Current and former city leaders vow to fight Dallas Hero proposals on November ballot

Around four dozen current and former Dallas elected officials and local leaders called on voters Wednesday to reject three proposed city charter changes they say would endanger the city and how it serves residents for years to come.
The group, gathered in a basement conference room at the Aloft Downtown Dallas hotel, said they agreed with the basic idea of propositions S, T and U — government accountability, hiring more police officers and paying them competitive wages and benefits — but the language of the proposals would undermine the authority of City Council members and the city manager, and impede city spending in the name of public safety.
“This is not taking a sledgehammer to the way we do business. This is rolling a hand grenade into City Hall and destroying it,” said Ron Kirk, who was Dallas mayor from 1995 to 2001. “It would affect every level of our lives with the city, from public safety to our parks to our libraries and our basic services.”
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The news conference was to announce formation of a coalition supported by the local leaders to oppose the trio of proposals backed by the nonprofit Dallas Hero, which successfully petitioned over the summer to get the propositions on the Nov. 5 ballot. It sets up what will probably be the most significant fight in Dallas in the Nov. 5 election.
The group Wednesday included former mayors Kirk, Tom Leppert, Laura Miller and Mike Rawlings; all of the City Council except Mayor Eric Johnson and council member Cara Mendelsohn; former City Manager Jan Hart Black; former Police Chief David Brown; around a dozen other former council members and state lawmakers; Dallas County government officials; and representatives from the local business and nonprofit community.
Rawlings said the campaign would include a social media campaign and flyers mailed to voters. The group plans to contact law firms, banking organizations, nonprofits, commercial real estate groups, park and library advocates, the local arts community and downtown Dallas interest groups.
“This campaign is serious,” Rawlings said. “It’s well-funded, and it’s very organized.”
Real estate developer Frank Mihalopoulos, the coalition’s campaign chairman, said he hopes the group raises more than $500,000 to go toward voter outreach and that the campaign would be enough to encourage people to go down to the very end of their ballots to reject the proposals.
“This was a call to emergency,” Mihalopoulos told The Dallas Morning News after the news conference. “The magnitude of the people who are standing up to this shows the level of concern we all have that we’re not sure the average voter is aware of.”
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 propositions S, T and U. They estimate approval of all three 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.
“Simply put, we believe these amendments are short-sighted, misguided and would irrevocably cause harm to Dallas,” said Arcilia Acosta, chair of the Dallas Citizens Council, a nonprofit made up of Dallas-area business leaders who weigh in on local policy issues.
Mihalopoulos said he didn’t know why Johnson and Mendelsohn didn’t attend.
“We asked them to come,” he said.
Johnson and Mendelsohn didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday on why they didn’t attend or if they were invited. The two elected officials didn’t support three other charter amendment proposals approved by the majority of the council in August and designed to override the Dallas Hero propositions.
The council removed the three counterproposals from the ballot last month after the Texas Supreme Court ordered they be dropped because they didn’t clearly state to voters they would have canceled out the Dallas Hero amendments if approved.
The Dallas Hero proposals are among 18 city charter amendment propositions that also include raises for council members and banning police from arresting people accused of having less than 4 ounces of marijuana. Propositions S, T and U are the only propositions with an announced, organized opposition effort.
Pete Marocco, Dallas Hero’s executive director, described the news conference Wednesday as “ridiculous” and “vapid.” He said the countereffort has led to an increase in donations since Tuesday.
“They made our fundraising easier,” Marocco said. “They’ve made our message easier.”
He wouldn’t say how much Dallas Hero has raised. The group is a 501(c)4 nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors.
“I think it’s funny that they claim that they want accountability, yet all they’ve done is try to fight that,” Marocco said.
The group 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.”
Kardal Coleman, chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, told The News on Wednesday that his group will back the countereffort.
Dallas hotel mogul and Republican donor Monty Bennett told WFAA-TV (Channel 8) 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 Wednesday afternoon, hadn’t disclosed to readers in any articles about Dallas Hero that the hotelier is a donor.
Marocco also declined to say how much Bennett has donated.
“We have many generous donors,” Marocco said. “(Bennett) is by far not the wealthiest donor that we have. We have many well-known supporters who have actually donated to the campaign.”
Ties to Bennett and the Dallas Hero initiatives go beyond money and office space.
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.
Marocco told The News that he and Bennett are “friendly” but said they’ve only met twice.