Coalition to oppose trio of Dallas charter change proposals panned by city officials

A group of current and former Dallas elected, civic and business leaders plan to announce Wednesday they are campaigning against three proposed city charter updates denounced by city officials.
Several former Dallas mayors plan to meet at a downtown hotel to proclaim their opposition to a trio of proposals backed by nonprofit Dallas Hero, which successfully petitioned over the summer to get the propositions on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The propositions mandate the city hire around 900 more officers and spend at least half of its annual revenue growth on the police and fire pension system and other public safety-related initiatives; tie the city manager’s bonuses and job status to the results of an annual community survey of at least 1,400 residents on quality of life issues; and waive the city’s governmental immunity for anyone to file a lawsuit alleging officials aren’t following the city charter, state laws or city ordinances.
Several city officials and council members panned the trio of amendments, Propositions S, T and U. They estimate approval of all three proposals would lead to drastic cuts, more strain on taxpayer money to fend off more lawsuits, and a smaller candidate pool for Dallas’ ongoing search for a permanent city manager.
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Laura Miller, who served as Dallas mayor from 2002 to 2007, said she is among at least four former mayors who oppose the Dallas Hero amendments. She described them as “the biggest threat that I’ve seen in the 40 years I’ve been involved with City Hall.”
“Those three amendments must be voted down in order for the city to function going forward,” she told The Dallas Morning News. “I think we’re all united on that.”
Ron Kirk, mayor from 1995 to 2001, thinks speaking out against the proposals is necessary because the ballot language doesn’t give the full scope of the propositions’ effects.
“I think they are somewhat deceptive in how they’re worded so that many of our citizens are not aware of the incredibly dangerous fiscal and operational impact that they’ll have on the city,” he said. “I couldn’t be any more strongly opposed to them than I am.”
Former mayors Mike Rawlings and Tom Leppert didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment on the proposal or the news conference on Wednesday. Miller said both planned to attend.
Real estate developer Frank Mihalopoulos, the coalition’s campaign chairman, declined to give details on the full list of people who plan to speak Wednesday.
“We represent a large and diverse coalition of people who live and work in Dallas and are alarmed by the dangerous Dallas Charter propositions S, T and U,” he said in a statement. “We will have much more to say tomorrow.”
The group’s name is “Vote No on S, T, U, Dallas.”
Mayor Eric Johnson didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment on whether he planned to attend the news conference and his stance on the Dallas Hero proposals.
Johnson, who has been mayor since 2019, hasn’t publicly said whether he supports or opposes the Dallas Hero amendments. He didn’t support three other charter amendment proposals designed to override the Dallas Hero propositions approved by the majority of the City Council in August.
The three counter-proposals were removed from the ballot by the City Council last month after the Texas Supreme Court ordered they be dropped because none of them clearly stated to voters they would have canceled out the Dallas Hero amendments if approved.
The announcement of an opposition group to Dallas Hero sets up what will likely be the most significant fight in Dallas in the November election. The Dallas Hero proposals are among 18 city charter amendment propositions that also include banning police officers from arresting people accused of having less than four ounces of marijuana and raises for the City Council. The Dallas Hero proposals are the only ones with an announced organized opposition effort.
Pete Marocco, Dallas Hero’s executive director, declined comment Tuesday, saying he first wanted to know who was involved in the counter-effort. The nonprofit group has described its amendments as necessary tools to improve safety and hold government officials accountable.
Though the group has described the initiative as a bipartisan effort, it has gotten heavy support from local conservatives.
The Dallas County Republican Party last month said its executive committee unanimously supported the proposals.
“The unanimous vote of the Dallas County GOP Executive Committee shows our commitment to holding government officials at all levels accountable, especially local,” Allen West, the county GOP’s chairman, said in a statement. “It is imperative that the arrogance of officialdom is not tolerated.”
The Dallas County Democratic Party hasn’t yet announced an official stance on the proposals.
Dallas hotel mogul and Republican donor Monty Bennett told WFAA last week that he is helping fund the controversial trio of proposals. He said he has given office space and cash to the effort but wouldn’t say how much.
Bennett is also the publisher of the online outlet The Dallas Express, which, as of Tuesday afternoon, hasn’t disclosed to readers in any articles about Dallas Hero that the hotelier is a donor. Ties to Bennett and the Dallas Hero initiatives go beyond that.
Bennett told WFAA that he and Marocco are friends. Stefani Carter, a former state legislator listed on Dallas Hero’s website as its honorary chair, has been a board member of Bennett’s Braemar Hotels and Resorts since 2013.
A lawsuit sparked the Texas Supreme Court order to drop the counter-proposals and complaints to state appellate courts filed on behalf of Cathy Cortina Arvizu, the wife of a Dallas police officer who signed petitions to get all three proposals on the Nov. 5 ballot. She also is a paralegal at Bennett’s asset management firm Ashford Inc., according to her LinkedIn profile.