Team OSD – Page 48 – The Other Side Dallas

August 7, 2020August 7, 2020

Higher Taxes Due

Higher taxes due per the new budget. The Dallas City Manager has released the 2020-2021 budget and it raises taxes by %5+ despite funding Visit Dallas at more than $25M. Other Side Dallas will continue to update.

Higher Taxes Due Now – Change In City Hall and Dallas Police Not Budgeted

Mayor Eric Johnson had suggested a rolling descrease in salaries with city employees making the most money taking the biggest salary hits. The Mayor’s idea does not seem to have made its way into the financial document.

The City Manager’s Office is budgeted an additional $267000 over the previous budget – or almost 10%.

Another major note from the budget is the fact the Dallas Police Department is not being defunded in any way. In fact, despite the multiple injuries from less lethal weapons the Dallas Police appears to be getting more of those dollars. We are waiting for statements from City Council Members at the forefront of the Defund movement.

Dallas Police have a long history of improperly using weapons including less lethal weapons on and off duty. This includes at the George Floyd protests. Community Police Oversight Board member Jose Rivas inquired of Chief Reneé Hall about her use of less lethal force during the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge event where tear gas was deployed despite her assurances it was not.

Budget: Eviction Protections vs. Homeowner Protections

The Executive Summary of the budget states that it will “alleviate financial hardship through an eviction diversion program that connects tenants facing eviction to resources ranging from housing assistance and direct legal services to financial education” yet it is unclear how higher taxes on landlords will make evictions less likely.

Revenue Predictions

It is not clear what basis the City Manager’s Office is using, but the revenue statement says the expect a sales tax revenue rebound in for the year immediately following this budget. This is despite a one third drop in GDP in the second quarter of Calendar Year 2020 nationally.

Additionally, local employer American Airlines warned of 25000 potential furloughs In July and travel is down due to COVID19.

Do not expect much from the Visit Dallas contract either. The proposed budget notes that “HOT (Hotel and Occupancy) revenues are historically volatile; therefore, actual collections may differ significantly from the budgeted amount.” Convention and Event services are budgeted at $85M despite events being forbidden by local COVID19 restrictions on large gatherings.

Higher Taxes Due And Few Services

The full budget can be seen here and Dallas City Manager TC Broadnax’s promotional video for the tax increase is below.

August 7, 2020June 12, 2021

Texas Ram Club Still Confused About Their Cluster

In a Thursday Facebook broadcast, the Texas Ram Club including their Event Chair Nathan Abrams indicated they were still confused about how their Back The Blue event on Sunday, August 2, 2020 was misunderstood at the predominantly African American Friendship West Baptist Church.

They then defended the event by stating Pastor Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes, III misrepresented whether or not they could be there after stating they were late to the “pit stop” they had scheduled and agreed to for the Sunday car parade.

It is not clear if the group made this broadcast in order to respond to media stories, including ours, about the event, but they complain throughout the video about “communities” who are agitating to make this story bigger. They also make reference to unconfirmed reports that George Floyd had fentanyl in his system at the time of the arrest and that is the reason for his death. It is unclear what medical experience Nathan Abrams has other than an oblique reference to his brother’s “medical work” in the US Army.

Texas Ram Club

Nathan Abrams, the Texas Ram Club Event Chairman, admitted in the broadcast that the event “was a cluster.” He also admitted that Friendship West Baptist Church had denied the Texas Ram Club ‘invitation’ to be the eastern pit stop for the event along with three other locations.

Abrams in the video also says his changing accounts of events happened because “the information I thought I knew was different.”

The full video is below. We have reached out to Nathan Abrams multiple times and he has yet to respond.

August 7, 2020August 7, 2020

Dallas ISD Jobs No One Wants Or Can Get

Want a Dallas ISD Jobs offer? One Dallas ISD teacher posted about the district’s need for substitute teachers.

Out of work? Behind on rent? Dallas ISD needs subs…

Edit to add: I thought this would helpful for out of work service industry people – people who would risk exposure to work in bars (but now can’t) could work in classrooms instead. If you are passionate about social distancing OR making lots of money – this is not the job for you.

The reaction has been overwhelmingly negative per a second post.

Comments in the thread include people complaining that they had applied, but could not make it through Dallas ISD’s Human Capital Management maze. This elicited a response that insinuated the poster should consider just sending invoices to Dallas ISD – a reference to the audit scandal that has yet to be answered.

Another set of comments seemed to indicate subs do not make enough money or are scabs because teachers are striking. (Note: In Texas teachers do not have the right to strike.) These comments frequently came from persons parroting statements from GOP politicians that because they do not make enough substitute teaching they should collect unemployment instead.

The final group of posters indicated teaching was mostly babysitting and they weren’t interested in being around dirty children.

“Risk my life for 85 dollars a day in a closed enviroment with children, well known for their cleanliness? I’ll pass.” The interesting part about this comment was the poster states in their Facebook profile they are a journeyman electrician, i.e. why would they be able to substitute teach?

Dallas ISD Jobs

The arguments for or against substituting not withstanding, interested parties can find the substitute information here from Dallas ISD.

As previously reported, the Dallas ISD Calendar is set in stone, but it is unclear if Dallas ISD is regular for the first day of school.

August 5, 2020June 12, 2021

Local Jeep Club Officials Accused of Pulling Wool Over Ram

Did North Texas Jeep Club sucker punch Ram? According to one internal document the Texas Ram Club had the wool pulled over its eyes during the Sunday, August 2, 2020 for the Back The Blue car parade which ended at Friendship West Baptist Church. In a document obtained exclusively by Other Side Dallas, Texas Ram Club says North Texas Jeep Club claimed to have permission from Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III. They did not.

In the document the Texas Ram Club admits they were initially denied as a rest stop location, but claim they later had permission.

Representatives of the group say they initially did not see the Black Lives Matter sign hanging from the church, entering the parking lot from a different direction, or they would not have entered given the recent interaction between the Dallas Police and members of the African American community.

They also state they noticed one driver who was displaying the confederate flag and asked that driver to remove it which the owner would not so they demanded he leave the lot. A second driver was approached about a Trump flag, but left before leadership could remove him. Accounts on scene indicated that there was more than one driver with either the confederate or Trump campaign flag, but those accounts are not addressed in this document.

Ram Club Comments, Code of Conduct, and Screesnhots

This is the Texas Rams Club Code of Conduct and photos from event.

Dallas Police

It is still unclear what role Dallas Police played at this event. Statements from the department indicate they knew this was a potential hotspot and had stationed undercover officers on site.

We will continue to report on issues with the Dallas Police Department as we did Sunday when this event first occured.

August 2, 2020June 12, 2021

All Lives Matter Proves They Don’t Believe It

The All Lives Matter movement proved today they did not believe their own moniker. The Dallas Police Department provided a police escort to members of the North Texas Jeep Club and the Texas Ram Club who paraded their vehicles through the parking lot of the Friendship West Baptist Church.

At least two eyewitnesses reported the vehicles were flying both Blue Lives Matter and Confederate flags through the predominantly African American congregation church parking lot. Additional reports state that the police blocked in congregants who were then not able to leave the area.

All Lives Matter Group Escorted By Dallas Police To Terrorize Black Church

It is unclear what role Dallas Police Department played in today’s “protest” or whether or not anyone on Dallas City Council is willing to take on City Manager TC Broadnax or Police Chief Reneé Hall.

“All Lives Matter” Per Dallas Police

According to one regular Black Lives Matter protestor, Lee Daughterty, this fits history.

All Lives Matter To KKK - Some Just Matter More

Daugherty said in a Facebook post that “…the cops and the Klan will always be hand in hand.”

We have reported on numerous issues with Dallas Police Department recently including the assignment of an officer to teach field sobriety who himself had refused a field sobriety test and appeared intoxicated in August 2019, an officer arrested for child pornography, and Chief Reneé Hall’s own gaslighting of citizens.

No one from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (representing both Jeep and Ram) has responded to requests for comments about the presence of North Texas Jeep Club .

* UPDATE *

Joyce Foreman, District 7 Trustee for the Dallas Independent School District, posted that a protest will begin tonight at 6:00 PM in front of the police department at 1400 S Lamar Street, Dallas, TX.. We will continue to update details as they become available.

July 31, 2020June 12, 2021

Follow Up: Dallas Police Officer Charged With Child Sexual Exploitation

A Dallas Police Officer Charged With Child Sexual Exploitation by the US Attorney for Northern Texas. Officer Daniel Collins has been charged with uploading sexually explicit images of children using the City of Dallas’ employee internet, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

As we reported previously, Daniel Lee Collins, a 35-year-old senior corporal assigned to DPD’s Auto Theft Unit, was charged via criminal complaint with one count of transportation of child pornography.

“Law enforcement officers take an oath to protect and serve,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. “This defendant allegedly undermined that vow, preying upon our most vulnerable. The Department of Justice will not tolerate the exploitation of children – especially by our public servants.”

A complaint is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Collins – who has been placed on administrative leave by the police department pending the results of an internal investigation – is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Child Sexual Exploitation Case

According to court documents, Mr. Collins allegedly uploaded sexually explicit photos of prepubescent girls to his various Google accounts via the City of Dallas’ internet network.

Google flagged the images – one uploaded on May 13 to an account tagged “Dan Collins” and two more uploaded on June 29 to an account tagged “John Smith” – to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which filed a Cyber Tipline report with the Dallas Police Department. In the report, they noted that one of the profiles included a photo of a man in a police uniform, later determined to be Mr. Collins.

A Dallas IT specialist traced the IP addresses used for the uploads to the City of Dallas internet network. Investigators determined that the same Google accounts were also accessed from Mr. Collin’s residence.

In an interview with federal agents, Mr. Collins allegedly admitted to accessing the Google accounts and saving child pornography.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem is prosecuting the case.

July 29, 2020July 29, 2020

DPA President Mata Cleared

DPA President Mata has been cleared by a grand jury. They have decided not to indict Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata on a charge of tampering with evidence in the September 2018 Botham Jean murder investigation.

DPA President Mata and The Botham Jean/Amanda Guyger Case

The issue in question related to Mata’s actions during the investigation of the Botham Jean murder. Immediately after the shooting, Mata asked that a dash cam be turned off while talking to then-Officer Amber Guyger in a patrol car outside the apartment where it happened.

Mata attorney Robert Rodgers said in a statement, “It is a tremendous relief that things like the constitution, law and facts still matter. Mike Mata did absolutely nothing wrong in protecting an officer’s rights.”

During the Amber Guyger murder trial, prosecutors used security camera video to suggest the Dallas Police Association acted improperly when Mata arrived on the scene after the shooting. He is seen leaning into a patrol car Guyger was sitting in the back of and told another officer to turn off a dash cam while Guyger was on the phone with her attorney.

The Texas Fraternal Order Of Police President Steve Stribley said in a statement back in October 2019, they support Mata, saying he responded to the Guyger shooting in his capacity as President of the Dallas Police Association and he had a legal responsibility to request recording devices in a squad car to be turned off as Guyger was going to talk to her attorney on the phone.

The DPA website has no comments on the Mata matter or other recent stories about Lieutenant Brian William Deininger or Senior Corporal Daniel Collins.

July 28, 2020June 12, 2021

STAAR Scheduled, Meaningless, Not Forgotten

The STAAR scheduled tests are on for the 20-21 school year, but Governor Greg Abbott announced that the grade promotion requirement related to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test has been waived. This waiver for tests gives to fifth and eighth graders is only for the upcoming school year.

Typically, school systems must take into account a student’s score on the STAAR test to determine whether the student can be promoted to the next grade level. The traditional A-F rating system will remain in place, albeit with certain adjustments due to COVID19.

STAAR Scheduled, Meaningless, Not Forgotten

Students enrolled in grades 5 and 8 are required to re-take a STAAR test late in the school year, and sometimes again in the summer, if they do not meet grade level when taken during the spring. With this waiver, there will only be one administration of the STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics and reading assessments for the 2020–21 school year. The test will be administered in May to coincide with the administration of other STAAR grades 3-8 assessments.

“As always, our goal is to provide a high quality education for every Texas student,” said Governor Abbott. “This will be a uniquely challenging school year, therefore, this year is about providing students every opportunity to overcome the disruptions caused by COVID-19. By waiving these promotion requirements, we are providing greater flexibility for students and teachers, while at the same time ensuring that Texas students continue to receive a great education — which we will continue to measure with high quality assessments.”

Some will argue with Abbott’s assertion that STAAR provides a “high quality assessment.” There are vast differences between scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test and the Texas STAAR testing bringing into question the test’s overall reliability and validity.

“Parents deserve to know how well their children have learned grade level knowledge and skills in reading and math, especially in a time when education has been substantially disrupted,” said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. “And educators use this valuable information to make adjustments to support students the following year. But there is no benefit to our children by requiring them to repeat a year based on a single test score given the disruptions of COVID, so we are waiving the grade promotion requirements from STAAR this year for our students.”

If the test can be exempted in the 2020-2021 school year the natural follow up question is why not do away with it altogether as a promotion mechanism? Governor Abbott and Mike Morath seem to want it both ways – they want the expensive test – but are not using its findings due to the “challenging school year.”

The new standard may offer Dallas ISD Calendar some added flexibility if the focus is not on high stakes testing. Locally though it brings into question, the Dallas Texas Excellence Initiative which ties teacher salaries to test scores in part.

Lori Kirkpatrick has several webpages about TEI on her website which may provide useful information opposing Dallas ISD’s viewpoint.

STAAR Scheduled Dates

All of the information on STAAR Testing dates is available via the Texas Education Agency website or below.

STAAR Calendar Updated Download

July 27, 2020July 27, 2020

Opening Day Warning: Baseball Brushback For COVID19 Classrooms?

An Opening Day warning for schools? Tonight’s Baltimore versus Miami Opening Day game for the Miami Marlins has been cancelled. How does this relate to the Dallas ISD Calendar? Quarantine cleaning.

This weekend fourteen players and two coaches from the Miami Marlins developed positive tests for COVID19 while playing in Philadelphia. If sixteen adults out of forty can get COVID19 while sequestered from other community members after testing negative prior to the series there is either a cleaning issue or community spread.

While possible, the former seems unlikely, as Major League Baseball is performing daily COVID19 screenings and has access to the best envornmental cleaning companies in the world. That would leave community spread as the primary culprit due to a person or persons not adhering to the strict guidelines for maintaining social distancing and these are adults. How will schools mandate safe practices of children?

As we have noted, COVID19 cases are surging, but Dallas ISD Trustees seem confident that they have the answers with their latest schedule.

Opening Day Warning For Schools

While the Dallas ISD Calendar is currently ready to go for the 20-21 school year, administration has also put out guidelines for entrance into schools on a daily basis.

DISD Arrival Instructions To Avoid Opening Day Warnings

Some school observers have questioned whether or not this is realistic and will remain reality once the school year begins.

July 23, 2020June 12, 2021

DPD = Drinking Performing Duties?

Are Dallas Police Department (DPD) officers drinking performing duties? Several have voiced confusion by the DPD response to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge incident and the decision making that followed.

There are currently multiple accounts of what happened on the bridge from Chief Hall’s statements at the time, City Council Members who have backed her account, and citizen protestors who suffered the attack. A question exists about decision making and who had authority to make decisions. This includes why Lt. Brian Payne, an officer previously arrested in Ft. Worth for a road rage incident, was in charge of arrests on the bridge that night.

Another, bigger, question though is why is does this poor decision making continue to pervade the City of Dallas and its police department. Example? Lieutenant Brian William Deininger.

Deininger is currently assigned to teach the Standard Field Sobriety Testing program at the Dallas Police Department Academy. The problem with that is he was found unresponsive in his vehicle less than a year ago with multiple open containers of beer, not remembering how he got there, and denying medical any relevant medical history.

Granted mistakes happen to all of us and persons are innocent until convicted, but aren’t officers supposed to be held to a higher standard given the position they are placed in daily?

According to one police officer we spoke with, Deininger is an example of the problems with DPD right now.

DPD requires you, as a Dallas Police Officer, to be cooperative in any investigation by any other agency, especially if you’re a suspect. While Irving Police Department may have been doing him a favor or “helping him out” as this commander suggests by charging him with Public Intoxication and not Driving While Intoxicated, it is clear Deininger was not fully cooperative.

The officer continues “Brian is most certainly asking for preferential treatment when they’re asking him to preform SFST’s. Since he refused and it’s on camera that he refused he should have been terminated.” It is unclear why the Internal Affairs Division did not take further action, but both officers and suspects have complained about the IAD complaint process.

After watching the video, it seems clear Deininger is asking for preferential treatment saying he would handle it any way the officer wanted to handle it. He knows the procedure that should be followed – though he may have been too intoxicated to follow it.

DPD Lt. Brian Deininger

This was not Deininger’s first brush with other law enforcement though. In 2011 he was a suspect in a domestic violence case. It is unclear if Dallas’ thin blue line assisted in the choking case in the 2800 block of McKinney Avenue, but charges were dropped when the victim chose not to press charges – common in domestic violence cases.

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge incident may seem like an isolated case, but it appears DPD has an ongoing problem both recruiting officers and maintaining their understanding of laws and regulations that apply to them. They clearly can pass tests administered by the state, but can they follow common sense and make good decisions while on the beat?

The George Floyd Protests are exposing issues not only in May and June 2020, but a longer record of problems within the department that go beyond a singular event or police chief. The question is will Reneé Hall stay defensive about her command tenure or will she work to correct these problems that are evident for everyone to see.