Killing initiative

November 4, 2017

Our city charter gives citizens the ability to propose ordinances.

A petition must be signed by at least five percent of the number of voters in the last city general election.  City council then considers the item and either kills the proposal or proceeds with the proposal as though it was a regular ordinance.

A qualifying petition relating to the proposed site of the performing arts center was rejected by council in June.

As allowed by our city charter a second petition with at least five percent of the number of voters in the last city general election was then circulated and signed.

The second petition was turned over to the city clerk.  The city clerk found that the signatures were valid and that the petition qualified for the second step in the process, which would have been for the city clerk to put the item on the next city general election ballot.  From the city charter:

 and that official (the City Clerk) shall have twenty working days in which to authenticate the signatures and thereafter must place the reproposed ordinance on the ballot at the next general election specified in State law, if the proposal received the favorable vote of a majority of those voting in that election it shall thereupon become a City ordinance.

Not possible

Recently a lawyer for the city convinced council not to put the item on the ballot.  His claim is that Texas law does not give the City Clerk the authority to put something on the ballot.

Thus, according to this lawyer our right of initiative is inoperative because the city charter is poorly worded.

Could it be that the lawyer is wrong?  Stay tuned.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Enough already

October 31, 2017

The arena folks at the city and elsewhere have lost another battle.  Read about it at Sign of Zorro.

The judge in Austin has ruled that the city cannot host sports events in the facility, without regard to what they call the building.

The judge also has prohibited the city from spending any money in addition to the bond money to add the capability of hosting sports events.

The city continues to spend our money fighting the legal battle.

We have to wonder if the multipurpose performing arts center can possibly operate at a profit if there cannot be sporting events in the facility.

Isn’t it time to regroup?  The facility should not be built unless unbiased studies can show that it can be operated profitably.

Our tax bills are too high already, especially when we consider that there are essentials not being taken care of.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Future citywide priorities and goals

October 27, 2017

In this case citywide does not include the voters, just the politicians.

Once again city council has gone out of its way to see to it that the citizens are not informed.

This special meeting was held Thursday, October 26, 2017:

Do you think that some of the citizens would have liked to attend that meeting?

Council could have had the discussion during a normal council meeting but then we would have seen who said what.  Moving the meeting to the zoo was a special effort to avoid the citizens.

One of the things that makes special city council meetings special is that video recordings of the special meetings are not posted on the city’s web site.

Don’t we all feel special?

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Danger on I-10

October 26, 2017

I saw something the other day that I haven’t seen for quite a while.

The El Paso Police Department had a motorcycle officer parked on I-10 in one of the few wide sections.  Unfortunately he was not paying attention to traffic.  He was busy fiddling with whatever communication device he had.

His presence did have the effect of slowing down traffic.

Since the construction on I-10 began, we have seen more and more instances of aggressive drivers tailgating at high speed and attempting to intimidate slower drivers to move over.  These idiots are going to get someone killed.

The police department needs to come up with a strategy to handle this without getting an officer killed.

We deserve better

Brutus

10 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Soccer madness

October 24, 2017

We learned the other day that an effort is being started to get city and/or county money (that’s really our money, just for the record) to build a stadium to host a professional soccer team.

Our former county judge said that maybe that should be a county project.

Does that mean that they will tear down the county courthouse and the downtown jail to make room for the soccer field?  An article in the Times told us that the soccer league wants the facility to be located downtown.

That is just baloney.

What the soccer league wants is for the team to draw heavy attendance and thus be profitable.  The location of the soccer field is irrelevant if people will go to it.

The requirement that it be downtown is just another part of the whole downtown re-development effort.

We need to speak up unless we want the politicians to put us further in debt.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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