Four proposed amendments from citizen-led petitions are pending approval by Dallas officials ahead of the November general election, and the Dallas city attorney may have a crucial role to play in what makes it onto the ballot.
Citizen-led petitions must obtain more than 20,000 signatures from registered voters in Dallas before the city council can add the propositions to the ballot. City officials must review the four petitions to verify that they obtained the necessary signatures.
Once the necessary signature verification process is completed, the Dallas City Council must then determine how the petition’s proposed amendments will be worded on the ballot.
In Austin, the city attorney plays an important part in this process.
A spokesperson for the City of Austin told DX that in the state’s capital, the city’s law department advises the city council on “legal issues associated with ballot language for all elections.”
The Austin City Council lost a lawsuit in 2021 before the Texas Supreme Court, which determined the council enacted misleading ballot language for a citizen-led petition. Save Austin Now filed the lawsuit over a petition regarding homeless encampments.
“[City leaders] all play games with ballot language,” Matt Mackowiak, the co-founder of Save Austin Now, previously told DX. “Cities don’t like citizen petitions because it reduces their power. It reduces their ability to control policy and to control decisions. It can be a very effective tool because it becomes a check on the powers of the city council and mayor.”
While the spokesperson for the City of Austin told DX the city council “makes the final decision on the language that will appear on the ballot,” it is worth noting that the city attorney’s advisement impacts this decision.
If the same is true of Dallas, then City Attorney Tammy Palomino wields considerable influence regarding the wording of the proposed amendments as they appear on the ballot in November.
However, it remains unclear if this is the case, as no documentation of Dallas’ rules pertaining to the drafting and review of ballot language is readily accessible to the public.
The Dallas Express reached out to the City of Dallas, the office of City Secretary Bilierae Johnson, and the office of City Attorney Tammy Palomino to ask for additional information on how exactly ballot language will be determined. No response was received before publication.
Dallas HERO, a self-described bipartisan initiative pushing for City reforms, organized three of the four citizen-led petitions submitted for this election cycle. The petitions propose increasing the number of sworn officers in the Dallas Police Department, increasing city manager accountability, and allowing citizens to sue government officials over Dallas City Charter violations, as previously reported by DX.
The fourth citizen-led petition, organized by Ground Game Texas, proposes to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Note: This article was updated on July 11, 2024, for the purposes of clarification.