This post in elchuqueno.com nails it in my opinion.
I hope that you take the time to read it.
We deserve better
Brutus
elchuqueno.com and our El Paso Times
June 13, 2014
35 Comments | 
Ball park, City government, El Paso Times | 
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Posted by Brutus
Man-made disaster
June 11, 2014One sign that the economy in the United States is doing better than the economies of some of our neighboring countries is the number of people that emigrate to our country.
Evidently the numbers of these people are overwhelming our facilities.
The response
Our feral government has chosen to ship hundreds of them to El Paso. By ship I mean fly them to El Paso and abandon them on our streets with no money or place to stay.
According to the Times none of our local officials were notified before hand. We now have hundreds of destitute people arriving. Common decency requires our citizens and our local agencies to help feed and shelter these people.
At what cost?
The feds have not told us. They simply have injected this man-made disaster into our community.
When bridge crossing times (for those who want to enter the country through a legal port of entry) became too long the feds told us that we would have to pick up the bill for more feral workers.
Now they have decided to drop another one of their problems in our lap.
Immigration
One local wag frequently points out that immigration is a state issue according to our constitution. Naturalization, according to him, is the federal issue.
Yet the feds have chosen to claim control of our international borders. A fine mess of it they have made. When states try to take measures to control immigration, they get sued by the feds.
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | City government, County Government, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Another pesky law
June 9, 2014It will be interesting to see how the Upper Rio Grande Workforce Commission handles the situation when they hire our ex city manager as their temporary director.
From what I can tell the commission was created under subchapter F of chapter 2308 of the Texas government code. The commission’s geographic area is the western most counties of Texas including El Paso county. The city of El Paso and it’s mayor are also members.
Separate staff
The controlling state law requires that any staff that works at the workforce commission must be separate from the staff that works at the counties and the city:
Sec. 2308.267. STAFF. (a) A board may employ professional, technical, and support staff to carry out its planning, oversight, and evaluation functions.
(b) A board’s staff shall be separate from and independent of any organization providing workforce education or workforce training and services in the workforce development area. A board’s staff may not direct or control the staffing of any entity providing one-stop workforce services.
Workforce training
Section 2308 defines workforce training as:
“Workforce training and services” means training and services programs that are not workforce education.
The city of El Paso provides personnel training through several departments, including police, fire, and environmental services. The city’s website confirms this.
So the staffs must be separate if the city provides training, which it does.
Employee
The city’s contract with the ex city manager declares her to be an employee, not an independent contractor.
Our city council may elect to change their contract with the ex city manager to allow her to work at the commission while she is still onboard at the city. The problem is that the workforce commission cannot hire her if she is still an employee of the city.
Will they? Probably. We have local governments that rely upon their attorneys to declare illegal actions legal.
You might argue that it is only a technicality as to whether she is an employee or a contractor. That would be ignoring the fact that the state legislature thought it was important enough to make it the law.
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Unnecessary roughness
June 8, 2014Lost in the controversy over whether city council violated the Texas open meetings law when they held an emergency meeting to discuss the Lincoln Center situation is what else the city might have done instead of suing Texas.
Unfortunately our city resorts to lawsuits when issues could be handled without going to court. To add insult to taxpayer injury they typically use out of town law firms.
Phone call
In this case a simple phone call might have sufficed. The mayor (or the acting city manager) could have called the retired general in charge of TxDOT and explained our situation. We could have asked TxDOT to stand down for 30 or 60 days while the city figured out if they would buy the building.
TxDOT did stand down after they were served with the restraining order.
Did we have to declare war before trying to come to a peaceful resolution?
We deserve better
Brutus
1 Comment | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Pirates as well as hypocrites?
June 6, 2014Thanks go to the folks over at Mock El Paso Times for pointing out the situation with yet another city lawsuit.
According to this article in El Diario two software vendors have taken the highly unusual step of suing a municipal government in federal court. The city being sued? El Paso. The department? Financial Services, the one headed by our chief financial officer.
Alleged piracy
From what I can tell from the google translation of the El Diario article the firms are claiming piracy and violation of trade secrets.
Not entered into lightly
Companies rarely sue their clients. If nothing else it can be harmful to their reputation. Suing a city is even more rare given that most cities try to deal honestly with people when they are forced to.
Federal litigation is expensive and risky. Going to the courthouse (especially where the city has the advantage of being the representative of the citizens) is a last resort. These guys must really be irritated.
Hire El Paso First
The city’s web site tells us to “Hire El Paso First”.
What have they done here? They hired a Dallas based firm to represent us. I guess the El Paso law firms know where they stand.
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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