No record

January 20, 2014

Our county hospital, currently called University Medical Center, seems to be rather secretive with it’s proceedings.

Looking on their web site at the November 12, 2013 minutes of the board of managers meeting, you can see  the first item after the call to order was:

Item #5 was pulled from the agenda.

That was followed with “Consent Agenda”, ACTION, Motion to approve the consent agenda was made by …

What did they do?

Normally minutes include the language used on the agenda to introduce the item followed by any actions taken.

What was item 5?  What items were on the consent agenda that they approved?

At this tax payer owned  hospital the minutes do not tell us about the agenda item.

Thinking that I could find out by looking at the old agenda, I learned that they do not post the old agendas on their web site.

They should

Texas law requires their minutes to “state the subject of each deliberation”.  Saying that the consent agenda was considered does not get us there.

The public has the right to know what happens at these meetings.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Double your pleasure

January 18, 2014

These slides from the city web site show us the cost of selling bonds instead of saving up our money and paying cash:

2013bTaxableBonds

2013aTaxExemptBonds

So far we have sold two types of bonds to finance the ball park.  We sold 30 year taxable bonds totaling $15,660,000 and 25 year tax exempt bonds totaling $45,125,000.

That comes to $60,785,000.

What will it cost us by the time we have paid them off?  The number comes to $137,286,965.10.

That means that we will actually pay more than 2.25 times what we financed.

Why can’t our governments develop a pay as we go strategy? We would get at least twice as much for our money.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | Ball park, City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

We’re number one

January 15, 2014

The fact that El Paso was once again ranked the safest large city in the nation was significant enough that the El Paso Times wrote about it on page one of section B.  I suppose the front page needs to be reserved for whatever issues the Times decides to promote.

We were also ranked as the best city in Texas in which to raise a family.

As for per animal lovers we were ranked number two.

In the “best cities for home buyers” we were ranked number four.

So if we are the safest major city in the nation and the best place in Texas to raise a family, what is our quality of life problem?

Is the quality of life drum being beaten to promote spending?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Physician do no harm

January 8, 2014

Our county hospital finds itself in a hot spot over procedures they evidently performed while working for the feds.

El Chuqueno provided this link to an out of town article about the mess.

The hospital is trying to calm the waters.  Our El Paso Times wrote about a press release from the hospital board and CEO.  You can read the article here.

Medical care?

The hospital’s statement tries to make this look like the woman needed medical care.  What they evidently did to her was not medical care.  It was part of an investigation — one that was evidently against her will.  They said:

“Our team of providers has just one focus – to take care of the sick and injured. When people come to or are brought to our Emergency Department, we mobilize whatever resources are necessary to stabilize their condition.”

Yes, I would agree that the hospital does an admirable job with the sick and injured.

What happened here had nothing to do with being sick or injured.  Some people that work for our governments have forgotten that their responsibility is to the citizens — they think that they can do anything in the name of official business.

Who pays

According to the stories the lady was presented a bill for the “services”.

That doesn’t wash either.  When you are in police custody the medical bills are the responsibility of the agency detaining you.  The hospital certainly knows this.

The issue with the bill is another example of how some government employees forget who they are.

Rock and a hard spot

The hospital finds itself in an awkward position.

They need to denounce what has happened or face the loss of public confidence.  Are we safe in that hospital?

On the other hand if they back off now are they agreeing that the lawsuit has merit?

The hospital board needs to act decisively here.  So do the county judge and commissioners since the hospital is their responsibility.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

End the privileges

January 5, 2014

I would like to see to it that our federal employees (including elected officials) have to live with the same laws that the citizens do.

There should be no special  privileges for them.  If we have to follow OSHA rules (or those of any other law) so should they.

They should have the same health care coverage we do and should belong to the same retirement system that we do.  Their facilities like government restaurants, barber shops, and banks should be fully paid for by the people that use them, not the taxpayers.

For that matter I don’t think that congressmen, senators, or the president and vice president  should have government funded retirement accounts.

It seems to me that this would need to be a constitutional amendment since any law that one session of congress passes could be overturned in some later session.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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