THUMBS DOWN VANDERBILT: REI’S GAIN, DALLAS’S LOSS

Thumbs down to Bill Moore, CEO of Recognition Equipment Inc. of Irving, for not being flexible enough to allow city councilman Dean Vanderbilt, an REI vice president, to serve out the remaining nine months of his term. Vanderbilt was a highly regarded council sage on budgetary matters, and he will be missed. As long as we retain our system of volunteer city government, we must depend on city businesses and institutions to ante up good people to lead at City Hall. It’s too bad that Moore and REI couldn’t cinch up their belts and gut out the remaining portion of Vanderbilt’s term.