Let me bring you all up to speed on what happened when we arrived on April 4 to speak to the Dallas City Council.

We were told that since this was a “briefing” session of the Dallas City Council that speakers would not be allowed.  They were only allowed at voting sessions of the Council. NOT true.  Speakers are invited to EACH AND EVERY  session of the Dallas City Council the first and third Wednesdays are “Briefing” sessions and the Second and Fourth Wednesdays are “Voting” sessions.  Only five speakers are allowed to speak at any one session of the DCC.  You must physically arrive at City Hall as early as possible, i.e.
prior to 8:15, to put your name on the list.  First come First served. After the first five they take a few more names, so that if any of the original five don¹t or can¹t speak for any reason the next name on the list will be “bumped up” and allowed then to speak in their slot.  Time permitting, other speakers may be allowed to speak after the afternoon agenda.

Speakers are allotted three minutes, and it is timed.  We were told that “our” agenda item would not be addressed until afternoon session.  However, all the speakers were heard in the morning.  That fact was kept from us.  So when we arrived after lunch, we learned we had missed the speakers.  Three for, one against.  We heard NONE of it.

The specifics of the proposed ordinances were not detailed in open session. They were presented in Executive Session, and therefore not publicly accessible.  However, in open session, each of the council members did speak of the many of the proposed changes to code compliance (which is currently the department under which Animal Services falls ) and it was quite apparent that the council is in favor of passing the recommendations made by Animal Services.  The council commissioned a committee to make recommendations, and we discovered that that was comprised of Animal Services and a local animal welfare/rescue group.  No other groups breeders, exhibitors, breed club representatives, veterinarians, local dog trainers were invited to be a part of the committee that made recommendations to the Quality of Life committee and to the council.  In fact, many of the council members had nothing but the highest PRAISE for this commission, their hard work, dedication, and thoughtful recommendations.

In listening to each of the council members speak, we do have some opportunities to “turn” the council but I just don¹t know if there¹s time at this point.  Mayor Leppert strongly supports the proposed ordinance changes but he really has some serious reservations about “benchmarks”.  He wants a definitive timeline/measurement to see marked improvement in the problems that these recommendations supposedly address.  He was very hesitant to spend additional monies without having a definitive plan for measuring success.

In addition, we have at least a couple other members of the council that are highly displeased with A/S performance to this point.  They have a monumental failure maintaining employment stability.  They currently have and have for some time (a couple of years is what I remember hearing ) 21 positions open.  That never seem to fill.  And when they do, these positions transfer out at the very first posting of a position in another department. Turnover in the department is nothing short of astronomical. The have had an opening for the #2 position for quite some time as well.  So at least we have that going for us they are reticent to allocate more funds to a department that is obviously dysfunctional.  Garcia and Neumann are particularly irate about this.

It was also pointed out that the City spent 17 million dollars on their new, state-of-the-art “Green” shelter.  And for that 17 million dollars, they still do not have an operating theatre that is capable of performing spays and neuters.  Or that has lights, or that has anesthesia capabilities.  That was a huge sore point with councilwoman Garcia.  Hard to pass MANDATORY spay/neuter legislation when your flagship Animal Shelter can¹t even perform them.  HA!  In addition, as part of that 17 million dollar appropriation for the shelter,  was a requirement for tangible “measurement”.  (The council seems obsessive about being able to “benchmark” progress on any of these projects.  Thankfully!)  A report was done comparing several categories of performance prior to, and after, the new shelter was built. One of the new goals was that they would bring attention to the community by having a “celebrity” spokesperson.  It was checked off as “done”.   Falsely.  They claim to have completed their campaign to find a “famous personality” to be a spokesperson for the shelter.  When challenged as to whether that had actually been done it hadn¹t.  But they were proud to announce that they have managed to retain a marketing company, and introduced them (yes, they were in attendance ) so hopefully the “personality” will be identified soon.
There were many issues of this type that were addressed by councilwoman Garcia.  She had some very sharp words for the City Manager and Assistant City Manager in reference to alluded-to goals being met, when in fact, they hadn¹t.

BUT, and this is really important the entire council is very comfortable with these aggressive changes.  They have some REAL problems with loose running dogs in all districts but the council members who led in the numbers (tracked by 311 calls) have been taking a LOT of flak from their constituents about loose dogs.  IT is a problem.  They need to do something.  So they are ready to try anything and they were never given an opportunity to hear any other options other than what the commission recommended.  I believe this will pass, regardless.  However, I don¹t think we take it lying down.

My recommendation is that first we band together to attend council meetings by the hundreds .  We need to meet prior to the council meetings and choose five potential speakers, come up with talking points for those five speakers and practice.  Then on Wednesday, our five speakers, and every warm body we can muster needs to show up at City Hall.  FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS.   I would also highly recommend that we contact council members and the mayor, make appointments to meet in person, and take small groups of five or six people to each of those meetings.  We need to get FACE TO FACE with the city leaders.  Faxes and e-mails right now are ineffective.  They have already made up their minds.  We need to convince them now to CHANGE their minds.

Unless you are willing to band together IN FORCE, IN NUMBERS and show up it¹s over.  Unless we have a BIG VOICE and a BIG PRESENCE over the next three weeks these ordinances WILL be passed, make no mistake.  Hell, if we had just the membership of the three all breed clubs in this area, or four,

if  FWKC would like to throw some bodies into the mix that would be an overwhelming number of people.  Contact your breed clubs contact your performance groups, or training classes.  We need hundreds of people.  The speakers must be residents of the City of Dallas, but the supporters can be from anywhere.  Four of us showed up today.  None could speak.  It was pitiful.  Please, we need you to commit yourselves for the next three Wednesdays.  Please.