DALLAS — The city of Dallas has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Dallas HERO — the group that collected signatures to put three charter amendments on the November ballot — demanding the group stop using city materials in its campaign.
One of the amendments would allocate half the city’s new revenue to improving police and fire pensions, hiring 900 police officers and improving police pay. Others would put the city manager on performance-based pay and allow citizens to sue city officials if they don’t follow the law.
Dallas HERO’s website showed a photo of three Dallas police officers including the city’s trademark and logo.
The city in a statement Wednesday said the three officers in the photo didn’t give Dallas HERO permission to use their likeness and the city didn’t give them permission to use the trademark or logo.
“Dallas HERO is using the photograph and the City’s trademark and logo in its political campaign regarding City charter amendment measures S, T and U in the upcoming November election," the statement reads. "The three DPD officers in the photograph did not give Dallas HERO permission to use the photograph or the City’s trademark and logo,” the statement read. “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.”
Pete Marocco, executive director of Dallas HERO, though, called Dallas’ letter “political engineering” in a statement to WFAA.
“The press release was nothing more than…political engineering and we’ve warned the officers in the city to cease their illicit misrepresentations,” Marocco said. “If the city does not retract their illicit abuse of public resources to advocate against government reform and more police, we’ll see them in court again soon.”
In response to the Dallas HERO proposals, the Dallas City Council approved three charter amendment proposals of their own. Those proposals would have overridden Dallas HERO's proposals regardless by codifying that final control of allocating city funds would rest exclusively with the elected council. The Supreme Court of Texas in September ruled that the Dallas City Council proposals could not appear on the November ballot.
But in the wake of the Dallas council amendment proposals. Cathy Cortina Arvizu — who said in court documents that she was among those who signed the Dallas HERO petitions — filed a lawsuit against the city on the matter, calling the council's response to the initial proposals unjust. Arvizu works as a paralegal at hotelier and Dallas Express publisher Monty Bennett's Ashford, Inc., according to her LinkedIn page. Bennett has since told WFAA that he'd contributed his support, office space and cash to the Dallas HERO initiative.
Dallas’ cease-and-desist letter to Dallas HERO and press release came the same day a group of current and former Dallas leaders, including former mayors Mike Rawlings, Tom Leppert, Laura Miller, former Police Chief David Brown, along with County Commissioner John Wiley Price and State Senator Royce West (D-Dallas), gathered downtown to speak against the group’s proposed charter amendments.
