A “preemptive strike”? Dallas officials are trying to avoid litigation after the HERO amendments are passed

The Dallas City Council could vote to eliminate portions of a 1988 ordinance that set a resident-to-police ratio. The item on Wednesday’s City Council agenda comes after two controversial charter changes narrowly passed on election night that make the city more vulnerable to lawsuits — and result in police hiring mandates.

Propositions S allows Dallas residents to sue the city for violations of the charter, local ordinances or state laws. Under the amendment, the city must waive its governmental immunity.

The 1988 ordinance contained a number of suggestions from the city manager to improve the police department. One suggestion was a series of police staffing increases.

“The city manager will increase the total number of police officers serving in the city by at least 150 per year for each of the next four years and maintain a ratio of at least three police officers per thousand citizens thereafter,” the ordinance said.

The city is currently not following this ordinance. According to a draft amendment to the regulation, the Council could vote to repeal these provisions.

KERA reached out to the city on Monday seeking comment on the draft amendment, the potential impact if it were approved, and whether the potential amendment was a direct response to the passage of Proposals S and U. This story will be updated with any comment from the city.

Wednesday’s agenda item could be a way to avoid a lawsuit over the new charter changes. Currently, the city is not complying with the 1988 ordinance. Under Proposition S, this means that after 60 days’ notice, a resident can sue the city for violating its own ordinances.

But even if the council repeals parts of the ordinance, the city could still face a lawsuit if it doesn’t comply with the new hiring rules created by Proposition U.

“Dallas currently has fewer than 3,200 officers, and officials have said that reaching 4,000 officers would cost at least a few hundred million dollars and likely take many years,” Scott Goldstein, the communications consultant for Downtown Dallas Inc., wrote in his “interest briefings “on Sunday” newsletter.

“Major police departments across the country are struggling to recruit officers, and it takes about a year and a half for recruits to go through the academy and training before they can hit the streets on their own.”

Goldstein, who has been involved in a vocal opposition campaign that began just weeks before Election Day, said the proposed council item was a “preemptive strike.”

“Don’t obey the law”

The proposals were put on the ballot by a group called Dallas HERO. Pete Marocco, the group’s executive director, told KERA about the 1988 ordinance in a mid-October interview.

City officials have previously said trying to hire hundreds more officers would be no easy task — and it could cost the city millions to accomplish. Marocco said it had been done before.

“The city has an obligation to maintain it,” Morocco said. “I can be done, and it can be done responsibly.”

During an interview with CBS Texas’ Jack Fink in late October, Marocco cited the same ordinance as an example of council members “not following the law.”

Complying with the 1988 regulation would mean hiring nearly 4,000 officers — the number required by Dallas HERO’s other amendment, Proposition U.

The group has been the subject of intense scrutiny from its funders and the real reason for launching the initiative. In the weeks – and days – leading up to Election Day, more information emerged about the group.

According to a list of speakers registered by the City Council, Marocco lives in University Park. And one of Dallas HERO’s few public donors, hotelier Monty Bennett, is seeking a homestead exemption in Highland Park — a wealthy enclave outside Dallas city limits.

The day before the election, D Magazine reported Marocco was accused of entering the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Morocco denied these claims in a statement to the magazine.

Bennett, who also serves as publisher of the Dallas Express, has been accused of using the publication to discredit other media organizations – and advance his own interests, according to a comprehensive investigation into the HERO movement published in the Texas Observer.

The coalition that came together to oppose the HERO proposals, which included all living former Dallas mayors and the entire current City Council as well as former council members, warned that the measures could harm the city.

“This is not a sledgehammer to the way we do business,” former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk said during a news conference in early October opposing the points. “That means rolling a hand grenade into City Hall and destroying it.”

“Wake-up call”

But Dallas voters made their voices heard. 12th District Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn told KERA after the election that while she didn’t support the proposals, she hoped their approval would be a “wake-up call” for City Hall.

Other elected officials had a different opinion.

9th District Councilwoman Paula Blackmon told KERA she was “deeply disappointed” that the proposals passed.

“I worry that the overall fiscal impact will be crippling and that work at City Hall will come to a standstill until we understand the full impact of these harmful proposals,” Blackmon said in a text the morning after the election.

During the opposition campaign – and following the approval of the amendments – questions were raised about support for Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. Johnson and Mendelsohn were noticeably absent from the organized “Vote No” campaign.

Finally, Mendelsohn and Johnson published an opinion piece urging voters not just to oppose Dallas HERO’s proposals, but to oppose the entire charter program.

When KERA asked former and current election officials in early October why Johnson wasn’t campaigning with the group, many had no answer.

Just a few days after the election The Dallas Morning News The editorial board published an opinion piece titled “In this election, Mayor Eric Johnson has let Dallas down.”

The editorial board argued that Dallas voters may not have been “fully informed about the negative consequences these proposals could have on the functioning of local government.”

“That is why so many of this city’s leaders, including people from very different political backgrounds, rushed to come together to oppose the proposals, with our former mayors taking the lead,” the board wrote.

“But where was Eric Johnson?” it added.

Wednesday’s action is just the beginning of what could be a long road to implementing the city’s new charter changes.

Do you have a tip? Email Nathan Collins at [email protected]. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.

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