Our public service board has decided to follow the law and charge the city council imposed additional franchise fee on both residential and non-residential customers.
The PSB had previously followed the city’s request and was charging the fee only to non-residential customers. That turned out to not be legal.
There should have no surprise there with the advice coming from our city attorney and one of her number one assistants, Scrivener.
What was surprising was to see that our former chief financial officer attended the PSB meeting to complain about how the fee will affect her company. According to the Times:
“Arrieta-Candelaria said 6-inch meters are used by rental complexes that her company manages. The new higher fee will mean raising customers’ rents, cutting expenses or taking a financial hit.”
Taking a hit
I suppose that now that she is out in the private sector she is beginning to see that damage that the city’s wanton spending and poor financial planning has on the community.
In part it was her inaccurate forecasting that has allowed the city to get in the budget mess that we have.
After the meeting according to the Times, ” Arrieta-Candelaria, the city’s former chief financial officer, asked why commercial customers must pay more now since the fee is being spread to include residential customers.”
In other words “don’t make me pay so much, stick the citizens with the bill”.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
How damn typical of this City! In the first place, franchise fees should only apply to for-profit businesses that operate within a city, using the cities streets, etc. for their business. The PSB already owns the sewers and water lines, since they put them in! Plus, of course, we have the reality that we, the taxpayers, own both the PSB and the City streets, etc. So, how can this be interpreted as anything other than yet another tax on the citizens of El Paso. IOW, we’re paying twice for what we already own! But, evidently, this is what the citizens want, since y’all overwhelmingly chose to cast your votes for incumbents.
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Still seems like a good question asked at the end. I wonder what the answer was. Maybe: “Because we can and you can’t do anything about it!”
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She wants to cover up for herself. Now that we know it was not legal, she wants to make sure everyone believes she was not helping Joyce Wilson manipulate the city budget or support any illegal acts.
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