Different story now that the die is cast

August 5, 2014

This came in from Helen Marshall yesterday.  I think that she is spot on.

Rep. Robinson is quoted in an  EPT story about Cohen Stadium as saying that “Unfortunately the Diablos chose to move the franchise out of El Paso.”   He also notes that events should be held there.  “It is accessible from all parts of the town with US 54 and the completion of Loop 375.”

Am  I on some other planet?  I thought that the city told the Diablos they could not continue to play baseball in a city facility once the Barking Park was completed, and no one in the city wanted to use Cohen Stadium in any form because it was Not Downtown.  What am I missing here?

Will the water park the city wants to build out there be filled with drinking quality water or treated effluent?  Maybe it can be encircled with cotton farms so EP can show the world there are no water problems out here in the desert!

Cheers!

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Please don’t revitalize us any more!

August 1, 2014

Let’s look at downtown revitalization as a result of the creation of the ball park.

Texas requires that a mixed beverage gross receipts tax of 6.7% be paid by the owner of the establishment (not the customer) .  The state maintains a web site where we can see receipts for each facility (bar, restaurant …) in the state that sells such beverages.  Let’s call those places bars for the sake of simplicity.

The file that the state made available in April, 2014 reflects taxes for March and earlier (sometimes a bar will report late).  The amount for our bars in 79901 (the downtown district) was $80,020.75.  This was before our ball park opened.

The July, 2014 file from the state shows $86,368.28 in receipts for the 79901 area.

Looks good

It appears that we have had a $6,000 or so increase in collections after the ball park opened.  That comes to roughly 8%.  More beverages were sold.

Except

One thing that is different between July in April is that our ball park was open in July and not for the period represented by the April file.

How much did the ball park contribute to the $86,368.28?  The answer is $11,883.52.  That means that business for the rest of the 79901 area was down to $74,484.76, a decline of $5,535.99 or  almost 7% lower.

To get to real sales numbers, the state says to  divide any of the numbers above by 14 and then multiply the result by 100.  Using that technique the downtown bars lost $39,542.78 in sales.

The winner is

The state pays the city the money that is collected.

I don’t expect that the bar owners downtown will send thank you notes to the city for cannibalizing their businesses.

We deserve better

Brutus

15 Comments | Ball park, City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Two strikes and you’re out

July 8, 2014

Steeped in the controversy over our deputy city manager that has been given a pass into our retirement system on our dime is the persistent discussion about whether our west-side city representative lobbied to have the deputy city manager fired.

You will recall that months ago  the city representative was charged with threatening a city employee.  Some people have been saying that the city representative demanded that the employee be fired.  According to the stories the deputy city manager refused.

At the time of the accusation against the city representative we were told that she would be treated “the same as any other citizen” by the then current city manager.  Do you know who I am? discussed this in October of 2013.

We of course have heard nothing of the investigation.

Then again

Further clouding the issue is the fact that the deputy city manager openly disagreed with the city manager in front of city council over whether proposed expenditures for downtown “way finding” were related to the ball park.  The city manager said no.  The deputy city manager said yes.

Soon thereafter the deputy city manager was placed on administrative leave.

Our city charter places the city manager in control of personnel.  Only the city manager could fire the deputy city manager.

Once again we pay

The deputy city manager’s contract was changed to allow her to stay employed (but not reporting to work) long enough for her to become eligible for retirement.

Is she being paid to keep quiet?

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Taking candy from a baby

June 25, 2014

Part of the argument that the new chief executive officer of the children’s hospital is making is that the $15 million a year that his predecessor agreed to pay to the county hospital for support services is too high.

Really high

The new chief executive is publicly saying that the charge should be about half, or $7.5 million a year.

In fact looking at the county hospital’s 2013 and 2012 audit report, the net revenue that the county hospital gets (what they charge minus what it costs to provide the services) is $9.7 million each year.  The audit relies upon the hospital district management group for numbers like this, so at the very least they are telling us that they are making at least $9.7 million in profit from the children’s hospital each year.

I don’t know whether to think of Fagan or of Cruella De Vil when considering our county hospital executives.

Not my idea

I voted against the bonds for the children’s hospital, but like the ball park feel that now that we have one we should do what we can to make it viable.

The new children’s hospital chief executive says that he is going to cut expenses.  He evidently has also had a Forest Gump moment and decided to do a better job collecting his bills.

Unfortunately he has hired an out of town company to help with that process.  I guess he does not believe that El Paso has any talent to speak of.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | Ball park, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Less city transparency

June 18, 2014

Following up a little bit on the issue of online transparency on the city’s website I decided to look into some board meeting minutes.

You will recall from Cover up that the city installed new software this year that eliminated our ability to search council agendas prior to 2014.  This act undoubtedly makes it more difficult to research and prove what has been going on.

Looking at the Downtown Development Corporation section of the city website we learn that they have had four meetings, the last of which was in August of 2013.  Only two sets of minutes are available.  The minutes of the last two meetings are not.  This makes it hard to know what was discussed and who voted for what.

The Bond Overview Advisory Committee section of the web site shows 14 meetings.  Minutes are shown for four of them.  As decisions are being made about how to spend the money from our quality of life bonds one would think that it would be important to know what our “overviewers” are up to.

Our Financial and Audit Oversight Committee has eight agendas listed with six sets of minutes.

Neat huh?  You get the idea.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

6 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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