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

Visiting Alice

August 1, 2015

Helen Marshall sent this in:

After reading the Times for the past few days I must conclude that I have fallen down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.

Ms. Niland tells us that the citizenry doesn’t need to vote on returning to a strong-mayor system because the city manager arrangement has been very successful. (And the Charter Advisory Committee agrees, with the guidance of former city manger Joyce Wilson, appointed by Ms. Niland, and former mayor Joe Wardy, who came up with the city manager idea).

City Manager Gonzalez then briefed Council on his work in completely overhauling the city administration and eliminating waste and inefficiency.  In Parks and Recreation, for example, irrigation repair jobs that used to take 24 hours now are done in less than rwo hours.  

Unless my memory has completely failed, the first and only previous city manager had responsibility for running the city effectively and without waste for ten years, concluding in mid-2014.  If the city-manager system was so successful, how is it that the successor has to conduct a massive overhaul of city business?  

The reporting about city finances hails the ratings from Standard and Poor’s and Fitch that reaffirmed the city’s AA rating (which is NOT the top rating).  Buried deep in the report is this: Fitch “pointed out several areas to watch, including inadequate reserves, elevated debt and plans for major capital projects. … Fitch believes the city will be challenged to balance ongoing capital needs against an already above-average debt service tax rate, slower tax base growth in the near term, and below-average socio-economic characteristics.”

Couple that with the remark in a report on UMC tax proposals that El PAso County is in a unique situation compared with other counties in Texas; “in El Paso the property tax base is declining and as a result the effective tax rate is going up.”

Mayor Leeser assures us that “with City Council’s guidance we will continue to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and ensure that we provide the best for the citizens of El Paso.”  And what’s more, it ain’t true that City Council is “dysfunctional” and its members don’t get along.

And so we must follow the White Queen and believe six impossible things before breakfast.

15 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Don’t blame me

July 30, 2015

The Times Sunday, July 26, 2015 editorial carried the heading “Editorial: Higher wages, better opportunities required to stem El Paso’s exodus”.

Brilliant!

If wishes were horses beggars would ride.

What has the Times done to help here?

Their editorial fails to mention the high  taxes that stifle growth and spending in our community.  They fail to mention our decaying roads and infrastructure.  They don’t talk about our needless spending on luxuries that we cannot afford.  Spending what little money we have on basic necessities instead of pork projects cleverly cast as ones that improve “Quality of Life” was not part of their piece.

Instead they wrote “The public and private sector leaders of El Paso’s economic development efforts must focus on creating and retaining jobs that pay higher wages.”

They also suggested “That means improved governance and government services, as well as improvements in our entrepreneurial infrastructure.”  The failed to mention our former city manager, the financial mess she left us with, and the fact that she now heads the largest organization responsible for getting El Pasoans jobs.

Nor did they mention that they helped lead the charge to bring the current crop of failed “leaders” and vacuous spending on things like a digital wall to our city.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Challenge to the Times

July 29, 2015

The Times seems to have difficulty understanding reality.

They suggest that employers should pay higher wages.

Okay fine.  Go right ahead Times.

Please raise your wages so that you can attract experienced talent that knows how to, has the time to, and is allowed to write pieces that expose the waste fraud and abuse that permeate our local governments.

The Times might argue that they cannot do that because they are in an industry that is declining.  They don’t have enough money they might say.

Would they understand this reality that many of us live with or would they somehow excuse themselves since they seem to think that they are so special?

Would the Times dare to publish their existing wage scale and then bravely increase it in an act of economic leadership that would help our community?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Our money laying around

July 20, 2015

Now we are learning that the city is so loose with our money that they have failed to collect over $21 million from the state.  The state wants to pay us but the city has to do some paperwork.

According to this article in the Times:

The city of El Paso is in danger of losing millions of dollars in transportation project reimbursements after failing to submit the required paperwork to receive payment, according to Texas Department of Transportation officials.

TxDOT says the city has $21.3 million in pending reimbursements, but city officials disagreed, saying it’s closer to $9 million.

Difference

Based upon the city’s recent financial errors I know who I would tend to believe in this situation.

Even if the city is right why haven’t they moved immediately to collect the $9 million?  Do they have so much of our money that they don’t care?

More debt is an option

I have been impressed with the way our new city manager and chief financial officer have been trying to fix the mess that their predecessors left us with.

This quote from the Times really makes me wonder though:

In the worst-case scenario, Sutter said, city staff could go before the City Council to request additional certificates of obligations, which are backed by property taxes but don’t require voter approval.

We can only hope that the quote was taken out of context and that our chief financial officer was talking about something other than collecting our $21.3 million.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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