Unbelieved

February 17, 2017

Our county commissioners have reconstituted the county  historical commission.

According to the county judge the action has nothing to do with the opinions of the ousted members but instead has to do with perceived violations of the Texas open meetings act.

Chapter 318 of the Texas local government code establishes the county commissioner’s authority to create a local county historical commission.  It gives the county commissioners the responsibility of appointing at least seven residents of the county to the historical commission–in January of an odd numbered year.

The very fact that county commissioners appointed new members in February is a violation of the rules.  Don’t look for the county commissioners to remove themselves for their own violation of Texas law.

Hypocrisy

Few of us believe what the county judge has said.  The members were removed because of their attempt to interfere with the placement of the arena.

She claims that the members were removed because they may have violated the law while at the same time she violates chapter 318.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

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

EPISD–one of the hardest jobs in America

February 13, 2017

We missed the Friday, February 10, 2017 article in the Times titled “EPISD leader’s new contract includes more perks” and thank a loyal reader for pointing it out.

Some of us may be upset with the shell game that the district played in hiding the details.  The Times persisted and after three weeks the district finally provided a copy of the contract changes.

Failure to provide the requested information within ten business days is probably a violation of the Texas public information act.  Will we see a county commissioner writing a personal letter to our district attorney asking the prosecutor to look into this?

Obscene

There has already been a lot of public outcry about the superintendent’s contract.  The newly disclosed provisions will cause more.

The galacticly stupid comment the superintendent made to the Times when they were looking into the hidden contract benefits will cause even more outrage:

“Cabrera called his position “one of the hardest jobs in America” …

It is hard to imagine that he could think that much less say it out loud.

Any of us could site classroom teaching jobs in his district that are more difficult than his.

It almost seems that the superintendent wants to be fired.

School board

Other than the president of the school board, the district’s board has been quiet about this.

We have an election coming up this May.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

EPISD teacher pay raises

February 2, 2017

The other day we had a conversation with an EPISD employee who works in a school, not the central office.

She indicated that her personal opinion was that the “teaching staff” should get a 10% pay raise.

Not possible

School finance in Texas is very complicated.

From a local property tax perspective school districts are allowed to set two tax rates, one for operations and maintenance (O&M) and the other for debt service (interest and sinking fund).

EPISD essentially cannot set an O&M property tax rate above $1.17 per hundred dollars of property valuation.

EPISD has currently set their O&M rate at $1.07.  At that rate their 2016-2017 budget anticipates bringing in $165,104,344 from the O&M portion.  Raising the rate to the maximum of $1.17  would bring in another $15.4 million dollars.

Cost of raises

The district has approximately 4,000 teachers.  The starting salary for a first year teacher is $44,900.  We don’t know what the average salary is so we will do our computing using the lowest (least paid) pay rate.

A 10% increase would amount to $4,490 per teacher.  The cost to the district would increase by more than that because of benefits, but we will leave that out of our cost computation.  The raise of $4,490 multiplied by 4,000 teachers comes to $17.96 million dollars.

The district could only raise another $15.4 million in local property taxes and that would take facing a roll back election from the voters.

The district simply cannot raise taxes high enough to pay for  a 10% teacher raise unless they cut costs elsewhere.

Declining enrollment

In this article last year the Times delivered more bad news for the teachers:

Trustees said the 1.5 percent raises were all the district could afford now, as student enrollment declines.

School districts receive state funding based on attendance, so fewer students means fewer dollars.

Unless the district cuts their other costs don’t look for big pay raises for the teachers.

We have a basic marketing question here.

Will parents choose to send their children to EPISD schools because of shiny new buildings or because of the quality of education offered?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Getting to know your Texas Rangers

February 1, 2017

There has been some discussion on the blog about the Texas Rangers’ involvement in the public corruption and open meetings issues we have been having in El Paso.

Many of us were under the impression that the Rangers operated out of Austin and that our access to them would thus be limited.

As it turns out El Paso is home to Texas Rangers Company E which you can read about here.

According to the Texas Rangers web site one of their responsibilities is:

  • Public Corruption Unit: The 81st Texas Legislature created a Public Corruption Unit within the Texas Department of Public Safety under the Texas Ranger Division. The Texas Rangers are tasked with investigating public corruption among public officials, law enforcement officers, and others holding positions of public trust.

The telephone number for Company E is (915) 834-7664.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Texas Rangers

January 30, 2017

The Texas Rangers investigating the situation with some of our city council members have their hands tied in some ways.

Based on the text messages and videos relating to the incidents,  it appears that some of our city council members both violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and intended to.  Unless other evidence surfaces, it will be hard to conclude anything else.

Conspiring to circumvent the act is a crime.

Meeting in violation of the act is another crime.

Respecting standards

If the rangers find no violation of the law they will be encouraging elected officials statewide to do what our local people have done.

That would be a giant step backward in our efforts to shine light on governmental actions.

Wheels of justice

It would appear that it will take time for the rangers to investigate and make their recommendations.  If prosecution is recommended it will be several months before trials occur.  Some of the city council members will no longer be in office.

We might expect to see some resignations in exchange for being let go.

We might also see some citizen led recall efforts.

If nothing else we should expect this to be a major issue in the upcoming election.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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