A measure placed on November’s ballot by a voter petition could cost the city of Dallas tens of millions of dollars in funding, cause drastic cuts to city services — and make it harder to retain police officers. Elected officials voiced their concern over what some are calling a “draconian” proposal, during Wednesday’s council meeting.
But there’s nothing the council can do about it. The petitions gained enough signatures and by law, elected officials must place them on the ballot for Dallas voters to decide on.
City officials hope spreading more awareness — and facts — about the implications of the proposal will help Dallas residents make an informed choice, come November.
The three measures include increasing Dallas’ police force by 1,000 officers, dictating that some of the city’s new revenue be allocated to funding the police department and linking the city manager’s compensation to a resident survey.
Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins, who represents portions of southern Dallas, said during the meeting the proposal could send the city back to “the Dark Ages.”
“I feel like this is going to cripple us right now,” Atkins said. “This is going to cripple our infrastructure, our parks, our [recreation centers], our libraries, employees.”
‘Drastic, very extreme cuts’
Interim City Manager Kimberly Tolbert told the council that trying to meet the increased police staffing the proposal dictates could cost the city about $175 million. That includes costs for supplies — like vehicles, uniforms and equipment — employee benefits and pension obligations.
Tolbert said the upcoming budget includes an addition of 500 offices — and it’ll cost about $60 million to make it work over two years. But to make sure the city has the funds to make the increases the voter referendum calls for, Tolbert said it’s going to mean cutting back in other areas of the budget.
“Overall, you would be looking at drastic, very extreme, cuts that we would have to make across the board,” Tolbert said. “And that’s not just day-to-day, but that’s a drastic cut in every single service we provide at the city.”
That could include cuts to code compliance enforcement, animal services, the city’s parks and recreation system — and street improvements.
And that’s only from a budget perspective. Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said during the meeting that there are other issues that come from the hiring goal.
“When it comes to hiring 900 officers in one fell swoop, that does come with several administrative challenges for us in one year,” Garcia said. “Recruiting is one part of this, but just as important…is retention.”
Garcia said that even if the department meets its current hiring goal of 250 new officers, with at least 190 officers leaving the department annual, reaching 4,000 officer total would take about 15 years. Garcia emphasized the need for a “slow growth” of the police department.
“When you look at that, to me, the 250 that we talk about is something feasible…but more than that becomes issues with the staffing that we have,” Garcia said. “We’d be robbing Peter to pay Paul with regards to training.”
Garcia told the council the department needs to focus on retaining the officers that it has right now.
“50 police officers in the academy…hard to compare to 50 tenured, senior officer that walk out that door,” Garcia said.
Who is Dallas HERO?
The petition was started by a group called Dallas HERO. The organization says it is a “citizen-led coalition to help reform city hall.”
Pete Marocco, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, serves as the group’s executive director. Marocco is from University Park, according to Wednesday’s registered speakers list.
“We want a city government where good performance is rewarded and failed leadership is replaced,” Marocco said during the meeting. “We simply want a bare minimum of three police officers to every thousand citizens.”
According to press releases from the group, Stefani Carter is Dallas HERO’s “honorary chair.” Carter sits on the Braemar Hotels and Resorts board of directors.
There were a handful of people registered to speak about the Dallas HERO initiative at Wednesday’s meeting. Most of them were not from Dallas, according to the speaker list.
Among those registered was Monty Bennett. Bennett is the chief executive officer of Ashford Inc, a Dallas-based asset management firm and the publisher of the Dallas Express.
Bennet is also the founder and chairman of Braemar Hotels and Resorts — the same company’s board that Carter sits on.
Bennett did not speak at the meeting.
‘Fiscally irresponsible’
Most of the council seemed to agree with the unforeseen impacts of the citizen-led petition.
“This is a very…fiscally irresponsible ballot initiative,” District 1 Council Member Chad West said. “It could seriously impact our other departments including parks, libraries, street repairs, all these things that are also priorities for our constituents, beyond just public safety.”
West said council members need to be careful about the things they say to residents over the next couple of months. Elected officials risk violating ethics laws, otherwise.
“To illustrate the draconian nature of this proposed referendum amendment, this would result in a freezing of the general fund budget for the foreseeable future,” District 14 Council Member Paul Ridley said.
Jack Ireland, the city’s chief financial officer and one of the main architects of the city’s budget, told council members that the proposition would dictate that 50% of the city’s year-over-year revenue growth be used for public safety.
“It limits our abilities,” Ireland said. “There is some concerns in the referendum.”
But those concerns are only on the public safety focused proposals. District 9 Council Member Paula Blackmon said the proposition that would place the city manager’s compensation in the hands of a resident survey, poses issues as well.
“A survey is different from a poll and you could really activate a [public relations] campaign and its pretty clear that if you don’t reach that threshold, you will be terminated,” Blackmon said. “If I was looking for a job, I wouldn’t come here.”
The proposal comes after former City Manager T.C. Broadnax’s resignation at the suggestion of most of the city council.
Broadnax announced his resignation earlier this year to fill Austin’s vacant city manager position. Shortly after his departure, more details pointing to a possible staged exit came to light. That includes a memo of when Broadnax talked to certain council members, who suggested he step down from the position.
After, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson asserted that the whole resignation was planned out — and that they city shouldn’t be on the hook to pay Broadnax over $400,000 in severance. The city ultimately paid Broadnax and is now in the process of finding a permanent replacement.
“I don’t want to speak on behalf of any potential candidate for the city manager position, but I think it’s detrimental,” Tolbert said. “It would be something that people, like myself, would think very seriously about before they would want to dedicate their professional time to the city manager position.”
Many council members said using voter referendums to get proposals on the ballot has unintended consequences. District 7 Council Member Adam Bazaldua criticized what he believed to be a lack of information included in Dallas HERO’s messaging.
“There were a lot of signatures and I don’t believe near the amount of context needed for those who signed to understand the implications,” Bazaldua said. “It was circulated, quite frankly, from someone who is also not well versed in city government.”
Bazaldua said during the meeting the city was not consulted by the organization running the voter campaign.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gifttoday. Thank you.
