Kadane, who represents Lakewood on the city council, has only been in office since May. But he has already wracked up what seems like a full term’s worth of aggravation:
• His performance during the Trinity toll road campaign was undistinguished, to say the least. And voters in his District 9 were mostly on the other side of the issue.
• Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper, which usually spares Kadane from any sort of criticism, took him to task this week for not appointing enough members to city commissions and boards. "Mayor Tom Leppert, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and District 9 council member Sheffie Kadane have made 11 appointments to their 18 allotted positions -– the lowest among council members," wrote The News. (And what’s The News doing criticizing Mayor Park Cities?)
• And now, residents of the Maplewood neighborhood (just west of White Rock Lake and between Fisher and the DART tracks), appear ready to get an early start on beating Kadane in 2009, acquiring the outwithsheffie.com Internet address. The neighbors are upset that Kadane blocked council approval of a zoning overlay for their area this week, which would have limited the size and scope of new home and teardown construction. Most of the overlay had previously been approved by the city plan commission.
I talked to Maplewood’s Ryan Berube, who led the push for the overlay, and he said he doesn’t think Kadane understands the issue — and if he doesn’t understand the issue, he shouldn’t be on the council. In this, Berube pointed to the recent overlay decision in Casa Linda, where residents got only part of what they asked for. He said that that the Casa Linda residents that he talked to were also upset with Kadane, and for many of the same reasons.
