I have to hand it to city staff. They have found a way to put something over on us two different ways at the same time.
City staff wants city council to spend $10 million more for the ball park they are building.
$5 million of the spending is for club and restaurant facilities. We know that they either knew these were left out of the original plans or they have now figured that they can get away with the additional spending.
The other $5 million is a problem of a worse kind. This is money that had been previously allocated for other improvements in downtown. Now they want to use it for the ball park.
This is not my opinion. The city engineer said so when he said “We could not build the project we have designed without it.” In other words they designed a facility that they knew would not work without this money becoming available.
No bid
What makes this worse is that this is work that would have been competitively bid. Part of it is from quality of life bonds that we voted for and were told that the money would be spent wisely and would benefit local construction firms.
Instead of giving local contractors a chance he has decided to give the work to the out of town firm that has the contract for the ball park.
No bid. No chance. Without bids we don’t even know that we are getting fair value for our money.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
You might say: the out of town contractors have got us by the balls!
Clubs and restarurants were supposed to follow … investing their money … now looks like we have to pay for that too. Who will own and profit from those subsidized clubs and restaurants? And now the rest of downtown has to give up improvements and bend over for the almighty loser ball team that Tucson has no use for. Speaking of balls …what’s that eggspression? … “don’t put all your eggs, er balls, that is, in one basket.”
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Let’s look at this play from a different angle. Whenever you see news coverage or city statements related to the construction of the ballpark you will see the contractor referred to as Jordan/Hunt.
Yes, an out-of-town contractor is involved, but let’s not forget that City engineers recommended early on that the NO-BID contract for the building of the baseball park be awarded to a joint-venture group comprised of Hunt Construction Group out of Arizona and our own local C.F. Jordan Construction. Jordan seems to have an inside track as a preferred contractor on city and county government contracts. In this latest move, the City engineer is sliding non-ballpark projects over to the Jordan/Hunt group, which not only avoids bidding, but also coincidentally sweetens Paco’s pot. That’s convenient for Jordan, who is consistently one of the largest political contributors in El Paso.
How did this Jordan/Hunt dream team come about? Did City Engineer Alan Shubert propose this partnership specifically to help work Jordan into the starting lineup did he just do its bidding. Did Hunt seek out C F Jordan because of Jordan’s close ties to the City and Mountainstar’s principals, which could help to assure a win. Regardless, this whole deal looks like the care and feeding special interests.
Hunt Construction Group is a large, prestigious company with vast experience building stadiums all over the country. It’s interesting to see their name in second position in the Jordan/Hunt equation. Hunt has built stadiums for the Cardinals, Mets, Marlins, Nationals, just to name a few, and that’s just baseball. Hunt didn’t need Jordan on their team, which begs two questions: Why is C F Jordan even involved in this project, and are we paying a higher price because both Jordan and Hunt are feeding at the public trough?
Hunt Construction Group of Arizona and Jordan made significant political donations to a PAC to support the city’s November bond issue and the proposition to increase the hotel tax to fund the ballpark. So, Hunt learned quickly that this is a pay to play town and political donations are merely a cost of doing business. Still, it’s disturbing to a see an out of state company attempting to influence a local election or referendum purely for its own financial gain. Their construction fees paid for by El Paso hotel guests and taxpayers will ultimately pay for Hunt’s political contributions.
Speaking of costs, Shubert quickly reassigned himself as full-time engineer for the ballpark project once it was approved. If the city engineering department and projects run smoothly while Shubert is over at the ballpark, can we eliminate his city job after the ballpark is completed?
Keep your eye on the cabal.
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Even if Jordan and Hunt sub-contract some of this new work that is not directly related to the ballpark to local contractors, Jordan and Hunt will get now get a mark-up on those subs’ work. That’s an added cost to taxpayers and simply allows Jordan to exert unnecessary power and control over smaller contractors.
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