Simple is as simple does

August 24, 2015

City staff gave  a show and tell presentation to council a few weeks ago.

The topic was the improvement made in one specific area of the parks and recreation department.  They applied some of the six sigma principles that they have been learning about.

The problem staff tackled had to do with water sprinkler repair/replacement in the parks.  Previous to the initiative it took 24 hours for a sprinkler to be repaired.  Staff studied and planned and collaborated and the result was that it now only takes 2 hours to effect the repairs.

Their solution?  They put more sprinkler parts in the trucks that the workers drive to the park location.

No mistake

Please don’t misunderstand me.  I am pleased that our new city manager is acting like a manager.  The end result of their effort is clearly a good one.

I shudder to think of the inefficiencies in daily operations in our city departments if this effort deserves special recognition.  The workers involved probably figured it out on their first day of work.

And the fact that city council sat there and applauded without a single representative asking what other Forest Gump situations we have at the city tells us a lot about where we really are.

We deserve better

Brutus

13 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Engineered profits

August 23, 2015

The Times reported the following in their Wednesday, August 18, 2015 edition:

The city recently hired two engineering and consulting firms — HNTB and Freese and Nichols — to assess the department’s policies and procedures, and to manage the Metropolitan Planning Organization submittal process for transportation projects.

Lombraña said both firms would be eligible to bid for contracts in the future if the city decides to outsource work previously overseen by city engineers–even if the recommendation to do so comes from the firms themselves.

Searching the city council agendas we got no results for either a contract with HNTB or Freese and Nichols, so we cannot report any of the financial details.

Being able to bid on projects that they themselves recommend be taken to bid must be sweet.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City council ignores it’s own survey

August 20, 2015

The city engaged a group from UTEP to provide this 2014 citizen survey.

The report included this chart:

Citizensurvey2014spending

Schools and education do not come out of the city budget.  However the number one thing that the citizens did want that is supposed to be provided by the city was “street maintenance and improvements”.  As you can see downtown development ranked just below “other”.

Do we need to survey Van Horn’s residents to see what they want for our city?

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Engineered solution?

August 18, 2015

We recently learned that the city is planning to outsource some engineering responsibilities to two big firms that have setup local offices in El Paso within the last few years.

We don’t need to worry about them being outsiders.  One of the firms made campaign contributions (through their political action committee) to at least two of the current city council members in this last election.

That’s not to say that anything is wrong here.  It is remarkable that the city can rush through another contract when it really wants to.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

14 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

If momma ain’t happy nobody’s happy

August 17, 2015

One of our city representatives has now decided to bring the city manager’s pay raise back to the council agenda.

I don’t see how this can help anything.  In fact this city manager and any future city managers will now know they might have to deal with the kind of political posturing we will see  if council is willing to consider the agenda item.

Whether he deserves the pay raise or not, the manner in which it was foisted on some members of council was disgraceful.  It was handled high-handedly by some members of city council.  It seems that whenever they bring up something that must be decided immediately they are up to no good.

The fact that she voted on the raise when she had not considered the issue fully is bad too.

Now to bring the issue back by herself is even worse.  They should not be discussing his performance in public.  They need to be careful.

Word on the street is that the city manager’s family wants to get out of El Paso.  I have not heard if Van Horn would be acceptable.

Without regard to what he thinks, it seems reasonable that he will hear “I told you so” at home.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

 

12 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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