DALLAS — Dallas’ city secretary will decide over the summer if the advocacy group Ground Game Texas gathered enough signatures to place marijuana decriminalization on the November ballot.
The group says it has gathered more than 50,000 signatures and verified at least 21,000 of them. 20,000 signatures are needed to force a referendum.
The group’s goal is to stop arrests and citations for anyone in possession of four ounces of marijuana or less, an amount that makes it a Class A misdemeanor.
City Councilmember Chad West says some leaders, including the District Attorney and the Chief of Police, are pushing for the amount to be two ounces or less.
But the council pushed the discussion into August.
“I don’t know the temperature of council right now,” West admitted to us on Inside Texas Politics.
Suppose Dallas does become the largest Texas city to decriminalize marijuana. In that case, West fully expects to be sued by Attorney General Ken Paxton to prevent the statute from taking effect because it would run counter to state law. The Attorney General has already sued Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen and San Marcos for the same reasons.
If it does pass in Dallas, West says it would send a message to the state that the city wants to see marijuana law reformed in Texas.
“There are proven studies that it’s a huge drain on our public safety resources, our time that our police spend having to process all of these claims. It’s something that could save the taxpayers money. And why would we not want to regulate it and tax it if we have that opportunity,” he argued.
Dallas City Council members also recently decided to kick the can down the road on decisions involving changes to the city’s charter.
Those would include pay raises for council members, term lengths and when elections are held.
Councilmember West tells us he’s really disappointed there is virtually no support on the council for moving odd-year elections to November. He says some cities that have adopted that change, including Mesquite and Houston, have significantly increased voter turnout.
When looking at all of the proposed changes to the charter as a whole, consider West unimpressed.
“I’m going to say collectively that this charter package that I have seen that’s actually risen up out of the straw votes is the most self-serving piece of legislation I’ve ever seen in my five years in office.,” he said bluntly. “It’s a disappointment in what’s already risen up that it mostly benefits council members. And it benefits little things like how we run meetings. It doesn’t benefit the voters as a whole.”
In an attempt to speed up the city’s permitting process, which has been bogged down for years, sometimes taking months, Dallas plans to combine the two departments that oversee planning and permitting.
West called the move by interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert “brilliant.”
He says developers support the change because it will allow them to get the answers they need from one source.
West also says the move is vital because the permitting department is the gateway to the city’s property taxes, which pay for everything from police and fire to parks, libraries and street repairs. He says it would also lead to new housing, which Dallas desperately needs.
“It’s got to be the most impactful department in the city,” said West. “It should be the major leagues of the city of Dallas where everybody wants to work because it’s the best department.”
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