Some of Dallas’ former and current elected officials are sounding the alarm over what they say are three “destructive” charter amendments. The changes would significantly affect the city’s public safety departments, if they survive a vote come November.
Former Dallas Mayors Ron Kirk, Laura Miller, Tom Leppert and Mike Rawlings, along with current Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, State Senator Royce West and former Dallas Police Chief David Brown voiced their concerns over the propositions at a Wednesday press conference in downtown.
And 13 of the 14 current Dallas City Council Members showed up as well. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn were not in attendance.
“This is not taking a sledgehammer to the way we do business,” Kirk said during the press conference. “This is rolling a hand grenade into City Hall and destroying it.”
City officials have said the measures could cost the city of Dallas tens of millions of dollars in funding, cause drastic cuts to city services — and make it harder to hire and retain police officers.
A group called Dallas HERO led the charge to get the amendments on the ballot. The group says it’s a “bipartisan 501c4 organization that seeks to introduce citizen-powered amendments to the Dallas City Charter,” according to its website.
Dallas HERO officials discounted the press conference as an “engineered” fundraiser orchestrated by Rawlings.
“He and his coalition of elite grifters failed to make a single salient point about their opposition and only allowed friendly press, not the public, not police or uninvited press, into their basement networking session,” Pete Marocco, the executive director of Dallas HERO, said in a statement sent to KERA after the event.
Marocco's statement also said all the focus is on the Dallas HERO amendments — and not the other petition-led propositions focused on amending the city's marijuana policy.
The group was thrown into the spotlight after it successfully gained enough signatures for its petition. But questions about its origins, leadership and funders followed.
“You have this agenda being pushed by people who don’t live in this city,” District 4 Council Member Carolyn King Arnold told KERA. “They’re not even at the table trying to support the whole principle behind equity.”
Arnold said when campaigns like the Dallas HERO initiative spring up — they usually leave those most vulnerable out of the conversation. Other leaders commented on who was involved in getting the three amendments on the ballot.
“…Some of whom proudly boast about the fact that they participated in the insurrection against our country on January the 6th,” Kirk said. “And because they failed to destroy our democracy from the top down, now they want to start on City Hall.”
‘Render Dallas as a police state’
Dallas HERO’s amendments have been called “draconian” by members of the city council — and the group itself has been described as “rouge” by other Dallas leaders.
One of the group’s amendments — Proposition U — would mandate that the city increase the number of sworn police officers to “at least 4,000.” That means hiring around 900 more officers.
“The police are not meant to do everything,” Former Dallas Police Chief David Brown said. “In effect, this amendment would render Dallas as a police state, with very little to no budget flexibility…undermining our local democracy.”
City leaders have said the move could cause drastic cuts to the recently passed budget. Police leaders say there’s other issues with trying to hire that many officers.
“When it comes to hiring 900 officers in one fell swoop, that does come with several administrative challenges for us in one year,” said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia during an early-August city council meeting. “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 said at the time that the department needs to focus on retaining the officers that it has right now.
Proposition T, as proposed by Dallas HERO, would tie the city manager’s compensation to “citizen satisfaction” with city services.
The amendment would require the city to complete an “annual community survey” that focuses on crime, homelessness, litter, “aggressive solicitation [and] panhandling” and infrastructure and streets.
A minimum of 1,400 surveys “should be returned with at least 100 from every City Council District,” according to the proposed ballot language. The survey results could “provide consequences for the city manager, including awarding performance compensation or termination.”
The city is currently trying to find a permanent candidate to fill the open city manager position. The search comes after former Dallas and current Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax resigned earlier this year.
The final amendment, Proposition S, is aimed at “citizen enforcement” according to the group. The change would empower Dallas residents to bring legal action against the city to compel city leaders to “comply with any of the provisions” of the charter.
That includes getting injunctive relief against the city — and recovering attorney’s fees. It would also see that the city can’t defend against a lawsuit with “governmental immunity.”
“I can tell you from a business standpoint, the cost of that and the operational issues that will come about on that, it will paralyze the city,” Leppert said.
The Dallas City Council has previously tried to essentially thwart the three petition-led amendments by adding in three changes of its own to the ballot. But the Texas Supreme Court ruled the city’s amendments must be taken off the upcoming ballot.
Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby wrote in an early September opinion the propositions “contradict each other, and the ballot language as a whole will confuse and mislead voters.”
Who is Dallas HERO?
Marocco, is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and serves as Dallas HERO’s executive director. Marocco is from University Park, according to previous city council meeting registered speakers list.
Along with Marocco, Stefani Carter serves as Dallas HERO’s “honorary chair.” Carter sits on the Braemar Hotels and Resorts board of directors.
Cathy Cortina Arvizu filed the original lawsuit against most of the city council — except Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn — over the city’s attempts to essentially nullify the group’s amendments.
Arvizu is a paralegal at the asset management firm, Ashford Inc, according to LinkedIn. Ashford is run by Monty Bennett, who also serves as the publisher for the Dallas Express.
Bennett is also the founder and chairman of Braemar Hotels and Resorts — the same company’s board that Carter sits on.
Bennett has also donated funds to at least one Texas Supreme Court Justice earlier this year. He also contributed significant funds to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's campaign — most recently, a $100,000 donation in June 2023.
Paxton filed the amicus letter to bring the Supreme Court into the Dallas HERO lawsuit.
Dallas media outlets and independent journalists have been documenting connections and speculating over Bennett’s involvement in the Dallas HERO movement.
A late-September D Magazine piece on images of police officers used on the Dallas HERO website, sparked a response from the group. Tim Rogers, the magazine’s editor, opened the article by linking Bennett to Dallas HERO.
Marocco responded in a letter addressed to D Magazine Editor-In-Chief Christine Allison — and sent it to reporters from KERA, The Dallas Morning News and the Oak Cliff Advocate.
“Tim Rogers’s obsession with a particular hotelier is of no relevance or concern to me, but I encourage you to get Mr. Rogers help with this unhealthy fixation that he mis-projects on others,” Marocco wrote in the letter.
That same day WFAA reported that Bennett — who sat down with the outlet for a rare TV appearance — “admitted that he'd contributed his support, office space, and even cash to the initiative, although he wouldn't say how much — just that it's not as much as he's donated to other GOP initiatives.”
Bennett said he had been “involved as much as they’ll let me” with the Dallas HERO group, according to WFAA.
‘This campaign is serious'
Elected officials said the opposition campaign against Dallas HERO is comprehensive.
“This campaign is serious, its well-funded and its well organized,” Rawlings said.
Rawlings said during the press event that some of the city’s top business leaders — including nonprofit executives, banking entities, and the city’s law firms. Other officials said if the measures pass, the city of Dallas would essentially turn into an experiment in municipal governance — or a “petri dish” as one official called it.
Most notably absent was Mayor Eric Johnson. In fact, when speakers started to introduce the elected officials standing near the podium during the event, some had to rephrase who was in attendance.
“Every living mayor, every living former mayor…are all here together asking one simple thing,” Miller said. “Vote no on [propositions] S, T, U.”
When asked by KERA where Johnson was, many didn’t have answers.
“I don’t know…you know the city can be handcuffed because they can’t use city services [for the campaign],” Kirk said. “That’s why it’s easier for all the former mayors, but I really…have no idea.”
“I don’t know why he’s absent, we’ve reached out to Mayor Johnson, and I think he’ll probably speak his mind at the time that he wants to do it,” Rawlings said.
The officials who gathered at the event said over the next three weeks, the campaign would be speaking to constituents through social media, events and through the press.
Marocco said in his statement the group expected the campaign's "defensive, fear-based response" to the HERO initiative.
The rest is up to Dallas voters to decide whether the three HERO amendments would be beneficial — or detrimental to the city.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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