“I think it’s a worthy thing to keep discussing and finetune. But I think to do it this year is crazy. I get the moral issue. But I am saying trouble, trouble in River City, if we put this on the ballot in November 2024.”

— District 3 Commissioner Lisa LeMaster

(From the April 3, 2024 KERA news article, “Immigrants may become eligible to serve on more Dallas boards and commissions”)

Immigrants may become eligible to serve on more City of Dallas boards and commissions.

That’s after the Dallas Charter Review Commission voted on Tuesday to approve a proposed amendment that would change the word “citizen” in the charter to “resident” or “people” in some cases.

That includes who technically can speak at public meetings and who is legally eligible to benefit from city services such as fire protection.

Commissioners said Tuesday evening that some of the potential changes to the charter seem fairly self-explanatory.

“I think we can all probably agree that it would be a waste of Dallas fire’s time to ask for people’s citizenship status as their house is burning down,” District 1 Commissioner David De la Fuente said during the meeting.

Currently, the charter tasks Dallas Fire Rescue to take all measures to protect “citizens.” The commission seemed to agree that this was one area where the language change seemed reasonable.

Read the entire article here.