Not thinking

June 5, 2014

Our El Paso Times published this article June 1, 2014.  The Times explained in the article that they had received “handwritten notes from several city representatives and others that were taken during the May 8 interviews with the four finalists, as well as during the City Council executive session that followed.

Knuckleheads

Executive session discussions are supposed to be private.  Notes taken by participants during executive session are subject to disclosure under our open records law.  Not destroying personal notes before leaving the meeting makes them subject to public disclosure.

I suppose that if I wanted to leak what had happened in the meeting then keeping written notes would be a good technique to use.

The Times article was accompanied by this graphic:

citymanagerexecutivesession

You should be able to click on the graphic to enlarge it.

Doodle

The doodling at the bottom of the page is illuminating.  It appears that the city representative was scribbling her initials like some daydreaming teenager.

This brings up the possibility that we may see a scientific phenomenon soon–a person who disappears through total self-absorption.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Fireworks at the ball park

June 2, 2014

Tomorrow’s (Tuesday, June 3, 2014) city council meeting promises to be interesting.

A city representative added this item to the agenda after it was first published:

Discussion and action to review the policies related to the use of the baseball luxury box, with discussion to include list of past attendees and schedule of departments using the luxury box.

Luxury Box?

Should the city have it’s own reserved luxury box at the ball park?  My vote is no.

Some might say that the city could use the box effectively when trying to recruit out of town businesses.  Then again some of the civic minded people that have the other luxury boxes could be asked to donate the space when the city needs to impress people from out of town.

Who’s who

Having the box sends the wrong signal to all of us.  If the city representative is successful in learning who has been using the box then we will have further insight into who the privileged ones are in the city.

Appearances

There was a time when government employees considered themselves to be public servants.

Impressions

If the city takes the position tomorrow that the box is used as a reward for the employees then we know what city management thinks of us lowly citizens.  If they say that it is important when trying to recruit businesses, then I have an alternative proposal for them:

Stop the lawsuits.  Do what the city web site asks us to do and “Hire El Paso First”.  Stop hiring out of town lawyers and firms when the talent exists locally.  Become business friendly.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD central office

May 30, 2014

It appears that plans are in place to kick the EPISD central office off of the land that it leased from the city 50 years ago.

Building a new facility will cost us $40 million according to the folks at the district.  Remember that our city’s chief financial officer is on the board of managers.  If she had anything to do with the $40 million estimate I would have to guess that we are in for a bigger shock than that.

I overheard a local businessman talking about this the other day.  He suggested that the district look for buildings in one of our industrial parks that could be remodeled.  Several big operations have closed down in recent years.  They have left big buildings that should  be cheaper to buy and remodel than building a facility from scratch.

Then again the taxpayers should ask the city to leave the district on the land it currently occupies and thus save us the expense.

That probably would get in the way of someone’s plan to profit from the land.

We deserve better

Brutus

10 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Resume enhancement?

May 28, 2014

According to a recent press release the chief financial officer of our city government is now a member of the board of the United Way of El Paso.

Day job

Her day job is to be the chief financial officer of our city.  We are facing budget cuts because of revenue shortages.  We have witnessed wildly inaccurate cost estimates relating to the demolition of city hall and also to the building of the ball park.   It would be nice if she would take the time to give us accurate figures.

She is a member of our fire and police pension board.  Some say that the funding shortfall over there is in excess of $200 million.

Board of managers

She is also one of five people appointed by the state to be on the board of managers of EPISD.  We are told that there is a $17 million revenue shortfall and that teachers will have to be fired.  It would be nice if she could take the time to provide us with a solution other than having the budget axe fall only on the teachers.  There must be some other savings that can be achieved.

Familiar pattern

It seems that we are seeing financial problems with organizations that she has a senior role in.  There was a time when people saw to it that they had one job under control before they undertook another.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Charter violation?

May 27, 2014

In addition to the possible criminal violation that our west side city representative may have committed it appears that she might also have violated the city charter.

A city employee evidently started to trim a tree on the city representative’s property.  We are told that the employee has now complained that the city representative threatened him.  The situation is stalled.  No one is saying anything.

It looks like they are trying to kill the issue through burying it.

City charter

Our city charter says:

Section 5.5 INTERFERENCE WITH PERSONNEL OR ADMINISTRATION.permanent link to this piece of content

Except for the purposes of investigations under Section 3.8 and inquiries, the members of the Council shall deal with City employees who are subject to the direction and supervision of the City Manager solely through the City Manager, and neither the Council nor any of its members shall give orders to any such employee, either publicly or privately. Neither the Council nor any of its members shall in any manner control or demand the appointment or removal of any City employee whom the City Manager is empowered to appoint, but the Council may express its views and fully and freely discuss with the City Manager anything pertaining to appointment and removal of such employees.

Ethics review commission

It would appear that our ethics review commission has the duty to look into this issue also.  Someone would need to file a complaint.  From our code of ordinances:

 2.92.150 Penalty.permanent link to this piece of content

The failure of any officer or employee to comply with this chapter or the violation of one or more of the standards of conduct set forth in this article, which apply to him or her, shall constitute grounds for expulsion, reprimand, removal from office or discharge. In the case of an employee of the city, disciplinary action and appeals therefrom shall be in conformance with procedures established by the City Charter and personnel rules and regulations. In the case of an officer, the matter shall be decided by the ethics review commission in accordance with the provisions in Section 2.92.080 or by a vote of the city council in accordance with the charter or in accordance with applicable state law. The decision of these bodies shall be final.

Why won’t they bring this issue to closure?

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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