THUMBS UP Graham’s Hard Bargain

Thumbs up to Jim Graham, a member of the Park Board and a Dallas businessman, for the wisdom and personal fortitude he showed in renegotiating the Star-plex contract with PACE/MCA. The deal had been struck and the city had agreed to it. which meant that Graham was operating from a weak bargaining position. But he did his homework and collected vital information, then sat down and made the out-of-towners do some hard Texas jawboning. He reduced the term of the original contract from forty years to twenty with an option for twenty more; got the city a share of the lucrative concession and parking revenue; substantially increased the minimum payment from PACE; and increased, from ten to fifteen cents per ticket, the amount that goes into the South Dallas Economic Development Fund.