Cutting out the side deals

June 25, 2016

City representative Robinson placed two items on the June 14, 2016 city council agenda that dealt with the continued use by some city representatives of electronic devices during city council meetings.

We thank him.

Council had previously passed rules that prohibited use of such devices during city council meetings.

Some representatives have continued to use them even after being reminded of the prohibition.

Mr.  Robinson asked if there should not be consequences for breaking the rules.

Other members of council spoke of things like paying attention and being polite.

The simple fact is that communicating about agenda items in a public meeting in such a manner that the communication cannot be heard by the public is against the law.

The end result is that council instructed staff to come back to it with suggestions as to how the rule can be enforced.

This is better.

Brutus

5 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
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Impossible barrier to recruitment

June 24, 2016

The 2015 property tax comparison study is out from the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence.

For the 2013 year the group placed us as having the 7th highest residential property tax rate of the 50 largest American cities.

The 2014 report put us as the 5th highest.

Hard work will get you to the top

The 2015 report shows us steadily deteriorating with a ranking of having the 3rd highest property tax rates for homestead  homeowners among America’s largest cities.

2015taxrate

In 2014 we wrote Hidden taxes and showed that the city was billing us another $116 million or so in “fees”, some of which used to be paid for with property taxes.  Our real tax rate is even higher than what the report shows.

Continuing with the awful news, the 2015 report indicates that El Paso has the second highest industrial property tax rate for small facilities and the third highest for large ones.

How can we expect businesses to move here with a situation like this?

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
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Don’t bother trying

June 23, 2016

Looking at the request for proposals for ambulance billing services that the city awarded recently, we see from the backup material that only two firms responded.  The city had sent the solicitation to three.

Why not bid?

There are many companies that perform the service but for some reason they chose to not even bid.

From the web page of Page Wolfberg and Werth, “The National EMS Industry Law Firm” we can see a partial listing:

911 Billing Services and Consultant, Inc. * (link is external)
AccuMed Group * (link is external)
AIM Software & Services, Inc.* (link is external)
Ambulance Billing Services, Inc.* (link is external)
Ambulance Reimbursement Systems, Inc. * (link is external)
Andres Medical Billing, LLC* (link is external)
Cornerstone Adminisystems * (link is external)
Digitech Computer, Inc. * (link is external)
EMS Billing Services, Inc. * (link is external)
EMS Management Systems, Inc. * (link is external)
Emergicon, LLC* (link is external)
Enhanced Management Services, Inc. * (link is external)
Health Services Integration * (link is external)
Holdsworth, Pelton & Associates * (link is external)
Intermedix * (link is external)
LifeQuest * (link is external)
MedBill Resources Corporation (link is external)
MedEx Billing, Inc. * (link is external)
Medical Claim Aid * (link is external)
MedServ International (link is external)
MultiMed Billing * (link is external)
Precise Billing Service, Com.* (link is external)
Priority Medical Claims, Inc. * (link is external)
Professional Practice Support, Inc.* (link is external)
Quick Med Claims * (link is external)
Sweet Billing Service * (link is external)
Wittman Enterprises, LLC *
Could it be that the word was out in the industry that the fire department is in bed with their chosen vendor and that bidding would be a giant waste of time and money?
We deserve better
Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
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The un-ruled class

June 17, 2016

Same old song.

According to an article in the Times the other day the city’s purchasing (credit) card system has rules that are ignored on a wide-spread basis.

Seventy-seven percent of the 1,958 card transactions audited did not have a receipt in the city’s centralized files.

Ninety-two percent of travel request forms weren’t either.

The city’s internal auditor published the report and “recommended at least 10 areas where the mayor and council as well [as] the office of the city manager need to improve on the use and documentation of procurement cards” according to the Times article.

I guess that they think that rules are for citizens, not for them.

Many of us would learn the rules when dealing with public money so that we do the right thing.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
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Red handed

June 13, 2016

Well it seems that someone at the city does know right from wrong.

In City staff lies to city council again we pointed out that the city had improperly (probably illegally but we are not the jury) extended a contract for ambulance billing.

Then in The collective we we pointed out that one of our participants had sent notification of the post to our city purchasing director and to our city attorney asking for their response.

Recapping, city council passed a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign an amendment to a contract extending it past June 15, 2016 while the city was to get their act together and finish evaluating a bid.

Council was told that they were exercising an option.  There were no options left in the existing contract.

From what we could see that would have been a violation of state law.  The punishment for the violation could have involved removal from office for the people telling the lie.

Coincidentally

Now the June 14, 2016 city council agenda includes an item that would award a contract to one of the bidders.

By awarding the contract one day before the original contract expired the city is following the law and will not need to  use the extension that we wrote about in City staff lies to city council again.

Evidently people at the city read this blog.  They have, however, not had the courtesy to respond to our participant’s inquiry.  A simple thank you would be in order.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
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