Our county judge has been complaining publicly about the fact that the children’s hospital is using an out of town law firm to handle their bankruptcy.
She fails to point out that the county and the county hospital both use an out of town firm to handle their bonds. The same lawyer seems to be at the bottom of some of El Paso’s most controversial issues. He is now with the law firm of Norton Rose Fulbright out of their Dallas office.
Searching the web you will find that the firm has a few local clients:
- The City of El Paso (evidently including the ball park)
- The County of El Paso (evidently including the clinics and the children’s hospital)
- El Paso Independent School District (evidently including the corporation that wants to issue the bonds for the new central office)
- El Paso County 911 District
They may be involved with other local governments, time will tell.
This graphic comes from a presentation that the county hospital was using to sell us on the children’s hospital bond issue:
At the time the lawyer was with his own firm. He evidently later joined Norton Rose Fulbright.
The county judge is certainly being disingenuous when she complains about the children’s hospital while she is doing the same thing.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Meanwhile, every once in a while, these same elected officials decry the “brain drain” that adversely affects El Paso. Go figure. Maybe if we spent local tax dollars locally, we could help offset that brain drain.
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The City Manager hired a friend from out of town as his chief performance officer. He apparently believed there was no one in El Paso worthy of even an interview. The city never even posted the job to attract other applicants. So much for equal opportunity.
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The county judge is being disingenuous about a lot of things, the children’s hospital and all things associated with that fiasco being just a few. It’s funny how she’ll berate her constituents on social media for “twisting” her record, but she’s just as dirty and dishonest when it comes to politics and deflecting responsibility. The bottom line is the buck stops with her. She pushed for an unfeasible project, she failed to exercise proper oversight– from planning to Projections to reviewing audit reports. Now she’s throwing the kitchen sink to protect and cover her failure.
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Maybe there’s no firm locally with the resources to handle. Hopefully many local attorneys donated to the Children Hospital so could be a conflict?
Wishful thinking.
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The use of out of town law firms is not just an issue relative to the Children’s Hospital bankuptcy. City and county governmental entities regularly go out of town for legal services when El Paso has some well respected law firms and attorneys that do work for large multinational companies. Big out of town firms also bill at much higher rates, adding to our costs. Is this is part of the pattern of behavior intended to reduce the risk of local people finding out about some of the actions being taken by our government officials? Are certain people personally incented to give the business to out of town firms?
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John, there isn’t that much of a brain drain, the voters’ record of re-electing the same fools over and over is proof. Unless, the brain ones open their eyes and recognize the stupidity and shenanigans of the officials.
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