Home / Dallas News / Little-known Dallas City Council requirement has been in doubt for years due to federal court ruling

Little-known Dallas City Council requirement has been in doubt for years due to federal court ruling

A Dallas City Council member with unpaid city tax debts cannot serve on the 15-member governing body. But a 2-decade-old court decision has planted doubt for years about whether that city charter law can legally be enforced.

The little-known Dallas rule came into focus recently after information surfaced that Jesse Moreno, a City Council candidate, faced a nearly $150,000 tax lien from 2015 that hadn’t been paid off heading into the final weeks of Saturday’s runoff election. The lien included $18,000 in taxes due to the city.

The state comptroller’s office said records showed Moreno recently made his final payment on a plan. Moreno said that was around $25,000.

The payment came amid media inquiries about the debt and questions from runoff opponent Sana Syed on his fitness to serve if elected. Moreno and Syed, the lead vote getters in the May 1 general election, are seeking to represent District 2, which covers parts of downtown and East and North Dallas.

To qualify to run for the City Council, according to Dallas’ charter, a candidate is required to be a U.S. citizen, a Texas resident for at least a year and living in their respective district for at least six months before an election. They also can’t be “in arrears” on taxes and other liabilities due to the city by the time they are elected.

But an identical rule in at least one other city charter in Texas has long been deemed unconstitutional, and another city recently turned to voters to remove the rule because of questions over its legality. At least one Dallas official has publicly called for the requirement to be erased from the charter in recent years because she believed the city couldn’t enforce it.

Rules in the city charter can only be changed via voter approval after City Council referral.

A review by The Dallas Morning News of all 14 current council members and nine candidates seeking seats on the governing body found only Moreno and Maxie Johnson, a Dallas ISD trustee who is running in District 4, owed the city money as of last month.

Johnson has two city labor liens in his name totaling more than $480, records show. They were issued by the city in 2012 and 2016 for yard work to correct code violations at his home.

Johnson told The News on Wednesday that he found out about the liens a month ago. He said the home previously belonged to his grandmother and then was passed on to him and his two brothers when she died. Johnson said he wasn’t living at the home when the liens were levied, but he does live there now.

Johnson said his family plans to pay the bill.

Struck down

The last time the city’s tax requirement came under scrutiny was during the 2014 charter review process, which occurs every 10 years. The rule has been on the books since at least 1968.

In a February 2014 memo to the charter review commission, then city secretary Rosa Rios’ top recommendation was to get rid of the requirement. She was unsuccessful.

“This amendment is of utmost importance as the city cannot legally require candidates/incumbents to not be in arrears in the payment of any taxes or other liabilities due [to] the city,” the memo said. Rios cited a 1995 federal case that examined a similar charter requirement in Longview, more than 120 miles east of Dallas.

The case centered on two then Longview council members who sued their city over the same qualification for elected officials. Attorneys representing Longview alleged the two officials didn’t pay taxes or reimburse the city for work related to code violations, according to court documents.

The council members claimed in their lawsuit they shouldn’t be removed from the governing body because the charter rule violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. They argued that an elected office qualification based on a person’s ability to pay city taxes wasn’t “rationally related to any legitimate governmental interest.”

A U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Texas ruled in their favor. The city of Longview challenged the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Fifth Circuit of the Appeals Court announced in July 1996 that it agreed with the lower court’s decision.

In Beaumont, more than 80 miles east of Houston, voters weighed in last month on whether to remove the requirement from two sections of its city charter.

Proposition C asked residents whether to remove a requirement that would make anyone in arrears in paying city taxes ineligible “to serve the city.” Proposition P asked whether to remove the same requirement for someone “to hold municipal office or employment” with the city.

Proposition C passed and Proposition P failed.

Beaumont City Attorney Tyrone Cooper said this was the second time voters have been asked to remove the prohibition from the charter, and the May election result has left them with the “same dilemma.”

“This probably is something in most home rule charters in the state of Texas, and I know we’ve had ours for quite some time,” Cooper said. “But I would say it’s not enforceable, and it’s because the courts have said so.”

He said he didn’t know when the provision was added for Beaumont, which first adopted its charter in 1947. Cooper said he believes the rule was put into city charters as a way to display good citizenship.

“But you may be an upstanding citizen and you can’t pay taxes owed as a matter of wealth or lack thereof,” Cooper said. “So it can’t be used as a requirement to hold office.”

It’s unclear from available court documents if Hunt or Powell in the Longview case made the argument that they were financially unable to pay what they owed.

Past Dallas cases

Before Moreno, the issue most recently came up in 2019 when then council member Philip Kingston owed more than $8,000 as a penalty for missing too many council meetings in 2016 and 2017. He signed an agreement in 2017 to pay the debt but didn’t hand over a check until two days after the final deadline in 2019 amid a reelection bid.

Bilierae Johnson, the city’s current city secretary, noted there is a similar provision in the code that says board and commission members can’t serve if they owe city taxes, water service charges or other obligations and aren’t attempting to pay them off.

The person is allowed to agree to a payment plan and remain eligible for appointment or reappointment as long as they are making an effort to pay, according to city code.

No such provision exists in the city charter for council members, but Johnson said any who still owe city taxes and are on payment plans would have to consult with the city attorney’s office.

Moreno served on the city’s Park and Recreation board from 2013 until last year. He didn’t mention the debt or a payment plan in annual financial disclosure forms filed with the city while he was still a member of the board, records show. He also didn’t disclose the tax lien or payment plan in a personal financial statement filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.

Moreno said the taxes stemmed from a 2015 sales tax audit of Peak & Elm, a now-closed restaurant his family owned that was a spinoff of another family business, La Popular Tamale House.

Moreno referred questions about the lien to his treasurer and tax attorney Mark Melton when asked by The News. He declined to comment except to say that he paid around $25,000 last month to settle the lien. Melton said Moreno paid it “out of an abundance of caution.”

The attorney said he believed since the payments had been ongoing that Moreno didn’t violate any city rules. Melton said he didn’t believe Moreno would have been required to disclose the tax lien to the city.

He also said he didn’t know about the City Council requirement on tax payments until it was mentioned by a News reporter.

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