Burnt Orange Report

It is hard to believe that some of us were at the same meeting last evening. I do think that "I" got out of hand talking to the chair from the sidelines. However, if you are truly a party chair who cares about democracy, the democratic party, you really want to work with people, you care about your constituency, winning elections, and you want to have a civil discourse you do not chair a meeting that you "THINK" may not be civil without all of your ammunition. Our party chair appointed a Sargent at arms, but did not appoint a PARLIAMENTARIAN? We have had a parliamentarian at every county party meeting since this party chair was elected, but we had no parliamentarian last evening? And, our party chair, by her own admission does not know all of the proper procedures and "rules" (very few people do..). So, this could lead one to believe that perhaps following the rules and conducting a meeting was not a priority.

The quorum, according to the list of precinct chairs provided by the county party office, was reached at about 6:55 p.m. The meeting was not called to order until almost 8:00 p.m. Now, was this respectful, civil, or in the spirit of democracy? So, this could lead one to believe that perhaps respect, civility, democracy or having a meeting was not a priority either.

The whole meeting got off to a bad start when Democratic Party Staff called the police on Democratic Party Chairs to attempt to have them evicted from the property prior to the beginning of the meeting. This could not be accomplished because the Democratic Party Chairs were the ones who reserved the building for the meeting. So, this could lead one to believe that the intent was to have the meeting canceled.

With the history that most people are not informed about and who wants to know everything anyway, the 1 1/2 hour song from Susan prior to calling the meeting to order about respect, civility, etc.. somehow did not quite match the music and the executive committee was very tolerant.

In spite of everything that has occurred since our chair took office, and all the complaints, and gripes about her until last night, I really thought she had good intentions and had just made some mistakes. However, last night was not about party unity, civility, respect, democracy, moving on, and winning elections...it was only about the chair. It seemed she was not interested in knowing how we could come together for winning elections, she just wanted to show "US" she is in charge and not to be questioned or challenged by her actions or decisions. There will be no healing as long as this is the attitude. And, I probably could get a petition signed by 50 + 1 % of the people who attended the meeting last night who reached this same conclusion.

Now, for a couple of asides.

One of the items passed out last night show how much money the county party raised last year and it showed $325,000.00 (or almost that amount) -- then it showed all the places where the money came from and the approximate amount. This came to less than $200,000.00, so my question was (if I were recognized), where did the other $125,000.00 + money come from to make up the $325,000.00? Also, our employees and employee benefits showed to be 52% of our gross and they were $133,000.00 + or -- now, I am not an accountant, but if 52% of our gross is $133,000.00 then our gross is $255,000.00 not $325,000.00. More importantly what does our reporting reflect and what is it consistent with?

Katy Hubener was probably out of order when she spoke into the microphone and asked the chair to "get on with the meeting". She did not call for the chair's resignation. She was no more out of order than the chair. To set the record straight from her mother.

Then, to add insult to injury, our newly elected Sheriff, Lupe Valdez, was encouraging members of the executive committee to leave their meeting-- that was disappointing.

Remember, the Dallas County Precinct chairs petitioned to have a meeting. Our county chair demanded to attend and conduct the meeting -- Okay. But, obviously last night showed she is unable to do so...

Ann Hubener

Does the state party have any power to discipline the DCDP, or at least get them moving in the right direction?

In addition to being a pct. chair, Elaine Wiant is also a former Executive Director of the Dallas County Democratic Party.

Good suggestion Jim D. I think that we need to bring a mediator in to resolve this mess. Frankly, this comes across to me as a lynching, and I do not understand why it is happening.

We did very well this year. For starters, we have Lupe to brag about. This is a huge accomplishment - one that we should be building on. In addition, there are several judges from the other party who are truly concerned about their respective abilities to get re-elected now. Darn it, until now, we have managed to shake the opponents' foundation. It seems to me that what we "got" has been working.

Having said this, here's my concern. By behaving this way we are scaring off a number of good folks who want to join us in this fight. For this, we should be ashamed. It seems like a good number of us left the meeting last night, and I wonder if they will come back.

So, here's my stand. I insist that we stay on the high road - no more mud-slinging - from either side. If you don't like what the current folks are doing, vote them out. If you do, vote for them. Until then, let's keep our cool.