Dallas Police Association President Sean Pease says the defeat of the city's $443 million public safety bond sends a message that voters want more accountability and transparency from City Hall.
Pease said he believes the bond's failure reflects concerns about how the city manages its money, rather than a lack of support for police and fire services.
"To me, this is a very loud statement to City Hall of concern about how money is managed and how it's taken care of," Pease said.
The bond would have funded five separate projects including a new fire station, new Dallas Police property room and evidence storage facility, and DPD’s new training academy, which broke ground in Sept. and lacks about $82 million in funding.
Pease also believes grouping the multiple projects into a single proposition may have steered voters in another direction. He said separating the projects, allowing voters to consider them individually, could have a difference.
DPD pistol range that would have been funded through the bondCity of Dallas
"You would not have had the Save City Hall people also be part of the Bust the Bond initiative if the 911 call center wasn't in there," Pease said.
He said he believes opposition to the 911 call center may have influenced some voters to reject the entire package.
Pease said he would support a separate bond election just for the police academy, potentially in May. We spoke to Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn at the groundbreaking of the police academy in Sept., who has the same sentiment.
“I think you should hold us accountable, and you should say, ‘I want you to list the name of the project and tell me how much money will go to it,’” she said. “So I'm recommending people bust the bond, vote no in November, and ask the council to come back in May with a smaller bond targeted just to the police academy, we can afford that.”
While the academy has broken ground, Pease said the city still needs to identify enough funding to complete its first phase. Voters previously approved $50 million for the academy through the 2024 bond, but he said that amount is not enough to finish the work.
While Pease is a strong supporter of public safety and of the projects that were in the bond, he said his biggest concern is making sure Dallas can recruit and retain the officers and firefighters who would use those facilities.
According to Pease, the police and fire labor agreement with the city expired Sept. 30, leaving both departments without a new contract.
"When I look at a timeline of how things need to go, I need to have my officers and firefighters secured under a contract, before I'm worried about buildings that are going to get built two, three and four years down the road," Pease said.
He said competitive pay and good benefits would do more to help with recruiting and retention than new facilities alone.
Pease also raised concerns about rising health care costs and the city's elimination of the PPO insurance option, saying those issues could push officers and firefighters to leave Dallas for other departments.
"What good is a $227 million police academy if we cannot recruit officers to train there or retain the experienced officers we already have?" Pease said in a statement online following the election.
He pointed to Proposition U, which Dallas voters previously approved to make police staffing and competitive compensation a priority.
Pease said he would like to see Dallas pay its officers and firefighters among the top 10 departments in the region.
"By competitive, I'm not talking first, second, third,” he said. “You know, the voters said top five– right now I'd be happy with top 10 in the region.”
Pease said he wants officers and firefighters to remain committed to serving Dallas rather than leaving for other cities.
He said the bond's defeat should prompt city leaders to reconsider their spending priorities and recognize that investing in public safety means investing in the people providing those services, not just the buildings they work in.
