By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-549599.mp3
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble: Farmers Branch resident Gerald Smith has lodged a complaint with the Dallas County D.A.'s public integrity division, according to Matt Boyle, the attorney for Farmers Branch. The Public Integrity Division says it neither acknowledges nor denies it's investigating any complaint, but DOES say it investigates every complaint.
Violators face up to a 4 thousand dollars fine and a year in jail, under criminal law.
That's different from the civil suit filed earlier this week by Farmers Branch Real estate agent Guillermo Ramos. He wants the renter ordinance declared null and void. One of 3 items passed by the Farmers Branch Council on November 13th , it would penalize landlords up to 5 hundred dollars a day for renting an apartment to undocumented, non-U.S. citizens. Ramos also wants to invalidate a rule to clean up yards, because the suit alleges it unfairly targets Hispanics.
The League of United Latin American Citizens is circulating a petition aimed at putting the council-approved items before the voters. LULAC needs 5 percent of the city's voting population to sign by Monday. Meanwhile, backers of the ordinance are urging signers to remove their names by filing legal papers to do so. For KERA 90.1 I'm Bill Zeeble.
bzeeble@kera.org