County payback?

August 12, 2016

What a gig!

An out of town firm was hired by our county commissioners to perform a wage and compensation study of all county jobs.

The got hired by our commissioners and now report that our commissioners are not paid enough.  This reminds us of the situation over at EPISD where a former member of the state appointed board of managers ends up as employee of the district on the first day that state law would allow her to be hired.

We took a look at the backup material presented to our commissioners when the contract award came up on the agenda.  This document shows the result of the evaluation:

publicsector1

The vendor with the highest rating was Management Advisory Group.  They had a score of 450.  The second place firm was Public Sector Personnel with a rating of 439.

2nd Place Wins

Those ratings evidently did not give the county what they wanted.  How could they get around that?

Simple.  They evidently decided to evaluate the two as “finalists”.  The evaluation committee changed because the county dropped the two evaluators that had given the second place firm the lowest votes.  As a result the ratings changed and the second ranked firm became the top ranked one.  Here is the ratings sheet:

publicsector2

The county has reached a new low.

We deserve better

Brutus

12 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD bonds–why all at once?

August 11, 2016

EPISD’s new chief financial officer recently told us that the proposed bonds would not impact our school taxes all at once.

According to an article in the Times she told us that the bonds would be issued in three phases.

If that is the case why don’t they ask for the money for the first phase, prove to us that they can handle our money and then ask for the next phase?

Why do we need to approve money that they admit that they cannot spend before they are ready for it?

Could it be that things are going to get worse at the district and they want us to commit before we know the truth?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Official oppression?

August 10, 2016

The Times printed an Associated Press article the other day about a Texas county that is suing an individual citizen for complaining about one of their policies.

The citizen has complained to Waller county (near Houston) that they have no right to ban firearms in the entire Waller county courthouse.

Texas law evidently prohibits guns from being carried by citizens into courtrooms and related offices, but not the remainder of the building.  The Texas attorney general agrees that guns cannot be prohibited from an entire courthouse.

That is evidently not the answer that the Waller county district attorney wants.  He has sued the citizen individually.  According to the article he said “he’s simply seeking a ruling by a state judge that the county has the legal right to ban guns from the entire courthouse building”.

The suit seeks $100,000 in damages but the district attorney “promised that the county would not pursue any monetary damages”.

Hooey

The district attorney evidently said that the monetary claim was included as boilerplate language.   If they don’t want the money why did they ask for it?  Could it be another way to try to intimidate the citizen?

A law is passed by the legislature.  The state attorney general was asked to give his opinion about the limits of the law.  He did.  The county did not like the ruling.  A citizen complained.

Now the citizen has been sued by the county for complaining that the county was following neither the state law nor respecting the attorney general’s interpretation of it.

The citizen now has to spend money to defend himself against these thugs.

This distict attorney needs to be corrected.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

EPISD bonds–the Times

August 9, 2016

The Times printed another one of it’s government service announcements the other day.  The article was about the bond election that EPISD is considering.

The reporter told us  that “State dollars finance school districts’ daily operations but construction is financed through bonds, which are paid for by property taxes”.

Firstly, I would enjoy meeting a property tax in person.  Bonds are paid for by tax payers through their property taxes.

If somehow we could be convinced that construction can only be paid for with bonds, that leaves a question about why the upcoming bond request will include requests for money for busses, laptops, and remodeling.

Granted that I am not an educator, but I have to wonder about the wisdom of buying laptops at all, much less with borrowed money.  Most people that I talk with tell me that they have switched over to tablets.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

County commissioners pay raise

August 8, 2016

It seems that our county commissioners might be looking for a pay raise.

The Times published an article about a recent salary survey the other day.  The survey evidently indicated that our county judge and commissioners are significantly underpaid when compared to other Texas counties that have large populations.

Some of the commissioners are playing coy, saying that the survey results were a surprise but  that there should at least be a discussion about giving themselves a raise.

The survey was commissioned to study pay rates for all county employees.  Commissioners could have paid less money for the survey if they had ordered one that did not spend money on studying their salaries.

These people are elected officials.  They know what their salaries are before they run for office.  Now they might use their powers to give themselves a pay raise.

They might want to read the 27th amendment to our constitution.  It prohibits congress from giving themselves a pay raise.  They can raise the pay of representatives and senators but the raises cannot take effect until after their next election.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | County Government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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