Springing things on us

April 8, 2020

The city actually has several city charter amendments that they hope to get us to approve.

This one is horrible.

The current city charter allows them to add an emergency ordinance to a city council agenda only two hours before the meeting.  That allows them to ambush us with surprises that we cannot react to.

Evidently that is not enough for these people.  They want to reduce the time required to one hour.

I cannot think of a single emergency that would really justify only one hour of public notice.

State law does allow the city to hold emergency meetings.  They can only do this for reasons of “urgent public necessity” and are at least required to give the news media notice.

Let’s see if they remember to put those restrictions in their amendment.  I wouldn’t bet on it.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

What should happen here?

April 7, 2020

According to an article in El Paso Inc. an El Paso call center recently tricked  city inspectors during a site visit.

The Inc’s headline was “CALL CENTER EVADES CORONAVIRUS ORDERS”.

They wrote “Supervisors at a GC Services call center apparently hoodwinked a city inspection team Thursday by sending call takers on break before inspectors made the rounds to see if the company was adhering to social distancing and other regulations imposed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The Inc. interviewed multiple employees that “all said they were still working side-by-side” instead of having six feet of distance between them.

The city and county have issued directives prohibiting that kind of situation.

It appears that we not only have violations of the local directives but we have managers deliberately trying to cover them up.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

8 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Inc. | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

An end to transparency

April 6, 2020

The city is planning to have a city charter election this November.

Some of the things that they are thinking of changing don’t sound like good ideas to me.

Take this one for example:

They evidently want to exempt their advisory boards from the open meetings requirements.

Why?

Their slide explains it.  “Increased productivity and freedom of discussion among advisory boards”.

In other words the board members can get together and plot and scheme away from public view.

These people are out of control.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

3 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Power play foiled

April 1, 2020

City council rejected an ordinance that would have required three city council members to agree to put an item on their agenda.

No one would say where this came from but it is a bad idea.

Any city council member should be able to place an item on the agenda.

This is better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

No competition

March 31, 2020

The city’s Emergency Measures ordinance has some unfairness built into it.

Why for example do bookstores have to close yet Walmart and Target are allowed to sell books?

How are title companies essential?

Sporting goods stores are closed but you can buy those items at Walmart and Target.

Why can you buy clothes at Walmart and Target but department stores and local shops are closed?

Should the city prohibit the sale of certain items instead of letting the big box stores do whatever they want?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

13 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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