Yesterday’s post did not include proof of our assertion that the trigger was pulled on the baseball park bond sale May 28, 2013.
That date was well before the difficulties in the bond markets caused interest rates to go up.
Some members of city council tried to blame the bond advisors for the delay and that has led to a scandal concerning an effort to fire the bond advisors and bring in ones that have ties to at least one member of council.
Reports were requested from city staff explaining how the delay was caused. An email from the former city manager confirms that the delay was deliberate and was intended to influence the outcome of the upcoming city election.
The fact is that the bonds were authorized for sale on May 28, 2013 and that any one of three people were “hereby authorized to act on behalf of the Corporation in selling and delivering the Series 2013 Bonds …”. The issue was out of city council’s hands.
Who were the three people? Our former city manager, our former chief financial officer and the city clerk. The failure to issue the bonds until after the election and the consequent $22 million or so cost increase lies squarely on their shoulders.
Follow this link to read the whole document.
The agenda item proposing the resolution is below:
and the portion of the minutes showing approval:
The city has commissioned yet another report on the subject.
The facts seem clear. It looks like these three people could have sold the bonds. The did not. We will pay for their failure.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
KVIA or El Paso Times copies this blog post and calls it their own in 3…2…1..
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Carmen and Joyce would be the real culprits. The city clerk is a clerk that does what she is told. Too bad she got pulled into this mess.
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The buck stopped with Wilson. The ball was in Wilson hand to act and she did not for the interest of a CC member in the hope of getting them elected Mayor. The problem is you will never know the truth until Wilson and others are sworn in on the stand in a court of law. The city investigation is a smoke screen to muddy the water and to cover Wilson.
If Wilson is put in a position where it looks like she is going down for what happened criminally she will sing.She is the weak link and this is why she is being shown so much special consideration by the CC and other political interest in El Paso because metaphorically speaking she know where the bodies are buried.
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The CC approves the issue and then the managers authorize the advisor to sell the issue, usually to a purchaser already lined up. That’s how I did it when I ran the HFC.
My guess is that Hunt and Foster asked Wilson (or their lackeys on CC) to delay the issue and she did so. Disgusting, but probably not illegal unless there is some proviso in the resolution that requires immediate sale of the bonds.
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Jerry K
Wilson misused the sale of the bonds to the interest of others whether it was Foster or Hunt or Stevo it doesn’t matter she did it for the political reason and for personal gain which was malfeasance of her office. She abused her position.
Anyone claim she has not be well reward has to be ignorant to make such claim .
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Sorry for the typos
That should have been….
Anyone claiming she was not been well rewarded has to be ignorant to make such a claim.
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Agreed but not illegal. No one is going to jail, which is too bad.
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Jerry I disagree with you on it wasn’t illegal it was abuse of her office under Texas law in my view.
Jerry K she was clearly rewarded for what she did.
The CEO of the workforce Reyes had been a total screw up for year and was allowed to keep his job with support of the Mayors of El Paso, County Judges and local politicians even when it was proven he had fail in his tenure of the work force and violated even the law. Then after more than a decade Reyes is removed at the time Wilson happened to need a job. Really!
Oh from what I understand Reyes just did not just step aside for Wilson he was forced out.
Jerry K the only way the truth will be found for certain is all involved are under oath in a court of law.
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Does anyone remember this post a while back ? Sounds about right doesn’t it ?
IMHO it probably went down like this. The Mountain Star group told Wilson to delay the bond purchase to help Ortega. According to someone who posted(blog?) campaign finance reports that showed Hunt and Foster donating 50k after the deadline so it wouldn’t show on the reports before the election. Lets see: delay bond purchase, delay donation, hoping Steve wins so he can give out some more corp welfare or basically just payback. You could also say they asked everyone they had donated to in the past(council) campaigns to help delay it also. That would be Lilly,Noe, Byrd, Niland(not sure) ? Sounds plausible doesn’t it ? Wilson has also been taken care of since she couldn’t find a job elsewhere, right ? Who pulled the strings to get her this current job ? Bueller,… anyone, Bueller ……, Bueller….., Foster,…..anyone,……Woody…….anyone… ?
P.S. someone said Paul and Woody didn’t need our money on another blog. I’m sure they don’t, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t “want” it as payback for donations.
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Copy and Paste
Who every is the Mayor of El Paso sits as the head of the Upper Rio Grande Workforce board. Also input to who is appointed as CEO comes from the five County Judges of far west Texas one of these being Vero. Every one starting to connect the dots?
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For those who maybe interested you may do a little research and study of the RICO Act and specifically Civil RICO of course if you have the money for a lawyer to carry such a suit forward..
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