This is strange.
Both El Paso Inc. and the El Paso Times made mention in their Sunday editions of a deal between the city and the Diablos essentially paying the Diablos to go away.
The Times even went so far as to say that the item is on the city council agenda for Tuesday. I went to look at the agenda. I do not see the item. I had someone else look. Unless I missed it, the item is not on the agenda.
What happened?
Somehow both the Inc. and the Times got word of a deal in the making. It was planned to happen Tuesday. The item did not make it to the agenda.
Did someone at the city forget to register the item? That’s possible given their general inability to get things right. I doubt it though.
Did the massacre at last week’s city council meeting make the city think twice about risking further outcry before the upcoming runoff election? That’s where my money is.
Sloppy
These people are unable to manage a press release, much less the city. I will leave it to Brutus to handle the sordid financial details.
Muckraker
elpasospeak 
This is a perfect example of the hidden costs associated with ballpark and the Foster/Hunt deal. These costs to buy out the Diablos and the anticipated foregiveness of monies owed for utilities, combined with loss of income associated with the early termination of their Cohen lease add several hundred thousand dollars to the REAL cost of the AAA deal, none of which is being paid by Mountainstar.
According to newspaper reports, the payments to the Tiguas include a $40,000 fee for them to promote the new AAA team during the Diablos games. So now taxpayers are actually subsidizing Mountainstar’s advertising and promotion of their for-profit venture.
Let’s be clear. These costs are on top of the $50 million construction tab to build the stadium, and these will not be covered by the hotel tax.
As City Manager Wilson let slip during last week’s stadium brouhaha during the council meeting, we will not know the true cost until we get to the end. Given the lack of transparency, we might not truly know even then.
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The agenda item is posted under Special City Council Meetings for Tuesday June 4th.
I don’t know why it’s such a problem to not know the costs of government ideas/programs. Nancy Pelosi famously said we had to pass Obamacare to find out what’s in it. And this town votes 85% or more for democrats and their unchecked spending and empty promises so I just don’t understand why it’s a problem. If El Pasoans elect state and federal candidates based on democrat platform then they really should not care how much government spends because they believe in that platform-spend money you don’t have.
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Thank you.
Does anyone know why this would be done in a special city council meeting when the special meeting is scheduled during a regular meeting?
Muckraker
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It’s called timing – it didn’t make the noon Thursday posting – which is more than 72 hours – so probably Thursday afternoon it was posted. It’s being heard on Tuesday at 9 when the regular city council meeting begins. There is no conspiracy here – just timing.
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I’m puzzled as to how a conversation about the spending on a local ballpark quickly became your basis for a partisan attack. What exactly do Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have to do with conversation about local spending for an El Paso ballpark. If you want to go down that path, let’s note for the record that this stadium is being built for the personal benefit of two prominent Republican contributors and the construction contract went to at least one other big Republican contributor if not two. So don’t suggest that Democrats have cornered the market on fiscal irresponsibility. It never ceases to amaze me how people are against taxes and government spending, except when those taxes benefit them personally. It seems like MEK believes that two wrongs make a right.
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Because the Democrat Party – of which El Paso is 85% Democrat LOVES deficit spending. So the locals here vote for every democrat that will give them free stuff no matter how much it costs. But is is so funny that when it comes to local money/taxes all of a sudden they are card-carrying Republicans/conversatives. I don’t get how a persoon can change their political views from local to state to national.
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