Dallas City Drama: When a Non-Quorum Powwow Sparks a Media Meltdown

DMag and Tim Rogers maintain a silly grudge.

The following is an op-ed from Johny Alamo on X.
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Last week, I tossed out a little X post about an informal powwow involving some Dallas City Council members, a few staffers, and Mark Nunneley— a mostly retired executive at Ashford Industries, and a partner with Monty Bennett.

Apparently, this meeting has been getting more ink than a Deep Ellum tattoo parlor, and for what? It’s not like they were plotting to turn Fair Park into a crypto mining pickle ball complex or something. But let’s be real: anything even vaguely connected to Monty Bennett sends the city’s chattering class, and media, into a tizzy faster than a valet retrieving a Bentley at the Mansion. Why? Because Monty had the audacity to back a petition for a charter amendment to hire more Dallas cops —a measure that 200,000+ voters gave a thumbs-up to last November. Oh, the horror! A guy bypassing the usual backroom handshakes and taking an issue straight to the people? That’s not how we do things in Dallas, where anyone who thinks governance should be done is supposed to be whispered in a Signal chat, leaked to a media source, and pumped out through a PR firm….NOT shouted from a ballot box.

And when it comes to the subject of Homelessness, the city’s policies on this subject are an enigma, wrapped in hornets’ nest, and covered with shark chum.

So when this meeting took place, a staffer, informed Paula Blackmon and Adam Bazaldua, who then promptly turned on the video camera, marched to the meeting room, with Adam taking the role of Joey Greco in another episode of “Cheaters.” The video and screenshot look so damning something HAD to be going on!

It seemed to me that these marginalized council members, (sidelined because the mayor recently saw fit not to give them any city committee chairs) were angry that a possible quorum was formed when a 4th member of the housing and homless committee was invited to hear a proposal to move The Bridge, currently in downtown, to Executive Airport and model the program after the successful Haven of Hope in San Antonio. Experts on state ethics said in media interviews that the meeting did not constitute a violation as city business was not actually being conducted. Just information being given. Though the optics weren’t great.

But the fascinating thing to me wasn’t the passionate and emotional feelings people must really have about quorums. It was seeing our local media outlets run something about this candid video encounter in the bowels of City Hall every day for a week, culminating with a big expose in DMagazine.

Let’s put some context here. DMagazine and Tim Rogers have been nursing a grudge against the Eric Johnson since 2019 when he sent Scott Griggs packing faster than you can say “Griggston.” But if you think their beef with the mayor is spicy, it’s nothing compared to the venom they reserve for anyone within a 6-foot social distancing radius of hotelier Monty Bennett. Apparently, proximity to Monty is a cardinal sin, like wearing a felt Stetson in July, or not putting your shopping cart back.

Conspicuously absent from this abused dead horse of a story? Any mention of Mark Nunneley, the mostly retired Ashford partner who’s got a rep as pristine as the glass on St. Paul Place downtown. His crime? Occasionally standing near Bennett, I guess. Lock him up folks and head to your closest No Kings rally. Look, D Magazine, along with Councilwoman Blackmon... and her sidekick Baz,...are milking this story like it took place on Epstein’s Island. Newsflash: it was just an advisory meeting. An informative one, where Nunneley pitched modeling San Antonio’s Haven for Hope…a legit success story…that could be modeled for Dallas. Even Mark Melton, the far-left’s favorite consigliere, sees this for what it is:

And no voting or decision making was done, as evidenced by Zarin Gracey’s displeasure of the proposal in his district to the media afterwards, so clearly, this wasn’t some secret TOMA-violating cabal. Even Dallas News covered that.

Sorry, DMagazine , your “gotcha” has all the juice of a 2 day old slice of Dickey’s brisket.

But let’s ask the real question: why is D Magazine obsessing over this non-story while City Hall’s actual messes get a free pass? ....Like, say, the OIG office imploding (3 OIG’s in as many months) under mismanagement by Baz & council

—ethics complaints piling up like unpaid parking tickets. (Ironically, that office is the purview of such ethics concerns over quorum violations.) Or all the affordable housing projects that vanish into a black hole of PowerPoint slides and council briefings, with nothing to show but shrugs, excuses, and a hole in the budget (where does all that money go anyway?) Whatever happened to Tim Rogers’ old crusade to dredge White Rock Lake? Guess that’s less sexy now than chasing Monty Bennett’s shadow. (And Paula, bless her “nonpartisan” heart, could maybe pick up the phone and also charm a few state Republicans to get that lake project moving faster. ...Just a thought.) Or.. how about ACTUALLY looking into Haven for Hope and seeing if it would be a good fit here for the city of Dallas (feel free to keep any scribin’ on that story in that famous snarky aloof tone D is famous for.)

Here’s the gist, from someone who’s been on the receiving end of D’s wrath: they’re basically the media arm of Paula Blackmon’s PR machine, w PR consultant Jay Pritchard and Tim probably all swapping ideas over ranch waters at the Lakewood Country Club. I’m just a nobody who ran in ’21, along with dozens of other candidates that year and they found time to write *three* hit pieces only on me, ..merely for running in D9. Overkill much? And I’ve never seen an article or post giving critical thought to her 6 years of governance.

Meanwhile, Paula’s PR hasn’t exactly been sparkling this year. Her Dallas Park appointee bailed with a double birded resignation letter stating “Unfortunately, my councilperson has taken an adversarial, untenable position regarding the Park Department and has repeatedly refused to collaborate with me as their appointee.” Ouch. No interview with Maria about specifics of the boat house controversy that was an issue even when I ran? Then there’s Baz, pulling a classic Streisand Effect by shining a spotlight on the city’s tax-funded lobbying—whoops, turns out some of that was for Paula’s West Texas property. Awkward.

Councilmember Admits Using City Lobbyist For WHAT?

Oh, and getting snubbed on key committee chairs by the mayor? That’s gotta burn hotter than this years’ Fall weather. No wonder this smells like retaliation dressed up as journalism. So, DMagazine, keep clutching those pearls over a nothingburger meeting. The rest of us are wondering when you’ll turn that snark on the real scandals at City Hall instead of being a clown under a bridge juggling Monty Bennett stories. Your call.

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