During the second half of June 08, I had the opportunity to take a close look at the Dallas City Council. On June 18th, they were briefed on the proposed changes to the Dallas City Code, Chapter 7 “Animals”. On June 25th, the City Council voted and passed these proposed changes. This effort was championed by Dr. Elba Garcia and supported by 9 Council Members and Mayor Leppert. There were 2 council members absent for the vote and 3 council members that voted against the proposed changes. One Council member that voted against was Mr. Sheffie Kadane.
Please remember the thoughts that follow are simply my observations and opinion of Mr. Kadane. I wanted to share my thoughts because they are similar to others. And, they’re not good!
During the 2 weeks this proposal was highlighted for the Council, I developed the following 4 opinions about him.
1. Mr. Kadane is closed minded.
On a number of occasions, he was provided with answers to his questions – yet he maintained a position of not being able to get answers. He had predetermined the proposal could not be enforced. He maintained this position despite Ms. Shum, City Manager, and Mr. Turner, Code Compliance Services, advising him that Animal Control staffing would be increased. AND, he was also informed by, the Animal Shelter Commission, “ASC”, a City Council appointed commission. The “ASC” informed him, based on evidence from other parts of the country, namely California, these changes once enacted required minimal enforcement to be effective. Mr. Kadane after receiving this information on several occasions, continued to maintain his predetermined position. AND, he continued to insist he did not and could not receive answers to his enforcement questions. You don’t need to believe me, check the City Council videos and the Dallas Morning News, Metro Section, June 19, 2008, for yourself.
2. Mr. Kadane uses stall tactics to defuse the momentum of proposals that he opposes.The proposed changes to Chapter 7 of the Dallas City Code had been tirelessly worked on for over 10 months by the “ASC”. They developed the proposal after extensive research about other municipalities and counties around the nation; and the action others were taking to combat the ever growing dog/cat overpopulation problem. The “ASC” brought together various interest groups to discuss the implications of the proposed changes. They negotiated and compromised to reach a proposal that could be effective and inclusive of most if not all the various interested parties. At the June 18 and again at the June 25 council meetings, Mr. Kadane suggested the proponents and opposition “get together” and come up with something better. He wanted to table the vote for another “30 days” (sound familiar). Anyone who knew the vast number of meetings, man hours and midnight oil that had been consumed found this to be exactly what it was – a stall tactic! But, for those who viewed this matter superficially, this could have been misconstrued as a reasonable suggestion. It wasn’t. It was a stall tactic designed to put the brakes on the proposal’s momentum.
3. Mr. Kadane is patronizing.
He comes across as a benevolent leader/father figure. He is always friendly and outgoing. Yet, he acts from a position of “Father Knows Best”. His constituents are his children. Acting as their “father”, he sees it as his right and responsibility to act from his paternal pedestal. In Sheffie’s paradigm of representative governance, Sheffie knows best!
4. Finally, Sheffie Kadane is negative and blame oriented.
He seems to prefer to vote no to possible solutions from others. He doesn’t provide solutions of his own. He would prefer to blame others for action that may not have succeeded instead of taking the leadership role of bringing people together despite their failings and differences to produce solutions. Dallas Morning News, June 26, 2008 quoted Mr. Kadane saying, “I blame this entire circle if this doesn’t work, …”. This was in reference to the overwhelming passage of the Proposed changes to the Dallas City Code, Chapter 7 “Animals”.
The voters of District 9 would be wise to start looking around NOW for an individual who will represent them on the City Council. If they re-elect Sheffie Kadane they will be re-electing someone wants to act like a shepherd and plans to herd District 9 like sheep, not represent them as a constituency.
