Dallas' fiscal problems may not mean anything to most readers, but the kind of city service issues it has is a lesson for all municipalities, and the Realtors who go to the effort to bring business into the city.

Dallas' JR Ewing good-ole-boy power network is gone, but what remains isn't any better -- a 14-member city council that pulls in 14 different directions and disagrees so consistently that Dallas has been paralyzed by missed opportunities, like the Boeing relocation (which went to Chicago instead), and has sat out the 8-year economic and housing boom that has enriched so many other municipalities.

The embarrassing lack of economic development that Dallas has suffered is largely due to deplorable school, tax, crime and road conditions that have driven corporations north to the incentive-friendly but tree-less suburbs of Plano and Frisco. But it's also the micromanaging self-interests of the council that make it nearly impossible for developers to do business in the city.

Dreamers have been talking about the redevelopment of the Trinity River west of the city for decades. Known more for yielding dead bodies than returns on investment the Trinity has the potential to bring new life, development, and lifestyles to the city by giving the area a new waterfront. But partisan arguing on the council has kept much from happening.

In Fort Worth, the 30-mile distant sister city that kicks Dallas' butt culturally and socially, is actually helping developers redo its downtown area, and promises retail, condos, and townhomes within walking distance of its cultural center and with spectacular views of the northern part of the Trinity.

Developers Tom Struhs and his wife Elizabeth Falconer are creating Trinity Bluff at UpTown, a $350 million residential, restaurant and retail project that is set for completion over the next seven years. The couple has purchased over 30 acres of bluff, by going door to door and convincing 180 homeowners of run-down homes to sell.

And the city of Fort Worth is helping them. Not only is it providing tax incentives, it's donating trees to the project as part of a $1.8 million infrastructure improvement package!

That's a far cry from what goes on in Dallas. In an interview with Dallas Morning News business writer Cheryl Hall, Struhs said, "The politics here versus the politics in Dallas is like night and day. You don't see bickering here. Support for economic growth starts at the top -- with the mayor and the City Council."

Also participating in the project for Struhs will be Preston Carter, who developed the Lone Star Racetrack in Grand Prairie and The West End in downtown Dallas. "You couldn't pay me enough to develop again in downtown Dallas," Carter told Hall. "I've tried it a number of times, and I'm tired of beating my head against a concrete wall. It makes me sick to see what goes on."

Gee, could it be any worse for Dallas when developers and corporations have had enough?

"Dallas needs change," understates an e-mail from the Citizens For A Strong Mayor campaign. The Citizens are promoting Proposition 1, otherwise known as the Blackwood Amendment, on the May 7 ballot, which will switch Dallas from its dead-locked council manager form of government to a "strong mayor" government.

"Under the current governmental structure, the voters of Dallas elect 14 city council members from single member districts, all with populations close to Denton, and an at-large mayor," explains the email. "The person who actually runs the city is the city manager who is responsible for hiring and firing of the departmental heads and all city employees including the staffs of the city council. Although the city manager is hired and fired by ten votes of the city council, the reality of the situation is that once hired for the position, the person is there to stay since not one Dallas City Manager has ever been fired. The city manager's focus then becomes ensuring that at least five council members are happy at all times, which means obliging to every direct demand made by each council member. Not only does this serve only the people closest to the council member, it is a direct violation of the law. The system has split Dallas into 14 mini-cities with 14 mini-mayors demanding attention. This gives us the grim reality that only one person is looking out for the city as a whole, and that person only has one single vote.

"With this structure, Dallas government has evolved into a "not my fault" finger pointing attitude that is frequently found in the fourth grade principal's office. Not one person can ever be held accountable when mistakes and wrong decisions are made. The council points to the mayor, who points to the city manager, who points back to the mayor, etc. This leaves the citizens of Dallas with nothing but to accept the status quo, which is rising property and crime rates coupled with a failing economy and downtown tax base."

The reason for supporting the Blackwood Amendment is plain and simple: accountability to the voter, urges the e-mail. "The citizens of Dallas must have a direct voice in who is actually running the city. We need to give the person we elect to be mayor the ability to carry out their campaign promises. This means that if you are unhappy with pot holes on your street, garbage collection, and the fact that your car got broken into and nothing was done about it, you will be able to point your finger at one person and say "out you go."

Under the proposed amendment, the City Council will "retain the authority to make laws, allocate money, and see to the concerns of their constituents. In addition to these powers the City Council will receive additional checks and balances which would include the power to conduct an independent audit, vote to impeach the Mayor and remove the Mayor with a two thirds vote on grounds of misconduct."

The City Council isn't taking the threat to its powers lightly, and has proposed that it will have a plan for the November ballot, but in typical fashion, the Council has yet to agree on a plan but wants Dallasites to wait for its proposal, a situation that was hilariously lampooned by Dallas Observer writer Jim Shulze on March 10 in his column "No Bird, No Bush." Shulze wrote, "What is the bottom-line accusation here, the source of the city's malaise, the real reason people are so mad at the Dallas City Council? It's that people think the city council can't agree on anything. So what happens when the council denounces these accusations, says they are unfair, says it can, too, agree on things, says we don't need a strong-mayor reform at all, says it has its own much better strong-mayor idea that we do need and then says it can't decide on what its idea is? This is called reinforcing negative stereotypes. It's usually done by others to you. When you do it to yourself, it's called destiny."

The Council's idea so far, is a plan where the mayor hires the city manager, but can't fire the manager without the Council's vote, which is uncomfortably close to the status quo.

As Dallas mayor Laura Miller wrote in her letter to supporters, she wants to see a strong mayor in charge of making city services work -- more time spent on solving problems than debating them -- less politics and more solutions. Instead of an unelected city manager reporting to 14 managers, the city manager will report to the mayor, who answers to the public. The mayor will oversee the city budget, to protect money for city services like trash pickup, fire protection and police.

"Back in the 1930's when our current system of city government was set up, our small-town council-manager system made sense," writes Miller. "Today, Dallas is a big city- with big-city problems... and big-city economic competition from cities like Houston and Atlanta."

Don't forget Fort Worth, Ms. Miller.