Media stronger than we thought

April 12, 2017

El Paso Inc. ran an article about city representative Niland’s resignation the other day.

From the article:

When she was finished, members of the council embraced her. After the meeting, Leeser said he was saddened by the “abuse” Niland and her family had taken from the news media in recent months and that it had a lot to do with her resignation.

“She told me that she loves her kids, loves her family and the media had actually destroyed her family, and that was one of the things she told me,” Leeser said.

Abuse?

I must have missed it.

Destroyed?

The media destroyed her family?

It sounds to me like she has chosen to be a victim.

We deserve better

Brutus

12 Comments | City government, El Paso Inc. | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City salaries

April 11, 2017

The city wants to send more of our money out of town.  Item 16.2 on the Tuesday, April 4, 2017 seeks authorization to spend $260,550.00 to figure out how much to pay our city employees.

From the agenda:

Award of Solicitation No. 2017-392R City Wide Compensation Analysis to Management Advisory Group International for an initial six (6) month term estimated award of $260,550.00.
BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION:
It has been 17 years since the City has conducted a comprehensive citywide position and salary analysis. The last RFP was awarded and completed in 2000. Over time, market competiveness has created salary compression in the City’s compensation structure. This study is necessary to recalibrate and establish a competitive salary structure, and update the methodology for uniform compensation application.

Pay raises

Maybe the city really needs some outsiders to tell them how much to pay our employees.  Most business people can figure this out by themselves, but maybe having experts from out of town tell us that the salaries need to be raised is what the city employees really want.

Big city salaries

The backup documentation shows that a firm out of Arizona was willing to do the work for $75,000 less.  The city gave the vendor bid a rating of 86.33.

The more expensive vendor’s bid was rated at 86.42.  They are based in Virginia.

From the backup information:

Giving the business to the more expensive vendor tells us a lot.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Emptying buses

April 9, 2017

The numbers are out for Sun Metro’s six month performance for the 2017 fiscal year.

They show the number of passengers decreasing by 5.9% from last year.

Looking at numbers for a whole year:

in 2016 ridership decreased 7.9% from 2015

in 2015 ridership decreased 3.9% from 2014

Operating expenses in 2014 were $71.2 million.  They were $79 million in 2016.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City gets a free ride at our expense

April 8, 2017

The city recently renewed there agreements with three local ambulance companies.

The agreements give the companies the right to offer non-emergency ambulance services in the city limits.

The city only provides ambulance services in cases of emergency.

We still end up paying the city even if we don’t use a fire department ambulance and instead use one of these private firms.

The agreements with the companies require them to pay 2.75% of what they collect.

That amount is of course added to our bill.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Dividing by one

April 6, 2017

This slide is part of a presentation to be made to city council Tuesday, April 4, 2017:

Average of one

The first line tells us that the average annual rainfall in El Paso during 2016 was 6.75 inches.

Average of what?  Do they mean to tell council that 6.75 inches of rain fell in El Paso during 2016?

Do they even read their presentations to council?

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »