I just finished reading the posts' in our discussion area. I can answer some of the questions, but don't feel it's right to attempt to reply to the assumptions that some made since it would take detailed explanations and would probably be read in a way that was different than I had meant.
1. The number one thing is about this murder threat. I did speak with Ken Crum, who called the Dallas District Attorney about this. I told Ken that I had not heard of this rumor and had no idea what he was talking about. When he told me who the person was that said this, I told him that she might have misunderstood something I said, but that was highly unlikely since there was nothing even remotely close to what he mentioned that was talked about. After my discussion with Ken, I called the District Attorney and assured him that this was not true and was something that I myself had just learned of. I then called the person that had supposedly said this about me, and she was totally dumbfounded. She assured me that she had never said this. In fact, I hadn't spoken with her until after the meeting anyway and supposedly this was said to me before the meeting. I'm glad this was mentioned on our web site so that I had the chance to assure everyone that it was totally untrue and that no one is in any type of danger. I told Ken that there was no reason to think that I wouldn't I have reported this especially since I have been a crime watch chairman and have worked so closely with the Dallas Police Department. That would have been the first thing I did. So rest assured that this rumor is just that, a rumor.
2. There has been mention of the post that I highlighted in pink with red writing. I wasn't thinking that this would mean something to anyone reading the post. I never instant message and since I wrote that message, have learned of some of the "rules" when messaging, which I guess would apply here as well. I noticed for the first time that night that you could now make the background of your posting and the lettering in your posting any color of your choice. My favorite color is pink and I thought red writing would be pretty with the pink. That's the only reason I did that and never meant to offend anyone and am truely sorry if I did. I know this sounds like a lame excuse, but I promise it's the truth.
3. As I have told several people in the recent past, the only reason I didn't have meetings for a couple of years was due to all the deaths that happened in my immediate family. I know this sounds selfish, but I didn't want to have a meeting until I felt I could stand up in front of everyone without starting to cry since I felt that I owed the group an explanation as to my absence. So, since I wasn't having meetings, I continued working on things to help our area. Like for instance, I stayed on top of the Parks Department to get the walking trail built that goes around the park. The neighborhood has been asking for this for a long time and we had even had a meeting with them. It was a big and long fight for us all. I had several meetings with the Eastside Director of Parks, Assistant Director of Parks and the then Manager of Harry Stone Recreation Center. I also created a large proposal in the attempt to get the City's attention for us to have the new White Rock Library built at Ferguson & Oates. I went to City Hall and met with the City Manager, Mary Suhm. She was in strong support of our area having this library as was the Library Board member for our Library District. I don't know what happened, but at the last minute we lost out. These were the main things I worked on, and there was a lot of work and time that went into these things. There were several other things as well, but there are too many to mention. Not having meetings was the only difference in our crime watch as I still worked continuously on the problems within our area. I lost everything on my computer and had never taken the time to re-input it all back into the new computer until recently. That is one thing that I didn't do right, I'll admit that. I shouldn't have waited that long.
4. I see that a few of you want by-laws, and a more formal set-up. I did the research when this crime watch first began and have two different sets of by-laws on hand. However, there were many residents that made it more than clear that they didn't want that type of group and that if we made our group this formal, they would have nothing to do with it. And I still get those comments today. I have always thought that we needed this group set up in that way, but haven't ever pushed it since it's what the majority of the neighbors have wanted to this point.
5. I have never handed out an agenda at meetings because I prepare that agenda and try to cover as many things as I can that people want discussed. Usually, I am adding something to the agenda five minutes before I leave for the meeting and it's always something that's very important to let people know about. That would be something else we could vote on at the next meeting.
6. This crime watch was actually founded by five people, one of them being me. I don't think that Mike Nurre was aware that I had been a part of that process for over a year whenever he and Betty met with my next door neighbors, one of whom you know as Karla Cole. Karla's husband and I had been discussing the need for a crime watch for over a year when he and Karla met with Betty and Mike. Once they did that, Karla asked me to chair the first meeting and after I accepted to chair that one meeting, she sent out an e-mail to everyone that I agreed to be the Chairman. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it was Betty that got with our DPD contact to let him know what was going on and set up a meeting date for us with him. I created the flyer and along with their help and others, got it passed out. The rest is history. I had only planned on chairing the crime watch for a short time, but I was commended many times over the years by Mike, Betty and Karla about what a good job I did and since no one else would consider taking the position, much less any type of position with responsibility in our group, I kept on going. Believe me I would have absolutely loved the help! I just could hardly find anyone that would agree to do anything. Plus, everytime I got someone to agree to be Co-Chairman and would eventually mention to them about chairing a meeting, all of a sudden I couldn't get in touch with them and haven't been able to to this day. I did have someone agree to be the Secretary, but she only took minutes at one meeting and after that, she got a job where she had to work evenings.
7. I tried to come up with creative ways to motivate people within our group, to encourage everyone to get involved and report crime to the police, and to sign up to help us build a great group. No one wanted to do anything except attend meetings and be a Block Captain or help pass out flyers. With the exception of two people who took over a committee. However, those people had to withdraw due to other issues in their lives at the time and were only over the committee for a short period of time.
8. The main thing I wanted to do at the 8/31 meeting was to have an election on two items. One being voting on the possibility of joining up with FRI to prepare a grant to be submitted regarding the Federal Weed and Seed program. Two, to choose whether to take nominations to vote on the chairman position or to decide whether to have a 2nd meeting where we would vote on this position after everyone had time to go home and speak with anyone that they felt would be a good fit for us. Like I said before, time ran out before that could happen. I could have made that the first item on the agenda and I mulled over whether to do that or not. After serious consideration, I moved it to last because I didn't feel it was fair to begin a meeting and after the vote was taken, if their was a new chairman voted in, they would not be prepared to hold the remainder of the meeting.
9. Until I have the next meeting, where we will have a vote about the chairman position, I will continue to be the Chairman. It would be totally unfair to leave everyone hanging, so if there are any issues, I will handle them until then. As far as this web site goes, there is a new web site coordinator, Ken Crum. I will not be able to post any type of crime alerts, etc., on here so if you would like to see something posted, you will have to request that from him.
10. There seems to have been so much infighting and neighbor pitting against neighbor the past couple of weeks. If any of this has been caused from the misunderstanding of my comments, I apologize. I hope that this can stop. We all want the same thing. A better and safer place to live. We all need to work together, no matter what each other's opinions may be, towards the goal of helping our neighborhood improve with positive changes that the majority of everyone can agree with.
11. One last thing, there have been a few people speaking about my health issues. Some have said that I am too ill and need help by replacing me as chairman. The truth of the matter is, I'm not ill at all nor have I been ill. Yes, I am having a surgery in the near future, but will only be down for about six weeks, maybe less. I wouldn't be having this surgery, but the doctor that already performed this surgery on me didn't do what he said he did and it screwed me up. So, now the new doctor is going to repair my neck correctly and I'll be better than I've been in many years. So for those of you who feel I'm not able to handle the crime watch, I am. I am also able to help a new chairman in this crime watch if I'm asked. To date, I haven't been asked anything other than to attend a meeting, which I was unable to at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances at my house that happened at the eleventh hour. So, as far as anything that's being done in private in our neighborhood, I only know what I have heard from reliable sources and a few people's assumptions, which I won't rely on. If you don't hear it from me, then it's not official.
I have always been willing to step down and turn over the reigns to someone else if the neighborhood voted to do so. I have only asked that this be done at a general neighborhood meeting where people are given the chance to nominate someone of their choosing and are able to hear from all the candidates as to their qualifications, i.e., length of time living in Dallas, knowledge of some of the workings in the City Departments, what type of dealings have they had in the past that would show they were reasonable and fair at working with a group of people, etc. I don't think it would be fair to our group if the chairman was chosen and there was no election held. I want any type of transition in this neighborhood, no matter what it is, to go as smoothly as possible in order to help our group stay focused and supportive. If any transition is handled where it is felt by the majority of the people in this group that it was unfair, rushed, or pushed on them, it would only set up our group for failure. I know I don't want that and I'm sure that you don't either.
I am truely sorry if I have offended anyone or have worded things that sounded as if I was angry or that I was refusing to let go of this position. It has always been my full intent to do whatever it takes to help our neighborhood grow to its full potential and to get back to being as close as possible to the "glory days" when this was the "place to live" in Dallas. If that means new leadership, then I'm all for it. Whatever works best for our neighborhood, is what I want and I hope that each of you want too. I hope that whoever has been offended will accept my apology and my answer that there was never ill intent in my heart or the way I was wording things. If you felt there was any resistance, it was only my passion that things are handled fairly for everyone involved. It wasn't because I wouldn't let go. Please forgive my offenses to you. I was honestly and totally clueless that anything I said had caused this to happen. I love this neighborhood and will do whatever I can to help it succeed.
I'm sure this doesn't answer all the questions or address all the complaints listed by those in the discussion area. If there were some that I forgot to mention, please let me know. I'll be more than happy to answer anything you ask, and will do it honestly. I hope this puts everyone's mind at ease about the issues I mentioned and hope it will help all the infighting stop so that we can all begin to move forward once again on the improvement of our neighborhood.
Cindy Green, Chairman
Harry Stone Crime Watch - HSCW
harrystone.crime@sbcglobal.net
