Brutus has written two recent articles where he provided links for readers to contact the mayor and city representatives.
It seems to me that this is a very good idea.
We seem to have been polarized with two approaches:
- Stay out of city issues because no matter what we do city council, the mayor, and city staff will ignore our input. Even worse they have proven that they will fight to countermand our desires.
- Raise petitions under the city charter to force an election on an issue
Maybe a position in the middle can be productive in some of these matters.
Why not take a few minutes to let city council and the mayor know what your thoughts are without backing them up against a wall (even if it is of their own creation)? Let them know what you think. The city web site allows you to send a message without identifying yourself or leaving your email address.
We have added a new button at the top of our home page, “Contact the city” that will provide you with linkages to the mayor and each of the city council representatives.
Send in your thoughts. Encourage others to do the same. Who knows, it might help. If it doesn’t then we will have to do better than 74% next time.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Cato
elpasospeak 
Thank you for adding this feature to the page. I already used the site to contact the mayor last week and it was so easy to use. Yes, this will be a great way for us to contact the mayor and our reps so they know what we are thinking out here. I suspect they will appreciate our feedback so they know the “heartbeat” of the community.
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I have given up. Sure I read about what is going on, but I know full well from past experiences you will be ignored if you write or call them. I look at citizen involvement here in El Paso being about the same as citizen involvement in Cuba. Nothing good can come from it and no matter who wins at the polls…nothing will change.
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Thanks for putting the attachments on the home page. I found it very easy last week to write the mayor on an issue. I suspect the mayor and council appreciate feedback from constituents so they can get a feel for the “heartbeat” of citizens on particular issues.
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By the way, the link to representative number one does not work–not elpasospeak’s problem–the city web site throws an error
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I send and get no acknowledgement
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Progress comes one step at a time:
1) They ask for your input
2) Then they ignore you
Responses come next:
1) Are you crazy?
2) You aren’t progressive enough!
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They would be fools not to be aware that we crazies produced the biggest land slide in the history of ELP.
They are listening!
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Weezer — You expect to be acknowledged? Your expectations are unreasonably high. You’re just a taxpayer. Know your place.
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325,316 registered voters in El Paso. 44,762 voted for mayor out of a total of 45,059 votes cast. 13.85% of registered voters voted. That is not a landslide nor is it a mandate. It was a popularity contest and the fact that Leeser has been on tv commercials for 10+ years.
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In the U.S., including cities like Austin, a 13.85% turnout for a mayoral race is surprisingly good. And yes, it was a landslide because the only votes that count are the ones cast. To suggest that this election was more of a popularity contest than any other election makes it sound like you are an Ortega apologist — especially when you attribute Leeser’s win purely to his auto dealership commercials and you disregard the polls that clearly indicated mass dissatisfaction with the then City leadership, which included Ortega.
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