This came in from Jud Burgess:
Mayor Margo was busy making sure no Duranguito supporters went beyond their 3 minutes, including a priest for Sacred Heart Church speaking on behalf of Bishop Mark Seitz.
I watched him give a signal and nasty look to the city clerk EVERY time a speaker hit the 3 minute mark.
Click on this link to watch video of his obvious and reprehensible attempts to control time to the second, even towards a priest representing Bishop Seitz.
He wanted to make sure and limit to the absolute minimum every speaker advocating on behalf of Duranguito.
Remember new Mayor Margo wanted to limit speakers to one minute?
Today’s city council meeting ended up a FUSTERCLUCK when Mayor Margo refused to let anyone else talk after some city staffer purposefully removed an agenda item which had several Duranguito supporters scheduled to speak, depriving people of their free speech rights. Nice little trick but no cigar.
And the other little trick was visually censoring Duranguito speakers images as they talked from the video screen, and then showing video of pro-arena anti-El Paso history advocates when they spoke.
Stranger than fiction.
elpasospeak 
Business as usual…
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Dee Margo has a sterling reputation for condescension and lack of bedside manner. He has earned it. He lacks the people skills to be an effective mayor representing all El Paso, but did fine as a business leader where aggression works to a high degree.
It pissed me off that Margo literally felt it was his job to watch his clock rather than listen to Duranguito supporters as they addressed him and council. It was more than obvious. And the way he continually gave the City Clerk a look of irrititation whenever anyone spoke a few seconds beyond their 3 minutes.
Respect is earned. He has yet to deserve any at this point.
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Dee represents Hunt and Foster who funded his State Rep campaign a few years back. Foster stands to benefit from the arena with his hotel and, of course, the real arena occupant will be Mountainstar”s soccer team. Dee is their voice on CC, assisted by other reps who are beneficiaries of their largess.
In El Paso, you get what you pay for, not what you vote for.
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It’s about the construction contracts
Foster owns the only local construction company that can qualify re: bonding and past project experience (ex,. building the stadium) to build the arena.
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Appears time for the FBI. They are the ONLY “Law Enforcement” here when it comes to Public Corruption. EPISD, case in point. The LOCAL “Authorities” don’t see nuthin, don’t hear nuthin, don’t know nuthin, won’t do nuthin.
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“It pissed me off that Margo literally felt it was his job to watch his clock rather than listen to Duranguito supporters as they addressed him and council. It was more than obvious. And the way he continually gave the City Clerk a look of irrititation whenever anyone spoke a few seconds beyond their 3 minutes.”
Well it pisses me off that you act like a journalist and an activist when you’re just selling your shitty products. It also pisses me off that you stopped calling me. I miss you and [edited out].
Your favorite [edited out], David
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Come on guys, keep it clean please.
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I am a Duraguito supporter. I agree that Margo’s is obviously irritated. He should have done what Lesser did, which is ask someone on Council to present a motion adding the needed time to Call to then Public that day. He should have taken a deep breath, listened patiently and when everyone was through, get on with City business.
On the other hand, you and the protestors should get over the Call to the Public fiasco. I seldom agree with Lionstar, but his comments are fair to both sides on this issue. Call to the Public is not a right in Texas. The El Paso City Council voluntarily allows the public to speak for a limited time. Most protestors said the same thing over and over, so after a while it became a 3-minute ego boost. What’s wrong with appointing several representatives to speak for the group?
What happened is grandstanding before the cameras — getting headlines and attention. Maybe that is the equal and opposite reaction to the City’s railroading of the arena downtown.
What we do have a right to do is to lobby our representative. Send emails, write letters, call them, go to their meetings and talk to them in a reasonable tone. Talk to friends and neighbors who disagree. Tell them why the neighborhood can be an asset to downtown, not a liability like an arena.
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This comment is ENTIRELY off the mark. I’m not sure who you are but I ’ll bet you weren’t there.
If you were there, you would have seen Rep Annello present the motion to have the additional speakers get their turn only to have it PURPOSEFULLY rejected on the basis that once the hour was up, they immediately and intentionally made a motion and seconded it to move on the the rest of the agenda, BEFORE anyone knew what the hell was going on.
If you were there, you also would have noticed the INTENTIONAL move to not allow video of the speakers on the monitors or the live stream as the made their presentations. As soon as the pro-arena folks had their turn (they all parroted each other with the exact same speeches) they were put on the video screen.
IF YOU WERE THERE, you would have heard very different presentations being made to the city, with very unique perspectives.
You seem to forget that city leaders work for us and when they actively work to censor opposition, they are failing at their job. They are not worth their salt if they can’t sit there every 2 weeks and hear an extra hour of opposing views.
Abandon Hope…why are you so chicken-shit to put your identity out here so we know who you are? I have nothing to hide but apparently you do.
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Abandon Hope – sorry about the last remark. If I could, I would remove it. Moving right along…
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Jud – Stop with the mean-spirited responses. You need to go back and read the opinion piece you wrote for the El Paso Times in April of 2016. To quote you:
“When all is said and done, it really comes down to living the two greatest commandments according to Jesus — “Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as you love yourself” — and leaving the rest to those who choose to waste precious time building walls.”
As for you constantly dissing people for anonymity, some people can’t afford to pay the price that comes from financial retribution by local government and others who control things. If you really believe the things you write, you would understand that.
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exactly…that’s why I apologized.
Regardless, we are all human and say and do stupid things. I am no exception.
In fact, I like to read Abandon Hope’s comments on various blogs because, whether we agree or not, he/she always has substance to their viewpoints.
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Apology accepted.
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AH, I agree. When it comes to public comments on any topic, it can be a bit annoying. I would rather have a group appoint 1-2 speakers vs. have dozens repeat the same message. May be even worth giving the 1-2 a little more time.
In this case, Margo aggravated the issue for no good reason. A little patience would have been the politically astute move.
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If the mayor didn’t want to do it, any council member could have ‘taken the initiative’ and made a motion to extend the public comment. in order to allow those remaining an opportunity to make their comments.
Anyone who has attended governmental meetings, can easily see where speakers are being repetitive and simply saying the same thing. But it’s always good to remember, that speakers have taken their personal time to drive to these meetings, while taking time from other valuable life activities, so it’s certainly ‘good practice’ to allow them to speak.
Interesting the church, like some of our local politicians, now wants a voice on this issue. Wonder what all those people who voted for that downtown wonder are now thinking? Do they feel shit on, or are they marveling at all the naw media opportunism?
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“Manipulation”??. Well maybe that’s not the right word. For the El Taxo politicos, Commissioners, City Council, the Mayor. I prefer “Lie, deny, hide, deceive, cover up, lie again”. “Can somebody shut up these stupid, ignorant peons?? If WE want to know what their “opinion” is, WE will tell THEM what THEIR “Opinion” is”. Same as their baseball field. THEY will do it one way or the other. Got elections coming up not too far away. THEY all need campaign “Donations” from Mountain Star, Developers.
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One may not like the 3 minute rule, but enforcing it is not ‘depriving people of their free speech rights.’
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See the actual thing is, that the Mayor, City Council do not want to hear the OPINIONS, what the PEOPLE THINK. You know, the PEOPLE that THEY are SUPPOSED to REPRESENT. Now if Mountain Star, Hunt, Foster Reps show up, THEY get undivided attention. The Mayor, Council have both ears to the floor. It is getting close to election time, so campaign “Donations”?? Same as the baseball field. Right after that “Vote”, John Cook, Byrd, Ortega, Niland, ALL had campaigns that had to be “Financed”. El Taxo has the best politicians that money can buy. Wait for their Arena and then their soccer field. And then of course there is the hotel, Westar office building, that WE will buy for THEM. 15 MILLION$$$ in tax cuts.
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Mayor Margo has graciously offered to buy new winter coats for all the residents of Durangito that agree to leave now. The man has a lot of love in his heart. Please don’t be too hard on him.
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Brutus,
You lost me at “Jud Burgess”.
-[edited out], David
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All the screaming, yelling, complaining, attacking for what ? We put them in office so look in the mirror for someone to blame.
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no, “we” didn’t put them in office
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