A reader that does his homework

May 8, 2020

This came in from an alert reader:

I found what I thought was quite interesting in the CIP Review (COVID-19 Response) Dated April 13, 2020.  It is where a street service fee was going to be added to the November 2020 election to be voted on.

38223405022020553051305.PDF is a copy of CIP Review (COVID-19 Response) Dated April 13, 2020 from them the city council special meeting.

38082805022020052909552.PDF is a copy of Community Health & Public Safety Proposed Bond Election Discussion (which was reduced to only a Public Safety Bond that was passed in Nov. 2019)

At the time that the other components of the discussion was redrawn from the election, it was implied that these were to be covered under the 2019-2020 budget which you will recall was for $1, 046,842,912 billion.

Yet it seems like they were trying to slip this into the 2020 election until the COVID-19 came along and caught them.

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By way of this post I am asking him if he would send us the slides that demonstrate his point.

Few of our readers will go through the entire presentations.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Less for more

May 6, 2020

This came in from an alert reader:

http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/city-reducing-recycling-service-to-cut-costs/article_a9106a06-8802-11ea-9c6d-138def441582.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
Brutus,
I am forwarding this article I read in the El Paso, Inc.  I note that when the recycling was cut to every two weeks, Director Smyth said it would save the city $2 million.  But, if we are paying $600,000 to $700,000 how is it saving the city $2 million?  She said it was because the drivers and trucks would not be used as much.  Mrs. Smyth said that each truck the city buys costs $300,000 but, she did not list what the drivers pay was.  Looking at the trucks that pick up my trash, I seriously doubt that the city is buying trucks every year.
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Ms. Smyth evidently said that the city would save $2 million, not the customers 😦
We deserve better
Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

What do the workers think?

May 5, 2020

This came from a recent Forbes article:

A recent Harvard Business Review article offering leadership advice to CEOs and executives recommended, “If you are doing cutbacks to save job losses, you must lead by example and do cutbacks that impact your own day-to-day as well. If you don’t, there is a danger that your staff will feel like saps, doing sacrifices while the C-suite continues unaffected. Get a commitment for a pay cut from your senior leaders. As CEO, you should take the largest salary cut yourself.” This sounds so obvious, but it rarely—if ever—happens.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Fact checking the mayor?

May 4, 2020

This came in from Max Grossman:

Dear Friends,
This past November 3, ABC-7 XTRA aired a discussion between Texas preservationist J. P. Bryan and Mayor Dee Margo over the “Arena” controversy. The following day I shared the KVIA video link to the debate and did my best to refute the errors and misinformation coming from Mr. Margo (below) while providing the attached documentation.
Mr. Bryan subsequently produced a video with the help of a professional firm, refuting point by point each of the Mayor’s false assertions.
Last night, Stephanie Valle and Erik Elken of KVIA channel 7 narrated a report announcing that Mr. Bryan has purchased nearly a half-hour of prime time on KVIA, scheduled for this coming Saturday at 6:30pm, during which he will air his video in its entirety and without commercial interruption!
The Mayor responded to the news about Mr. Bryan’s video by accusing him of “politicizing a pandemic.”
I invite everyone to tune in this Saturday and learn the truth.
Max
KVIA REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 10:30 PM:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u9c42qjnea3bo9o/KVIA%20report%20on%20Bryan%20video_21%20Apr%202020.mov?dl=0
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We deserve better
Brutus

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

What about the public safety bonds?

April 28, 2020

The city budget is going to take a big hit because of the COVID-19 situation.

Two of our city representatives believe that the big quality of life projects should be postponed if not cancelled.

Shouldn’t they also be looking at the recent public safety bonds?

Can we afford a 90 million dollar police headquarters or a 30 million dollar fire headquarters?

Isn’t this 413 million dollars that we can avoid spending?

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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