Questions Submitted 3/28/2011 by Mr. Anonymous Oh Really

Mr. Anonymous: Billy, how much money you raised for your neighborhood association?

Billy MacLeod: Sir, I am not a professional fundraiser,  I am an advocate for real people.  Neighborhood associations raise money primarily through dues, special events and to some extent charity.  I CAN say that I have raised more than money;  I have raised awareness and I have shed blood.   I have raised my voice and though many times all I could do is raise my fist in solidarity, at least I was there.   Over the past 10 years I have invested hundreds of  hours of my personal time working on behalf of neighborhoods. I have spoken to the Dallas City Council (in chambers ) over 60 times since 2003 (when I ran against you).  In recent years I have met with dozens of City Council members privately to fight for all  neighborhoods in District 2 not just the select few my opponent services.  Sir, and I said above I have raised more than money.  I would attend Dallas City Council Meetings weekly when I worked nights and I would report my findings back to my neighbors. I have spent full days up at Dallas city hall waiting to speak on behalf of dozens of neighborhood associations across District 2, this is not lip service this is action.  I am a candidate who has been a vocal advocate with a dedication to neighborhoods, and unlike my opponent, you cannot buy that.

Mr. Anonymous: How much of your professional time and money have you volunteered or donated to the Deep Ellum Association?

Billy MacLeod: The Deep Ellum Association is financed entirely by the Deep Ellum Foundation. They manage the Deep Ellum (PID ) Public Improvement District) and they have the keys a  vault of cash.  Barry Annino, the President of the Deep Ellum Foundation, pays himself over $30,000 to manage a public improvement district in which he owns property.  Isn’t that a trip?  Anyway, back to your question. I have contributed and volunteered dozens of my own personal and professional time and I have consulted and advocated on behalf of their small business members in front of Dallas City Council literally dozens of times. Sadly, Deep Ellum residents meet away from the association (wink) and they meet as the Deep Ellum Enrichment Project.  I have attended numerous DEEP meetings and events and I volunteer my time to help whenever I can.  I have also attended dozen of Deep Ellum Association Meetings and they were always cool because each week they were at a different small business in Deep Ellum.  I have attended some Deep Ellum Foundation Meetings but that’s a whole different deal. I have worked booths, stuffed gift bags for the Deep Ellum Art Walks and I have chalked the sidewalk for Deep Ellum Art Fest. I have raised on behalf of the attended dozens of deep uhave raised awareness  I don’t raise money for my neighborhood association.

I’ll tell you a quick story about the Deep Ellum Association/Foundation: When I dropped out of the 2007 Mayors Dave Levanthal wrote some nice thing about me in the paper. That same day then candidate Tom Leppert called me and asked to me come work on his campaign. I told him I wasn’t looking for a job and even if I was that I couldn’t take one. I didn’t want the perception that I was getting bought out of the race. I told him that I would be willing to volunteer. but I that I thought Carol Reed would never allow me anywhere near the campaign., he said he’d work on that, and I agreed that if Carol Reed personally called me and asked me to come on board the campaign in a grassroots volunteer I would listen. He thanked me and said give me a minute I’ll call you back and hung up. One minute later Carol Reed called me ’the next day we met at 8AM, and I went to work that distributing signs for the St. Paddy’s Parade the next day started working the back table at events that night. I had gotten to know Tom on the campaign trail and I genuinely liked him and one day asked for two things in return for my volunteerism .I asked him to come to The Resource Center behind Dallas City Hall and feed the homeless with me on Thanksgiving Day and I asked him to meet with the leadership from the Deep Ellum Association after elected. He agreed to both and followed through.

Mr. Anonymous: Billy, be honest what have you really done for economic development and as a follow up on what committee did you serve?

Billy MacLeod: That’s a good question and so precise. Well,  I was asked to serve on the Public Affairs Committee at the US Chinese Chamber of Commerce and  I introduced their leadership to new Tom Leppert for very the first time. I set up a meeting for the at City Hall after Tom was elected, that meeting led to another, and those meetings forged a partnership that led Tom Leppert and a City Council delegation to make a trip to China to forge other relationships. The Inland Port  will drive international trade directly through Dallas and China is the engine that will drive our city into the future. This is where my opponent and I differ. I have supported expansion of the inland port while my opponent has supported Commissioner John Wiley Price’s efforts to capitalize on the massive project, limiting the scope of the project itself and slowing it down to a crawl. I am a networker and a connector, I connect people who together can do great things. I create synergy and. I have been and advocate for Economic Growth while my opponent sat silent. She has no plan for the District. No website, no platform to speak on, no Facebook page to interact with people and get feedback, she has no Linkedin page to interactively network with influencers, she has no twitter to follow the most up to date ideas and to send her ideas out for the world to see.

That being said this election is about what I WILL DO for Dallas. This campaign about future economic development, and I have a plan where my opponent has none

Mr. Anonymous: I understand that the DISD School System has nothing to do with Dallas City Council but I have to ask you a fair question…What have you ever done for our schools? Please be specific.

Mr. MacLeod: There are no stupid question right? Personally, I have always started with my own High School and I think that is where every person should start. I graduated from WT White which is a DISD school in North Dallas. I talk to student athletes at WT White 3 or 4 times every year and I have done so since I got out of the Navy in 1993. . I always meet with my old friend legendary Baseball Coach David Shepherd and I just chill at their practices and give some input along the way.

I also joined with parents and spoke before Dallas City Council for student’s rights against a poorly conceived Daytime Curfew ordinance. I helped point parents and concerned residents in the right direction (though they has talent to begin with) on how to best fight the City Hall Monster and get the message out along the way. We rocked the Council Chambers and convinced council members to re-write the ordinance. I have marched alongside DISD high school students when they walked out of schools and marched on Dallas City Hall to protest Federal immigration law, then I called my contacts in the media and got them coverage. I have demonstrated and rallied with El Centro College students when they planned and organized a campus wide walk-out protesting cuts in education funding at the Dallas County Community. District And in recent weeks I have strongly advocated for teachers and students to protect our Magnet Schools budgets from bring cut.  All that being said Dallas City Council members have very little to do with Dallas Schools. DISD even has their own private police force. My job as a City Councilman will be to be an advocate and to raise the red flags. That is my talent.

Mr. Anonymous: What have you specifically done for crime?

Billy MacLeod: Again, thank you for the smart and fair question. To address crime you must at least openly admit that the cause of most crime is overt poverty and a lack of resources for homeless, helpless, and addicted residents of Dallas. In 2001 I started a project to help the homeless population in Downtown Dallas to find themselves and jobs with only a pen and paper. The plan was simple. I wanted to help convince and coach every homeless person in Downtown fill out a master job application. I thought if they could perfect one master job app that was true, they would remember themselves and they could make multiple copies and carry them around at all times. They could say, I am looking for work this is me. It was a great program and I got lots of great success stories.

I was also involved in the start up of a pioneering prisoner reentry program named Freedom Release Reentry Services. I served as the Community Ambassador and the Development Program Manager for this spirit driven non profit pilot program. I was entrusted with educating people in the community about the need for a holistic and effective faith based pre-release and re-entry program in Texas prisons and I was the lead all of Freedom Release’s corporate and individual fundraising campaigns. This is where I met my good friend local photographer Dylan Hollingsworth. He is a success story from a program associated with ours.

My job was to spread the word locally,  to get our founder in front of as many influencers and public officials as I could, and to raise money. I met with Jack Hammock and Gary Griffith of .Safer Dallas Better Dallas,  I met with Tom Dunning and Tom Leppert, I met with Chief Kunkle and his entire leadership team all fighting for prisoners to get the education. For months we hit the town to sell the program. Every donor wanted the cities blessing. I got a very nice letter from Tom Leppert to send to potential donors but when the city finally did get involved they took the idea, tied the program up in red tape, and passed out parts of the program to numerous different entities trying to distribute the wealth. Donors had to choose between the supporting City endorsed program or our start up…we lost that battle.

Many people don’t realize that 600 men and women hit the streets from Dallas jails every week and 400 and are back inside within a month. The term is recidivism and it is a plague in our society. We must stop the endless cycle of incarceration.  Recidivism cost our city in police manpower, it cost our county money and it creates crime.  Freedom Release was a program which taught life skills on the inside the jail cell so when they got out they would stay out. I was responsible for being the voice for the individuals that were served, students and graduates from the prison system to the community at large.

My opponent has laid silent on this very important issue for 6 years even though one of her neighborhoods, MY neighborhood, The Cedars and our zip code (75215) is the number 3 zip code in the state for prisoner reentry address’ in the entire state. When I am elected I pledge to put my focus back on creating a quality and effective prisoner reentry program in Dallas that will cut through the red tape and money grabbing and focus on the goal of reducing recidivism.

Mr. Anonymous: This may sound like a stupid question to a private citizen running for office but I just gotta ask it. What you done for travel and tourism?

Billy MacLeod: Well…I am not a travel agent and I do not have any affiliation with the tourism…that is kind of strange question bro.  I do have 5000 Facebook friends most of which are local and they each have an average of 200 friends each based on national statistics. I sell our city every day online and millions of people have access to that message. I use Twitter to move a message and those messages fly all over the country and I send out a positive message to my followers. Compared to my opponent I am a freaking PR firm for Dallas and I do that in my spare time.

Mr. Anonymous: Billy, what is your experience to market and promote neighborhoods or entertainment districts?

Billy MacLeod: I have been promoting the Dallas Entertainment areas in District 2 for 10 years, in fact, for about six years I managed and promoted my own events. District 2 needs someone with sales and marketing experience, but also someone who has actually managed a P & L and who understands the problems and pitfalls of the service industry, Dallas needs someone like me on the council to fight for samll business on the Dallas City Council. District 2 needs a leader who is both promotionally minded but who can also go out in the scene who has the ability talk to the business owners personally. The cool thing is I have done exactly that for 10 years. I have spent countless hours talking to these small business owners at their storefronts and for the most part, with very few exceptions, they all believe in their heart that City Hall does not give a rats ass about their business. I have spoken dozens of time at Dallas City Hall to fight new ordinances and unnecessary fees ant that experience working hard for the industry in front of the council will bode well for me when I am on it.

I have fought for small business owners in Deep Ellum, on Lower Greenville, and at Expo Park when the City of Dallas started using SUP ordinances started as a new source of revenue and when the poorly planned Dallas City Council smoking ordinance sent people into the streets because of  slow moving permitting for pattio’s.  I was at the City Council meetings when they delayed  votes, moved dates of hearings and failed to educate our hospitality industry on process and procedure by which to appeal decisions. I met with owners and provided them with information dates and deadlines they needed to protect themselves and. I moved the message forward. We filled the Dallas City Council Chambers may times at Dallas City Council to defend these small business’ and neighborhood from government intervention and added taxation .I spoke on their behalf against these regulation at these large gathering but also at individual hearings and assorted votes along the way. That is the way of the Council…they may come out once but we will wear them dome. I was there from the beginning to the end and I am still here, We saved many bars from being forced their doors and yes. we lost a few.  I have been an advocate for small business and for the entertainment/service industries for 10 years and I want to be a public servant. I plan to add to add to the entertainment experience of Dallas not regulate it and tax it like my opponent has.  It is time our generation to elect a Dallas City Councilman who stands up for the service industry and took our proper seat at the table. I am the entertainment candidate in this election…along with Shamrock Keith McPhail that is…He works in the business.  He’s a good guy too.

I will no longer be giving diversionary interviews to Mr. Anonymous.

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