Council Member Gay Donnell Willis opposes a citizen-led reform that would boost Dallas Police Department staffing and pay and bolster the City’s first responder pension system.

Willis (District 13) spoke at a Dallas City Council meeting last month to voice her opposition to a proposed charter amendment stemming from a petition campaign organized by the nonprofit Dallas HERO. The Dallas City Council added the amendment to the November ballot after it gained the necessary resident signatures.

The charter amendment would require DPD to hire roughly 1,000 officers (putting it in line with a prior City analysis that assessed Dallas’ public safety needs based on population), increase officer pay to competitive levels, and allocate excess tax dollars to secure the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System.

Willis claimed the charter amendment would, if approved by voters, establish unrealistic demands on City officials.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DALLAS EXPRESS APP

“You know, that one just really flies all over me because you don’t order Dallas police officers off of Amazon,” she said at the meeting. “While it may look good on paper, it may not manifest itself in the best police force in the country.”

She seemed to advise Dallas residents to vote against the charter proposition in November.

“I would want residents to understand that while it may seem like this is a way to just clean up our streets in one fell swoop, there may be some other factors that might supersede just being able to go in and do that,” she said.

Relatedly, Dallas HERO rallied citizen signatures for two additional charter amendment proposals. One would establish an annual citizen survey by which to judge the city manager’s performance. The results of the survey would determine bonus pay and continued employment. The other proposition would allow citizens to sue City leaders if they refuse to follow local or state laws.

Willis, along with Council Members Omar Narvaez (District 6) and Adam Bazaldua (District 7), advanced charter amendments that directly contradict the three Dallas HERO charter amendments. As a result, all three council members now face lawsuits that claim their poison pill propositions constitute unlawful maneuvering meant to upend citizen-driven reform efforts, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

“This grotesque action by the City Council was a desperate last-minute attempt to introduce separate ballot propositions designed and written to confuse, mislead, and disenfranchise the city of Dallas voters,” one of the lawsuit reads.

“The City Council intended to mislead and cause confusion among voters, diminish the ability of voters to discern and distinguish the city’s propositions from other propositions on the ballot, and nullify the will of voters,” the suit continues.

As previously reported by DX, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office recently submitted an amicus brief to the Texas Supreme Court, chiding the council members’ actions.