Trinity Vote Petition Success!

by David Gray, Conservation Co-Chair

On July 29, 2007, the Dallas City Secretary certified that the TrinityVote petitioners had turned in more than the 48,000 signatures required to force a referendum vote on the Trinity toll road in November. TrinityVote officially turned in nearly 90,000 total signatures on June 29^th, 60 days after the petition drive was launched, according to the City Secretary.

An exciting press conference with nearly 100 volunteers, political leaders, press and spectators was held in the Flag Room at City Hall on June 29^th prior to the delivery of the petition signatures. Among the speakers at the press conference were the Trinity Vote leader Angela Hunt (Dallas City Councilmember District 9), former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem and mayoral candidate Don Hill, former Mayor Pro Tem John Loza, and former Dallas City Council member Sandy Greyson.  

The TrinityVote proposition would ban any high-speed freeway or toll road from the Trinity River greenbelt that runs from north of downtown Dallas to south of downtown and into the Great Trinity Forest. TrinityVote proponents believed that the original Trinity River Project called for a true, low-speed “parkway” with direct access to the proposed park and adjacent neighborhoods. The word “parkway” was explicitly used on the actual ballot language during the 1998 bond election.

Instead, the voters ended up with as feared the Trinity “toll road”, a “bait and switch” on Dallas voters who thought they were approving a park project. In any case, Dallas voters will now get a chance to decide at the polls whether or not a major, high-speed toll road should be built in the Trinity River floodway at a cost of more than $100 million dollars per mile.

Volunteers, including many Sierra Club members, played a vital role in the success of the petition effort. Hundreds of volunteers helped collect signatures for the petition at public events and at the polls during the recent council election and mayoral runoff. Many volunteers worked all day in the hot sun during the two elections. Many had to fend off “blockers” hired by the opponents of TrinityVote to confuse and dissuade voters from signing the petition. Nevertheless, the voters themselves were still willing to sign. Volunteers also pitched in to work on the process of “verifying” the petition signatures from their home computers.

Despite the dedicated efforts of the volunteers, the campaign decided that in order to assure success within the mandated short 60-days, more people were needed to gather the necessary signatures. Thanks to the timely contributions of many key donors (including the Dallas Sierra Club) sufficient money was raised to hire professional signature collectors in order to supplement the volunteer effort. Pros were flown in from around the country and quickly went to work citywide gathering signatures. 

Meanwhile, other volunteers were urgently needed to verify signatures. Verification was required to monitor our progress toward obtaining the total number of “good” registered Dallas voter signatures to meet our 48,000-plus signature goal. Again, Sierrans and other citizens across the metroplex rose to help TrinityVote realize their goal.

“Sierra Club played a vital role in this campaign,” commented David Gray, conservation co-chair of the Dallas Sierra Club. “We hope to see that same volunteer and financial support from the club as we make the final push toward success at the November election.”

News coverage of the campaign was widespread with Ms. Hunt appearing on radio talk shows, speaking to homeowners associations and political clubs, and appearing on television news reports. Jim Schutze wrote numerous articles in the Dallas Observer, while both Dallas Morning News reporters and editorial writers weighed in. Traffic on local Internet blogs about Trinity Vote was also at a high level and frequency.

The Dallas City Council voted at its meeting on August 15 to put the proposition on the November 6 ballot. The campaign is expected to heat up as entrenched interests for the Trinity toll road will have access to plenty of cash and the support of many political leaders in the city.

The Trinity Vote committee has launched its TrinityVote Yes! campaign in anticipation of the upcoming election. This campaign is expected to be a grass roots campaign similar to the one in 1998 that opposed the original Trinity River Project bond proposition—with limited funds relying mostly on volunteer people power. TrinityVote is actively seeking volunteers for its get-out-the-vote effort—if you are willing, visit trinityvote.com for more information and to sign up.

The Dallas Sierra Club has launched its own club initiative in support of TrinityVote Yes! Volunteers are needed for fundraising, mailing, writing, speaking, phoning, precinct walking, and organizing. Please contact Robin Sowton or Alan Lagrone to get involved. Contributions are urgently needed to get the Yes! campaign up and running. Please consider making a contribution to TrinityVote today at www.trinityvote.org or Trinity Vote, P.O. Box 223986, Dallas, TX, 75222 or look for a contribution form in an upcoming Compass newsletter.