Dallas HERO to city officials: Comply with Prop U or risk litigation

A group called Dallas HERO has put city officials on notice over a controversial charter amendment passed last year. Its warning: Comply with the mandate to hire hundreds more police officers — or possibly face litigation.

The group, which has right-wing political connections, was behind the effort to get the measure on the ballot — and has been the center of scrutiny for over a year.

The group sent a “notification of claim” to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and the entire City Council for “their noncompliance with Prop U.” That proposition requires the city to hire a minimum of 4,000 officers.

“Prop U is not a suggestion. It’s part of the city’s charter, placed there by the will of the voters. Compliance is not optional,” Dallas HERO Executive Director Damien LeVeck said in a Monday press release. “And, City Hall has been flagrantly disregarding this legal mandate since it passed last November.”

The notice — per the proposition language — gives the city of Dallas 60 days to meet the requirements, “or litigation can be triggered.”

LeVeck told KERA on Monday afternoon that the city isn't holding up its end of the bargain when it comes to enforcing Proposition U.

“That’s not leadership, that’s tyranny,” LeVeck said. “There’s already enough lawlessness on the streets of Dallas…we aren’t going to stand for it at City Hall.”

Along with the hiring requirement, the proposition says the city must conduct an annual survey to figure out the salary and non-pension benefits of officers of “all the cities in Dallas, Collin, Tarrant, Denton, and Rockwall Counties” — and stipulates the city earmark some revenue to pay for the severely underfunded Dallas Police and Fire Pension System.

Funding the pension is already required by state law — and city officials adopted a plan to meet the Texas Legislature’s requirements last year.

While Dallas HERO spent months collecting signatures to place the measures on the ballot — and then campaigning for them — a coalition of current and former local and state elected officials banded together weeks before the election to oppose the amendments.

That included nearly the entire Dallas City Council, former mayors, county officials and state representatives.

“On the surface, you think, well, there’s some good stuff here,” former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told KERA last year. “But you have to read these amendments and go into…the details of them and you realize they are very, very dangerous.”

The amendment passed with just over 50% of the vote. Now the city is on the hook to figure out if its already in compliance with the amendment — and if not, how to remedy the issue.

LeVeck said either the city complies with Proposition U or it may be dragged "into a protracted and expensive lawsuit.”

“The ball's in their court,” he said. “We don’t want to be spending taxpayer funds on a lawsuit but the fact of the matter is that somebody has to hold these people accountable.”

KERA reached out to the city for comment about Dallas HERO's notice. A city spokesperson told KERA "we have no comment to make at this time."

LeVeck was recently appointed as Dallas HERO’s executive director after Pete Marocco, the group’s former director, left for a Trump Administration appointment.

Marocco led the group up and through the November 2024 election, often issuing press releases calling his opposition “elite grifters” and deflecting questions about who Dallas HERO’s funders are.

Marocco is now the Director of Foreign Assistance at the State Department and Deputy Administrator for USAID — a department he has “dismantled,” according to reporting by NPR.

LeVeck is behind a social media account called Dallas En Fuego and regularly posts what he callas “spicy videos and memes.”

“I believe that this city is due for a change, and that change is calling out the cabal of leaders that has run the city into the ground for the last ten years,” LeVeck told KERA. “What I’m doing with Dallas En Fugeo is really just shining a light on what was already there in the first place.”

LeVeck told KERA that nothing he says on the account is false — and tries to operate with a “certain level of journalistic integrity.”

“What I bring to it is my own personality, my own humor and my own media expertise that makes the content fun to watch and informative at the same time,” LeVeck said. “Infotainment is absolutely my goal and if it offends some people, I don’t really care.”

A post from Monday morning reads:

“[Good Morning]. It’s March 31, 2025 and the people in charge of running our city hate you. Have a nice day.”

Another post begins with “FRY COOK LOGIC” before commenting on District 7 Council Member Adam Bazaldua’s vote on a recent zoning case.

Bazaldua graduated from the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin and worked in the hospitality industry in New York City and Dallas before becoming a culinary teacher at two Dallas ISD schools, according to his campaign website.

Dallas HERO's X — the site formerly known as Twitter — profile has similar content. A post from Sunday about compliance with Prop U ends with "these people hate you."

And another post shows a GIF of a monkey banging on a calculator with a caption saying "here's actual footage of Dallas' [Chief Financial Officer] hard at work..." above it.

At the end of the call with KERA, LeVeck clarified that Dallas HERO and his Dallas En Fuego persona are two separate entities.

LeVeck said he made it clear to Dallas HERO that he wouldn’t be censoring himself just because he’s stepped into the executive director role.

“I’m still doing my thing independently and I’m also…following the mandates and directives of the organization Dallas HERO and trying to support what it is that they believe in, because obviously I believe in it too,” LeVeck said.

Police officials have told the council multiple times that hiring any more than 300 police officers right now could be too costly — and disrupt current patrol operations.

“Moving the needle to 325 means me moving critical resources out of the patrol bureau,” Interim Dallas Police Chief Michael Igo said at a late-February council meeting. “With the thought of increased response times and an increase in crime overall.”

The city has until the end of May to respond to Dallas HERO's claim. In that time city leaders will focus on hiring a permanent police and fire chief, deal with mounting issues over a police training facility and the day-to-day operations of the city.

But in that time some council members will say goodbye to City Hall. Nearly the entire council is up for reelection in early May. Some incumbents face only one challenger and others face more than six.

Other districts will have the chance to bring a new face to City Hall as some current council members are terming out. That includes Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins and District 4 Council Member Carolyn King Arnold.

Whoever ends up at 1500 Marilla Street after the election will have to contend with Dallas HERO's claims — and the other notices that will likely be submitted under the new charter amendments.

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 gift today. Thank you.