The Escondido bicycle path meeting evidently revealed a city goal that we bet you were not aware of:
This policy was evidently approved by city council.
We would not be surprised to hear that the progressives down at the city want to eliminate our use of electricity too.
I hereby resolve that city council should sell their cars and ride the bus.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | 
City government | 
Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The new west side swimming pool was supposed to be turned over to the city in November of this year so that it could be open to the public in January of 2018.
This picture was taken Sunday, October 8, 2017:
Looking inside the building you would see that the swimming pool has not been built yet.
Weren’t we told that city council would be looking after these projects?
We deserve better
Brutus
5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
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
Back in 2012 the voters in the city approved $473 million worth of bonds for various projects.
Five years later we can see the city’s progress in this chart that city staff presented at the July 11. 2017 city council meeting:
Wow, $29 million dollars in only five years.
At this rate we should look forward to completion in 81 years.
We deserve better
Brutus
9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Our current mayor wrote a piece for The El Paso Times the other day in which he said that a letter our current state senator recently sent to the mayor and city council was “factually wrong and unfair”.
After arguing that the city has no intention of building a “sports arena” the mayor wrote “Rather , the city will build a multipurpose, performing arts and entertainment center. In reference to the location of the arena …”.
He might of called it an entertainment center instead of an arena if he really intends to obey the judge’s order and not allow sporting events in the facility.
Later the mayor wrote about the senator’s claims about ballpark financing. The mayor wrote “Also, the models showed there would be a subsidy from the City’s General Fund until the growth in HOT and team revenues caught up”.
A July 7, 2013 article in El Paso Inc. told us:
Originally, hotel occupancy tax revenues were to pay for $48.7 million of the stadium cost with the remaining $4.1 million covered by ticket surcharges and stadium-generated sales taxes – money that would first go into the city’s general fund.
We doubt that the Inc. was lying.
Unfortunately the city is having to subsidize the ballpark with money above and beyond ticket surcharges and stadium-generated sales taxes.
On June 26, 2016 city council passed a resolution that allowed the city manager to proceed with the ballpark deal. When it came to financing the ballpark, the resolution said:
Financing Ballpark Construction. The City Manager is authorized to proceed with the proposed financing plan, which ultimately may be modified to include the possible use of (i) a venue hotel occupancy tax if approved by the voters at a duly-called election; (ii) lease revenue bonds issued by a local government corporation formed by the City; and/or (iii) other debt obligations issued by or on behalf of the City for the construction and development of the Ballpark.
The resolution allowed three methods of financing, none of which included general revenue from the city taxpayers.
In his conclusion the mayor wrote “I respectfully ask that you get your facts correct”.
Either the mayor is misinformed or he is not telling the truth. Either way he does not have his facts correct.
We deserve better
Brutus
4 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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