Help stop the lawsuit

July 15, 2013

Tomorrow’s (July 15, 2013) city council agenda has this item on it:

Discussion and action on the status of the Texas Attorney General’s opinion on the release of personal emails that pertain to official city business by various members of city council and staff and the cost to date, on hiring outside legal counsel acquired by the city to challenge the AG’s opinion.  [Representative Emma Acosta, (915) 541-4515]

Members of the public requested the emails through the Texas public information act.  The city resisted and asked the attorney general for permission to conceal them.  The attorney general ruled that they must be released according to the law.  The old city council then voted to spend our taxpayer money to sue the attorney general.

The city suit will fail.  This is a stalling tactic to keep us from knowing the truth about what those people did to us.  To add insult to injury, the old city council used our taxpayer money to try to deny us what we are legally allowed.

The city representative that put this on the agenda has done a good thing.  The new council should vote Tuesday to stop the lawsuit and release the documents per the attorney general’s ruling.

This issue is very important.  Holding up the release of these emails is keeping the public from knowing what has been happening and what might be happening now.

Contact your city representative today.  In particular let the mayor know what you think.

You can leave a comment on the mayor’s city web site here http://home.elpasotexas.gov/mayor/feedback.php or you can email him at mayor@elpasotexas.gov

The city representative deserves our encouragement.  The comment link for her at the city is http://home.elpasotexas.gov/city-representatives/district-3/contact-district-3.php you can email her at district3@elpasotexas.gov

You do not have to leave your name or any other information with either one.

Here we have a chance to make a difference.

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | City government, Open Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Has anything changed?

July 14, 2013

The headline article in the Wednesday, May 22, 2013 edition of the El Paso Times was about school district spending per student.

The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) is the largest school district in the area.  The Texas Education Agency (TEA) recently stripped the district’s elected board of trustees of their power and appointed a board of managers  to run the district.  We are told that this action was mostly the result of a horrible cheating scandal (by the employees, not the students) and the trustees not taking action and  being transparent in their dealings.  The new board has been tasked with rebuilding public confidence.

The Times talked with local school districts about the spending per student issue.  What did EPISD have to say?  “Officials at the EPISD were not available to comment” according to the Times article.  So much for transparency.

The Times was able to talk with the president of the newly appointed board of managers.  He was, until the latest election, a Texas state representative.  While in office he voted to cut $5.4 billion from the state education budget.  The Times chose not to mention that.  So much for transparency.

The $5.4 billion dollar cut may have been the right thing to do.  EPISD wastes money like a drunken sailor.  They have people on their central office staff that hinder teaching instead of helping it.  Ask any classroom teacher, but be prepared for an ear full.

One of the members of the new board of managers was appointed by the TEA as the conservator of the school district in August of 2012.  She had the power to overrule the board of trustees.  Have we seen any new action as a result of her position?  What is the district doing differently since she has been in control?  So much for action.  So much for transparency.

Now it appears that the City of El Paso wants to kick the EPISD central offices off the airport property that the district leases.  We are being told that it will cost $40 million to build new facilities.  If they are telling us that it will be $40 million what will the number really be?

We have a TEA appointed board of managers.  So be it.  They need to get to work and fix the district.  They need to tell us what they are doing.  They need to fix public confidence.  They need to work with the city to avoid spending $40 million when what money they do have should be spent on educating the children.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, State Government, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Right on the head

July 10, 2013

This entry on refusethejuice.typepad.com does a fine job of explaining some of our problems in El Paso.  We need more jobs.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

No play

July 10, 2013

This week’s city council agenda asks for permission to issue a three year contract for parts and labor to a local Ford dealer.

The deal is the result of a real bid instead of using a buy board.  This is good.  I congratulate the local dealer.

What bothers me about it is that while there are four Ford dealers in El Paso, only one of them bid.  Why?  It is possible that the other three did not want the business?  Why?  Something is wrong.  The annual amount of business involved for the dealership is almost half a million dollars.

I don’t know why only one local dealer submitted a bid.  My guess is that the three others think that dealing with the city is not worth it.  Maybe they thought they did not have a chance.  On the other hand some might say that there was collusion among the dealers.  I doubt it.

I do know that when only one firm out of several submits a bid there is probably something wrong.  City management in prior years considered this kind of situation a red flag and would work to get competition going.

By the way, one out of town dealer also submitted a bid.  This dealer’s part prices were consistently lower than the one city staff wants to give the contract to.  The out of town dealer was disqualified.  From reading the agenda backup it looks like not quoting a price for local labor was the reason.

If the bid specifications clearly required a local service shop, then why did the out of town dealer spend the time and money  to bid?  Once again I am guessing here when I say that I suspect that the specifications were not clear on the labor issue.  A look at the backup material shows city staff not paying attention again.  This was a Ford related bid.  The bid tabulation shows “SERVICE AND REPAIR OF VARIOUS GMC/CHEVROLET MODELS PERFORMED BY MECHANICS CERTIFIED BY GMC/CHEVROLET”.  The bid tabulation is primarily an internal document.  I hope that the bid specifications did not contain this error.

Evidently Scrivener has a relative working in the purchasing department.

I know many business people  in El Paso that simply will not even bid for city business.  The consensus within this group is that it is too hard to get beyond the favoritism and then too unpleasant to deal with the city if they do get the business.  To them it is simply not worth the trouble.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Why Houston?

July 7, 2013

Item 5B on this week’s city council agenda relates to air conditioning equipment for our zoo.

The city proposes to spend almost $120,000 dollars for various units, once again without bidding, but through a buy board.

Four percent of this money is paid to this Houston based buy board.  A review of the contract documents relating to this vendor reveals that the vendor was not the lowest price  offerer.  The contract was issued in 2010.

Air conditioning equipment and services are available through the  El Paso based Region 19.  We would have to pay a percentage to this buy board also but at least that money would stay in El Paso.

Them again if this item had been taken out to bid we might have found lower prices than through the buy board.  I don’t understand how the city can determine that the buy board is more cost effective than bidding without in fact bidding.

Adding insult to injury, this money is coming from our quality of life bonds.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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