When I started covering City Hall at the beginning of the year, I had no idea what kind of a year it would be. It turned out to be more interesting than I could have ever imagined.

With 2007 nearly behind us, it seemed appropriate to try and sum it all up. Yet I wasn’t sure exactly how I was gonna do it.

The first thing I did is go back to my stories from throughout the year. I started pulling them to build a timeline and soon realized I was embarking on a huge project. I narrowed my list down to approximately 100 stories. Then I started writing a little bit about each story.

So here is the result: a monthly look at 2007’s stories through my eyes.

January

Just after the holidays, former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill announced he was running for mayor. Hill entered the race late and lost several key backers in the South to Tom Leppert as a result.

Laura Miller and Councilmember Mitchell Rasansky took a stand against the city’s tax abatement policy. Miller challenged the city’s policy that a company providing at least 25 jobs is eligible, saying the abatements weren’t meant for large, high-quality developments. Rasansky said the city’s “blanket” 10-year abatement policy leaves taxpayers in the cold for too long.

After two terms on the council, Bill Blaydes said he was not running for reelection in District 10. Jerry Allen ran unopposed for his seat. Blaydes later endorsed Ed Oakley in the mayor’s race and supported Vote No! in the Trinity toll road debate. Blaydes, who has diabetes, cited health as his reason for not running and also said his family and business factored into his decision.

Tom Leppert became an early favorite for mayor when financial reports were submitted. He raised more than $500,000 from Dec. 4 through Dec. 31, and 57 percent of the contributions were for the maximum amount of $5,000. Ed Oakley raised only $75,752 during the same time period.

The City Council was divided about allowing special use permits for dog patios, but it passed with an 8-5 vote. In the same meeting, Laura Miller let everyone know what she knew about smoking hookahs.

At the end of the month, I looked at the mayoral candidates on the Web. The race was heating up, but Tom Leppert, Max Wells and Sam Coats didn’t have working sites.

February

Leppert and Wells got their Web sites going.

Leppert officially kicked off his mayoral campaign in South Dallas. Roger Staubach, co-chair of Leppert’s campaign was not in attendance, but he made headlines the following day when he appeared at a council briefing to help gain support for bringing Super Bowl XLV to Arlington in 2011.

On Valentine’s Day, Mitchell Rasansky exposed a rarely seen side of him, engaging Laura Miller in playful banter throughout the day. “We need to be more cute around here,” Rasansky said. I still can’t believe those words came out of his mouth.

The council moved forward with the Woodall Rogers Deck Plaza, and Bill Blaydes provided the quote of the day when the issue of naming rights for the park came up. “I might enjoy a Cuervo Gold shot every once in a while, but I sure don’t want the name in the middle of the park,” he said. In that same meeting, Mitchell Rasansky attacked City Manager Mary Suhm for not doing more to reduce the city’s budget.

On the final day of the month, Laura Miller said she would take another look at building a tunnel directly to Love Field as opposed to disturbing neighborhoods. Miller and several council members also had harsh criticism of DART.

March

On March 5, Councilmember Angela Hunt told me it was time to get the toll road out of Trinity Park. Nine days later, Hunt announced the petition drive by TrinityVote for a referendum removing the toll road from the park. Bill Ceverha showed up and said Hunt was using misleading information. The next day, Hunt answered questions about the legality of the referendum and why she didn’t vote on the issue in 1998.

On March 20, Sam Coats was the last major mayoral candidate to launch his Web site.

April

Sam Coats was impressive at a mayoral forum at Hotel Palomar. Of the seven candidates invited, he was the best I saw and most of the people there agreed. Unfortunately for Coats, not enough people came to these forums to see him in action.

The council was shown the schematic design for the Main Street Garden Park, which will be a wonderful addition to downtown.

The idea of building a tunnel into Love Field was dead despite Laura Miller saying she was going to take the issue to Washington. I wondered where things went wrong and why someone running for mayor didn’t see this as an opportunity to stand out in the crowd.

Angela Hunt had an interesting conversation with Mary Suhm during a council meeting about a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Hunt said the letter was to her, but Suhm said it was to the mayor. Hunt said, “I look forward to seeing all of the email correspondence that’s transpired in relation to that letter.”

May

I thought Laura Miller did a poor job of selling her side of the Trinity toll road argument when she debated Angela Hunt on KRLD. This is when I really started to question the ethics of the pro-road politicians.

For those familiar with the toll road campaign, you know the name Alex Krieger. If you don’t know his name, read this.

I was very interested in the Hunt/Suhm exchange that took place about the letter. After looking at email correspondence between Suhm and city staff, an effort by city to deceive Hunt was exposed. This remains one of the most highly-read stories on Dallas Blog.

Sure Don Hill is in some trouble right now, but he was looking good when he became the first and only sitting council member to sign Hunt’s petition. It was a little late, much like his entrance into the mayor’s race, but it was the right thing to do. Remember, signing the petition wasn’t saying you wanted the toll road out of the park. The petition said you thought people should be able to vote about it. Basically, it was saying you’re OK with democracy.

At the end of the press conference, Hill told me that Ed Oakley would have a tough time recovering from the controversy surrounding Oakley’s land ownership near the Trinity River.

A few days later, Angela Hunt called Oakley’s involvement in owning property near the Trinity while serving as chair of the Trinity River Committee an apparent conflict and troubling.

That same day, Hunt sent a letter to the top leaders of the Save the Trinity group asking them to stop using paid blockers to dissuade citizens from signing the petition. This was yet another black mark on the pro-road side. They tried hard and spent a lot of money to stop people’s right to have the opportunity to vote on this issue.

Looking back at my mayoral election wrap-up, I’d write the same thing if I had to do it again.

City Secretary Deborah Watkins showed class when she apologized to Angela Hunt.

Sure, my Tom Leppert-Jackie Smith analogy might have been a stretch, but it’s laughable to think how Leppert cruised by on such a vague platform.

A debate between Angela Hunt and Craig Holcomb of the Trinity Commons Foundation showed me another low of the pro-road group.

June

I called the mayoral runoff over a week before the election because Ed Oakley simply had too many strikes against him.

When the previous council had its last agenda meeting, James Fantroy was able to be there and Bill Blaydes ended up crying. Blaydes was also called out by Mitchell Rasansky about a fill permit that I covered in a later story.

That same meeting, Rasansky criticized Ed Oakley for supporting a tax abatement for Trammell Crow, who was contributing to his mayoral campaign. Rasansky also was flipped the bird by an audience member when talking about Opportunity Park.

Leppert won the runoff easily, and I explained why.

The fill permit issue mentioned above turned into a story about the Timbercreek Apartments. This was one of my favorite stories of the year.

The newly-elected mayor and council members sat in the audience as the council had its last briefing. The highlights were an awkward Leppert-Oakley handshake, and I noted a chumminess between Leppert and Councilmember Dave Neumann.

In the new council’s first meeting, Neumann didn’t come across very well. Leppert got the meeting started on time, something that he’s been able to continue to do. His first meeting was impressive.

On June 29, Angela Hunt and TrinityVote volunteers dropped off their petitions at City Hall. Hunt announced that they brought more than 80,000 signatures with them -- the final number ended up being more than 90,000.

July

Knowing the mayor would have the month of July to decide his committee appointments and think about how he’d handle the referendum, I offered some suggestions. Basically, I said not to make his new buddy, Dave Neumann, chair of the Trinity River Committee and instead give it to Angela Hunt. I also said not to fight against the referendum.

On July 29, I got word that the City Secretary’s Office had approved the required number of signatures for the referendum. Hunt confirmed it later that night and said it was a new day in Dallas.

August

Apparently Leppert didn’t think much of my advice as he gave 47 pages of TrinityVote signatures to District Attorney Craig Watkins, alleging instances of voter fraud. As a result of this action, an executive session on legal matters regarding the Trinity was on the council’s schedule for Aug. 1. Leppert canceled it and told council members that there was nothing to talk about.

Just days back from July’s recess, I was already writing about Leppert’s struggles. I citied his poor response to the petition signatures, his stance on the convention center hotel and that he cancelled the committee meetings for August. I wrote, “It appears as though he’s too busy doing the work of the people who paid to get him elected, not the ones actually casting the votes.”

The convention center hotel was a concern of mine and something I was looking into further. The majority of the council seemed on board with the idea. Angela Hunt said she was torn about it and needed more information.

Ft. Worth Mayor Moncrief and Arlington Mayor Cluck visited the council to pledge their support for regional cooperation. I noted that Leppert along with council members Caraway and Davis were doing a good job giving the proper respect to open microphone speakers. Caraway and Davis have continued to interact and give attention to the speakers, but Leppert’s attitude has changed. From what I can tell, he hates the open mic session. He wants to get to the agenda asap, and speakers only take up his time.

In the same meeting, Mitchell Rasansky criticized the use of Spanish signage on recycling trucks when the council was discussing GPS devices at the zoo. “This is America and I’m appalled that we’re doing our recycling trucks in two languages,” Rasansky said.

Dwaine Caraway tore down two drug houses, and he has continued to tear down motels to clean up his district. Caraway then helped oust Joyce Foreman from the DART board in a controversial 8-7 vote.

Caraway looked impressive early, and I also liked some of the things Councilmember Carolyn Davis was doing. Caraway continued his success and while Davis has had some ups and downs, she is certainly passionate about improving District 7.

On Aug. 28, I took a look at two incidents: one involved the County Commissioners and the other involved TxDOT. Both seemed to be taking sides in the toll road campaign, making things look ugly.

September

I wanted more info on the convention center hotel, so I talked with Phillip Jones of the Dallas CVB and Dr. Heywood Sanders, an expert on convention centers. Jones and the CVB are the ones selling this to the council. Dr. Sanders has not been asked to brief the council. When you read what he had to say, you’ll know why.

The council was briefed on verified response, and several council members weighed in on the issue. Mayor Leppert laid the foundation for his support to repeal the program.

At the same briefing, Angela Hunt used city staff to show no funding was in jeopardy if the toll road was removed from the floodway. Dr. Elba Garcia reminded everyone to still be scared. So did Leppert. Dave Neumann also gave a confusing Trinity speech, and Mitchell Rasansky asked a city employee to use city funds in the Trinity campaign.

Dr. Garcia was up to no good when I attended her budget town hall meeting in Oak Cliff. She provided a letter (with the City of Dallas seal) along with other propaganda about the Trinity toll road on the same table where budget information was handed out. Dr. Garcia had this same info on her city Web page, but it mysteriously disappeared.

On September 11, Leppert still hadn’t named the council committees after canceling the August meetings. I called his office and was told he still hadn’t made his decisions and there was no timetable when they would be named.

Later that day, Leppert named the committees. He named Dave Neumann as chair of the Trinity Committee and kept Angela Hunt out of any leadership positions. “ Leppert has let the toll road debate cloud his judgment in a disappointing turn of events,” I wrote. Hunt responded with class.

The council repealed verified response in an 11-4 vote. Knowing he had the votes he needed, Leppert limited the time for each citizen who signed up to speak. He was so put out with having to listen to each speaker for only one minute, Leppert decided to demean them by doing this.

At the same meeting, Mitchell Rasansky and Angela Hunt questioned Mary Suhm’s decision to include gas drilling in the budget.

Rather than bring change, Leppert showed that City Hall hadn’t changed at all based on his puzzling committee decisions.

Dwaine Caraway talked about sagging pants and had some interesting thoughts about the DISD when he appeared with Dallas Blog on KVCE.

I submitted an open records request for some Trinity documents, and the city sent some of them to the attorney general.

The Vote No! campaign kicked off at the Nana. Afterward, I asked Leppert about the toll road and his decision to keep Angela Hunt out of a leadership position on the committees.

At this time, I wasn’t the only one questioning Leppert’s decisions. Consultant Pat Cotton went public with some damning comments about Dallas’ new mayor.

At the first Trinity River Committee meeting, the presence of the Trinity Commons Foundation was undeniable. Dave Neumann showed how little he knew about the project, and I questioned the integrity of those supporting the toll road.

The Quality of Life and Governmental Services Committee was given some scary numbers regarding the number of animals euthanized in Dallas.

Angela Hunt and Sandy Greyson squared off against Tom Leppert and Veletta Lill in a debate in Oak Cliff.

I got back the results of my open records request mentioned above, and it became clear that Trinity River Project Director Rebecca Dugger was working too closely with the Trinity Commons Foundation. I also had an interesting conversation with Bob Stimson. “City Hall isn’t run by the people; it’s run by special interest groups like the Dallas Citizens Council and the Trinity Commons Foundation,” I wrote.

October

On Oct. 1, the City Hall indictments were handed out. The same day, Dwaine Caraway said it was time to bring the paddle back into Dallas schools during a Public Safety Committee meeting.

I ran into Sam Coats at a debate in Lake Highlands and learned he was joining the Vote Yes! campaign.

I spoke with Mayor Leppert after his debate against Angela Hunt at the Fairmont Hotel, and he tried to explain the difference between the Trinity toll road and the recent extension to the Dallas North Tollway.

During the debate, Leppert pulled me into his human demonstration of the floodway. Leppert and I just weren’t hitting it off for some reason. Maybe it was because I didn’t fall for his Jedi mind tricks.

Council members Ron Natinsky and Linda Koop were misleading people in a North Dallas debate. Natinsky’s biggest lie -- that Angela Hunt wrote the ballot language -- was exposed when I confirmed with the City Attorney’s Office that they wrote the language along with bond counsel.

I wrapped up the debates in Lake Highlands, the Fairmont Hotel, Brentfield Elementary and Temple Emanu-El. TrinityVote was kicking ass all over the city. I covered a lot in this post, but my favorite was Dr. Richard Wasserman’s handling of Leppert at Temple Emanu-El.

On Oct. 15, I wrote a story that dismantled the argument by Leppert and Vote No! that $1 billion in funding from the NTTA was in jeopardy. I thought this would sink Vote No!, but Leppert continued to sell voters on the idea that everything was peachy. Nobody cared that he was lying.

The next day, I followed up with another NTTA story. “His integrity has become a serious question throughout this campaign, raising doubts about his ability to run Dallas honestly. No matter where you stand on this debate, Leppert has been caught providing misinformation to the public on a serious matter,” I wrote.

Dave Neumann showed no class when he uninvited Angela Hunt and Sam Coats to a debate in his district.

I watched Rebecca Dugger give a presentation on the Trinity River Project and was floored at what I saw. I asked for Leppert to condemn her, but this was a story that went virtually unnoticed during the campaign.

After losing badly in a previous debate, Ron Natinsky and Linda Koop held one-sided debate at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. I caught up with my buddy Mayor Leppert afterward and asked him about the $1 billion from the NTTA. He also accused me of misquoting him. I promptly sent an email to Becky Mayad, the spokesperson for Vote No!, asking for Leppert to provide the quote. I still haven’t heard back.

Roy Williams, Marvin Crenshaw and Al Lipscomb showed up to a council meeting, and Dwaine Caraway got in a heated exchange with Williams, forcing Leppert to call a recess.

That same day, Caraway announced a partnership with Clear Channel to stop sagging pants.

On Oct. 29, I took a look at Leppert’s claim that fundraising stopped during the campaign and disproved it by including a quote from Bob Meckfessel, who debated on behalf of Vote No! several times. I explored the controversy surrounding trucks riding on the toll road and found out that Ron Kirk’s firm, Vinson & Elkins, was the city’s bond counsel and helped write the ballot language. I also got some interesting quotes from City Attorney Tom Perkins.

November

The NTTA released information related to its recent rate increase on the DNT and PGBT, and its Web site said part of the increase was to pay for the Trinity Parkway. This contradicted a previous statement to me by the NTTA, but as the election approached, they went silent. At this point, the Industrial alternative became the easy choice for the toll road’s location.

I traveled back in time to 2002 to hear some of the Vote No! people sounding a lot like the Vote Yes! peeps. This was another favorite of mine from this year.

The day before the election, I wrote a column explaining why voting yes made sense and why the toll road and park couldn’t coexist.

On election day, I had the same feeling I did when Leppert faced Oakley in the runoff. Therefore, I predicted a 58-42 win for Vote Yes! Of course, I was way off and Vote No! won 53-47.

The next day, I wrapped up the election. Carol Reed and Tom Leppert fooled Dallas voters for a second time, but Hunt and her supporters had lots to be proud of.

When Hunt returned to the council, several TrinityVote supporters showed up. Mary Suhm received a big cash bonus, and most of the council members took time to suck up. Mitchell Rasansky first passed when his turn came up and then ripped Suhm for raising taxes.

One of the biggest injustices by the council involved the pay for garbage collectors.

December

I took a look at some problems with the Texas Horse Park.

The council’s approval of diesel refuse trucks after a previous agreement to purchase LNG trucks raised questions. Those questions were then addressed by the city.

Finally, I wrote a column describing some problems with the City Manager’s Office.

2007

What was your favorite City Hall story of 2007? I’d love to hear your opinion. Sound off in the comments below.

Have a happy holidays!

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