Liveblogging Today's City Council Meeting, That Is, At Least Until They're Done Talkin' About the Interesting Stuff

• Well, schucks, I ain't done nothin' 'cept write about what needed to be written about. But thanks. I've got enough nicknames, besides, none of 'em repeatable in front of the kid.

• Robert, I hope you don't mind that Veletta is the "Princess of Preservation". She has held that title for several years now. However, we do not have a "Prince of Presrvation". Or, you could be the "Queen of Preservation"--no, I think that title is also taken. Always enjoyed talking to you when I was at the city. Thanks for your help.

• Man, the neighbors are totally opposed to that church school. Again, proof that Oak Cliff is hipper than North Dallas. Because you haven't read squat about this neighborhood tussle in <em>The News</em>.

• Hey, there's Hiram Sasser, attorney for Liberty Legal Insitute, who's talking about how "religion freedom" applies to "zoning issues." This is in regards to the City Plan Commission's having denied Hillcrest Church's application for a specific use permit to build a school on their existing parking lot. http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/05/despite_staffs_suggestion_plan.php He says the city needs to provide "reasons for justifying the denial" of the specific use permit. He says the school is "in the public interest," and doggone it, the Religious Land Use Act requires the city to OK the SUP.

• I finally got to Siegel's assistant. He IS at City Hall. I told her I need to talk to him pronto. She's gonna call his cell and have him call me. If and when he does I may move at least that part of the liveblog dealing with the wet-dry special election to a separate item.

• Incidentally, if anyone's actually reading this, I've been trying all day to reach Andy Siegel, the attorney threatening to sue the city if City Attorney Deborah Watkins verifies there are enough valid signatures to force that wet-dry referendum in November. He's probably at City Hall. This is what he looks like. http://www.shacklaw.net/index.php?src=directory&view=staff&refno=2&srctype=staff_detail I think I know him. But if you see the guy, ask him the question I've been trying to get answered for the last 24 hours: Who do he represent? Thanks. That is all.

• Congrats to the Princess of Preservation, Sir Robert, Lady Katherine and all who were dogged in their shepherding of the demolition ordinance through the LOOOONG process.

• A vote on the ordinance is being moved till later in the day in order to make room for "the Hunt amendment," as Carolyn Davis refers to it. That too is a rather unheralded Tom Clancy work. For those not keeping score, earlier this week Housing Committee OK'd a version of the proposal that would give the Landmark Committee deference over the fire marshal. Oh, no. Hold on. The thing's been passed unanimously. That only took two years. On to Item No. 87. Or, as I call it, bathroom break.

• Hunt wants the ordinance to say a building can be torn down only if it presents "a clear and present danger." Which I always thought was overrated. I prefer <em>The Hunt for Red October</em>.

• Hi, America. My name is Robert Wilonsky, and I guess I'll be handling some of this liveblogging thing in Sam's absence. Right now, the council's discussing that looooooooooooooooong-in-the-works ordinance that will allow the fire marshal and courts to tear down so-called public nuisances in historic districts, even if preservationists say nonononono that's a bad idea. Steve Salazar just called Veletta Lill the "Princess of Preservation." And here I thought that was my nickname. Angela Hunt wants to make sure the ordinance is a fair balance between safety and preservation. She's getting to the main concern of preservationists -- that this new City Attorney's Office-penned proviso would allow for the tearing down of buildings downtown.

• Mayor aside to Manager: Why yes, I am free for mojitos later today. Why do you ask? Wink, wink. THANK YOU COUNCIL MEMBER. YOUR TIME IS UP. See you at 4?

• The council just broke for lunch. Me? I'm headed to Love Field. You'll find out why later, but I'm unsure about whether I'll be able to keep up with the remainder of the day's proceedings.

• Sheffie Kadane wonders if �the Super Bowl folks� could donate fireworks for this year�s event at Fair Park. Dyer says the cost is $100,000.

• �There comes a time in business when you have to raise your rate,� Steve Salazar says. He says the budget is being balanced �on the backs of children, on the backs of victims, on the backs of seniors,� so it�s time to raise taxes.

• Davis says she doesn�t support the additional furlough days, layoffs or pay cuts for city employees. Suhm says approximately 300 to 400 employees will lose their jobs. �If you need to leave the room, Mary, I�m perfectly happy for you to,� Linda Koop says referring to Davis� earlier comment.

• Suhm tells Davis that she expects property tax revenue to drop another 8.5 percent next year.

• �My main concern out there is the children,� Atkins says. �What are they gonna do when the rec centers are closed?�

• Paul Dyer, director of Parks and Recreation, tells Atkins that only 23 of the city�s 43 recreation centers will be open under the current budget. And they�ll be open only 30 hours each instead of 55 hours: 12 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Atkins is concerned that they�ll be closed on Saturday. Suhm just got up to leave and Carolyn Davis said, �Mary, come back in here. You need to come back in here, be a lady and listen to us.� Suhm sat back down.

• �We need to raise something around here.� How 'bout the IQ of the city council members?

• �I�m for raising taxes period,� Tennell Atkins says. �We need to raise something around here.�

• Jack Matthews is Leppert's boy - BIG TIME!!! Matthews had never developed a Hotel until the Convention Center Hotel, based on our knowledge. The other "bidders" for the Convention Center Hotel had developed convention center hotels for other cities around the country as well as many many commercial hotels. Please tell me how Matthews was the best and most qualified bid??? Now he is pulling down over 300k per month!!! Cronyism at its best!!! Criminal at its potential worst!!! You be the judge!

• Jeanne Chipperfield, the city�s CFO, is briefing the council right now, and she�s talking about the $81.3 million in �higher-priority services� that aren�t funded in the budget, but it would be really awesome if they were. How hard is it to find that kind of dough? She says it would take a 10.5 cent tax increase, laying off 1,600 city employees, cutting city pay by 37 percent or implementing 120 furlough days. So, yeah, not easy.

• The council is back, and it�s Happy Birthday time for both Linda Koop and Tennell Atkins. �He claims he�s just as quick as he was back on the football field,� Leppert says about Atkins, a former player at SMU. �We�ll find out later today.� Not sure what that means, but I think that qualifies as one of Andrea�s comments that sounds iffy when taken out of context.

• Agreed. Fingers crossed....

• They're still in executive session. Yawn. I hear Schutze's at City Hall. If so, take me a picture of those outlets. I want proof, Dr. Schutze!

• WOW! a $2 billion operating budget, and they couldn't figure out how to support 1.3% of the budget to seniors. That's sad.

• Wow... No discussion on Love Field? Does anything of substance with respect to the City of Dallas EVER transpire in the public eye?

• I'm interested in the demo ordinance too, but it seems like it will be much less contentious given what the Housing Committee did recently to accommodate the preservationists' concerns.

• Keep with it please, Sam. We want to hear how demolition ordinance ends up...

• Jack Matthews used Turner Construction on several of the projects including Southside on Lamar Guess you know who was CEO of Turner Construction

• &#64;Justin: Yup, that was all there was on the Love Field issue. Perhaps this meeting has already run out of the aforementioned �interesting stuff,� but we�ll keep checking in from time to time just to make sure.

• �There were some ugly things written about this particular judge,� Carolyn Davis says, adding, �The words were so hostile.� She�s called for an executive session on the matter, so the council will head off for that and then they�ll sit through a two hour budget briefing before taking up the rest of the agenda.

• We could have used that $100,000 for some public private partnerships to keep libraries and rec centers open. Isn't Jack Matthews the mayor's crony? If so, I guess we don't worry about open bids when the Mayor is involved.

• Sam, per your comment at 10:22, the no bid contract stuff was punted to Aug 11 just like that? Damn, talk about much ado about nothing.

• �The judges that we picked out are the judges that should be there,� Sheffie Kadane says, and he tells Caraway that he didn�t bring up his issues before, to which Caraway replied, �Yes I did!�

• Caraway says it amounted to a conspiracy by lawyers attempting to get rid of a judge they didn�t like. �There�s a dead rat in the corner somewhere,� he says.

• Hunt, chair of the council�s Ad Hoc Legislative Committee for Judicial Appointments, wants to defer the vote on addendum item No. 4, which appoints several full and part time municipal judges. Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway says the city could be sued over the interviewing process, putting the taxpayers at risk, because the judges weren�t judged on the merit of their work; they were judged on �personality conflicts.� �The way this process went about was not a fair process,� he says.

• Leppert says he�s directing city staff to develop "additional options" regarding the contracts and come back at the council's August 4 briefing to �lay out these options� as they see appropriate, which will then be voted on at the August 11 agenda meeting. He says that has been agreed upon by the council. No vote is taken. There�s no discussion, and Leppert quickly moves on to the next item.

• The council is back, and City Secretary Deborah Watkins is reading the Love Field items into the record. Hunt is in attendance. Leppert says he�s not going to allow the speakers to talk on this issue.

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