elpasospeak

We learned recently that the chief financial officer of the city has tendered her resignation.  She evidently has a job in the private sector.  Hopefully it does not include formulating budgets.

We did not learn where she is going.  There are not a lot of local possibilities in the private sector if she is not going to take a pay cut.  Then again she may not know what the private sector is or where it is for that matter.

Included in the news was mention of the fact that she is now a deputy city manager.  The Times reported that she was made a deputy city manager in September of 2013.  That is hard to believe given the facts that the city’s web site shows her job title as chief financial officer and also her well known behavior as a publicity hound.

The new city manager’s budget proposal for next year has an organization chart in it.  She is shown as the chief financial officer, not a deputy city manager.

What’s going on?

Is the Times right?  I don’t recall seeing a  public announcement from the city in September of 2013 indicating she was promoted to deputy city manager.  For that matter I don’t recall seeing an article in the Times to that effect either.

Is she a deputy city manager?  If so when did that happen?  Was it in the final days of the last city manager?

Is she eligible for a city pension at the ripe old age of 46?  Will she be eligible later?  Does she have a contract that designates her as deputy city manager?

One can’t help but wonder what her severance package will look like.

I suspect that an open records request will be made by someone.

We deserve better

Brutus

City staff’s proposed budget for next year is now out.

They are proposing a 3.1% increase in our property tax rate to 69.9 cents per hundred dollars of valuation.

They are also asking each city department to take a 5% budget cut.

Huh?

They want to cut each department by 5% but they need a 3.1% increase in our property taxes.  Yikes!

According to the Times the city needs the increase  “to pay for debt obligations such as the quality of life bond projects approved by voters in 2012.”

Actually

This graphic from the city’s web site tells us that they have only begun to spend the bond money:

A 5% decrease in spending plus a 3.1% increase in taxes comes to an 8.1% swing.  According to the chart above they will only have spent 20% of the quality of life bond money by the end of 2016.  So we evidently need 8.1% to pay for other debt.

Either our taxes are going to go up a lot more in the future or this year’s increase is needed to pay for other things than the quality of life bonds.  Tearing down city hall and buying and remodeling multiple buildings is probably the answer.

New tax rate comparison told us about how we had the 7th largest property tax rate of the 50 largest cities in the United States in 2013.  I guess they want us to do better.

Hold on to your hats!

We deserve better

Brutus

The El Paso Times has known about the firing of the deputy city manager that we read about in Bridge to nowhere since at least June 21 of this year.

The Times wrote:

Deputy City Manager Jane Shang was put on paid administrative leave and is working from home on some assignments, according to a city document obtained by the El Paso Times.

Linda Bell Thomas, the city’s Human Resources director, said she could not comment specifically on why Shang was put on leave because it was a personnel matter.

Shang, who was appointed deputy city manager in April 2008, will remain on administrative leave through Dec. 31, Thomas said. Shang had been publicly accused by some council members of not responding to their requests and not working to push through projects they had requested.

Deniability

The Times chose to tell us about the situation as part of an article about our new city manager coming to work.

One would think that the situation deserves it’s own story.  Writing what they did in the middle of another article gives the Times the ability to say with a straight face that they covered the story.

Really?

Here we have a city employee one rank below city manager who got in a dustup with city council and in the process contradicted what the former city manager said before council.  She has been sent home but is still being paid.  In fact she will stay home and get paid through December 31 of this year, more than six months.  After that she will stay on the city payroll until April 15, 2015 while using her accumulated vacation and sick time.  At that point she will cease to be employed by the city.

We might rightly suspect that she is being kept on the payroll to let her earn more tenure in the city’s pension system.  Then again that might not be the reason.

Is she being paid to keep quiet?  Is she getting preferential treatment because of who she knows?  Is the city afraid of what she might say?

Either way this is certainly not the way taxpayer money should be spent.  The city has agreed to firing her in such a way that she will be paid out of the city pension fund for the rest of her life.  That’s after she has been fired.  Why?

Someone at the Times thought enough of the issue to obtain documentation.  Then the story appears buried inside another article.  Has management at the Times stepped in and thwarted the reporter?

We deserve better

Brutus

The Tuesday, June 16, 2014 city council agenda goes on with this under the title “RECOGNITIONS”:

El Paso Municipal Courts–Government Collectors Association of Texas Award for Collections Program of the Year 2014

Congratulations!  And thank you.

That is an important achievement in this city where we do not have enough money.

Somehow more important?

Then down in the consent agenda we have this “NOTICE FOR NOTATION”:

City of El Paso earns The Platinum Leadership Circle Award for financial transparency online from Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.

That evidently is so important that requires a vote from city council.  After all it was put on the agenda by our chief financial officer.

This is yet another example of self promotion at the expense of others.

Evidently your numbers do not have to be accurate in her job.  What she seems to think is important is that she be very open when she misleads us.

If El Paso really is more transparent in it’s online presentations than other Texas cities, then I feel badly for them.

We will look at some of our city’s online content in later posts.

We deserve better

Brutus