It’s hard for me to believe that city staff would do what they have done.
I’ve been writing about a proposed ordinance that would change some city council procedures. When the item was posted on the agenda the posting indicated that passing the ordinance would repeal a prior ordinance. Unfortunately city staff listed the wrong ordinance number to be repealed.
I watched the video of the city council meeting and missed the part where council approved the ordinance introduction. I waited for the next agenda to be posted and saw that included in the agenda was an item to approve the minutes of the meeting in question. That new agenda did not have the required backup material (the minutes to be passed) attached even though it should have.
This morning I see that someone has finally attached the minutes to today’s agenda. Reading the minutes I see that the ordinance number to be repealed was changed to the right one. How did that happen? It is against the law in the state of Texas to tamper with a government record.
I went back to re-watch the video of the original introduction. I saw that he item was passed without reading and without correcting the number. Normally the city clerk reads the introduction. Curious.
What happened?
If the agenda was changed after posting but before the council meeting, the Texas Open Meetings Act has been violated.
If the agenda was not changed until after the council meeting, then the newly posted agenda has been tampered with — a violation of Texas law. The minutes would then also be false. Falsifying a public document is also against the law in Texas.
We still have the fact that the backup material posted on June 27, 2013 for the public comment session still refers to the wrong ordinance to be repealed. So even today they have a fatally flawed ordinance in spite of their efforts to falsify the public record.
This is serious business.
We have the right to be informed in advance about what council is considering. We have the right to have accurate records about what they have done. We are not talking about simple clerical errors here.
I guess now that the cover up will not only continue but will probably get more involved.
The records will show who did what and when. More than one person must have been involved.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
This is not just a matter of sloppiness or ignorance. Our local elected officials and city management have no regard whatsoever for procedure, accuracy, honesty or integrity. They believe they are above reproach and accountability. That says it all.
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FedUp is right. Rules, laws about ethics and good governance are meant to be disregarded in El Paso.
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The real shame is that this is just one more tool to be used by the city manager to let Mayor Leeser know thst he can kiss her ass!
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Why don’t we send this information to the Mayor. I believe they are withholding council meeting procedures from the Mayor since he isn’t familiar with them. At this point, the Mayor doesn’t have anyone on his side.
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I voted for Oscar and want him to succeed, so I say this respectfully. All he has to do is read the Roberts Rules of Order and openly ask common sense procedural questions when he is looking for an opportunity to slow something down or stop a decision that he feels is premature.
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