The mayor has made me a convert.
D Magazine has never been a big fan of Laura Miller. As an investigative reporter, she was tendentious, egotistical, sloppy, and usually wrong. As a City Council member, she was tendentious, camera-hungry, mean-spirited, and usually wrong.
But as mayor, she’s a dynamo. She’s the best thing that’s happened to Dallas in decades.
I know she has her faults. She’s no management genius. She’s always going in so many directions that it’s hard to believe her when she tells you that she’s going in yours. She’s not overly burdened by the need to tell the truth. Nobody in elementary school ever said she plays well with others.
But we all have faults. One of our faults at D Magazine is that we don’t often believe that people change to fit their roles. As an investigative reporter, Laura Miller was tops in her field. You may have hated her, but you had to read her. As a City Council member, she battled for her Oak Cliff constituents like nobody else, and she wasn’t shy about jamming a stick in the gears at City Hall when she thought something needed to be stopped.
As mayor, she has taken up the banner of change. She has launched constructive initiatives to revitalize downtown, to make the Trinity River project work, and to focus the city’s attention on the little things that leave big impressions, such as fixing the potholes and enforcing the codes.
The mayor of Dallas has no power, except to appoint Council members to the Council’s various committees. It takes a majority of eight to get anything done. Ron Kirk showed that to be successful, a mayor must forge a coalition of willing partners through the use of carrots and sticks. He also showed that a successful mayor needs to forge a relationship with the city manager.
I’m sure Laura Miller has tried to learn those skills, but she’s hampered by three things. The first problem is her temperament. Having never managed anything more than a desktop computer, she’s not equipped with a lifetime’s training in how to get people to do what she wants. Another problem is her city manager, Ted Benavides, whose weakness is compounded by a paralyzing fear that he will lose his job before his pension is vested. Lastly, her fellow Council members don’t always trust her good intentions, although I sense that many of them, like me, are slowly converting.
Miller has succeeded on several fronts. She has enlisted the Dallas business community in the fight for downtown, and they are among her biggest supporters. She has made North Dallas voters her partners in backing what needs to be done, because they trust her to be a financial watchdog. Her energy has gotten other people scurrying to keep up with her. When she sees a problem that needs to be fixed—like our former police chief—she stays on it until everyone else collapses in fatigue.
But, most of all, she has instilled a new spirit in this city. In her inaugural address, she spoke of the
he mayor has made me a convert.
D Magazine has never been a big fan of Laura Miller. As an investigative reporter, she was tendentious, egotistical, sloppy, and usually wrong. As a City Council member, she was tendentious, camera-hungry, mean-spirited, and usually wrong.
But as mayor, she’s a dynamo. She’s the best thing that’s happened to Dallas in decades.
I know she has her faults. She’s no management genius. She’s always going in so many directions that it’s hard to believe her when she tells you that she’s going in yours. She’s not overly burdened by the need to tell the truth. Nobody in elementary school ever said she plays well with others.
But we all have faults. One of our faults at D Magazine is that we don’t often believe that people change to fit their roles. As an investigative reporter, Laura Miller was tops in her field. You may have hated her, but you had to read her. As a City Council member, she battled for her Oak Cliff constituents like nobody else, and she wasn’t shy about jamming a stick in the gears at City Hall when she thought something needed to be stopped.
As mayor, she has taken up the banner of change. She has launched constructive initiatives to revitalize downtown, to make the Trinity River project work, and to focus the city’s attention on the little things that leave big impressions, such as fixing the potholes and enforcing the codes.
The mayor of Dallas has no power, except to appoint Council members to the Council’s various committees. It takes a majority of eight to get anything done. Ron Kirk showed that to be successful, a mayor must forge a coalition of willing partners through the use of carrots and sticks. He also showed that a successful mayor needs to forge a relationship with the city manager.
I’m sure Laura Miller has tried to learn those skills, but she’s hampered by three things. The first problem is her temperament. Having never managed anything more than a desktop computer, she’s not equipped with a lifetime’s training in how to get people to do what she wants. Another problem is her city manager, Ted Benavides, whose weakness is compounded by a paralyzing fear that he will lose his job before his pension is vested. Lastly, her fellow Council members don’t always trust her good intentions, although I sense that many of them, like me, are slowly converting.
Miller has succeeded on several fronts. She has enlisted the Dallas business community in the fight for downtown, and they are among her biggest supporters. She has made North Dallas voters her partners in backing what needs to be done, because they trust her to be a financial watchdog. Her energy has gotten other people scurrying to keep up with her. When she sees a problem that needs to be fixed—like our former police chief—she stays on it until everyone else collapses in fatigue.
But, most of all, she has instilled a new spirit in this city. In her inaugural address, she spoke of the “Emerald City” that Dallas once was and could be again. I grew up in that city, and I, too, believe we can have it again.
Ronald Reagan had a sign on his desk that read, “You can get anything done, so long as you don’t care who gets the credit for it.” I could buy one of those signs for Mayor Miller, but she’d ignore it the next time she saw a camera. So maybe the next best thing is to buy it for her City Council partners. As a whole, they are a competent and responsible group, one of the best we’ve ever had. Con-sidering the mayor’s strengths, which are many, and her faults, which are legendary, the City Council should support her.
In other words, let Laura be Laura. She’s an amazing woman, and, if given the right backing, she could do amazing things for Dallas.
