6 September 26 - OctOber 2, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents peal. In July, the Mercury’s staff raised thou- sands of dollars to pay for a records request filed under the Texas Public Information Act (PIA) that will reveal, through approxi- mately 20,000 documents, how campus ad- ministrators prepared for and responded to the May 1 pro-Palestine encampment. A batch of those documents was set to be de- livered to Olivares Gutierrez’s Mercury email, which he no longer has access to, this Friday. “We’ll be reaching out to them to make sure we actually get those documents,” Oli- vares Gutierrez said. “This might just be my conspiracy brain thinking, but it’s really con- venient that they have fired the editor-in- chief leading this investigation into the public records, and then restricted our ac- cess to the emails that are used to receive those documents.” The Mercury’s staff never doubted they would follow Olivares Gutierrez after his fir- ing, Shaikh said. But while she is organizing the student’s strike and advocating for their editorial autonomy, she’s mourning some- thing, too. After two years on the Mercury’s staff, she says joining the newspaper represented a shift in her college experience. “With Gregorio’s removal, it was made apparent to me that the Mercury’s lifespan was limited,” Shaikh said. “[The Mercury] gave me a real sense of purpose and direc- tion and a real grounding in what my place was here at college. I moved here from the Midwest, and I left a lot of things behind and finding my footing here has been a bit diffi- cult for me. … Going from feeling so excited about the semester to realizing that it’s all over, basically, in the span of one Friday night meeting, it was really difficult.” ▼ GUNS A SHOT AND A MISS JUDGE DENIES KEN PAXTON’S REQUEST TO BLOCK STATE FAIR GUN BAN. BY KELLY DEARMORE A Dallas County district judge ruled last week that the State Fair of Texas can proceed with its new rule banning guns, denying an injunction requested by Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton. The Attor- ney General’s Office has filed an emergency appeal, which was pending as the Observer went to press. The fair begins Friday. On Aug. 29, Paxton filed a request for an injunction against the State Fair and the city of Dallas to keep a new policy banning al- most all guns from entering the fair from taking effect. Paxton claimed that the city, which owns Fair Park and leases it to the State Fair of Texas, didn’t have the authority to ban gun owners from bringing their fire- arms with them onto the premises. “Fair Park is owned by the City of Dallas which contracts with the State Fair of Texas for the management of the annual fair,” a press release from Paxton’s office said on Aug. 29. “Since state law permits gun own- ers to carry in places owned or leased by government entities unless otherwise statu- torily prohibited, the prohibition repre- sented an unlawful infringement on Texans’ legal rights. Dallas and the State Fair have refused to comply with state law.” Judge Emily Tobolowski disagreed. The gun policy was announced in August, along with a few other new safety protocols following the 2023 shooting at the fair in which three people were injured on a crowded Saturday night in the food court building. A spokesperson for the fair said it had no comment on Tobolowski’s decision. In Au- gust, Karissa Condoianis, senior vice presi- dent of public relations for the State Fair of Texas, noted that similar gun bans were commonplace in the U.S. “The State Fair has adopted a similar pol- icy to that of most mass community gather- ing events like athletic competitions, concerts, and other Fairs throughout the state and across the nation. The State Fair of Texas spends millions of dollars per year on safety and security measures,” Condoianis said in an Aug. 14 statement to the Observer. “Furthermore, the Dallas Police Department has a substation at Fair Park. A combined to- tal of more than 200 uniformed and armed DPD officers and State Fair Safety Team members are patrolling the fairgrounds whenever the gates are open. We take the safety of the State Fair very seriously and will continue to do so.” According to WFAA, during Thursday’s hearing, the matter of Paxton’s withdrawal of a 2016 opinion concerning guns at the Fort Worth Zoo featured prominently. Simi- lar to Dallas’ arrangement with the State Fair of Texas, Fort Worth owns the zoo property but contracts with the private non- profit Fort Worth Zoological Association to manage the zoo. While subdivisions of state government — cities, in this case — cannot ban firearms unless specifically allowed by state law, the opinion said that the rule doesn’t apply to private entities leasing property from cities. Paxton, however, had a change of heart and withdrew that opinion earlier this month. “A reviewing court would likely conclude that under existing law, a private, non-profit corporation such as the association is not considered a political subdivision of the state,” Paxton’s office wrote in 2016. ▼ POLICE WHILE THE GETTING’S GOOD POLICE CHIEF EDDIE GARCIA DECAMPING FOR AUSTIN AS DALLAS FACES LOOMING CHARTER VOTE OVER FORCE SIZE. BY EMMA RUBY P olice Chief Eddie Garcia plans to re- tire from the Dallas Police Depart- ment after three-and-a-half years in the role, The Dallas Morning News reported on Sept. 19. According to the News, Garcia is leaving the front lines of law enforcement for Austin, where he will be an assistant city manager overseeing the city’s public safety. The announcement is sure to sting City Hall, as Garcia appears to be following for- mer Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who assumed Austin’s city manager seat in May. Broadnax resigned from the role in Dallas just as the City Council appeared ready to fire him. Broadnax’s relationship with Mayor Eric Johnson was a strained one, but Garcia has spoken positively about both leaders. There is no word on when Garcia’s final day as head of the department will be. The Ob- server has reached out to the Dallas Police De- partment for further information. In a statement posted on X, Broadnax wrote that Garcia will assume the job in Austin on Nov. 4. Garcia will oversee Austin fire and police as well as Austin/Travis County emergency medical services, Downtown Austin Com- munity Court, forensic science and home- land security and emergency management, Broadnax stated. In a memo to police personnel, Garcia said that he had not intended for news of his departure to come out just yet. “After much reflection and consideration, I have made the difficult decision to retire from my career in law enforcement,” Garcia wrote. “This has not been an easy choice, as my time in service has been deeply mean- ingful and fulfilling. For many years, I have been honored to protect and serve the com- munity, standing alongside brave men and women who dedicate their lives to ensuring the safety and well being of others.” His statement made no mention of his plans to take the job in Austin. Garcia seemed to signal his intent to stick with Dallas for the long term just four months ago, after several other Texas cities, including Austin, expressed interest in poaching the chief. At the time, interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert an- nounced that Garcia had committed to stay- ing in Dallas through mid-2027 after an addendum was added to his offer letter guaranteeing retention bonuses and finan- cial packages in the event of his firing. By voluntarily resigning, Garcia will not receive those bonuses. “If this was NFL Football, we were able to keep Chief García on the Dallas Team; he’s the right quarterback to lead our police department. We certainly didn’t want to lose him to free agency,” Tolbert said at the time the deal was made. In a joint statement sent via email, Mayor Johnson and Tolbert praised Garcia’s lead- ership and noted that the city has seen three years of declining violent crime and im- proved morale among police. “While we are sorry to see him go, we also know that big city police chiefs never stick around forever,” they wrote. “We are fortunate to have had a capable, committed, experienced, and innovative police chief these last three and a half years. We wish him the best of luck on his next journey.” District 9 council member Paula Blackmon also praised Garcia and said she regretted his leaving, particularly as Dallas voters prepare to cast ballots on three proposed charter amend- ments that would require the city to greatly ex- pand the size of the police force, link the city manager’s pay and job to a community survey and waive the city government’s immunity if residents sue. The proposals, backed by a group calling itself Dallas HERO, are a threat to the city’s budget and management, some of- ficials believe, and Blackmon blamed them for driving Garcia away. The requirement to increase the number of officers, she wrote, would “hamstring our Police Chief with hiring 900 officers in the next year — an unrealistic and arbitrary number — and will put the city in financial chaos. I have been an advocate of public safety by providing the funding for our po- lice department. This council has been deeply committed to hiring and retaining quality officers at DPD and these so-called HERO Propositions would jeopardize our ability to recruit, retain and train top talent including a police chief. “I am concerned that this effort, led by non-Dallas residents, has run off the best po- lice chief in the nation and this is only the beginning of many more top quality staff to leave the City of Dallas.” In his own statement, District 7 council member Adam Bazaldua said much the same. “Chief Garcia has been outspoken about the fact that should these propositions pass, they would debilitate our city and require an unsustainable hiring mandate that the po- lice department cannot keep up with, and could reduce the quality of officers we at- tract,” he wrote. “With an anticipated $175 million price tag on just this one proposi- tion, the consequences to the city’s financial health could be huge.” Garcia’s tenure as chief was preceded by U. Reneé Hall, who also lasted three years in the role. Garcia’s hiring, along with the posi- tive reputation he garnered at City Hall, was a shift from Hall’s term, which was Unfair Park from p4 >> p8 Getty Images Ken Paxton fought for guns at Fair Park.
