We had a good blogging day in El Paso the other day.
Refuse the Juice took the Times editor to the woodshed.
El Chuqueno reminded us to stay grounded.
They both helped to make things better.
Brutus
Returning to office
April 4, 2017According to the Times city representative Niland will return to city council Tuesday, April 4,2017.
They say she has been absent since December 20, 2016.
She evidently has been handling a divorce.
An open records request should tell us whether she has continued to draw her city paycheck.
According to the Times article she has the authority to move her two children to Travis county or to Florida.
Will she move out of town and thus escape the high taxes that she helped foist upon us?
We deserve better
Brutus
12 Comments | 
County Government, El Paso Times | 
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Posted by Brutus
Times fails us again
March 6, 2017Does it bother anyone else that the Times published their article about the city ethics complaints being dismissed on their Borderland page on the same day that half of the front page was dedicated to the funeral of a local dentist?
Wouldn’t we expect that the positions would be reversed?
The Times appears to be dying. Could they help their situation by representing the citizens of the community instead of local politicians?
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
EPISD–ambushing a contractor?
February 15, 2017EPISD recently filed a lawsuit against a prominent local builder.
The contractor built an elementary school for the district in 2009.
The company’s senior vice president was quoted at saying:
“To date, EPISD has not notified us directly of any issues with our work performed at Tom Lea Elementary School in 2009, aside from routine warranty work, which was completed and approved by the district,”
If the builder is correct and EPISD has not worked in good faith to resolve whatever problems there may be then EPISD is out of line.
EPISD’s board president was quoted by the Times as saying:
“It will affect the score during the procurement process,” Fenenbock said. “If there are defects, if litigation was required to resolve it and if there was a settlement and the defects were cured – all those things will be scored and taken into consideration” when awarding a contract.
Bond money
Is this EPISD’s way of taking the contractor out of contention to get contracts out of the new bond money that the district has?
The school was built in 2009. If EPISD has problems with it why have they not put the contractor on notice that the problems must be fixed or a lawsuit will be filed?
If the contractor is telling the truth EPISD has damaged the contractor’s reputation unfairly and may itself face litigation.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Unopposed county commissioners
January 17, 2017Two of our county commissioners were sworn in for their second terms January 1, 2017.
They were both unopposed.
Choice
Whether you like their past performance or not, wouldn’t we be better off if there was real competition for political offices in El Paso?
An article in the Times wrote this about one of them:
He said there are a lot of challenges in the coming years, including reducing the cost of jail operations, and reversing the tax burden from residential to commercial properties. He said he expects the county to work toward attracting new businesses to the area to improve the commercial tax base.
Wow!
We have the third highest tax rates among the top 50 cities in the United States and are headed for second place.
Does that make us attractive to businesses?
We deserve better
Brutus
6 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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