carmage walls commentary prize 2017 entry formsnpa.static2.adqic.com › static ›...

1

Name of Author(s): Sharon Grigsby

Author’s Title (editor, columnist, etc.): Editorial writer

Newspaper: The Dallas Morning News

Address: 508 Young Street

City: Dallas

State: Texas

ZIP: 75202

Phone: 214-977-8855

Fax: N/A

E-Mail: [email protected]

Submitted by: Keven Ann Willey

Title of Person Submitting: VP/Editorial Page Editor

Phone Number: 214.977.8253

E-mail Address: [email protected]

What is the subject/title of the entry? The dangers of loose dogs in southern Dallas

Date(s) of publication? May 10, May 17, June 16, August 28, May 26, 2016 and online editorial from March 30, 2017

Is your newspaper under 50,000 circulation or above 50,000 circulation? Above 50,000

Please give a brief explanation of issues discussed and the results achieved. (This space will expand as you type in your comments.)

Letter of explanation and supplemental attachments included w/email

Carmage Walls

Commentary Prize

2017 Entry Form

To the Judges, Dallas Morning News editorial writer and columnist Sharon Grigsby first dug into Dallas' longstanding loose-dog crisis in 2014, highlighting a pernicious safety and quality of life problem that symbolizes the city’s great divide. It’s a problem in the poorer half of Dallas that simply wouldn’t be tolerated in the more affluent neighborhoods to the north. In 2016, her leadership and tenacity prompted reform. An independent investigation of Dallas Animal Services led to the demotion of the department director and the installation of new bosses. Those leaders quickly began doing what the previous regime said was impossible: Picking up more dogs while actually increasing the number that make it out of the shelter alive. Southern Dallas residents have long said loose dogs are among their most pervasive challenges, yet elected leaders representing this half of the city mostly threw up their hands when seeking fixes. City staff callously minimized the problem. But when a 52-year-old woman was mauled to death in May by a pack of dogs that bit her more than 100 times officials could no longer ignore the crisis. Sharon sought in her editorials to represent all points of view -- street dog rescuers, the often-defensive Dallas Animal Services and its City Hall supervisors, outside experts and the residents themselves. She's written about everything from the inside workings of the Dallas Animal Services to the illegal dog dumps in remote southern areas. Results include:

Her editorials led Animal Commission Chair Peter Brodsky to commission the Boston Consulting Group in spring 2016 to do a comprehensive investigation into the Dallas Animal Services operation. Although this study was announced after the mauling death, the plan was set in motion months earlier.

The BCG report, which estimated the number of loose dogs in southern Dallas at 8,700, affirmed Sharon's reporting.

The Dallas city manager demoted the Dallas Animal Services director in the summer and put new bosses in place.

Those new leaders quickly began doing what the previous regime said was impossible: Picking up more dogs in southern neighborhoods while actually increasing the number that make it out of the shelter alive.

Sharon's continuing work benefits all parts of the city. To grow and prosper, it needs neighborhoods in southern as well as northern Dallas where people want to put down roots and pay taxes. I'm proud to nominate this work for the Carmage Walls editorial writing award. Mike Wilson Editor, The Dallas Morning News

A8 05-10-2016 Set: 18:31:01Sent by: [email protected] News CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK

8A dallasnews.com

EDITORIALS

The Dallas Morning NewsEstablished October 1, 1885

Publishers

George Bannerman Dealey 1885-1940

E.M. (Ted) Dealey 1940-1960

Joe M. Dealey 1960-1980

James M. Moroney Jr. 1980-1985

John A. Rector Jr. 1985-1986

Burl Osborne 1986-2001

James M. Moroney IIIPublisher and Chief Executive Officer

Mike Wilson Editor

Robyn Tomlin Managing Editor

Keven Ann Willey Vice President, Editorial Page Editor

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

A ttorney GeneralKen Paxton recentlyaccepted the resig-

nations of two of his senioremployees.

But while both workersquit the agency, their pay-checks continued. Beforeleaving, they had signedletters of resignation stipulating that they’dbe considered on paid “administrative leave”for more than 60 work days after theystopped actually working.

The first employee’s payments stopped af-ter we raised questions, but to anyone whoheard about the resignations, the paid leavelooked a lot like severance payments to oust-ed employees.

Ever since, the Austin bureau of The Dal-las Morning News has kept asking questions— lots of them — about why the paymentswere offered and whether they comply withlaws appearing to limit the use of paid leave.

Paxton’s answers began with confusion,turned contradictory and have now been en-tirely eclipsed by his office’s rough attempt atbullying our reporter into silence.

Initially, Paxton’s office blamed the confu-sion over sloppy wording in the employees’resignation letters. They had written “admin-istrative leave” but had in fact meant some-thing more like “emergency leave.” Nevermind that one of the employees has alreadytold reporters that she was presented withher goodbye letter already written — includ-ing the terms of the paid leave. All that wasmissing was her signature.

In yet another explanation, while stillmanaging to avoid our reporter’s questions,Paxton’s human resources chief wrote lastweek in a letter to news outlets that Paxton

had granted the leaves out of kindness. Hesaid state law allows an agency to grant paidleave whenever it has “good cause” to do so.

He did not bother to include what thatgood cause was. But then that’s the purposeof writing an op-ed, rather than answeringquestions. If one only writes statements, oneneed not answer any questions except theones you choose to.

Paxton’s refusal to answer these questions— and in particular his refusal to respond toany questions by our reporter — is petty. It’sbad for any public official, but especially theattorney general.

But now the situation is even weirder.Paxton’s office has gone on the offense. Lastweek, the conservative website Breitbart.com carried a piece trumpeting an anony-mous complaint, naturally, from a “high-lev-el staffer” in the AG’s office. The beef? Thereporter has been asking too many ques-tions.

“This is insane,” the staffer reportedlysaid. “It’s like she is stalking us. She is wait-ing outside of both public and private build-ings to demand that we answer her ques-tions.”

The effort has all the hallmarks of theclassic bully boy: an anonymous complaintfrom an official, calling out a specific report-er and cycled through friendly sources.

Paxton should instead explain the unusu-al payments. Were they meant as severancepackages aimed at softening an employee’souster? If so, he should have said so and ex-plained how they comport with state law.

Instead, he’s hiding behind bluster andlame, one-way communiqués. He should beashamed. Voters should take note.

Meanwhile, our reporters will keep doingtheir jobs. We hope he learns to do his.

Ken Paxton, Stop BullyingBetter to simply answer our reporter’s questions

E nforce the laws. Pick up loose dogs.This newspaper has been hammer-

ing that point for a year and a half.We’ve even gone so far as to ask whether some-one would have to die before City ManagerA.C. Gonzalez, Mayor Mike Rawlings and theDallas City Council would get serious aboutcurbing the loose-dog chaos.

Now someone has.A 52-year-old woman died Monday night, a

week after a pack of dogs bit her over 100 times— “like they were eating a steak,” according toher mother.

Southern Dallas dog attacks are not un-common; people there regularly arm them-selves with bats, air horns, pepper spray andprayers.

That’s one of the big reasons that residentshave been pleading for help with the dog prob-lem for years. They want their children to beable to safely walk to school. They want to play,garden and bike in their neighborhoods in thesame way folks in the northern half of the citydo.

Late last month, Dallas Animal Servicesrolled out an expanded remedy: Flooding ex-tra resources into multiple neighborhoods. It’sa stepped-up version of the “hot spots” strategybegun last fall.

We responded — as did many others — withconcern that the plan, like previous initiatives,was long on educational efforts and short on acommitment to catch dogs and ticket irre-sponsible owners.

The horrific dog attack on AntoinetteBrown in South Dallas provides a picture farmore compelling than all the words we’vewritten on this topic.

Now will Dallas City Hall hear what south-ern Dallas residents have been saying for de-cades?

No doubt the animal services operationcould use more money and resources. We’llhave more to say about that in subsequent edi-torials. For now, Rawlings, Gonzalez andcouncil members must respond by puttingway more muscle and urgency into a big fix.They would be wise to take these two actionsimmediately:

1. Come up with a way to crack down on vi-

cious dogs and on people who own them, per-haps even employing the Dallas Police Depart-ment’s help.

That means tough enforcement of laws thatrequire dogs to be controlled and that requirepermits of dogs that aren’t spayed or neutered.The city is far too accommodating of irrespon-sible owners — at the expense of neighborsand the community at large.

2. Get street dog rescuers and knowledge-able southern Dallas residents to the tableASAP and listen to them. They have the bestgrip on this problem.

Remedies keep being put in place with al-most no input from these factions. The con-versation needs to be led by a neutral animalexpert — not someone from City Hall or DallasAnimal Services.

Because of loose dogs, a woman was left fordead. We — and all of Dallas — are waiting tosee how City Hall responds.

Dog Chaos Turns DeadlyIn wake of woman’s mauling, what will city do?

BRIDGING DALLAS’ NORTH-SOUTH GAP

December 2014 through August 2015: Editorials andnews stories highlighted the problem. We took thecity to task for its lack of data differentiatingbetween owned-but-loose dogs and feral orabandoned animals and recommended four thingsDallas could do to stop stray-dog chaos.

Sept. 2, 2015: Under increasing pressure, DallasAnimal Services briefed the City Council, which —like us — was unsatisfied and demanded a plan ofspecific strategies.

Sept. 14, 2015: The council’s Quality of LifeCommittee rejected a second plan from DallasAnimal Services, saying it contained insufficientdetails.

Oct. 26, 2015: The Quality of Life Committee hearda third plan from Dallas Animal Services anddeemed its “hot spots” proposal a potentially goodfirst step.

December 2015 through April 2016: We monitoredthe hot spots strategy and worried it didn’t putenough emphasis on picking up loose dogs.

May 2, 2016: A woman was attacked by a pack ofdogs in South Dallas and bitten more than 100times.

READ our reports at dallasnews.com/stray-dogs.

How we got here

Bathroom issue is a nonissueRe: “Paxton warns Target that policy

may bring criminal activity — He asks tosee rules regarding ‘protection of womenand children,’ ” Thursday Business story.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton haswaded into the noncontroversy regardingbathroom gender usage as the chief lawyerand law enforcement officer for the state ofTexas. He warns that not restricting publicbathroom use to birth certificate gendercould lead the LBGT community to crimi-nal activity. Is there a Department of PublicSafety job for a bathroom birth certificatechecker?

I have never heard about a birth maleentering a female bathroom. I previouslyhave read about this “blatant criminal ac-tivity” at the Rangers ballpark by womenbecause the women’s lines were too long. Ihave never heard about a transgender al-tercation by entering a bathroom associat-ed with their new gender identity. Thereare existing laws protecting us against as-sault, but to date I am safe.

What should our elected officials beconcerned about? If Paxton were a Demo-crat, can Republican Gov. Greg Abbott andLt. Gov. Dan Patrick say they would not bescreaming for his resignation or impeach-ment? What about the staffers who haveresigned and are still on the payroll?

Perhaps they should clean up their ownhouse before cleaning up the public rest-rooms of Texas.

Gerald Bunger, Sunnyvale

Patrick must be a party moleRe: “For GOP, a rocky road ahead —

Cruz, Kasich withdrawals do little to helpclarify fractured party’s future,” ThursdayViewpoints.

I’ve long wondered about the motiva-tions of Dan Patrick in bringing ridicule onboth the state of Texas and the practice oflaw. I suspected that he was trying to makeformer Texas Attorney General and con-victed felon Dan Morales look good bycomparison. But now I see that his aimswere much more ambitious.

If the specter of Donald Trump in theWhite House wasn’t enough to motivateeven the most reluctant Democrat to votefor Hillary Clinton, now Patrick offers thetruly horrifying nightmare of Ted Cruz onthe Supreme Court for decades. Patrick isclearly a mole working for the DemocraticParty.

Merle Walker, Athens

Applause for Humane SocietyRe: “Elephant finale — Performing

pachyderms take final bow for Ringling,pack their trunks for Florida,” May 2 newsstory, and “Keep animal donations local,”by David Boehner, April 21 Letters.

These elephants will be thankful tohang up their circus costumes and head forthe 200-acre Center for Elephants Conser-vation.

Thanks to Ringling Bros. for taking thisimportant and historical step forward.Thanks also to the Humane Society of theUnited States and all the animal welfaregroups who helped make this happen.

I also wanted to comment on Boehner’sletter where he ridicules the Humane Soci-ety. Like so many others, Boehner is misin-formed.

The role of the Humane Society is not toduplicate the efforts of local organizationssuch as the SPCA, but to advocate fortougher laws to keep pets safe and to pro-vide education and support to help shelterand rescue groups do the best jobs possible.

Go to humanesociety.org to see the longlist of resources the nonprofit provides tohelp shelters.

The organization leads many cam-paigns such as ending puppy mills; pro-

tecting wildlife; stopping the killing of ba-by seals; ending horse slaughter, dogfighting and the use of animals for re-search; working to protect farm animals;helping to end big-game hunting andpoaching of elephants and rhinos; and onand on.

They are to be applauded for their ded-ication and endless work.

Molly Kitch, Dallas

Give obstructionists the bootFor nearly a year, I have been observing

the political circus of nominating a presi-dent of the United States. It has been asource of entertainment for me.

After considerable musing, I have de-cided it doesn’t matter who is elected. Thenew president will still have to deal withmostly the same crew in Congress whoconstantly behave like children, so littleprogress is made in Washington.

Someday, I hope the American elector-ate will awaken and boot out those whoserve their party rather than conduct thepeople’s business.

If I had a magic wand, and if I had onlyone wish, I would remove the main ob-structionist, Sen. Mitch McConnell, whoseems to oppose any legislation that maybenefit the American people.

Charles McCain, Denison

Move the Jumble puzzleAs a retiree, I read The Dallas Morning

News cover to cover daily. The bridge col-umn, Sudoku and crossword puzzles areentertaining and challenging, providingdaily mental stimulation. You know, use itor lose it!

Another daily favorite is the Jumble,which unfortunately is buried in the backpages of Business. I suspect most readershave never even noticed it and they aremissing a gem.

I urge the DMN editors to move Jumbleto the Arts & Life section, where it proper-ly belongs. Any other Jumble fans outthere?

Hal Schneider, Highland Park

Americans must stand togetherI am writing this letter as a girl who

was raised in a small town, who is now de-spairingly seeing the world disintegratebefore her eyes. I’m writing as a girl whosecountry is failing her.

Hate, yes hate, among fellow Ameri-cans is becoming the number one problemin our country. Conservatives hate liber-als; Christians hate Muslims; people hatepeople.

We are all fearful of terrorism, but play-ing into the fear and turning it to hatred isjust what terrorists want.

If Americans are in haste to take uparms against their American Muslimneighbors, who seems like the real enemy?This is the plan of the extremists — theywant nothing more than to turn Ameri-cans against each other and destroy usfrom the inside.

I am writing for a rallying cry amongAmericans: “We Stand Together.” Republi-can, independent or Democrat, this focuscan remind us that we cannot marginalizeor berate others, while telling the worldthat we are a movement of the people andthat we are a nation.

We are far from eradicating racism, ter-ror and hate in this country. Terrorism isalways going to linger in our peripheral vi-sion. But if we do not give in to the hostileintentions of our enemies and as long aswe are not divided, we can accomplishanything.

We need to remember that. We areAmericans. We are united.

Haley Cunningham, Denton

@haleycaulfield

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Mike Wilson Editor



Tuesday, May 17, 2016

T he job of effectively lead-ing Dallas Animal Ser-vices is more than Jody

Jones can handle.She has consistently short-

changed taxpayers, especiallythose suffering due to theloose-dog chaos in southern Dallas. Most re-cently, after dogs fatally mauled a South Dallaswoman, this newspaper talked to dozens of oth-er residents who lived to tell of their own chillingencounters with loose and stray animals.

Among the reasons Jones must go:

1 She has stubbornly maintained faith in com-munity outreach as the solution to the loose-

dog problem. Only under intense pressure didshe sign on to a strategy late last year that mod-estly increased enforcement. Even last month’sexpansion of that plan emphasized educationalefforts far more than a commitment to pick updogs and ticket irresponsible owners.

2 Since the deadly May 2 attack, communica-tion from Jones and Dallas Animal Servic-

es has been heartless and wrongheaded.In an interview Thursday, Jones indicated

that, despite Antoinette Brown’s death, she be-lieves her strategy for loose dogs is on the rightpath and no changes are necessary.

“I hate to say it, but people die in traffic fatali-ties every day,” Jones said. “I wish we could be ev-erywhere to everyone, but that just isn’t reality.”

City Manager A.C. Gonzalez walked thatstatement back the next day and announced thatDeputy Police Chief Rob Sherwin will now helplead the troubled animal operation.

So how did Dallas Animal Services respond?With a chirpy email blast and social media mes-sage that read: “Exciting news!!! The City Man-

ager, DPD and DAS partner together on a newventure to strengthen services and communica-tion.”

No, it’s not exciting news. It’s news that DallasAnimal Services can’t do its job.

3Jones and her department rely too much ondeflection and excuse-making.

As we wrote in December, City Hall tends todefer to Jones as the shelter and field expert, andherviews rule. In turn, Jones invariably respondsto questions and criticisms about her strategywith “Hey, I’m nowhere near the top of this chainofcommand.”

4Jones has focused on the shelter’s live releaserate— that is, the number of dogs that make

itoutalive—totheexclusion of common sense.We appreciate that the city hired Jones in 2011

withthegoal of significantly reducing euthanasiarates. However, the angst — fed by Jones andsome of her supporters — over what picking uploose dogs may do to the live release rate drownsout these two messages:

■ Most important is the safety and quality oflife for southern Dallas residents. Additionally,many street dogs are dying slowly of malnutri-tion, disease and injury. Euthanasia is a far morehumane end.

■ Looking only at live release rates doesn’t telltheentire story. Say, for example, the shelter takesin 2,000 more dogs in a month, but only an addi-tional300get out alive vs. a year prior. Yes, the liverelease rate, as expressed by a percentage, goesdown. But 300 more dogs were saved. There’ssuccess in that equation.

5At day’s end, Jody Jones is the leader whoseresponsibility is getting animal services

right. She’s gotten the loose-dog issue wrong.

Shelter Needs New BossDallas Animal Services is failing on loose-dog fix


T his is when some outside entity, like thisnewspaper, would call for Baylor Univer-sity officials to make full, public release of

a long-awaited report into its institutional re-sponse to sexual violence allegations against itsstudents.

If you care at all about Baylor, you wouldagree. In fact, you might wonder why anyonewould have to say it.

Sexual assault is no easy topic for anyone,particularly the world’s largest Baptist universi-ty. From inside the bubble, duck-and-covermight make sense.

Yet given what we’ve learned about how Bay-lor has handled — and mishandled — such alle-gations, especially concerning its scholarshipfootball players, silence has long ceased to be anoption.

This is a private university that asks the par-ents of young Texans — about half of them wom-en — to trust them with their children’s safetyand pay for the privilege. The only way for offi-cials to regain that trust is for them to open up.Unassailable transparency.

Baylor faced serious allegations of failing tomeet the needs of sexual assault complainants.They accused two football players, Tevin Elliottand Sam Ukwuachu, of forcing sex; they ac-cused the university of indifference to theirclaims.

In addition to beefing up its Title IXcompliance, Baylor hired Pepper Hamilton, aPhiladelphia law firm with this particular exper-tise, to investigate. Since then, a third footballplayer, Shawn Oakman, and a fraternity presi-dent, Jacob Anderson, have been arrested onsexual assault charges.

The allegations against student-athletes re-cruited to Baylor weigh heavily. Elliott and Uk-wuachu were subsequently indicted and con-victed of sexual assault; the latter would not havehappened without the intercession of McLen-nan County prosecutors.

More and more, Baylor alumni, donors, par-ents and students want to know what kind ofuniversity their tuition dollars and financial giftsare supporting.

Baylor officials had cited the Pepper Hamil-

ton investigation as their reason for silence. Yet,now that Baylor has the report in hand, it hasn’tpromised to reveal any or all of its findings public-ly. Two other schools similarly investigated — Oc-cidental College in Los Angeles and the Universi-ty of Colorado at Boulder — released their reportsin 2014.

So far, Baylor’s findings remain available onlyto a select few. We can hope this is a temporary sit-uation. Baylor’s regents received a “comprehen-sive briefing” last week from the law firm but havenot addressed it. A spokeswoman said Mondaythat the board would act “decisively” on the reportand its recommendations “in the coming weeks.”

Our advice: Redact the names of the innocentand release every page, not just controlled ex-cerpts. This is not now, and never has been, aboutwhich football team you root for on Saturdays.This is about basic human decency and account-ability.

Ken Starr, Baylor’s president and chancellor,used more than 1,400 words in a February letteraddressed to “Baylor Nation” to ask for patienceand to pledge the university’s best efforts. “Trans-parency” was not among them. It must be now.

The Decency of TransparencyBaylor, release every page of sexual assault report

“In addition, it is vital to the integrity of theongoing review by Pepper Hamilton that werefrain from comment and observations aboutpolicies and practices until their review isconcluded. Although it is difficult for us, we areconstrained to show restraint as we allow the firm’sreview to proceed to completion in an orderlymanner.”

Ken Starr, Baylor president and chancellor, from hisFeb. 7 letter to “Baylor Nation” on sexual violence

allegations

“Quite apart from FERPA [Family EducationalRights and Privacy Act]. And you know the mutuallitany, ‘We can’t talk about this, and we can’t talkabout that.’ That is the fundamental reason — weare waiting for the Pepper Hamilton report, whichis to report to the board of regents — we are beingvery cautious about what [we] say.”

Starr, questioned by Fort Worth Star-Telegramcolumnist Mac Engel during an April 7 appearance at

a prayer breakfast

A true leader for Fair Park Re: “Audit: No oversight in Fair Park — It

says city isn’t keeping tabs on Big Tex, otherpartners,” Saturday Metro story.

As a longtime volunteer for Fair Park, Istrongly support its privatization. Thesechanges will require intelligent, creative,concerned and effective leadership. Walt Hu-mann volunteering to lead the private orga-nization for two years is a great gift to Dallasand Fair Park’s future.

I worked with Walt for 10 years on recon-structing North Central Expressway, a prob-lem as thorny, complicated and overdue asFair Park is now. Walt masterminded a bril-liant alternative design to double-decking.Working with volunteers and local officials,he sold the more costly design to Gov. MarkWhite and the Texas Transportation Com-mission. Walt recruited volunteers to con-vince adjacent property owners to donateland, worked with neighborhoods, led a suc-cessful Dallas bond campaign, and just keptgoing at high speed until construction wascompleted. He always credited others and hechampioned people’s ideas.

Walt has been an active leader in Fair Parkand the nearby Jubilee neighborhood foryears. It’s time for the Park Board and theDallas City Council to endorse his plan and tolook forward to Fair Park success.

Rita Cox, Dallas/Lake Highlands

Patrick’s rhetoric is fictionalRe: “Transgender battle — Patrick draws

boos, again calls for superintendent’s ouster,”Thursday news story.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s rhetoric was filledwith untruths as he advocated against theFort Worth ISD policy, which allows trans-gender students to use restrooms in accor-dance with their gender identity. Patrick’s as-sertion about student safety is fictional.There simply is no record in Texas or the U.S.of gender-identity protections being used toharm others in restrooms. What is not fic-tional is the psychological harm that trans-gender students experience in schools on aregular basis.

Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Net-work’s “Harsh Realities: The Experiences ofTransgender Youth in Our Nation’s Schools”reports:

1. Ninety percent of transgender studentsheard derogatory remarks sometimes, oftenor frequently in school.

2. Fifty-five percent of transgender stu-dents have been physically harassed (pushedor shoved) in school.

3. Almost half of all transgender studentshave skipped a class or a day of school in thepast month because they felt unsafe or un-comfortable.

In addition to causing psychological harmand impeding academic achievement, suchanti-transgender policies are unlawful. Allstudents deserve welcoming and inclusivelearning environments regardless of theirimmutable characteristics or background.

Roberta S. Clark, Dallas

Take others’ rights into accountThere are many like me who oppose the

notion that a man can simply decide one dayto be a woman, casually stroll into the ladies’room, and expect all of the ladies to checktheir sensibilities at the door. The sensibili-ties of a majority are trivialized for those of avery few. It is not just about the creepy bath-room predator. My daughters would be justas uncomfortable changing clothes at LA Fit-ness in front of Caitlyn Jenner as they wouldin front of Bruce.

But that doesn’t matter in our bizarrelyprogressive culture, because their sensibili-ties are trivialized and dismissed, and mydaughters are labeled as unenlightened, orintolerant, or even hateful.

If a person is troubled or confused about

his gender and wants to play around withtransitioning, then let him. But no right is ab-solute — recognition of that right must takeinto account the rights of others, even if thoseothers constitute the majority who are cling-ing to the long-held expectation that a visit totheladies’ restroom or locker room will not ex-posethem to watchful eyes of a man (a humanbeing with a penis — it really is that simple).

Kevin White, Flower Mound

Fuss over nonexistent problemI must ask Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state

Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, what kind ofRepublican would deliberately run business-es away and do economic harm to your stateand communities, particularly over a problemthat does not exist? Who are the RINOs (Re-publicans in Name Only) now?

Jim Lovell, Tourves, France

Standing up to a bullyThis is a great chance to see what the Re-

publican Party is really made of. Most of uslearned by the third grade what happenswhen you fail to stand up to a bully.

Al Tatum, Dallas/Uptown

How does a stadium benefit all?Re: “McKinney stadium gets the nod —

Voters also back bond proposals in Plano,Richardson districts,” May 8 news story.

A McKinney school district spokespersonsaid, “Our goal is to provide the same great op-portunities for our students that our neigh-boring school districts provide for their stu-dents.”

Just how is this creating opportunities forthe majority of students? Maybe for a handfulwho are on the team.

High school is just a blip in a normal per-son’s existence. This is just town rivalry andstadium envy. Thank God it’s McKinney andnot Dallas.

Kurt Wolfenbarger, Dallas/White Rock

Frisco, count yourself luckyHey, Frisco homeowners, don’t even start

to complain about a tax increase that still putsyou way under the $1.67 we are forced to pay inMcKinney. Pay the $1.59 and consider your-selves lucky that you don’t have to spend $70million on a football stadium that has actuallymade the national news. And the notorietywas not positive.

The nation is looking at McKinney votersas nuts to approve this. It only took about6,000 people out of 155,000 to approve ournation’s new Taj Mahal.

Pat Johnson, McKinney

Bias in ‘hard right’ wordingAs a Dallas Morning News subscriber for

nearly 30 years, it saddens me to see the publi-cation move slowly, maybe even insidiously,but most certainly, to the left, not only on theop-ed pagesbut in its news sections, as well.

Take for example, the front page headlineFriday: “Can a hard-right party expand reach?— Activists seek unity but battle over how farto push on issues.”

The picture that accompanies the headlineshows people both saluting and putting theirhand over the heart, associating these patriot-ic gestures as somehow “hard right.”

To most reading those headlines, it wouldnever occur to them the bias that’s injected in-to those words. Supporting traditional mar-riage is now considered “hard right.” Beingpro-life is considered “hard right.” Having acountry with actual borders is “hard right.”

Will The News characterize the Democrat-ic convention as pushing “hard-left” issues?Will The News focus on just how far the pro-gressives want to push abortion and gayrights? I will wait and see.

George Potter, Keller

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Dallas, Texas 75265

Correction: An item in Saturday’s Hits and Misses about the $50 million fundraising campaign for St.Philip’s School and Community Center in South Dallas misspelled the names of donors Todd and Di-ana Maclin.

Findings are in; now what?

Cindy

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Mike Wilson Editor



Thursday, June 16, 2016

D allas City Council members hadfront-row seats Monday to watch theastonishing dysfunction that perme-

ates Dallas Animal Services.They justifiably panned the city staff ’s

feckless performance.Assistant City Manager Joey Zapata, Code

Compliance Director Kris Sweckert and Dal-las Animal Services Manager Jody Joneswere on hand to provide updates to the coun-cil’s Quality of Life committee on curbingsouthern Dallas’ loose-dog chaos.

The presentation was especially tense, giv-en Zapata’s release Friday of a report shed-ding new light on the deadly mauling of An-toinette Brown by a pack of dogs last monthin South Dallas. That analysis identified a se-ries of errors and lack of coordination amongDallas Animal Services, city dispatchers andthe Dallas Police Department.

We agree with committee chairwomanSandy Greyson’s assessment of the report:“To read all the gaps and all the mistakes andall the failures was just — disheartening isjust too mild a word.”

The documented breakdowns, Zapata’sproposed fixes and the Monday presentationall point to the same fundamental defect: Be-cause Animal Services is buried so deeply incity bureaucracy, everyone’s in charge, so noone’s in charge.

In the jargon of the business world, thattranslates to no one throat to choke whensomething goes wrong.

Some leaders might be able to managetheir way through this muck. But not Jones,which is why we have called for her removal.Both the structure of Dallas Animal Servicesand the person technically in charge are fail-ing.

The positive that emerged out of Monday’smeeting is that City Council members arewide awake to the accountability muddle. Atone point, Zapata, Sweckert and Jones flailedwildly at the very simple question of who wasinvolved in writing their report.

Council members also increasingly under-stand that residents need genuine enforce-ment of the laws against irresponsible dog

owners — “check it off as done and move on”processes.

Tiffinni Young, who has consistently ledthe council on this issue, will work with staffand the Animal Shelter Commission on thelatest recommended policy changes, whichinclude mandating that all dogs be micro-chipped and cutting 311 out of the dogcatch-er business.

We’ll be watching closely to see how thecommission responds at its July 14 meeting.Divided between members who view theirjob as unflinchingly supporting Dallas Ani-mal Services and those who see it as provid-ing oversight, the Animal Shelter Commis-sion can be effective only if it decides to gov-ern rather than act as cheerleader.

Of course, until the right structure andleader are in place, the City Council can cre-ate the very best policies and practices —and still see no success. That’s why so muchis riding on Boston Consulting Group’s on-going work to produce the best possiblemodel for local animal services.

Dallas residents, as well as the animalpopulation, deserve an operation with onepoint of accountability, not one in which var-ious directors regularly resort to excuse-making and using the mistakes of others asshields.

Absence of Accountability Chaos muddles responsibilities at Animal Services

What they said

“When we had a cat stuck in the wall, a cityemployee was put on trial for a felony. But we’veseen nothing happen since a constituent wasmurdered, mauled to death by dogs. I have aproblem with that.”

Dallas City Council member Tiffinni Young

“We don’t have any one person accountable for theresults from all of this. … Is everyone responsible? Isno one person responsible? Who’s responsible?”

City Council Quality of Life chair Sandy Greyson

“The one thing that didn’t feel quite right about thispresentation is that there were a lot of ‘talking atyou’ points. But not a whole lot of ‘doing’ points.”

City Council member Mark Clayton

W e applauded loudly when Texan Lt.Shaye Haver and fellow soldierCapt. Kristen Griest made history as

the first two women to graduate from the eliteU.S. Army Ranger School.

That they mastered the grueling combatleadership course proved that the womenwere capable of handling the same jobs thatmen do in the military.

We cheered again when the Department ofDefense in December finally opened all com-bat roles to women.

It naturally follows that to achieve truegender equality in the military, women, likemen, should be required to sign up for the Se-lective Service.

Sen. John McCain gets that. The ArizonaRepublican and chairman of the SenateArmed Services Committee added languageto the annual defense spending bill thatwould require women ages 18 to 26 to regis-ter. The bill got overwhelming support fromRepublicans and Democrats when it clearedthe Senate Tuesday.

Sadly, we can’t count Sen. Ted Cruz andRep. Pete Sessions among the champions.The Texas Republicans are leading the fightagainst the measure, suggesting that register-ing would just be too much for our women tohandle.

It would force our daughters into service,Cruz said. And Sessions, who stripped theproposal from the House version, questionsthe need for the Selective Service at all. But aslong as it exists, “little girls” shouldn’t be re-quired to sign up, he said.

Hey guys, these are clear-thinking adultwomen — dozens of them voluntarily beganflying combat missions in the 1990s. As thisdebate rages on, more than 200,000 womenare busy serving in active-duty roles. Haver,from Copperas Cove, is an Apache attack-he-licopter pilot. Some women died serving inthe Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

If women can die for their country, surelythey can register for it. Registering for Selec-

tive Service can lead to more leadership posi-tions and better pay — just like for men.

The new requirement would affect some 11million women. Those who turn 18 on or afterJan. 1, 2018, would be required to sign up.

It’s true that no American has been draftedsince 1973. But given the state of world af-fairs, it would be unwise to give up this steptoward readiness.

We urge lawmakers to listen to Texas Sen.John Cornyn and resolve their differences innegotiations with the House. The father oftwo daughters, Cornyn supports McCain’sproposal, recognizing its powerful messagein and out of the military:

You can’t be for equality and oppose regis-tering women for the military.

Gender Equality in Military Women should be required to register for draft

What they said“If women are going to have an equal role in societyto men ... national service ought to be an areawhere they would be expected to register.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn

“We’ve come a long way but have a ways to go. ...Adding women to the draft register advances thatprogress.”

Laura Perkins Cox, a Navy veteranand former Garland City Council member

The Department of Defense has opened allcombat roles to women. However, unlikemen, they are not required to register forthe Selective Service.

2015 File Photo/Northwest Florida Daily News

We live in troubling timesIt is hard not to feel despair when think-

ing about what is happening in our nation.Look around. We have a hate-filled, shallow-thinking, adolescent-minded presidentialcandidate who is, somehow, considered a le-gitimate option.

We have a segment of the populationwhich absolutely refuses to consider thateasy access to guns just might be a contribut-ing factor to mass murders of innocent peo-ple.

We have politicians who are proud of thefact they don’t engage with those who have adifferent point of view. Real science is viewedas an opinion. People care more about “RealHousewives of Wherever” than a local elec-tion that will affect their lives directly andimportantly. There is intolerance beingspewed from pulpits, when the messageshould be about loving your neighbor.

Surely we can do better.Scott Kimball, McKinney

Drone strikes create terroristsIf we want to curb terrorism in the United

States, we must stop drone attacks in Muslimcountries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ye-men and Somalia.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former topU.S. military commander in Afghanistan;Michael Flynn, former head of the DefenseIntelligence Agency; former national securi-ty czar Richard Clarke; and many respectedmilitary and civilian leaders have calledPresident Barack Obama’s use of his favoritemilitary weapon as “ill-advised” and “coun-terproductive.”

Every time we drop a drone bomb, wemake terrorists out of ordinary people, whobefore their innocent family members wereeviscerated, bore no ill will toward the Unit-ed States. “The resentment created by Amer-ican use of unmanned strikes,” according toMcChrystal, “is much greater than the aver-age American appreciates.”

U.S. policy is creating more terroriststhan it is killing.

Hadi Jawad, Old East Dallas

@HadiJawad2

The true meaning of RamadanAs an American Muslim, my thoughts

and prayers go to the victims of the senselessmass shooting in Orlando.

Just after beginning the seventh day offast, we heard this barbaric attack had takenplace. A while later, we heard what we hadhoped and prayed not to be the case. A Mus-lim name appeared everywhere in the newslinked to taking dozens of innocent lives.

The month of fasting (Ramadan) is a timewhen Muslims seek God’s mercy and engagein charity and acts of service to become bet-ter human beings.

Unlike Muslims fasting in this month,Orlando shooter Omar Mateen went againstthe spirit of Ramadan by choosing to planand carry out an atrocity based on hate andlack of humanity.

True Islam requires one to be engaged inworship and charitable acts with increasedfocus during the holy month of Ramadan.The prophet Muhammad taught, “If any oneof you is fasting, let him not utter obscenitiesor act in an ignorant manner, and if anyoneinsults him or wants to fight with him, lethim say, I am fasting.” Taking someone’s lifeis out of the question.

Touba Khurshid, Pflugerville

Keep Art Briles away ... Re: “Return of Briles is eyed — Boosters

push to get suspended coach back after Bay-lor shake-up,” Tuesday Sports story.

Although the public does not know thecontent of the Pepper Hamilton report, itshould be obvious to everyone that the boardthought that the contents were so damagingthat drastic action was required. To the

board’s credit, they did just that in order toget this sad chapter behind them.

Coach Art Briles has the support of cer-tain retired board members and members ofthe big donor class for possibly returning inthe future. I would advise the current boardand the donors to proceed down that pathwith extreme caution. Seems like PresidentDavid Garland has the best long-term inter-est of Baylor in proper perspective, and theboard should listen to his advice.

Briles does not deserve permanent exilefrom his profession, but to have him on thesidelines at Baylor again would be folly in theextreme. It would be a reminder of this chap-ter, which needs to be put in the past.

If the board seems to have overreacted tosome, I would suggest that they erred on theproper side for the long-term interest ofBriles and Baylor. Time for everyone to turnthe page.

Howard Haddock, Rockwall

@HowardH

... protect women’s safety ... Really, do they just not get it? Does any-

one who would even consider reinstating ArtBriles not have a mother, wife, sister, daugh-ter, niece?

If the coach did not encourage the behav-ior that caused women to be raped by Baylorfootball players, he doesn’t appear to havedone anything that would have discouragedthis behavior. Is not the safety of a woman at-tending Baylor University not more impor-tant than Baylor’s football team ever winninganother football game?

But perhaps in a society where violatingan unconscious woman gets a man sixmonths, I shouldn’t be surprised at the con-tinuing efforts to cover up and whitewash theincidents at Baylor University. Will the Pep-per Hamilton report ever see the light of day?

Phyllis Vaughn, Sherman

... examine your priorities What has happened at Baylor is a sad

commentary on the emphasis placed onsports, particularly football, by our society.Art Briles should have never been allowed torecruit players from other schools and pro-grams where they had been kicked out.

Now we have a new fancy stadium whichmay be hard to fill, monetary demands by theBig 12 we were so anxious to join and proba-bly the prospect of higher tuition for studentsbecause our leadership lost its moral footing.

Baylor needs to go back to her Christianroots and every leader, faculty member, etc.,must examine the example they are setting.Thanks to a few, Baylor is going to have ahard row to hoe.

Betty Taylor, Plano

Trump ignores First Amendment Re: “Trump says campaign will bar Wash-

ington Post — At issue is online headline thatpaper later changed,” Tuesday news story.

From The Washington Post regardingDonald Trump banning their reporters fromhis events were these statements:

“.... he said his approach to the presswould stay the same if he were elected to theWhite House: ‘Yeah, it’s going to be like this.You think I’m going to change? I’m not goingto change.’ ”

Two things. As for thinking he will be-come more “presidential,” notice his com-ment about changing.

Second, more than anything, I value theFirst Amendment — freedom of speech.Trump, now by admission and action, clearlyvalues only his free speech, and he wants tocontrol what we know. His above statementshould bring chills to all freedom-lovingAmericans.

Trump apparently hasn’t read the presi-dential oath of office. And it is the job of all ofus who want to keep our country free to makesure he never gets to say it.

Susan Giardina, Allen

LETTERS

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our letters blog





Dallas, Texas 75265

Cindy

Highlight

T he independent assessment by a highlyregarded consulting firm is unequivocal:Dallas Animal Services is a badly broken

operation, especially when it comes to the loosedog chaos that plagues the southern half of thecity.

If City Manager A.C. Gonzalez, Mayor MikeRawlings and every single council memberdon’t respond by following through on recom-mendations by the Boston Consulting Group,we’ll know that all the talk of lifting up Dallas’southern neighborhoods was just noise.

What people who actually live and worksouth of Interstate 30 have known for eons isnow documented with data, much of it num-bers that Animal Services repeatedly has said itcouldn’t provide.

The level of expert research and analysisthat BCG put together in its three months ofwork is phenomenal. City Hall and the CityCouncil now must show the courage to makewholesale changes, not grab on to the easyones.

The BCG report contains this bright spot:The shelter has doubled its live-release ratesince 2011. But that lower number in the shel-ters has come with a high cost: a growing epi-demic of dogs on the streets of southern Dallas.

Some of those dogs eke out a miserably in-humane existence that’s worse than death.Others chase schoolchildren, senior citizensand responsible dog owners walking their ownpets. More than a few attack other dogs andpeople alike, sending them to ERs for painfulstitches and big bills.

In the most extreme case, a victim wound updead; Antoinette Brown was bitten more than100 times by a South Dallas dog pack in May.

No thoughtful person would want braggingrights for Animal Services’ live-release rateswhen the other side of the equation is revealed.

And that’s what BCG has done. The report’score message is that Animal Services needs tobe picking up scores more loose dogs while ex-panding its other efforts by a lot. Right now,nothing is being done on a scale that would be-gin to solve the problem.

To see the details, check out the “What wenow know” info that accompanies this editori-al. For the first time, the city is armed with spe-cific numbers — whether that be how many ad-ditional spay/neuters are needed, or how manyloose dogs Animal Services officers actuallycorral.

Now comes the hard work of overhaulingthe Animal Services operation and putting newleadership in place. That begins Tuesday, whenthe City Council will hear a full BCG briefing.

The “What needs to happen” box provides aroad map for how we believe the city mustmove forward. We support all the recommen-dations, starting with the proposal to make An-imal Services a stand-alone department re-porting directly to an assistant city managerand assuring it recruits a highly skilled leader.

Implicit throughout this report is the needfor a strong manager to oversee this turn-around and measure it against the BCG recom-mendations. This is a weighty list, with numer-ic goals, that includes items as disparate as in-creased field intake of loose dogs and promo-tion of transparency and collaborationthroughout the community.

Given Animal Services’ closed culture, con-sider what a change just this one recommenda-tion would be: Provide the community openaccess to operating data.

The boss of this new Animal Services de-partment doesn’t need to be “an animal person”as much as someone capable of setting up effi-cient systems and managing them effectively.Someone who can create a refreshing culturethat attracts a strong team of animal experts.(The “Missed opportunities” graphic provides agood example of problem-solving gaps.)

With the right leader in place, we wouldsupport the relatively small additional fundingthat the BCG report recommends: Last year’sAnimal Services funding was $10.2 million.Gonzalez asked for $11.7 million in the newbudget. The additional BCG recommendationswould take that to $12.9 million.

If the city does its part, the philanthropiccommunity will need to rally around this over-haul by funding the massive spay/neuter effortthat will be needed in southern Dallas. Assum-ing that donors trust the person in charge ofthis turnaround, we bet they will open theircheckbooks.

But first, city leaders must show the will torebuild a broken operation.

It’s Time to Fix Dog ProblemConsultants bring concrete data; next up, action

Whatwe now know

■ Thenumber of loose dogs is growing in southernDallas: 8,700 in 2016.

■ Dog bites in Dallas increased 33 percent from2013 to 2015. Loose dogs accounted for about 60percent of all bites.

■ Compared with peer cities, Dallas AnimalServices has 45 percent more officers per millionpeople, but animals collected per officer lags by 20percent.

■ Thenumber of dogs Animal Services takes inremains flat, with an increase in owner surrenderscompensating for a slight decline in animalscollected.

■ Eighty-five percent of dogs in southern Dallashave not been spayed or neutered. A minimum of46,000 surgeries are needed annually for the nextthree years to reduce problems.

■ AnimalServices has failed to build strongpartnerships with the three largest private animalrescue operations in the area. Difficulty workingwith Animal Services came up repeatedly as aconcern for many rescue groups surveyed.

What needs to happen

1Follow the BCG recommendations and then fullyfund them. Cherry-picking, especially to avoid

the hard calls, won’t solve the problem.

2Make Dallas Animal Services a separatedepartment in order to assure accountability

and to secure a quality manager.

3 Insiston a transparent and collaborativecommunity of partners, with particular

attention to the largest private groups.

4Call on the philanthropic community to providefunding for a massive increase in spaying and

neutering in exchange for a rigorously tracked plan.

Missed opportunities

Among the compelling data that BCG uncoveredwas that Dallas Animal Services’ partnerships withlocal rescue groups is woefully inefficient:

■ OfthepeercitiesBCGmeasuredDallasagainst,the vast majority have robust partnerships withthe largestprivate rescue operations in their area.

■ AnimalServices has failed to develop a strongrelationship with the three largest private groupsin this area and instead spends enormous timewith more than 100 much smaller rescue partners.

■ For example, the SPCA, which is next door toAnimal Services, transferred 4,000 dogs in 2015from throughout the region; only 2 percent ofthose, or 94 dogs, came from Animal Services.

■ Additionally, nine of the 10 peer cities haveexplicit and contractual partnerships withnonprofits that allow them to transfer activitiesand costs to those partners. Animal Services hasno arrangements of this type.

By the numbers

2,945 dogstransferred to 139 rescuepartners in 2015 by Dallas

Animal Services.

325dogstransferred out of AnimalServices by its five largest partners.

88oftheAnimalServicespartnerstransferred two dogs each.

During the same year …

4,000-6,000numberof dogs

rescued by each of the three largest Dallas-areaprivate rescues.

2percent,or, on average about 100, of each ofgroups’ rescued dogs came from Animal

Services.

Staff Photo

Staff Photo


P2 08-28-2016 Set: 15:21:19Sent by: [email protected] Opinion CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK

2P dallasnews.com

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Mike Wilson Editor



Sunday, August 28, 2016

Demand action on the climateA thousand-year flood in Louisiana. Mas-

sive wildfires in California. Now the reportthat if action is not taken immediately to re-duce greenhouse gases, Dallas is on track tohave close to 100 days a year of temperaturesover100 degrees by 2100.

The good news is that Texas has the po-tential to become the nation’s leader in theproduction of wind and solar energy. Thebad news is that we lack real political leader-ship to curb greenhouse gases.

Recent efforts to reshape the Texas Rail-road Commission, which oversees oil andgas activities in the state, reportedly wentnowhere in Austin. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, uses his position as chair of theHouse Committee on Science, Space andTechnology to interfere with the investiga-tion by the attorneys general of Massachu-setts and New York into whether ExxonMo-bil committed fraud by knowingly mislead-ing their residents and shareholders aboutclimate change. The list goes on.

It’s time for all concerned citizens to maketheir voices heard in demanding meaningfulaction to stop using the atmosphere as anopen sewer for carbon pollution.

Roger Knudson, Dallas

Cover the Libertarians … It is alarming how little attention your

media organization has been giving to for-mer New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, theLibertarian presidential candidate, and hisrunning mate, former Massachusetts Gov.Bill Weld. They are competent and honest,and speak to the hearts and minds of manydisenchanted GOP and Democratic voters.They should be on the ballot in all 50 states,and I believe they are the only reasonable so-lution to the political mess going on rightnow in Washington.

Libertarians are fiscally conservative andsocially liberal, and will work hard to balanceour out-of-control government spendingwhile simultaneously respecting the inalien-able rights of the people.

This is the first time I have gotten in-volved in politics and am extremely con-cerned about the road our nation is goingdown. If nothing is done to stop the blatantcorruption in Washington and bridge partylines, then we are headed for big trouble.Johnson and Weld are true leaders, and arealready polling a majority among active mili-tary as well as young people. Please help toeducate the people about these two greatcontenders for president and vice presidentthis election.

Justin Day, Denton

… They’re the responsible choiceIn an election year in which the Demo-

crats and the Republicans have failed to findcompetent leadership, it is egregious that themedia neglect to cover other parties. I can-not, in good conscience, vote for Clinton orTrump.

I am voting for the Libertarian ticket,Gary Johnson and William Weld. Please givethem some coverage. Let people know thereis a responsible choice.

Benay Weiss, Dallas

First responders deserve respectAs a child in the ’50s and ’60s, I remem-

ber the main stability in our home. It waswhen the Dallas police came to take my dadto jail, from where he could not hurt us any-more. Now at 70, I still wonder every timethe police officers, firefighters and EMTshave to negotiate for raises. Trust me, theyshould not have to beg or negotiate to getraises equal to the surrounding cities.

The Dallas City Council, the mayor andpolice chief should be thankful for thesewonderful public servants. It is amazing howquickly we forget what these great men andwomen do for us.

Elaine Keefer, Dallas

Too many lawyers already Re: “Judge backing law school — ‘I don’t

understand the ABA’s concern,’ he says of ac-creditation flap,” Aug. 20 Metro story.

As one who has long been an advocate forupward mobility, I hate to see scarce resourc-es applied in areas with little chance of suc-cess. That is the case with the UNT DallasCollege of Law.

The biggest resource lost is the three yearsof students’ lives applied to a program forwhich there is little hope of a successful ca-reer as a salaried attorney.

The simple fact is that our nation produc-es far more attorneys than the market willsupport. So, in an era in which the nation isclamoring for more nurses, what strategic ac-tion did the board of UNT take with yourscarce tax dollars? It opened a law school.

The number of classified ads in the paperfor attorneys is approximately the same asthe number of ads for football players. Notealso the number of ads for health care profes-sionals, especially nurses.

If you consider the correlation betweenLSAT scores and passing the bar exam, youcan see that law school is futile for those withlow LSATs.

The public policy that created UNT’s lawschool did no more good for you than didTrump University.

Dormand Long, Seattle

Support law school studentsThe American Bar Association proposal

where accreditation of any law school couldbe withheld if fewer than three-quarters of itsstudents pass the bar exam within two yearsis a direct threat to the recent law schoolstartup, UNT Dallas College of Law in down-town Dallas.

The college is innovative, less expensiveand minority-student oriented. Its annualtuition and fees are in the range of $14,500per year.

UNT’s law school deserves the support ofthe Dallas bar, especially in mentoring andtutoring atypical law students and doing realpro bono work. Assistance with the basics ofreading cases, statutes and treatises would behelpful. Students succeed in law school, pass-ing the bar and becoming lawyers when theyhave specific personal direction in law schoolregarding their legal careers. They becomededicated to that objective. They take thecritical courses, however difficult, to achievethat result.

That’s how three-quarters of law studentscan pass the bar in two years.

Fred Fraley, North Dallas

Don’t burden Cowboys players Several years ago, after newcomer Tony

Romo had just engineered several come-from-behind victories, I sent a letter to TheDallas Morning News suggesting that we re-name the Dallas Cowboys “Tony’s Team”rather than “America’s Team.”

I was wrong, and was left with enough eggon my face to make several good-size om-elets.

For those Cowboy fans who are readyingDak Prescott as the next Second Coming,learn from my premature enthusiasm. Rath-er than renaming the Cowboys “The DakPack,” let’s keep our exuberance in check. Theweight of the mantle that the next crownedprince wears is back-breaking.

Let’s not plan any coronations just yet.Harold Whittington, Garland

A national parks trip? I’ll drive!Re: “Happy 100th, National Parks — Our

vacation memories are tied to these trea-sures,” Thursday Editorials.

If the boss of this editorial writer changeshis or her mind and lets the writer take thattrip, I’m available to be a travel companion toshare the driving.

Dorothy Buice, Grand Prairie

LETTERS

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Dallas, Texas 75265

Cindy

Highlight


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Mike Wilson Editor



Thursday, May 26, 2016

I n the weeks since Antoinette Brown wasmauled to death, only one elected officialhas stepped up with specific changes

aimed at southern Dallas’ loose-dog chaos.That leader is City Council member Tiffin-

ni Young, whose district includes the SouthDallas neighborhood where the attack oc-curred. A very frustrated Young sent CityManager A.C. Gonzalez a memo lastWednesday outlining eight reasonable strat-egies and expressing a level of outrage thatthis newspaper wholeheartedly appreciates:

“It is beyond comprehension and utterlyembarrassing that this world-renowned cityis faced with the recent tragedy of a dog-mauling death due to failed enforcementpolicy. We cannot and will not wait any lon-ger.”

Hurray for Young.For more than a year, we’ve called for a

strategy that relies more on dog-catchingand ticket-writing. Yes, pet-owner educationshould be part of the mix. And no, Dallas An-imal Services isn’t the only city operationthat deserves blame in the recent maulingdeath.

But director Jody Jones’ lack of enthusi-asm for picking up loose dogs and inability toeffectively mobilize in times of crisis are twoof the reasons we wrote last week that this jobis more than she can handle.

It’s been baffling to see so many City Coun-cil members go into a radio silence since ourcall — particularly those who have raisedquestions about Jones’ performance in thepast.

But not Young. She has never backeddown from the message — which she voicedin her first Quality of Life Committee meet-ing last year — that the loose-dogs epidemicis unacceptable and must be fixed.

When we talked to her Tuesday, she wasstill waiting to hear anything back from Gon-zalez regarding her call to action.

Young’s memo contained the same mes-sage we’ve been sending: Because this is asouthern-Dallas-specific problem, it’s onethat’s been long complained about but neverresolved.

As she told us Tuesday, “We are suffering,our neighborhoods are suffering, in southernDallas. And we are at the point we’re at today

because of the piling on of years of injustice.”Monday, the same day a deputy police

chief began the job of helping lead DallasAnimal Services, a pair of loose dogs bit aman in an east Oak Cliff neighborhood andthreatened two officers before finally beingcaptured.

These kinds of attacks aren’t new; theyjust didn’t get much attention until now.

Young vows that her voice will only getlouder. And she notes that some of the othersouthern Dallas council members — Caro-lyn Arnold, Rickey Callahan, Casey Thomasand Erik Wilson — agree that they mustband together. Likewise, several northernDallas council members want to help.

Young has our backing, too. It’s too badthat what she doesn’t have is the support ofthose northern Dallas residents who believeDallas Animal Services is working just fine.It mostly is — if you live north of Interstate30.

Two Dogged LeadersCouncil’s Young is only elected official with a plan

Staff Photo

Council member Tiffinni Young’s requested policychanges include:

■ Required microchipping of pets

■ Enhanced and more stringent penalties fornoncompliant owners

■ Required partnership between 311, Dallas policeand Dallas Animal Services

■ Improved training and quality control for 311operators

■ Appointment of a dog czar focused on straydogs and animal cruelty

■ Creation of a loose-animal force focused solelyon rescuing stray animals


H ow does Dallas solve its loose-dogproblems and achieve the goal of be-coming a no-kill city?

That’s the question animal commissionchairman Peter Brodsky is putting in front ofthe top-notch consulting firm BCG. The as-signment is to talk to residents and expertsalike, both in North Texas and across the na-tion, to produce a comprehensive strategy forthe best-possible animal services operation.

This newspaper has consistently made thecase that City Hall’s approach is broken —whether in regard to the loose-dog chaos thatsouthern neighborhoods suffer from or issuesof animal abuse citywide. But we respect thefact that wide disagreement and emotion per-colate through the debate.

That’s why we welcome the chance for asmart, strategic team, a global managementgroup that is independent and outside “dogpolitics,” to provide answers.

The city’s residents — and its animals — arefortunate to get this level of expertise. BCG,Boston Consulting Group, regularly createsstrategies for Fortune 500 companies; it’s do-ing this animal services work at a discount be-cause it recognizes how important it is to getthis operation right.

Among the best news is that residents canexpect not only first-class work but also a rela-tively quick turnaround. The Dallas BCG of-fice will begin tackling the project next month,and Brodsky hopes the 11-week study will beready for City Council consideration by Sep-tember.

Excuse the pun, but it’s not overstated to sayBrodsky has worked like a dog on this projectsince taking the animal commission chair inOctober. As he began talking to every personhe thought he might learn from, he realizedtwo things:

1. Few people agreed on the problems, thecauses or the solutions that bedevil Dallas Ani-

mal Services.2. Almost everyone questioned whether the

current structure of the animal services opera-tion will ever allow success.

From there naturally flowed urgency for aholistic view; put another way, the need to takeout a blank sheet of paper and design the bestpossible model.

That’s where BCG comes in, thanks to thegenerosity of groups that include the Mead-ows Foundation, the Dallas Foundation, theRees-Jones Foundation, George and FayYoung Foundation and Communities Founda-tion of Texas as well as the SPCA of Texas andthe Dallas Companion Animal Project.

While no doubt it didn’t hurt Brodsky’scause that he serves as Mayor Mike Rawlings’animal board appointee, this is a private initia-tive, separate from City Hall and the commis-sion.

That wall in funding and reporting struc-ture provides the comprehensive planningprocess even more credibility. Not to mentionBrodsky’s reputation for being an honest bro-ker.

Now it’s critical that the BCG work betransparent and welcoming to all.

Brodsky assures us that it will be. “We in-tend this effort to fully engage with people, totalk to the community, animal experts, to de-termine what strategies have worked in othercities and how those might apply in Dallas.”

September can’t get here fast enough.

Commission chief secures first-class animal study“It was clear long beforeAntoinette Brown was killedthat there was a crisis. … I’mglad that it [the study] cametogether so quickly afterthat tragedy.”

— Dallas animal commissionchairman Peter Brodsky

DA’s health is costing the county Re: “Hawk back in clinic to treat depres-

sion — News of relapse renews debate overwhether she should step down,” Saturdaynews story.

I am truly sorry for Susan Hawk’s plight,and I wouldn’t write the following words ifshe didn’t hold such an important public of-fice.

It is time for Hawk to step down as DallasCounty district attorney. Her latest episode isanother example of Hawk being incapable ofperforming her duties. Her depression is in-terfering with her ability to serve the citizensof Dallas.

Hawk has a history with substance abuse,and I’m not convinced that her battle with de-pression is the only battle going on. It’s hard totell, though, because the DA’s office has beenintentionally vague when it comes to state-ments regarding her leaves of absence. I’mnot sure if they’re protecting her privacy orher political career.

We have the right to question our officialsand call them to account. The DA has theright to set trials, an awesome power indeed.It demands temperance and equanimity.

Hawk may need to focus more on helpingherself at this time, but she shouldn’t do it atthe expense of the county any longer.

Jason Nancarrow, Dallas/Lake Highlands

Postmaster addresses dog issuesMore than 6,500 letter carriers nation-

wide were attacked last year, 57 in Dallas. TheDallas postmaster and a Dallas post office let-ter carrier recently addressed the Dallas CityCouncil to bring more attention to one of thenation’s most commonly reported publichealth problems — dog attacks and bites.

We’d like to share these tips on preventingdog attacks.

1. If a letter carrier delivers mail or packag-es to your front door, place your dog in a sepa-rate room and close that door before openingthe front door. Dogs have been known toburst through screen doors or plate-glasswindows to get at strangers.

2. Dog owners should keep the family dogsecured. Parents should remind their chil-dren not to take mail directly from letter car-riers in the presence of the family pet, as thedog may view the letter carrier handing mailto a child as a threatening gesture.

3. The Postal Service places top priority onthe safety of its employees. If a letter carrierfeels threatened by a vicious dog or if a dog isrunning loose, the owner may be asked to pickup the mail at the post office until the carrier isassured the pet has been restrained. If the dogis roaming the neighborhood, the pet owner’sneighbors may be asked to pick up their mailat the post office as well.

Yulonda Love, Dallas Postmaster

Loose-dog problem is pervasive Thank you for the ongoing coverage of the

loose-dog crisis in our city. I check back everyfew days for updates and will continue to doso. In the meantime, please stop claiming thatthe loose dogs are a problem specific to SouthDallas.

South Dallas may be the worst-affected ar-ea, and the community has my full support.Our city needs to act, even if it costs money.But I have personally seen large, feral dogsroaming through schoolyards in West Dallasduring the school day.

In my own East Dallas neighborhood, Icarry pepper spray, and I’ve had to use it.Loose dogs stroll through Casa View daily.Sometimes they are large and aggressive.

My partner was bitten in our own yard by aneighbor’s loose pit bull. We’ve only lived herefor six months, so these incidents are recent.For a collection of similar stories, ask anyoneelse who lives in East or West Dallas whetherthe loose-dog problem stops at Interstate 30.They may tell you that we are invested in this

issue, not just from solidarity with our neigh-bors in the south, but in an effort to make ourownstreets safer.

Jill DeVito, Dallas/Casa View

Keep Cuban out of politics Re: “Cuban on ticket in November? Mavs

owner open to VP slot if Clinton doesn’t mindsome coaching,” Saturday Metro story.

Another arrogant, wealthy, self-promot-ing, business-savvy, political candidate?Someone needs to tell Mark Cuban we alreadyhave one of those. Cuban has already provedhe’s more suited to the American Airlines Cen-ter arena, where he’s adept at making refereehand signals, than the political arena.

Gary Black, Dallas/White Rock

Passengers create problems … Re:“Airport security doesn’t have to be per-

fect; must it be miserable?” by JacquielynnFloyd, Tuesday Metro column.

I was amused reading Floyd’s meltdownagainst the TSA, and her apparent inability toplan ahead. Like her, we applied for the GlobalEntry program, which includes TSA Pre-Check membership. The difference is that wedidn’t wait until right before our vacation toapply. When the date for our interview wasscheduled, we had plenty of time for us to takeourtrip. So, now we face no lines and little waittime.

I will say, though, that a lot of the problemin the TSA lines is due to the passengers’ in-ability to prepare for it. Doing a few simplethings before you reach the front of the linewill make it quicker for you and for those be-hind you. Take your belt off, put pocket itemsand stray metal in your carry-on or in a clearzip-lock bag to scan, pull out your 3-ounce liq-uids, and loosen your shoes for quick removal,all while in line,before you reach the scanner. Ifeveryone thought a little, and planned a bit,the lines would go much quicker.

Larry Mendolia, Dallas/Lake Highlands

… TSA workers unprofessional …Forgive me, everyone is missing the key

point in the long lines at TSA checkpoints. It’snot the lack of employees, it’s the lack of em-ployee skills.

Those specific skills that are missing? Effi-ciency, sense of urgency, effectiveness and fo-cus. Have you stood in a line and reallywatched the screeners?

It feels like when you’re waiting in line orgoing through the screening process, folks arejust waiting until their next break. Thereshould be some sort of specific process to makeme feel secure and move me through quickly.Where is the precision and the professional-ism? Think military precision here.

Idon’t want to stand in line where everyoneis folksy and slow. I want to move quicklythrough the line. I don’t care to listen to idlechitchat either or wait as you saunter to yourpost. I specifically use the word saunter be-cause again, there is nosense of urgency.

Until we have a TSA that is more profes-sional at checkpoints, leadership won’t matter.We will still slowly saunter through the lines.

Perri Brackett, Lewisville

… and let’s end bin shenanigans Re: “Let’s line up according to baggage,” by

John J. Rafferty Sr., Tuesday Letters.Bravo to Mr. Rafferty, who calls for a special

line for all the people who don’t take a carry-onbag onto their flight. This is what I’d like to in-stigate when I have my own airline: Uponlanding, everyone who did schlep on-boardwith a huge carry-on that they stuff into theoverhead compartment would have to remainin their seat until everyone who can just standup and walk down the aisle exits the plane. Un-til then, the overhead-bin shenanigans willjust have to be tolerated, I guess.

Sharon Van Buskirk, Old East Dallas

LETTERS

Walt Handelsman/New Orleans Advocate




our letters blog





Dallas, Texas 75265

What Young wants

Cindy

Highlight

Online only Editorial; Thurs., March 30

Donation to help spay/neuter southern Dallas dogs could change lives

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2017/03/30/dallas-boosts-dog-catching-funders-

respond-huge-spayneuter-help

(Sharing in readable format)

The size of today's philanthropic donation for a spay/neuter surge in southern Dallas is huge. But

far bigger is the reason why the three funders have provided $13.5 million.

While these groups care about animal welfare, they are much more concerned about people.

They want to make life safer and more satisfying for the city's southern residents.

Just as we've long editorialized on the injustice of allowing dogs to run amok in the southern half

of the city, the Communities Foundation of Texas, The Rees-Jones Foundation and The Dallas

Foundation recognize this situation as a crisis in public safety and quality of life.

Peter Brodsky, Animal Commission chair, summed up the donors' support like so: "They are

driven by the desire to partner with the people of southern Dallas, to join together to solve this

problem."

Former leaders at City Hall and Dallas Animal Services tried for years to dodge the atrocious

loose-dog problem — until a Boston Consulting Group report provided hard data in August. Just

three months earlier, South Dallas resident Antoinette Brown was mauled to death — bitten

more than 100 times — by a dog pack.

Since Maj. Barbara Hobbs took over the shelter operation last year, her team has worked hard to

stabilize animal services, put BCG recommendations in place and generate iron-clad stats on

daily dog-catching and adoptions.

With a credible and verifiable narrative in hand, the city could then approach potential funders

with an unprecedented ask: donations for a $24 million spay/neuter campaign.

BCG has calculated that 46,000 surgeries in each of the next three years will flip southern Dallas'

dog population to 80 percent "fixed" from its current 85 percent "unaltered."

Starting the spay/neuter campaign with more than half the necessary funding already accounted

for is a hefty accomplishment.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2017/03/30/dallas-boosts-dog-catching-funders-respond-huge-spayneuter-help

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2017/03/30/dallas-boosts-dog-catching-funders-respond-huge-spayneuter-help

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2015/08/21/editorial-4-things-dallas-can-do-to-stop-stray-dog-chaos

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2015/08/21/editorial-4-things-dallas-can-do-to-stop-stray-dog-chaos

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2016/08/26/now-roadmap-fix-loose-dog-crisis-dallas-leaders-will-follow

Cindy

Highlight

The coalition also made a smart decision in hiring a general manager, Aaron Asmus, who not

only has extensive experience running these efforts but who, coming from Phoenix, is not

affiliated with any faction of the local animal advocacy scene.

Our optimism that southern Dallas will get the help it deserves is also fueled by the spay/neuter

campaign's strategy. The groups handling the surgeries — SPCA of Texas, the Spay Neuter

Network and Operation Kindness — will get the funding necessary to not only

provide free spay/neuters but also allow for a variety of pet transport options, repeated visits to

noncomplying residents and intense education on what failure to comply means.

The importance of an intensive spay-neuter crusade across southern Dallas is no "aha moment."

But what is new is that funders now see a much stronger Dallas Animal Services, one that is

picking up scores of loose dogs while still keeping a high adoption rate. And one that is able to

provide a data-driven narrative of its work.

Funders willing to donate this kind of money expect to look back in five years and see that their

investment changed lives and made a problem go away.

For the sake of southern Dallas residents, we hope this spay/neuter surge does just that.

Big-time fix for Dallas dogs

The spay/neuter surge in southern Dallas will initially be funded by:

The Dallas Foundation: $450,000 over the next year

Communities Foundation of Texas: $3 million over 18 months from the W.W. Caruth,

Jr. Foundation

The Reese-Jones Foundation: $10 million over three years

"Until the residents of our city can walk in their own neighborhoods without fear of attack from

aggressive animals, quality of life is compromised in unacceptable ways. ... We are grateful to be

part of this important partnership that will improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands

of people and animals in the coming years."

-- Jan Rees-Jones, co-founder of The Rees-Jones Foundation

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