Dallas HERO overcame City officials’ efforts to manipulate the ballot language on its citizen-driven charter amendments, giving voters the opportunity to beef up the short-staffed Dallas Police Department.
The Dallas City Council added Dallas HERO’s three charter amendments to the ballot more than 12 hours into its Wednesday meeting. Council members revealed the vote was delayed because Dallas HERO’s legal team had been negotiating specific ballot language with City Attorney Tammy Palomino’s office.
If approved by voters, one charter amendment would ensure that DPD maintains roughly 4,000 officers, make officer pay competitive, and bolster the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System. Another amendment would allow citizens to sue City leaders for failing to abide by the Dallas City Charter, Dallas City Code, and state law. The final amendment would tie the city manager’s bonus pay to an annual community survey.
Palomino previously worked to distort the ballot language that stemmed from Dallas HERO’s petition campaign, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The group’s executive director, Pete Marocco, had vowed to sue the council members if they adopted Palomino’s proposed verbiage. However, Dallas HERO’s legal team convinced the city attorney’s office to edit the ballot language Wednesday so it better represented the amendments’ intent.
“The City was ready to proceed with the poisoned misleading language but knew we’d win lawsuits against the individuals involved. We asked the city attorney’s office to be reasonable and keep the intent of the language in the amendment. Ultimately they agreed,” Marocco told DX.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the Austin City Council manipulated ballot language stemming from a citizen-driven petition to undermine its intent. The court ordered Austin officials to revise the ballot language.
“At its core, a wildly successful citizen-led petition like this gets 169,000 signatures because elected leaders fail. Direct democracy is the pressure relief valve when politicians reject the will of the people,” Marocco said.
A City analysis conducted several years ago determined that roughly 4,000 officers are needed to police a jurisdiction the size of Dallas. DPD presently has only around 3,000 in the field.
Dallas HERO received the necessary signatures from residents to add its three charter amendments to the November ballot. State law requires the Dallas City Council to add such propositions to the ballot for voter approval.
Still, several council members voiced their opposition to Dallas HERO’s charter amendments.
Council Member Omar Narvaez (District 6) claimed the measures would be fiscally irresponsible, stating that he was going to “make sure to tell my voters not to vote for these.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Council Member Paula Blackmon (District 9).
“I do think they can cause harm, but I will put it forth to the voters to decide,” she said.