El Paso Times | elpasospeak

Weekly scoops daily newspaper

November 13, 2013

El Paso Inc. published an informative article last week about how the downtown management district (DMD) may have improperly doubled the assessment on it’s property owners.

I find it remarkable that a feel-good weekly newspaper scooped our local daily newspaper on an article this important.

My view of the Inc. is that they try hard to celebrate what is good about El Paso and attempt to stay out of reporting with negative articles. I respect them for that. They have a business model and the integrity to follow it.

The Times also seems to have a business model. I think that they pander to the cabal that captured our city government a few years ago. I don’t see how they can continue down their same path for very long.

Brutus pointed out the other day that it seems that city council is gaining control from city staff. Our new mayor unfortunately voted to raise taxes with an already bloated budget.

I suspect that his problem was that he was too new to city government finances to do as much as he wanted. We will have to wait until next year to see if he will be able to do more for us.

It will be interesting to see if the Times changes it’s allegiance to its subscribers or if it continues to pander to the ones that think they know better than the voters.

I would be embarrassed if I was running the only daily newspaper in a city the size of El Paso and got scooped by a weekly that goes out of its way to stay neutral.

Muckraker

8 Comments | City government, El Paso Inc., El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

El Paso Quality of life update

November 6, 2013

Our interim city engineer wrote a column for the El Paso Times this Sunday.

She said that her engineering and construction management department had made “profound” progress on the projects in the last year. She suggested that we go to buildingtomorrowtogether.com to see their progress, so I did.

Most important

The web page lists ten of the projects that we voted for, one of which they have already started construction on. The city was in a hurry on that one so they chose not to bid it out but instead use a “requirements contract”.

This Quality of Life bond project is obviously the most important one (or it would not have been the first one started), it is the “Convention Center North Pedestrian Pathway”.

The pathway will provide a pedestrian entrance to our ball park and is scheduled to be completed by April 2014, just like our ball park. This project is scheduled to cost $500,000. You can decide if it is really part of the ball park costs.

Another project titled “Pedestrian Crossing and Way Finding” will not have it’s first phase bid out either. The city plans to use a “requirements contract” on that one too. Remarkably the web site indicates that construction has not yet started but completion for phase one is scheduled for August 30, 2013. This project will evidently make it easier for pedestrians to find the new ball park.

Tomorrow is right

The buildingtomorrow part is accuate. Of the other eight projects three are scheduled to have construction complete in August 2015. Three, including the children’s museum, do not have anticipated completion dates but are marked as “BEYOND THREE-YEAR ROLLOUT”. One project is scheduled to be completed in August, 2016.

Incredible digital wall

In Something is rotten in the state of Denmark I wrote about a new $3 million digital wall. At the time the city was planning to force five city staff members to go to Denmark to learn about it. The wall is scheduled to be completed in August of 2014. It is a good thing we sent our staff over early, you never know where they might move Denmark to.

Children’s museum

According to the web page this project is on schedule. “Urban Planner Consultant selected. Received proposal on October 14, 2014“. For those of you reading this post at a later date please remember that at the time of this posting it was November 2013.

Maybe we should nominate city staff for an award in fiction writing.

For those of you who are either crying or laughing too hard to go look for yourselves, the web site presentation is below:

We deserve better

Brutus

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

YISD not transparent

November 2, 2013

The El Paso Times has printed many articles criticizing the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) but curiously seems to be ignoring the Ysleta Independent School District (YISD).

EPISD has certainly had problems, but at least it publishes the backup materials for the board meetings on its web site so that the public can get a better idea of what is going on.

YISD does not. Take a moment if you wish and look for yourself. You can see it here. They simply post the agenda. They do not provide any backup material.

YISD has had problems with the public corruption scandal. It has had former officials plead guilty.

If YISD published the materials that the board members receive at the board meetings like the city of El Paso and EPISD do, we would be better informed about what they are doing.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Extra pillars?

October 24, 2013

One of the stated purposes for our city’s multiple deals with the railroads these last few years was to help the trains go through El Paso faster. The city paid a high price for land that it needed to build the new ball park. Railroad crossings around town were closed as part of the bargain.

Freeway closed

This Friday, to use the words of a tweet from an El Paso Times reporter, a train “derailed off tracks”. One of the cars struck a pillar supporting Interstate 10 as it crosses over Cotton Street.

The train was evidently travelling at less than 10 miles per hour when the incident occurred. The Times published this picture:

According to the Times, “TxDOT officials said a structural engineer from Austin visited the site early Saturday morning to inspect the Cotton Bridge columns and that the closure of I-10 West was just a safety measure.”

Well I guess looking at the picture that is a safety measure, otherwise we wasted money building the pillar in the first place.

How much faster

So now the question is how much faster would the city like the trains to go?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

New Texas

October 23, 2013

Out Texas State Senator wrote a column for the El Paso Times this Sunday. Taking from the column:

“Looking forward we should strengthen dual-language programs because literacy in multiple languages correlates with increased opportunity. We should expand early childhood programs and college preparation courses. As we know, education is the key to the New Texas.”

New Texas?

What is he talking about? Another state (like New Hampshire)? A changed state? I wonder if the rest of Texas is aware of his plans.

Speaking of plans, what are his plans? How does he propose to have a “New Texas”?

Much of his guest column spoke of transparency in government.

Spell it out for us Senator, and don’t make us learn a new language like “political speak” or “double talk”.

Where were you?

The Senator’s column spoke of bribery, mail fraud, and conspiracy in our school districts. Why is it that he never took action as a prosecutor on these cases when he was our county attorney for 17 years?

The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure defines the duties of county attorneys as:

Art. 2.02. [26] [32] [33] DUTIES OF COUNTY ATTORNEYS. The county attorney shall attend the terms of court in his county below the grade of district court, and shall represent the State in all criminal cases under examination or prosecution in said county; and in the absence of the district attorney he shall represent the State alone and, when requested, shall aid the district attorney in the prosecution of any case in behalf of the State in the district court. He shall represent the State in cases he has prosecuted which are appealed.

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty

Cato

11 Comments | County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

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Weekly scoops daily newspaper