It is disappointing but not surprising that city staff is taking the opportunity to try to increase their power at the very first meeting of the new city council.
Item 1C on the regular agenda is titled “AN ORDINANCE FOR ESTABLISHING DEADLINES AND PROCEDURES FOR PLACING ITEMS ON THE AGENDA FOR CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS AND REPEALING NO. 17016”.
Why?
Ordinance number 17016 was the old ordinance according to this item. It required council to take a special vote before approving any item where the backup material is not complete declaring that failure to take action would be detrimental to the interest of the city. I wrote about this in Sneak Attack. In other words council needs to be given all the paperwork that they are being asked to approve.
If city staff does not make the material available per the requirements of the old ordinance, and city council votes on the agenda item without the special vote, city council members violate an existing ordinance. Violating an ordinance is an ethics violation. That could lead to severe consequences for city council members.
Not explained.
What the backup material for this proposed new ordinance does not explain is that city staff frequently submits agenda items without the required backup material. This makes it easier to keep council members from doing their homework.
Why now?
City staff has put this on the first agenda of the new council. The new members are trying to get their feet on the ground. The new ordinance removes the requirement for the special vote as well as other things. Staff is trying to get this through before council figures out the rules.
City staff will now be able to leave important documents out of the material that they give to city council without breaking the law. Council will not know what hit them.
I hope that someone finds a way to explain this to the new mayor and the council members.
The new ordinance is a very bad idea.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Cato
elpasospeak 
I think it would be a good idea to just email this to every member of council before their meeting..At least mail it to those members we hope will stand up to the old guard.
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It’s getting a little tiring reading Joyce Wilson’s quotes about how she was begged to stay in El Paso and that SHE stopped negotiating with Lee County. That’s not the way Lee County tells the story, but the local media seems to prefer her version versus reality.
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So now that she’s staying thru December, are we going to be hearing thru that time about all of her job searches and applications…or is she going to give El Paso her 100%.
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The CM’s contract is complete in September 2014. Where do you get the December date? That’s not true.
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So now that she’s staying thru September 2014, are we going to be hearing thru that time about all of her job searches and applications…or is she going to give El Paso her 100%???
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HAS ANYONE GIVEN THEM A HEADS UP> Someone needs to move to delete this item. or bring in back in three weeks.
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So if council had the ability to do a “special vote” every time the back up wasn’t included in an agenda item – then why didn’t Curly, Larry & Moe (Emma, Eddie and Carl) demand a special vote each and every time they said “I didn’t know, I didn’t see the backup? Because certain council members are asleep at the wheel and never, ever read their back up until showtime on Tuesday.
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Actually, they were required to take the special vote if they did not have the mandated backup material. The proposed ordinance would remove that requirement.
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This is posted because the deadlines will depend on the rules the new council adopts tomorrow. Currently the agenda items are split up so that departments present every other week so that the department heads alternate weeks of being at council all day. Since only the new council ecides what their rules are going to be, there isn’t backup. Not everything is a huge conspiracy.
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