The Yellow-Brick Corridor
So, the city council just approved giving $515,000 to a man named David Dean? Who dat? Well, says on the council's agenda he owns something called Dean International, which The Dallas Morning News called in June "a public policy consulting firm working for the city on the inland port." He's getting that dough "to provide transportation and economic development consulting services from October 12, 2006 through October 11, 2007," says the agenda, which means he's doing lobbying work on the city's behalf concerning the Trans-Texas Corridor in the southern sector. In April, he was also working to make the Lancaster Municipal Airport a key element of the NAFTA Superhighway, and until May of this year, he was on the board of directors for something called ViewCast Corporation, a self-described "developer of video and audio communications products enabling dynamic content delivery." Had to quit. Didn't have enough time.
It's a heck of a good way to make a living, being a consultant. According to this, Dean had a similar contract with the city of Irving for years. But says here that last September, the city gave Dean $340,000 to do work on the NAFTA Superhighway. And he got more than $200,000 from the city even earlier, which puts him past the million-dollar mark. (Who says city government's no way to get rich?) That's why fiscal watchdog Mitchell Rasansky didn't want the city to give Dean any more dough today. Of course, Rasansky was overruled. City's got money to burn, baby. Dincha know? --Robert Wilonsky
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