We are now down to one working deputy city manager out of four positions.
Things seem to be settling down.
Less is more
Maybe we don’t need deputy city managers. We have a chief of police, a fire chief, a comptroller, and various department heads.
What did we get with deputy city managers?
The one in charge of transportation got us the new rapid transit system on Mesa, the street cars that go to the wrong places, the coming bicycle rental system, and countless streets that either are in dire need of paving or are under what feels like permanent reconstruction.
Our chief financial wizard helped us tear down city hall and spend countless millions refurbishing multiple buildings. Citizens have to travel to multiple buildings for services and we have even used space in a community center to house a city department. Our public safety pension funds are floating in red ink. Bond spending has skyrocketed with the promise that revenues will pay for them. We have the bonds but not the revenues.
One former deputy city manager got us the ball park, the beginning of a downtown renaissance.
Another brought us a multi-million dollar digital wall, soon to be one of only two in the world.
Maybe these people thought that they were supposed to do something other than give us an efficient city government. Maybe they actually thought their job was to create massive public works projects in the name of progress.
Savings
It seems to me that we could save a lot of money here. First we have the salaries, termination agreements, and pension obligations of the deputies. Then we have their offices and staffs. Then we have the mischief they cause.
We have department heads. Why can’t they run their departments?
The new city manager might want to do some reorganization. Creating a director of public works might be a good idea. Strategic sourcing could be transformed back into purchasing. You get the idea.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
And we, the taxpayers, have no say in how many deputy managers are hired or their agenda.
The city uses our resources (i.e. tax money) to further its public works projects in the name of progress. The city uses our resources for these public works projects and for the public relations needed to convince us these expenditures are for the public good. The county does the same thing. That’s how we got a Children’s Hospital when we already had one. That’s how we got a county manager, who will no doubt hire deputy managers and find projects to fund, whether we want those projects or not.
The city uses our resources to present its bond issues in a positive light to guarantee their approval by voters. Anyone who disapproves of a bond proposal must fund a campaign with his own money. That’s why bond issues almost always pass. That’s why it’s estimated El Paso’s debt service amounts to over $3000 for every resident.
We have no say except through city representatives. Then when a city rep tries to hold the line on spending he is denigrated as always saying “no.” He is criticized for being against progress. We have little input, yet always are told to pay the bill. The citizens who actually take their own time to go before Council to ask for fiscal responsibility are called ankle-biters. They should be called heros. Attorneys who challenge the system are fined, punished or required to pay for challenging the system.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here, El Paso. It’s hard to have hope.
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As long as voters in El Paso do not support these heros, there is no hope.
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Is the position of Studer, who is long gone, included in your count of vacant deputy manager positions?
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There are currently four deputy city manager positions.
The proposed city budget has an organization chart that shows a “chief of staff position”. I believe that this is a new position.
Brutus
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Now, you’ve really p___d me off. The addition of a “chief of staff” position clearly indicates that our new city manager sees himself as on the same level of the President of the United States or a U.S. Senator, some of the few people who have a “Chief of Staff”.
If he is modeling his organization along those lines, we can conclude that he is politically oriented and views himself as a very busy, important guy. I guess he needs a chief of staff to manage all the deputy managers.
And the guy has the audacity to add that position in the middle of a budget crisis?
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What budget crisis? They will just raise money through mandated fees.
Brutus
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We also have no say when the city manager decides to give someone a paid holiday for eleven months, to save her from being fired? – and calls it a “personnel matter” that Council meekly agrees cannot be discussed. El Diario reported recently that the city is losing some $5.1 million in transportation funding because Ms. Shang’s division did not have the paperwork done on time. Great job, Janey! Here’s a pension for you, courtesy of the taxpayers you just kicked in the shins.
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I have been saying essentially the same thing since I came back to El Paso (we lived here from 1970, until 2004, then were elsewhere until 2012) and found that we now have a City Manager. We do NOT need a City Manager, with all the added expense. We DO need a strong Mayor, one who is actually willing to do the job for which he was elected!
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I agree and hope the mayor will get it on the ballot. If the mayor screws up, at least we get a chance to fire him every 4 years. Not so the CM.
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El Diario reports today that City Council decided unanimously to settle with the IT firms (Weidner and MFR Performance Solutions) that sued it in federal court for illegally copying and using software. The City will not say how much it will offer to settle, nor is it known how much the lawyers hired from Dallas to defend it were paid.
Just normal City business, nothing to see here, move along!
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Outsourcing is an idea to be investigated, especially IT in order to bring current and better expertise into that sorry department.
One of the reasons discussed for hiring a CM 10 years ago was to put operations on a more professional basis, not subject to favors for CC members and the mayor, i.e., cronyism. Except we forgot the CM herself and her cronies. All she did was to raise cronyism and back room deals to a new height!
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The city is not allowed to promote a bond issue. On the QoL, promotion was done by a PAC of private contributors, but mostly the Usual Suspects.
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What we have is a shadow government in which the real political power does not reside with our publicly elected representatives and the voters who put them in office, but instead with a small group of private individuals (aka the usual suspects) who are exerting power and influence behind the scenes, beyond the view and scrutiny of voters and our official democratic bodies and processes. Our elected officials are subservient to those in the shadow government who have used their money and power to hijack local democracy and turn it into a plutocracy.
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The city is not allowed to promote a bond issue, but every time there is one the city pays for a large ad in the EP Times. In addition to reminding everyone to vote, the ad lists the bond proposals, which are always phrased in a positive light. Never a mention of how much that proposal will cost or the possible ramifications.
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