Our central appraisal district executive director is trying to stiff the public in a way that other local government entities do.
The Times has filed what is commonly called an open records request asking to see the travel records relating to the executive director for the last year.
The district wants to charge the Times $404 for the 80 documents. They claim that the clerical work required to comply with the request is the cause of the exorbitant charge.
If the district’s accounting records are in such disarray that it truly takes 22 hours to assemble the documents, then we need a new accounting system and a new boss at the district.
If the high charge is designed to discourage the Times, then we need a new boss at the district.
Unfortunately many in local government think that those who make open records requests are the enemy.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
They learned well from the Emailgate trials with city hall and Ortega. Four hundred dollars will get them partial records and the battle begins.
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Don’t bite on this bait. The Times has an interest in this issue. There is a a hard push to force reduction in the appraised values of commercial property. IF Margo and Niland are successful the home owner in El Paso will carry even a larger burden of the tax bill than they already do. Commercial property is undervalued by over 10% in El Paso and the home owner has to pick up the difference.
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I totally disagree that commercial properties are undervalued. Many residential properties are undervalued because actual sale prices are no longer reported. Regardless, whether residential properties are undervalued, commercial properties are not.
The real problem is that CAD thinks its job is to generate maximum revenue and it has inflated values to try to keep up with increased and desired levels of local government spending, some of which is unwarranted. The real solution is to better manage spending and to find a way to pass on part of the cost to Mexican visitors, who use so many city services. We had no trouble putting the screws to hotel visitors to pay for the ballpark.
Storm water fees have also hurt commercial property owners, Continuing to put more tax burden on commercial property owners, who simply pass it on to tenants, is a sure-fire way to discourage both large and small businesses from locating here and to kill job growth. Keep on driving up commercial property taxes and you will see an increase in foreclosures on commercial properties.
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Despite all the Times’ shortcomings and failures of late, it’s nice to see them occasionally still do the right thing. This is one of those times. It’s just unfortunate that their sense of right and wrong goes out the window when certain private sector parties are involved.
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Scrutiny begets resentment; is there anywhere in El Paso where honesty and ethics are the order of the day. Not the country judge’s office, not the Mayor and city council, certainly not EPISD and now we can add of malfeasance the CAD executive director to the very long list of self-serving so-called public servants. More like thieves in public service
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The Times follows the lead of their Paso Del Norte overlords. Don’t think for a minute they thought of this all by themselves. Part of the EPISD budget crisis is due to the CAD (Led by Margo, Archuleta and Arrieta) lowing property values on big ticket properties like Western Refining.
Follow the money. Wonder WHY the Times is going after the CAD…it simply is so the Margo led cronies can install their own “business friendly” team.
And in El Paso, “Business Friendly” means the homeowner gets screwed.
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Welcome to the plantation.
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