Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway raised eyebrows and hackles last week when he presented Michael Vick with a key to the city.
Real Mayor Tom Leppert quickly distanced himself from the presentation saying it wasn’t an official key to the city, and the city’s public information office explained that there are two sets of keys — the ceremonial variety that any ol’ council member can give out, and the official keys handled by the Dallas Protocol office and doled out by the mayor or the mayor’s designees, which, presumably, could be any ol’ council member.
So, who’s on which list of key recipients?
Vick received a ceremonial key as have Martellus Bennett, Bill Cosby, Vivica A. Fox, Gene Simmons, and Matiur Rahman. Who? A member of the Bangladesh parliament, that’s who.
Official keys have gone on the chains of such luminaries as Gundars Bojars, mayor of Riga, Lativa, the sister city to Dallas, but you knew that, right? Queen LaMbikiza of Swaziland also can open Dallas’ front door, as can Princess Michael of Kent, Essar Bokar Sey, ambassador of The Gambia, and Olga Algayerova, state secretary of the Slovak Republic.
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Nice to know who can come and go as they please through your house.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He’s installing deadbolts that lock from the inside.
