General hospital right here in El Paso

December 18, 2014

The drama continues.

Our county hospital resembles the popular television soap opera.

The board of managers of our county hospital was said to be drafting a reprimand of our county hospital administrator.

We learned this after our county judge and at least one county commissioner asked for the resignation of some of the members of the board.

The board meeting that was held to consider the reprimand turned into a cheer leading event with the public comment portion of the meeting being dominated by speakers who told of us the wonderful job our hospital administrator has done.

It seems that the next move will have to come from our county judge and the commissioners.

Will they follow through or was all of their public posturing just for show?

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

San Jacinto disaster

December 17, 2014

Our frequent commenter Reality Checker posted a comment yesterday about city council refusing to provide restrooms in the remodeled (for the umpteenth time) San Jacinto Plaza.

The plaza renovations are one of the 2012 quality of life bond projects.

The situation is really sad in my opinion.

I’m having difficulty expressing my thoughts here.  I’m gobsmacked and my thoughts are erupting faster than I can filter them and make them an appropriate part of the discussion.

How can we have reached this state of affairs?

Are our city officials incompetent?  Do they not care about our quality of life?  Is this some kind of sick joke?

The design work was supervised by city staff.  It is possible that the city council members at the time were not aware of the lack of facilities.

What cannot be denied however is that this city council is aware of the problem and all but one member voted to go ahead without the bathrooms.  Shame on them.

El Paso may be open for business but it evidently is not open to the public.

Restrooms will have to be provided.  I suppose that portable johns will be the first offering.

In the meantime I agree with mamboman3‘s suggestion yesterday.  Let’s close the restrooms in the city operated buildings so that our public servants can learn better how to serve the public.

Quality of life my foot.

We deserve better

Brutus

21 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Ascarate follies

December 16, 2014

The issue of the water pumps at Ascarate lake tells us a lot about our county government.

The Times reported back in June that one of the pumps had “depleted” the lake.  Actually evaporation depleted the lake, a pump did not drain it.  The pump was not working at all.

County commissioners spent $20,000 dollars for a new pump.

Back in the news

Last week we heard about pumps again.  We learned:

We have a broken pump

It was installed in 2011 on land that the county does not own

The county has no right to enter the land or to pump water from it

They might have to follow state and local regulations in installing and operating the pump if they ever get permission to use the land and the water.  This evidently rankles our county officials–they are with the government after all.

The people responsible for this mess are no longer with the county

There’s the lie

Our county judge was with us in 2011.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

No worries

December 15, 2014

The December 2, 2014 city council agenda featured item 13.1 on the regular agenda.  It was listed as “Financial Audit and Oversight Committee Report”.

  1. For Notation Only:  Formal Report of the Financial Audit and Oversight Committee meeting held on October 27, 2014.
  2. Discussion on Audit Plan Updates.
  3. Discussion and Action on the City of El Paso Internal Audit Charter.
  4. Discussion and Action on the FY 2015 Annual Internal Audit Plan.
  5. Discussion and Action on HOT Audits Update.
  6. Discussion on PeopleSoft update.
  7. Discussion and Action on the City’s Investment Policy for FY 2015.
  8. Discussion and Action on the City Debt Management Policy for FY 2015.
  9. Discussion on update of development of City Fund Balance Policy

Even though the item was for notation only (we certainly don’t need to be talking about these things in public) two of the council members did express their thoughts about the need to formalize the policies regarding the replenishment of the fund balances if they are drawn below their minimums.

This post is for notation only.  Financial matters are evidently not things that citizens should be concerned with.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Say it ain’t so

December 14, 2014

This note was emailed to me the other day:

“I understand that if Valenti makes it to2016 he gets a $3 million incentive. I ask that you verify.”

Is this true?

Does anyone have a copy of our hospital administrator’s contract?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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