Please help get more involvement

January 31, 2017

We will be having a city election in May of this year.

We would like to encourage our readers to promote awareness in the community.

There is a lot at stake.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Texas Rangers

January 30, 2017

The Texas Rangers investigating the situation with some of our city council members have their hands tied in some ways.

Based on the text messages and videos relating to the incidents,  it appears that some of our city council members both violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and intended to.  Unless other evidence surfaces, it will be hard to conclude anything else.

Conspiring to circumvent the act is a crime.

Meeting in violation of the act is another crime.

Respecting standards

If the rangers find no violation of the law they will be encouraging elected officials statewide to do what our local people have done.

That would be a giant step backward in our efforts to shine light on governmental actions.

Wheels of justice

It would appear that it will take time for the rangers to investigate and make their recommendations.  If prosecution is recommended it will be several months before trials occur.  Some of the city council members will no longer be in office.

We might expect to see some resignations in exchange for being let go.

We might also see some citizen led recall efforts.

If nothing else we should expect this to be a major issue in the upcoming election.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD bonds–plans to handle closed schools

January 29, 2017

Elpasotaxguardians published this post about EPISD’s lack of a plan to dispose of the schools they want to close.

Others think that they do have a plan but don’t want the public to know about it.

Its good to see other local blogs looking into the issue.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Shipping more money out of town

January 28, 2017

The November 1, 2016 of our mass transit board (sun metro or city council in another form) has two unfortunate items on it.

Sun metro staff sought approval for two $13 million dollar contracts with different firms.  The contracts would be to provide engineering and management services relating to TXDOT and federal highway administration funding over a period of four years

It appears that the city will dole out work to the two firms depending upon current circumstances.  It is not clear whether they are talking about a total of $26 million or they plan to use both firms to spend the $13 million.

That level of transparency would require a desire to tell us the complete story.

No talent in town?

Isn’t it a shame that in a city of this size they think that we don’t have the talent to do this with local  firms?

We deserve better.

Brutus

 

 

 

1 Comment | City government, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Open meetings penalties

January 27, 2017

Our city charter makes provisions for the removal of elected city officials as follows:

Any elected City official shall be subject to removal from office if that official:

Is convicted of any felony, or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude;

Violates the City Ethics Ordinance;

In the case of the Mayor or a Representative, fails to attend three consecutive regular meetings of the Council without being excused by the Council.

There are other provisions but the three ones above seem most likely to apply to members of our city council if they are found to be guilty of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Moral turpitude

Our Texas first court of appeals has declared six definitions of moral turpitude:

  1. Crimes involving moral turpitude are those that involve dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, or deliberate violence.
  2. Offenses concerning matters of personal morality.
  3. Anything done knowingly contrary to justice, honesty, principle, or good morals.
  4. An act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellow men or to society in general.
  5. Something immoral in itself, regardless of whether it is punishable by law. The doing of the act itself, and not its prohibition by statute, fixes the moral turpitude.
  6. Immoral conduct is that conduct which is willful, flagrant, or shameless, and which shows a moral indifference to the opinion of the good and respectable members of the community.

Not being a judge or jury our personal opinion is that the recent serial meetings of some of our council members would qualify as an offense of moral turpitude under numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6.

Ethics ordinance

El Paso’s ordinance is numbered 017112.  We don’t need to read very far into it to find in section 2.92.010 the following:  “At the very least, being ethical includes being disposed to comply with all laws that apply to one’s position”.

If the members of council are found guilty of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act it seems that our ethics ordinance would find them to be un-ethical.

Failing to attend council meetings

City council now has a bi-weekly regular meeting schedule.  If any of them end up in the county jail for more than six weeks they will probably miss three meetings.

There is a lot at stake here for both the public and the city council members being investigated.

We would have all been better off if they had respected our right to transparency.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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