The City of Dallas invites the public to attend a series of town hall meetings to offer input on the City’s redistricting process, which happens every 10 years after the U.S. Census releases its data. The redistricting process is the redrawing of City Council districts from which Council Members are elected.
“Community involvement and participation is critical to the success of the redistricting process, and we’ve made it very easy for everyone to offer public input at one of our public town halls,” said Jesse Oliver, 2021 Redistricting Commission Chair. “Ultimately, we want to make a redistricting map that represents our residents and their communities.”
Earlier this year, the City Council appointed a 15-member Redistricting Commission to develop the districting plan based on the latest decennial counts in compliance with the Dallas City Charter and federal law. The Commission will host a series of eight meetings throughout the City to allow residents the option for in-person attendance. Two of those town halls, the first and last, will be held at City Hall, allowing for virtual or in-person attendance. A complete schedule of town halls and regular Redistricting Commission meetings, contact information for all redistricting commissioners, and a tool allowing Dallas residents to draw and submit their own maps is at DallasRedistricting.com. Residents may also provide feedback for redistricting commissioners any time by calling the Dallas Redistricting hotline at 214-671-5197.
The first meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11 at Dallas City Hall in Council Chambers (6EN) and will be accessible virtually via Cisco webex. Individuals who wish to speak during these scheduled town halls must register at bit.ly/2021RDCTH, by 10 a.m. the day of the meeting. All speakers will have three minutes to speak about the redistricting process. Virtual speakers are required to show their video when addressing the commission.
“We are committed to making this process as fair and equitable as possible, so we’re allowing for both virtual and in-person town hall formats,” said Oliver. “Residents will have opportunity to join us from the comfort of their own homes or in person at city-wide meetings; town halls at City Hall will also provide American Sign Language interpreters to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Oral interpretation for other languages is available upon request.”
The Redistricting Commission plans to file its recommended districting plan for City Council consideration in May 2022. The Council has 45 days after the districting plan is submitted to adopt, or modify and adopt, a new districting plan. Any modification requires approval by three-fourths of the City Council. If final action is not taken by the City Council within 45 days, the Redistricting Commission’s recommended plan becomes final.
The new districting plan will be implemented at the next general election of Dallas City Council members conducted at least 90 days following the date the final districting plan becomes effective for the City, currently projected for May 6, 2023.
DALLAS – Today, the Dallas City Council approved a resolution that condemns the provisions of Senate Bill 4, passed by the 88th Texas Legislature and signed into law in 2023. The resolution was adopted after being advanced by the Quality of Life, Arts and Culture Committee in May. The committee is chaired by Council Member Adam Bazaldua.
Senate Bill 4 authorizes local law enforcement agencies to arrest people they suspect crossed into the United States unlawfully and creates a system whereby Texas state and local magistrates would have the power to remove individuals from the United States. S.B. 4 was signed into law on December 18, 2023, by the Texas Legislature, and was scheduled to go into effect on March 5, 2024.
The U.S. Department of Justice, the County of El Paso, and two civil rights groups have filed suits against the State of Texas. They state that the law is unconstitutional as it is the role of the federal government to enforce immigration laws. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has temporarily blocked the law from going into effect. However, the case is expected to go back to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled on the merits of the law.
As approved in the city’s legislative program, the City of Dallas promotes legislation that is inclusive and creates a welcoming environment to all diverse communities. The City of Dallas values the quality of life and safety for all residents, visitors, and the nearly one quarter of residents from a country other than the U.S who reside Dallas.
“Our City has continually prioritized ensuring that Dallas is a welcoming community for all. Today, my colleagues reaffirmed that commitment,” said Council Member Bazaldua. “We have heard and appreciate the concern of our state and community leaders regarding the legislative intent, as well as resources and enforcement. However, without exception, profiling – real or perceived – cannot be allowed in our community. We look forward to working with our partners across the state and in Washington to ensure compliance with governing federal immigration laws. I want to also specifically thank the residents who have reached out to us to express concern about the potential implications of this bill.”
The City of Dallas is committed to protecting all residents regardless of their immigration status and fostering a community where all feel safe and valued, while preventing harmful measures like S.B. 4 in the future.
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NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Peter A. Hatch today reached settlement agreements to resolve their joint investigation into workplace violations by Intergen Health, LLC and Amazing Home Care Services, LLC. Amazing and Intergen—which are under common ownership, share employees, and serve primarily Medicaid patients—are together one of the largest home care agencies in New York State. The settlements resolve violations of the NYC Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law and wage and hour requirements under New York Labor Laws and require the home health agencies to pay up to $18.8 million in restitution and adopt extensive compliance measures.
The joint investigation found that the home care agencies violated the City ’s Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law in multiple ways, including failing to pay employees when they used leave, disciplining and/or firing employees who used unscheduled leave, requiring employees to submit documentation justifying the use of leave even if the leave was for less than three days, and failing to provide a written safe and sick leave policy. The investigation also found that the agencies violated the New York Labor Law by refusing to pay the overtime premium when workers worked more than 40 hours in a week, miscalculating overtime rates, refusing to pay workers for time spent traveling between patient homes, among other violations.
“In New York City, we fight to protect all workers—including those who work in people’s homes,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Home health care workers care for our families and not only deserve Paid Safe and Sick Leave—it’s their right. To any company in New York City that thinks they can get away with withholding workers’ rights and violating our laws: we will hold you accountable.”
“Home health aides provide vital support to our vulnerable loved ones,” said DCWP Commissioner Peter A. Hatch. “Sadly these invaluable workers often face exploitative working conditions that violate important labor protections. We are committed to ensuring home health aides are treated fairly and will hold accountable any home care agency that denies workers their rights or punishes them for exercising their rights. We urge any worker who believes they have been treated unjustly to contact us so we can help protect their rights. I want to thank Attorney General James and her Office for their partnership in this important investigation.”
“Home health aides are on the front lines serving the most vulnerable in our communities, yet these agencies denied them the most basic form of dignity and respect: fair pay for a hard day’s work,” said Attorney General James. “These hardworking New Yorkers not only deserve the pay that was unfairly denied to them, but also the assurance that this won’t happen again — and that’s exactly what this agreement will do. I will continue my commitment to protect working families and workers’ rights as well as their wallets. Let this be a warning to all employers: exploitative and illegal labor practices will not be tolerated in New York.”
Under the settlement, Intergen and Amazing must:
Pay up to $18,800,000 in restitution in two phases. In phase one, the agencies will pay $2,032,500 to compensate 6,500 employees impacted by the violations of the Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law and four employees who were illegally fired for using paid sick leave. The agencies will also pay $5,200,000 to compensate approximately 12,000 employees for violations of the New York Labor Law. In phase two, which is being resolved in coordination with a private lawsuit, there will be a maximum payout of approximately $11,540,000 to “live-in” workers; this amount is subject to court approval.
Implement new policies that are in compliance with the Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law and New York Labor Law and that correct the violations in the companies’ prior policies.
Stop requiring employees to submit documentation to justify their use of sick leave.
Train employees on updated policies.
Post and distribute the Notice of Employee Rights and obtain a written, dated acknowledgement of receipt from each employee.
Appoint a compliance officer to monitor and report on compliance with the laws.
Create a new employee manual with updated policies that must be submitted to the Attorney General and DCWP for approval and have it translated and distributed to all employees.
This case, which is DCWP ’s largest Paid Safe and Sick Leave investigation to date, is part of the agency ’s major proactive enforcement initiative to examine the home health care industry ’s compliance with the NYC Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law, wage and hour requirements, and other workplace standards. DCWP referred this case to the New York State Attorney General’s Office for a joint investigation after identifying violations in connection with this initiative. As a result of this affirmative initiative, DCWP has now entered into settlement agreements with 34 agencies. These settlements require the agencies to pay a total of $2.54 million in restitution to more than 11,000 workers, pay $155,000 in civil penalties, and comply with the Law going forward.
DCWP ’s case was handled by Supervising Investigator Juana Abreu, Paid Care Advocate Amalia Torrentes, Research Director Sam Krinsky, and Director of Investigations Elizabeth Wagoner of DCWP ’s Office of Labor Policy & Standards, which is led by Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Holt.
Employers and employees can visit nyc.gov/workers or call 311 (212-NEW-YORK outside NYC) for more information about the NYC Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law, including the required Notice of Employee of Rights in multiple languages, one-page overviews for employers and employees, and the complaint form. DCWP also created a multilingual publication that provides important health and safety information for domestic workers and their employers to help them stay safe during COVID-19—including recommended best practices to reduce and prepare for risk of transmission, paid safe and sick leave information, checklists for a healthy and safe workplace, and other City & State resources.
“Today’s settlement delivers a crucial victory for workers and a stern warning to employers, especially home health employers, who try to take advantage of their workers by denying them paid sick time and other key labor protections under New York City law,” said Sarah Brafman, Senior Policy Counsel at A Better Balance. “Our client and her co-workers worked day in and day out to provide care for those who needed it most, only for their employer to turn around and penalize them when they needed paid sick time to care for themselves or loved ones. We thank the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for taking a stand against employers like Amazing Home Care who systematically deprived workers of their rights and for seeking to make workers whole. In New York City, home to some of the strongest labor laws in our nation, no worker should ever be forced to choose between their job and taking care of themselves or loved ones.”
“Home care workers provide the dedicated care and attention that allow our loved ones to receive the assistance they need in the comfort and convenience of their own homes,” said George Gresham, President of 1199SEIU. “These are heroes, who selflessly give of themselves to care for others, and denying them paid leave when they are sick is inhumane. We thank the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for taking a stand by cracking down on unscrupulous home care agencies who pocket taxpayer dollars instead of giving workers the leave to which they are legally entitled.”
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DALLAS, Dec. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Thomas J. Henry Law, one of Texas’s largest and most successful law firms, is actively seeking experienced Litigation Attorneys for its Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and Corpus Christi, Texas offices. Qualified candidates will benefit from a generous base salary of $250,000 supported by Performance Based Compensation which allows top performers the ability to earn an income of seven figures annually.
Thomas J. Henry Law has experienced a large influx of high-value personal injury cases and is looking for experienced trial attorneys who are ready to secure multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements. Cases with $1 Million or more in insurance coverage are available to be developed right now.
Recent verdicts, settlements, and judgments secured by the firm include:
$1.25 Billion for Sexual Assault Resulting in Injury to a Minor
$67 Million for a Company Vehicle Accident Resulting in a Spinal Cord and Back Injuries
$60 Million for a Drunk Driving Accident Resulting in Facial and Abdominal Injuries
$50 Million for a Trucking Accident Resulting in Wrongful Death
$35 Million for a Trucking Accident Resulting in Wrongful Death
$30.2 Million for an Accident Involving a Recalled Vehicle Resulting in Spinal Cord and Back Injuries
Ideal candidates will have first chair plaintiff personal injury trial experience and extensive deposition experience, including corporate defendants, liability and damage experts, and medical experts.
Thomas J. Henry Law Offers Industry-Leading Benefits
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Benefits offered to experienced litigators include:
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Thomas J. Henry Law, PLLC, is one of the nation’s leading personal injury firms. Since 1993, the firm has fought to secure justice and compensation for individuals who have lost loved ones due to the negligence of others and to prevent similar instances of wrongful death from occurring again. Over that time, Thomas J. Henry and his firm have been the recipients of numerous awards and recognitions.
In 2021, Thomas J. Henry Law was named “Law Firm of the Year” by the American Institute of Legal Professionals.
In 2020, the firm was named one of the Best Places to Work by Glassdoor for the second consecutive year. It was the only law firm to secure the accolade. Firm founder Thomas J. Henry was also named one of SA Scene Magazine’s Best San Antonio Lawyers in 2020 and was recognized in Texas Lawyer’s (an ALM Company) Southwest Top Verdicts and Settlements of 2020 for securing the #1 Gross Negligence Verdict for the year.
In 2019, Thomas J. Henry Law was recognized as one of the nation’s Premier Law Firms by Newsweek.com. That same year, Bloomberg Businessweek published a feature on Thomas J. Henry, highlighting his firm’s “clear commitment to client satisfaction.” Thomas J. Henry was also named the Best Attorney of San Antonio by the SA Current.
In 2018, Thomas J. Henry was named a Distinguished Lawyer by Lawyers of Distinction and was also recognized as one of the Best Personal Injury Attorneys in the nation by Newsweek.com. In 2017, Thomas J. Henry achieved one of the 10 largest verdicts recorded in Texas for the year (awarded to Thomas J. Henry by Texas Lawyer, an ALM company) as well as the #1 Texas Car Accident, Bus Accident, and Negligent Supervision Verdicts for the year (awarded to Thomas J. Henry by TopVerdict.com).
PR Contact: Norah Lawlor, Lawlor Media Group, Inc.
www.lawlormediagroup.com
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SOURCE Thomas J. Henry Law
