Let the children fend for themselves

September 19, 2016

Item 25.3 on the regular city council agenda for September 20, 2016 meeting is another example of how they hide the truth in plain site.

A developer intends to build a high rise hotel on land downtown.

The item would give the developer a 50 year lease on a piece of city owned property downtown for $1,200 per year.

The property is currently owned by the developer and is on the central appraisal district tax rolls for roughly $500 thousand.  The property taxes are currently about $15 thousand a year.

The way the deal works is that the developer first gives the land to the city.

Then the developer will generously pay $1,200 each and every year for 50 years to lease the land.

Whatta deal

The developer gives the land to the city and then pays rent.  Isn’t that nice of them?

Actually

By placing the hotel on land that is owned by the city the developer avoids paying property taxes on the land.  That means that the city gets a nice new hotel downtown but the school district loses half of the property taxes that would normally have been paid each year.

Oh, and by the way the agenda item would also exempt the hotel property from the the downtown reinvestment zone, thus giving it an advantage over other downtown businesses.

We wouldn’t want to stop there.  The hotel will also be eligible to receive a rebate on hotel occupancy taxes paid by the guests for the first ten years.  Our rate in El Paso is 17.5% so if we understand the law correctly the developer will get his room rate plus 17.5% for ten years.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

EPISD staff leaving

September 14, 2016

We are hearing news of an exodus of senior officials from EPISD.

Some of them reported to the district’s new deputy superintendent–the one that was at the heart of the city’s financial misstatements.

Does anyone have specifics that can be shared?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Too little, too late

September 9, 2016

The Texas Supreme Court created a loophole in the Texas Public Information Act when it delivered its decision in Boeing v. Paxton last year.  The ruling allowed Texas governments to withhold information if disclosing the information would cause competitive harm.

Our city is leading the charge by refusing to release some emails that the Times has requested.

On second thought

Section 552.301 of the Texas Government Code says:

The government body must ask for the attorney general’s decision and state the exceptions that apply within a reasonable time but not later than the 10th business day after the date of receiving the written request.

The Times requested some information.

The city objected and wrote their required letter to the attorney general citing 25 reasons why they believed they should be able to withhold the information.  They did not mention Boeing v. Paxton.

Last week the city recognized that the court decision would help their argument and sent a second letter to the attorney general.

Time matters

Section 552.303 of the Texas Government Code says:

If a government body does not request an attorney general decision as provided by Section 552.301 and provide the requestor with the information required by Sections 552.301(d) and (e-1) the information requested in writing is presumed to be subject to required public disclosure and must be released unless there is a compelling reason to withhold the information.

The attorney general’s ruling in this situation should be based on the 25 reasons the city offered in its first letter.

Why on earth would the city manager be negotiating via email?

Once again the city wants to be above the law.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Ill spent funds

September 8, 2016

Our county hospital board has let us down again.

According to a recent article in the Times they paid $208,000 to a recruiting firm to perform the search for a new hospital administrator.

Comparing that amount with the $23,000 that the city paid when searching for a city manager or the $30,000 that EPISD paid looking for a superintendent makes the hospital board look like fools.

Even more damning is that the new hospital administrator that the board hired was working right here in El Paso and was the obvious choice.

Our county commissioners need to quit planning how to spend their astronomical pay raises and put some people on the hospital board that will get things under control.

Instead they recently appointed the city’s former chief financial officer to the board.   Remember what she did to us?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

They built it and no one came

September 7, 2016

It has been almost a year (edit: two years) since Sun Metro started their Brio service on Mesa.

Unfortunately bus usage has declined more than seven percent when compared to last year.

Operating costs per trip have gone up during the same period more than seven percent.  The Sun Metro report is for the period ending May 31, 2016.  Take a look at what natural gas prices did during that period:

naturalgas2015-16

Their proposed budget for next year will use $43.8 million of our sales taxes.  They are budgeting $8 million in receipts from fare boxes, down from a budget of $9.3 million last year.

They are working to open Brio service on Alameda and Dyer even in light of declining demand.

We deserve better

Brutus

12 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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