Marcos Ronquillo
Politicians’ Reckless Disregard for Our Quality of Life
“In politics, an absurdity is not a handicap”

                             — Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon’s statement rings true as we witness the series of absurdities that are taking place in Texas today.  Take a few minutes to read about how Texas politicians are prepared to radically change your quality of life.
Legislative Theft:  While the Declaration of Independence guaranteed our right to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, Texas legislators apparently see no problem in eliminating this right by supporting legislation that will remove the power of Texas cities to limit the expansion of fracking activities in their communities. Research studies have confirmed the association of fracking activities with earthquakes, their negative impact on roads and highways, contamination of our air quality and water supply, and harmful negative effects to people who are exposed to the dangerous chemicals used in fracking operations. In addition, many areas in Texas are experiencing severe draught while water shortages and restrictions have become commonplace.  Despite this, our lawmakers see no problem in allowing the oil and gas industry to continue their fracking activities which consume millions of gallons of water and are rapidly depleting our scare water resources. This appears to be promoting the pursuit of misery, not happiness.
The New Western World: Thousands of lives are lost to gun violence each year. Rather than limit the spread of arms, Texas legislators are supporting the open-carry law which promises to greatly expand the number of residents that carry guns in public.  Women are often the victims of domestic and gun violence, while national coverage of questionable police shootings show that Hispanics and African Americans are increasingly the victims of trained law enforcement officials that feared for their own safety. Any guess about who will be the likely targets of gun violence by the mostly untrained gun carriers in Texas?  Rather than seek a peaceful resolution of conflicts, Texans may find it more convenient to resolve their conflicts with guns at the slightest provocation to their personal safety.
Mixed Priorities: Politicians like Mayor Rawlings continue to advocate for the construction of expensive toll roads to alleviate transportation problems, despite the absence of community support for such high-ticket investments and evidence that such solutions can also increase traffic congestion.  Such “monuments” can glorify the legacy of a politician’s career but may serve no useful purpose to a community.  With the third highest poverty rate in the U.S. and deteriorating streets that require an estimated $900 million to repair, Mayor Rawlings needs to get his priorities aligned with the desires of Dallas City residents and spend less attention to glorifying his legacy as mayor.  
Dictating Election Outcomes: Strong leaders are needed in many communities, and many centers of leadership excellence have evolved to address this need.  It seems a contradiction, however, for media organizations like the Dallas Morning News to use the power of their influence to discourage voter participation in local elections by declaring repeatedly in their campaign coverage that these aspiring leaders have no chance of being elected. The DMN has spared no effort to glamorize the candidacy of Mayor Mike Rawlings in their news stories, while also describing challenger Marcos Ronquillo as a “long shot” with minimal visibility.  Do we really need the DMN to dictate the mayoral election outcome, and also tell us that the Hispanic community has a short supply of leaders? Moreover, how much trust can we place on polls sponsored by a news organization with such biased viewpoints? The DMN does the best job when reporting the news, not in creating news that is misleading and biased.
 It is lamentable that Texans have grown accustomed to accepting the absurdities that politicians present to us, even when they are clearly harmful to our quality of life. Such absurdities are made more believable by the biased news stories that we read on a daily basis, and reports of substantial campaign contributions from business interests – often the only metrics by which successful campaigns are judged.  Texas residents need to improve their political and environmental intelligence by becoming more informed about the destructive programs and policies that are being supported by our lawmakers, protesting these policies, and forming organized efforts to remove lawmakers who are indifferent to our quality of life in Texas. 
Lawmakers that continue to support public policies that destroy the quality of life in our communities have lost their moral compass, opting instead to reward their campaign contributors and extend their political careers. Texans should not be forced to be the sacrificial lambs, and our children should not be required to inherit the consequences of these absurd decisions
Is Mayor Rawlings Hiding Behind Inflated Satisfaction Ratings of Dallas Residents?
“Dallas residents generally say they’re more satisfied than people in many other cities.” 
According to the Dallas Morning News, that is the response that Mayor Rawlings gave to challenger Marcos Ronquillo during their recent debate at the Belo Mansion when Mr. Ronquillo challenged the Mayor’s misplaced priorities on the Trinity toll road issue. As Mr. Ronquillo asserted, it makes little sense to make such an expensive investment of questionable value given the evidence that the City’s urban core was crumbling – the third highest poverty rate in the nation, a public school system beset by many problems, and thousands of pot holes that residents endure on a daily basis.  But are Dallas residents really more satisfied than people in other cities?  A closer look at how these satisfaction ratings are produced should raise some eyebrows.
We are all accustomed to hearing of efforts to inflate performance ratings – colleges leaving out the test scores of athletes, and school districts omitting or doctoring the test scores of low performers – all efforts to inflate performance and deceive the public. Although less obvious to the public, opinion polling firms also use questionable practices to distort survey results.   In reviewing the survey reports for the City’s satisfaction ratings, it turns out that the ratings are inflated because segments of City residents who are the most likely to receive poor services are excluded from the surveys. Curiously, for several years now the City has awarded the contract for satisfaction surveys to the same survey company that uses the same flawed methodology to produce the same inflated ratings. Really makes you wonder.  The reports are available to the public for their own independent review.

Mayor Rawlings, you owe the public an explanation about the manner in which these satisfaction ratings are produced. More importantly, you cannot hide behind inflated satisfaction ratings that have little credibility.  The public deserves to get a more reasoned explanation about your willingness to overlook the City’s crumbling infrastructure while you continue to promote the questionable investment in the Trinity toll road.
Does Dallas Need a Mayoral Election This Year?
It’s an odd question to ask indeed, but perhaps not so odd if you have kept up with recent news stories about this year’s Dallas mayoral election. Several recent stories in the Dallas Morning News, for example, continue to praise Mayor Rawlings for the programs that have been initiated during his tenure as Mayor of Dallas, and his campaign fundraising success in comparison to his one challenger, Marcos Ronquillo. The DMN has made no secret about its love affair with Mayor Rawlings, and that a second term would be a piece of cake for the mayor. 

But the stories did not stop there. One rather bold DMN columnist stated that “Marcos Ronquillo has a zero chance of being elected” as mayor of Dallas. Yet another story announcing Ronquillo’s candidacy for mayor was placed next to the Obituary section of the DMN.  Of course, this was probably just a coincidence.

While it may be obvious to the Dallas Morning News staff that Mike Rawlings is destined to win the next mayoral election, I believe that Dallasites are smart enough to make up their own minds about who our next mayor should be. With voter turnout rates at historic lows, it doesn’t make sense to discourage voter participation by telling voters that the mayoral election is a done deal.

The voting public needs to understand what the mayoral candidates have in mind for improving the quality of life for City residents. The subjective opinions of media pundits should not substitute for a series of well-planned public debates that would require the candidates to address important issues in their own words. Once scheduled, the candidates should embrace the challenge and not avoid open debate.
Following are a few questions and issues that I would personally enjoy hearing the candidates address in a public debate:

Trinity Tollway: Is there any scientific evidence that Dallas needs the Trinity tollway as a transportation solution? Are there any scientific polls that tell us whether Dallas residents favor or oppose this tollway? Wouldn’t it make better sense to first upgrade our local streets, bridges and highways which are suffering from a lack of maintenance and increasing traffic?
Education: Mayor Rawlings stated in a recent DMN story that Dallasites “do not value education.”  What evidence allows you to make such a profound statement? How does this conclusion fit your role as the self-proclaimed “Education Mayor?” 
Poverty and Unemployment:  Efforts to remediate poverty and unemployment often focus on helping people improve their job skills, business plans or personal skills. However, poverty and unemployment also result directly from the loss of millions of contract dollars that leave the City of Dallas every year to companies located outside of the City of Dallas. These lost dollars contribute nothing to our local economy. Moreover, the City’s poverty rate is among the highest in the nation. As mayor, what plans do you have for awarding more contracts to local business firms and bringing more jobs to City residents?

Fundraising Roadblocks: Current City policy places a $5,000 cap on the amount of funds that a mayoral candidate can raise from any one donor, although the policy does not apply to the incumbent mayor. This policy clearly gives the incumbent mayor a decided advantage in fundraising. How does an incumbent mayor justify accepting donations larger than $5,000 when it clearly creates an uneven playing field for other candidates?

Of course, the notion of not having a mayoral election this year is ridiculous. But equally ridiculous are efforts by the media that discourage voter participation by suggesting that the election outcome has already been determined and that some candidates have a zero chance of being elected. Perhaps the media pundits can find something more useful to do with their time rather than discouraging voters from participating in important elections.