Performance cancelled

July 21, 2015

It appears that the city has decided that it is not competent to handle the administrative process relating to the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

Their solution is to hire two firms from out of town to help the city get it’s act together.

This must really be complex if it requires two out of town firms to make recommendations.

The real issue is that the city does not want anyone local to get to see the mess that city engineering is in.

The MPO is supposed to follow published rules.  The city needs to comply.

Any mid-level manager worth his/her salt could handle this.

We have a chief performance officer.  Isn’t this a matter of performance?

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Our money laying around

July 20, 2015

Now we are learning that the city is so loose with our money that they have failed to collect over $21 million from the state.  The state wants to pay us but the city has to do some paperwork.

According to this article in the Times:

The city of El Paso is in danger of losing millions of dollars in transportation project reimbursements after failing to submit the required paperwork to receive payment, according to Texas Department of Transportation officials.

TxDOT says the city has $21.3 million in pending reimbursements, but city officials disagreed, saying it’s closer to $9 million.

Difference

Based upon the city’s recent financial errors I know who I would tend to believe in this situation.

Even if the city is right why haven’t they moved immediately to collect the $9 million?  Do they have so much of our money that they don’t care?

More debt is an option

I have been impressed with the way our new city manager and chief financial officer have been trying to fix the mess that their predecessors left us with.

This quote from the Times really makes me wonder though:

In the worst-case scenario, Sutter said, city staff could go before the City Council to request additional certificates of obligations, which are backed by property taxes but don’t require voter approval.

We can only hope that the quote was taken out of context and that our chief financial officer was talking about something other than collecting our $21.3 million.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Two poor choices

July 19, 2015

David K. over at Refuse the Juice nailed it in this post about the proposed wage theft ordinance.

He points out that the city is considering an ordinance that worded the way it is would allow the city to deny any business city permits for up to five years if they lose an employee wage claim–even if the employer then promptly pays the judgment.

This situation is another example of the problems we have in the city attorney’s office.  Either the proposed ordinance language is incredibly sloppy and inept or the intent of the ordinance is evil.

Either way,

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

The Right Hand Giveth; The Left Hand Taketh Away

July 16, 2015

The Times reported the other day that the city  is proposing a tax increase of about 4.3% for next year.

The explanation is that city council previously had granted a $10,000 increase in the homestead exemption for seniors and people with disabilities:

Gonzalez said one of the main impacts to the city budget comes from the increase, to $40,000 from $30,000, in the homestead exemption for seniors and people with disabilities. The City Council approved increasing the senior exemption to $40,000 from $30,000 in September 2012.

The city manager said 45,509 out of a total of 125,577 homestead parcels qualify for the exemption increase, which means the owner of a home valued at $124,859 will pay about $619, about $40 less in city property taxes in fiscal year 2016.

The city has to offset the loss by spreading out the cost over the rest of the taxpayers.

The younger people will bear the brunt of the increase according to the article.  Actually the $10,000 dollar increase in the exemption would give the seniors about a $70.00 decrease in taxes if the tax rate had stayed the same but since the rate is increasing that money will be taken back for those who have homes valued at more than $200,000 or so.  Many seniors will actually end up paying more.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Elective danger

July 15, 2015

Should we now expect to hear that our school buses will not pick up kids next year because the drivers are not properly certified?

Or that our airport cannot accept planes that want to land because we are not keeping our runways clean?

Maybe our ambulances won’t run because they forgot how to tie bandages.

According to the Times our county hospital administrators are scrambling to avoid losing the hospital’s certification.  They have a little less than three weeks to fix their problems.

Surprise?

Back in December we wrote More problems at the county hospital and explained that our hospital had been given an “F” rating by the folks at Medicare and that payments to the hospital would be reduced as a result.

One of the problems was “preventable errors”.  Another was “hospital acquired conditions”.

Think infection.

Now the Joint Commission (the accrediting agency) has come to the hospital and as what must have been an absolute surprise to everyone paid particular attention to the sterilization process.

Were we prepared?  According to the Times our hospital administrator said:  “”Our employees in that area are entry-level type of employees. We’re going to look into raising the statute of that department, management and of the associates.”

I don’t know whether the Times reporter slipped up or if the official actually said “statute”.  They probably meant “stature” but more importantly the hospital did not do anything about the problem when it was pointed out to them in December.

Failure costs money

Now specialists are being flown in and incredibly the hospital has stopped performing surgeries unless they are necessary.  Even then the patients are going to be given the option of going to another hospital (presumably at our cost).

As for elective surgeries, you might ask if the county hospital should be performing them at all.  If we find that the hospital makes a profit on them and needs them to help balance the budget then we have another problem.  That money is being lost while the hospital finally pays attention to what they were penalized for back in December.

Where are our county commissioners?

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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