Speak up!

July 22, 2013

Brutus has written two recent articles where he provided links for readers to contact the mayor and city representatives.

It seems to me that this is a very good idea.

We seem to have been polarized with two approaches:

  • Stay out of city issues because no matter what we do city council, the mayor, and city staff will ignore our input.  Even worse they have proven that they will fight to countermand our desires.
  • Raise petitions under the city charter to force an election on an issue

Maybe a position in the middle can be productive in some of these matters.

Why not take a few minutes to let city council and the mayor know what your thoughts are without backing them up against a wall (even if it is of their own creation)?  Let them know what you think.  The city web site allows you to send a message without identifying yourself or leaving your email address.

We have added a new button at the top of our home page, “Contact the city” that will provide you with linkages to the mayor and each of the city council representatives.

Send in your thoughts.  Encourage others to do the same.  Who knows, it might help.  If it doesn’t then we will have to do better than 74% next time.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

10 Comments | City government, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Good news!

July 18, 2013

Something good happened in yesterday’s city council meeting.

A city representative had placed an item on the agenda that would allow inquiry and action relative to the city’s lawsuit against the Texas attorney general.  I have written about the issue before with Help stop the lawsuit being the most recent post.

The mayor started the conversation by explaining that a few weeks ago he had asked the city attorney to look into discontinuing the lawsuit.  Council and the city attorney participated in the conversation after  his introduction.

The city attorney informed council that the total legal bill for the city action so far was about $7,000.  That means that very little had actually been done and confirms the wide-spread belief that the city lawsuit was primarily designed to delay the release of the emails in question.

Council ended up instructing the city attorney to bring the matter to a close and report back to the council within three weeks.  They did this after adjourning into executive session to answer one question that a city representative had.  Council stayed in executive session for quite some time.

To me that suggests that there will be some consequences of the release of the emails and that the city attorney was trying to work through the issues with council.  Stay tuned for the fireworks.

Some council members spoke about how they thought the city lawsuit was the wrong thing to do.  Others who were on council and voted to try to suppress the emails through the lawsuit remained mostly silent.

The truth will start coming out when the public gets to see the documents.

The new mayor and council have done a good thing here.

We are getting better

Brutus

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Has anything changed?

July 14, 2013

The headline article in the Wednesday, May 22, 2013 edition of the El Paso Times was about school district spending per student.

The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) is the largest school district in the area.  The Texas Education Agency (TEA) recently stripped the district’s elected board of trustees of their power and appointed a board of managers  to run the district.  We are told that this action was mostly the result of a horrible cheating scandal (by the employees, not the students) and the trustees not taking action and  being transparent in their dealings.  The new board has been tasked with rebuilding public confidence.

The Times talked with local school districts about the spending per student issue.  What did EPISD have to say?  “Officials at the EPISD were not available to comment” according to the Times article.  So much for transparency.

The Times was able to talk with the president of the newly appointed board of managers.  He was, until the latest election, a Texas state representative.  While in office he voted to cut $5.4 billion from the state education budget.  The Times chose not to mention that.  So much for transparency.

The $5.4 billion dollar cut may have been the right thing to do.  EPISD wastes money like a drunken sailor.  They have people on their central office staff that hinder teaching instead of helping it.  Ask any classroom teacher, but be prepared for an ear full.

One of the members of the new board of managers was appointed by the TEA as the conservator of the school district in August of 2012.  She had the power to overrule the board of trustees.  Have we seen any new action as a result of her position?  What is the district doing differently since she has been in control?  So much for action.  So much for transparency.

Now it appears that the City of El Paso wants to kick the EPISD central offices off the airport property that the district leases.  We are being told that it will cost $40 million to build new facilities.  If they are telling us that it will be $40 million what will the number really be?

We have a TEA appointed board of managers.  So be it.  They need to get to work and fix the district.  They need to tell us what they are doing.  They need to fix public confidence.  They need to work with the city to avoid spending $40 million when what money they do have should be spent on educating the children.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, State Government, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cato

It’s All Good

July 12, 2013

A reader sent this in.  I thought it deserved it’s own post instead of being lost in the comments section.

elpasospeak.com does not claim to be right.  It seeks to facilitate civil discussion, hopefully leading to increased citizen involvement in our governments.

El Paso: It’s All Good. Except for Some People.

The new City campaign slogan is: “El Paso. It’s All Good.” But it seems that the old adage “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” doesn’t apply here.

Paul Foster’s Western Refining moved two thirds of its corporate headquarters staff to Arizona. Bill Sanders’ Verde Realty relocated most of its operations to Houston. Both moves cost El Paso a substantial number of good jobs that paid great salaries. These gentlemen are the same people wanting taxpayers to help fund downtown as a means of making El Paso more appealing to major employers. They along with Woody Hunt are supposedly leading our economic development effort through their backing and leadership of Borderplex Alliance (PDNG and Redco). If they think companies being pitched to locate in El Paso will not see a disconnect between their words and their decisions related to their own businesses, they’re sorely mistaken. The relocation of these two companies should be a reality check for everyone who believes that downtown redevelopment is truly about helping all of El Paso.

Check these links and draw your own conclusion:

http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/top_story/article_7b9e78a4-0ee1-11e1-abc9-0019bb30f31a.html

http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_15072702

5 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Reigning in begins

June 30, 2013

It looks like the new mayor is doing his job.

The July 2, 2013 city council agenda has two items posted in the addition to the agenda.  Both appear to have been placed on the agenda by the mayor.

The first is titled:

Discussion and action regarding a Resolution to revoke authority granted to the City Manager by the motion of City Council dated November 6, 2012, with regard to the leasing or purchasing of office space and parking in the Central Business District required for the relocation of City operations as a result of the relocation of City Hall.

The previous city council passed a motion on November 6, 2012 granting the city manager broad authority to lease property downtown for up to 5 years (limited to $2,500,000 per year).  The new resolution if passed would require the new city council to approve any new leases.

The second item is titled:

Discussion and action regarding a Resolution modifying the authority granted to the City Manager in connection with the awarding of Solicitation No. 2013-109R to Jordan Hunt, a Texas Joint Venture for the construction of the ballpark and requiring the exercise of all such authority be made in consultation with the Mayor of the City of El Paso.

In other words the city manager would have to keep the mayor informed about what is being done.  The resolution would not take power away from the city manager.  Instead it would allow the mayor to know what is happening so that he could re-direct the city manager through city council if he thought things were not going well.

Hallelujah!

It looks like the new mayor wants the mayor and council to take responsibility for what is happening instead of giving all authority to the city manager and then claiming that decisions on matters are not in their purview.  A large part of the mess we are in is a direct result of having a weak council and mayor.

I don’t feel comfortable making a prediction about whether these two items will pass.  What I do know is that any city council member that votes against these will be drawing a line in the sand.

To me this appears to be very smart on the part of the mayor.  I hope that he continues to apply this kind of thoughtful management to the mess that we are in.

We are getting better

Brutus

3 Comments | Ball park, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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