STATE INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE TO PROBE DALLAS CORRUPTION?

According to Jim Schutze, Rep. Terry Keel of Austin (the first Republican sheriff in Tarrant County since Reconstruction) is asking the Speaker for authority to open a full investigation of Dallas City Hall. Schutze is right: we can thank Elaine Agather, chairman of Chase Bank Dallas and chair of the Dallas Citizens Council, and other big-time business opponents of the strong-mayor proposition for helping Dallas maintain a system that invites corruption to flower. When there’s no accountability, there’s plenty of opportunity. Like George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall fame, several City Council members seem to have “seen their opportunities and taken them.” And they have the Dallas Citizens Council to thank for keeping a system that allows them to do it.