Does nobody care?

March 30, 2020

The Tuesday, March 31, 2020 city council agenda has this item on it:

That the Mayor be authorized to sign an Interlocal Agreement between the City of El Paso (“City”) and the University of Texas at El Paso (“University”), for a period of 12 months, whereby the parties agree the University shall assist the City by assigning University employees, faculty and/or staff who are trained in, among other issues, nucleic acid extraction and PCR methods, to assist the City and the City Department of Public Health in the testing of community specimens for COVID-19.  This Interlocal Agreement requires the City to reimburse the University for services and equipment in an amount not to exceed $200,000.00 over the term of the Interlocal Agreement.

Got it

The public health department needs help in its laboratories.

Don’t understand

What we don’t understand is why the city has to pay UTEP.  Clearly there are a lot of UTEP laboratory trained people that have reduced work loads right now but are still being paid with public money.

Why can’t these people just volunteer?

Or absent volunteers why can’t UTEP just reassign the duties of a few of them while the need exists?

Why do local taxpayers have to fork over $200 thousand dollars?

Won’t the city have to assign an administrator to handle the billing?  Won’t UTEP have to assign an administrator to create the bills?  How much will that cost?

Leadership

Do the leaders involved think that the only way to get things done is to pay people?

Could it be that they would never think of doing something for the public good for free and thus cannot imagine anyone else doing it?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

16 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Why tell the truth when a lie is more dramatic?

March 27, 2020

Maybe I have this backward but if the current idea is to keep people from congregating the announcement below doesn’t make sense:

The streetcars may be the safest public places in town.

I suspect that the real reason for doing this is to save money, an effort that I support.

Honesty seems to be in short supply from the city.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Forgetting what it’s all about

March 26, 2020

At the Tuesday, March 17, 2020 city council meeting I believe the mayor made a motion to delete the pledge of allegiance from the agenda.

No explanation was given.

I would hope that city council supports our country.

Maybe they thought that they were too busy that day.

Shame on them!

We deserve better

Brutus

15 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

A message from Max Grossman

March 23, 2020

This came in from Max Grossman:

Dear Friends,
As long as the media refuses to report this, I will keep repeating this information every few weeks.
On December 10, Moody’s Investment Service announced that in the event of a recession of similar severity to the 2008-09 downtown, El Paso will be one of four cities (including Detroit) in which “adjusted net pension liabilities will rise by more than 100% of revenue.”
Data-Z, a subsidiary of Truth in Accounting, whose mission is “to educate and empower citizens with understandable, reliable, and transparent government financial information,” claims that “El Paso is a Sinkhole City without enough assets to cover its debt.”
Just look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average today. At one point it sank to 20,387, down from the February 16 high of 29,569, a difference of 31%! The talk among the pundits is no longer about whether we are heading into a recession because of the world health crisis, but about how severe it will be.
QUESTION: What will our City do to avert the financial calamity which Moody’s, one of the top financial reporting firms in the world, has explicitly warned El Paso about?
I have stated it many times and will state it again. The City Manager, Mayor, and City Council Representatives have placed us on a financial path that could lead to disaster. Even as our homestead tax burden is second only to Detroit, and even as world markets are plunged into chaos, they still insist that our government should be in the entertainment business, providing us with stadiums and waterparks!
Max
*******************************
We deserve better
Brutus

14 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Whither Sun Metro

March 15, 2020

The other day in The BRIO is being used  we were pleasantly surprised to see the buses almost full.

With Sun Metro’s ridership declining every year and the BRIO increasing that should mean that their other routes are losing many riders.

Will we see an adjustment in their service offerings?

Will we finally see them moving to delivery methods that fit better with demand?

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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