A public official who speaks honestly

July 12, 2016

Recently our chief of police was quoted as saying:

“Black Lives Matter, as far as I am concerned, is a radical hate group.   And for that purpose alone, I think the leadership of this country needs to look a little bit harder at that particular group.  The consequences of  what  we saw in Dallas is due to their efforts.”

Many of our local elected officials then wrote a letter to our mayor including this statement:

“That is why we urge you to publicly repudiate the statement, forcefully and unequivocally, and hold Chief Allen accountable for damaging the public trust and bringing disrepute to our community.”

One former city representative was quoted in a Times article thusly:

“I think it was incredibly irresponsible of him.  I have no confidence in him any longer as the chief of police.”

City representative Robinson made more sense than all of the others combined when according to the Times he said:

“All lives matter,” and declined to comment further.

I don’t know

I don’t know anything about the group called Black Lives Matter.

What I do know is that when an individual like chief Allen, who rarely speaks out in public,  makes a statement I start by giving it more credence than anything that anyone in the pack that is calling for his head says.

I would imagine that as chief of police he has access to much more information about the group than we get told by the people who spoon feed information to our local media.

This police chief is an outstanding public servant who goes out of his way to stay out of politics.

Now that you mention it

Moving on from their politically self serving actions, I would like to call attention to their position that public officials should be held responsible for their actions.

I agree.

Several of the bunch that signed the letter have done a lot to damage the public and the public’s trust and have certainly brought disrepute to our community.

I suppose it would be foolish to expect them to step up to the plate and make amends.

And by the way maybe the elected officials who signed the letter should learn something about our city charter.  The police chief reports to the city manager, not to the mayor nor to city council.  Then again maybe they are just trying to manipulate the mayor.

We deserve better

Brutus

29 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Lecturing her bosses

July 10, 2016

Holy mackerel!

Our city council is planning to hold a special meeting Monday, July 11, 2016.

There is one item on the agenda:

Presentation by the City Attorney on the Council/Manager form of government.

The item as listed on the agenda was placed there by our city attorney.  Of course there is no backup material.  Rules are evidently not applicable to her.

She is the city parliamentarian but allows council to violate rules regularly.

Let’s be sure to watch and see how she colors her presentation to accommodate her agenda.

We deserve better

Brutus

12 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Double whammy

July 7, 2016

The Times reported the other day that El Paso’s average wage was 23.5 percent below the national average.

On the other hand we have the third highest property taxes of America’s 50 largest cities.

What does it take to be in third place?  Our property taxes are 193 percent of the 50 city average.

Some will observe that Texas does not have an income tax.  A state income tax might lower property taxes, so if we just look at just the Texas cities on the list of 50 we compute that the El Paso tax rate is 120.5 percent of the Texas average.

Simple arithmetic

With wages 23.5 percent lower than the national average our citizens have less money.  Yet our property taxes are 20.5 percent higher than the other high tax rate Texas cities.

That does not add up to a good economic situation yet we are told that “It’s all good”.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Time to tell

July 6, 2016

Do you remember the mess the city got involved in re-re-re-re-modeling San Jacinto Plaza?

We were told that the public could not know the details relating to the mess because of potential litigation.

The project is supposedly finished.

Finished that is, except for the restrooms that council now says are needed.  They were left off originally so that the prior city manager and her acolytes could lie to us about the cost of the project.

Time to tell

Why is it that the city has not come forward and told us how and why the mess occurred and who was responsible?

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Let’s keep our independence

July 4, 2016

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness–

That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,

that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

*****

Please vote.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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