elchuqueno.com published an interesting piece, Step Right Up , the other day about our electricity rates in El Paso.
It seems that our area is one of the few in Texas that is not deregulated. The article gives a long list of events that will have to happen before we can have deregulated electricity.
Is this because we are so geographically isolated or are other forces at work here?
We deserve better
Brutus
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Posted by Brutus
City staff gave a show and tell presentation to council a few weeks ago.
The topic was the improvement made in one specific area of the parks and recreation department. They applied some of the six sigma principles that they have been learning about.
The problem staff tackled had to do with water sprinkler repair/replacement in the parks. Previous to the initiative it took 24 hours for a sprinkler to be repaired. Staff studied and planned and collaborated and the result was that it now only takes 2 hours to effect the repairs.
Their solution? They put more sprinkler parts in the trucks that the workers drive to the park location.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am pleased that our new city manager is acting like a manager. The end result of their effort is clearly a good one.
I shudder to think of the inefficiencies in daily operations in our city departments if this effort deserves special recognition. The workers involved probably figured it out on their first day of work.
And the fact that city council sat there and applauded without a single representative asking what other Forest Gump situations we have at the city tells us a lot about where we really are.
We deserve better
Brutus
13 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The Times reported the following in their Wednesday, August 18, 2015 edition:
The city recently hired two engineering and consulting firms — HNTB and Freese and Nichols — to assess the department’s policies and procedures, and to manage the Metropolitan Planning Organization submittal process for transportation projects.
Lombraña said both firms would be eligible to bid for contracts in the future if the city decides to outsource work previously overseen by city engineers–even if the recommendation to do so comes from the firms themselves.
Searching the city council agendas we got no results for either a contract with HNTB or Freese and Nichols, so we cannot report any of the financial details.
Being able to bid on projects that they themselves recommend be taken to bid must be sweet.
We deserve better
Brutus
3 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Just showing up to vote sends a message to our elected officials.
We deserve better
Brutus
3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
In talking with a citizen the other day I heard him indicate that he voted against the EPISD tax initiative because he feared that the tax increase was permanent.
Actually voting for the initiative will not raise our total school taxes. The EPISD board has already voted to lower the rate for debt payments by the same amount that they are asking the public to approve as an increase to the maintenance and operations rate. In other words the combined tax rate will remain the same. The reason for doing this is that Texas will provide more money to the district.
Unfortunately the school board has not decided to use some of the extra money from the state to continue to reduce our debt at the same rate we did before they lowered their debt payment levy. That would have been a clear win for everyone.
When I went to vote I saw this wording on the ballot:
“APPROVING THE AD VALOREM TAX RATE OF $1.2350 PER $100 VALUATION IN THE EL PASO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR THE CURRENT YEAR, A RATE THAT IS $.0076 HIGHER PER $100 VALUATION THAN THE SCHOOL DISTRICT ROLLBACK TAX RATE.”
It asks for permission to raise a portion of the rate for this year.
Not being expert in the area school district taxation I don’t know if this opens the door to some kind of automatic increase in the future, but I doubt it.
The ballot says “for the current year”.
Please vote. The election is tomorrow.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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