Council uber all

September 24, 2014

El Paso Inc. wrote in their Monday, September 22, 2014 post (www.elpasoinc.com) that Uber is now operating in El Paso.

Uber is a jitney service where people can use their smart phone to arrange a ride instead of taking a taxi.  Users say that the service is quicker and more convenient than using our traditional taxi companies.

Part of the Inc.  post included this:

“I’m all for it,” said city Rep. Claudia Ordaz, City Council’s newest and youngest member. “I think this is a good opportunity for the city to look at the vehicle-for-hire-regs and maybe revamp them so that services like this can abide by the rules.”

Our city representative says that she’s all for the new service, even though it appears to be illegal to do this in El Paso.

Rules

Many of our elected officials seem to have difficulty remembering that our laws must be obeyed.  If we don’t like them we should change them.  If this service is truly illegal in El Paso, then what she said is irresponsible.  A better response might have been “the City needs to look into how we want to handle this.  I think that I would vote for an ordinance that would allow Uber to operate legally”.

Instead what we saw was a city representative once again deciding that they have the authority to violate or encourage others to violate our laws.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Inc. | Permalink
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El Paso Country Club in Northeast El Paso

September 23, 2014

I heard part of a conversation the other day where an older guy was telling a younger one that the northeast part of town was home to the original El Paso Country Club.

Being ever eager to inform I thought that I would write what I have found out about the claim.

The original  club house was designed by Henry Trost and was built in the 1908-1909 period.  It was located at the intersection of Mountain and Dyer.  It had a 9 hole golf course.  Two holes were on the club’s property and 7 were on Fort Bliss.

The club house burned down Friday night, May 2, 1916.

A schism in the membership developed.  It seems that most of the  financial and commerce community lived on the east side of the mountain in the communities along Alabama.  They wanted to rebuild their club on the existing site.  The avid golfers wanted to take Zack White up on his offer to donate land to build a country club and golf course in the upper valley where the club is located today.

The answer?  Build two club houses.  The El Paso Morning Times reported in it’s Friday, August 4, 1916 edition that “The directors, after much deliberation, hit upon the scheme of building two club houses”.  They decided to build one at the old location and at the Zach White location (where the club is now) they would build another club house and a golf course.

Brutus

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Progressive regression

September 22, 2014

While doing research for the post about El Paso Country Club’s original location I ran across the Sunday, August 30, 1914 edition of The El Paso Morning Times.

The newspaper was applauding El Paso’s growth.  According to the article the population of El Paso 30 years prior (1884) was 500 people.  By 1914 it was over 60,000 people.  Yikes!

The newspaper printed “a brief list of some of the things that El Paso has”.  One item on the list caught my eye:

“Thirty-seven miles of finely paved streets”

Oh for the good old days!

It seems that our progressives have taken us backward.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

12 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
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Can’t win for losing

September 21, 2014

The Tuesday, September 16, 2014 agenda for the El Paso Independent School District board of managers contains a classic example of how local government staffs play favorites when choosing vendors.

The agenda had two separate construction items on it.  The backup material shows us how unfair the district can be.

One item was for about $4 million of construction at Milam elementary.  One bidder submitted a bid that was higher than the low bid.  Staff recommended that the contract be given to the low bidder.  That looks right on the face of it.

The higher bidder (Bidder A)  was given the highest score possible  (3.00) on criteria item 10 (“whether the Bidder’s financial capability is appropriate to the size and scope of the Project”).

The problem

The other construction item was for about $1 million.  Bidder A from the previous item submitted the lowest bid but did not get the contract.  District staff instead recommended giving the contract to the second lowest bidder.

The recommendation was based on a numerical scoring system that included twelve different criteria.  Bidder A was evaluated well across the board, except on item 10 (“whether the Bidder’s financial capability is appropriate to the size and scope of the Project”).  Bidder A was given a 2.10 out of 3.00 this time, thus lowering his total score and putting him in second place.  He was also dinged for “timely” submission of organizational and other documents in the bid he should have won while he earned the maximum number of points for the same item on the other bid.

Huh?

How can Bidder A be perfectly capable (3.00 out of 3.00 points) to financially handle a $4 million construction contract and only be marginally capable (2.10 our of 3.00 points) to handle a $1 million construction contract on the same day?

The same day!

The answer is that the fix was in.  Bidder A had done much work for the school district but evidently has fallen out of favor.

We deserve better

Brutus

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Wrong date and time at the Times

September 20, 2014

Our El Paso Times continues to misinform its readers.

The Monday, September 15, 2014 edition has a front page article that claimed:

“The city will consider making a zoning change today that would restrict where payday and car loan companies can set up shop.

The zoning amendment is up for discussion and action at today’s 8 a.m. City Council meeting.”

Not true

City council meets on Tuesday.  This Monday a “Legislative Review Meeting of the Whole” was scheduled.

The meeting was to start at 9 a.m.

No action can be taken during the Monday meeting.  They must wait for a city council meeting to take action.

The issue is scheduled for a public hearing before council Tuesday, September 16.  Members of the public should express their thoughts about the issue at the Tuesday meeting.  I wonder if anyone attended the Monday meeting intending to speak.

The online edition of the Times contained the same mistakes earlier in the morning of the 15th.  In reviewing the online edition while writing this post I see that the Times has corrected its errors online.  This was done without telling us that they changed their article.

At least with the printed edition of the Times we have proof of what they publish.  With the online edition they evidently feel it is okay to change their story without telling us that they have made a change.

It’s hard to believe that the reporter does not know the difference between a city council meeting and a legislative review meeting.  Does that mean that the article was published too early?  With that being a possibility, why wouldn’t the reporter refrain from using the word “today” and instead write the actual date being referred to?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

4 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
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