I watched the video of this week’s city council to see what they did with the proposed new ordinance that deals with deadlines and procedures relative to placing items on the city council agenda.
In two prior posts I explained that the new ordinance would change the rules. The old ordinance (17616) required that each member of council receive all of the proposed legal documents by noon of the fourth day before the city council meeting. If those documents were not provided to each council member in time, council could not vote on the item unless it first took a special vote to declare that failure to take action on the item would be detrimental to the interests of the city.
I also showed that they have been using the wrong old ordinance number. They used the number 17016 (which established the capital improvements advisory committee) several times and then changed public documents improperly to cover up the problem. As of this writing they still have not fixed the copy that was posted for the public. It still repeals 17016 instead of 17616.
At this week’s meeting the city attorney incorrectly told council that the old ordinance required them to table any item if all the backup had not been posted by noon the Thursday before a meeting. That statement was incorrect in that council was required either to table the item or take a special vote declaring that failure to act on the item would be detrimental to the interests of the city.
Then the shoe dropped
The city attorney then said of the requirement to table the item “council wasn’t doing that anyway”. Violating a city ordinance is an ethics violation for council members.
I would think that the city attorney would advise city council members if they are breaking the law.
Absent that, the municipal parliamentarian certainly should.
Our current municipal parliamentarian is the city attorney also.
It would appear that she is not doing either job here.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
So, can a citizen or group of citizens take action against the City Attorney for either incompetency, knowingly giving bad advice, or for being party to an ethics violation? If an attorney can’t even get city council procedures correct, how can we possibly trust that attorney to handle legal and financial matters of far greater significance. Perhaps the City Attorney should be the next person out the door. One less city attorney sounds like a quick way to improve our quality of life and reduce our deficit.
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You are so right and there is a pending lawsuit. Not only should the city attorney be replaced do should the chief financial officer and city manager. There is no loyalty to the mayor. He is the new guy and is being taken advantage of. What I have a huge problem with, is, he made several statements that he would not rush through anything. Then why has he? He has the power to request all information pertaining to the dealings of the ballpark in reviewing every detail. The city attorney is controlling the mayor and I strongly believe under the direction of Wilson .
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People got what they voted for Rodriguez cheered ms tennis shoes I lost a long time ago Sent from my iPhone
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The city attorney along with chief financial officer are not doing their jobs for the citizens of El Paso. They are working for Wilson, Hunt, Foster, and Sanders.
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