The upcoming July 15, 2014 regular agenda for the El Paso City Council has an item on it that gives us some hope.
City representative Dr. Michiel R. Noe has placed item 12.1 on the agenda. It reads:
Discussion of recent contract changes that were completed prior to the departure of former City Manager Joyce Wilson.
Discussion shall include the following:
The possibility of limiting / regulating the City Manager’s ability to alter or influence the alteration of contracts within a particular time window of the CM leaving.
A summary of the contract changes made and the financial impact that the changes caused.
A timeline of when it happened and who was involved including HR.
Are there any additional contracts that were changes, and what those changes were?
Thank you, Dr. Noe!
We have a chance to learn what has been going on.
Were the former city manager’s actions limited to the one deputy city manager or were other employment contracts altered? Were contracts with vendors or suppliers changed at the last minute?
This is better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
This is the second time in recent memory that this particular Council Member has taken an action that proves at least one of them is awake and paying attention. We really need more members like him.
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Indeed, thank you! Over to you, Mr. Gonzalez…
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Now, will one of then just ask the CM how much we really spent on Woody World?
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Yes, but I suggest he add two things:
1. Discussion regarding how to rescind the changes that were made.
2. Discussion regarding Joyce Wilson’s comment to a Des Moines paper, stating that she “helped Shang execute a favorable exit agreement with the city” which clearly suggests that she possibly violated her fiduciary responsibilities to the city and taxpayers.
The arrogance and the sense of privilege and entitlement is truly disgusting.
Individuals best start thinking long and hard about what constitutes honest services fraud. If they do their homework, some might get terribly uncomfortable.
Sometimes people think they’re immune, when they really aren’t.
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Looks like Wilson’s true colors are coming out and showing what a real POS she has been all along. And everyone says Strong Mayors were always doing these type shenanigans in the past. Sounds like the City Manager System does the same thing except we are paying about a million a year more in salaries and not to mention pensions. Guess what. Are we still gonna hire this woman for the Workforce and watch her do it again. She couldn’t get another job in the private sector or public outside of El Paso so the people in power gave her the Workforce job.
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robinson is still celebrating memorial day
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Lilly is still celebrating Xmas.
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Jerry The cost of the ballpark is 200 million dollars in principal and interest also we have to add the leases of private property for city operations spread around town that were once within the same building along with police costs for every game along with half of the water bill. you could also add the properties taken off the tax roll for the citys use.
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I’m looking for the city to say this, not one of us. I want to see our local government own up to the Big Lie that Wilson and Carmen and the MS pimp-brigade in city hall told to us, and its effect going forward on our taxes. Debt is not limited here to city hall as there are multiple taxing entities in the county and they do not seem to consult each other before spending beyond their collective means.
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The other item on the agenda to note is Resolution 3.1. To me (I could be wrong) it looks like Wingo/Sanders is going to make $239,206.81 for about four months work without the performed service going out to bid. What makes Wingo/Sanders so special? Wingo/Sanders also worked with outgoing deputy City manager Jane Shang and made just under $50,000 to convince her the Sun Metro logo needed to be changed and re-branding would help save the transit system. That was another “service” paid for with taxpayer money to Wingo/Sanders that did not go out to bid. Is this a way for Jane Shang to help out some friends even if she is on administrative leave?
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At least it is going to CC versus Shang’s over $100K severance that isn’t. The rules in city hall are that CC has to approve POs over $50K. How they actually get to a PO is a mystery sometimes. If you think the city is bad, research HACEP for $100MM jobs that don’t get competitively bid out.
El Paso: it’s all corrupt.
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The proposed Sanders/Wingo contract makes no sense for a several reasons.
They are being hired to promote our own El Paso airport as a “gateway to El Paso.”
It would seem pretty obvious to most people that any airport is a gateway to the city in which it is located. For some unstated reason, however, our city staff or the people pulling their strings feel the need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make an obvious point.
All we get for $240,000 are a 30-second video commercial and a 90-second video commercial. That number does not include the cost of media, so more costs will follow, unless they are spending all that money for videos to run on TV monitors inside the airport. If it is the latter, it is even more stupid.
They are also in a hurry to spend this money while some areas of the airport is under construction and an inconvenient mess.
The City of El Paso has a long history of failed advertising campaigns. Is this really a good use of money given the current budgetary issues?
If this contract is being entered into without giving others an opportunity to bid on the work or do the work pro bono as a public service, then we once again have a situation in which certain people are being given preferential treatment.
If Sanders/Wingo is a certified, minority-owned 8(a) business, that might be how they convinced the city not to allow anyone else the privilege of competing for the business. Or maybe it’s just who they know. Chihuahuas baseball will likely be a big part of the commercial.
If I am missing something in all of this, it is because of the lack of information provided by city staff who proposed this project and the Sanders/Wingo no-bid contract.
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I just sent an electronic mail to Mayor and Council members concerning the resolution. Let’s see if it passes without any discussion.
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From the backup material for the agenda:
“…pursuant to Section 252.022(a)(16) of Texas Local Government Code, an expenditure for advertising, other than legal notices, is exempt from the bidding requirements…”
Neat, huh?
Brutus
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Yes, that clause is interesting. I guess it means a Texas governmental agency can advertise itself into bankruptcy and voters would not be able to do anything about it. Well, I just declared myself to be a minority owned, underutilized advertising agency…….where’s my money?
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