Yesterday, you'll recall, those firefighters, police officers and assorted other first responders filed four amended lawsuits related to the 1979 referendum that gave 'em all pay raises (for how long's the billion-dollar question). We're still waiting to see how the Supreme Court of Texas is going to rule in the original suit filed more than a decade ago. But we no longer have to wait for the city's response. This just in from Frank Librio, spokesman at Dallas City Hall:
Beginning in 1994, lawyers for many Dallas police officers and firefighters filed a total of six lawsuits against the City, contending that the City owed them back pay as a result of a one-time 15% pay raise approved by Dallas voters in 1979. Over the past 16 years, the City has successfully obtained dismissals of many of their claims. The City is currently requesting the Texas Supreme Court to dismiss most of the remaining claims. Yesterday, the plaintiffs amended their lawsuits yet again. These amendments appear to be an attempt to keep their lawsuits alive regardless of how the Supreme Court may rule on the pending appeals. If these new claims had merit, one would have expected them to have been filed years ago. The City believes the new claims have no more validity than the other ones and will only further delay the resolution of this years-old litigation. The City will file the appropriate motions to seek the dismissal of these new claims. Even if the City were somehow unable to obtain the dismissal of the new claims based on the City's governmental immunity and other jurisdictional grounds, the City remains confident that it will prove at trial that the Dallas voters approved only a one-time pay raise.
Tom Perkins
Dallas City Attorney
