A dear friend sent me a copy of the book Democracy in the Dark/The Seduction of Government Secrecy. Reading the book got me to thinking about the secrecy that the city engages in.
Our city council appears to finally be paying attention to the situation at San Jacinto Plaza.
The other day council went into executive session for an extended period and when they came out they told us that they had been advised by the city attorney not to say anything.
They did say that they wanted weekly updates on the situation. Is this so that the public will be informed? The answer is no. The first weekly update was this week and was also in executive session. When council reconvened they did not say a word about the Plaza.
Why the secrecy?
Could it be that the city fears a lawsuit from the contractor?
If that’s the case then the city might be culpable for the delay. If the contractor is right don’t we have the right to know? Shouldn’t we know so that we can demand that changes occur in the departments at fault?
What right does the city have to hide the truth from us?
If the city has done nothing wrong why are they hiding the facts from us? Are they afraid of a groundless lawsuit? That would be strange. The city legal department has used lawsuits to beat people out of what they deserve before.
Secrecy here serves no purpose other than to protect the city. They should make the facts public.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
You can file a writ of mandamus and a judge will review what occurred in executive session and determine if council violated the law or not.
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Good advice and nice to know there is legal recourse. I suspect most people here want to complain but will not take that step. I might bother if I had a stake in El Paso. I’m getting out of this hell hole.
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I suspect that one big reason for the delay might well have to do with a certain amount of interference from certain individual members of Council. Metiches, you know?
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The City’s refusal to discuss things openly is becoming a recurring theme and our city officials have a real knack for getting us embroiled in costly lawsuits and litigation. They also like spending money on lawyers to avoid public disclosure of information.
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I just want someone on CC to get angry about all the city staff fuck-ups; to show us they care more about citizens and out interests than they care about Firth’s play-it-safe advice.
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Where would you find a judge that doesn’t play ball with the local politicians?
Let’s stop calling them city council. A better title would be “clandestine council”. Just build a council hall on a mobile platform. The platform would rotate into the wall and then they don’t have to leave their seats for executive session. The Mayor presses a button and away they go. They spend more time in secrecy anyway.
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