You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares So go downtown

May 28, 2015

The city manager’s 2015 Mid-year Operations Report highlights some of the accomplishments of city staff.

We would normally expect that the list of achievements for each section of city government would start with the most significant ones followed by the lesser but still important ones.

In the case of the economic development group a $40 million dollar capital expansion by one of our local employers along with 1,100 new jobs did not make it to the top of the list.  Neither did the investment of $21.5 million by a company from out of town.  That deal will bring us 445 jobs.

Instead, the list was topped with “Providing support for the partial relocation of El Paso Independent School District offices to the Downtown area.”  Wow!  Second on the list was “Coordinating the relocation of the Metropolitan Planning Organization offices to the Downtown area”.

See for yourself:

2015midyearoperationsreportmoveepisd

This tells us what the city thinks is important.

We deserve better

Brutus

12 Comments | City government | Permalink
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Dark Sky ordinance

May 27, 2015

This came in from Tim Holt:

Brutus, 

Word on the street is that Clear Channel (the owners of 10000000 billboards around town) are trying to get the Dark Sky ordinance (which uses shielded lighting, which saves energy, cuts down glare, and makes the city safer, and…. makes the sky darker  for this of us that still like those twin liking lights in the night sky) overturned by City council. Write your City Rep and tell them that you do not want to see the Dark Sky overturned or have any businesses given an exemption.

Tim Holt
@timholt2007

16 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Poor choices

May 26, 2015

The city manager’s Mid-Year Operations Report and recent events point out a set of disturbing alternatives.  As you can see from the cover of the report, it was published in March of 2015.

2015midyearoperationsreport

The report tells us that the work at San Jacinto Plaza will be finished in April of 2015.

2015midyearoperationsreportsanjacinto

The Plaza looked like this at the end of March of 2015:

sanjacinto03292015

Take your pick

We all know that here at the end of May the Plaza is not finished.  Why was the city manager’s report so blatantly wrong?

The two possible explanations that I can come up with are either he had no idea of the real situation at the Plaza or the accuracy of his report was not important to him.  In other words he was either clueless or he chose to report something that he knew would not be true.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
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Rent with difficulties

May 25, 2015

This came in from Helen Marshall:

I am not an accountant and have not examined the EPCH books.  But the constant reference to “rent” being paid to the UMC has puzzled me.  How can UMC charge rent for facilities that were built with yet another taxpayer-funded bond issue?  

The explanation from a friend at the Times is:  “UMC’s explanation has been published several times. They say the rent is meant to pay for upkeep, rather than taking on additional debt to pay for such things. Children’s isn’t disputing the rent as much as they’re saying they were overcharged for other services.”

So the rent is not rent.  Got that?

I hope the judge in Austin will hire at least one good CPA to untangle this mess.

* * * * * * * * * *

Then she sent this in Sunday:

In the letters section of today’s El Paso Times, we read this about the Children’s Hospital:

“Editor’s note:  The building housing Children’s Hospital is owned by University Medical Center.  The bonds to build the facility were issued by UMC, and those bonds are repaid through property taxes collected by UMC.”

So it is rent.

The real owners are the property taxpayers, who are about to get whacked.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_28179173/childrens-physicians-staff-deserve-support

16 Comments | County Government | Permalink
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Now that the shoe is on the other foot

May 24, 2015

Our public service board has decided to follow the law and charge the city council imposed additional franchise fee on both residential and non-residential customers.

The PSB had previously followed the city’s request and was charging the fee only to non-residential customers.  That turned out to not be legal.

There should have no surprise there with the advice coming from our city attorney and one of her number one assistants, Scrivener.

What was surprising was to see that our former chief financial officer attended the PSB meeting to complain about how the fee will affect her company.  According to the Times:

“Arrieta-Candelaria said 6-inch meters are used by rental complexes that her company manages. The new higher fee will mean raising customers’ rents, cutting expenses or taking a financial hit.”

Taking a hit

I suppose that now that she is out in the private sector she is beginning to see that damage that the city’s wanton spending and poor financial planning has on the community.

In part it was her inaccurate forecasting that has allowed the city to get in the budget mess that we have.

After the meeting according to the Times, ” Arrieta-Candelaria, the city’s former chief financial officer, asked why commercial customers must pay more now since the fee is being spread to include residential customers.”

In other words “don’t make me pay so much, stick the citizens with the bill”.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

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