Did they give him another bonus?

July 21, 2016

In One more time? we pointed out that our county hospital board considered the 2016 performance goals and objectives of our soon to be ex hospital administrator.

They went into executive session, came out and then voted to approve something.  We say something because they did not discuss anything in the public session.  Evidently they made decisions and came up with an item in executive session.

That does not work well with the Texas Open Meetings Act.  All of the board’s actions including decisions  are required by law to be made in view of the public.

We concluded the article with the statement that we would have to wait for the meeting minutes to be published before we would know anything.

Still a mystery

The minutes of that meeting are out.  They read:

19.  Discuss and take appropriate action regarding the 2016 Performance Goals and Objectives of Mr.  James N. Valenti, President and Chief Executive Officer of the El Paso County Hospital District, pursuant to Texas Government Code §551.074.

ACTION:  MOTION to approve this item was made by Mr. Volk and Seconded by Mr. Anderson.  The vote was Mr. Anderson, Yes, Mr. Volk, Yes, Mr. DeGroat, Yes, Mr. Gallardo, Yes, and Ms. Arrieta, Yes.  Motion Carried.

Huh?

All we know is that they went into executive session, came up with an item, came out of executive session, and then approved the item.

What does the item say or do?

Beats me.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Sad times

July 17, 2016

This came in from one of our astute readers:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/videos/news/local/el-paso/2016/07/15/87158468/

It’s amazing. The Times keeps posting propaganda on its website. I have not seen a single video supporting Allen.
This is “breaking news,” one woman verbally disagreed with the Chief.
Escobar gets 10 minute video to explain herself. They even produce the video to help her address specific complaints against her position.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/media/cinematic/gallery/87115194/photos-el-pasoans-gather-for-police-prayer-vigil/
Only coverage that could be considered to be pro=Allen. Despite tons of social media support the chief got.
Hard to take this paper seriously.
***************************************
Brutus

14 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

He gets it

July 16, 2016

DavidK over at refusethejuice recently wrote Shapleigh Camper’s second shot at city fails miserably.

Please take the time to read it carefully.  The article was about the recent flap over a comment that our chief of police made.

To us the important part was at the end of the article where he gave some much needed advice to some of our local politicians:

 You represent people, not lead them.  You’re not a leader, you’re a representative.  When you stop representing, you get fired via the ballot box.  Stop telling people what to do and start doing what you are told.  It’s called “public service” for a reason.   It’s really that simple.

He also observed:

 El Pasoans are Democrats, not liberals.  Those are two totally different things.  El Paso’s Democrats aren’t Democrats because of the social issues.  I’ll just leave it that.

David does not live in El Paso anymore.  If he did we would be tempted to try to get him to run for public office.

Brutus

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

One more time?

July 9, 2016

We are supposed to be getting a new county hospital administrator any day now.

Item 19 on the June 14, 2016 board agenda read:

 Discuss and take appropriate action regarding the 2016 Performance  and Objectives of Mr. James N. Valenti, President and Chief  Executive officer of the EI Paso county Hospital District pursuant to Texas Government Code $551.074.

The minutes have not been posted but the video just came out.

Incredibly when the agenda item was brought up for consideration in open session (after executive session) there was a motion and a second to approve an action.  The item passed unanimously.

There was absolutely no public discussion.  This is a clear violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.  Now we will have to wait to read the minutes of the meeting.

Any predictions?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Double whammy

July 7, 2016

The Times reported the other day that El Paso’s average wage was 23.5 percent below the national average.

On the other hand we have the third highest property taxes of America’s 50 largest cities.

What does it take to be in third place?  Our property taxes are 193 percent of the 50 city average.

Some will observe that Texas does not have an income tax.  A state income tax might lower property taxes, so if we just look at just the Texas cities on the list of 50 we compute that the El Paso tax rate is 120.5 percent of the Texas average.

Simple arithmetic

With wages 23.5 percent lower than the national average our citizens have less money.  Yet our property taxes are 20.5 percent higher than the other high tax rate Texas cities.

That does not add up to a good economic situation yet we are told that “It’s all good”.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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