The publicly funded workforce commission that serves El Paso recently changed it’s name to Workforce Solutions Borderplex.
This is the agency that is now run by our former city manager.
I guess that I need to eat some crow publicly here. Some of my friends have held that the whole ball park/city hall issue was tied to the Borderplex group. I have preferred to think that the former city manager was acting as a monocrat and that while the Borderplex benefitted from the situation they were not driving the issue.
I guess that I was wrong.
I’ve often thought that the former city manager played fast and loose with the rules. I decided to look up the state enabling legislation that allowed the commission to be formed. This part caught my attention:
Sec. 2308.256. BOARD MEMBERSHIP. (a) A board is composed as follows:
(1) representatives of the private sector, who:
(A) constitute a majority of the membership of the board; and
(B) are owners of business concerns, chief executives or chief operating officers of nongovernmental employers, or other private sector executives who have substantial management or policy responsibilities;
Maybe they are qualified, but
If the majority of the board members must be owners or chief executives or chief operating officers of nongovernmental employers, or failing in that at least be other private sector executives who have substantial management or policy responsibilities, then maybe our local board is made up of a bunch of heavy hitters that know how to run an organization.
The commission’s web page lists 23 board members. Twelve would make a majority.
Looking them each up through google, of the ones that work in the private sector I found:
A public affairs officer at a local hospital
A restaurant owner
A web services manager for a local company
An investment manager
Two practicing attorneys
A Certified Public Accountant
A property manager
A disbursements manager
A (sales?) director of a local medical supply company
and the former CEO of our electric utility
There were two people I could not identify.
By my reckoning the former CEO and the restaurant owner fit the state requirements.
Stacking the board this way is a common technique. Hired management that is supposed to be guided by the board ends up running the show.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Many times to fill boards, you have to happily work with those people who volunteer…
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Unless you’re talking about the Garden Club, most board positions are filled by special invitation, not something you will be considered for just because you volunteer. When you see the same people serving on multiple boards, which are controlled by a small group, of individuals you get a strong sense that you have to be part of the club to get invited to serve on one of those boards. Either that or be someone who can be controlled. Also, some board selections are influenced by politicians based on political contributions or political favors.
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ah yes: The work for the many is always done by the select few….
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ah yes, the anointed ones who say they know what’s best for the rest of us peones.
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yes I understand that it is difficult to get volunteers, but the law requires a majority to have certain credentials
brutus
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Joyce rules according to Joyce’s rules.
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Anyone have any real information about what kind of success this outfit has?
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Board members are appointed by local elected officials, not the CEO. Our local commission covers the largest geographic area of any Texas workforce commission.
This commission was one of my partners when I ran the BTOP project and I equipped their centers with hundreds of PCs for computer literacy instruction. The way it was structured by law is that the local staff (that Wilson now oversees) does not manage the employment centers that are run by a contractor. This clumsy arrangement made for a lot of disconnects. I don’t envy Wilson having to manage it all.
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