Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed an amicus brief with the Texas Supreme Court supporting citizens’ opposition to the Dallas City Council’s proposed charter amendments.
Last month, it was reported that the Dallas City Council is facing multiple lawsuits over proposed city charter amendments that would reportedly undermine citizen-led reforms.
The nonprofit organization Dallas HERO led a campaign to add three proposed charter amendments to the November ballot.
One of the Dallas HERO amendments would require the City of Dallas to add around 1,000 police officers to the Dallas Police Department, increase police officers’ salaries, and improve the Dallas police and fire pension system. The other two proposed amendments would allow residents to sue city leaders for failing to follow the city charter, city code, and state law, and tie the city manager’s bonus pay to an annual resident survey.
After they received the signatures to add it to the ballot, three city council members proposed three additional amendments that appear to have been added to the ballot to undermine the three Dallas HERO amendments.
One of the council members’ amendments grants the Dallas City Council complete authority over the city’s budget. Another grants legal immunity to all council members and city officials. The final amendment would give the city council control over the city manager’s salary. All of the amendments, if approved, would override each of Dallas HERO’s proposed amendments.
Following the addition of the three council members’ amendments to the ballot, Dallas HERO filed three lawsuits—one at the federal level and two with the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas.
Now, Paxton has signaled his support for Dallas HERO, filing an amicus brief with the Texas Supreme Court saying that “due to the City Council’s eleventh-hour additions, the slate of charter amendments presented to Dallas’s voters—taken as a whole—runs afoul of this Court’s precedent.”
“Texas agrees with Dallas HERO, however, that the City Council crossed the Dacus line by proposing additional charter amendments without explaining that their ‘character and purpose’ was effectively to undo the charter amendments proposed by Dallas HERO,” reads the brief.
Paxton continued, saying it’s concerning that the council added these amendments only after Dallas HERO put their proposed amendments on the ballot.
“Texas is aware of nothing in the proposed ballot language to inform voters that by voting for the city-proposed amendments, they necessarily render ineffective Dallas HERO’s propositions. That result is particularly concerning given that these amendments only arose out of citizens’ frustration with the same City Council’s refusal to enforce its own laws,” concludes the attorney general’s brief.
