In Dallas, ballot propositions could drastically change police and city government

Dallas City Hall. (Credit: Azul Sordo for The Texas Tribune)

---

Three Dallas city charter amendments, buried at the very end of the upcoming November ballot, could drastically affect the city’s police department — and change how local government operates.

If passed, those amendments could force the city to hire hundreds more police officers and dictate where some excess revenue is spent, tie the city manager’s compensation to a community survey — and allow residents to sue the city for violating the charter while forcing the city to waive its governmental immunity.

Advocates say the propositions would place the power of accountability back in Dallas resident’s hands — while also increasing police staffing.

“Propositions S, T and U are a suite of ballot propositions … that came together because of Dallas citizens’ refusal to accept a lot of the bad headlines that we were seeing,” Pete Marocco, the executive director of Dallas HERO, the group responsible for the amendments, told KERA.

Dallas HERO says on its website it is a “bipartisan 501c4 organization that seeks to introduce citizen-powered amendments to the Dallas City Charter.” But questions have been raised for months about the group’s donors, how it gained its petition signatures — and who might really be behind the organization.

The measure’s critics warn the propositions are coming from a rogue group from outside of Dallas and could be dangerous to city finances, and to its residents.

The union that represents thousands of Dallas police officers has publicly opposed the amendments, calling them “contrived by a small group of people who do not live in Dallas, with no open dialogue.”

Propositions S, T and U have gained so much attention, that a “who’s who” of current and former Dallas politicians, business leaders and city leaders launched a campaign to oppose them.

That includes at least four former Dallas mayors and current Mayor Eric Johnson, the entire Dallas City Council plus many other former council members, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas. It's also opposed by members of the Dallas Citizens Council — a group of city business leaders that has, for decades, used its influence on city politics.

“On the surface, you think, well, there’s some good stuff here,” former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told KERA. “But you have to read these amendments and go into … the details of them and you realize they are very, very dangerous.”

The coordinated opposition kicked into high gear just weeks before the election — but some officials warn there’s a good chance some of the propositions could pass come Nov. 5.

Another proposition — Proposition R — also is on the ballot. But it’s backed by a group that has no association with Dallas HERO.

It would decriminalize larger amounts of marijuana in Dallas, and was also placed on the ballot with a petition, this one organized by Ground Game Texas. That amendment has received little opposition from city leaders.

"No open dialogue"

Marocco says Proposition U is the centerpiece of the three amendments. It focuses on the police department.

“Proposition U requires that the city of Dallas is going to spend 50% of new revenue to fund the police and fire pension,” Marocco said.

The city’s public safety pension system has been grossly underfunded for years after risky real estate investments by the fund’s managers led to it becoming nearly insolvent. The Texas Legislature had to step in to help stabilize the fund — and now Dallas is on the hook for remedying the billions in unfunded liabilities.

The proposition would also mandate that the city increase the number of sworn police officers to “at least 4,000.” That means hiring around 900 more officers.

“I think most citizens in the city of Dallas want more [police] officers, I want more officers, I wanted more officers when I was mayor,” Rawlings said.

But he also said there’s a difference in wanting something and “actually doing it.”

“Because you want to do it right, you want to make sure that the right ones [get] hired, you want to make sure they’re trained appropriately,” Rawlings said. “The way that [Prop U] is written, it’s going to be very, very dangerous to hire all those officers at once.”

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia previously said that hiring the number of new officers, as would be required if the proposition is approved by voters, would be difficult.

And on the first day of early voting, the Dallas Police Association formally opposed the slate of propositions.

“Dallas Police Association, which represents thousands of Dallas police officers, is strongly opposed to all three of these amendments — which were contrived by a small group of people who do not live in Dallas, with no open dialogue, no experience on the subject matter and no communications with police association leaders that would be impacted by these amendments,” DPA President Jaime Castro said in a press release.

Survey says...

Proposition T would tie the city manager’s compensation to “citizen satisfaction” with city services.

The amendment would require the city to complete an “annual community survey” that focuses on crime, homelessness, litter, “aggressive solicitation [and] panhandling” and infrastructure and streets.

A minimum of 1,400 surveys “should be returned with at least 100 from every City Council District,” according to the proposed ballot language. The survey results could “provide consequences for the city manager, including awarding performance compensation or termination.”

“I don’t think we would find a decent city manager, ever, if this amendment was passed,” Rawlings said about Proposition T. “It will be very unclear who the boss is for the city manager … Now you have a survey that is the boss.”

Rawlings said he wouldn’t take that job. Without creating an environment that still holds the city’s top executive accountable — while not politicizing the role because their job may be decided by as few as 1,400 Dallas residents — the city may not get the right kind of applicants, according to Rawlings.

“The city manager is so critical, we’ve got to hire the very best that we can,” Rawlings said.

“Enough is enough”

Proposition S would mean the city could lose a major defense against litigation.

“We have evidence that you need to have some type of enforcement mechanism for the average citizen to say, ‘Hey enough is enough’,” Morocco said.

If passed, Proposition S gives a resident the ability to put the city on notice for violating one of its own ordinances, charter codes or any law in Texas. After 60 days, the resident can sue — and the city must give up its governmental immunity.

Rawlings said the measure could leave the city vulnerable to hundreds — if not thousands — of lawsuits and tie up resources for litigation. Other city leaders said the amendments are well intentioned but needed more work.

“The direction and intent, I’m supportive of, but you got to do it in the right way. These were just not very well thought out in terms of the implications,” former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert told KERA after a recent Dallas Regional Chamber event.

“In some cases, the unintended consequences, that’s what the problem is,” he added.

Who's behind Dallas HERO?

Dallas HERO’s origins have been in the spotlight since the group started campaigning. It’s been accused of being run and funded by people outside of Dallas.

But Marocco disputes those claims. He said the group’s donors are people who work, live, or have business interests in the city — although some don’t live directly within its limits.

“I can tell you, without a doubt, there is not one single donor that I have seen that is from outside the Dallas area,” Marocco said. “When I say the Dallas area, you might have somebody that’s in Garland, you might have somebody that’s in Plano, you might have somebody that’s in University Park.”

Marocco listed a University Park address on an early-August city council meeting registered speakers list.

Stefani Carter was an early Dallas HERO executive and serves as Dallas HERO’s “honorary chair.” Carter sits on the Braemar Hotels and Resorts board of directors.

Cathy Cortina Arvizu brought the original lawsuit against most of the city council — except Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn — over the city’s attempts to essentially nullify the group’s amendments.

Arvizu is a paralegal at the asset management firm Ashford Inc., according to LinkedIn. Ashford is run by Monty Bennett, who also serves as the publisher for the Dallas Express.

Bennett — who claims a homestead exemption at a Highland Park address, according to Dallas County Appraisal District documents — is also the founder and chair of Braemar Hotels and Resorts, the same company’s board that Carter sits on.

Bennett has also donated funds to at least one Texas Supreme Court Justice earlier this year. He also contributed significant funds to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's campaign — most recently, a $100,000 donation in June 2023.

Paxton called for the Texas Supreme Court to intervene in the Dallas HERO lawsuit in an amicus letter. Dallas media outlets and independent journalists have been documenting connections and speculating over Bennett’s involvement in the Dallas HERO movement.

In late September, WFAA reported that Bennett — who sat down with the outlet for a rare TV appearance — “admitted that he'd contributed his support, office space, and even cash to the initiative, although he wouldn't say how much — just that it's not as much as he's donated to other GOP initiatives.”

Bennett said he had been “involved as much as they’ll let me” with the Dallas HERO group, according to WFAA.

“I’m certain people led with that”

What ultimately ended up on the ballot weren’t all the propositions the group tried to get signatures for. A fourth amendment asked voters to essentially ban police officers from using chokeholds.

KERA asked whether that amendment was used to get signatures for the other three amendments that made it to the ballot.

“In some cases, I’m certain that people led with that, and it really just depends on who that person is or what issue they were most passionate about.” Marocco said.

Marocco added that some volunteers didn’t want to collect signatures for the chokehold proposition at all.

Despite the mounting opposition to the amendments, the petition process is part of the way Dallas’ government is structured.

“I think it’s legal, and it’s the way it’s done,” Rawlings said. “I don’t think it’s the smartest way to approach how we govern ourselves.”

Rawlings said if people aren’t happy with city government — they should “get rid of their city council person, get rid of the mayor.” Other city officials have said maybe it’s too easy to get something on the ballot.

With the election fast approaching, city leaders have said at least one of the propositions could pass.

“The one that people like the most, is being able to sue the city,” Rawlings said about Proposition S. “Everybody likes to sue everybody … so that one is actually the scariest one for me.”

But Rawlings said when he explains the propositions to people, they say “Oh, I get it.” He said he is urging voters to go read the slate of amendments and figure out what they mean.

Election day is Nov. 5.