A 71 used to be a D

December 3, 2015

Our county hospital’s board of managers has just given our hospital administrator a pay raise.

I guess scoring a 71 is an indicator of excellence over there.  Why else would he deserve a pay raise?

An annual bonus is being considered.

Below is a link to a web page that tells us who the members of the board are:

http://www.umcelpaso.org/WebShell/umcep.nsf/DefaultFrameset/Site+Defaults?OpenDocument&DocID=8E164B0DDE46203887256D85006DAA51

These people are not in touch with what the community thinks of the mess at the hospital, or at least what the people that I speak with think.

These people live in our community.  We need to be certain to tell them what we think.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

They could do it if they wanted to

November 22, 2015

The other day the Times published an article about a prominent local family that has ended up in court to try to settle differing financial claims between family members.

The coverage looked  thorough, complete, and well thought out.  It told us about the different sides of the disagreement and seemed to be balanced.  Details that were disclosed showed real investigation on the part of the reporter.

The article is proof that the Times can look into an issue and report on it.

If there was ever any doubt in anyone’s mind about the lack of objective coverage of local government issues from the Times, we now know for certain.

The Times must have had a reason for its coverage.  This was a private issue and of absolutely no importance to the average citizen.  Yet they ran an extensive article.  One can only wonder who pulled that string.

The Times has chosen to act as a public relations outlet for our local  governments.  Time and time again we have seen the Times help them at the expense of the citizens of El Paso.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

County hospital board’s continuing betrayal of the taxpayers

November 19, 2015

Our county hospital’s board of managers should be ashamed of themselves, again.

The Texas Open Meetings Act requires that even if a government body elects to go into executive session they can only take action through a vote in open session.

In last month’s meeting the hospital board decided to take their annual review of our hospital administrator into executive session.

When the board emerged they voted to approve the review subject to what was discussed in executive session.

How did he do?

Unfortunately the board chose not to make that public.  They will have to eventually.

The word coward comes to mind.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Don’t hold your breath

November 9, 2015

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 should have some interesting things happening.

The agenda for our county hospital’s board meeting has these items on it:

10. Receive a presentation from Dr. Annabi and other members of the Mcdical Staff regarding leadership at UMC.

11. Discuss and take appropriate action with respect to appointment of a Transition Committee to oversee the process to identify a successor to Jantes N. Valenti, President and Chief Executive Officer.

12. Discuss and take appropriate action with respect to appointment of a Nominating Committec to oversee the recruitment  and selection of individuals to serve on the Board of Directors for the Bl I’aso Children’s Hospital.

VivaValenti.com has not produced a landslide of support for our hospital administrator.  I wonder if anyone actually thought it could.

Item 12 is interesting at several levels.  Nominating is the process of proposing someone for a position.  Since the committee will evidently “oversee the recruitment and selection of individuals” it is actually a selection committee.  They are trying to hide the nature of the committee by giving it a misleading name.

The executive session agenda has the main event of the board meeting:

17. Discuss and deliberate regarding the Annual Evaluation of  Mr. Jamcs N. Valenti, President and CEO, pursuant to Texas Government Code $55 1.074.

With all of the opprobrium relating to the hospital this year, my personal belief is that he should not get another dime.

I don’t have much hope that the right thing will happen.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

4 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Damned with faint praise

November 6, 2015

As of Sunday, November 1, 2015 the signature count at www.vivavalenti.com was all the way up to 59.

For those of you who are not familiar with the site, it is an effort to get our county hospital administrator another contract.

One has to wonder if the first few entries of the 59 weren’t “test1”, “test2” and “test3”.

You might also think that he would have more than 59 supporters in his base of employees.

Maybe their silence tells us something.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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