This email has deeper ramifications than a first reading would give us. Left click on it to make it larger.
The city manager is upset with a civil service commission member. She sends a note to a city representative rather politely asking for a discussion about the member’s actions in a meeting that day. She evidently felt that the member did not support her. She asks a council member for help. That seems to be reasonable to me.
The fact that she misspelled the member’s name is not that big of an issue. We unfortunately have come to expect that kind of disregard for citizens from the city manager. The city manager having to “endure” a meeting where someone does not do precisely what she wants the instant that she wants it is not my topic either, after all the city manager seems to feel special and as a result should not have to “endure” points of view that are different from hers, especially from someone she thinks she can control.
Look at the record
The email indicates that there was a civil service commission meeting February 16, 2012. I cannot find a video of the meeting so I will rely on the official minutes to try to see what could be so upsetting.
Not being able to see the video, I cannot tell if the member was well behaved. I can only look at the voting record to see what happened.
As best as I can see there were 39 votes. Ten of them were unanimous. That means the member agreed. Fifteen times the member was the only one to vote on a particular side, the rest of the commission disagreed — more on that in a moment. The member voted with the split commission’s majority five times and voted with the minority eight times.
I know that only adds up to 38 votes, I did not take the time to fix my counts believing that one vote would not make a significant difference.
The vast majority of the member’s solo votes were on the almost 20 rule changes or prospective ordinance issues. The member evidently felt that the rules did not need to change. I know that I would be reluctant to make that many rule changes in one meeting.
Significantly those issues relating to individual employees saw the member voting with the majority each time. The member even voted to sustain the termination of two employees!
Not true
The city manager states in the email that “He refuses to hear any action against any employee…”. The record shows that to be untrue. I consider firing an employee an action against an employee.
I did not take the time to analyze the second allegation, “or support any management effort”. After all, others voted the same way he did except in the cases of the rule and ordinance issues.
Appointees are not supposed to be robots
The mayor and city council appoint citizens to many governing and advisory boards. We should expect those citizens to vote their consciences. If the citizen does a poor job in the opinion of those who appointed him, then the citizen should not be reappointed. The appointees are not there to rubber stamp the wishes of city staff, otherwise there is no reason to have the board.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Cato
elpasospeak 
As I have observed this Council & Mayor over the years, they tend to disregard advice given by professionals who serve our community on various boards or commissions.
As was mentioned above, appointees are not supposed to be robots. This city manager and council are wasting the time of professionals, and this pattern discourages other experts to serve on boards/commissions. Case in point is the Notre Dame professor who flew down to advise our city on the minimum size of land in which a minor league baseball stadium has been built. When they heard him say that he has never seen a stadium built on a mere 5 acres of land, they disregarded his advice. When a member of the Planning Commission who is degreed in Urban Planning stated that the ingress and egress to the proposed stadium violated everything that urban planners recommend, they disregarded that advice. Our civic leaders seem to “shoot our city in the foot” and waste taxpayers hard-earned tax dollars to exert their agenda on El Pasoans.
As Brutus says, we deserve better. Think about this pattern of decisions rendered by Council and clean house on election day.
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I am a member of the CSC and have served with Mr. Bautista. Unless you watch the last 3 years of meetings you will have no idea about what the CM is saying in that email. Don’t throw stones until such time as you have done your research – completely – not out of context.
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