County Government | elpasospeak

Is this an awakening?

August 31, 2015

According to this article in the El Paso Times our county commissioners are going to propose a property tax rate for this year that actually lowers each homeowner’s tax payment a little bit.

It hasn’t happened yet but we can hope.

We have to wonder why. Could it be that the commissioners are beginning to recognize the feelings of the citizens?

Or is it possible that our new county administrator is saving us money?

The article also predicts that the commissioners will turn down a proposal to increase the property tax rates of two of our emergency services districts. The districts provide fire and ambulance services to some areas of the county. According to the article the districts want to increase their rates by 10 cents per hundred dollars of valuation.

By way of comparison the county tax rate is about 45 cents per hundred. According to the county’s web site emergency services district one had a tax rate of 9.9 cents per hundred last year. A 10 cent increase would more than double their existing rate in one year and bring them to almost half of what the county charges.

These guys evidently have not been listening.

County hospital

Another possible reason that the commissioners might slow down the tax increases is that our county hospital needs money. While the hospital’s published proposed tax rate for this year will remain the same as last year, we have the issue of the children’s hospital bankruptcy.

County hospital losses also pointed out that they lost $12 million dollars in 2014 without considering any of the children’s hospital issues.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Outrageous failure

August 19, 2015

Some people have amazing skills.

The folks that are charging us half a million dollars a month to run our children’s hospital have found a way to make our county hospital look good!

It seems that the bankruptcy judge that is in charge of the case has taken the children’s hospital managers to task for making unproven claims that the county hospital is overcharging for services.

Even an inexperienced manager would have sought price quotes from vendors that could provide the services. Those quotes would be used to prove a claim that the children’s hospital is being overcharged.

Instead we have learned that the children’s hospital’s claims are based upon the past experience of the temporary managers.

Should they be fired?

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Paying serious lip service

August 11, 2015

This is another example of the double-talk that is coming out of our county hospital. On April 15, 2015 they issued this announcement:

Then on July 9, 2015 the joint commission issued it’s preliminary denial of accreditation decision. The commission explains a preliminary denial as:

Preliminary Denial of Accreditation results when there is justification to deny accreditation to a health care organization due to one or more of the following: an immediate threat to health or safety for patients or the public; failure to resolve the requirements of an Accreditation with Follow-up Survey status after two opportunities to do so; failure to resolve the requirements of a Contingent Accreditation status; or significant noncompliance with Joint Commission standards. This decision is subject to review and appeal before the determination to deny accreditation.

On January 2, 2015 we wrote No cures today, an article about the hospital’s response to having been given the worst scores possible in the three rating areas that Medicare used to grade the hospital. The result seemed to indicate that we would suffer the loss of about $350,000 in payments.

Timeline

January 2, 2015 we write about the hospitals reaction to being condemned by Medicare. The hospital’s failures are endangering patients and costing the taxpayers money.

April 15, 2015 the hospital issues a press release letting us know how proud the board is with their compliance report and compliance plans. Our hospital administrator tells us that “our program operations are always exceeding standards”.

July 9, 2015, less than three months after their hollow assurances, the hospital is threatened with denial of accreditation for some of the same things that they were penalized for in January and told us they were taking seriously in April.

I can’t write a date for when our county commissioner’s took action to clean up this mess because they haven’t.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

They bid us adieu

August 5, 2015

Since we’ve been talking about the Times these last weeks, a short comment about their Monday, July 27, 2015 issue might be appropriate.

What a waste!

They had some articles about some motor vehicle accidents where unfortunately some people died. They gave us a list of someone’s most wanted criminals. They wrote about some local students studying earthquake aftershocks in a foreign county.

We didn’t see any investigative reporting focused on our local problems, although the day before they wrote of our “staggering” problem of people opting to leave town and the need for improved governance.

They even wrote about our county government taking a purchase out to bid.

On second thought that could be news if the county conducted the bid fairly.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Winged wonder

August 4, 2015

Well.

It seems that our county hospital administrator and 60 local physicians have a difference of opinion over what the truth is.

Sixty or so local pediatricians released a letter that you can read here.

The letter was strongly worded and included this statement:

The claim that EPCH (El Paso Children’s Hospital) doctors personally support Mr. Valenti is at best a strategic deception and is more likely plain perjury given that Mr. Valenti was under oath while making this statement.

Perjury

Wow! You have to wonder how the federal bankruptcy judge will react to the situation. Whether our hospital administrator is charged with perjury or not, it is clear that this group of doctors wants nothing to do with him. The other local hospitals have got to be elated over this. If the county hospital does end up running the children’s hospital it does not look like this group of pediatricians will be using the children’s hospital unless they absolutely have to.

The El Paso Times published a balanced article about the controversy. Included in the article was a link to a portion of a sworn deposition that our county hospital administrator gave. Read it here.

The excerpt included a lot of whining and posturing but this jewel is unbelievable:

What we’re trying to do is allow the Children’s to be under the shelter of the district’s wing — envision a bird’s wing — under the safety and security of the district.

I’m trying to imagine what kind of bird our hospital administrator had in mind. I also can’t imagine that our readers think of the administrator as a benevolent force in this situation.

Our county commissioners must take action here.

We should not let them allow this to continue.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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