Giveaway

April 9, 2016

paying

We ran this article originally back in June of 2013. To some of us it goes a long way toward explaining the relationship between the Times and the bunch that used to be at the city:

 

This article in El Diario de El Paso reveals another secret deal that the city has entered into as a part of the city hall destruction.

The city bought part of the Times building for $9.4 million this year.

Then why did the city sign a lease for $4,750 per month in an adjacent part of the Times building for the next eight years last February?  The lease has a sweetheart 3% increase every year, so by the time the lease is over the city will have paid more than half a million dollars.

Does the city need the space?  If so, why wasn’t it part of the purchase?

Devious

I don’t know if the city needs the space or not.  What I do know is that the lease was not about space.  It was about paying the Times back for parking space at the Union Plaza parking terminal.

The Times needed parking space as part of their move to another building.  The city had a parking garage.  The Times evidently did not want to pay for the 150 some-odd spaces they needed.

The city charged the Times for the parking spaces.  In a separate lease the city agreed to pay the same amount back to the Times for the half million dollar lease space.  The deals wash.

Give away

The net effect is that the Times is getting free parking for 8 years.

City council feigned lack of knowledge.  How can that be?  Many of the items that come before council ask to give the city manager authority to negotiate and sign whatever documents are necessary without bringing the deals back to city council.

The Times raised the integrity issue in the current mayoral race when it complained that one of the candidates pulled some of his advertising because he thought his campaign was not being treated fairly.

Hypocrites

Now we learn that the city is giving the Times free parking for 8 years.  I wonder if that has an effect on their coverage.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Required by the Times

March 29, 2016

I have decided to subscribe to the print edition of the Times.

Going to their page http:offers.elpasotimes.com/SVV, I get to a page that ostensibly will allow me to select the level of service that I want.

When I click on the “Select” button the screen refreshes but does not allow me to enter any information.

I decided to use their “web chat” feature.  Below is the transcript of what occurred:

New party (‘incapable’) has joined the session
Welcome to chat!
Message:
All agents are currently assisting other customers, please wait for the next available agent.
New party (‘Brittani’) has joined the session
Brittani:
Hello Incapable, my name is Brittani. Thank you for being a valued subscriber and reaching out to customer service today. I’m glad I got your chat. How may I assist you today?
incapable:
I am trying to subscribe to the newspaper through your web page. When I pick the “Select” button the screen refreshes. How do I proceed?
Brittani:
I apologize for this issues you are having signing up through our website.
Brittani:
If you can not get the page to process you will be required to contact us via phone at 800-351-1677 M-F 8am to 7pm.
Brittani:
Chat agents do not have the ability to process payment information to start a new account. This is for the privacy and security of our customers. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Brittani:
Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
incapable:
thank you
Brittani:
You’re welcome. Thank you for contacting The El Paso Times! Have a great day.

Required?

I think not.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Extra! Extra! Lots Extra!

March 28, 2016

The city recently awarded a bid for newspaper publishing services.  Looking at the document below you can see that bidders were to base their prices on an anticipated volume of 5,300 lines per year.  Using the numbers that the Times submitted that comes to about $43,000 per year.

newspaper

Then why?

When it came time to award the business the city allocated $250,000 per year to the Times.  The contract was for three years with an optional two year extension bringing the amount to $1.25 million.

This was the wording of the agenda item:

Discussion and action on the award of Solicitation No. 2016-450 Newspaper Legal Notices (Re-Bid) to Texas New Mexico Newspapers Partnership dba El Paso Times for an initial three (3) year term estimated award of $750,000.00. The award is to include a two (2) year optional amount of $500,000.00 for a total five (5) year award of $1,250,000.00.

Department: Purchasing & Strategic Sourcing

Award to: Texas New Mexico Newspapers Partnership dba El Paso Times El Paso, TX Item(s): All

Initial Term: 3 years Option to Extend: 2 years

Annual Estimated Award: $250,000.00

Initial Term Estimated Award: $750,000.00 (3 years)

Total Estimated Award: $1,250,000.00 (5 years)

Account No.: Various

Funding Source: Various District(s): All

This is a Low Bid, unit price contract. The Purchasing & Strategic Sourcing Department recommend award as indicated to Texas New Mexico Newspaper Partnership dba El Paso Times, the lowest responsive, responsible bidder. Recommend Investor Publications, Inc. dba El Paso Inc be deemed non-responsive due to failure to bid on all items. In accordance with this award the City Manager or designee is authorized to exercise future options if needed.

Would the other bidder have placed a different bid if they knew what the real volume would be?  Would other newspapers have placed a bid if they knew what the real volume was?

In the interest of clarity the contract is to be used to publish official notices.  I don’t think that the city is actually paying the Times to publish its press releases as though they are news.  I suspect that the Times does that for free.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

1 Comment | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Miners struck gold!

March 25, 2016

The Sunday, March 20, 2016 front page of the Times featured a half page graphic titled “Revenue Race”.

The accompanying article was about UTEP’s athletic department finances.  Many dollar amounts were cited but I had great difficulty adding up the detail items to come up with their stated totals.

Incredible

The Times actually reported that the UTEP basketball program generated a profit of $129,186 million in the 2014-2015 school year.

That’s 129 billion, and 186 million dollars.

With numbers like that it is kind of hard to justify them charging tuition at all.  In fact they might want to consider free parking for the basketball patrons.

When such obviously erroneous numbers are published, much less on the front page,  we have to wonder if the basic cause is ignorance or incompetence or indifference or maybe all three.

Either way it is hard to believe anything that they publish.

Maybe they should pay attention to their recent editorial where they pointed out that a group’s “actions continue to undermine their words”.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Battered trust

March 23, 2016

The Sunday, March 20, 2016 Times editorial started this way:

“Mayor Oscar Leeser and a majority of the City Council appear to believe that repeating the incantation “moving forward” will somehow restore the public’s battered trust in city government.  Instead, their actions continue to undermine their words.”

In a recent article about the ball park bond mess the Times printed this quote from our former city manager:

“After that I expect the city to move on”

The Times evidently thinks it is quite acceptable for our former city manager to tell us what to do.

If they way to talk about battered public trust they should start by looking at themselves first.

The hypocracy from the Times continues.

We deserve better

Brutus

10 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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