This graphic came from the city’s proposed 2020 budget presentation.
The chart shows the number of people allocated to the city manager’s office.
Note that even though the 2019 numbers are different from the 2020 numbers the increase/decrease column still shows zero.
The include the city manager’s budget in the “High Performing Government” category.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I’ve said it before and here I go again: There’s a lot of cost attached to that position, and we could probably save a shit ton of tax dollars by simply dumping the whole idea and going back to a strong mayor form of local government (as long as we avoid electing people like our last few have been).
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You have to find a mayor willing and able to do the heavy lifting that city management entails instead of just being a figure head using the position to help his friends.
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Have been here 30 years and we had Mayors before that could, DID do the JOB they were elected to do.. This is just El Taxo politicians trying to be Houston, San Francisco, Dallas, New York City. The Mayor, City Council have a STAFF of DOZENS. Why can’t they do the job?. The City “Manager” is just an over paid, extravagant, outrageous pay check on the backs of taxpayers. HE has a “Staff” that also does all of HIS WORK. Get rid of the City “Manager”, give some of those minions to the Mayor and force the Mayor to do the job, any job. What is it that he does for the pay WE give him? Very little, nada.
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Houston has a Strong Mayor form, they just have double our city council, so do New York and San Francisco. These cities also have staffs to handle the various departments because they still have various departments in all these cities but the mayor handles the staffs directly along with city council.
It will require a realignment of pay to find top talent these days, but I would rather that than have what we’ve had these last 15 years.
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Didn’t know about those other cities, John H., but apparently you do and you got it all right. El Paso is a town of politician vultures and wolves. Whether it’s the jobs like City Manager or the Superintendents in the school districts, getting rich off the people. Carpet baggers passing through, fleecing the “Sheep”. The politicians, Pubic Officials represent only what THEY can take from US.
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I’m with you.
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The only “High Performance” in the El Taxo City, County “Government”, is the inherent Public Corruption. Lie, deny, hide, deceive, cover up. Tax, waste , spend, INCREASE TAXES. The only thing that ever “Changes” in El Taxo is the names of the people who increase OUR taxes. WE are not REPRESENTED by any of THEM. Some how We the People of El Taxo, US “Stupid, ignorant peons”, just stumble around, grind away everyday, just trying to SURVIVE the idiocy of THEM. Nothing ever gets BETTER for US in El Taxo.
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Use your vote. Use your brain to do a little quick study before you vote. Stop voting for people who take campaign money from people like Foster, Hunt, and their millionaire buddies.
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That slide shows sloppiness and a casual disregard for accuracy and accountability. These kinds of mistakes bring into question the accuracy of the entire budget presentation. We’re paying about $400,000 a year for a city manager who either can’t do basic math or chooses not to check the accuracy of materials presented to city council even when those materials are directly related to his immediate area of responsibility.
The only increases he is concerned about are the increases in his salary and benefits, but with all the money we’re paying him, he can afford attorneys and accountants to do that for him. You won’t find any zero annual increases in his contract. Did any council member criticize the sloppiness or challenge keeping positions that would now have to be paid for out of the general fund? This is empire building that El Paso cannot afford.
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Neither a strong mayor or city manager is perfect. Back in our strong mayor days, most mayors didn’t manage well. Every department ran itself. There were no uniform personnel policies and compensation was decided by each department manager. One of the few good things Joyce Wilson did before getting co-opted by our donor class was to fix that. The other issue is that how much we pay will never determine the competency of a strong mayor or council. We will get the candidates donors feel will best line their pockets. The control of voters goes far beyond just who spends the most. The public sector is our largest employer. They vote for the person they feel offers the best job security. That will also promote an incompetent candidate over a reformer. We also are a college town and those kids will vote for green new deal espousing candidates. The folks spouting the least feasible pie in the sky garbage are most attractive to them. On the city manager side, we would be okay if we’d cut salary and hire an experienced city manager from a well-run city that gets cold in winter (who wants to work in warmer climate) instead of a wanna be that thinks EP is the stepping stone to a bigger job or a way to get get back into public administration after being kicked out for questionable behavior. The biggest problem we have with the expensive employees we hire is the folks making those decisions don’t have the competency to actually evaluate the candidates they hire. The end result is we hire folks who talk a good story but have no real track record. Until those dynamics change, we won’t see any improvement regardless of whether it is strong mayor or city manager.
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Ticked Off, you wrote
“The biggest problem we have with the expensive employees we hire is the folks making those decisions don’t have the competency to actually evaluate the candidates they hire. The end result is we hire folks who talk a good story but have no real track record.
It’s not that the people doing the recruiting and hiring don’t know better. they are not interested in competency or ethics. They are looking for someone who will go along with the agenda laid out by a few individuals who want to use the city for their own benefit. Why else would they have hired and paid so much money to a guy who had a track record of ethics issues in his last city manager job? On top of that, we recently had to pay his legal bills for bad decisions he made here.
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When you listen to their quotes on salary and contract issues, plus the stuff they are “dazzled” with by their winning candidate it is pretty obvious they don’t have a clue on how to evaluate or negotiate. But I agree there is now also a pattern of hiring candidates likely to have no ethical concerns about greasing the wheels of the big donors’ agendas. I’m still bewildered by the personnel actions against Tommy G. a few years ago. I wonder whose agenda he momentarily disagreed with.
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