“The proposals are contradictory, and the ballot language as a whole will confuse and mislead voters,” the court’s opinion read.
DALLAS — In a 16-page opinion released late Wednesday afternoon, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the city of Dallas to remove three of its proposed city charter amendments written to defeat three other ballot proposals by a citizen-led group called Dallas HERO.
“The propositions contradict each other, and the ballot language as a whole fails to recognize these contradictions, and will confuse and mislead voters,” the court’s opinion read.
On November 5, Dallas HERO successfully petitioned Dallas voters to present three propositions that, if passed, would amend the city’s City Charter, which is essentially the city’s constitution.
The first ballot measure asks Dallas to raise police pay and hire more officers. The second ballot measure would institute a merit-based pay system for the mayor — the more problems you solve, the more you make. And the final charter amendment would allow citizens to sue city officials if they don’t follow the law.
However, the Dallas City Council subsequently approved three charter amendments of its own that give ultimate authority over the allocation of city funds to the elected City Council.
City Councilman Adam Bazaldua said residents elected the city council and trust them to run the city.
“I think they’re more of a clarification of the amendment than anything else,” Bazaldua told WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics last week.
But Dallas Heroes sued the city over the City Council’s amendments, and the Texas Supreme Court, in a ruling on Wednesday, sided with the citizen-led group and ordered Dallas to repeal the three ballot measures.
“This is an unusual and rare remedy for the Dallas City Council’s extremely egregious violations of the law,” Dallas HERO Executive Director Pete Marrocco said in a statement to WFAA. “The City Council’s duplicitous attempt to thwart the will of the people is reckless, illegal and shameful. The Inspector General should investigate and (Councillors) Bazaldua, (Omar) Narvaez, (Gay Donnell) Willis, and others who likely conspired behind closed doors, should resign immediately.”
WFAA obtained the document, and the full 16-page opinion can be viewed below.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed an amicus letter with the Texas Supreme Court in the Dallas HERO lawsuit, also praised the Texas Supreme Court’s decision.
“I filed a letter in support of this citizens group’s lawsuit because government entities cannot put misleading counter-proposals on the ballot to mislead voters simply because they want a particular measure to fail,” Paxton said.
“I am disappointed in the court’s decision, but even more disappointed by the clearly political nature of this decision. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that donors of the proposal’s campaigns are also donors of the campaigns of every single Texas Supreme Court justice. We now await the voters’ decision, but in the meantime I will continue to educate and advocate against these terrible measures, which are misguided at best,” Bazaldua told WFAA.
The city needs at least 20,000 signatures to put an amendment on the ballot, and Dallas HERO says the three amendments proposed by the city have garnered 169,000 signatures.
With 55 days until the election, no organized opposition to the Dallas HERO amendment has emerged.
Bazaldua told Inside Texas Politics that he plans to lobby the city to sue if voters approve the Dallas HERO plan.
Ballots will be printed soon.
WFAA has reached out to the City of Dallas for comment on the decision.
“Thank you for contacting us. Due to litigation matters, the city cannot comment.”
