Utility consumption

January 24, 2015

Our central appraisal district is the only local government entity that I have found that obeys this state law:

Sec. 2265.001. RECORDING AND REPORTING OF ELECTRICITY, WATER, AND NATURAL GAS CONSUMPTION.

(a) In this section, “governmental entity” means:

(1) a board, commission, or department of the state or a political subdivision of the state, including a municipality, a county, or any kind of district; or

(2) an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code.

(b) Notwithstanding any other law, a governmental entity responsible for payments for electric, water, or natural gas utility services shall record in an electronic repository the governmental entity’s metered amount of electricity, water, or natural gas consumed for which it is responsible to pay and the aggregate costs for those utility services. The governmental entity shall report the recorded information on a publicly accessible Internet website with an interface designed for ease of navigation if available, or at another publicly accessible location.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Of the people, in private of course

January 6, 2015

One of our readers pointed out the other day that our county judge took the oath of office for her second term in a private club the other day.   The club is on the top floor of one of the downtown buildings that houses some of the more influential movers and shakers in local politics.

According to the Times she was surrounded by “friends and supporters”.  Most of us weren’t invited.

Since most of us missed it we print here the oath that she should have taken:

IN THE NAME AND BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF TEXAS,
I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of  [title] of
the State of Texas, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.

That would be nice.

We deserve better

Brutus

15 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Wild rumor

January 4, 2015

A rumor going around is that our non-certified EPISD superintendent is looking for a job.

He was hired after the state commissioner of education ousted our elected school board and appointed our current board of managers.

The rumor is  that the commissioner is hoping to move to another state agency and bring our superintendent with him.

I wonder where they will land.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Which time?

December 28, 2014

The advent of the electronic version of the El Paso Times has validated  the old maxim “don’t believe everything that you read”.

In the past when paper was the only way to read their stories if a mistake was made the Times would sometimes print a clarification or retraction in a subsequent edition.

With the electronic versions they seem to feel free to change their stories at will with no notification to their readers that an earlier version has been changed.

The story of the boy scout land lease the other day is an example.  The original version of the story looked like this on the electronic version:

boyscoutsi35

The article went on with this quote “It will be used as one of the largest urban Boy Scout camps in the United States, transportation commission Chairman Ted Houghton said earlier this week.”

Talk about an understatement

With the land bordered by Paisano drive and Interstate 35 this will be one large campground.

Later in the day a visit to the same web site provided this snapshot:

boyscouts10

The mistake in the earlier version is not what bothers me.  It is that the Times feels no need to let it’s readers know that they published something that was wrong and then provide the correct information.

How can we trust what they print?

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Really, really special

December 22, 2014

Well they’re still at it.

The city council vote to not put restrooms in the eventually to be finished San Jacinto Plaza got me to thinking about how I could have missed notification of such an agenda item.  I went to the city’s web page and searched for the agenda item.  It was nowhere to be found.

I did find this document which is the report of the minutes of a special city council meeting that was held on Monday, December 15, 2014.

epcc12152014specialcouncilminutes

Huh?

They held a special city council meeting on Monday, December 15, 2014.  Where was the required public notification that the meeting was to be held?  Back at the city web site this is what showed up when a search for any special meeting in 2014 was entered:

epccspecialmeetingssearch12172014

State law requires council to post notification of any council meeting 72 hours before the meeting “in a place generally accessible to the general public” unless there is an emergency.

Our courts have ruled that posting notification on a bulletin board outside of city hall fulfills the requirement.

A reasonable citizen would probably conclude that the city posts it’s special council meeting notices on the city web site along with the regular meeting notices.  Why else would the drop down box have a provision for searching for special council meetings?

The trick here is that the city can comply with state law by posting an agenda on a bulletin board while tricking us to believe that they will post the notice on their web site.  No notification, no pesky public.

By the way, council had another special city council meeting on Tuesday, December 16, 2014.  The regular city council meeting was adjourned at 11:52 on that day and the special meeting was convened at 12:08 in a different room at city hall.  I guess they could move the entire council away from the public in only 16 minutes because they have restrooms at city hall and don’t have to go next door to use some business person’s facility.

Adding insult to injury, the special city council meetings are not video recorded and made available for the public to view after the fact.

This is disgraceful and mean spirited.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

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

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