Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014 Page: 15 of 25
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have to discuss it at open session." He said, "How dare you talk. What are you doing?
You are a journalist. What are you doing talking?" I said, "I am just calling you out on
this. If you talk about this behind closed doors, it is against the law. This is not real estate,
personnel issues or economic development financials. This is not allowed in executive
session. This is a government issue about your city manager. " They blew me off. After
that was over, I went to the city auditor and I asked for all of the documents regarding
this issue. What was amazing was that someone in the office had done a written transcript
of the meeting in the executive session that I had protested, and it was left it in the pile. It
was one inch down into seven inches of documents. It was the whole transcript of the
executive session.
Chase: The goldmine.
Laura: The goldmine. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to copy it, because I thought
someone would catch me, so I wrote it all down in my notebook, and then I went to the
copier, and then I copied it, and I took it back to the paper, and then we wrote a front
page story about what had happened in executive session. It was unbelievable. Half of the
conversation was about what the Dallas Observer was going to do.
Chase: So you guys were the subject of this?
Laura: Yeah. It was crazy. At that point I started saying to myself "you know I am
effective as a journalist but only so far". I can't really change anything. I can just expose
it. I said, "I want to change it. I want to be inside. I want to see what I can do from the
inside." It just flipped for me. My husband was so dismayed. He said, "You know what, I
am already in the Legislature. The last thing we need is two politicians in the house.
You're going to be campaigning. It's going to be such a mess. We have three little kids."
Our kids were really little. I said, "I have to do this. I promise I am going to do this as an
experiment. I want to know what happens to a person's brain when they campaign on
idealistic issues with their heart in the right place, and then they get elected, and they
become either furniture or corrupt. I want to know what happens to the brain." And he's
like, "Well I understand that you want to know what happens to the brain, and I know
you, and once you get in there you're not going to get out. This is going to be your new
obsession." And I was like, "No, no. It will never happen." So anyway, I ran and got
elected. I walked door to door. I walked to 2,400 houses and talked to people. I had a
crazy, devoted girl friend named Robyn Mirsky, who I am still good girl friends with,
who drove the van and gave me the Diet Pepsi's, and I got out and walked day after day
after day. So then I went to the other side. But what was interesting was, another funny
story. So I was on the city council, and then our Mayor Ron Kirk quit to run for the U.S.
Senate, and then I said "Okay I'm either up or out. I'm not going to sit here under another
mayor and be frustrated and fight with the guy all of the time. I'm going to be the mayor
and really change things, because all of the power is not in the city council. It's in the
mayor."
Chase: So you proved your husband right?
Laura: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. So then I decided I am up or out. If I lose, then I am out
of the city council and I am done with public service. I would have gone back to writing,
I think, at that point. I still had the fire in the belly for that. But if I win, then I will really
make changes. So my dad flies down from New York and says, "Listen, I lived in Dallas
for a long time, and I know how Dallas works. If you run for mayor, it's just a waste of
time because you can't change anything. It is a weak mayor form of government. The
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Carter, Chase & Miller, Laura. Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014, text, October 30, 2014; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586995/m1/15/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism.