Phoney problem

January 4, 2014

Those of you being inconvenienced because of the complete closing of Country Club road should be consoled to know that the city claims it is not their fault.  According to the city’s web site:

“This unanticipated complete closure of the roadway is necessary following the discovery of buried telephone lines and related infrastructure that were not previously identified by AT&T.”

Any of us that have dealt with AT&T over the years know that the phone company keeps detailed records of what it has and where.  Could it be that the city failed to talk to AT&T?

While the published construction schedule for the new ball park is 11 months, the published construction schedule for Country Club road is 18 months.  Some things are more important.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

A lesson in supply vs. demand

January 4, 2014

The January 2, 2014 city council agenda has this item on it that would allow the city to sign an inter local agreement with UTEP.  UTEP would provide revenue forecasts for each of the city’s top fifteen revenue streams each year for the next five years.

I hope that this works out.

Saving money

Under the agreement UTEP would get paid between $35,000 and $39,000 each year, starting with the lower number and increasing some each year.

The alternative?  According to the city hiring a full time economist would cost us $120,771 in salary and benefits each year.  A lot of people would like to have a job at that salary especially since working for city management you would know the acceptable answer before you did the research.

I certainly don’t quarrel with this UTEP contract.  It looks like the city is trying to do the right thing.

While they are at it they should look at their salary structure.

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Clogged drains

January 3, 2014

The city’s Public Service Board 2013 comprehensive annual financial report has these items of information in it:

Waste water revenue                                      $ 54,468,286

Waste water operations and maintenance costs $ 22,164,641

Waste water revenue is about 28% of the total revenue of the utility.  Waste water expenses are about 14% of the total expenses of the utility.

So do we have a new tax just to raise money without it looking like we have a tax increase?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

The price is, unless it’s more

January 2, 2014

This item on the January 2, 2014 city council agenda doesn’t look good to me.

The item is for the re-re-re-re-construction of our San Jacinto Plaza of perpetual remodeling.

The city got three bids that they posted in their backup documentation.

  • F. T. James                                            $7,555,444
  • Venegas Engineering Management.          $7,012.468
  • Basic IDIQ                                             $4,484,488

How can that be?

Firstly why did we only three bidders respond?   Construction work is not plentiful in El Paso.

Then how can the wild price discrepancy be explained?

Simple really

The price difference may turn out to the the simplest part to explain.  According to the backup material:

“Work under this unit price contract is only an estimated value and will be ordered, performed, invoiced and paid by measured quantity.  The actual cost of this contract may be higher or lower than the total estimated value and will be the sum total of unit prices at the end of the contract term.”

If it turns out that if you are the city’s go to contractor (the city has been used this firm to rebuild the various buildings it needed to replace city hall — without bidding) you might know more than what is written in the bid specifications.  I don’t know this as a fact but am hard pressed to explain the price difference any other way.

Then again maybe the final bill will come in closer the the other bids.

What kind of council

What kind of city council would approve a construction contract without a maximum price.  I hope that ours does not.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

New Year Wishes

January 1, 2014

I hope that all of you survived the festivities last night and will be ready to tackle the new year tomorrow.

My wish for each of you next year is good health, good government, and the opportunity to prosper.

The authors here at the blog have been thinking about running a series next year about what we would like to see changed in our various levels of government.

Starting at the top we first plan to address our three organizing documents, the U. S. Constitution, the Texas Constitution, and the El Paso City Charter.

Feel free to write up an article and submit it for posting on this blog.  Feel free to communicate privately with me at brutusep@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your continued readership and support.

Happy New Year!

We deserve better

Brutus

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

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »