Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mayor Park Cities is a genius. Who am I to argue with Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper?
But I want to quote something that I wrote last August in the magazine, after Leppert took office:
Finally, being mayor is a lot different than running a business. You actually have to pay attention to the stockholders. Which would be us, the voters. We stockholders can be persistent, even those of us who don’t have columns and blogs. I was no fan of your predecessor, but she did one thing very well. She almost always sat patiently while every person who signed up to speak at the end of each council meeting made their comments. She understood that everyone deserved to be heard. I hope you realize this, that it’s not the sort of thing you’d try to fob off on a flunky. Which is what too many CEOs in the private sector would do. I wonder: Did you ever talk to any ordinary stockholder during your days in the construction business?
Shows what I know. You can fob off the voters on a flunky; in this case, by restricting public speakers at city council meetings. This is, of course, the same thing that some companies do at their annual meetings.
So what does this have to do with the city’s trash collectors? Turns out, reports Sam Merten on the Observer blog, that a council committee is considering installing GPS units on garbage trucks to better keep track of what the crews are doing. So we’re going to spy on city employees while limiting what residents can say at council meetings? Has anyone explained to the council that we try not to do those things in the United States? (Some free advice to those members of the council who always back the mayor, regardless: Run as fast as you can in the opposite direction, unless you want to end up on The Daily Show. What’s that, you say? Ask your kids.)
Yes, some of the speakers at the council meetings are a bit tetched. And they’re sometimes embarrassing to listen to. But I wasn’t aware there was an exception in the Constitution for people who weren’t exactly like the rest of us. Until now — let’s call it the Mayor Park Cities amendment, part of the Bill of Non-Rights.
