The city of Dallas as well as four former Dallas mayors and a host of politicians past and present are coming out en masse against three controversial propositions that will be on the ballot in November.

Propositions S, T, and U are three amendments to the city charter that include forcing the city to hire more police officers, and another that would create an opportunity for wasteful lawsuits.

While all three propositions have a feelgood facade, political veterans say they would create crippling financial hardships, burying the city in lawsuits while grappling with budget shortfalls.

A press conference on October 2 opposing the amendments drew former mayors Laura Miller, Ron Kirk, Mike Rawlings, and Tom Leppert, who all voiced their opposition to the amendments, along with Dallas County Commissioner John Wylie Price, State Senator Royce West, and former Dallas police chief David Brown. Current and past city council members included Omar Narvaez, Gay Donnell Willis, Jaime Resendez, and Sandy Grayson.

John Wylie Price said "there's nothing more critical than you voting no on S, T, and U." Former Dallas police chief Brown said that "it would render Dallas as a police state with very little to no budget flexibility to deal with emerging issues in our neighborhoods." Former Mayor Ron Kirk said it was "rolling a hand grenade into city hall and destroying it," and former Mayor Rawlings called it "chocolate-covered rat poison." (Rawlings wins.)

The three propositions are from Dallas Hero, a mysterious, seemingly unhinged political group that gathered enough signatures to get them on the November 5 ballot.

• Proposition S - lawsuits. It would allow residents to sue to city to require it to comply with charter provisions, ordinances and state law, and would waive the city’s governmental immunity from suit and liabilities.
• Proposition T - city manager's salary. It would require that the city conduct an annual community survey whose results would have an impact on the city manager's salary and employment, including possibly getting them fired.
• Proposition U - police. It would require the Dallas City Council to use 50 percent of annual revenue that exceeds the total annual revenue of the previous year to fund the Dallas Police and Fire Pension, and hire 900 police officers to get the force up to 4,000 total.

Dallas Hero calls itself "a bipartisan 501c4 organization that seeks to introduce citizen-powered amendments to the Dallas City Charter." The executive director is Pete Marocco, who served in the military and has since worked overseas in conflict zones for the U.S. government, as well as advising corporate security programs for companies such as Dell Technologies. and who worked during the Trump administration at the Pentagon, Department of State, Department of Commerce, and USAID.

The backer is said to be Dallas-area businessman Monty Bennett, who owns hotel companies, has tweeted about the propositions, and has employees who've been involved in Dallas hero initaitives including Cathy Cortina Arvizu, a paralegal at Bennett's hotel company, who filed a lawsuit against the city in response to its legislative efforts against the proposals; and Stefani Carter, the Dallas Hero president who sits on the board of one of Bennett's hotels.

Cease and desist
Meanwhile, the City of Dallas sent a cease-and-desist letter to Dallas Hero, demanding the group stop using city materials, including a photograph of three Dallas police officers and the city’s trademark and logo in its campaign literature mailouts.

"The three DPD officers in the photograph did not give Dallas HERO permission to use their likeness, and the City of Dallas did not give Dallas HERO permission to use the photograph or the City’s trademark and logo," the city states in a letter.

"The photograph in question shows the badge and insignia of DPD on the officers’ uniforms. The use of the City's badge and insignia without permission is strictly prohibited by Dallas City Code. The City and DPD are not affiliated with Dallas HERO and did not approve the usage."

"The City’s letter demands that Dallas HERO immediately stop using the photograph and the City's trademark and logo in any form, including in any online, printed, or digital materials."