Ongoing crisis?

November 3, 2014

Things are ominously quite over at our county hospital and the children’s hospital.

It was some time ago that we learned that the financial auditors for the children’s hospital told us that it was probably not a viable ongoing concerning with the financial arrangements as they are now.

We have been told that the children’s hospital owes the county hospital more than $60 million dollars.

The county hospital had to get permission to borrow money from next year’s paycheck (property tax income) to finish 2014.

The lack of transparency about the situation is troublesome.  I fear that we will eventually be presented with another “fait accompli” along with another bill.

If the situation is as dire as we have been told these guys need to take action to get the situation straightened out.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD transition

November 2, 2014

The Texas education commissioner has announced that the term of the El Paso Independent School District board of managers will end after the May election cycle is finished  as state law requires.

Once the May elections have determined who the new board members are they will join the ones who were elected in 2013 but were never allowed to take their rightful seats.

This chapter in the unfortunate saga will finally be over.

We need to watch to see what changes they make as their terms expire.  They were not elected by us and are not accountable through the ballot box.  Having nothing to lose politically (other than their reputations) they might use their final months to force changes that the public does not want.

Vigilance

We will eventually  have elected officials that are accountable to the public running the school district again.

When this happens we need to have a heightened sense of vigilance.  We need to watch this board and hold them accountable on a meeting by meeting basis.

If we do this and the board strays, we need to tell them how we feel.   Even our local elected officials behave differently when they know the public is watching.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

1 Comment | El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Counting the miracles

November 1, 2014

What have we come to when our county judge reports the county’s significant accomplishments for the year as:

  1. Deciding to hire a county administrator
  2. Taking responsibility for the county budget away from the county auditor
  3. Getting a new labor agreement with the sheriff’s officers association.

Wow!

Maybe next year they can work on completing the sports park or something other than bureaucratic stuff.

Most of us could have done the three things above in a couple of days.

Filling the county administrator’s job will be something to watch.  The county hired an out of town firm to perform an extensive nationwide search to find just the right person.

Would anyone care to bet that the city’s former chief financial officer will be at the top of the list?

Hide and watch.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD purchasing

October 31, 2014

Looking at the district’s formal “Purchasing and Acquisition” policy some things trouble me.

From the policy:

“The Board delegates to the Superintendent the authority to make budgeted purchases of goods and services that cost up to $100,000 and other purchases of goods and services in accordance with other provisions in this policy.”

Presumably that means that the board does not even have to be notified of the purchase.

Then further from the policy:

“The Superintendent shall also be authorized to approve budgeted purchases of goods and services made in accordance with an inter-local cooperative contract up to $250,000 per vendor in the aggregate of a 12 month period.”

In light of what we have seen in the past, this seems dangerous to me.

It is particularly troubling if in fact the board (and therefor the public) do not have to be informed of these purchases.

Is the board to busy to even look at how our money is spent?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Dangerous intersections?

October 30, 2014

Brio, our new rapid transit system was launched Monday, October 27, 2014.

One of the features we have been told about is the ability of the bus operator to hold an already green light green.  I’m not sure this is a good idea.  People will probably learn how to follow closely behind or beside the buses to take advantage of the extended green lights.

Frightening

One of our regular readers told me about a harrowing experience she had on the first day of  Brio’s operation.

She was driving on Mesa in the northbound direction.  She needed to turn left onto an intersecting street.  She had a green light and was positioned to turn left.  A Brio bus passed through the intersection in the south bound direction.  When the light turned yellow on her side she proceeded in order to get out of the intersection.  Her supposition was that the south bound traffic would also have a yellow light soon to be followed by a red light.

As she turned left she was almost broadsided by a south bound vehicle.  She realizes that it was her responsibility to yield and that had an accident occurred it would have been her fault.  Shaken, she looked up at the light from the south bound side and saw much to her surprise that the south bound lanes still had a green light.  Evidently the Brio bus had succeeded in holding the south bound light green but the north bound lights were operating independently.

When I expressed disbelief and my thoughts that she might have been seeing things she was adamant that she had experienced what she had related.

Word to the wise

If she is right we are going to have some problems.  They will ultimately have to fix this.

Please be careful.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »