Dallas council member faces ethics complaint, teacher’s firing after tweets upheld: Your Wednesday morning round up

Dallas City Council member Casey Thomas faces an ethics complaint after he took more than $1,600 worth of event tickets from VisitDallas and left them out of disclosure forms.  [Morning roundup]( 09/18/2019 By Carla Solórzano and Mallorie Sullivan Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day. 🌩️ Weather: Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms, especially south of Dallas-Fort Worth. High of 93. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [her]( Dallas City Council member Casey Thomas, shown at a council meeting at Dallas City Hall in Dallas on June 26. Thomas says he unintentionally left tickets given to him by VisitDallas off financial disclosure forms. (Lynda M. Gonzalez / Staff Photographer) DALLAS [Dallas council member faces ethics complaint over concert tickets given to him by VisitDallas]( Dallas City Council member Casey Thomas faces an ethics complaint after he took more than $1,600 worth of event tickets from VisitDallas and left them out of disclosure forms. The complaint alleged that Thomas violated the city's code of ethics on gifts, which states that city officials shouldn't accept an item that "is intended to influence or reward" decisions and must file financial disclosure forms for any gift that exceeds $250 within a month of accepting it. On Tuesday, [the three-member preliminary panel of the Ethics Advisory Commission unanimously ruled that the complaint needed further review](. The city will schedule an evidentiary hearing on the complaint before the full commission. Commissioner William Coleman said the rules are clear that gifts exceeding $250 require reporting within 30 days. In a Sept. 11 response to the complaint, Thomas' attorney, Sarah Mendola, said the allegation makes "unfounded assumptions" about the gifts and denied that the tickets influenced any official conduct. Thomas said he unintentionally left them out of disclosure forms and has since corrected the mistakes.  Also: Dallas County will be among the few local governments in Texas to [raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for its employees]( after the Commissioners Court approved its budget Tuesday.   And: A Dallas police officer was charged late Monday in federal court with making a false statement in connection with a slew of fake tickets to fake people [he wrote to boost his overtime pay under a federal traffic safety grant](.  ADVERTISEMENT TARRANT COUNTY [Fort Worth school board upholds teacher's firing after anti-immigrant tweets]( Fort Worth school trustees on Tuesday upheld their decision to fire a teacher accused of sending anti-immigrant tweets to President Donald Trump. The board voted 8-0 to terminate the district's contract with high school teacher Georgia Clark, 68, effective immediately. In May, Clark sent out a flurry of social media posts urging Trump to help with "actively investigating and removing the illegals" who are in the public school system. The board had voted to fire her previously, but Clark appealed the decision. An independent hearing examiner appointed by the state recommended the district reinstate Clark, saying that her tweets were free speech on a matter of public concern. But [Fort Worth officials have said her posts violated the state's ethical standards for teachers as well as district policy on social media](. They went on to say the posts created "substantial disruptions in operations" and undermined her ability as a teacher, according to the district's notice to Clark.  Latest in anime's #MeToo moment: A Tarrant County judge orders mediation and [shares threats of violence in Vic Mignogna lawsuit](.  REAL ESTATE [First look: Renovation of downtown Dallas' historic Cabana Hotel is moving ahead]( Developers redoing a historic downtown Dallas hotel [have finished demolition and are ready to start reconstruction of the high-rise](. Centurion American Development Group purchased the landmark Cabana Hotel in 2017 and had been working on plans to restore the buildings. The 10-story hotel on Stemmons Freeway was built in 1962 by Las Vegas hotelier Jay Sarno, who also built the famed Caesar's Palace. Centurion American CEO Mehrdad Moayedi - who redeveloped downtown's Statler Hotel - plans to bring the storied property back to life as an edgy hotel. "The view of downtown from this building is the best there is," said Moayedi, giving a tour of the gutted building. "We are finishing up our plans."  Also: Billingsley Co. — one of North Texas' most successful developers — [is headed to the Collin County town of Fairview for a major new project.](   And: A new coworking center [is coming to Dallas' Victory Park on Sept. 30.](  ADVERTISEMENT EDITORS' PICKS - Weather: As Tropical Storm Imelda stirred in the Gulf of Mexico, Gov. Greg Abbott placed several [state resources on standby across the state this week](. - Entertainment: [The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon]( coming to Texas Nov. 7]( to film at a college campus for the first time. - Cowboys: It appears that Tyrone Crawford [will miss Sunday's game]( against Miami, sources said. Dr. Sara Abosch Jacobson (right) cuts a piece of the red ribbon for 102-year-old Holocaust survivor Irma Freudenreich during an opening ceremony for the new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in downtown Dallas on Tuesday. Seated on the left is 97-year-old survivor Heinz Wallach. (Tom Fox/Staff Photographer) FINALLY... [Holocaust survivors help Dallas museum open new chapter to put hate in its place]( The governor joined Dallas' mayor and local Holocaust survivors Tuesday morning for a ribbon-cutting marking the opening of the new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. The museum opens today in a much larger home designed to inspire and teach hundreds of thousands of students and other visitors who pass through its doors about human rights efforts throughout history. Gov. Greg Abbott, one of the speakers at the event, said no one who visits the museum would leave unchanged. "They will be more informed about the Holocaust," he said. "They will be haunted by the boxcar. They will be alarmed by the wickedness of the savagery that can occur in this world. But hopefully they will also be inspired by the stories of perseverance of the few who made it out alive."  👋 That's all for this morning! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletters@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=). STAY CONNECTED WITH US  [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( [Reddit](  [Unsubscribe](  |  [Free newsletters](  |  [Dallasnews.com](  |  [Subscriber login](  |  [Privacy Policy](  |  [Contact us]( Copyright 2019 - [The Dallas Morning News, 1954 Commerce Street, Dallas, TX 75201, United States](