CITIZENS AGAINST THE TAXPAYER-OWNED HOTEL

P.O. Box 227196 Dallas, Texas 75222 (214) 890-0952

Political Advertisement paid for by the Citizens Against The Taxpayer-Owned Hotel PACP.O. Box 227196, Dallas, Texas 75222

• Vance C

. Miller, Treasurer

The Honorable Tom LeppertDallas City Hall1500 Marilla Street

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Room 5ENDallas, TX 75201March 4, 2009Dear Mayor Leppert,It appears there is confusion regarding the nature of our organization and its intent

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allow me toclarify. Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel is a coalition of concerned local citizens formed

in response to the City’s ill

-conceived, $550,000,000 convention center hotel. More than 60,000residents signed a petition requesting the right to vote on the project and several thousand morecontacted us directly asking how they can help ensure this financial folly does not proceed.Furthermore, more than one hundred individuals reached into their wallets during a severe recessionwhich has forced an entire nation to eliminate non-essentials, and offered money to guarantee ourorganization could communicate our message of fiscal responsibility and ensure a yes vote onproposition 1.I am the spokesperson for Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel. Having been in the hotelbusiness for 25 years, I speak several times each week to community associations discussingfinancial risks of constructing and operating a hotel. Our organization is committed to running anissue-based campaign. We endeavor to enlighten Dallas residents to the risks associated with thehotel and allow them to cast the final judgment on May 9

. It has become apparent you do not intendto run such a campaign. You aspire to run a negative, personality-centric campaign where you cast a

“Park Cities Billionaire” as the villain and distract from the true topic with cries of “selfishness.”

Your campaign of negative personal attacks is as disrespectful as your ongoing effort to denytaxpayers an up or down vote on the hotel, by rushing

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too often behind closed doors

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the projectthrough in an attempt to break ground before May 9

. It was you who stated on September 24,

“Dallas taxpayers will ultimately be responsible for the debt.” Why then are Dallas taxpayers being

denied their voice on the hotel? If it is Dallas taxpayers who will ultimately cover the substantial andongoing financial losses from the hotel, are they not entitled to an honest presentation of the risks?Allow today to be an opportunity to transform your crusade into a positive, educational, issue-oriented operation. Furthermore, we politely ask you to refrain from attacking any more of the localcitizens who demonstrated true altruism on behalf of their neighbors and financially supportedCitizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel. Contributions, both large and small, are not aninvitation to be slandered

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not in a democracy.