Purpose in the Maze-like Homestretch

So, I've faced it:  I've been working on this job for a long time!  And, it's time to shift gears and think carefully about the time and space I have left.  

Thanks to CitySquare's leadership (Executive  team and board), I now have the great privildge to serve in a new space.  My new business cards will declare me "CEO Emeritus."  

What does that mean?  

I can see that my new role could easily jettison real meaning and legitimate purpose and leave me vulnerable to being tossed in the rat maze searching for meaning.  

So, I've been fairly deliberate about my next steps.  

Here's my assignment.

Function as Ambassador for CitySquare. In other words, I'll represent our efforts and our interests across the city, much like I have done for over 25 years.  

Be an Adviser to the CitySquare team.  I'm eager to work with our executive team and other team members to process new ideas, provide access to available counsel on a wife variety of issues and opportunities.  I'll continue to be working with Dr. John Siburt as a supporter and colaborator.  

Stand as an Advocate for justice and equity issues in our city.  This has been my life passion for over 50 years in Arkansas, Memphis, Shreveport, New Orleans, Richardson and Dallas.  The issues will arise as always in the course of our work but now I'll have time to work on them.  And, I think I have at least one more book in my soul somewhere!  

One more thing.  I will now have more time to connect with neighbors.  The prospect of going deeper with my friends in the community really excites me.  

It helps me to document this.  Written words indicate reality, commitment and prospects for purpose.  We'll see how it goes.  

3Q Outcomes for the Community

Numbers matter. . .so, we watch them

Results and Accountability



Texas: Sub-standard

Check out Robert Miller column in today's Dallas Morning News!

Dallas Morning News business page columnist, Robert Miller reports on the successful launch of The Donor Bridge.

Central Dallas Ministries is featured in the report. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this special campaign!

Read Miller's story here.

Regulation: Wall Street versus Back Streets

Many of my friends often complain of how wasteful public spending always turns out to be.

I expect they have a point about how some public dollars are expended.

Who can forget the thousand dollar toilet seats installed on some battleship somewhere via a contract that didn't go out to bid in proper or competitive fashion?

More recently, recipients of the first round of federal "bail out" money evidently used some of it to fund luxurious retreats, underwrite lucrative retirement packages and purchase state-of- the-art corporate jets.

I think I can suggest a remedy.

Move the overseers of public grants, like the ones we receive and administer here at Central Dallas Ministries, to Wall Street and turn them loose on those who must now manage and spend public dollars. Once the crisis is over, leave these regulators there!

Every single dollar we receive from AmeriCorps, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the City of Dallas, Dallas County, the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). . .take your pick!--must be accounted for in triplicate. Auditors show up unannounced to investigate our books and records and program sites. There is no room for fraud or rip off.

People who blast government and public spending don't seem to realize that much of the work funded via public sources is done by community-based organizations like ours. And we are accountable, believe me, we are held, gladly held accountable.

What I realize is that we are the government.

Now, if we could just get the Wall Street crowd under this same intense scrutiny. What works on the countless Back Streets of the nation ought to work on that short span we know as Wall Street.

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CDM welcomes Steve Palma, new CFO!

Here’s a thrilling new development: Steve Palma has joined the Central Dallas Ministries team as our Chief Financial Officer!

In view of our continuing growth and the increasing complexity of our financial challenges and opportunities, we set about late last summer searching for someone to fill this very important position. We received many resumes and we pursued a rigorous interview and investigation process. At the end, Steve was our unanimous choice to fill this important slot.

Steve brings a wealth of experience to CDM from the corporate world where he spent his career in finance, accounting, retail operations and real estate development for J. C. Penney, JCP Realty, Inc., Melville Corporation and, most recently, CVS/Pharmacy.

While at CVS, beginning in January 2001, he directed the lease administration process for over 6,200 properties and 1,500 closed and sub-leased locations, the construction budget for over 275 new and relocated stores and new store development strategy for the company. He retired from CVS in April 2007.

In addition to this amazing corporate experience, Steve co-founded M5 Technologies, a computer software company, and he owned and operated the New York Sailing School!

As CFO, Steve will be directing the accounting and development offices here at CDM. With one foot in "sources" and the other in "uses," I know that our entire financial operation will only grow stronger as we move into our future.

Hiring Steve is the latest indication of just how seriously our Board, our executive leadership and our entire staff take the stewardship of every dollar given in support of our work in the city.

Over the next several weeks, Steve will spend his time getting to know and understand every department and corner of the world of CDM.

We are most fortunate to have him on board!

Welcome, Steve!

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Logical consequences

Jim Wallis writes a very provocative essay ("Nightmare on Wall Street")in the latest issue of Sojourners magazine. Words worth careful consideration:

A telling word emerged in commentary about the collapse of the financial markets this fall—greed. It’s an old concept, and one with deep moral roots. Even venerable establishment economists such as Robert Samuelson said, “Greed and fear, which routinely govern financial markets, have seeded this global crisis. ... short-term rewards blinded them to the long-term dangers.”

The people on top of the American economy get rich whether they make good or bad business decisions, but their bad choices always make workers and consumers suffer. Prudent investment has been replaced with reckless financial gambling, creating what some have called a “casino economy,” where Wall Street high rollers absorb the winnings while leaving catastrophic risks to be borne—as now—by everyone in the economy. And the inordinate level of benefits accruing to top CEOs and financial managers—especially as the wages of average workers continue to decline—has become one of the greatest moral travesties of our time.

In the search for blame, some say greed and some say deregulation. Both are right. The financial collapse of Wall Street is the fiscal consequence of the economic philosophy that now governs America—that markets are always good and government is always bad. But it is also the moral consequence of greed, where private profit prevails over the concept of the common good. The American economy is often rooted in unbridled materialism, a culture that continues to extol greed, a false standard of values that puts short-term profits over societal health, and a distorted calculus that measures human worth by personal income instead of character, integrity, and generosity.

Americans have a love-hate relationship with government and business. The climate seems to shift between an “anything goes” mentality and stricter government regulation. The excesses of the 1920s, leading to the Great Depression, were followed by the reforms of Franklin Roosevelt.

The entrepreneurial spirit and social innovation fostered by a market economy has benefited many and should not be overly encumbered by unnecessary or stifling regulations. But left to its own devices and human weakness (let’s call it sin), the market too often disintegrates into greed and corruption, as the Wall Street financial collapse painfully reveals. Capitalism needs rules, or it easily becomes destructive. A healthy, balanced relationship between free enterprise, on the one hand, and public accountability and regulation, on the other, is morally and practically essential. Govern­ment should encourage innovation, but it must also limit greed.

Cokie Roberts, on ABC’s This Week, offered an appropriate judgment on those responsible for this fall’s financial debacle: “I’d like to see the CEOs of these companies marched down Wall Street in sackcloth and ashes.” Perhaps God’s own message to Wall Street can be found in the words of Micah: “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! ... They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. Therefore, the Lord says: ‘I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves.’”

The behavior of too many on Wall Street is a violation of biblical ethics. The teachings of Christianity and other faiths condemn the greed, selfishness, willful blindness, and cheating that have been revealed in corporate behavior for decades and denounce the callous mistreatment of employees.

The strongest critics of the Wall Street gamblers call it putting self-interest above the public interest; the Bible would call it a sin. I don’t know about the church- going habits of the nation’s top financial managers, but if they do attend services, I wonder if they ever hear a religious word about the practices of arranging huge personal bonuses and escape hatches while destroying the lives of people who work for them or invest in their companies. We now need wisdom from the economists, prudence from the business community, and renewal courses on the common good from the nation’s religious leaders.

It’s time for the pulpit to speak—for the religious community to bring the Word of God to bear on the moral issues of the American economy. The Bible speaks of such things from beginning to end, so why not our pastors and preachers?

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Accountability and my constituency

My daughter, Jennifer, and my son-in-law, Brandon, were discussing the current race for President as they watched the evening news one night this past week.

As they talked, Wyatt, their four-year-old, interrupted with a question.

"What do you mean 'the American people'?" he asked.

They went on to explain in terms he could understand what an election was all about, who was running this time and what it meant for the nation.

Both of them told Wyatt who they had decided to vote for in the upcoming election.

Wyatt sat quietly for a moment.

Then, he looked up and, in his trademark husky voice, declared, "Well, I'm voting for Granddad!"

I love that boy!

No one has a better constituency than I do!

Talk about accountability!

Thanks for your confidence, Wyatt. I'll do my best for you.

And, never forget, I love you!

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