Helen Marshall sent us this:
Headline on the EPTimes Saturday
City Manager Blames Staff.
Strangely enough, he echoes Niland’s approach – “it’s not our fault! It’s HIS fault!” “If something is wrong, it’s not MY fault!”
Not responsible
February 23, 2016
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City government, El Paso Times | 
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Posted by Brutus
No private discussions during open meetings
February 22, 2016Things might get better.
The Tuesday, February 23, 2016 city council meeting has this agenda item on it:
Discussion and action regarding amending City Council rules of order to prohibit the use of personal electronic devices during the City Council meetings and executive session, banning using any private and/personal electronic device such as computers, cell phones, tablets, and/or any other electronic devices during Mayor City Council meeting and executive session; to include but not limited to ban from texting, tweeting, emailing, blogging, Facebook, Instagram, and/or all social media platforms posting and/or and communication with each other, with individuals or groups attending the meeting, and with individuals and groups anywhere in the world.
Even with the mangled English this looks like a really good thing.
They should also ban passing notes between each other.
Open meetings should be transparent.
Our thanks to representatives Robinson, Acosta, and Noe for placing this item on the agenda.
We deserve better
Brutus
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Posted by Brutus
Shining the light
February 21, 2016It looks like our new west side city representative is trying to help us with the city’s transparency problems.
He has placed these two items on the Monday, February 22, 2016 city council work session agenda.
Discussion and action authorizing free public parking zones along Main St., Campbell St., and Mills St. during City Council Regular Meetings, Special Meetings, Advisory Board/Commission Meetings, and during normal City business hours.
Discussion and action directing City Manager to post video of City Council Regular Meetings, Special Meetings, and Advisory Board/Commission Meetings to YouTube.
Our thanks go to Mr. Svarzbein.
Brutus
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Posted by Brutus
Money not an issue at Sun Metro
February 20, 2016Our city council held another one of its special meetings February 8, 2015.
No video of the meeting appears to be on the city’s web site so we cannot see who said what.
One item on the agenda was to approve a contract extension with the company that manages our bus system.
According to the agenda our bus system manager was to make a presentation that included an evaluation of the contractor’s performance. This slide shows the evaluation factors:
Noticeably absent is any measure of the financial effectiveness of our bus system and its contractor. It is also interesting that they presented numbers about the number of complaints per 100,000 customers but did not present any information about complaints from people who are not customers.
They also were going to ask council for permission to add an assistant director for street car operations. The street car construction project is being managed by the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority (CRRMA). Once the project is finished it is to be turned over to the city to operate. That should be sometime in 2018.
In the meantime Sun Metro sought council’s approval of a new position–assistant director for street car operations. This new person would be responsible for watching the CRRMA and making sure that they do things the way they are supposed to. The cost will be $149,500 per year.
We don’t need to worry about the hiring process. The bus system contractor already has someone that they want to fill the position.
Next we will probably hear about needing to hire someone to watch the watchers.
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Five hour executive session
February 16, 2016City council met in executive session for five hours the other day to discuss the financial advisor mess.
Why?
What could they possibly discuss for 5 hours? Could it be that they took the opportunity to talk about some other things that they don’t want us to know?
We deserve better
Brutus
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Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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