Good news from YISD?

September 9, 2015

We get to report some good news today.

I am often disturbed when talking with youngsters to learn that they never took the scholastic aptitude test (SAT) or the ACT while in high school.  Many universities require the test.  Some of these kids don’t think that they will be going to college and skip the test.  Later some of them decide that they do want to go to college and have to take one of the tests.  Most of them would have been better off to take the test while still in high school.

The August 12, 2015 Ysleta Independent School District board of trustees meeting agenda includes two items that pay for every student to take tests, thus removing cost from the decision as to whether to take the test or not.

Agenda item 11 was to authorize a contract that would pay for each 11th grader to take the ACT test.

Item 12 considers paying for the Preliminary SAT for each 10th and 11th grader.

I don’t know if the items were approved but most agenda items are.

Brutus

 

4 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Motion to enable conflicts of interest

September 8, 2015

Here’s another proposed charter amendment that you will get a chance to vote on at the November 3, 2015 election.

Should Section 3.3 A of the City Charter, relating to the prohibitions regarding public employment by City Council members and City employment by former City Council members, be repealed?

Under the existing charter city representatives cannot hold any other public office or be on a public payroll.  They also cannot be employed by the city until they have been out of office for at least a year.

Conflicts

The existing rules avoid the types of conflicts that might occur if a city representative was also a school board trustee or if the county judge also became a city representative.

As far as “City employment by former City Council members” goes it looks like Scrivener is still hard at work.  Do they mean to imply that a former city council member can employ the city?  Do they mean “City employment of former City Council members”?  Would this set up a situation where a city representative voted the way the city manager wanted them to vote and in return the city representative got a city job after leaving office?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Letter in the Times

September 7, 2015

This from Helen Marshall:

I think he has a point…

City engineering problems may go back to ballpark

The ongoing critique and blame games concerning the problems within the City Engineering Department are troubling.

So far, most of the comments have been shallow and fail to recognize what may be the real problem. Much of the current situation may have originated when the ballpark project was begun.

At that time, the city engineer was tasked to head the ballpark efforts, a Herculean task which left him little time to fulfill his responsibilities of managing the department.

After completion of the ballpark, the engineer was offered a new job which did not allow him to repair any problems that may have developed while his attention was focused on the ballpark.

The other projects in the Engineering Department may have suffered from a lack of leadership at the top.

The people who generated this situation like former Mayor John Cook, former City Manager Joyce Wilson and former city Rep. Steve Ortega should have some responsibility for these failures.

The current city manager seems to understand this and seems to be doing a good job of minimizing the damage.

Alan Jones East Side

5 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Facts vs. fancy

September 6, 2015

Our alert Helen Marshall sent us this letter to the editor of the Times and her comments about the letter:

El Paso Times

Posted:   09/01/2015 12:00:00 AM MDT
Sun Metro provides great, inexpensive service

Sun Metro is the best! The buses are always on time with very helpful bus drivers.

I love to look out the windows and see everything that I never get to see if I am driving.

The new Brio buses are the icing on the cake. I can ride from East El Paso to West El Paso for $3 round trip, which will be 60 cents when I am 65.

The Brio takes me to my doctor appointments, great restaurants, the museums, the ballpark, the Mission Trail, the casino, the Magoffin Home and many more places.

There are two free buses that take you everywhere in the Downtown area.

Sun Metro is El Paso’s best kept secret.

Kaye Hudson

East Side

The New York Times at one time had a rule for letters to the effect that “you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.”  Apparently not in operation at the El Paso Times.   If she is riding the Brio from the East Side to the West Side or into the Mission Trail or to the casino, what planet is she on?  And these buses are “always on time?”  Not even “almost always”???

7 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Wrong twice?

September 5, 2015

Wind Talker posted a comment the other day in response to Is this an awakening?

The comment was polite, well written, and it looks like she/he knows what they are talking about.

The comment corrected us on two points.  We were evidently wrong about a proposed tax rate and about the nature of the services that the districts provide.

We thank Wind Talker for correcting us.

Our information came from an El Paso Times article:

Also on Monday, Commissioners Court will discuss the proposed tax rates by Emergency Services Districts No. 1 and 2. Both taxing jurisdictions are proposing a property tax increase of 10 cents per $100 taxable value. The county administration is recommending that Commissioners Court deny both requests.

Emergency Services Districts No. 1 and 2 provide fire and ambulance services to Horizon and the county’s unincorporated areas. Their budgets are approved by Commissioners Court.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

1 Comment | County Government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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