Telling it like it is

April 26, 2015

According to some that I have spoken with the editor of the Times was just too liberal for the people of Fort Collins which is where he was editor before coming back to El Paso.

One rumor is that the readers put pressure on the newspaper to have him removed.

Looking into that I found the following at 5280 [The Denver Magazine]

“Robert Moore, editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan, told a gathering yesterday that the newspaper industry is struggling and may never bounce back, adding that the situation is a “threat” to democracy because government will be less accountable without good watchdogs.”

He was certainly right.

Looking further I found these statements  from our editor at mediamatters.org :

“It’s interesting to note that Colorado Media Matters holds others to standards that it will not apply to itself. It undermines your watchdog role when you disregard standards you proclaim to uphold…”

“The refusal of a watchdog to hold itself to the same standard it applies to others is another matter.”

Then at the close of his note he wrote this:

“I believe that the media needs to be accountable. But to cherry pick tidbits that support a hypothesis while simply ignoring all other information to the contrary isn’t good journalism and it’s not good journalistic criticism.”

Evidently at one time our editor knew right from wrong.

We deserve better

Brutus

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Explanation from the Times

April 20, 2015

Could it be that the Times is working to overcome their challenges understanding ethics?

Their editorial the other day contained some real gems when read in light of their coverage of the last few years.  They wrote:

“But truth isn’t particularly important when you have an agenda to promote.”

Yes, we’ve seen that from the Times.

Near the end of their editorial they printed this:

“Being repeatedly wrong won’t deter the spreaders of misinformation.  They will continue to prey on the fears of some people for their own benefit — to raise money, build audiences, gain votes.”

I guess they are telling us not to expect them to change anytime soon.

They closed with:

“The frequent canards don’t help us on that journey, but they can’t be allowed to deter us.”

We agree.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
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Try to get a home mortgage like this one

April 14, 2015

Back in 2013 we were told that our debt costs relating to the ball park were going to be $17 million more than the numbers we had when the election was held.

The reason?  Bond buyers thought our deal was too risky and they wanted more money in return for their risk.

Well as it turns out the real number was $27.5 million.

According to the Times the Downtown Development Corporation (city council in sheep’s clothing) was never told about the extra $10.5 million.

How convenient.  Those bad former city employees did this to us.  Never mind council’s responsibility to see to it that our money is managed well.

Now we are being told that general fund money will be necessary until 2023.

That isn’t the half of it. The city’s chart printed below shows that we are not even going to make principal payments until 2023.  Then we will have to make a $17.6 million dollar payment against the principal. Where will that money come from?  If they take it from the general fund they will be using property tax money and Texas law does not allow that.  Will some future council have to levy some new fee?  Will there be a bond election to issue debt to pay debt?

2013aTaxExemptBonds

 

Will the perpetrators ever be punished?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

16 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
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Will they step up to the plate?

April 3, 2015

As we know  our city council imposed a “franchise fee” on our water utility as part of the budget process last year.  This fee was in addition to the amounts that the city already charges the utility.

Council’s instructions to the utility board were to pass the fee on to the utility’s “nonresidential” customers.  The board did as it was told.  We have heard that the board feels that the franchise fee is inappropriate and that they would have liked to stay out of the issue.

The citizens know that the franchise fee is nothing other than a tax increase and that city council did not have the honesty to handle it as such.

Last week we saw the water utility board vote to change their policy and to charge the fee to both residential and nonresidential customers.  A claim had been made by a local church and the board reacted to it.  We have heard informally that the way they had assessed the fee was illegal although no one, including the Times, has explained why.

The board held a meeting to discuss the church’s claim and went into executive session.  When they came out they voted to change their billing policy.  The Times tells us that the vote was illegal because the item was not properly posted on the board’s agenda.

We received an email Friday of last week that contained this:

I’ve been told that water bills to residents received today already have the new franchise fee on the bill. Sounds like they made the decision before they too[k] action Wednesday night.  Shady does not go far enough.

Did management of the water utility take action to change the billing policy even before the board voted?

If the vote was a violation of the Texas open meetings act someone could file suit and a judge could order the vote and consequent actions to be void.

There are two candidates for the west side council seat that could have an interest in this.  One is a former member of the utility board.  The other is a practicing attorney.  Might we see one or both of them step up to the plate and file the lawsuit?

The city attorney should have told council that passing the fee on to only the nonresidential customers would be illegal.

This mess was caused by city council.   They should straighten it out.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
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Chili sauce and heritage

March 24, 2015

Helen Marshall sent us this piece:

[The op-ed piece in the Times the other day]  appears to argue that El Paso does not have any problem just building a Hispanic Cultural Center (whatever that means, it is never defined, except by asserting what it is NOT) because by virtue of moving here everyone becomes Hispanic, unless you consciously opt-out.  All you need is a strong preference for red or green sauce (I thought that was New Mexico’s motto…). 

If this “longtime educator” has no clearer understanding of words than this, I wonder what he taught his students.   Straight out of Alice – “when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean…”

 
Hispanic culture is rich, complex
By Juan Sybert-Coronado / Guest columnist

Posted:   03/22/2015 12:00:00 AM MDT

The current kerfuffle over the Hispanic cultural center is based on two misunderstandings: Culture is not race and a cultural center is not a history museum.

In the United States, people are assigned a race at birth. Usually this is done based on skin color.

Culture is developed by each individual over the course of a lifetime based on experiences, associations, and personal tastes.

Hispanics are as güera as Shakira and as dark as Nolan Richardson.

The Hispanic racial umbrella is based on the concept of mestizaje, the notion of an infinite horizon of hybridity. As the Mexican-American comedian Louis C.K. says, “Mexico is just like America — it’s made up of some white people, some black people, and some brown people.”

But Hispanic culture is not color bound. Anyone who lives in a Hispanic environment and adopts some of its customs becomes Hispanic.

This defines almost everyone in our city. If it doesn’t it’s not because they have been excluded, but because they have consciously decided not to participate.

If you have a strong preference for red or green enchilada sauce, you might be Hispanic.

If you think that “The House on Mango Street” or “The Last of the Menu Girls” speaks to your understanding of the world, you are definitely Hispanic.

But there is more than one way to be Hispanic.

Our musicians include Vicente Fernandez, Dinah Shore, Carlos Santana, Jerry Garcia, and Fergie.

Hispanic visual artists are just as varied. Frieda Kahlo is important. But so are Hal Marcus, Luis Jimenez, Gaspar Enriquez, and the endless interpreters of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Everyone who has settled in El Paso has contributed to the ongoing process of creating our unique Hispanic culture.

This includes the Buffalo soldiers who remained in our city after their enlistments and often married Mexican women, beginning the Blaxican culture of our community. It also includes recent arrivals who quickly learn that we don’t wear sombreros, but we appreciate a pair of Lucchese boots as much as a pair of Nikes.

It is the role of cultural centers to celebrate the contributions of everyone who has created that culture while acknowledging their races or previous cultural backgrounds.

A Hispanic cultural center should be designed to bring us together by examining the thousands of threads that weave our social fabric into a unique El Paso Hispanic tapestry.

Many of the desires of the proposed center’s critics are historic in nature.

Hopefully, Donald Williams and Bernie Sargent will address their legitimate concerns to the El Paso History Museum whose mission is to preserve and tell the story of El Paso’s past.

They should also visit a few other institutions before insisting that the proposed Hispanic cultural center become another history museum.

Mexico City’s anthropological museum is a good model for us.

It uses history to illuminate the origins of Mexico’s multiple cultures, but its chief focus is on the how the ongoing hybridizing process of culture creation is making Mexico a vibrant country today.

Juan Sybert-Coronado is a longtime El Paso educator.

6 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
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