Four citizen-led charter amendments in Dallas qualify for November ballot

Dallas voters will have a chance to weigh in on four proposed changes this fall.

It’s part of a citizen-led initiative to place charter amendments on the ballot that don’t require the approval of the Dallas City Council.

Depending on when you showed up, you might have encountered various groups hauling boxes into city hall earlier this summer.

Each box contains thousands of signatures supporting four citizen-led charter amendments.

Amendments the city of Dallas says now have enough valid signatures to land on the November ballot.

Pete Marocco is the executive director of Dallas HERO, an organization working to bring change to Dallas’ city charter through three separate, signature-approved amendments.

“We had 169,000 responses to these charter amendments, and we only needed 60,000,” Marocco said.

“We feel very strongly that we have a strong mandate for this, and we’re going to get really high bipartisan support,” Marocco said.

HERO wants to set the minimum number of Dallas Police officers at 4000. The police department currently has about 3,070 sworn officers as of May 2024. Additionally, the amendment would require the city to maintain a three-officer-per-1000-resident ratio and make Dallas's starting police pay among the top five in North Texas municipalities. Dallas police officers' current starting salary is $70,314.

Another proposal would tie aspects of city manager compensation to performance metrics tied to the city’s annual community survey outcome.

The final proposal will give citizens the power to sue city officials if they feel they are not following the city code or the city charter.

“This is about the citizens of Dallas saying we’re going to require a minimum standard to increase public safety, for city leader accountability, and citizen enforcement,” Marocco said.

Dallas Police Department did not immediately respond to the question of whether it supports the proposed charter amendment regarding police pay and staffing.

Dallas City Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis told NBC 5 she supports a mechanism allowing residents to get a charter amendment on the ballot but feels the HERO amendments lack the “scrutiny and crafting” by residents.

“It’s better if they go through the Charter Review Commission that is resident-driven and has lots of opportunities for public comment,” Willis said. “That can hone and strengthen what the voters consider in November.”

The Dallas City Council is currently reviewing recommended charter amendments from the commission and amendments individual council members want to support. The council is expected to take a straw poll on those amendments on Aug. 7 before taking a final vote on charter amendments on Aug. 14.

Dallas City Secretary Bilierae Johnson informed Dallas HERO and Ground Game Texas their submitted petitions met the required 20,000 valid signatures on July 19.

Ground Game Texas is supporting a charter amendment to decriminalize the possession of marijuana under four ounces.