This came in from Helen Marshall:
The report of the Tuesday, August 29 council meeting indicates that the council voted to reject an item placed on the agenda by Niland, to allow members of council “to use electronic devices during council meetings and legislative review committees.””
She wanted to “answer potential calls from her two sons.” When she did not get support for this, she “said she would defy the rule and have her cellphone regardless.”
In any other city I might wonder if there would be any penalty for this arrogant display of complete disregard for rules, but as this is El Paso there is no need to wonder, I already know the answer.
elpasospeak 
City Code , Article III, Section 3.5, B. states that by majority vote Council “may expel a member from a Council meeting for disorderly conduct or serious violation of its rules and may order that member to be physically removed from the meeting.”
I consider violating the electronic device rule serious. If Niland gets away with it, Tolbert will do the same, then Ordaz.
It sounds like another Council member would need to point out the cell phone violation and call to expel Niland from a meeting if she has her phone turned on.
It will be interesting to see if Niland keeps her phone out on the desk or hidden in a pocket. Either way, I applaud the first Council member to call her on it.
For the record, I believe it was on the Aug 23 Council meeting agenda.
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Do you really think she cares if she gets expelled or removed from a council meeting? Of course she doesn’t. She loves the publicity. She would also still get paid. We have several examples of elected officials and executives getting paid for not showing up or doing their job. City council and city management have allowed it at taxpayer expense.
This drama about phones and calls from kids is just one more example of Niland’s arrogance and attitude of entitlement. She thinks the rules don’t apply to her.
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You are right, it was the August 23 meeting. Any bets about what happens at the September 6 meeting?
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Well Niland is “special” don’t you know. She knows!
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Whatever her motive, it is all too obvious that we, as a society, have forgotten what it was like just a few short years ago, before beepers and cell phones. This desperate need for her to be reachable by her kids, or for Noe (and Ob/Gyn, who rarely has emergencies) could easily be handled the old fashioned way, by simply having a contact number available to take messages while the council member is in a meeting.
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Well said.
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Just another city ruled by Democrats. THEY don’t represent US, are not accountable to US. THEY represent only themselves and whatever THEY can take from US. Niland is one of the same bunch that voted for US to buy Foster, the City Council a MULTI-MILLION$$$ baseball field with no way to pay for it. Their sole purpose is to increase taxes on the “Stupid, ignorant peons” of El Taxo.
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Niland and Foster are Republicans
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Yep, it gets tiresome listening to people constantly blame all the local problems and spending on Democrats when the biggest benefactors of spending, tax breaks, subsidies, etc., are Republicans like Foster and Hunt.
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Very true. The GOP elite are the beneficiaries of corporatism write large while they love to preach free market capitalism to the peons.
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Truthseeker
It’s the local elected Democrats that are constantly prostituting their offices out to Republican interest in El Paso that is the problem no matter how you spin it. The rich Republicans in El Paso have found it’s cheaper to buy Democrats in or running for office in El Paso or El Paso County than to run a Republican candidate.
Fact if you are a Democrat with a moderate chance of winning an election in El Paso or El Paso County Woody and Foster can be good for five to ten thousand dollars each for your campaign.If it’s looking like you really have good chance of winning Woody and Foster could kick in up to fifty thousand through different sources to your campaign.
So who are the problem those in the Democratic party in El Paso pimping themselves and their offices out or the Republican Johns paying for their services?
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So next you’ll try to convince us that if one particular Republican who has already said he is running for mayor gets elected that he will not do whatever he is asked by Hunt and Foster, both of whom are his pals and big contributors to his previous campaigns?! Really?!
It’s intellectually dishonest to suggest that the local Republicans are pure and can’t be bought. If our local Republicans are so pure, why are they buying politicians and building their for-profit businesses on the backs of taxpayers when they claim to be fiscal conservatives and free-market guys. They are against taxes except when the taxes benefit them personally.
Both parties are dishonest, but feel free to keep believing otherwise. Keep whining about the Dems while members of the GOP take your money. This closed-minded partisan mindset is what is killing us at the local, state and national levels.
You asked “who are the problem those in the Democratic party in El Paso pimping themselves and their offices out or the Republican Johns paying for their services?”
The answer is both! Geez, they’re both dishonest! This s__t only happens when we have a dishonest buyer and an unethical seller. Until we all admit that and deal with it, we’re all just going to be pissed off at one another, while the thieves aligned with both parties laugh at us.
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Truthseeker
Never made any claims to the honesty of the Republican King and Queen makers of El Paso or to the honesty of Republicans in office El Paso. Now who is being dishonest here?
Then again you do not get paying Johns if first you do not have the political prostitutes from the Democratic party in El Paso plying and selling their services!.
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So you are saying that there are in fact, more than 8-10 Republicans in El Paso? I did think the numbers were in single digits, me and a few friends. So if their is soooooo much Republican money AVAILABLE, just wonder why NO Republican ever gets elected in El Paso to any office. Been here more that 25 years, NEVER “Represented” by anybody. But yes, like you said, I do believe that everything is bought, sold, paid off by the El Paso rich, whoever they are. It was kind of strange that WE were not allowed by the Mayor, City Council to VOTE on the Foster/City Council baseball field. And AFTER the vote by THEM, they ALL had political campaigns. Cook, Wilson, Byrd, Noe, Orteaga,, Niland, Lilly, etc. Coincidental campaign “donations” after that vote??
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Charlie Dickerson
The reason Republicans never get elected in El Paso because few ever run and the Republican party has pretty much given up making in roads in El Paso getting candidates elected. We know many people in El Paso who say they are Republicans but have very little or nothing to do with the El Paso Republican party and the complaint is the El Paso Republican party never really does anything locally. This election cycle there will be just one Republican running I believe and that will be for Sheriff locally.
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I know that I’ve said this before, as well. But, here we go, again: El Paso politics have little to do with political parties. We are indeed just about the last Democratic stronghold in the state of Texas. But, our local issues are not so much political as they are the end result of decades of voter apathy. Pretty much all that matters here is money, who has it, who controls it, and who knows whom. That is it. That is all there is.
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Well apparently IF Niland is a Republican, she lied and is really a Democrat. A Republican can never get elected to anything in El Taxo. And all that she knows, does is just like all the other El Taxo politicos. Tax, waste, spend, tax some more. And as evidenced by cities like Detroit, Baltimore, Ferguson, L.A. Oakland, El Paso and many others. Democrats are only capable of economic destruction, community ruin.
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The usual Republican/Democrat divisions do not apply to El Paso politicians. The liberal Byrd/Escobar/O’Rourke coalition backed the Republican-lead downtown development. El Paso is a world unto itself.
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Both Byrd and O’Rourke had financial conflict of interest in dt dev.
Byrd’s family owns an office building in the “new” city gov’t district. She became the leasing agent to the building about 2 minutes after she left office with a record of voting for projects that increased the value and marketability of their dt property which financially benefitted her family. She never disclosed the conflict of interest.
O’Rourke is dependent on his wife’s trust fund and pleasing his father-in-law who owns buildings and property dt. He has received several no-bid non-competitive city lease contracts because Wilson said she did not have to bid out anything.
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People like Niland would call themselves Republican if they lived in other cities. Calling yourself Democrat doesn’t make you one. A label is not values. Rich people who only care business are not Democrats. She is Republican at heart even if she doesn’t call her self one.
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Come on guys. A progressive is a progressive no matter which party he is from. If you are for corporate welfare then your a progressive. Now the Democrats are the most progressive whores because they want to spend your tax money no matter who benefits as long as they get a donation to their campaign(Suzi and Ortega are examples). They were both for the ballpark which benefited Foster and Hunt along with the Foster’s mall. Both received large campaign donations from both. I would also bet they voted to give Sherrer rebates for the Motel downtown. Republicans here didn’t want the money going to Sherrer, but they did Foster and Hunt on whatever they wanted. I don’t believe in Corp Welfare because it creates an uneven playing field. Simon got no incentives for building Cielo Vista, but Foster did and he is right across the street. Not to mention that of few of the new mall’s renters were at the small strip mall on Viscount which is owned by some Mexican Nationals. Bet they didn’t get any incentives either and they lost Best Buy and Barnes and Noble to the new mall. Its now a ghost mall over there. I don’t believe you can call yourself a conservative and be for corporate welfare. I know it brings some new businesses into El Paso(like Acer), but as soon the incentives ran out they left. Look at Thompson on the east side. After incentives ran out they moved to Juarez. So dont put the blame on Democrats or Republicans, blame the progressives in both parties.
Look at Hillary, she doesnt care where she gets the money for her and Bill’s foundation(Iran or whoever), but those people sure get a seat at the table if they donate to it. Hillary is probably the biggest whore of all the progressive Democrats, but I cant really say that Trump is a progressive Republican. At least not yet.
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Well said. Gotta love how this thread went from Niland’s iron clad umbilical cord connection to her teenage children to corporate welfare.
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Ms Niland should use the opportunity to teach her offspring a lesson in independence. They can live a few hours without contact with mommy. Lawyers and jurors in the courtroom, doctors and nurses in the surgerical suites, teachers in the classroom, and many more examples cannot answer the calls of their children and the children survive. Ms Niland: get over yourself.
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Absolutely right, Ms Marshall. But Niland considers herself to be “political elite” in El Taxo. She is ONE of the “elite”, who sold US out on the baseball field THEY bought for Foster. Voters, homeowners had NO vote, nothing to do with it.
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