Dallas City Council Member Gay Donnell Willis, who represents District 13, opposes a citizen-led charter proposition that would tie performance incentives for the city manager to an annual survey of residents.
Willis suggested at a Dallas City Council meeting last month that a resident-based survey would be incapable of properly assessing the city manager’s performance.
“What kind of culture do you create at city hall for 15,000 employees, where they want to show up to work every day for our residents with a good attitude, how do you retain your key leadership?” she said. “That’s something a city manager does that does not show up on a survey.”
“How are you working in crisis response?” she continued. “How do you proactively communicate with a city council? How do you design a budget? The list is endless, and it just doesn’t show up on a survey.”
The nonprofit Dallas HERO rallied the necessary signatures from residents to add three proposed charter amendments to November’s ballot. One of those amendments would tie the city manager’s pay to the annual survey. The other amendments would allow citizens to sue City leaders for refusing to follow local and state laws and require the Dallas Police Department to hire roughly 1,000 officers, increase officer pay, and bolster the first responders’ pension system.
Willis openly opposed Dallas HERO’s proposed reforms during the council meeting.
“Is it possible if these the groups that submitted these, could they withdraw them if they so desire?” she asked at one point.
Council Members Willis, Adam Bazaldua (District 7), and Omar Narvaez (District 6) ended up advancing their own proposed charter amendments to November’s ballot that, if approved by voters, would directly contradict the Dallas HERO proposals, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Willis’ proposed charter amendment would essentially nullify the city manager survey.
“Shall Chapter VI, Section 1 of the Dallas City Charter be amended by adding a provision that states that the section authorizing the city council to have final decision-making authority regarding the appointment, removal, and compensation of the city manager controls over any other conflicting provision of the city charter?” the ballot language reads.
The three council members and other City officials face three lawsuits from Dallas HERO in response to the proposed poison pill charter amendments, 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,” it continues.