8 June 6 - 12, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents an abortion in Texas after her fetus was diag- nosed with full trisomy 18, a genetic disorder that is generally fatal, either in the womb or an infant’s first year of life. Doctors warned Cox the pregnancy would harm her health and future fertility, but the case was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court forcing her to seek an abortion outside of the state. Austin Dennard, who lives in Dallas and joined the case as a patient and OB-GYN, told reporters she was “surprised” how emotional the ruling made her. Dennard was forced to “flee the state” to receive an abor- tion after her pregnancy was diagnosed as nonviable at 11 weeks. But she felt the state “showed their cards” when ruling against Cox, and had prepared for the ruling going against the women’s case. “As a provider I love my patients so much, and I still wake up every morning worried about them. I think about all the things I could potentially do to keep them safe, but there is no clarity in the laws,” Dennard said. “I landed back in Texas after my own abortion, put on a white coat and went into the office still bleed- ing from my procedure that I had the privilege to be able to receive ... and I thought ‘I still don’t know what to do to keep them safe.’” Zurawski v. Texas was filed in March 2023 on behalf of five Texas women who were denied abortions and two doctors who said unclear language in state abortion bans threatened their ability to perform their jobs. Over time, a number of women joined the suit bringing the plaintiff count to 22. Last August, a Travis County court sided with the plaintiffs, ruling doctors could use their own judgment to determine when an emergency abortion procedure may be nec- essary. The decision also came down against Senate Bill 8, known as the “Abortion Bounty Hunter Law,” saying the law was un- constitutional and would allow for the pros- ecution of doctors who perform potentially life-saving abortion procedures. Paxton immediately appealed the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. The court heard arguments in November before over- turning the Travis County decision Friday morning, stating the decision “departed from the law as written without constitu- tional justification.” “A physician who tells a patient, ‘Your life is threatened by a complication that has arisen during your pregnancy, and you may die, or there is a serious risk you will suffer substantial physical impairment unless an abortion is performed,’ and in the same breath states ‘but the law won’t allow me to provide an abortion in these circumstances’ is simply wrong in that legal assessment,” the court ruled. Seven of the plaintiffs in the case are from North Texas, including Lauren Hall, whose fetus in her first pregnancy developed with- out a skull or brain. The state’s abortion ban does not make exceptions in cases of lethal fetal conditions, and Hall was forced to travel to Seattle to end the high-risk preg- nancy. Another plaintiff, Samantha Casiano, who lives in East Texas, said she is “embar- rassed to be a Texan” after Friday’s decision. “I was told my baby would not survive, but I was forced to continue my pregnancy and give birth anyway, then watch her pass away hours later. I don’t know how the court could hear what I went through and choose to do nothing,” Casiano said in a statement. “[Texas lawmakers] made my family suffer. I joined this case to make sure no other family goes through that, and I’m devastated that the court is allowing this cruelty to continue.” In a statement, Monique Alcala, execu- tive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said the court’s upholding of “cruel” state abortion bans was a decision made by “out- of-touch Republicans with no understand- ing of the medical risks of pregnancy.” “Republican extremists do not care that the deliberate vagueness of their abortion ban endangers Texans with life-threatening pregnancy complications. They do not care about medical expertise. They do not care that this case’s plaintiffs were brought close to death due to this law’s negligence. They only care about controlling our bodies and our livelihoods,” Alcala said. U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who is running for Senate against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, said the court’s decision is “outrageous.” “This decision allows Texas’ extreme abortion ban to continue to endanger women and deny them the health care they need,” Allred said in a statement. “We are here because of Texas’ extreme abortion ban, which Ted Cruz proudly supports and called ‘perfectly reasonable.’” ▼ CITY HALL NOT BAD FOR GOVERNMENT WORK WHO ARE THE HIGHEST-PAID DALLAS CITY EMPLOYEES? BY KELLY DEARMORE T he city of Dallas is a massive organiza- tion, with a roughly $4 billion annual budget and around 15,000 employees. Recently, city employee pay has been a hot topic in Dallas, thanks to the departure of City Manager T.C. Broadnax. On Feb. 21, Broadnax announced he had been requested by several members of the City Council to re- sign, a move that would trigger a severance package consisting of 12 months of base pay. Even without knowing the dollar amount involved, that’s a pretty sweet deal. But the fact that a year’s salary for Broadnax is more than $420,000 sent Mayor Eric Johnson looking for ways to not only avoid paying that amount but to ensure that no future city managers have such a clause included in their agreements. Broadnax has been serving since early May as city manager in Austin, where he’s collecting a $470,017 annual base salary. All this Broadnax pay drama got us to thinking: Who are the highest-paid city employees and how much do they earn? Broadnax’s much publicized annual sal- ary of more than $423,000 would’ve placed him at the top of the current list of highest Dallas city salaries. By a long shot, in fact. While the city seeks a new city manager, In- terim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert is making $367,383. That’s a raise from her salary of more than $319,000 as the deputy city manager, but it’s not enough to top the list of Dallas city salaries. We reached out to the city for a list of the Top 20 highest-paid Dallas employees. For now, without a permanent city manager in the palace, the highest salary in Dallas be- longs to Cheryl Alston, the executive direc- tor of Employees’ Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas, who makes $387,891.42 per year. Alston oversees the pension plan for the civilian employees, that is, not the police department or fire department. Officials in Alston’s department make up an additional three spots on this list. Each of the 20 highest-paid Dallas employ- ees easily clears $200,000 annually, and many dozens of other positions pay an average an- nual salary between $100,000 and $200,000. The Dallas mayor is paid $80,000 per year. On the lower end, at least for full-time positions, an office assistant’s average salary is a little over $34,000 a year, some water meter reader jobs pay $40,000 and certain custodian jobs offer an average of $43,000 per year. The Top 20 Cheryl Alston, Employees’ Retirement Fund executive director: $387,891.42 Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, interim city manager: $367,683 Tammy Palomino, city attorney: $325,000 Jon Fortune, Deputy city manager: $319,725.00 (Fortune’s last day in Dallas is on June 7. He announced in May he will join Broadnax in Austin) Eddie Garcia, chief of police: $317,240.40 David K. Etheridge, Employees’ Retirement Fund assistant administrator: $315,276.15 Majed Al-Ghafry, assistant city manager: $310,902.19 (Al-Ghafry announced in May he had been hired by DeSoto as its city manager.) Natalie Jenkins Sorrell, Employees’ Retirement Fund compliance officer: $296,572.50 Dominique Artis, chief of Dallas Fire-Rescue: $296,507.10 John D. Jenkins, director, Park and Recreation: $274,887.32 Jack Ireland, chief financial officer: $270,112.50 Mary Elizabeth Cedillo-Pereira, assistant city manager: $248,062.50 Robert M. Perez, Assistant City Manager: $242,550 (Perez begins as city manager for Topeka, Kansas, on June 11.) Sarah Standifer, water utility director: $235,000 Patrick Carreno, aviation director: $231,750 Edward Scott, Employees’ Retirement Fund as- sistant administrator: $219,073.27 Billierae Johnson, city secretary: $214,240 Mark Swann, city auditor: $214,240 Elaine Flud Rodriguez, assistant city attorney: $212,946.76 Sheri Kowalski, city controller: $210.810.60 ▼ WEATHER HOT TIMES WHILE A HEAT DOME HOVERING OVER MEXICO MAY NOT REACH NORTH TEXAS, TEMPERATURES ARE STILL EXPECTED TO SKYROCKET. ‘ BY EMMA RUBY T emperatures in the 80s are expected to usher in the start of June, but enjoy the fair weather while you can be- cause things are about to start heating up. According to climate experts, the Dallas- Fort Worth area is in for temperatures that will put this summer in the top 10 hottest ever, while the rest of Texas gets blasted by the heat dome that is currently sitting over Mexico and creeping north of the border day by day. The “anomalously strong” heat dome has broken heat records across Mex- ico since early May, worsening drought con- ditions and even killing more than 150 howler monkeys through heat stroke. The dome’s northern boundary now stretches between Del Rio and Corpus Chris- tie, Victor Murphy, climate services program manager for the National Weather Service Southern Region, told the Observer. In the coming weeks, it is forecasted to “creep” northwest into West Texas and New Mexico. “The pattern right now is setting up to be very eerily similar to last June, and if you recall that was the start of our heat wave last sum- mer,” Murphy said. “It doesn’t look like that expansion will come as far eastward as North Texas, but it’s a pyrrhic victory. Instead of be- ing maybe the hottest ever, we’ll probably be about where we are now. Somewhere in the top 10.” Unfortunately for Mexico and South Texas, Murphy believes that heat dome is here to stay throughout the summer. Dallas-Fort Worth is nearly out of the clutches of the 10th-hottest May on record, although significant amounts of rainfall kept temperatures from skyrocketing even Jinyun/Unsplash Top Dallas officials are paid well. But just how well? Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
