City ignores state requirements

May 6, 2015

This came in from Helen Marshall yesterday:

The Times reports today that the city election candidates’ financial reports earlier said to be filed late were in fact filed on time electronically; BUT only four of them went on the city clerk’s website on Friday, the day they were supposed to be viewed by the public.  BECAUSE – wait for it – the city clerk’s office is closed on Friday!  And of course, no one could be assigned to come in to work to perform an important electoral function.   One candidate used a committee to raise funds and the city has no way for that committee to file a report electronically – gee, they only had two months to figure that out – and so when the committee went to the clerk’s office on Friday with its paper report to file, they found a closed office.  OK, let’s say they should have realized that no duty would get in the way of Friday closing.   The Deputy City Clerk said that “even though committee reports cannot be submitted electronically at this time, and the city clerk’s office was closed on Friday,technically the committee’s report is still considered late.”   Translation – whoever is to blame for this, it is not the City Clerk’s office, we aren’t giving up our Fridays for anything, get that?

 
 

Brutus

 

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

Inaccessible officials

May 3, 2015

I’m troubled by what we are hearing and reading about our public officials declining to meet with citizens.

Yes we understand that the officials have work to do and that some members of the public can take up more time than is needed.

What we are seeing now is that some of our officials are refusing to answer correspondence and are delegating subordinates to meet with concerned citizens.

In times past some of our local officials would set aside  a specific day of the week at a specific time where they would meet with members of the public that had concerns.

That is not too much to ask of the current group.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Questions for council candidates #5 (QOL)

May 2, 2015

Helen Marshall sent these questions:


The previous city manager and staff seriously underestimated the costs for the 3 signature projects in the Quality of Life bonds.

Do we start over again?  Decide that we can do all three even though they will be inadequate or cheaply done?  Decide what is most pressing and do that first?  Reconsider the need for, say, the multipurpose entertainment center?

8 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Questions for council candidates #4 (debt)

April 30, 2015

Today’s suggested question for city council candidates is:

What limits, if any, would you vote to put on city debt?

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Firefighter’s on the ballot

April 28, 2015

Allow me to offer my opinion about the firefighter pay issue on the ballot.  I know that many of you will disagree with part or all of what I think about this so feel free to post comments.

Firstly I think that our public employees should belong to the same retirement system that  civilian citizens do.  While it would be unfair to change the rules for existing employees, we should see to it that new employees are not part of a private retirement plan.  Eventually as the retirees die off we will not need one.

There was a time when public employees received better retirement packages than the general population.  The rational was that the public employees were paid less while they were actively working and thus deserved better retirement benefits.  Many people chose this life style–less money today, more tomorrow.

Now many government jobs pay more than their private counterparts and the government employee gets a better retirement.

I would prefer that we pay our employees a fair wage while they are working.  How can the fair amount be determined?  We start with pay rates at the levels they are at now and we don’t change them until we need to.   As time goes by we will see that if we don’t have enough qualified applicants or if we cannot retain employees then we will need to raise compensation.

As far as the current pay raise issue is concerned, my view is that we will need to raise the firefighter’s pay eventually.  I would rather do it now and put budget pressure on city council so that they will not fritter the money away.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

17 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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