Key Issues Determined in Dallas County Charter Election
With the Dallas County elections website experiencing issues reducing the expeditious reporting of poll numbers, results took longer than expected to be released. The most recent website updates were provided Wednesday at 6:41 p.m.
Dallas voters weighed in on 18 charter amendments, with four spurring heightened interest from voters. The S, T, and U propositions petitioned by the Dallas non-profit HERO sought to introduce the citizen-powered amendments to the Dallas City Charter. Proposition R, also known as the “Dallas Freedom Act” that calls for decriminalizing larger amounts of marijuana in Dallas, is not affiliated with HERO.
Dallas County citizens voted for Prop U, requiring the Dallas Police Department to maintain at least 4,000 officers, for Prop S, taking away Dallas’ government immunity, and for Prop R, decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana.
Residents voted against Prop C, that would allow an increase in council salaries, and against Prop T‘s proposal for an annual city-commissioned community survey that would affect the city manager’s position.
Council member Gay Donnell Willis, who spoke against Proposition U at a meeting with Park Cities leaders on Oct. 22, said the proposition would require half of all new city revenue to go toward police and fire pensions, and force the hiring of an additional 900 law enforcement officers. Willis said that police had not been consulted before the proposition was placed on ballots, and that the city already has a plan to fund pensions. “It was just pushed onto the agenda without sitting down with our law enforcement and saying, ‘What do we need? How do we get there?’”
Willis concluded her remarks on the proposition, which she said would cost the city about $175 million, by saying: “This would really be devastating to our city budget.”
