County not a good customer

October 3, 2017

Yesterday’s (Monday, October 2, 2017) county commissioners court agenda has two more examples of why our local governments often end up paying too much for what they buy.

In both agenda items the county had gone out for bids for electronic office equipment.

In a bid for printers nine bids were tabulated according to the backup material

The bid for document scanners had 13 bids.

After receiving and evaluating the bids the county information technology department is asking the court to cancel the bids.

From the backup material:

Through several hardware refresh cycles over the past four years, ITD has experienced success by standardizing on a single (scanner/printer).  This solution has shown to be highly reliable and sustainable, requiring lower maintenance costs, and user training.  Most importantly, standardization allows for universal compatibility with our operating systems and applications throughout County offices and departments.  At this time, ITD will work to verify with technical staff that this model will fit the demonstrated need for our users and proceed with other procurement options when ready.

In other words

They knew before they went out for bids that they wanted to standardize.  They wasted the time and resources of 22 bidders.  They will now pick their supplier and buy through a buy board.

The result will be fewer and less competitive offers next time because the bidders won’t go through the trouble of bidding when they know the county just wants to do a price check.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Some common sense from Mr. Perez

September 28, 2017

County commissioner Vince Perez recently criticized state senator Jose Rodriguez’s remark in Texas Monthly according to  this Times article .

Evidently the senator said people want El Paso to be like “Gringolandia”–a homogenized American city.

Mr. Perez told the Times:

“His racially-divisive rhetoric further undermines civility in our political discourse and fuels a dangerous ‘us versus them’ mentality, that has hindered the legislative process in Austin and in Washington.”

Absolutely right

We could not agree with Mr. Perez more.  The senator is an embarrassment.  If he doesn’t like our culture maybe he should consider moving.

We deserve better

Brutus

33 Comments | County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Whither Mr. Moore

September 24, 2017

An astute reader sent us an email and asked if our soon to be gone newspaper editor plans to go to work for the county judge’s congressional campaign.

Then again she wondered if he might go work for our current congressman–the one who is running for senate.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | County Government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

End of her reign

September 16, 2017

Our county judge has decided to run for a seat in the feral congress.

The Times recently wrote that she said the following in an interview that they had with her:

“I’ve been tested during some of [the] most difficult times in our community’s history.  I hope that the public in El Paso saw that I passed that test.”

That kind of sounds like one of our local school district superintendents who said he had “one of the hardest jobs in America”.

It would be nice to have government officials that do not consider themselves to be victims.  Maybe their sense of entitlement might diminish a little bit if they did not have to suffer so badly.

This county judge is responsible for the financial mess at the children’s hospital and for the unsustainable clinics that our new hospital administrator somehow has to salvage.  Our readers should feel free to point out other failures that she has brought to us.

If she gets elected she will be at the bottom of the pile in terms of influence in congress.  The more senior members of her party will relegate her to the job of trying to raise money for the party.  That will consume most of her time.  Unlike our current congressman she is not perceived as being very capable and will thus have difficulty raising that money.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | County Government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Property tax ranking

September 8, 2017

El Paso had the 3rd highest property tax rate (considering homestead allowances) among the nation’s 50 largest cities for taxes paid in 2016.

Our rate was 2.58%.

Milwaukee Wisconsin had the second highest rate at 2.669%.

With the community college increase of 4%, the city at 5%, EPISD at 6% and the county hospital at 6.4% it looks like we may sink to second place.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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