Mr. Mellow

Price has named his own children--two sons--after himself. The older son, John Paul Wiley Price, came from the commissioner's marriage to Vivian Pauline Salinas, a woman of Italian and Hispanic heritage. Price married Salinas in 1970; he was 19, she was 23 and already had two small children. They met at El Centro College, which Price soon quit to support his family. The union lasted only three years before the couple split, divorcing several years later.

Price's son, now married and a father himself, preaches at a nondenominational church in Chicago, the commissioner says, and rarely contacts his father. Price says he isn't concerned about the distance in his relationship with his first son. "I told him to just make sure I end up in a convalescent home," he says. In her article, Miller detailed at length the tardy child-support payments Price made when his first son was growing up. Price still defends his reasons for postponing the payments. He used to make his son work for the court-ordered money, and if the boy neglected to come to his house on the weekend and help out in the yard, Price didn't pay until his son made good on his chores. The commissioner says he wanted to instill in his son a strong work ethic, and "that's the only carrot I had at the time."

His attitude seems less harsh toward his younger son, three-year-old John Nicholas Watson Price. Price and his close friend, DISD administrator Ora Lee Watson, became the boy's foster parents, as they'd done with a number of other needy children. But this time, Price says, he was moved to adopt. He sent out adoption notices to friends and associates and came home to tell his mother, who keeps a picture of the smiling pre-schooler at her house, "This one I'm going to adopt."

The precise terms of that adoption have become an issue in Price's federal bankruptcy case. Price filed for protection under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy code in late 1996, and his case is still pending. When he filed, Price said court judgments against him had forced the move. "I don't find it embarrassing at all," he told the Observer's Thomas Korosec, then a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I tried to do the right thing; I ended up doing the white thing." The court judgments entered against Price included $147,000 stemming from the commissioner's role as a borrower in a failed savings and loan, and $113,000 awarded to the man who claimed Price broke his ankle during a 1991 tussle outside the county court administration building.

Under bankruptcy laws, Price normally would have been allowed to keep his Oak Cliff home and one car. Several months after he filed, however, Price wrote to the bankruptcy court about John Nicholas, seeking to keep $60,000 in additional assets, double what he would have been permitted as a single man with no dependents. Bankruptcy trustee Tom Powers says he plans to raise questions about the proposed exemptions--hoping to determine whether Price actually did adopt the child. Price, asked about the adoption in a follow-up interview, declined to discuss it.

Ora Lee Watson, for her part, referred the Observer to the court record. Adoption files are not available to the public, but the computerized index names only Watson as the adoptive parent. The family-court file on the case does say the boy has a "significant relationship with a special friend of his foster family. He often spends time with this gentleman, and he should be recognized as a strong male role model in the child's life."

Price's fortune isn't particularly impressive, according to the figures provided in his bankruptcy claim. Price states he has $339,080 in assets and $398,046 in liabilities, including a $3,000 jewelry-store bill for items he bought shortly before he filed for protection. In his claim, Price lists his annual income as $80,302 from the county and $22,522 from KKDA for his one-hour radio gig five times a week.

But the commissioner doesn't lack for material things. As part of his homestead, Price lists a collection of timepieces, African art, and a fleet of exotic and antique cars that includes a 1948 Pontiac, a 1948 Oldsmobile, and a 1989 Lotus.

Price has tried numerous times to drum up other sources of income. He owned an Exxon station that went bankrupt and a host of other small enterprises, including a Tyco Toys franchise.

He also ran the consultation business with Kathy Nealy, specializing in advising clients about minority protests. Miller reported that their largest client at the time was Darling Delaware, a Dallas-based company that owned animal-rendering factories nationwide. The company's plants were often located in minority neighborhoods, and Price tamped down potential legal troubles for the company in California and Georgia.

These days, the consulting company--which was run from Nealy's home--is past-tense, Price says. The commissioner waves his hand and dismisses the subject. "This," he says, pointing to his desk at the county administrative building, "is a 24-hour job."