Deja Vu all over again

March 21, 2016

Our county commissioners court is scheduled to consider an economic development plan today, Monday, March 21, 2016.

Among the ideas being considered is the redevelopment of our county coliseum.

Based on events from our recent past we might see something like this being approved:

Cultural, children’s, satellite, ball park, arena, sportsplex

The plan will be to build this vitally necessary facility quickly.  Because our elected officials feel that they are better qualified than us “crazies” the project will be handled with absolutely no public input and all records and correspondence related to the project will instantly eviscerated.

We will probably be told that:

  • They need to do this immediately because a regional roller derby team franchise is available and some other city like Van Horn will snap it away from us if we hesitate.
  • It can’t be built on the existing coliseum site.  Instead the only practical solution is to drain Ascarate lake and use that land for the new facility.  Ascarate lake can easily be moved to where the old coliseum was.
  •  The facility will not cost local taxpayers anything.  Roller derby fans from around the world will voluntarily pay high ticket prices to fund the project.
  • The facility will have no operating costs since with a seating capacity of 12 seats several charitable foundations will do the work.
  • The new facility will actually save taxpayers $17 million each and every year because of reduced trips to the emergency room.
  • Roller skaters deserve a cultural facility.
  • We need to do this for the children because there is no place for them to go for entertainment.
  • The county’s inability to finish the sportsplex is not indicative of what will happen here.  This project will be handled differently.
  • Traffic control, security, and sanitation responsibilities will be foisted on the city.  They have plenty of money.

Help us help you

There will be a small technicality in that the voters will have to approve the project in a special election.  Plenty of false flyers will be distributed to help alleviate our concerns.

Citizens should not be worried about the original plan because it will be changed once the election has been won.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Prepare but don’t deliver

March 14, 2016

How long will it take for our former city manager to follow through with her latest promise?

The city’s investigator is trying to find out who influenced her to delay selling the ball park bonds.  Some say that her delay will cost us $27 million.

In their Friday, February 26, 2016 edition the Times wrote:

Wilson told the El Paso Times on Friday that she and her attorney will prepare a formal statement about the delay in the bond sale, but that she will not participate in an interview with Fischer.

Prepare

Maybe she has prepared a formal statement.  She did not say that she would release it.

Haven’t we had enough duplicity?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Finger pointing

March 3, 2016

Various past and present city officials are telling vastly different stories about how we got stuck with the $27 million bill because they failed to sell the ball park bonds when they could have.

People are lying.

Under the circumstances it seems to me that it would be appropriate for the city to subpoena them all for questioning.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Quit stalling

March 2, 2016

Just when it looks like the local politicos have run out of fingers to point we learn that our former city manager’s attorney is in a dust up with the investigator that the city hired.

The investigator evidently wrote “Ms. Wilson’s legal counsel indicated that she was advising Ms. Wilson not to cooperate with this investigation any further” in his report to the city.

Now according to the Times the former city manager’s attorney has written “I am demanding that you immediately correct your false and malicious statement regarding Ms. Wilson’s position” in a letter to the investigator.

In Pitiful we saw that on November 15, 2015 Ms. Wilson said that she did not purposely delay the sale of the ball park bonds until after the city election.

KVIA exposed her on November 23, 2015 by showing an August 26, 2013 email from her to our city attorney where she outlined the process that led her to delay the sale.

It is hard to believe anything that she says at this point.  The news reports indicate that she says she is not refusing to cooperate with the investigation.  Instead she needs more time.

I don’t know how much time it will take for her to come up with the names of the people who were involved with the delay of the sale of the bonds.  Her August 26, 2013 email already has shown that the former mayor and mayor-pro-tempore “concurred” with the delay.

It seems that she should be able to tell us soon, real soon.

“After that I expect the city to move on”, Wilson said according to the Times article.

Many of us might have said “After that I hope that the city will move on” but in her case she seems to think that she can tell us what to do.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Widen the net

March 1, 2016

Noticeably absent from the Times coverage the other day of the various messes at the city was any mention of our former chief financial officer.

In Who had the power to sell the ballpark bonds? we saw that any one of three people could have sold the bonds including the former CFO.

One might argue that under the old city manager no one would dare to disagree with her.  In fact at least one deputy city manager did and lost her job faster than you can say redo San Jacinto Plaza.  Now that I think of it almost anything could be done faster than the San Jacinto Plaza project so lets say faster than the baby sitter’s boyfriend when your car pulls up.

Of course that was much of the problem and still is today.  The city manager’s job has become so powerful that city staff cannot respectfully disagree.

Our former chief financial officer had a duty to the public to sound the alarm.  Maybe she was in favor of the delay and shares responsibility for the $27 million that we lost.  She of all people should have known better.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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