Unnecessary secrets

May 15, 2017

Just because we might have the right to do something that does not necessarily mean that we should do it.

Texas law allows city council to go into executive session when it seeks the advice of its attorney about pending or contemplated litigation.

According to their agenda for Tuesday, May 16, 2017 council plans to go into executive session to discuss possible litigation to oppose Texas senate bill 4.  The bill would punish local governments that prohibit law enforcement personnel from asking people that they detain  about the detainee’s immigration status.

According to a Times article:

City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth said during the discussion, posted on the city’s executive session agenda, she will explain the legal implications of the law and share information on current litigation across the state.

Why should this be secret?

The city is being asked to join a lawsuit that opposes senate bill 4, so it is true that litigation might be considered.

There are no circumstances about a particular party that need to be confidential here.  The city is not being sued by someone.  The city is not in a dispute where it is trying to recover money or property.

The discussion is about policy and whether or not to spend money to object to the new state law.

We should be able to hear what the city attorney and the  people at the meeting have to say.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
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Bound to fail

May 12, 2017

According to the Times a lawsuit has been filed claiming that Texas state senate bill 4 violates the 10th amendment to the United States constitution.

It makes sense that some groups are opposed to bill.  What would make even more sense is if they based their objections on an argument that they can win.

The wording of the 10th is:

The powers not delegated to the United States  by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Evidently one of the statements in the lawsuit is “SB4 supports otherwise to wrest this autonomy from local governments…”.

The 10th does not address the autonomy of local governments.  That is done in our state constitution.

Our state government has powers over our local governments just as our feral government has powers over the various states.

The lawsuit is basically asking a court to declare that state governments have no power over local ones.  Chaos would be the result if that were to happen.

The Times did not mention this.  Maybe everyone involved should read our constitution.

We deserve better

Brutus

10 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
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EPISD–avoiding reconstitution

April 7, 2017

Innovation indeed.

EPISD’s policy committee is scheduled to consider a change to their “NON SCHOOL USE OF SCHOOL FACILITIES” policy at their Wednesday, April 5, 2017 committee meeting.

They are to consider changing policy GKD to include:

The District shall permit use of District facilities by community organizations identified through a community schools needs assessment survey and approved by the community schools coordinator and/or Superintendent’s designee. Community schools are both a place and a set of partnerships between the schools and other community resources. Community schools facilitate an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community engagement that leads to improved student learning. These organizations shall not be charged a building rental fee for the use of designated facilities. The Superintendent shall develop an administrative regulation to establish a community schools use agreement that will address associated fees to the community partner as well as other facilities issues.

The change would allow the district to give free rent to “community schools”.

Failing schools

Under the current rules in Texas if a school campus (like our Bowie) is rated unacceptable two years in a row, the Texas education commissioner must issue an order to reconstitute the campus.

A Texas senator has proposed senate bill SB193 that would change the rules.

“Under her present bill, once a school gets identified as failing for two years it would become a community school circumventing closure, reconstitution, and charter school repurposing.”

Community schools

If SB193 passes, EPISD could work to convert Bowie to a community school and thus avoid losing control of the school.

The proposed changes to GKD would allow the district to let a new community school use the Bowie campus for free.

Look for the policy change to pass the committee vote and end up on a future school board agenda.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
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Stuck with the quality of life vote?

March 28, 2017

It would appear that we will not be allowed to have an election to revoke permission for issuing the bonds for the arena.

There may be more recent case law, but the most recent case we can find dealing with the issue is the 1932 appeals court case Orr v. Marrs.

In that case the voters approved a bond issue for a school district.  Subsequently three-fourths of the registered voters signed a petition asking that the bonds not be issued.  The school board agreed and issued an order rescinding the vote of the taxpayers.

From the court’s decision:

It is fundamental that voters of a district can only exercise such powers as are conferred by statute, either expressly or by implication. All powers not expressly or by implication conferred are excluded. The power to rescind the former vote for the bond issue not being expressly given by the statute, it may not be, it is believed, reasonably implied. The power to vote on a bond issue implies the power to vote against it, but not to vote to rescind it after it has been regularly authorized.

If the Legislature had intended to grant the right of withdrawal of the vote, it could easily have been expressed.

New laws may have been passed that would allow a vote to rescind a bond vote but we have not been able to find any.

Just don’t issue a contract

At this point it would appear that our only hope of not building the arena is for city council to fail to authorize construction.

If they do nothing the arena will not be built.

That would open up the possibility of a mandamus action that would seek to compel each city representative to vote to approve construction.  A problem there would be that each city representative could vote no on a proposed construction contract if they thought the contract was not in the public’s better interest.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

EPISD–transcript credits still a problem

March 16, 2017

The recently published “Transfer Credits Follow-Up Audit” of EPISD’s process points out that the district still is not awarding and denying credit to students that transfer into the district according to the district’s own rules as well as the Texas Education Agency rules.

People in our community have gone to jail for violating those rules.

Others are accused of similar violations today and face trial and possible imprisonment.

Yet our new management team and board of trustees have not fixed the situation.

We have not even heard them make statements about how they intend to address the problems.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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