El Paso Quality of life update

November 6, 2013

Our interim city engineer wrote a column for the El Paso Times this Sunday.

She said that her engineering and construction management department had made “profound” progress on the projects in the last year.  She suggested that we go to buildingtomorrowtogether.com to see their progress, so I did.

Most important

The web page lists ten of the projects that we voted for, one of which they have already started construction on.  The city was in a hurry on that one so they chose not to bid it out but instead use a “requirements contract”.

This Quality of Life bond project is obviously the most important one (or it would not have been the first one started), it is the “Convention Center North Pedestrian Pathway”.

The pathway will provide a pedestrian entrance to our ball park and is scheduled to be completed by April 2014, just like our ball park.  This project is scheduled to cost $500,000.  You can decide if it is really part of the ball park costs.

Another project titled “Pedestrian Crossing and Way Finding” will not have it’s first phase bid out either.  The city plans to use a “requirements contract” on that one too.  Remarkably the web site indicates that construction has not yet started but completion for phase one is scheduled for August 30, 2013.  This project will evidently make it easier for pedestrians to find the new ball park.

Tomorrow is right

The buildingtomorrow part is accuate.  Of the other eight projects three are scheduled to have construction complete in August 2015.  Three, including the children’s museum, do not have anticipated completion dates but are marked as “BEYOND THREE-YEAR ROLLOUT”.  One project is scheduled to be completed in August, 2016.

Incredible digital wall

In Something is rotten in the state of Denmark I wrote about a new $3 million digital wall.  At the time the city was planning to force five city staff members to go to Denmark to learn about it.  The wall is scheduled to be completed in August of 2014.  It is a good thing we sent our staff over early, you never know where they might move Denmark to.

Children’s museum

According to the web page this project is on schedule.  “Urban Planner Consultant selected.  Received proposal on October 14, 2014“.  For those of you reading this post at a later date please remember that at the time of this posting it was November 2013.

Maybe we should nominate city staff for an award in fiction writing.

For those of you who are either crying or laughing too hard to go look for yourselves, the web site presentation is below:

qolOctober2013

qolOctober2013-2

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Baseball stadium now part of Quality of Life bonds?

October 29, 2013

I found this on the official site of the El Paso Chihuahuahas:

El Paso citizens approved $500 million in “Quality of Life” bonds, including the building of a state-of-the-art baseball stadium nestled in the heart of downtown to be completed for the 2014 season.

Mistaken

We know that the statement is wrong.  The baseball stadium was not voted on by the citizens.  It was not part of the “Quality of Life” bonds.

Whoever wrote that is either clueless as to what has been happening in El Paso or is trying to change history.

Move on El Paso

Some say that we should stop talking about how the ballpark came about and come together to support it.

Personally I’m inclined to think that supporting it at this point is the right thing to do.  Without our support the situation will become even worse.

As far as stopping talk about how this was foisted upon us, I disagree.  We need to remember this and see to it that our current and future city officials don’t get away with something like this again in the future.  

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Wondering

October 27, 2013

When will our current, temporary, city manager leave office?

Her resignation is scheduled for September 30, 2014.

How many days of unused sick leave and vacation does she have on the books?

Will she take them and leave early?

How long will she physically be in El Paso after she leaves office?

Will she be around when the actual numbers relating to the ball park and destruction of city hall become public?

How many of her senior staff will leave because of not having her to protect them?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Good luck

October 26, 2013

Call me naive but I don’t think of our ball team’s new mascot in terms of race or country.

I don’t think of a poodle as being French, nor a dachshund  as German.

Then again I’m of a different breed.

rottweiler and puppy chihuahua

I think of the chihuahua benevolently.  A chihuahua is something that their owner protects and fosters.  It is not a hunter, it is a companion.  It is out of plain love that one has a chihuahua.

Webster’s defines mascot this way: “a person, animal, or object used as a symbol to represent a group (such as a sports team) and to bring good luck”.

I know of no dogma that teaches us how to pick a mascot.

My first choice as a mascot for our new ball team would not have been the chihuahua.   Also I would have preferred that the ball park matter had been handled differently than it was.

We have however torn down city hall and have started construction of a ball park.  At this point I want to try to make the best of the situation, just as I do with the choice of the team mascot.

The issues of how this ball park was foisted upon us are a different matter.  We should, as Cato says, be vigilant.  We need to keep this from happening again.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Porking

October 25, 2013

There have been several comments and questions about the city’s deal with the sports group on this blog lately so I went to find the contract.

I’m working from the September 2012 one.  I believe that were modifications made later that dealt with the annual fee and the life of the contract.  As far as I know the remainder of the September 2012 one is still valid.

This post deals with the parking provisions of the contract.

Parking

  • The city must allocate 500 parking spaces for use during events
  • Once a year the sports group needs to tell the city how many  parking spaces (up to 300) it wants to use that are designated as special
    • The special spaces  will be located at the civic center garage or the union plaza transit terminal with the first 200 being at the civic center garage
    • The sports group then pays the city $1 for each space times the number of season games for the year.  If there are 77 home games the sports group will pay 300 times 77 times $1 or $23,100 for the year.  The $1 per space per game raises to $1.46 by the 21st year.
    • The other 200 spaces (300+200=500) will be designated as surface parking and will be at the city hall visitor lot and the city parking lot to the west of the ball park along West Franklin Avenue.

On event day those parking spaces will be rented to patrons with the sports group getting half of the money and the city the other half, kind of, but more on that later.

The city will be responsible for and pay for staffing the special  parking areas to collect the fees, as well as security at the garages.  The city will also be responsible for maintaining and providing security for the pedestrian routes between the parking areas and the ball park.

The sports group will collect the parking fees for the surface parking places.

Extra

The city will also make available other parking different from the 500 spaces above for ball park employees, concessionaires, merchandisers, and staff at no cost to the sports group or those using the parking spaces.  This parking arrangement applies every day, not just on event day.  The city does not have to provide any staff for these parking spaces though.

Rates

The sports group gets to set the parking rate.  If the city disagrees then they will use the average rate being charged by parking lots within a 1/4 mile radius of the ball park.

Kind of

I mentioned earlier that the city will get 50% of the parking fees, kind of.  Actually there will be a revenue cap and the city will only be able to collect up to $655,000 per year “from the aggregate of the Ticket Fees, the Parking Fees and the Split Revenues” in the first five calendar years.

Non baseball events

The sports group will be able to use the stadium for other events.  Concerts and other entertainment events, meetings and banquets, soccer, football, lacross, other sporting events, community-oriented events, and any other for profit events will trigger the parking provisions above.

Yes, the city will have to pay for and provide security and cashiers at the parking garages when the sports group hosts events on the 288 days that baseball is not scheduled.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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