Mayor Rawlings Hires PR Firm

Rawlings cannot use the same firm for his campaign that he hired to represent the City.  That is a gross conflict of interest, and would open him up to even more criticism. 

Sam Merten did a great job, and I'm sure Laurie Peat will do the same.  But, if he attempts in any way to take campaign advice for re-election from this firm,  he'll find himself in a whirlwind of controversy and suspicions.

"... They have a strong understanding of the mayor's office and City Hall operations ..."

Now this is scary, very scary.

Whoa, Sam must have done a hell of a job! Replacing Merten with a whole PR firm huh.

@bvckvs @ScottsMerkin The mayor is NOT a Republican.  He is a liberal Democrat. 

The City of Dallas has never settled the question of the role of a public information officer vs. a public relations flak.  In a Council-Manager form of government, I would suggest neither the city nor the mayor should be paying a PR firm with the traditional role of such a firm. 

Besides, the mayor is not supposed to be hiring anyone.  City employees are hired by the City Manager or other city staff. (If the mayor wants a private PR person, he can hire one and pay him.)

I strongly support the idea of having a public information officer who expedites media access to information about the city and its projects.  But, in my view, the typical role of a PR person for a municipality seems to have more to do with protecting the city, thereby placing that person in the role of someone limiting information and/or shaping it in ways different that the truth.

@bvckvs @sammerten You may not like it, but George W. Bush is a pretty intelligent chap.  He has a Harvard MBA, was trained as an Air Force fighter pilot, and managed the operations of the Texas Ranger baseball team. 

But, he really showed his intellect after 9/11.  Unlike Obama, Bush worked hard, was almost always on time or early, and started work early in the workday. 

Bush surrounded himself with intelligent and experienced people in their own right, and not because they would be stooges - like so many of Obama's minions. 

You also seem to forget that the 1984 Republican National Convention held in Dallas was one of the most successful political conventions on record, brought a great deal of money to the City of Dallas, and has been used as a model ever since.  The people of Dallas, including Democrats, were very supportive of that convention (whether they were in lockstep with the political side or not). 

Your world view seems to be terrible skewed to the Far Left. 

@bvckvs Um Bucky, Im betting Sam knows more about the man than you ever even thought about knowing about anything at all.  How are them warrants going?

@Cliffhanger @bvckvs @sammerten No.  Citizen MIke is also a Democrat.

He IS typical of many corporate executive types in some not-so-good ways.  But, I've seen that his politics are solidly Democrat; not Republican.

@bvckvs @noblefurrtexas @sammerten From history's judgement, it's true.  Compare Bush with Obama, who has never managed so much as a hot dog stand, has a Harvard MBA as opposed to a Harvard Law Degree on Affirmative Action for foreign students, served in the military and trained by the Air Force as a fighter pilot, and was an excellent manager for the Rangers. (And, that's just the tip of the iceberg.)

Bush was a hard-working, decisive, lead-from-the-front leader, and one smart enough to let the Pentagon fight the wars while he and his advisers made policy. 

Bush put together a huge coalition of countries to unseat Saddam.  He personally recruited most of the heads-of-state, as opposed to having his Secretary of State carry all the water. 

The Bush Library here in Dallas at SMU, has already found to be one of the best of all the presidential libraries, and this one was largely paid for by donors. 

Bush frequently makes trips to DFW with no fanfare to greet soldiers coming home from overseas - many of them fired by Obama while they were still in combat. 

Bush is quite bright, despite something of a speech syntax synapse, and his Texas accent,that seem to be a turn-off to the liberal media - and especially in the East.