POLITICS Paper Trail

Did Dallas City Council-man Glenn Box try to pull a fast one during his waning days in office? Box, who left the council in June, proposed an ordinance which would have prohibited the distribution of circulars to vacant houses and residences that had posted signs against solicitation. The rules also would have discouraged handouts that could become windblown litter.

Before the council killed it at its May 24 meeting, the proposal alarmed free newspapers and advertising sheets, which could have been fined $2,000 per violation. According to Rob Harty, publisher of The Shopping News, the statute “would have made it illegal for any newspaper to exist in Dallas except The Dallas Morning News.”

More criticism of the measure came from Councilman Larry Duncan, who notes that the ordinance would have hampered political candidates who rely on hand-delivered pamphlets. Box, of course, plans to seek the GOP congressional nomination in the Fifth District, cunently represented by hard-pressed Democrat John Bryant. “It all fits together in a lot of ways,” Duncan says. “John Bryant has always had strong labor and volunteer support. He’s always done things door-to-door.”

Harty and Duncan heard the sounds of mutual back-scratching, since the proposal would have hurt both the rivals of the Morning News and of Box, whom the paper has long supported.

A former aide to Box says the whole affair was blown out of proportion. “If the council had problems with his changes, they must have problems with the entire ordinance, ” says the aide.