It seems that our county hospital chief executive is not very good at forecasting either.
He told us before the children’s hospital was built that it would be self-sustaining, no additional taxpayer money would be needed to operate it. That bill is now over $60 million and climbing.
He convinced our county commissioners to allow him to issue $152 million in bonds to remodel part of the county hospital and to build three new outpatient clinics. He forecast that those clinics would save us $17 million a year in emergency room costs.
Then, evidently before he figured out how to spend the money, he sold the bonds. Read his offer to you here.
Now he tells us there is another problem. He needs to spend $19 million for a new patient records system before he can open the clinics. There are two surprises here, the first being that he did not see the need for the system before he made plans for the clinics and the second that such a system would cost remotely near that amount.
The three clinics are supposedly being designed as you read this.
Do these problems stem from a lack of capability on his part or from a lack of respect for the taxpayers?
Either way they amount to one thing–a failure to be a competent steward of our money.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Insane decisions continue to be made and approved by the UMC board. In the midst of the budget crisis, they have decided to delay construction of the outpatient clinics, yet they are reportedly going to continue to spend money on the design of those clinics. Those design dollars could have been better used to reduce the number of layoffs. This proves that Valenti values his personal empire more than people.
I can’t help but now wonder if the persons receiving those design dollars have a special relationship with UMC management and the board. Why else would they continue spending design dollars on something they have decided not to build anytime soon?
Perhaps the most insane decision, however, is the continued employment of an incompetent executive.
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When the RFP’s went out, UMC had their own architect on staff. So there are probably no additional design dollars being spent. Of course, having an architect on staff, working on clinics that won’t be built, is a different kind of misallocation of resources.
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Elrichboy,
Great point, which further proves the wasteful ways of incompetent management and board members. How many private organizations of comparable size and operating in one city the size of El Paso keep a full-time architect on staff? Just more personal empire building with our tax dollars.
I am, of course, excluding businesses directly involved in architectural, engineering or construction services.
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The UMC board seems to be a cajone-free zone, incapable of reining in Valenti’s ego. Not unusual here, witness EPISD board coddling Garcia while he raped the system.
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