{"id":1657,"date":"2017-05-09T14:55:19","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T19:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1657"},"modified":"2017-05-09T14:55:19","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T19:55:19","slug":"moving-addison-forward-remaining-vigilant-and-seeking-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/truthinaddison.com\/?page_id=1657","title":{"rendered":"Moving Addison Forward, Remaining Vigilant and Seeking the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moving Addison Forward,<\/strong>
\nRemaining Vigilant and Seeking the Truth<\/strong>
\nFormer Addison Councilmember (1992-1999)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Next Monday, Mayor Joe Chow and Councilmembers Lori Ward and Tom Braun will be sworn in. Re-elected Councilmember Ivan Hughes will renew his oath. \u00a0All four of these candidates ran positive campaigns, focusing on their visions for Addison, despite the negative and sometimes vicious tactics of some of their opponents.\u00a0 The seating of Mayor Joe Chow and the new councilmembers will return Addison to a council of seven people who will work together with the best interests of Addison in mind.\u00a0 I expect that they will commit to engage in thorough and respectful deliberation, enabling Addison to benefit from their unique qualifications, individually and as a group.<\/p>\n

Addison will no longer be subjected to a mayor who espouses the view that the only acceptable solutions are those he advances or endorses. Thus, I fully expect Mayor Joe Chow and all members of the council to accept the will of the council, even if they disagree with the result.\u00a0 There will be no pretense to any of it.\u00a0 They will have their say, make a decision, and move on.<\/p>\n

Addison will no longer be subjected to phony theatrics or other efforts designed to inflame the public or intimidate dissenting councilmembers. We will no longer have to watch the one-sided faux trials that replaced council meetings on Meier\u2019s watch, where sarcastic, argumentative and objectionable questions were used to punish applicants and staff members.\u00a0 I doubt we will ever again be forced to endure hours of inching through documents line by line, word by word, in slow, excruciating detail.\u00a0 With the end of \u201cagenda by ambush,\u201d all councilmembers will have the opportunity to prepare in connection with such matters, if necessary.\u00a0 Much of it was micromanagement anyway, but what wasn\u2019t micromanagement was clearly better addressed at work sessions.<\/p>\n

I fully expect that there will be fewer meetings and that they will be significantly shorter in duration, as the council returns to the Addison Way: courteous and efficient. That means that meetings \u2013 including their length \u2013 will no longer be used as a tactic or a punishment.\u00a0 Meier used exhaustion as a strategy, hijacking meetings in an effort to undermine the council\u2019s ability to act, or to force or prevent a certain result.\u00a0 This discouraged the participation of other councilmembers, which was clearly part of Meier\u2019s plan to consolidate his power.\u00a0 It was improper and a poor model of governance.\u00a0 You won\u2019t see it from Mayor Chow or any other councilmember.\u00a0 I expect that they will recognize that council meetings are expensive propositions involving not only the council, but also staff members, applicants and the public, and the time of all participating should be respected and used judiciously.<\/p>\n

Council meetings will once again be about substance, rather than being a big show for the cameras. Agendas will focus on REAL issues Addison needs to address and resolve, not on phony issues that are in reality setups for deceitful political campaigns, such as we saw with the Kanter debacle in 2016.\u00a0 Meier\u2019s empty, self-serving claims of transparency will be replaced with real transparency.\u00a0 True transparency.\u00a0 Honest transparency.\u00a0 Sincere transparency.\u00a0 Fostered and nurtured by a true belief in transparency.<\/p>\n

And, with fewer, more efficient meetings, the staff will have more time to actually do their jobs. They can also expect far less interference and micromanagement, as this council works to restore the city manager-council form of government that our Charter established, but that Meier ignored.<\/p>\n

In other words, this council will return TRUTH to ADDISON, which places us squarely on a path back to the Addison Way.<\/p>\n

But there is much work to do, and part of that involves understanding how Addison allowed itself to be victimized by a heavy-handed, lawless mayor. Even as his six years was coming to a conclusion, Meier shamefully used Addison\u2019s email list to circulate false and misleading information in an effort to harm Mayor Joe Chow\u2019s candidacy.\u00a0 Part of that included instigating some type of investigation by the Dallas District Attorney, despite the council\u2019s decision not to proceed.\u00a0 Even when the DA had concluded, as Addison\u2019s council had, that nothing untoward had occurred, Meier persisted.\u00a0 And, in the end, Meier did nothing to retract the misinformation he had circulated.<\/p>\n

We cannot let such conduct stand. It was nothing less than an effort to subvert our government by influencing voters with false information.\u00a0 We need to have a clear understanding of how that happened.\u00a0 Indeed, for many years, Meier has been the proverbial \u201clowest common denominator,\u201d demonstrating the harm that can be done by one lawless person unbounded by any sense of decency.\u00a0 We need to learn our lesson, and that means understanding how the train got off the tracks in the first place.\u00a0 This will enable us to act to ensure that it never happens again.<\/p>\n

We also cannot lose sight of the fact that Mayor Joe Chow\u2019s opponent and the other candidates Meier supported did not condemn Meier\u2019s tactics. Indeed, the same people who funded negative and vicious mailers attacking Joe Chow and others were also financial supporters of Joe Chow\u2019s opponent and other losing candidates.\u00a0 The fact that their tactics were not condemned by their candidates confirms that their conduct was met with approval.\u00a0 But then, what should we have expected, given that Joe Chow\u2019s opponent at one point advocated vandalizing Joe Chow\u2019s political signs on the premise that they had been improperly placed on private property, an accusation with no basis in fact.\u00a0 And, while Joe Chow\u2019s opponent posted a conciliatory message after the election, to my knowledge it was never delivered in person.\u00a0 That was disappointing, but may also suggest that the posting was simply for show.<\/p>\n

The year of attacks on the councilmembers who were elected in 2016 remind us that we must remain vigilant, even as this election was a victory for the Addison Way. We will know soon enough whether those who supported the losing candidates will truly seek to bridge the gap and unite our Town, or whether they will continue the past year\u2019s constant sniping against anyone and anything not Meier-endorsed. Will they accept and embrace a government that operates as our Charter envisions, which will surely be very different from the theatrics of the last few years?\u00a0 Time will tell.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we have thankfully elected a mayor and new councilmembers who truly believe in the Addison Way. With our support, they will now have a real opportunity to start the healing process for Addison.<\/p>\n

And with their pledge to work hard for our Town, we now start down the road to ensuring that ALL IS FINALLY AND TRULY WELL IN ADDISON.<\/p>\n

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