Without taking sides into the latest brouhaha over a lawsuit
filed by the widow of Lorne Ahrens who was gunned down along with four other
officers July 7, I felt compelled to highlight one tiny paragraph in the 26-page
document.
For me, it continues to highlight all that is woefully wrong
with the city of Dallas and its leadership.
Lots of people—we don’t know how many because the city apparently won’t
share those numbers—so let’s just say lots of people sent letters addressed to
Ahrens’ widow, Katrina, but mailed to Dallas City Hall. These letters, according to the
lawsuit, contained heartfelt messages, checks, cash and gift cards to
Katrina. The city apparently has been
opening and reading her mail and supposedly logging everything.
According to the suit, Katrina “requested a copy of the log,
but was denied by the City, which claimed the log contained confidential
information.”
Hmmmm, the city likes to say a lot of things and then hide
behind a lot of things. Kind of like a
dystopian version of Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss.
Since March 18, I’ve tried unsuccessfully to get the city
and Mayor Mike Rawlings to up some basic info.
I wasn’t asking for state secrets. I wasn’t asking for the code to his
gated community. I didn’t even ask to see whatever secret handshake one needs
for admittance into that special Dallas Citizens Council. Nope. All I asked for were two basic things:
Thing 1: All email correspondence related to HB 3158 between
Mayor Mike Rawlings or his staff and Pension Committee Chair Dan Flynn or his
staff.
Thing 2: That survey that Mayor Mike said he had that shows
80 percent of citizens would not support a tax increase for its first
responders and the pension.
Instead, the city stalled a bit, and then on April 3, the
city requested an attorney general’s opinion. Then on June 7—you know about a
week after the governor signed the pension bill—the city withdrew its request
for an AG opinion on my request and said they would release the info to me.
But when they finally released the info—85 days after my
initial request—I received one document on June 9.
One.
That’s right.
Just one three-page email about an interview request.
Are you kidding me?
And as for Thing 2--Complete crickets on that alleged
survey.
There has to be one right?
After all, the mayor said he had one, so it’s got to be there somewhere right?
The mayor wouldn’t lie about something like that, or would he?
If I were a bettin’ woman, I’d wager some DROP money that
there ain’t no stinkin’ survey.
But then again, I couldn’t bet any DROP money even if I
wanted to. Mr. Mayor saw to that.
In the meantime, I’ve filed a complaint with the attorney
general’s office about releasing Thing 1 and Thing 2.
#SaveThePensionItAintFixed
