The Tuesday June 17, 2014 city council agenda contemplates the issuance of $73 million more in certificates of obligation under item 6.1 on the regular agenda.
The item is attributed to our chief financial officer, the one that earlier in the meeting has an item to gloat about how transparent the city’s financial department has been.
From the backup material we learn that the certificates of obligation are for the city “to fund and reimburse itself for ongoing capital projects”.
Evidently the city has been using operating money to pay for “capital” projects.
Like what?
Our award winning financial department has not chosen to tell us how much money they have already spent and on what. Yes they do provide a list of projects (like Country Club Road Construction) but they do not tell us which ones they have already spent money on. Some say that this item is on the agenda to pay for the work that they did to replace city hall.
Why is that important? Well evidently we already had enough money to pay for the projects. Why should we go into debt now and pay even more?
They might respond that they “borrowed” the money from an operating fund (like police or fire or parks) and now they feel guilty and want to give the money back.
They might respond that they really just want to raise cash for some other kind of spending that they think we need, whether we agree or not.
Either way, a transparent document would have told us what we have already paid for and what remains.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I would be content just to see an overall accounting of how much the whole stadium boondoggle has cost us, including the new city facilities. I cannot understand why CC has not demanded this from the CFO, especially as half have nothing politically to lose by it and neither does the mayor. .
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I do not think the ballpark is a “boondoggle.” I think the ballpark is the best thing to happen to El Paso in the last couple of decades. Nevertheless, I do believe that the City could cut some costs. Many employees are overpaid and under-worked. Since when did municipalities start paying more than the private sector for similar positions? And the City isn’t alone… EPWU, the County and the school districts are guilty also. For example, their “communications” people: they are earning about twice what the private sector would pay. Even the barely qualified engineers are earning more than their mediocre services would be worth at an engineering firm.
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There is little private sector here to provide a benchmark. Thus public jobs are the most sought after and one of the few sources of professional jobs. The stadium provides “hot dog” jobs. Otherwise I agree with you.
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Regardless one’s opinion regarding the ballpark, which was under-budgeted (intentionally, perhaps) from the start, it is interesting to note that the amount of the new round of certificates of obligation being contemplated is almost identical to the direct cost of the ballpark. We’re getting good at spending money we don’t have and with no clear plan for how we will come up with the money.
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