Hiding from us

November 5, 2014

Wanting to follow up on our county hospital’s financial situation I went to their web site and looked at the Tuesday, October 14, 2014 board agenda.

This graphic comes from the first page:

umcfinancial

The meeting was video recorded.  Watching it I saw the chief executive officer addressing the board.  He made a point of turning to the camera and recognizing that the citizens were able to watch the meeting also.  It was clearly a great step toward transparency.

Not so fast

Our county hospital is in financial trouble.  Part of the problem is their relationship with the children’s hospital.  The children’s hospital cannot pay what they owe to the county hospital.  The county hospital has been operating as though the bills can be paid.  The result is that the county hospital took the drastic action of getting a payday loan to get it through this year.  Yes, they borrowed money against next year’s property tax receipts.  How they will somehow make things even next year is a mystery.

The above portion of the board agenda shows that the review of the hospital’s financial statements was handled through the consent agenda.  Watching the video of the meeting I saw that there was absolutely no discussion from either the board members, the hospital staff, or the public concerning the financial statements.

Out of sight

What they did was fulfill their requirement to review the financial statements without the public learning any of the details.

This board should be ashamed.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Please vote

November 4, 2014

This is a good day.

We get to vote!

We deserve better and here is a chance to make it happen

Brutus

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Ongoing crisis?

November 3, 2014

Things are ominously quite over at our county hospital and the children’s hospital.

It was some time ago that we learned that the financial auditors for the children’s hospital told us that it was probably not a viable ongoing concerning with the financial arrangements as they are now.

We have been told that the children’s hospital owes the county hospital more than $60 million dollars.

The county hospital had to get permission to borrow money from next year’s paycheck (property tax income) to finish 2014.

The lack of transparency about the situation is troublesome.  I fear that we will eventually be presented with another “fait accompli” along with another bill.

If the situation is as dire as we have been told these guys need to take action to get the situation straightened out.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD transition

November 2, 2014

The Texas education commissioner has announced that the term of the El Paso Independent School District board of managers will end after the May election cycle is finished  as state law requires.

Once the May elections have determined who the new board members are they will join the ones who were elected in 2013 but were never allowed to take their rightful seats.

This chapter in the unfortunate saga will finally be over.

We need to watch to see what changes they make as their terms expire.  They were not elected by us and are not accountable through the ballot box.  Having nothing to lose politically (other than their reputations) they might use their final months to force changes that the public does not want.

Vigilance

We will eventually  have elected officials that are accountable to the public running the school district again.

When this happens we need to have a heightened sense of vigilance.  We need to watch this board and hold them accountable on a meeting by meeting basis.

If we do this and the board strays, we need to tell them how we feel.   Even our local elected officials behave differently when they know the public is watching.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

1 Comment | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Counting the miracles

November 1, 2014

What have we come to when our county judge reports the county’s significant accomplishments for the year as:

  1. Deciding to hire a county administrator
  2. Taking responsibility for the county budget away from the county auditor
  3. Getting a new labor agreement with the sheriff’s officers association.

Wow!

Maybe next year they can work on completing the sports park or something other than bureaucratic stuff.

Most of us could have done the three things above in a couple of days.

Filling the county administrator’s job will be something to watch.  The county hired an out of town firm to perform an extensive nationwide search to find just the right person.

Would anyone care to bet that the city’s former chief financial officer will be at the top of the list?

Hide and watch.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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