elpasospeak

We recently published a piece sent to us by Max Grossman.

At the end of it he called out three city representatives for their involvement in the cost overruns.

If any or all of those city representatives would like to tell us their thoughts about the issue we welcome their contribution in the form of a post.

We deserve better

Brutus

The other day in When will the kids play we pointed out that our new professional soccer franchise cut a deal with the city to use two existing city owned soccer fields for their practices.

The terms of the deal required the franchise to pay to improve the fields and to maintain them.  In return the team was granted control over the usage of the fields.

A few days later the Times published an article that clarified our city government’s expectations.

Our new city engineer explained that the fields will still be available to the kids when the team is not practicing or performing maintenance or letting the fields rest.  He indicated that the fields will probably be available for public use on Saturdays and for some tournaments.

The article did not include any commentary from the team.

The team will spend half a million dollars improving the fields and having the professional players practice at the sports complex will give local youth an opportunity to observe a much higher level of play than they would normally be exposed to.

This could turn out to be a good deal for the community.

Unfortunately city council did not see the need to see to it that the contract assures that we get what the city engineer expects.

We deserve better

Brutus

This came in from Max Grossman:

Dear Friends,

I have attached the latest statistics from the City of El Paso detailing the huge cost overruns on twelve QOL bond projects:

FACILITY                                              ORIGINAL                        SUPPLEMENT                 OVER

                                                             BUDGET ($)                        FROM COs               BUDGET (%)

Irving Schwartz Library                    2,150,000                               199,000                                9.26

Johnson Basin Park                              412,664                                 58,000                              14.06

Radford Park                                         992,158                                 27,000                                2.72

San Jacinto Plaza                               3,000,000                           3,310,000                           110.33

Argal Park at Las Palmas                  5,000,000                              521,000                              10.42

Eastside Sports Complex                48,000,000                        11,600,000                              24.17

Westside Pool                                    8,000,000                           2,356,000                              29.45

Chelsea Aquatic Center                    4,000,000                           3,100,000                              77.50

Forti Aquatic Center                         4,000,000                           3,400,000                              85.00

Childrens Museum                          19,250,000                        20,800,000                            108.05

Hispanic Cultural Center                  5,750,000                         10,750,000                            186.96

MPC (“Arena”)                              180,000,000                         70,000,000                               38.89

TOTAL                                  $280,554,822                $126,121,000                    44.95%

We all recall that the original bond proposition, which appeared on the ballot in 2012, called for an expenditure of $475,250,000. That figure has so far been inflated to $601,371,000! The cost overrun on the three “signature” projects alone is $101,550,000 (49.54%)! It is hard to imagine more irresponsible management of public projects, and yet KVIA is the only media network to investigate thoroughly.

Every single El Pasoan should be outraged at our City Manager, Mayor and City Council for bringing us to this point, and yet they continue to insist that we need to spend more money than authorized because “we deserve better!” And where will the extra funds come from? Certificates of obligation (new debt) issued without voter approval. And how will the additional debt be paid for? Higher taxes!

There are three incumbents up for re-election in November: Peter Svarzbein (District 1), Claudia Ordaz-Perez (District 6) and Cissy Lizarraga (District 8). All three own the above figures and all three are being challenged by El Pasoans with significantly more fiscal acumen and management experience.

Have a great day.

For those of you that have waiting to ride the street cars, here’s your chance:

Starting October 8, 2018 they say that you can catch a ride.

We deserve better

Brutus