Now that you’re watching

March 5, 2013

According to an El Paso Times article city council may be having second thoughts about their proposal to cripple the Texas Public Information Act.

Council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance on its first reading last week.  They are scheduled to consider it again today (Tuesday March 5, 2013).

The Times points out that a “barrage of criticism” might cause council to reconsider and “go back to the drawing board” with the ordinance.

Reconsidering is a good idea.  The legal mess that this ordinance would cause would cost us a lot of money.  Texas has a good law — it appears that the rest of the state can live with it.  Some members of our council want the right to conduct public business without the public having the right to see what they are up to.  Going back to the drawing board is a bad idea.  It would be another waste of our time and money.

The Times article suggests that some council members believe that the proposed ordinance is not well written.  It would appear that some of them have finally gotten around to reading it.

That brings up the point of this post.  According to an El Paso Inc. article this weekend the proposed ordinance was drawn up by the law firm that is representing the city against the Attorney General of Texas who had previously ruled that the city must turn over documents that were requested through the Public Information Act.  City council does not want to release the documents.

  • Why are we wasting our taxpayer money and time in a mean-spirited fight to deny the public access to its’ documents?
  • If certain city council members object to disclosure why don’t they fund the lawsuit themselves?  The Attorney General is on the side of the citizens.  Council is opposing us and is using our money to do it.
  • The outside law firm did a poor job drafting the ordinance.  Are they competent?  How much are they getting paid to sue Texas and try to keep us in the dark?  How much are they getting paid to write the proposed ordinance that has now been so thoroughly criticized?
  • Should they be fired?

Where was the City Attorney on this?  How did this even get on an agenda?  Was this reviewed?  Was council advised that the proposed ordinance is “a can of worms” to use the Mayor’s words?  Is council now pretending that this was not what they intended?

It is good that the Times has started to pay attention to what is going on at city hall.  If they want fresh front page articles to replace their constant reiteration of problems over at the El Paso Independent School District, all they have to do is read city council agendas and start thinking.  They won’t even have to make up problems.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, El Paso Inc., El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, Open Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Ox goring

March 4, 2013

Cato has been busy talking about the proposed city ordinance that would attempt to change the public’s right to access information about city government and its’ employees.

When the El Paso Times weighed in they first wrote an editorial  that said “The proposed ordinance, to put it mildly, is a disaster“.  The editorial was published the day that city council would first consider it in session.  The message was clear — they wrote “We urge the City Council to reject this ordinance“.

Many of us agree and thank the Times for taking this stand.

City council ignored the Times and the public and is moving through the steps involved in adopting the ordinance.

The Times then put their new government reporter (I believe he was a sports reporter before this assignment) on the issue.  His article covered some of the issues.  In general it raised the heat.

Council continues with this assault on our right to know what is going on in our government.

I am not alone in believing that the Times has been trying to help the city with it’s coverage of the destruction of city hall, the moves, and the construction of the ball park.  They have been flogging the El Paso Independent School district while actively siding with the city government.

Now it appears that even the Times cannot abide council’s actions.  Some will say that the Times gives the city a pass because the city bought the Times building.  Many will say that this is because limiting public information will make writing newspaper stories harder — thus goring their ox.

What is important is that the Times is shedding light on this particular attack on our rights.

I doubt council will listen to any of us.  Remember the election coming in May.  We need to change the composition of council and we need to choose a mayor that will respect the will of the people.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, Open Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Why are they stalling?

March 2, 2013

How much power do they need?

According to an article in  the El Paso Times the Texas Education Commissioner has “elevated”  his previously appointed monitor of the El Paso Independent School district “to what the state refers to as a conservator” who “has the power to overrule the district’s interim superintendent and the school board“.

There is also an on-going legal battle.  The commissioner wants to install his own board of managers.  Cato wrote about this in Disenfranchised.  The whole process negates our right to choose who leads the district.

What does the commissioner want?  According to the article “[he] has said that it may not take long for the board of managers to wrap up their work”.  Evidently there is some plan of action already in place.

Is there something that the commissioner wants the school board to do, or to stop doing?.  If the conservator can overrule the school board why not act now?

Are there people that need to be punished?  Are there changes that need to be made?  Can we start doing better right now?  Are we sacrificing our children’s interests over a political power struggle?

What are we waiting for?

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

No community input needed

February 22, 2013

Quality of life

In El Paso the citizens are evidently not smart enough to decide what they need.  That is done for us by city staff and city council.

Here is a refreshing example of what other communities do.  This community sends out 10,000 surveys each year (out of a population of about 680,000 voters).  They ask how satisfied the respondent is with:

  • Economic Opportunities
  • Education System
  • Transportation System
  • Local Government Utilities
  • Presence of Local Government in Our Lives
  • Environmental and Natural Resources
  • Government Services
  • Growth Management
  • Racial, Religious and Ethnic Tolerance
  • Security
  • Healthcare
  • Non-government Social Services
  • Entertainment
  • Neighborhood and Family Support
  • Public Parks and Recreation
  • Affordable Housing
  • Historic Preservation
  • The Arts

It’s called a report card.  The local governments use it to focus on what they should be doing to help improve the community.  We don’t need this in El Paso.  The cabal running the city knows what to do for their own enjoyment.

Actually the city did do some of this when promoting the bond issues.  Their idea was to convince us that they wanted our input.  What they got was a survey box that was stuffed by one or more people and/or organizations.  At some point the city knew the results were rigged.  El Paso Inc. reported the story here.  Did city staff know that over 500 of the responses were in the handwriting of one or two individuals?  How could they not know?  They went ahead and used the rigged results to show us what the “people wanted”.

Then we have the Bond Oversight Advisory Committee that the city created to give us the illusion that we would have a say in the administration of the bond funds.

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | City government, County Government, El Paso Inc., El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Fall Guys?

February 19, 2013

The front page article in The El Paso Times the other day, Firm Didn’t Alert EPISD To Audit Expenses Hike, did not ring true to me.

According to the article the Texas Education Agency (TEA) ordered the school district to have an audit of the activities involved in the cheating scandal.  The accounting firm that was awarded the $587,685 contract evidently overshot their estimate by just at $200,000.  The article claims that the firm did not warn the district that it would not be able to complete the audit within the original contract amount.

That just does not make sense.

The firm involved is a CPA firm.  My suspicion is that once they got into the details of who did what and when, they found that they needed to dig deeper than they had estimated originally.  I cannot imagine a public accounting firm proceeding on their own past the scope of a contract.  They must have had someone’s permission.

If not then the firm should be branded as unworthy of performing jobs, in my opinion.  They know what the rules are and I cannot imagine them not acting accordingly.

Then there is the issue of the contract itself.  The contract evidently did not agree to pay any amount over the original $587,685.  Why would the board authorize the additional payment?  Could it be because staff recommended it?  They did according to the backup documents given to the board at the meeting.  You can see that here.

This is a difficult situation.  The TEA ordered an audit — not part of an audit.  The school board is under attack for among other things turning a blind eye to cheating.  Were they supposed to stop the audit mid stream?

Then again even the village idiot would not pay a variable charge on say his cellular phone when he has a fixed price contract.

More troubling to me is the article.  This issue should have been apparent to the reporter and editor.

The Times has openly taken the stance that the school board should step down or be replaced.  They repeatedly write stories that cover issues that they have flogged many times before.

The Times disrespects the voters much like city council does.  They support the imposition of a management board appointed by the commissioner.  Elections are coming in May of this year.  If the commissioner wins the legal battle and gets to install his own management board will he dissolve it after the elections?  What if the newly elected trustees do not meet his personal standards?  Will he keep his board in place?  Don’t the voters have a right to choose the district board, even if they choose a bad one?  The TEA has other sanctions that it can apply instead of disenfranchising us.

To me the Times is just making trouble here.  They did this years ago with Young Insurance.  They wrote negative article after article about a local businessman.  He started getting pressure from his local government customers because of public opinion.  No criminal or administrative charges were ever filed against him that I know of.   He ended up selling his business to people that are at the heart of another local corruption scandal that the Times writes about like it had nothing to do with helping open the door to the very people who were involved in the wrongdoing.  The Times even wrote a front page apology to the owner of Young Insurance years later — the damage had already been done, both to Young Insurance and to the community.

Yes I believe that the Times should have covered this recent story.  It would have been nice if they wrote it for a purpose other than their own agenda.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cato

3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Cato

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