Whither the Times

June 17, 2013

Where does our recent election put the Times?

If for the moment you were to assume that their editorial policy has been well intentioned and that their conflicts of interest did not influence them,  the fact is that the Times is woefully out of touch with the voters of El Paso.

Unless I have missed something, only one of the eight candidates they endorsed was chosen by the voters.

Maybe their circulation numbers will not be affected and as a result the Times does not care.

What to do?

Stay the course and be proud in knowing that the editorial board is smarter than the citizens.  74% is an incredible number. Personally I have never heard of that kind of victory in any free election of this size.  The voters do not like what has been going on.  The Times claims it does.

Hector the new mayor and council.  Point out every little thing that they can to put them in a bad light.  The Times largely ignored the mis-deeds of the city the last few years.  Attacking the voter’s choices would be interesting but dangerous.

Switch horses and claim righteous indignation as the facts come out about what has been happening.

Pretend nothing happened.

Some combination of the above will probably be their choice.

On a side note, I was particularly irked the other day when the Times needed to refer to an article in El Paso Inc.  Instead of attributing the article to the publication’s name the Times referred to it as a weekly newspaper.  Maybe that is how the game is played and the Times followed the editorial style of other newspapers.  I found it to be petty.

I hope that they find their way.  El Paso needs a good newspaper.  It would be nice if I could start reading the Times looking for balanced coverage of news items instead of to see what news they are trying to influence.

Muckraker

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

Stewardship

June 17, 2013

What were the voters saying?

Was it about gay rights?

Was it about city council ignoring the results of an election?

Was it about downtown, destroying city hall, the ball park?

My take is that it was about competence and honesty.  All in all, El Pasoans are a pretty tolerant bunch.  We tend to live our own lives and pay little attention to the temporary tempests that happen here.

What we have witnessed from the city for the past few years got our attention though.  Tearing down city hall and building a baseball stadium with poor planning is costing us a lot of unnecessary money.  The city chief financial officer told us that it would cost us $33 million to move into new city facilities.  We now know that the number is over $70 million and we are still learning about more.

The city manager admitted in public that the true cost of the stadium won’t be known until we finish building it.  If the project had been handled in a measured manner instead of the “hurry up, we have an emergency” way it was handled, we could have known — down to the penny.  I would have voted for a well planned ball park.

The voters approved $470 million of quality of life bonds last November.  The city hall move and the ball park showed the citizens that the team down at city hall could not or would not manage our money with respect.

It looks to me like they chose the mayor based upon his ability to manage money and his promise of honesty and transparency.  My take on the city council election is that the voters wanted to get away from the rubber stamping mentality seen on council.  The voters rejected all of the candidates the Times endorsed for election to city office.  The runaway train must be controlled.

We have committed to spend almost a billion dollars recently.  I think the voters want to get their money’s worth.

In a word, this was about stewardship.

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty

Cato

1 Comment | City government, El Paso Times, Open Government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Cato

They giveth and then taketh away

June 15, 2013

The ball team owners are stepping up to the plate and offering to change their agreement with the city.

They are offering to pay $12.8 million more to the city over the life of their agreement.  All the city has to do is to sell $8 million more in bonds.

The issue of the cost increases came before city council a few weeks ago and was shot down.  At the time city staff told us that the increases were just “contingencies” — you know, not needed.

Now the truth comes out and we see the team owners stepping forward because the ball park needs the extra money.

How charitable!

Actually, the owners promised last August (before city council approved the deal in September) to donate their profits from the venture to local charities “for the foreseeable future”.

Now that the owners have generously offered to pay the city $12.8 million we should subtract the $12.8 million from the profits they would otherwise have made.  That means that local charities are in fact paying the bill at least for the foreseeable future.

City staff and council should be ashamed!  And the Times?  Don’t get me started.

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty

Cato

Leave a Comment » | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Cato

The gift that keeps on giving

June 15, 2013

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

Leave a Comment » | City government, El Paso Times, Open Government | Permalink
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Goose and gander

June 14, 2013

This November 12, 2008 article in the El Paso Times admonished our county commissioners to avoid making controversial decisions while in lame-duck status.

At the time some commissioners would be leaving office within 50 days.  The Times thought that controversial decisions should be left up to the new court.

This Tuesday city council will consider issuing $60.8 million in bonds instead of the $52.8 million that they approved for the  $50 million ball park a few weeks ago.

The new council will be sworn in June 23, 2013.  By my counting that means that this current bunch will have five days remaining in office when they vote on  this item.

It seems to me that the Times is being consistent here.  They give city council a free pass even when council’s actions are the most egregious.

It will be interesting to see what surfaces after the election and the exodus.

Muckraker

Leave a Comment » | City government, County Government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

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