Not my fault

January 13, 2017

Writing Individual responsibility the other day got us to thinking about our situation with city council.

When we had the strong mayor form of government we were able to hold one individual accountable for what happened at the city.  The mayor served two year terms and had to face the electorate.

Now with the city manager form of government the mayor is less powerful than a city representative.  He can only vote in case of a tie.

The city representatives, on the other hand, are free to vote for (or ignore) matters with relative impunity from the voters.  After all no one of them was responsible for any bad decision.  They only have to face the voters every four years.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | City government | Permalink
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What’s in store in 2017?

January 12, 2017

What should we look forward to locally in 2017?

Will we see a newspaper that allows their reporters to ask the obvious questions of our local politicians and then write articles that serve the interest of the citizens instead of the newspaper?

Will we see a district attorney that handles cases based upon alleged crimes instead of who the parties are?

Will our county judge be held responsible for the messes she has presided over?

Will our city manager make time to answer phone calls from citizens?

Will our government employees realize that they work for the citizens, not the other way around?

Will EPISD handle our bond money well?

Will we end up having the second highest tax rate among the top 50 cities in the U. S. ?

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
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Dr. Noe helps us

January 9, 2017

Our thanks go to city representative Dr. Noe for item 24.4 which he placed on the Tuesday, January 10, 2017 city council agenda.

Discussion and action to direct the City Manager to provide realistic and accurate cost estimates for the following items regarding the Convention Center/MPC site:

 

  1. To provide an accurate cost estimate of the potential loss of revenue from the Convention Center, the loss of revenue from tax rebates, the cost of not honoring the 380 agreements in place and the loss of the HOT tax revenue and how that will impact paying the baseball stadium debt.
  2. To provide an estimate for the cost liabilities associated with canceling the events that are already booked at the Convention Center.
  3. Provide an estimate for liabilities associated with the 380 agreements in place and any other direct or indirect costs involved.
  4. Estimates of any other direct or indirect costs involved with moving the MPC site to the Convention Center site.
  5. Provide the total amount that has already been spent on this project.

Excellent!

This is better

Brutus

10 Comments | City government | Permalink
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Wrongheaded

January 4, 2017

elrichboy over at El Chuqueno recently posted Now we know who drives the truck.

He wrote:

The City Manager publicly stated recently that the underlying philosophy that guides him (and his style of City management) can be summed up as “first we win, then we listen.

I hope that elrichboy got it wrong.

Wrongheaded

What have we come to when our public servants think that they have the right to first get what they want to happen and then listen to the public?

That approach may make sense sometimes in a military environment when dealing with an enemy, but not with the public that they are supposed to serve.

Adversaries

The city manager is supposed to implement the policies handed down to him by city council.  Policy making is above his pay grade.

Winning against the citizens and then eventually listening to them is just wrong.

This is not leadership.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Arena options

January 2, 2017

We have to wonder what plan the city has to pick a location for the arena.

City council has backed off the plan to locate the arena in the Duranguito area.

They are talking now about locating the arena at the site of the existing convention center.

If they do tear down the convention center how long will it be before we are asked to approve another bond issue to build another convention center?

Like much of what council does, this plan does not make sense to many of us.

Will council have to back down on this idea?

If they do, where will they place the arena?

Would they actually have the gall to propose tearing down the city buildings that we just remodeled and give the rail road the closing of the crossings that it wants?

Where would they end up putting city hall?

It is hard to escape the feeling that they have a plan but don’t want to spring it on us quite yet.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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