Former mayor underperforms

November 8, 2014

Our former mayor just ran against one of the Bush family members for the office of State Land Commissioner.

The results?

Winning a statewide race is a challenge for democrats in Texas.

Their candidates for governor and lieutenant governor got 39% of the votes.  Most of their other candidates received about 38%.

Our former mayor posted a 35% result in his race for land commissioner.

I don’t recall reading about that in the Times.  One would think that the story would be of local interest.

There is a reason for what you don’t get to read in the Times.

On a positive note we can be relieved that he didn’t win.  He might have torn down the Alamo to make way for a ball park.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Running total

November 7, 2014

Some readers have asked recently if anyone knows what the total cost of the ball park is at this point.

These numbers are ones that I attribute to the cost.  I hope that the readers of this blog will help us to build a more accurate accounting.

Double your pleasure showed us that the $61 million in bonds will cost us $137,286,965.10 by the time we pay them off.  That is unless the folks down at the city refinance the deal again.

Opening day was about a “guaranteed maximum price agreement” with the ball park contractor.  The document excluded certain things from the price, like:

  • railroad platforms and bridge
  • railroad platform foundations
  • Missouri and Durango street improvements
  • offsite improvements/work (this probably includes the water and sewer work the city is not talking about as well as the pedestrian and road work around the park)
  • special construction provisions required at railroad
  • porcelain/art signage
  • 4 TOPP or 2 TOPP tables and loose chairs
  • aluminum and fabric sun shades

Train wreck was about the deals the city had to cut with a railroad in order to get a sliver of the land that the ball park now sits on.  In addition to the $238,810 the city had to pay for 8,684 square feet of land, paying $27.50 per square foot, the city had to sell two acres of land adjacent to the $27.50 land for $11.10 per square foot.  Citizens suffered the economic consequences of the city agreeing to close eight railroad crossings throughout the city as part of the land deals.

Shameless told us about a deal where the city gave the state $5 million to enhance bridges between Portfirio Diaz street and Missouri avenue.  The state will spend $2.7 million for two pedestrian overpasses going over the depressed train way leading into the ball park.  The state will also spend $800,000 dollars for pedestrian wayfinding in downtown.

Baseball art showed that the city was going to spend  $850,000 with three artists for work to be done at the ball park.

In El Paso quality of life update the fact that the city was spending $500,000 from quality of life bonds to build a pedestrian pathway into the ball park.

Shoes dropping addressed the fact that “El Paso Water Utilities will handle the work and pay to redo the water and sewer lines in the area…”

Various studies have been paid for relative to traffic, congestion, noise and vibration.

In addition, the sports group has agreed to pay up to $10 million outside of taxpayer money.

Moving city hall has now cost us over $70 million.

That gives us:

  • $137 million to pay off the bonds
  • $239 thousand to buy land from the railroad
  • $5 million to the state
  • $850 thousand for art
  • $500 thousand from the quality of life bonds
  • unknown amount for the water utility to do their work
  • $70 million to move city hall

I come up with about $220 million in capital costs.  Operating costs are another matter.

Not bad for a $35 million stadium that Inside job told us about.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

 

3 Comments | Ball park, City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Is bus service every 65 minutes convenient in the city?

November 6, 2014

While not being known as a tree huger I am hopeful that somehow mass transit can play a bigger part in our community.  I don’t agree with how they are spending money to do this but I do realize that once they have spent the capital I should at least try to work with what we get.

The bus service operates several “circulator” routes in town.  These bus routes typically cover a small area of town and terminate in one of our several transfer stations.  Once a passenger gets to a transfer station they can take a different bus to continue their journey.

I freely admit that I am not an expert on mass transit systems.  That being said, some of the other routes seem wasteful to me.  Route 11, “Mesita via Kern Place” is an example.  This graphic is from the sunmetro.net web site:

route 11

This route offers service every 65 minutes during week days and every 80 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays.  That is better than nothing but is hardly convenient for someone who does not want to wait over an hour to catch a bus.

It seems to me that the portion after Baltimore that heads downtown is not needed.  Baltimore Drive turns into Glory Road, the location of a transfer station.  Instead of running down Florence the bus could continue on Baltimore down to the transfer station.  Passengers could transfer to a different bus at that point.  If the goal is to get downtown there are four different routes that run up and down Mesa in addition to this one.  Brio is one of these.

Looking at the timetable the route from the northern end at Camelot Apartments to the Glory Road transfer station would take about 10 minutes.  Our route 11 could then head back into the neighborhood giving patrons service at 20 minute intervals.  The buses could even expand their route in the neighborhood making access more convenient for some residents.  They could cover additional streets and still offer 30 minute service.

Would offering more frequent service increase ridership?  We won’t know unless we try it.  As it it now service every 65 minutes is only attractive to those who must use the service.  People with their own cars don’t want to wait an hour.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Hiding from us

November 5, 2014

Wanting to follow up on our county hospital’s financial situation I went to their web site and looked at the Tuesday, October 14, 2014 board agenda.

This graphic comes from the first page:

umcfinancial

The meeting was video recorded.  Watching it I saw the chief executive officer addressing the board.  He made a point of turning to the camera and recognizing that the citizens were able to watch the meeting also.  It was clearly a great step toward transparency.

Not so fast

Our county hospital is in financial trouble.  Part of the problem is their relationship with the children’s hospital.  The children’s hospital cannot pay what they owe to the county hospital.  The county hospital has been operating as though the bills can be paid.  The result is that the county hospital took the drastic action of getting a payday loan to get it through this year.  Yes, they borrowed money against next year’s property tax receipts.  How they will somehow make things even next year is a mystery.

The above portion of the board agenda shows that the review of the hospital’s financial statements was handled through the consent agenda.  Watching the video of the meeting I saw that there was absolutely no discussion from either the board members, the hospital staff, or the public concerning the financial statements.

Out of sight

What they did was fulfill their requirement to review the financial statements without the public learning any of the details.

This board should be ashamed.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Please vote

November 4, 2014

This is a good day.

We get to vote!

We deserve better and here is a chance to make it happen

Brutus

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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