Putting it to the “crazies” on the way out the door

July 21, 2014

The Tuesday, July 22, 2014 city council agenda has three items placed on it by our chief financial officer.

Our former chief financial officer.    Her last day was to be Thursday, July 17.

Agenda items have a “Department Head’s Summary” form and other material attached to them as they are submitted to be placed on the agenda if the rules are followed.  These three items list the former chief financial officer as the contact person.

Why would she do this?  Many of us would leave this to the new person in charge if we knew that we would no longer be in charge when council considers the item.  Is she trying to tidy up some loose ends in her reign of financial misdirection?

The three items don’t make sense to me.

Item 7.1 on the regular agenda is the first.  It proposes authorizing $72 million in certificates of obligation for the city to “fund and reimburse itself for ongoing capital project”.  Once again she wants us to go into debt.  These proposed bonds will carry a maximum interest rate of 4.85% and will mature 26 years from now in December of 2040.  We would pay $130 million back with $56 million of it being interest.  Bond counsel and underwriter fees will cost extra.

As we have seen before, the backup material does not indicate which projects have already been paid for and which ones are yet to be done.  What we do know is that some of them have already been paid for.  Why spend almost twice as much to finance something that we already own?  Is it because the money that was used was really for other city commitments and now the council really has no choice?

Item 7.2 proposes $59 million in general obligation refunding bonds.  We already issued bonds in 2005 and 2006, with the 2005 bonds being for the Plaza Theatre.  Now they want to refinance the debt at 4.15%, presumably a lower rate of interest.  The catch?  The new bonds will mature December 31, 2031, at least 26 years from now.  Bond counsel and the underwriters will get paid again.

The third item is number 7.3 on the regular agenda.  On the face of it this looked like a good move.  She wants to take $5.3 million of our new Mesa street mess created by the new rapid transit system and move the obligation to Sun Metro.  This would remove the money from “tax-supported debt” and move it “to Sun Metro self-supporting debt”  Once again bond counsel and the underwriters will be paid extra.

Baloney!

Sun Metro is not self-supporting.  Millions of dollars of our local tax money are transferred to Sun Metro every year.  Every new dollar that they have to spend will have to be subsidized by our tax money.

These items are designed to free up operating money so that the city can spend more.

The net effect of her signatures?  The new people don’t have to have their names associated with this.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

10 Comments | City government | Permalink
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No news is not good news

July 20, 2014

The headline article in the Times the other day tells us a lot about their sad state.  Harvey Girls historical group explores El Paso Union Depot told us about a local group that works to preserve the history of some waitresses.

The Harvey Girls were an interesting part of our history.  I am glad to see someone working to preserve their history.  Evidently none of them are alive today so what we had was an article about a history club.

Extra!  Extra! Read all about it!

But the headline article?  Certainly I enjoyed reading it.  However I would have expected to see it in one of the local sections.

Evidently the Times is so hard up for reporting that articles about a chicken from San Diego and a history club have to be promoted to the front page in order to fill the page.

Over the years we have seen the size of the newspaper sheets shrink.  We now see advertising occupying a significant portion of the front page.

What we do not see is much reporting.  Neither do we see articles from the news wires that might tell us about international, national, or state news.  I guess that using articles from those sources would cost money.

On the local scene we have many issues that we might like to learn more about.  That would require the Times reporters doing research instead of printing press releases for our local institutions.

We deserve better

Brutus

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Writing

July 19, 2014

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

It is an attempt to develop K-12 education standards that apply across states.

Keyboarding is a requirement,  cursive handwriting is not.  As a result children in many states are no longer being taught handwriting and penmanship.

Texas does not subscribe to the Common Core standards.

Teaching to specific tests to the exclusion of teaching life skills will ruin education.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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No answers from the Doctor

July 18, 2014

Well I was wrong again.

In Thank you Dr. Noe! I closed with “This is better”.

It was not.

After posting this item “Discussion of recent contract changes that were completed prior to the departure of former City Manager Joyce Wilson” on the Thursday before this week’s city council meeting, the doctor publicly told us that he wanted to withdraw the item.  He indicated that after discussing the issue with various city officials he had the answers he wanted.

What about us?

After meeting in executive session for a rather lengthy session council came back into open session and announced that the agenda item would be deleted and that the city would be furnishing a copy of the amended contract relating to  the deputy city manager that has been sent home but that will still be paid through next year.

His original agenda item included other contracts that were changed in the last days and hours of our former city manager.

Nothing is being said about those contracts if there were any.

We don’t know.

But why would the agenda item have been deleted and one contract change produced with no comment about other changes?

What would the harm have been in continuing with the agenda item?  Some personnel actions are not subject to public disclosure but all contracts are.  Were contracts with vendors modified at the last minute?  If no other contracts were modified we could have learned that in open session.

Instead the city published a single contract and we are left to wonder if there were others.

We deserve better

Brutus

10 Comments | City government, Open Government | Permalink
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Secret deals

July 17, 2014

We learned from El Paso, Inc. the other day that our city’s chief financial officer has been in masquerade since September of 2012.

Evidently our former city manager promoted the chief financial officer to the position of deputy city manager back then.

She chose to keep her lesser title.

Why?

Her behavior on this issue is inconsistent with her past penchant for publicity.  The Times has written several highly favorable articles about her star rising.  We frequently see her smiling face in a photograph while wearing the same basically black color scheme.  Hiding her candle under a bushel is not one of her attributes.

Then why have both she and the city kept her promotion secret?  Could it be that back in September of 2012 us “crazies” were reeling from the staggeringly wrong estimates that she gave us on the ball park, the city hall move, and revenue projections?  Could it be that we would have objected if we had known?

Was this part of a payoff to get her to continue to publish misleading financial projections?

Deceitful

Don’t we have the right to know the true position and rank of our public officials?  What does this say about our former city manager and her?  What other deals have been made that are being kept secret?

Can we believe anything that they have said?

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government, El Paso Inc., El Paso Times | Permalink
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