Tuesday’s (February 5, 2013) city council agenda has item 11 on it. The text is “Presentation, discussion and action on the proposed three-year implementation plan for projects authorized under the 2012 Quality of Life General Obligation Bond for the purposes of constructing new and improved amenities for parks and recreation facilities, open space improvements, libraries, museums, the Zoo, neighborhood improvements and cultural and performing arts facilities.” You can read the attachment here.
The presentation is from the interim city engineer. The are setting the schedule of what gets done and when.
What happened to the Bond Overview Advisory Committee? Remember them? The committee was formed to assure the citizens (crazies and amateurs to some down at the city) that the bond money would be spent properly. I previously wrote about how council wanted to stack the board after the bonds passed. The post was named Council Deceit. Now in addition to stacking the board they appear to be ignoring it.
Why is this presentation coming from the interim city engineer? Why is council proposing to take “action”? Where is the input from the committee?
For that matter why isn’t the committee listed on the city web site where the other boards and committees are? Have they even held a meeting? Are they going to? What about public participation?
City staff may be able to rush the committee into the council meeting. Make no mistake though, the presentation is from city staff without the oversight committee. Page 3 of the presentation is titled “Plan Approach”. The Bond Overview Advisory Committee (BOAC) is not even mentioned.
The duties of the BOAC are “The BOAC shall meet at least quarterly to review information from applicable City Departments regarding the voter approved 2012 Bond Issue Projects (2012 Bond Projects) for the purpose of reporting periodically, in conjunction with City staff, but not less than twice a year, to the Mayor and Council on the status of progress of the 2012 Bond Projects.”
So now city staff comes forward and wants council to approve their three year implementation plan, evidently without the BOAC being involved.
Unbelievable!
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
$473 million — nearly a half billion dollars. That’s $158 mil per year over three years…$13 mil per month for the next 36 months on top of the city’s normal spending.
Our elected officials and city management staff have lost touch with reality. This is a lot of money we’re talking about spending. I guess there’s not much concern because it’s “just tax dollars” and as we all know, government jobs and elected offices do not require the same fiscal accountability as the private sector businesses.
In today’s EL PASO TIMES, interim city engineer (interim, got it?) Irene Ramirez’s quotes make it pretty clear that city management is in a big hurry to start spending money. She talked about a focus on projects that are “shovel ready” and “ready to go to bid” which suggests that these are not necessarily the best use of money, but do allow them to start showing “demonstrable progress” (read: starting spending money). This is an unbelievably cavalier approach to spending taxpayer money. This staff is focused on “show”.
Ramirez’s use of the term “shovel ready” is reminiscent of the federal government’s economic stimulus strategy. Do our city managers think they are the federal government or that the quality of life bonds money is being spent for short-term economic stimulus? If so, we’re in more trouble than we realize.
I’m trying to figure out what the deal is with all the rush to write big checks. A great example is the contract with artists to start creating art for the new ballpark, when city hall hasn’t even yet been imploded. A few hundred thousand here…a few hundred thousand there…no big deal. If the bonds haven’t been issued yet, where is the cash flow coming from to cover the checks being written now?
No one has even asked whether city management even has the knowledge, skills and expertise to effectively manage this level of expenditure and the kinds of projects planned.
No one seems at all concerned that the chief engineer simply decided on his own to re-assign himself to work full-time on the new ballpark during this period. I’m betting city staff will eventually get around to increasing head count at city hall and its various new satellite offices
.
It’s also interesting that the current city manager will be exiting soon, which also means that we don’t know who will ultimately be managing the completion of what is probably the largest capital spending program in the history of El Paso.
“Quality of Life” starts with quality leadership. We’re starting in the hole in more ways than one.
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