County Commissioner playing by the rules

November 1, 2016

Our local Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Board (MPO) recently voted to change its membership.

The move was spearheaded by our state senator and one of our state representatives working in conjunction with the smaller municipalities and the county (e.g. other than the city of El Paso).

The cabal wanted to neuter the city of El Paso’s  power on the board by changing the membership so that the city of El Paso would only have one voting member of the board instead of the eight it currently has.

Put simply they want our money.

Not legal

The MPO was created under 23 USC (United States Code) 450.310.

Section 450.310 (j) reads:

(j) Redesignation of an MPO (in accordance with the provisions of this section) is required whenever the existing MPO proposes to make:

(1) A substantial change in the proportion of voting members on the existing MPO representing the largest incorporated city, other units of general purpose local government served by the MPO, and the State(s);

That is certainly what the cabal is trying to do.

The problem is that 450.310 (h) defines how the redesignation can be authorized:

(h) An existing MPO may be redesignated only by agreement between the Governor and units of general purpose local government that together represent at least 75 percent of the existing metropolitan planning area population (including the largest incorporated city, based on population, as named by the Bureau of the Census).

Without the city of El Paso’s vote they cannot achieve the 75 percent representation required to redesignate the MPO.  Subsection h also requires the approval of the city of El Paso because it is the area’s largest incorporated city.

County commissioner

Of particular interest is that County Commissioner Vincent Perez voted against the redesignation–in fact voting against the County Judge.    He told the Times that the board’s actions do not comply with federal regulations.

He also indicated that he was “particularly disappointed” with the board’s legal counsel (a county employee) and that the lawyer should be “evaluated and possibly fired”.

Thank you Commissioner Perez for standing up for the rule of law.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, County Government, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Chalk the Block

October 23, 2016

Helen Marshall sent this in:

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1 Comment | City government | Permalink
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Eminent domain

October 18, 2016

The city has chosen their preferred site for the arena.

In a recent Times article many city officials were quoted as saying that they do not believe that the use of the city’s eminent domain powers will be necessary.

While they are saying that the Times tells us that “The City Council will vote Tuesday on a resolution to activate the city’s eminent domain authority”.

We deserve better

Brutus

13 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Hotel insider

October 8, 2016

It’s all good for some people.

City council just approved a deal that will give the developer of an $18 million downtown hotel $5.24 million dollars in tax rebates.

Business as usual

The cast of characters involved in the deal tells us a lot.

The land was made available when the Texas Workforce Commission decided to close a call center downtown.  Our former city manager is the head of the local Texas Workforce Commission.

Our former mayor is a consultant on the project.  When he was in office he had difficulty managing his financial people and thus we were a financial wreck when the new city manager took control.  Now evidently he is a financial guru.  In Let them eat cake Cato wrote about the ex-mayor  trying to lobby the city even though doing so was illegal.

The fix was in

When the developer bought the land he told the Inc that a hotel was not in the near future.

According to a July 20, 2015 El Paso Inc. article the developer was going to wait before building the hotel:

“Convention center hotel is way too premature,” he wrote. “Bond projects need to be finished or close to finished and bookings of conventions needed before a convention hotel can survive.”

As far as I know they have not even started on the big downtown bond projects.  It looks like the deal finally got good enough.  Hard work pays off again.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Is it impact or a collision?

October 4, 2016

If there is an award for telling the truth about local government, this group should get it.

womenofimpact

Our former city chief financial officer and now deputy superintendent of finance and operations at EPISD certainly has had an impact on us locally.

So would a meteor.

We will get an annual reminder of her impact when we get our tax bills.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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