defies explanation; and the streets and their potholes remain the obstacle course they’ve been for 40 years. Where else but in this incarnation of Dallas would we pay someone who helped put us in this mess, former city manager T.C. Broadnax, some $500,000 in Danegeld to leave? Meanwhile, the only solution to all of these messes seems to be closing rec centers and swimming pools, selling libraries, and turning the city hall site into some sort of luxury Manhattan neighborhood because a bunch of real estate developers think it’s a good idea.
Enter Hinojosa. Yes, it’s true he has never run for public office, but anyone who can effectively manage an urban school district the way he did – and in a state where public education has been a second-class citizen for decades — has enough talent to make up for his lack of political experience. Working in public education is about compromise, building coalitions, and keeping one eye over the shoulder to see who is lined up for the next backstabbing.
In other words, not that different from politics – and especially Dallas politics. That’s because, in our weak mayor/council-manager form of government, a streetwise city manager can pretty much get the council to do the manager’s bidding unless someone as streetwise can outmaneuver the city manager.
Which, as the sad story of the Skillman Southwestern library shows, doesn’t happen nearly enough.
This is not to say that Hinojosa didn’t have his problems with teachers, allegations of fraud and tussles with Austin during his two tenures as the DISD superintendent. But he mended fences with the teachers, was never accused of financial impropriety himself and gave Austin as good as he got. Which, given Gov. Abbott’s disdain for public education, is admirable.
Finally, don’t forget what a mess DISD was when Hinojosa started in 2005 – and what a mess it isn’t now. Three of the four full-time superintendents before Hinojosa resigned under pressure. This included Yvonne Gonzalez, who had left her previous job under a cloud and eventually did 10 months in federal prison for using district funds to furnish a Cole Avenue apartment where she met her lover.
Hinojosa probably doesn’t remember calling the Herald sports desk all these years ago. But I do, and it actually makes me think there’s hope that Dallas can find a way out of this mess without more pain for the neighborhoods and those of us who pay the city’s bills.
