It appears as though our city manager has settled into his job.
We have not heard of any controversies or scandals relating to his job for quite some time.
Can anyone fill us in?
Brutus
elpasospeak
City of El Paso debt=$2,670,400,000, county and school district debt=$1,600,000,000. Total $4.27 billion. Your share $19,350
elpasospeak 
Since the FIRST one was hired, don’t understand why WE need this UNELECTED POLITICIAN to waste tax, spend, INCREASE taxes. Taxpayers have no vote in what HE does to US or any say in what HE does. Same for all the “Staff” that are hired, the “Planners”. If the Mayors that are ELECTED by the PEOPLE cannot do the JOBS, as MAYORS have in the past, then they don’t need to be in that JOB. We don’t need OVERPAID carpet baggers, just passing through, whose only “Job” is to come up with “Ideas”, schemes to INCREASE taxes. And we don’t need a Mayor whose ONLY RESPONSIBIITY is to smile, shake hands, meet and greet and ALLOW City Council to conduct he PEOPLES business in SECRET, without any ACCOUNTABIITY. The PEOPLE can afford a Mayor at $50-70,000 salary. We DON”T need a carpetbagger, passing through, from some where else, making HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS$$$$$ and getting pay INCREASES every time he smiles at the ladies on City Council. The PEOPLE of El Taxo deserve better. WE just never get better.
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Anonymous, I disagree. You state, “If the Mayors that are ELECTED by the people cannot do the jobs … then they don’t need to be in the job.” Unfortunately, elections don’t always filter out who can and who cannot “do the job.” It’s one thing to elect people to make policy decisions (which should reflect the will of the people). It’s a whole other thing to elect people who can effectively manage personnel and implement policy. Even the President of the U.S. has a large number of ‘paid,’ non elected, professional who help him to run the Executive branch.
Professional city managers also bring the benefit of ideas from other cities. Our current CM has good ideas that an elected mayor, typically having a local focus, would not have. He also manages staff in a more professional manner than an elected mayor, who may or may not have background managing a large workforce.
As an example, the current mayor asserted that the city is “giving” money to the county. He is unaware that the sales tax revenue going to the county was based on a local election. His ignorance on this matter is emblematic of elected officials who do not have a professional background in city governance in Texas.
We could debate what a CM should be paid. We also need to make sure that the CM is not making policy when council should be doing so.
Nonetheless, the role of CM brings value that El Paso would not have in a strong mayor system. These types of professionals do cost money.
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This sounds like the view of one of the local “Professional politicians”, to justify the waste, expense of a City “Manager”, an outsider who knows, decides what is “Best” for El Pasoans. Before the first one, two City “Managers”, the Mayors did, were entirely capable of running the city. So what happened? What changed that we NEED outsiders from Dallas, Houston, big business, population centers, metro areas, that have no relation to the
Economy, low, no tax base, outrageous taxes, no jobs market, low wages of El Paso? And what do ANY of these carpet baggers that take six figure incomes from us, ever do about any of the problems, situations?? Well they, the other politicians build baseball fields for BILLIONAIRES, Arenas, Sports facilities, soccer stadiums, they buy little trolley cars, etc,etc, but not a dime of these “Albatross investments”, ever finds it’s way to the pockets of El Pasoans. It all goes to pockets, profits some where else, somebody else. BUT the TAXPAYERS are stuck with paying for it all by the POLITICIANS. NOTHING here ever gets better for the PEOPLE. The only thing that ever changes in El Paso is the names of the POLITICIANS who increase our taxes and WE receive virtually NOTHING for all that is TAKEN from US.
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Prior to the city manager system, the city changed direction with every new mayor. And we had some pretty incompetent mayors. We’ve also suffered through some awful council members. As a city, we fell further and further behind while similar cities in our region — Phoenix, San Antonio, Tucson, Albuquerque — continued to grow and increase their wealth. A city manager keeps things on track and protects us from the worst of the local politicians. Managing a city takes a professional. The salary of the city manager is a small amount in the over all city budget.
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