City candidates respond re: the arena

March 25, 2017

Some of the candidates for city council responded to the question that we posted on their FaceBook pages:

Cassandra Hernandez-Brown (district 3):

Brutus, I voted for a Downtown arena in 2012 and I support a DT arena. I will help to ensure that everyone is treated respectfully and fairly. If I can answer a specific question, I am happy to respond.

Jose Plasencia (district 4):

I currently oppose the location of the Arena, I do not believe we should be displacing a community. Also the cost on land acquisition will.cosy over $7 million, and as 3 homeowners have stated they will mot sell which The City would have to use eminent domain which could take years to settle and be a costly court battle. I would like to see the arena placed at Cohen for one it is city owned property in a very underutilized facility, it has easy access to roads, a beautiful view, and has a large amount of space. Knowing that is very unlikely I would support the Arena downtown in a more feasible location that doesn’t require the demolition of a community, there are many locations downtown that the arena can be built.
Apologies for my spelling I am using my phone.
Jud Burgess (district 2):
Hello Brutus. First thing I would try to do is find out if there is a way to revote on the arena altogether. I feel it is a colossal waste of taxpayer $, it will most assuredly not make any money, it will almost guaranteed end up costing us more to build (the baseball stadium went up 50%, from 50 mil to 75 mil), upkeep will cost, it is mainly a tool to fill hotel beds and enrich the power broker in DWNTWN. (see my proposed alternative plan that I’ve been spreading around. link below) I think most El Pasoans are getting wise now that the arena has been in suspended animation. Taxpayer remorse. If we were to find a legal way to put it up for a revote, either presenting a better alternative, like my world-class Latino Cultural Center and taxpayer savings idea, or simply to use the entirety or a portion of the 180 mil for EP infrastructure improvements which is what El Pasoans are all begging for, we can do away with it altogether. Everyone appears to be sticking their collective heads in the sand, not willing to admit this would be a fiscal failure of epic proportions if it gets built, whether it gets done in DWNTWN of Cohen Stadium. https://www.judburgessforelpaso.net/kill-arena-build-latino-cultural-center/
My $120 million idea that saves El Paso $60 million
The unpopular $180,000,000 arena that is quickly becoming a liability for most of El Paso needs to be reconsidered. I propose we consider challenging the arena concept with a much better option favoring the Latino Cultural Center and putting it up for a revote to all El Pasoans this May.
judburgessforelpaso.net
Chat Conversation End
We deserve better
Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
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City sends retirees the bill

March 23, 2017

It looks to us like The El Paso Times does not want Ms. Acosta to win election as mayor of El Paso.

The other day they published a headline article titled “Acosta denied filing claim with city” with the subtitle “Mayoral candidate retired after settlement”.

While the issue raises questions with us about what was done we find it interesting that the Times was essentially silent about her retirement settlement for the last eight years.

Now that she is running for mayor they seem to see the need to make her look bad.

According to the article Ms. Acosta entered into a settlement with the city while she was a department head.  She evidently filed a discrimination claim and the city felt that paying her off was necessary.

Instead of entering into a settlement and paying her with city general funds the people running the city at the time decided to foist the financial damages upon the city employee pension fund.

From what we have been able to learn the city raised her salary for the last thirty days of her employment so that she could draw a larger retirement check from the pension fund.

So much for taking care of the retirees.

We deserve better

Brutus

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District 3 candidates and the arena

March 19, 2017

If elected what actions will you take relative to the proposed arena?

We sent this question to Cassandra Brown and Jaime Barceleau who are candidates for the city district representative seat 3 race.

Elias Camacho, Casey Williams and Louis Pellicano are also running.

We have not found a way to contact these candidates.

Let us know if you can help us contact them.

We will let you know what they say.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
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District 2 candidates and the arena

March 18, 2017
If elected what actions will you take relative to the proposed arena?
We sent this question to James Tolbert and Jud Burgess who are both running for the city representative district 2 seat.
We also tried to reach
Alexander Burnside
Raul Valdez
Dolores Baca and
Alexsandra Annello
who are running for the same position but were not able to find a way to contact them.
Let us know how to reach these folks if you can.
We will let you know what the candidates say.
We deserve better
Brutus

9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City bonuses illegal?

March 17, 2017

Mr. Wever’s comment the other day got us to thinking about what the city did last year with the “one-time” bonuses they gave to all employees.

The August 3, 2015 edition of the Times told us that the city council voted to give $2.6 million dollars in year end bonuses to city employees.  This is a link to the article.

Texas Constitution

The Legislature shall have no power to grant, or to authorize any county or municipal authority to grant, any extra compensation, fee or allowance to a public officer, agent, servant or contractor, after service has been rendered, or a contract has been entered into, and performed in whole or in part; nor pay, nor authorize the payment of, any claim created against any county or municipality of the State, under any agreement or contract, made without authority of law. Tex. Const. art. III, § 53.

After service has been rendered

You simply cannot pay a government employee in Texas in arrears.

Where was the city’s legal department when this happened?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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