City staff learns to spin

October 19, 2017

The Escondido street meeting situtation has been rolling around in my head.

One of the problems was that the city sent out a letter inviting people to a meeting about “bike lanes” but when the meeting started the city officials went to great lengths to inform the attendees that the meeting was about the “restriping” of Escondido and that bicycle lanes were a consequence of the restriping.

How much money does it cost to paint stripes on a street?  Why would the city send five administrators to a neighborhood meeting to discuss a work order that would only take one or two days to complete?

Then again why would the city be restriping a street where the stripes are in fairly good condition, no better or worse than the other streets in the neighborhood?  Does the city hold a neighborhood meeting every time a street gets painted?

City staff was not telling the truth.  The meeting was about bike lanes.  Restriping was their way of trying to change the discussion.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

I guess that TXDOT could claim that they are just restriping I-10.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Some common sense from Mr. Perez

September 28, 2017

County commissioner Vince Perez recently criticized state senator Jose Rodriguez’s remark in Texas Monthly according to  this Times article .

Evidently the senator said people want El Paso to be like “Gringolandia”–a homogenized American city.

Mr. Perez told the Times:

“His racially-divisive rhetoric further undermines civility in our political discourse and fuels a dangerous ‘us versus them’ mentality, that has hindered the legislative process in Austin and in Washington.”

Absolutely right

We could not agree with Mr. Perez more.  The senator is an embarrassment.  If he doesn’t like our culture maybe he should consider moving.

We deserve better

Brutus

33 Comments | County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Something good could happen at the county

September 2, 2017

With the resignation of our county judge it is possible that we might see a change in commissioners court’s spending habits.

Possible is the key word here.  It is important that we try to influence who the commissioners choose to replace her.

With the “holdover” provision of the Texas constitution in place it is possible that commissioners court will do nothing to replace the county judge.  To us, that would be unfortunate.

Of the four regular members of the court, two have been advocates for fiscal prudence while the other two seem to be more inclined to spend more money.

It looks to us like the swing vote here will be the commissioner that used to be the city’s chief of police.  There has been talk of him throwing his hat in the ring and running in the next election for county judge.

If we can influence Mr. Leon to vote for a county judge replacement that wants to reign in spending, we could have a win here.

The word on the street is that there are portions of the county government where savings could be realized by reducing personnel but that the current judge won’t allow it.  She evidently does not want to hurt her congressional chances.

An appointed county judge–especially one that will not stand for election–could make the necessary reductions without worrying about the political costs.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Power to the people

August 18, 2017

There are two bills being considered in our Texas legislature that would limit property tax increases that cities and counties can hit us with.

Currently a city or county can increase their property tax rate by 8% a year.  Anything over that subjects them to a roll back election.  The process is a difficult one for the citizens and is almost never successful.

One of the bills would limit the increase to 6%, the other to 4%.  Both would also automatically trigger a roll back election.  That would give the voters a chance to approve or disapprove.

Elected officials from across the state are actively trying to kill the bills.  Their position is essentially that they need the money for things that we must have.

Why not let the voters decide?

The answer is simple.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

YISD gets huge debt assistance from Texas

August 14, 2017

We were happy to learn the other day from an alert reader that the Ysleta Independent School District had received a commitment $212.5 million from the state of Texas that will relieve half of the $430 million in debt  that the voters approved in their last bond election.

That is great news for us locally.

From a story aired by KVIA TV:

“It’s a $430.5 million bond. But in terms of the burden to our community it’s a $215.25 million bond and that’s all they are being asked to pay for because the state is paying for the other half,” De La Torre said.

We thank the board and staff of YISD.

The district sold half of the allowed bonds in 2016.

What we did not hear from either the YISD superintendent or board president was that the district will not issue the other half of the bonds.

Do they plan to take the $215 million from the state and add it to the voter approved amount?

From our viewpoint the right thing to do is not to issue the other half.  If they need more money they should ask the voters again.

Is that too much to hope for?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | State Government | Permalink
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