Disenfranchised

February 14, 2013

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) wants to strip the El Paso Independent School District Board of Trustees of  its power.

When the TEA placed the district on probationary status they evidently laid a land mine that allows the commissioner of the TEA to appoint a board to run the district.  However other provisions of the Texas Education Code make the board the ultimate power.

I guess it will be up to the courts to decide who will be in control.

For my part this board should be replaced.  The question is how.

We, the citizens of El Paso, elected this board.  Good or bad they are what we wanted at the time.  Our school district is supposed to be “independent”.  We are  to choose it’s leaders — not some appointed bureaucrat at the TEA.

The TEA should have the right to demand certain types of performance.  They should have the right to sanction  districts that do not perform up to state standards.  They should have the right to remove accreditation from the district.  After all they are the ones that grant it.  Removing accreditation from the district would put the voters into a frenzy.  The voters  would solve the problem themselves.

I would like to see the board resign if somehow it can be reconstituted with new members before the next election.

Certainly we should vote for different people next time.

An unspoken problem is who we can vote for.  Ask virtually any person of integrity and proven skills  (of running a large organization) to stand for election and they will say no — often colorfully.  The grief that they would expose themselves to is overwhelming.

The TEA is trying to install a board of managers to control the district.  The chosen composition of the board is a disgrace.  See Foxes in the Henhouse.  If this must happen, can’t we have better choices?  The commissioner chose poorly when he constituted his group.

What do we do if after the election the commissioner still feels that his board is better than our choice?  He is under no obligation to dissolve his posse.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

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EPISD agendas redux

February 9, 2013

Today I get to write about something that is getting better

It appears that since my earlier post EPISD Agendas the district has come a long way with their agendas.

Looking at their site today, I see that they now post the background material that I gather the board gets to see before they vote.  This is an improvement.

One item that I looked at was a contract.  The contract was not included but some detail was included.

The ability to search is now included, although the document that I searched for and found was titled “publicquickview.html”.  That makes me think that they are still editing what the public gets to see.

I also have the strong sense that these materials and agendas are posted after the meetings.

I’ll watch this more closely, but out of fairness wanted to update my earlier article.

It does appear that they are getting better.

Even still,

We deserve better

Brutus

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Doubt

February 2, 2013

Tuesday’s (January 29, 2013) city council agenda has an item (5g) that proposes that the city sell a little more than 15 acres of land to the El Paso Independent School District.

I don’t know if this is the right thing to do or not.  I do know that there is a problem with the process though.

The city’s chief financial officer is  member of the board of managers that the Texas education commissioner appointed to strip the elected trustees  of their powers.

City — school district.  Is it fair to assume that the word “chief” means that the chief financial officer is in charge of all finances?  The sale of the property is for money.  Which pocket is being represented here?

Let me spell it out for them.  C O N F L I C T  that’s conflict!

Maybe the commissioner was not thinking when he made the appointment.  The chief financial officer however should have declined the new post.

Why even take the chance of looking  ike you are not doing the right thing?  Maybe the chief financial officer does not care what us “crazies” and “amateurs” think.  After all we are only citizens.

We deserve better

Brutus

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Heads I win, tails you lose

January 29, 2013

Our local governments have been giving away the store.

This example is a proposed lease of a parking lot that the city seems to think that they need for either the new city hall or the 801 Texas building (even though they told us that they would not need this parking lot.  See No parking zone.)  The landlord is the railroad company that also owns the train tracks next to city hall.

This is a ten year lease.  The amount to be paid will automatically increase by 3% each year, compounded.

Many leases tie their rate increases to the Consumer Price Index that is published by the general government.  The published number changes each year and for the last ten years has been beneath 3% — it was even negative one of those years.

Why give away 3% in advance?  Maybe because you think that inflation will come back with a vengence during the 10 year lease and locking in a mere 3% is smart business.

Then why does the lease let the landlord “redetermine” the rent every 3 years?  The landlord wins either way!

Are they competent to manage our money?

Or could it be that as FedUp wrote yesterday that this is a way to give the landlord a blank check for something else?  Rumor has it that the new ball park will require building over the sunken train way that is next to it.  Some say the site is not large enough for a ball park without building on top of the train way.

Is leasing this parking lot part of they way the city plans to pay the railroad for the right to build structures over the train way?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government | Permalink
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Put ’em in jail

January 25, 2013

I often hear local citizens express their desire to have our local functionaries put in jail for their actions.

Unless you look closely at the things they are doing you might conclude that they are all illegal.  The horrible truth is that the cabal that has seized our local governments is being careful from a legality point of view.  They seem to decide what they want to do and then examine the rules and bend them to their favor — just to the point — but not quite — of being illegal.  Some of their actions may in fact prove to be illegal, if we can get to the truth.

Getting our local prosecutors to help us is not going to be easy.  Note the absence of the district attorney’s office in the well publicized public corruption issues in El Paso.  For that matter when has this district attorney prosecuted any public official?  The word around town is that he will not do it.  The county sheriff could investigate and then press charges, but he is known to be a close friend of our city manager.

There may be other law enforcement agencies that could help but our chances right now are slim.  I suspect that those acts that may be judged to be illegal will mostly be violations of Texas laws, not those of the United States.  All of that is conjecture until hard facts surface.

When we elect or appoint these people we expect them to do what is right.  Unfortunately we have local governing bodies that ignore that and do what their cabal has designed.

It looks like our more likely remedy is at the ballot box.  Yes, even those rights have been stolen from us.  The various efforts at recall and at initiative have been systematically foiled by one form of parliamentary chicanery or another.

Remember though that a city election is coming in May.  We will have an opportunity to elect four council members plus a mayor.  Get active.

I believe that one of the mistakes that has caused our current situation is that we changed the City Charter to elect council members for four years instead of two.  With four years of office council members evidently feel that the public will not be able to touch them while they do what they want.  We have seen efforts at recall squashed through technicalities.

We need to go back to two year terms.  Unfortunately that will require a change in the City Charter.  Even more unfortunately you and I cannot change the City Charter.  Proposals to change it must come from city council — the very rascals that would benefit from leaving the terms at four years.  Even members of the United States congress must stand for election every two years.  We cannot continue to put our representation on auto-pilot for four years.  Look what has happened!

As you decide who to support in the May elections you might want to condition your support on a pledge from the candidate that they will allow the term length issue to be put before the public in a charter election.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cato

1 Comment | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
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