Too many chiefs

August 6, 2014

We are now down to one working deputy city manager out of four positions.

Things seem to be settling down.

Less is more

Maybe we don’t need deputy city managers.  We have a chief of police, a fire chief, a comptroller, and various department heads.

What did we get with deputy city managers?

The one in charge of transportation got us the new rapid transit system on Mesa, the street cars that go to the wrong places, the coming bicycle rental system, and countless streets that either are in dire need of paving or are under what feels like permanent reconstruction.

Our chief financial wizard helped us tear down city hall and spend countless millions refurbishing multiple buildings.  Citizens have to travel to multiple buildings for services and we have even used space in a community center to house a city department.  Our public safety pension funds are floating in red ink.  Bond spending has skyrocketed with the promise that revenues will pay for them.  We have the bonds but not the revenues.

One former deputy city manager got us the ball park, the beginning of a downtown renaissance.

Another brought us a multi-million dollar digital wall, soon to be one of only two in the world.

Maybe these people thought that they were supposed to do something other than give us an efficient city government.  Maybe they actually thought their job was to create massive public works projects in the name of progress.

Savings

It seems to me that we could save a lot of money here.  First we have the salaries, termination agreements, and pension obligations of the deputies.  Then we have their offices and staffs.  Then we have the mischief they cause.

We have department heads.  Why can’t they run their departments?

The new city manager might want to do some reorganization.  Creating a director of public works might be a good idea.  Strategic sourcing could be transformed back into purchasing.  You get the idea.

We deserve better

Brutus

14 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Different story now that the die is cast

August 5, 2014

This came in from Helen Marshall yesterday.  I think that she is spot on.

Rep. Robinson is quoted in an  EPT story about Cohen Stadium as saying that “Unfortunately the Diablos chose to move the franchise out of El Paso.”   He also notes that events should be held there.  “It is accessible from all parts of the town with US 54 and the completion of Loop 375.”

Am  I on some other planet?  I thought that the city told the Diablos they could not continue to play baseball in a city facility once the Barking Park was completed, and no one in the city wanted to use Cohen Stadium in any form because it was Not Downtown.  What am I missing here?

Will the water park the city wants to build out there be filled with drinking quality water or treated effluent?  Maybe it can be encircled with cotton farms so EP can show the world there are no water problems out here in the desert!

Cheers!

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

A rose by any other name

August 5, 2014

We unfortunately know that El Paso residents have the 7th highest property tax bill of the 50 largest cities in the United States.  Our position will climb when we start factoring in debt service for the bonds that city council has been selling.

We learned last week that for those of us in the EPISD district our city takes 25% of our local taxes compared to a state-wide average of 17%.  The district is getting 46% of those local taxes compared to 54% statewide.  Our priorities seem screwed up.

But wait!

As though the city trough is not deep and wide enough city council is considering raising the city’s tax rate 2.1 cents per hundred dollars of evaluation to 69.9 cents.  That works out to about a 3% increase, or $26 dollars a year on what we are told is the average home (one valued at $124,000).

Wait again!

Council also wants to raise the franchise fee that our electric company is charged from 4% to 5%.  The fee is passed on to the consumers, so you and I will pay it.  If this money was to be generated through property taxes they would have to add 1.45 cents to our property tax rate.

That puts us at an increase of 3.55 cents per hundred.

Keep waiting!

Council is also considering adding another $1 per month to our trash bill.  The city runs that service and it generates a profit that is taken from the department and used by the city.  The bill would thus increase $12 per year or the equivalent of another .96 cents on our tax bill.

Now we are at 4.51 cents per hundred.

The answer is:

City council is also considering imposing a franchise tax on our city owned water utility.  That tax would be added to our water bills thus generating another $3.5 million for the city each year from our wallets.

This works out to about another 1.05 cents per hundred brining us to an increase of 5.56 cents per hundred or about an 8% tax increase.

The mayor is right

He was quoted the other day as having said “It’s not a hidden tax”.  He is absolutely right–it is a tax increase right out in the open.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

7 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Are we to see more of the same at the city?

August 4, 2014

Our new city manager has appointed an interim chief financial officer.  He is the former city comptroller and is both a CPA and a Phd.

The question

Does he learn quickly or is he trying to get his arms around his new job?

The Tuesday, August 5, 2014 city council agenda gives us reason to wonder.  Item 9 on the regular agenda is “Presentation and discussion on the 3rd Quarter Budget Report for FY2014”.  Some concerned citizens would like to study the report so that they might ask questions of city council as is their right.  The report is not available on the website even though it should be.

Are they deliberately trying to avoid transparency?  If this is an oversight why didn’t someone who knows the rules explain what he needs to do?  If not providing the report to be published with the agenda was deliberate why was the item allowed to be placed on the agenda?

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Street conditions

August 3, 2014

Our local streets are falling apart.  I hope that our readers will use this post to nominate streets for repaving.

The city has published schedules that tell us what they plan to repave in 2014.  You can see one here.

According to the schedule there are no streets in district one that will be repaved this year.

I don’t live on Singing Hills but needed to travel on the street the other day.  It is in unbelievably poor condition.

The homes on the street are listed on the central appraisal district web site.  Their appraised value comes to a little over 20 million dollars.

Obviously nobody on the street is pulling strings to get preferential treatment.

To me one aspect of quality of life is the condition of our streets.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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