Paying the bill

February 19, 2017

Do you remember that children’s hospital that our county judge and others told us would not cost us any money?

The 2016 preliminary financial statements for the county hospital are out.

The auditor’s report includes this statement:

…which resulted in the $48 million owed to UMC being recorded at a fair value of approximately $16.7 million.

That means that the taxpayers are eating another $31 million in losses that our county officials told us would not happen.

The new guy is like a breath of fresh air.  Hopefully we will see a turn around in our fortunes.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | County Government | Permalink
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Unbelieved

February 17, 2017

Our county commissioners have reconstituted the county  historical commission.

According to the county judge the action has nothing to do with the opinions of the ousted members but instead has to do with perceived violations of the Texas open meetings act.

Chapter 318 of the Texas local government code establishes the county commissioner’s authority to create a local county historical commission.  It gives the county commissioners the responsibility of appointing at least seven residents of the county to the historical commission–in January of an odd numbered year.

The very fact that county commissioners appointed new members in February is a violation of the rules.  Don’t look for the county commissioners to remove themselves for their own violation of Texas law.

Hypocrisy

Few of us believe what the county judge has said.  The members were removed because of their attempt to interfere with the placement of the arena.

She claims that the members were removed because they may have violated the law while at the same time she violates chapter 318.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

5 Comments | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
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It’s who you know not what you know

February 10, 2017

El Chuqueno published a piece the other day that included this quote:

As you commence your seventh term in office, I write to respectfully urge the office of the Disrict Attorney of the 34th to investigate recent possible violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act and actively pursue any enforcement measures deemed appropriate, if violations occurred. These alleged violations involving county boards and municipal representatives weaken public trust in our local government entities and I firmly believe that your office’s examination into these important matters can help reassure the public that violations of the Act are taken seriously, and that appropriate measures are actively used to enforce it.

That evidently came from a letter from one of our county commissioners to our district attorney.

Commence

“As you commence your seventh term in office”–what is that about?

Was there a message there that we are missing?  Starting the request with “I write …” explains the purpose of the letter.  Why the reference to the district attorney’s tenure?

Action

It seems that the district attorney plans to take some of the issues to a grand jury.  Why now?  Where has our district attorney with six terms of office been during the other corruption situations that have been plaguing us?

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
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Getting to know your Texas Rangers

February 1, 2017

There has been some discussion on the blog about the Texas Rangers’ involvement in the public corruption and open meetings issues we have been having in El Paso.

Many of us were under the impression that the Rangers operated out of Austin and that our access to them would thus be limited.

As it turns out El Paso is home to Texas Rangers Company E which you can read about here.

According to the Texas Rangers web site one of their responsibilities is:

  • Public Corruption Unit: The 81st Texas Legislature created a Public Corruption Unit within the Texas Department of Public Safety under the Texas Ranger Division. The Texas Rangers are tasked with investigating public corruption among public officials, law enforcement officers, and others holding positions of public trust.

The telephone number for Company E is (915) 834-7664.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Unopposed county commissioners

January 17, 2017

Two of our county commissioners were sworn in for their second terms January 1, 2017.

They were both unopposed.

Choice

Whether you like their past performance or not, wouldn’t we be better off if there was real competition for political offices in El Paso?

An article in the Times wrote this about one of them:

He said there are a lot of challenges in the coming years, including reducing the cost of jail operations, and reversing the tax burden from residential to commercial properties.  He said he expects the county to work toward attracting new businesses to the area to improve the commercial tax base.

Wow!

We have the third highest tax rates among the top 50 cities in the United States and are headed for second place.

Does that make us attractive to businesses?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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