More, in fact too much

June 16, 2014

The Tuesday June 16, 2014 city council meeting starts off with a slap in the face to the crazies.

Item one has our mayor proclaiming Bob Moore Day.

For the record I respect Mr.  Moore and his right to an opinion.  I also respect the right of the Times to openly advocate for or against issues without pretense of fairness if they do it based upon principle.  If we don’t like what they are doing we can stop buying their newspaper.

I do not respect the way the Times has prostituted itself and become  a propoganda machine for the faction that has taken away our right to control our own destiny.

And I in particular resent how the editor of the Times holds himself out as the protector of the people, the inquisitor of open records, the beacon of transparency–selectively–when the issue does not gore his employer’s ox.

Yes, Mr.  Moore has done good things.  And no, I should not begrudge him an honor.

In this case I have to wonder what is going on in the alleged minds of our local leaders.

Naming part of the ball park “City Hall Grill” was an offense to some of us.  Some are suprised at not being able to find the Insights memorial urinal.

Haven’t we paid the Times enough by paying so much for their building?  Are we now paying them more to obtain their continued collusion?

Now asking us to recognize a day named in honor of one of the facilitators of what has been happening is at the least insensitive if not insulting.

Then again someone once said “Only the mediocre are always at their best”.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

14 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Creating demand through shortages

June 15, 2014

Our county commissioners have banned fireworks in El Paso county.

Except

Except for “professional shows”.

Another tax burden

Expect our ball park to host some of these “professional shows”.  That’s our ball park that is adjacent to Sunset Heights, one of our oldest neighborhoods.

I wonder what it will cost us to have our fire department respond to or be on standby for any fires that may be caused by burning embers landing on those old roofs.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | Ball park, City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

elchuqueno.com and our El Paso Times

June 13, 2014

This post in elchuqueno.com nails it in my opinion.

I hope that you take the time to read it.

We deserve better

Brutus

35 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Fireworks at the ball park

June 2, 2014

Tomorrow’s (Tuesday, June 3, 2014) city council meeting promises to be interesting.

A city representative added this item to the agenda after it was first published:

Discussion and action to review the policies related to the use of the baseball luxury box, with discussion to include list of past attendees and schedule of departments using the luxury box.

Luxury Box?

Should the city have it’s own reserved luxury box at the ball park?  My vote is no.

Some might say that the city could use the box effectively when trying to recruit out of town businesses.  Then again some of the civic minded people that have the other luxury boxes could be asked to donate the space when the city needs to impress people from out of town.

Who’s who

Having the box sends the wrong signal to all of us.  If the city representative is successful in learning who has been using the box then we will have further insight into who the privileged ones are in the city.

Appearances

There was a time when government employees considered themselves to be public servants.

Impressions

If the city takes the position tomorrow that the box is used as a reward for the employees then we know what city management thinks of us lowly citizens.  If they say that it is important when trying to recruit businesses, then I have an alternative proposal for them:

Stop the lawsuits.  Do what the city web site asks us to do and “Hire El Paso First”.  Stop hiring out of town lawyers and firms when the talent exists locally.  Become business friendly.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Resume enhancement?

May 28, 2014

According to a recent press release the chief financial officer of our city government is now a member of the board of the United Way of El Paso.

Day job

Her day job is to be the chief financial officer of our city.  We are facing budget cuts because of revenue shortages.  We have witnessed wildly inaccurate cost estimates relating to the demolition of city hall and also to the building of the ball park.   It would be nice if she would take the time to give us accurate figures.

She is a member of our fire and police pension board.  Some say that the funding shortfall over there is in excess of $200 million.

Board of managers

She is also one of five people appointed by the state to be on the board of managers of EPISD.  We are told that there is a $17 million revenue shortfall and that teachers will have to be fired.  It would be nice if she could take the time to provide us with a solution other than having the budget axe fall only on the teachers.  There must be some other savings that can be achieved.

Familiar pattern

It seems that we are seeing financial problems with organizations that she has a senior role in.  There was a time when people saw to it that they had one job under control before they undertook another.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »