I choose to laugh at this one.
They city is having one of their special city council meetings on Monday, March 19, 2018 at 9:05 AM.
They hold these meetings in a small conference room with very little room for visitors. They don’t make videos of these meetings available to the public so we seldom know what is said.
There is one item on the agenda:
FY 2019 Budget: Council and Public Input
Public input my foot.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Exactly. If the politicians in El Taxo wanted to “Know” our “Opinions”, THEY would tell US what our “Opinions” are. Violations of SECRET, CLOSED meetings LAWS??
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Here is what our Dist 1 rep wrote to us about the trolley in his weekly email:
“The significance of this project represents the symbols and realities of what is needed to communicate positively our transnational/binational culture to ourselves and the nation, and how this connects to the economic sustainability for a prosperous future.”
I think he’s channeling Richard Florida. The reality of the symbol, however, is that it’s going to be a cash drain after the marquis value wears off in a week or two. I fail to see economically sustainable anything in that. This guy is in La La Land.
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This guy is so full of himself, nothing but BS from him. The trolley says nothing about transnational culture. Once upon a time, El Paso had a trolley that crossed the border. That was before the drug wars, before Mexico’s rampant coruption. His trolley doesn’t get close to the border. And I doubt that anyone in their right mind will look at our trollley and say, “Wow! A symbol of binationalism.”
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The bigger question is why do you want a circa 50s trolley to be the symbol of your culture. It reinforces everything City Council’s spending spree on renovating El Paso is trying to erase. I look at that and think dusty, backward border town. And when I hear a City Council member say it represents “our culture”, my first thought is speak for yourself.
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100% percent correct. Peter must really hate the English language. It seems like he totures it every chance he gets
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After going to the website you referenced, frankly this really didn’t seem like some big, clandestine deal! All local government entities are now into developing their operating budgets for the next fiscal year. It’s simply part of the yearly ‘budget development process’ and will go on probably onto late July or early August.
If as a citizen you have something, SUBMIT it through your city representative. Recommend you submit it NOW and not later, because the budget development process is a ‘moving train.’ Later in the year after that development train has ‘left the station,’ it’s very hard to make changes.
Some people always show up for a CAMEO appearance at these later meetings to give their input, when the TV cameras and newspaper reporters are always present. Unfortunately then it’s usually too late for new submissions, plus it becomes very hard to make meaningful changes to the budget.
By that late date the total dollar level of the budget becomes the real issue with the public. What is the total level the city, county, UMC, or school districts what to increase your tax rate? If it’s over 8 percent, that places the budget into the ‘tax roll back’ range, something local governments always try to avoid.
Watch the paper and TV, usually sometime in June the city will announce budget hearings, and yes you can attend. These hearings usually last only about two days.
What would you like to see included in the city’s budget? Or are there budget saving ideas’ or ‘opportunities’ you would like to see the city consider? SUBMIT THEM NOW, and don’t wait for ‘cameo TV appearance’ time.
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Good to hear from you, Tim.
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