July | 2014 | elpasospeak

Thank you Dr. Noe!

July 11, 2014

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

15 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Last minute promotion?

July 10, 2014

We learned recently that the chief financial officer of the city has tendered her resignation. She evidently has a job in the private sector. Hopefully it does not include formulating budgets.

We did not learn where she is going. There are not a lot of local possibilities in the private sector if she is not going to take a pay cut. Then again she may not know what the private sector is or where it is for that matter.

Included in the news was mention of the fact that she is now a deputy city manager. The Times reported that she was made a deputy city manager in September of 2013. That is hard to believe given the facts that the city’s web site shows her job title as chief financial officer and also her well known behavior as a publicity hound.

The new city manager’s budget proposal for next year has an organization chart in it. She is shown as the chief financial officer, not a deputy city manager.

What’s going on?

Is the Times right? I don’t recall seeing a public announcement from the city in September of 2013 indicating she was promoted to deputy city manager. For that matter I don’t recall seeing an article in the Times to that effect either.

Is she a deputy city manager? If so when did that happen? Was it in the final days of the last city manager?

Is she eligible for a city pension at the ripe old age of 46? Will she be eligible later? Does she have a contract that designates her as deputy city manager?

One can’t help but wonder what her severance package will look like.

I suspect that an open records request will be made by someone.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Like sand through an hourglass

July 9, 2014

Those of us who are old enough to have lived through a change of command in an organization know that when the old boss leaves things come out in the open.

We are seeing signs of this over at the city with the situation relating to the firing of one of the deputy city managers. The most probable scenario in my judgment is that the deputy city manager and the city manager got crossways and the city manager decided to fire her. Yes, I have read the news reports where the former city manager has said that she “helped” the deputy city manager. Maybe they were in cohoots all along.

Speculating further it looks like the deputy city manager threatened to squeal about past events and the city came up with a solution designed to shut her up. Unfortunately that solution will cost us money through the city pension system for the rest of the former deputy city manager’s life.

Stories about how the city manager used fear to control what city employees said in public have been circulating for years.

Now the city manager is gone and I suspect that we will be hearing things from some of the employees that will make our hair curl.

The new city manager has little to gain from covering up the prior city manager’s past deeds. In fact cleaning up the mess at the city and replacing the old team would help build confidence in the city manager form of government. Proponents will be able to argue that having a city manager is a good thing–you just need a good city manager.

In fact one of our regular readers commented that the QOL that we need most is Quality of Leadership.

The story is going to get messier. Expect to hear things about some council members and senior city staff that will make J. R. Ewing look like a monk. Whether the outside financial influences will be able to stay out of the stories remains to be seen.

Don’t expect to see our district attorney get involved. Short of a nuclear event over at the Times we probably will not see them help here either.

Our best hope is to find ways to shine light on what has happened.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Two strikes and you’re out

July 8, 2014

Steeped in the controversy over our deputy city manager that has been given a pass into our retirement system on our dime is the persistent discussion about whether our west-side city representative lobbied to have the deputy city manager fired.

You will recall that months ago the city representative was charged with threatening a city employee. Some people have been saying that the city representative demanded that the employee be fired. According to the stories the deputy city manager refused.

At the time of the accusation against the city representative we were told that she would be treated “the same as any other citizen” by the then current city manager. Do you know who I am? discussed this in October of 2013.

We of course have heard nothing of the investigation.

Then again

Further clouding the issue is the fact that the deputy city manager openly disagreed with the city manager in front of city council over whether proposed expenditures for downtown “way finding” were related to the ball park. The city manager said no. The deputy city manager said yes.

Soon thereafter the deputy city manager was placed on administrative leave.

Our city charter places the city manager in control of personnel. Only the city manager could fire the deputy city manager.

Once again we pay

The deputy city manager’s contract was changed to allow her to stay employed (but not reporting to work) long enough for her to become eligible for retirement.

Is she being paid to keep quiet?

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD construction costs report card

July 7, 2014

The Texas comptroller recently issued a report titled Public School Construction Costs that compared individual school districts from a construction cost perspective to state-wide averages.

How did we do?

The state-wide average cost per student for new construction of elementary schools was $17,456 for the 2007 to 2013 period.

The El Paso Independent School District averaged $20,965 for the same period.

The state average number of square feet per student was 135 while EPISD’s was 136.

That means that our new elementary schools cost 20% more than the state average.

Recommendations

The comptroller’s report contained two recommendations to reduce costs:

Architectural prototypes (using a consistent design) for multiple campuses can mean savings in the design phase, on architectural fees and on purchasing (because the same design and materials are used, less time is needed to plan subsequent projects).

According to the Texas Association of School Boards, renovations cost 50-70 percent of a new building’s cost and can often meet the goals of a new structure. School districts with older facilities or slower student growth can couple historic and civic considerations with the economic benefits of renovating existing schools or other facilities.

Why each of our schools needs to look unique is a mystery to me. As to demolishing old schools and replacing them with new construction I suspect that what the district calls “deferred maintenance” is the culprit.

Favorable debt

On a more favorable note, the comptroller has issued this chart comparing EPISD’s debt to districts of similar size:

It seems that we are in less debt than other districts.

It would be nice if EPISD would consider the comptroller’s cost saving suggestions.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

elpasospeak

Thank you Dr. Noe!