There’s talk down at city hall about updating their ethics ordinance.
The last meeting of the ethics review commission was February 19, 2014.
You would think that with all that has gone on at the city this commission would be pretty busy.
The unfortunate truth is that this group is toothless. They can’t do anything without council’s approval.
We deserve better.
Brutus
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City government | 
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Posted by Brutus
The political posturing continues unabated at city council.
Their Tuesday October 6, 2015 agenda includes this item:
Discussion and action to initiate a policy/ordinance that any Open Records Request (ORR) by a City Representative, all such request(s) must be paid for and that the use of staff time spent in hours and salary costs on the ORR be disclosed at a regular City Council meeting and placed on the regular agenda. To request that the 1994 City of El Paso Open Records Resolution be updated in accordance with the Administrative Code, Title 1, Chapter 70 and Government Code, Chapter 552.
Our elected officials are also citizens and have the same rights as citizens. They have the right to make Public Information Act Requests. They also have the right to request government records in the performance of their duties–at no cost to themselves.
This is a petty attempt to discourage council members from making this type of request.
We deserve better
Brutus
10 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The west side pool is just going to have to wait.
At the September 15, 2015 city council meeting our council rejected all seven bids for the construction and management of the west side pool. The action was on the consent agenda and was passed with no discussion.
After getting the seven contractors to invest considerable time and money in developing the bids and getting to look at their prices, the city has decided that it should use a different purchasing method. City staff is saying that this will save the taxpayers money. That remains to be seen.
Council did not vote on approving the new purchasing method. Our west side representative was absent and the other council members did not want to take action without him.
As it stands now city staff is telling us that they should be able to get through the new bidding process by May of next year.
Other than gasoline I don’t know of anything that is getting cheaper on a day to day basis. We also need to consider what will happen to interest rates during the delay. The eight month delay that they are proposing will probably cost us money in both materials and labor.
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The folks over at the Ysleta school district are going to try again.
Earlier this year they held an election seeking approval for $451 million in bonds. The voters turned them down but it was close.
Now four months later they have announced that they will hold another election in November seeking $430 million.
Last time they published an extensive list of what they were thinking of spending the money on. This time they have not issued a similar list yet.
Part of the problem the voters had is that the district reserved the right to change how we were told the money would be spent. This graphic was available on the district’s web site:
Another issue is the belief that many voters have that our local governments cannot handle major construction projects well. Since the failure of their bond election we have seen the city bungle construction projects and not move forward on the quality of life bonds that the voters gave them back in 2012.
We have a children’s hospital in bankruptcy. Our county hospital is losing money without even considering the money that the children’s hospital owes it. The county allowed the hospital to sell $152 million worth of bonds to build new clinics that would save us $17 million a year in the emergency room according to the hospital administrator. We have not seen the clinics and we have not seen the savings.
EPISD voted to repurpose $59 million that the voters were told would build a new high school.
The city can’t even build a one square block park, even at the outrageous price of $6 million. The engineering department has essentially been eviscerated and the city has hired two out of town engineering firms. Local firms need not apply. We approved $473 million in bonds for quality of life projects three years ago and have seen nothing significant produced.
My sense is the public knows that YISD needs money. The voters might be more apt to approve their requests if a more reasonable approach was taken. They should ask for some money for a deserving project, say around $50 million. Then they should complete the project thus proving to us that they will do what they promise and that they can handle the construction.
They need to prove that they can handle the money if we give it to them.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The city’s new bike share program doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Let’s say that someone worked in the main city hall building and they wanted to deliver one of their totally objective press releases to the Times so that the Times could publish it as though it was the product of investigative reporting.
The city worker could walk out of city hall and use the bike share depot that is located adjacent to city hall. He/she would provide the machine with a credit card and would be charged $6 for 30 minutes of rental time.
Our worker could then pedal over to the Times building but would probably want to deposit the bike in another depot so that it would be locked up while visiting the Times. The nearest depot which appears to be at the Union Plaza, only a couple of blocks away. Locking up the bike is a good idea since the charge for not returning one is $1,350.
Then again the worker could call Uber and get there for the same $6, without the walk or the risk of having to pay for a stolen bicycle.
We deserve better
Brutus
10 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
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