State Rep. Dawnna Dukes: Newspaper Taking Me On
State Representative Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, led a presser this morning to speak out against a proposed landfill in Eastern Travis County, near the Village of Webberville. She linked the proposal for the landfill with an all-but-scuttled film and music studio complex in the same area. Here's Dukes:
"Why is it okay to put something in a community that a community opposes, but to oppose something that is positive like the Villa Muse development?"
City councilmembers who rejected the developers request to be released from Austin's extra-territorial jurisdiction (say that three times fast) say one thing doesn't have to do with the other, and the Villa Muse debate is quite complicated. The 4-3 vote to deny releasing the project from the city's ETJ came as a result of concerns about the environment (the project was proposed on a floodplain) and losing taxing and regulatory authority indefinitely.
Anyway -- Dukes' support of Villa Muse has been questioned by both the Statesman and the Austin Chronicle, which point to the fact Villa Muse developer Jay Podolnick has given about $4,000 to the Dukes campaign in the last two years. Dukes has also made news recently over failure to pay franchise taxes and failing to itemize nearly $90,000 in campaign credit card charges. Dukes made mention of her press treatment today:
"The city was getting taken on, and that's why I started getting taken on by certain individuals in the newspaper," she said.
Elise, are you ever going to stick to the real story or continuously focus on non stories or old stories to attack certain lawmakers? As a witness of the press conference, the story was about a community who opposes a landfill in their neighborhood proposed by the C of A. They spoke about how they couldn't vote in C of A elections and they had no voice in this situation. They feel dumped on! Looked to me like elected officals came together, Comm. Davis, Rep. Dukes and Mayor Gonzales to shine a light on the issue and help their constituencies. Why is your story about Dukes and old campaign season issues? I recall Villa Muse came up when a reporter asked Dukes about it; she said the issues are separate and have been. In fact, Mayor Gonzales was the first to bring up Villa Muse. For the active citizens who missed work today to participate in the public process, will you focus on their story, the real story?????
Concerned Citizen: Do you work for Dukes?
Concerned,
Thanks for commenting. I want this space to be a place for you and others to vent. Coupla thoughts.
1.) This is a blog, it is a place for posts about sometimes tangential, peripheral stuff. I cover the straight news story in the TV pieces. In the actual live stories I reported at 11am and Clara Tuma reported at 5pm - the landfill fight was the story.
2.) Villa Muse and the landfill link was explored in our 6pm piece. It is fair game - the link was made by Dukes herself, at the presser, see the quote in the post.
3.) For the active citizens who participated in the process, there is the TV broadcast, which is seen by at least 100x more people than this blog. For the nerdy political watchers (like myself) some of the tangential, peripheral stuff can be interesting, which I include on this platform.
4.) As for old campaign issues in the post, they remain "outstanding" issues -- not yet resolved. I included it for context, because you have a public official taking a moral high ground when there are some questions about whether she can stand on that ground.
5.) If you want to talk with me about it personally, call or write anytime.