Please Release Thing 1 & Thing 2

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