Shifting sands

September 21, 2017

Could it be that we are being played?

The chief financial officer of the city retired right in the middle of the budget process.  We wrote about that in Strange retirement.

The former chief financial officer of the city was featured in a Times article the other day  where she said that the process of giving a big contract to one of the superintendent’s cronies was not “transparent”.

The superintendent probably is not happy with her.  Will he ask for her resignation?

If that happens she will be out of work, but fortunately for her the city has a position open.

Does the new mayor like her?  She served on the appointed board of managers of EPISD while he did.  They arranged for her to go to work for the district the first day Texas law allowed a former board member to become an employee.  She appeared in a published picture of the new mayor’s announcement of his run for mayor.

Stay tuned.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Another year older and deeper in debt

September 20, 2017

It looks like we will need to update our banner that shows El Paso’s local government debt totals.

The city’s 2015 comprehensive annual financial report showed the total pension liability at about $392 million.

The external audit for 2016 reports different numbers.  The audit firm pegged the 2015 liability at $417.5 million.

Getting worse

Unfortunately the audit tells us that the 2016 figures are even worse.

The city employee’s pension fund net liability increased from $126.7 million in 2015 to $195.1 million in 2016.  The 2016 number is 153.9% greater than the 2015 number.

The fire pension net liability grew from $105.8 million to $162.6 million, or 153.6%.

Police pension net liability grew from $185.0 million to $212.7 million, yielding 114.9%.

Our combined liability stands at $570.4 million.

Look for yourself

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City going dark

September 19, 2017

City council agendas and backup materials are supposed to be posted on the city website by 12 Noon on the Thursday.

That leaves very little time for us common citizens to call our city representative to discuss concerns we might have with agenda topics.

The city is closed on Friday.

Council members attend legislative review (pre council) meetings on Mondays.

Regular city council meetings are on Tuesday mornings.

Our former city clerk has retired and whoever is filling in for her did not meet the posting requirements this week.  This is a snapshot of the city’s web site this Thursday afternoon (the date and time were manually entered):

There was a special city council meeting Monday and a regular one on this morning.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

New blog in town

September 18, 2017

There’s a new blog in town:

https://signofzorro.wordpress.com/

Brutus

5 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Constitution day

September 17, 2017

Take time today to celebrate Constitution Day.

There has been talk lately about the fact that the constitution does not grant the feral government control over immigration.  It is a state issue as the constitution is written.

Our supreme court however ruled in Chy Lung v. Freeman, 92 U.S. 275 (1876) that immigration was to be controlled at the federal government level.

At the time there were no federal laws on the books for the supreme court to interpret.

They simply chose to create their own law.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »