Just getting started

May 25, 2013

Before even breaking ground on our new ball park the city is telling us that they need $10 million more to build it than the $50 million they told us it would cost.  They also need another $750,000 for design and management work.

Who is responsible for this situation?

Let’s start with the city engineer.  A recent headline article in the El Paso Times quotes him as having said “We could not build the project we have designed without it … We would have to redesign it … It would not be the ballpark the community wants.  It would not be iconic or state of the art.”

The city engineer said that the ball park that the city committed to could not be built.  He was in charge of the technical details.  Is he incompetent, or is he a liar?  Why rig a bid when you can fool City Council? showed us an example of how this individual plays loose with the truth.

Now he tells us that the street and sidewalk “work would have been done by other contractors while the ballpark was built, but that it made more sense to have the general contract oversee the work for better coordination”.  More sense to whom?  His job is to oversee the construction.  This is a no bid give away.  El Paso’s contractors should raise Cain.

Then we have the city manager.  It was her job to see to it that her subordinates did good work.  The city manager made presentations to council selling a ball park that we now know could not be built.  The current decisions being placed before city council must have had her approval.

Demolishing trust pointed out how city staff had found a way to spend $500,000 over and above the $50 million budget building a pedestrian walkway that the ball park needed.  Then it told us about how the city water utility was using customer money to provide new water and sewer facilities to the ball park — once again outside the $50 million budget.

Now the staff wants to use $3 million that was to be used for downtown street projects.  Another $2 million will be stolen from the 2012 quality of life bonds that we approved for the downtown cultural district.  Baseball is not we think of when we speak of culture.  Where is the bond oversight committee?  What committee?  We didn’t promise to listen!  gave us an idea what to expect.

Then we have city council.  Are they part of this lie?  At this point we are in a situation where denying the $10 million dollars could cause the project to fail.  Did city staff fail or did city staff lie?

I guess if I were on city council I would ultimately vote for the $10 million.  I would only do that after I had the written resignations of the city engineer, the chief financial officer, and the city manager.  No resignations, no ball park.  We are going to have to spend good money after bad, but we should not let the same people administer it.

The owners

The team owners are developers.  They know about sidewalks and streets and how they affect projects.  I suspect they knew this was coming.  If one of their employees came to them with a $10 million cost overrun on a $50 million dollar project I suspect that some heads would roll.

The Times article tells us that “the $5 million in contingency funds would pay for amenities such as a bar-restaurant or group and party suites “.  It sounds to me that decisions have been made about how to spend the money.  There is no contingency fund.

Group and party suites will be among the most expensive facilities for the public to buy tickets to.  The profits will be higher on these facilities than on regular tickets.  Who will enjoy the benefit of this extra income after the citizens have spent $5 million?  I suspect that the money will go to the team owners.

The owners have always seemed to me to be good citizens.  Yet they seem to be going along with this two-step theft.  They certainly have not spoken publicly against it.  They benefit from it.  I don’t see how we can trust them in the future.

Not done yet

Like most things we will have to wait to discover the full level of deception here.  Will we end up over $100 million?

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

4 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Cato

The saga continues

May 1, 2013

Tear down city hall, we need the site for a new ball park.

It will only cost $33 million.  See True cost of the moves.

We know what we are doing.  We will move into a few other buildings downtown.  See City hall relocation.

We don’t have time to get competitive bids on this work.  Trust us we know what we are doing.  See Favoritism and then how the went back for more money in Competitive Bidding? — Baloney!.

The cost of the city hall move is now well over $70 million and climbing.  See Sold Out.

My office must be bigger than yours

This January 13, 2013 article in  El Paso  Inc told us “… the biggest office will be the mayor’s – until you count the executive bathroom with the gold-colored lavatory and shower in City Manager Joyce Wilson’s office.”

Do it over, tear it down, spend more

Now we see this article in El Paso Inc., the reporter’s First look inside new City Hall:

“It turns out that the City’s finance offices and desks were vacant because the staff was moved to the Wells Fargo Bank Building.  That’s because the northeast corner where the mayor’s offices were set up weren’t large enough (emphasis added) so they were moved to the southwest corner where finance was to go.

The mayor’s former offices weren’t big enough for the finance staff, so they were moved to the bank building until the area is redesigned.  To make room for finance, the internal auditor’s offices have been moved.”

We don’t know who designed it but we do know that the city manager thought it was ok or else she would not have allowed construction to start.

We had to overspend to build it in a hurry, then tear it down and build it again before we even moved in because the mayor’s office was not big enough. In addition we have the expense of housing city finance in leased space in a bank building.

Admitting failure

The Inc. quoted the mayor:  “The only criticism I have is that with a fragmented City Hall, people aren’t sure where to go for what.”.  Then further, “I’m not even sure where everybody is.  It used to be easy when all you had to do was get on the elevator and push a button.”

No kidding!

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Congratulations El Paso Times

April 10, 2013

I see in this article that the El Paso Times and its reporters got some much deserved recognition recently.

They recently received awards from no less than the Associated Press Managing Editors.

A former Times reporter who is now with the Denver Post was commended for her articles about the problems over at the El Paso Independent School District:

“Bravo to reporting that seems to have used a combination of digging for records and good-old-fashioned source work to unearth a scandal that had real, quantifiable harm. Investigative journalism at its finest,” the judge wrote.

The Times itself was awarded first place in the community service category for stories and editorials about the cheating.  The judge wrote:

“Exceptional use of reporting and public records laws reveal the depth of corruption and malfeasance in a public school system,” the judge wrote. “Outstanding, tough editorials call for action. The El Paso Times staff performed an immense public service by calling attention to the problem and demanding a solution that would benefit the community’s children, parents and taxpayers. This is exciting, satisfying work.”

I have noticed a marked improvement in the Times since the return of the executive editor.

The Times also “won second place in Texas APME’s best newspaper category for mid-size papers.”  Now I don’t mean to be funny or cruel here, but second place?  I can only wonder about the quality of other newspapers.  Maybe the economic situation that the newspapers find themselves in has changed the standards.

I applaud the Times and its staff and will try to be a bit more gentle with my comments in the future.

In the meantime could we get some coverage of the other problems we have with local governments now that the parade is over?  I’d like to see them win some more awards.

Muckraker

Leave a Comment » | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, Open Government, Purchasing, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

April 2, 2013

In Bridge for sale I wrote about the $3 million dollars that city council will spend for four televisions.  They are calling it a digital wall.

Copenhagen has one.

Well, it appears that our city staff feels the need to visit the one in Copenhagen.

Word on the street is that five of our city staff (engineers and IT people) will make a personal  sacrifice and travel to Copenhagen to learn about this technological marvel.

“Boondoggle” is defined in the online Oxford dictionary as “work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value”.

This does not even reach the low standard for the term boondoggle.

It appears that what we have here is a “junket”, defined in the same dictionary as “an extravagant trip or celebration, in particular one enjoyed by a government official at public expense”.

Questions are not necessary.  We all know what is going on.

Maybe someone can stop it.

Who could have known that Shakespeare would be an expert on El Paso city government?

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Rushing into debt

March 26, 2013

Item 14 on the March 26, 2013 city council agenda does it to us again.

In November of 2011 the city entered into an agreement that would allow them to buy $5 million worth of equipment for the fire department.  Now this week they want to borrow another $5 million for more equipment.

I don’t object to the fire department getting new trucks and ambulances if they need them.

What I object to is financing something over seven years when we need more money in less than 18 months.

This is another way that the city has found to increase our taxes without telling us.

If we need the equipment let’s buy it, but put the actual amount spent in the budget so that we know what our situation is.

With the numbers that council has been playing with recently, $10 million for fire trucks and ambulances and $20 million to replace the radio system that will be buried in the rubble of city hall are not the big numbers.

What bothers me is the number of deals like this that we don’t know about.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »