How important is that job really?

October 24, 2015

The county fired our first county administrator a few weeks ago.  He lasted nine months.

Is it strange that we have heard nothing about finding a replacement?

Is it even stranger that he was fired because of “personal issues”?

One would think that they would have picked up on those “issues” as part of the hiring process, but then again that would require knowing how to vet candidates for senior executive positions.

Will we see our former city chief financial officer reincarnated as the county administrator?  She has friends over there.  Maybe we could see some of her creative accounting somehow balance the budget over at the county and children’s  hospitals.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Fox in the hen house? or blank check?

October 22, 2015

This came in as an email from a regular reader:

 

This is disgusting … Fox in the hen house … Nothing like getting paid to say give us your money. How is this not a conflict of interest? City mgr also has prior relationship with them.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/el-paso/2015/10/19/city-study-reorganize-hire-outside-firms/74225150/

 

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Potential forum

October 18, 2015

This came in from Xavier Miranda:

 

9 Comments | City government, County Government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Another bid rejected

October 17, 2015

What’s going on with the city’s purchasing department?

We are seeing more and more recommendations from the department that all bids be rejected because of some universal failure on the part of all of the bidders.

The latest example is item 5 on the Tuesday, October 13, 2015 Sun Metro board meeting agenda.  The item is listed as:

Approve the request to reject all bids received for Solicitation No. 2015-981 (Bus Turbochargers) as recommended by the Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing Deparment and Mass Transit Department – Sun Metro. Bid submissions failed to furnish required OEM documentation.

Three bids were received and all supposedly failed to bid properly.  One would think that the people in the bus turbocharger business would be used to responding to government bids.

Could the problem be with the way the bid was written?  Is the city just fishing for pricing information?

More and more construction contractors are telling me that they don’t bid on city business anymore, partially because of the city’s history of taking bids, getting pricing, and rejecting all of the bids.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Perception

October 15, 2015

We got this from Helen Marshall:

There has been a time-honored principle that a public figure must not only behave correctly but give no basis for suspicion (as supposedly the second wife of Julius Caesar did, leading to divorce!).  That clearly is so First Century BC here in El Paso.  

Several letter writers have commented on the behavior of City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, who began his work in El Paso by bringing a former associate on board without any competitive hiring, to serve as “Chief Performance Officer” at over $200,000 with perks.  This CPO had, and has, a consulting firm;  apparently there is not enough performance in El Paso to supervise, leaving Ms. Bartlett with time on her hands.  Her boss has now followed her by forming a consulting firm with his wife, and hiring a Mr. John Romero to set it up.   This is allowed in his contract as long as it doesn’t present a “conflict of interest.” Who determines what is a conflict of interest is not specified.
The name Romero might sound familiar – and it is indeed, as Mr. Larry Romero, city council representative for District 2, led the effort to increase Mr. Gonzalez’s salary by $61,000.   John is Larry’s brother; keeping it all in the family!
You may wonder if future clients of the new firm might find themselves on the inside track for city business, even if the city itself does not become a client.   You would not be the only one to wonder.  Appearances can be deceiving…but It certainly seems that we have a trout in the milk here.

3 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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