City council and city staff are making it quite clear what they believe our role as taxpayers is.
We are no more than mules who haul our tax money down to city hall and give it to them to spend as they wish.
After the $416 million public safety bond was approved city staff told city council that they did not want a citizen advisory board to participate in the bond spending.
The most common objection to creating the board seemed to be that the board would delay construction.
They probably think that they are smarter than all of the citizens of the city and that no lowly citizen could give them any advice that might make the projects better.
Pay attention to the fact that our mayor voted to break the tie and deny the creation of the board.
Shame on him.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Comrades, this is the way Socialism is supposed to work. Get used to it.
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Oh, please. This is not at all like how socialism is supposed to work. This is, however, a lot like how an oligarchy works.
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Thank you John!
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And they are the ones that never seem to be able to complete a project on time and within budget.
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Wrote to Mayor Tweedle to tell him that his total disdain for the taxpayers whom he promised to protect would ensure that I would do everything I could to keep him from having another term to screw us over. And then this morning I read about the Electric Company handover, and lo! the Mayor broke the tie to make it possible. And of course DR Morgan does not have the decency to stand aside until his felony charge is resolved. What a bunch of…
Maybe some day we’ll get our voter turnout into two figures and clear out some of this rubbish, but until then…and bankruptcy may come first…
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This is exactly why this city doesn’t prosper. The citizens, the people who live here are excluded from our home process. What surrounds us, what influences us… we have no voice. Tyranny runs rampant, why? Because it can. The mayor lies continually. Nothing new. Hope dies last. Also I do love the blue fairy
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What is “home process”?
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By home process I mean for the people, by the people who live and work here. A local agenda that includes as many citizens of this community as possible. People worked together for lost dog hiking trail. For water rights in the valley people worked together. It would kill valley if the irrigation was stopped. The point is the city government is taking our money for private interests and people have to stop them from doing it. One way is to vote. This all feels wrong because it is wrong.
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Today at City Council meeting that was to take place yesterday the 17th, The Council voted for the Bicycle Connectivity Infrastructure at the phase 1 cost of $1,898,160.80 with the Federal Highway Administration paying part of the cost and the rest of the cost to be financed by Certificate of Obligation. We have a city budget of 1,046,842,912 which is reported under the adopted 2019-2020 budget. We are also losing $3,550,000 which was under the old water franchise fee. Under the new water franchise fee that city council voted on today the $3,550,000 now goes to the general fund to be replaced by the new part of the franchise fee totaling $3,000,000 will used for street maintenance in place of the $3,550,000. So City Council just took away $3,550,000 that used to be used for street maintenance. We need to get rid of the shady deals and get transparency from our representatives.
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Absolutely
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Change the mayor, city council, get rid of Tommy Gonzales and change the culture of corruption in El Paso. Time is running out❗️
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SAFETY BOND?? There’s no safety in this city when it comes to traffic!!! Not that I like police sitting on the side of roads giving tickets, but it slows the speeders down and it makes driving safer. BUT, there has NOT BEEN A SINGLE POLICE PRESENCE ON ANY ROADS IN A LONG TIME… Driving from MLKjr to US 54 South and NORTH, cars are traveling 80/90/100 mph… That’s SAFE… They ride up your ass. SAFETY BOND? My ASS!!! Let’s get some order in this city….
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