EDITOR’S PAGE

WHEN IN DOUBT and in need of perspective, especially on the major issues, we always dial up the sage of our city, the Dalai Lama of Dallas, the wisest of our city’s wise: developer John Stemmons.

We caught Mr. Stemmons in particularly fine form as he answered his phone in his office high atop the Stemmons Towers, just off to the side of the Stemmons Freeway, overlooking what Mr. Stemmons still refers to as “our village.” He claimed he had just gotten out of jail, thanks to the shortsightedness of the new sheriff, and couldn’t be in better spirits. “What can I do for you, son?”

We told him we were writing about Dallas’ city council/city manager form of government and recalled some public remarks he had made on the subject. The phrase “boil them in oil” – referring to anyone who would tamper with our present system – stuck in our minds.

Mr. Stemmons got serious. “The genius of our city, son, has been its good, clean government.” And he agreed, based on nearly 50 years of observation, that the foundation of good government since the Thirties here has been the council/ manager partnership.

In this issue of the magazine, we introduce what will become a regular feature, the D Interview, and, for our inaugural offering, we talked at length with Dallas City Manager George Schrader. Mr. Schrader made clear that this year – his eighth in office – would be his last, and, therefore, this seemed to be a particularly opportune time for us to pay homage to a form of government which has made our city the envy of almost every other municipality in the country.

While Cleveland is going broke, Dallas retains a Triple-A bond rating. While politics and corruption are nearly synonymous in the wards of Newark and Chicago, Dallas has enjoyed decade after decade of squeaky-clean government. While getting the garbage picked up in New York City is an occasional thing – even when the sanitation workers aren’t on strike – city services are delivered efficiently and effectively in Dallas, as they should be.

Indeed, if Dallas has one overriding national reputation, it is as a city that is well-run, and that reputation is traceable in large part to our form of government.

It is particularly disturbing, then, that the very structure which has allowed our city to flourish is now coming under increasing attack. There are those in Dallas, City Councilman Fred Blair among them, who believe that “Dallas has outgrown the city manager form of government.”

Indeed, with the tax revaluation fiasco, the bus strike, the police civilian review board controversy, and other highly visible and emotional issues, one can empathize with Mr. Blair’s frustration, if not identify with his solution.

Councilman Blair would replace our form of government with a well-paid full-time mayor and city council (at present, councilmen receive $50 per week), accountable, as he puts it, “directly to the people.” Mr. Blair says that getting rid of the city manager’s office would “remove one layer of bureaucracy” between the people and their government.

Councilman Ricardo Medrano echoes Mr. Blair’s disenchantment with our present form of government but stops short of saying he’d like to get rid of the entire system. As a first step, he would like to make it easier to get rid of the city manager himself. At present, it takes a two-thirds vote of the city council to fire the city manager; Medrano would like to reduce the requirement to a simple majority, again in the interest of “accountability.”

But what sounds like “democracy” and “accountability” to Councilmen Blair and Medrano sounds to us like an invitation to introduce the political process into the management of a city with an annual budget approaching a half billion dollars. As other cities across the country have painfully discovered, there is no necessary linkage between the skills needed to get elected and the skills needed to manage a large metropolis. In fact, according to Mr. Schrader, the council/Manager form of government is now the predominant structure for cities of 25,000 people and more, and its popularity is due to its performance. It works.

What we believe to be at the root of the frustration of the minority members of the council is not so much the form of government they are attacking but their inability to convince other council members that the needs and concerns of their constituents are going unmet.

It is the great failure of this council – “the sorriest I’ve ever seen,” says John Stemmons – that it has continued to operate as a house divided, north against the south, separated by the Trinity River. This division has been exacerbated by federally mandated single-member districts, which encourage parochialism and self-interest, and our city has suffered because of it.

Nevertheless, like it or not, single-member districts will be with us for the foreseeable future, and it is therefore incumbent upon council members to work constructively and cooperatively within that framework. This the present city council has been unwilling or unable to do, and their individual performances will be at issue in the upcoming April elections.

As Councilman Lee Simpson reminds us: “You can’t blame the form of government if elected officials don’t do their jobs well. Officials should work to improve their performance, not to throw out the form of government we have. The council/manager structure has served us exceedingly well, and the city would be much poorer without it.”

Councilman Simpson and his council colleagues who voiced similar sentiments (Steve Bartlett, Max Goldblatt, Joe Hag-gar, and Sid Stahl) are correct. The system not only works, it works well, and the new incoming council will face no item on its agenda of more importance than finding a suitable replacement for outgoing George Schrader. Given Mr. Schrader’s selfless service to this city, his will be a difficult act to follow.



EDUCATION UPDATE

Three months ago we asked our readers to write Governor Clements en masse in support of April 1981 school board elec-tions, as originally scheduled before board members had their terms extended 12 months by legislative fiat.

We are pleased to tell you that as a resultof your interest and response, GovernorClements has written D Magazine that “ithas become evident that the people of Dallas want to have an election in 1981, regardless of what happens in 1982 after re-districting. We have talked with Representative Lee Jackson (who, along withRep. Chris Semos has introduced HB 190which would clear the way for April 1981elections) and have assured him that wewill place an ’emergency’ designation onthe bill, so that it can be consideredimmediately by the legislature.”