What Dallas voters’ decisions on S, T and U ‘Hero’ propositions will mean for the city

   

Updated at 6:30 a.m. 11/6/24 to reflect unofficial final results.

Reflecting a world too easily seduced by what sounds like fast, easy fixes to gnarly problems, Dallas voters fell for two amendments with the power to gut City Hall.

S, T and U, the so-called “Hero Initiative amendments,” were designed to dupe residents who are frustrated with City Hall. “Vote yes for public safety, accountability, quality of life,” proclaimed billboards funded by S, T and U’s mostly anonymous promoters.

Who wouldn’t want those things? Yet these proposals were the wrong way to go about it and the apparent passage of two of them will bake bad governance into Dallas’ charter.

According to unofficial returns, residents overwhelmingly supported Proposition S, which will allow anyone to file costly lawsuits against the city — even if they have no stake in the supposed grievance. By a tiny margin, they also said yes to Proposition U, which mandates a force of 4,000 cops, such an impossibility the Dallas Police Association opposed it and labeled it “doomsday” for the city’s budget.

The only one of the three to fall was Proposition T, which would have put the city manager’s employment in the hands of the 0.1% of residents who respond to a survey.

Voting is not a game; it’s serious business. Elections determine how we are going to live and the kind of government we’re going to have.

Too many Dallas voters fell for the fear-mongering flag of “safety and accountability” and were swept away by a handful of buzzwords.

Concern about the potential damage of the three propositions was so great that 74 current and former city, county and state elected officials joined forces in a bipartisan coalition to get the facts out.

My interviews with two dozen voters in various parts of the city Tuesday indicated Dallas residents relied on gut instinct when it came to their decisions on S, T and U — not on the intensive campaigns waged by either side. The only consensus among voters was the propositions were written in the most confounding way possible.

Linda Ovalle, 47, kisses her  daughter Nancy Escalera, 15, as the two women walk together...
Linda Ovalle, 47, kisses her daughter Nancy Escalera, 15, as the two women walk together after Ovalle voted Tuesday at the Samuell Grand Recreation Center in Dallas.(Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

North Dallas resident Ben Michiels, 55, told me he had no idea his ballot would include propositions until he arrived at the Royal Lane Baptist Church polling place Tuesday. “That’s my bad for not looking into them prior,” he said.

He said his on-the-spot decision in favor of Proposition U was based on his long-held belief that Dallas doesn’t have enough police officers. “Everything I have ever read or heard on the news was we were short and needed more personnel to fill those positions.”

He voted for Proposition S because, he said, cities aren’t perfect organizations and people should have the right to take legal action. “We can hope those suits are worthwhile, not the ridiculous lawsuits people file all the time.”

Michiels voted no on Proposition T.

At the Jubilee Park Community Center in South Dallas, retiree Fidencio Salas, 68, said he voted for all three propositions based on what he understood them to mean. Reading them on the ballot was his first knowledge of them.

“We need more police to make the city more secure,” he said. “Our neighborhoods needs to be better protected. And sometimes the city needs to be sued.”

Unlike many Dallas voters who said they weren’t aware propositions would be on the ballot, Cipriana Guardado, 39, who lives in East Dallas’ Mount Auburn neighborhood, said she came to the Samuell Grand Recreation Center prepared to vote for props S, T and U.

“I always do my homework,” she said. “We need more police and we need the accountability for our city leaders.”

She said she did not hear from either side in the “Hero Initiative” debate, but learned what she needed because “it was all over the news.”

Guardado said she voted for the amendments for the same reason she voted for former President Donald Trump. “The world is stressful right now,” she said. “It’s the worst it has ever been.”

Sarah Cundiff, 36, a North Dallas strategy consultant, said she knew nothing about the propositions when she walked into the Royal Lane church. She acknowledged it was possible she received texts or mailers regarding S, T and U but “there was so much of that stuff I just didn’t read it.”

She voted yes for Proposition S because “it feels like the city has more rights than the citizens under the current system.” She hoped her vote would lead to more power for residents.

Cundiff also voted yes for Proposition T and no for Proposition U.

One of the mobile billboards the “pro S, T and U propositions” campaign commissioned to...
One of the mobile billboards the “pro S, T and U propositions” campaign commissioned to drive around Dallas on Election Day makes a stop Tuesday evening at Samuell Grand Recreation Center in East Dallas.(Sharon Grigsby / Staff)

Two of the voters I spoke with said the coalition of past and present leaders against the propositions influenced their votes.

Far East Dallas resident Cynthia Anzaldua, 68, voted no on all three. “People I respect, like former Mayor Ron Kirk, opposed them,” she said outside the Samuell Grand Recreation Center in East Dallas.

Delores Cullivan, 70, who lives near White Rock Lake, also said no to S, T and U. As a member of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, she looked into the propositions and found them to be bad governance. She also mentioned the “Vote No” mailer that included the names and photos of former and current leaders and their arguments against the propositions.

“I’m with them,” she said. “Count me with them.”

Bravo to the Dallas voters who, like Anzaldua and Cullivan, said no to the magic beans being sold by shadowy outsiders. Unfortunately, not enough of the voters saw through these changes to the city charter that will take governance out of our hands.