Balk

June 2, 2013

This is strange.

Both El Paso Inc. and the El Paso Times made mention in their Sunday editions of  a deal between the city and the Diablos essentially paying the Diablos to go away.

The Times even went so far as to say that the item is on the city council agenda for Tuesday.  I went to look at the agenda.  I do not see the item.  I had someone else look.  Unless I missed it, the item is not on the agenda.

What happened?

Somehow both the Inc. and the Times got word of a deal in the making.  It was planned to happen Tuesday.  The item did not make it to the agenda.

Did someone at the city forget to register the item?  That’s possible given their general inability to get things right.  I doubt it though.

Did the massacre at last week’s city council meeting make the city think twice about risking further outcry before the upcoming runoff election?  That’s where my money is.

Sloppy

These people are unable to manage a press release, much less the city.  I will leave it to Brutus to handle the sordid financial details.

Muckraker

6 Comments | City government, El Paso Inc., El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

Illegitimi non carborundum

June 2, 2013

Next week’s city council agenda has the wholesale rezoning of several neighborhoods on it.

These items were on the April 16, April 30, and May 21 agendas also but were postponed.

Is the city strategy to wear the citizens out by having them come to one council meeting after another until the citizens just give up?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Two for the price of one

May 31, 2013

The general runoff election will be Saturday, June 15, 2013.

Doubleheader

The city manager is considering a job offer from Lee County Florida just before our election.  Word on the street is that if her choice does not win here in El Paso she will be moving.

Maybe we will be electing a new mayor and deciding what to do about our city manager at the same time.

Double credit!

Your vote is important.  Regardless of which side you are on it looks like you will be helping decide about two jobs at the same time. 

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cato

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Lower taxes!

May 31, 2013

City council approved an incentive package for a group that plans to build a 4-star hotel near the airport yesterday May 28, 2013.

It would be nice for El Paso to offer a 4-star hotel.  It will however take business away from existing facilities.

The tragedy is that the incentive package apparently includes relief from the hotel occupancy tax for years  4 through 15.

So the new hotel will not pay it’s full share of the tax.  Neither will the competitors who will lose business.

Remember that the hotel occupancy tax is the primary source of funding for the new ball park.  We already know that hotel occupancy rates are down.  Now we are going to hurt receipts even more.

Then to make matters even worse, the city wants the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) to move it’s central office from land near the proposed hotel.  It appears that the hotel project needs for the land near it to be available for the types of businesses that normally surround a property of this type.

The net effect of this is that EPISD thinks that it will need to raise and spend $40 million to replace it’s facility.

Ouch

We have taken on a lot of debt lately.  Now the plan is to reduce our income and take on more debt.  What about the children?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Hurting the team

May 30, 2013

It was the chief financial officer (CFO) of the city

The video of the May 28, 2013 El Paso city council meeting shows the city manager saying that it was the CFO’s idea to bring the proposed $10 million dollar increase in spending for the ball park before city council.

The city manager offered to take the $5 million for street and sidewalk improvements off the table and then actually handle them the way we thought they would be when the money was originally allocated.

The other $5 million was to be for contingencies.

Council threw a fit. No way, no how would they approve the $10 million at this point.

So how did the CFO think she could put the city management team in the horrible situation that they found themselves in at that city council meeting?

I suggest arrogance.  I think she thinks that she has the right to decide what money will be spent and that our job is to shut up and pay it to her.  She seems to think that we have no power.

Remember she is the one that told us that city hall could be torn down and we could find new facilities for $33 million.  $63.9 million and climbing  broke out the true costs at the time.  Today the costs that we have been able to identify so far put that number at over $70 million.

She told the public and council that the changes to the Times building would be Minimal due to condition of building.  We then saw the city spend millions to change the building, tear down what they re-modeled, and build it again.  The saga continues.

She is behind much of the folly that has been occurring with our city government.  Now she has caused unbelievable harm to her colleagues, her boss, city council, the team owners, and a candidate for mayor.  Word on the street is that the city manager is taking this hard and is considering resignation.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, Open Government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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