Cato wrote about our former mayor trying to change the rules for his convenience. The ex-mayor must think that he is special.
There were a couple of other things that I saw in the El Paso Times article.
The reporter wrote that council amended an ordinance and that “Cook was present at that meeting”.
Present?
Not only was he there, but he signed the ordinance! Seeing that would require actually looking at the ordinance. That would require investigation instead of just being the propagandist for the city.
If he thought the ordinance was unfair or unconstitutional he should have vetoed it. Evidently when he thought it applied to other people it was acceptable. When it is applied to him we have a different matter.
Misdemeanor
Quoting from the Times:
“City ordinance No. 017112 states that “any officer or employee who engages in lobbying activities that would require registration under the city’s lobbying ordinance during this 24 month period commits a misdemeanor.”
Horse feathers!
It says no such thing. That is unless ordinance number 017112 that is posted on the city web site is not the real ordinance number 017112. The city has been known to change the language of an ordinance after it is passed. You know you just have to allow for Scrivener.
The ordinance does not include the word misdemeanor. It does say that when elected city officials leave office they cannot act as a registered lobbyist or represent another person or organization in any formal or informal appearance before council or a city board or department. To do so would be “unlawful”. City code makes any unlawful act that does not have a specific penalty a misdemeanor.
Where did our reporter come up with what she wrote? If she wants to take material from “talking papers” provided to her by the city, she should have the honesty to quote it as such.
Muckraker
elpasospeak 
Poor guy, he was already salivating at the paycheck he could get from his bud, Jim, the hotelier, so he could pay some of that legal bill, and now…nada! He knows lobbying can be lucrative…and a legal way to “cash in” on relationships with the players in this city…maybe that befuddled his memory of the ordinance. Another question he might be asking himself is “what was that expression about ‘fair weather’ friends?”
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Cook could always take a page out of Newt Gingrich’s playbook and say that his influence peddling is merely consulting historian work.
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