Arlington is back in the Cowboys' search for a suitor willing to help pay for a multimillion-dollar, retractable-roof football stadium.

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said he and other city officials have talked with team officials almost daily for the past two weeks. [Less often, but several times for the past two years]

The Cowboys have been scouring the Metroplex the past couple of years for a city with available land and the resolve to help finance the project. The team is looking at multiple sites in Arlington and should wrap up its due diligence in the next two weeks, Cluck said.

"The only thing I know is they're intensely interested in Arlington," he said. [Because he promised Jones your tax dollars and to condemn any property necessary] He said the current sites are in areas that need to be redeveloped but gave no other information. [Senior citizens homes that they spent their entire life paying for]

Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said Friday that the team is talking with Arlington officials. He added that the Cowboys are still looking throughout the Metroplex. [Playing one city against another to get the most money without being accountable]

"We're not taking this matter lightly," he said. "It's a big decision to be made, and a lot goes into it."

The Cowboys have not talked to Tarrant County officials about helping to pay for a new stadium, said County Judge Tom Vandergriff.

The team, which has called Irving's Texas Stadium home since 1971, wants to move into a new, $650 million stadium by the time its lease expires in 2008. The Cowboys have previously considered sites in Grapevine, Arlington and Irving's Las Colinas mixed-use development. They have also talked about renovating Texas Stadium.

The team chose Fair Park in Dallas as its favorite site earlier this year. It broke off talks with Dallas County officials at the end of June, saying things weren't moving fast enough. [The fact is that Dallas County Officials would not give Jones a check without knowing what he was going to do with it - Cluck would do just that if we allowed him to]

Some Arlington officials question the team's interest.

"My antenna is up about us being used as a decoy," said Sheri Capehart, an Arlington city councilwoman. "If Mr. Jones wanted to come here and build his own stadium with his own money, I think that would be a good thing, but I don't know if that's going to happen."

Capehart said Arlington has other needs, including parks, libraries and street repairs.

The council and city officials are trying to erase a $17 million shortfall in next year's budget.

Arlington did help pay for Ameriquest Field in Arlington, the Rangers' ballpark. [Funny how they twist the facts - Arlington paid for the Ballpark entirely] But that decision divided the community and still has its detractors, some of whom would likely object to using public money for a football stadium.

"It's an equity issue, and it's a fairness issue that government money shouldn't be used to benefit one perceived elite type of business," said Arlington lawyer Jim Runzheimer, who campaigned against the public financing of the Rangers' ballpark a decade earlier. "Professional sports just doesn't provide a substantial rate of return to the community."

Arlington officials last held substantive talks with the Cowboys about a year and a half to two years ago, Cluck said. [Substantive is the key word here - how many non-substantive talks have they had in the past two years] At that time, the team looked at land in north Arlington. But that land is now the site of the Lakes at Bird's Fort mixed-use development.

When the mayor told the City Council about the Cowboys' interest at a closed-door session last week, [Was this a legal executive session?] he wasn't discouraged from talking with the team, Cluck said.

"They thought we should get more information," he said.

The city expects to hire a consulting firm to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, Cluck said.

Arlington may be attractive to the Cowboys because it has room to raise its sales tax while other cities don't. If voters approve, the city could raise the sales tax by three-fourths of a cent and generate between $27 million and $30 million annually. That money could be used to pay part of the cost of the stadium.

Dallas and Fort Worth are at the sales tax cap of 8.25 percent. In its talks with Dallas, the team suggested that the county raise hotel and car-rental taxes to offset costs. This plan was opposed by people in those industries.

Dallas Councilman Leo Chaney, whose district includes Fair Park, was frustrated to learn that the Cowboys are looking at land in Arlington.

"I'm extremely disappointed that our county and mayor have not been able to provide leadership to facilitate bringing the Cowboys back to Fair Park," he said. "We've fumbled the ball ... but I feel like we're still in the game."

The Cowboys played at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park before moving to Irving.

Irving Mayor Joe Putnam said the city has had loose talks with the team, but not recently.

"There are plenty of other things out there that have a higher priority than where the Cowboys play football," he said. "We're here if they want to stay here." [This mayor has principles, credibility, is intelligent and his head is in the right place]

Staff Writer Eva-Marie Ayala contributed to this report.
David Wethe, (817)548-5522 dwethe@star-telegram.com

Diversity sought for heads of boards
July 18, 2004
Sally Claunch Star-Telegram
[Comments by Bruce Deramus]
ARLINGTON -
All but one of the newly appointed leaders of the City Council's advisory boards and commissions are Anglo.
Some community activists say the boards do not adequately represent a city whose population is 40 percent minority.
"Our children need to see leaders who look like them who are visibly shaping the city," said Pam Roach, an African-American who serves on the city's Planning and Zoning Commission. "We're becoming satisfied with titles like vice president, vice chairman or deputy. People of color have to be seen as having value other than in assistantship positions."
Mayor Robert Cluck, who nominated all the board and commission leaders, acknowledged that having 20 Anglos leading the 21 panels is not the best way to do business. But he said that a process that began last year will provide for more minorities.
"It will take two years of cycles to increase the diversity," he said. "This system gives us the ability to do more for diversity on the commissions than any other we've ever had. As diverse people come on and get experience, they will get to be chairs."
The all-Anglo City Council has made many promises to include more minorities on boards and commissions. But out of 177 such members, 7.9 percent are black, 2.3 percent are Hispanic, 2.8 percent are classified as other, and 6.8 percent are of unknown heritage, according to the city.
In Arlington, Hispanics make up 18.3 percent of the population, with blacks at 13.5 percent and others at 8.6 percent, according to the 2000 Census.
Last year, the city began changing how appointments are made to boards and commissions in the interest of increasing minority membership and making City Council members more accountable for their nominations.
Each council member is responsible for one nomination to each panel, with the mayor nominating the leader. All nominees are appointed by a majority vote of the full council. In the past, a committee made all the nominations, and the full council voted to approve them.
Roach said she didn't think the council was deliberately excluding minorities from leading boards and commissions, but she said the council is not prioritizing inclusion.
"It's not intentional, but if you don't appoint any, what kind of message does that send?" she said.
She also said the city needs to reach out to the minority community and seek qualified people to serve on boards and commissions, rather than only going to certain minority individuals all the time. She said the city had a black mayor, has a black police chief and had one Hispanic City Council member. The City Council can do better than just those three, she said.
"It's tokenism," she said. "It means more than showing up for the Egg Roll Festival or the Martin Luther King Day Celebration where we take a picture and look like one big happy family."
Councilman Wayne Ogle asked city staff members last week to add a discussion of the lack of minorities on boards and commissions to the council's July 27 agenda. He said the council should set benchmarks [Quotas] for minorities in boards and commissions .
"As a group we need to ask the question, 'Have the individual appointments achieved our diversity goals?' " [No, because diversity goals in Arlington Texas is only feel good lip service] he said. "If not, we should discuss options as a council and make adjustments."
Willie Rodriguez, chairman of the Arlington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said that the lack of Hispanic membership on boards and commissions is tragic but that the Hispanic community should shoulder some responsibility.
"We have to hold ourselves accountable and encourage Hispanic leaders to submit applications and not wait for the city to do it all," he said. "We need to go to the process." [This man is intelligent and obviously accountable, successful without whining] 
But he said the city needs to do its part and reach out to the Hispanic community.
"Cluck, as chief executive officer of the city, he should reflect what he wants done," Rodriguez said. "If he has diversity in his heart, he should do what is necessary." [Obviously he does not have it in his heart - "diverse people" did not come on in the first opportunity to appoint any. Now that it has been pointed out, they will appoint more minorities, however, the damage is done and the real Cluck has been exposed]

Percentages of minorities on the city's boards and commissions / percent of the Arlington population
WHITE:                             80.2 / 79.6 percent
HISPANIC:                         2.3 / 18.3 percent
BLACK:                              7.9 / 13.5 percent
OTHER:                               2.8 /   8.6 percent
UNKNOWN HERITAGE:  6.8
Sally Claunch, (817) 548-5566 sclaunch@star-telegram.com

--------- Forwarded message ----------

From: John Smith

To: cluckr@ci.arlington.tx.us,brunerj@ci.arlington.tx.us,

         burgenj@ci.arlington.tx.us,capeharts@ci.arlington.tx.us,

         mccollums@ci.arlington.tx.us,john3816@juno.com,

         odome@ci.arlington.tx.us,oglew@ci.arlington.tx.us,

         remingtonp@ci.arlington.tx.us,wrightr@ci.arlington.tx.us,

         amn@dallasnews.com,jtrushing@star-telegram.com,

         kristinsul@star-telegram.com,llutz@star-telegram.com,

         mlindenberger@dallasnews.com,njones@star-telegram.com

Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 21:46:33 -0500

Subject: Dr Cluck & JSO #29

One of a series of John Smith's opinions (JSO)

Cluck sent this:

John,

Perhaps you have missed my point or maybe I was not clear enough. 

I believe you have raised some important issues in your many lessons 

to council. I also believe you will agree that email is a very 

cumbersome and inexact way to carry on debates. I would just like to 

delve into some of those points in a more efficient manner. I also 

don't want to debate them, just understand your perspective and 

thought process. So lets please speak either on the phone or in 

person. RNC

Cluck,

I am sorry, but I must disagree with you. I do not think that email is 

"Very cumbersome and inexact" in this process. In my opinion facts 

and the opportunity to verify or investigate facts are extremely more 

important than speed. I am glad that you believe that I have raised 

some important issues. I tried. Unfortunately, you and each of the 

other council members have not written back on the subject of any of 

the previous twenty-something JSOs expressed. I have tried to raise 

questions that I would hope you and the others should considering 

getting answers. I am surprised you would consider my works as 

"lessons". I do not have enough facts to deliver lessons. I only have 

tidbits of information, which appear very true and logical to me, which 

causes me to have questions that trouble me. You are one of the few 

people that have the power to obtain answers. I thought my perspective 

was very clear. I am very concerned about the spending of tax money. 

My objective started as raising questions about the proposed budget to 

find money to avoid a tax rate increase. After that I started working 

towards avoiding future tax rate increases. Issues are what should matter. 

Please get answers to my questions. John  

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 13:43:03 -0600
"Robert Cluck" <cluckr@ci.arlington.tx.us> writes:

John,

Might I suggest, as I have done now for 3 years, that you arrange to meet 

with one or several of us to voice your concerns. This email debate can go 

on indefinitely without resolution. Anyplace and anytime I am prepared to 

meet with you for as long as is necessary, and I am sure that would go for 

all of the rest of the Council. I do appreciate your interest. Robert Cluck

Mr. Cluck,

My response from September 26, 2002 still very much applies. Facts and

the opportunity to verify or investigate facts is extremely more important

than speed.

For example, your comment "as I have done now for 3 years" could be

stated in a meeting without challenge, but with emails, I can look at the

facts to find that your first ever response to me was February 2002, short

of two years ago, much less three years ago. Your first request to speak

with me was September 2002.

I would very much like to deal with facts. I do not understand why that

request is so difficult.

You are one of nine people that can demand facts from city management. 

I wish you would start demanding, because they appear to enjoy dealing

in half-truths and misleading answers. John 

A letter written to Cluck from a taxpayer:

I had voiced my displeasure in the Dallas Morning News about the city council's apparent attempts to lure the megalomaniac from Little Rock over here to build the castle for his empire.
The bottom line is that I believe that we taxpayers really get nothing in return for our tax "investments" for professional sports complexes. Plus, there is no accountability on the part of the council to tell us the truth up front or after the fact.
As an example, I believe that as a minimum, the council owes us the following information prior to a tax referendum and such information MUST be audited by a third party representing the citizens:

7) Who ensures that the city council members do not profit from the venture at the expense of the taxpayers? That is minimal information I feel is required, and if the data cannot be substantiated, then the issue cannot be taken to the voters as far as I am concerned.

Cluck's reply:

Response to Cluck: