The city enters into “380 agreements” with various companies in order to incent a company to add more employees or move an operation into El Paso.
The city’s internal auditor wrote this about his findings related to “380 agreements”.
Note that even though the companies failed to do what they promised they still got paid.
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | 
City government | 
Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Max, one of our regular readers made this point in his May 29, 2019 comment that was the posting of a letter to the mayor and city council:
Up until a few days ago we completely missed his point.
He wrote:
The relevant 2012 ballot called for “multipurpose performing arts and entertainment and library facilities improvements.” There is nothing in the ballot about building a new structure. To fulfill the promise in the ballot, the City would renovate the Abraham Chavez Theatre, which is already a multipurpose performing arts and entertainment facility, and bring it up to contemporary standards for approximately $35 million.
THE ISSUANCE OF $228,225,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS FOR MUSEUM, CULTURAL, MULTI-PURPOSE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT AND LIBRARY FACILITIES IMPROVEMENTS, INCLUDING NEW CHILDRENS MUSEUM, CULTURAL HERITAGE CENTER, AND INTERACTIVE DIGITAL WALL.
The ballot called for improvements of museum, cultural, multi-purpose arts and entertainment, and library facilities. It did not call for new facilities in those areas.
In fact the language was specific and asked for authorization of a new museum for children, cultural heritage center, and a digital wall.
The other projects were to be improvements of existing facilities.
The wording is clear.
We thank Max for pointing this out to us.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
City council has an agenda item on their Tuesday, October 1, 2019 agenda that would modify a deal they cut with the owners of the properties that we commonly refer to as Monticello.
The backup material includes an amendment to the contract but does not show what will be changed.
It took a little digging but we found the original contract and compared it to the proposed revisions.
It seems that the original contract refunded 100% of the increase (because of the building that they were doing) in city property taxes through 2017, 50% through 2027 and 25% through 2032.
The new deal gives them 100% of the increase from 2020 through 2022, 50% from 2023 through 2032, and 25% from 2033 through 2037.
The owners will also have to increase property values less in order to be eligible for the tax payments.
Originally they were required to meet at least 50 percent of this chart:
Under the revision they must meet a much lower goal of 50% of this chart:
In return they will give up the tax rebates from the facility known as Top Golf.
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Part of the city’s published bicycle plan is to achieve silver level designation from the League of American Bicyclists.
Here is how we were last rated:
We deserve better
Brutus
10 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
If the city needs to borrow money to replace old buildings or build new facilities wouldn’t it make sense to take the projects out to bid and figure out how much money they will actually need instead of trying to get us to sign a blank check that they can use however they want?
A blank check is what they want.
Read You’ve been warned.
We deserve better
Brutus
6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
You are currently browsing the archives for the City government category.
elpasospeak 
You must be logged in to post a comment.