The Dallas City Council, Paper Dolls

By Robert Wilonsky Wed., Sep. 16 2009 at 12:39 PM

Categories: News

The city manager and mayor look awful beaten down by this particular discussion.

If you've got some time this afternoon, you may wanna tune into the city council's budget amendment briefing, which has turned its attention to the council members' proposal to cut their own budget. As you may know, the council's modest proposal got more modest last week. But the council -- which, so far today, has restored funding to the Office of Cultural Affairs and given back some dough to the library for materials -- is bickering at this very moment about whether or not to eliminate printing out docs and delivering them to council members' homes on Friday, which is a savings of, oh, $70,000. Many on the council think printing out agendas and briefings can be eliminated -- because of, ya know, the Interwebs.

But Vonciel Jones Hill is especially opposed to the cuts: "It doesn't work for me," she said. "I have a place where I sit. That works for me. ... Many of us don't come here on Friday. Many of us have to earn a living. I am not going to vote to eliminate home delivery. I have no intention of coming down to City Hall on Friday." Dave Neumann, who reminds that he's a small business owner, agrees, because he's "a computer illiterate." Carolyn Davis is also on board with sticking to paper: "We can talk about, 'Let's go green in the city of Dallas,' and I support having a laptop and a computer, but I have a couple of concerns. I am now on the laptop and looking at the paper. You say, 'Go to Page 12,' and I went to Page 12 on the computer, and it's a different page." Funny stuff. They oughta put this on prime time.

Update at 1:03 p.m.: Eleven council members ultimately voted to eliminate printed agendas. Now it's on to getting rid of council meals. No word on getting rid of council.

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