As it turned out the Mayor’s proclamation the other day was intended to recognize independents. In Clueless I mistakenly suspected that the city was trying to recognize our nation’s independence.
In this case it was independent businesses that were being recognized.
Shame on me for thinking that someone at the city could make a sloppy error.
Brutus
2 Comments | 
City government | 
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Posted by Brutus
An astute reader sent us a link to this editorial.
In a nutshell, some folks in Dallas are proposing a change to their city charter that would require the ballot language used on bond elections to include two numbers: the principal amount, and the amount that the city will have to pay back (principal + interest).
The newspaper wrote in praise of the transparency being demonstrated by their city council.
We deserve better
Brutus
3 Comments | City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The El Paso Times has known about the firing of the deputy city manager that we read about in Bridge to nowhere since at least June 21 of this year.
The Times wrote:
Deputy City Manager Jane Shang was put on paid administrative leave and is working from home on some assignments, according to a city document obtained by the El Paso Times.
Linda Bell Thomas, the city’s Human Resources director, said she could not comment specifically on why Shang was put on leave because it was a personnel matter.
Shang, who was appointed deputy city manager in April 2008, will remain on administrative leave through Dec. 31, Thomas said. Shang had been publicly accused by some council members of not responding to their requests and not working to push through projects they had requested.
The Times chose to tell us about the situation as part of an article about our new city manager coming to work.
One would think that the situation deserves it’s own story. Writing what they did in the middle of another article gives the Times the ability to say with a straight face that they covered the story.
Here we have a city employee one rank below city manager who got in a dustup with city council and in the process contradicted what the former city manager said before council. She has been sent home but is still being paid. In fact she will stay home and get paid through December 31 of this year, more than six months. After that she will stay on the city payroll until April 15, 2015 while using her accumulated vacation and sick time. At that point she will cease to be employed by the city.
We might rightly suspect that she is being kept on the payroll to let her earn more tenure in the city’s pension system. Then again that might not be the reason.
Is she being paid to keep quiet? Is she getting preferential treatment because of who she knows? Is the city afraid of what she might say?
Either way this is certainly not the way taxpayer money should be spent. The city has agreed to firing her in such a way that she will be paid out of the city pension fund for the rest of her life. That’s after she has been fired. Why?
Someone at the Times thought enough of the issue to obtain documentation. Then the story appears buried inside another article. Has management at the Times stepped in and thwarted the reporter?
We deserve better
Brutus
22 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Part of the argument that the new chief executive officer of the children’s hospital is making is that the $15 million a year that his predecessor agreed to pay to the county hospital for support services is too high.
The new chief executive is publicly saying that the charge should be about half, or $7.5 million a year.
In fact looking at the county hospital’s 2013 and 2012 audit report, the net revenue that the county hospital gets (what they charge minus what it costs to provide the services) is $9.7 million each year. The audit relies upon the hospital district management group for numbers like this, so at the very least they are telling us that they are making at least $9.7 million in profit from the children’s hospital each year.
I don’t know whether to think of Fagan or of Cruella De Vil when considering our county hospital executives.
I voted against the bonds for the children’s hospital, but like the ball park feel that now that we have one we should do what we can to make it viable.
The new children’s hospital chief executive says that he is going to cut expenses. He evidently has also had a Forest Gump moment and decided to do a better job collecting his bills.
Unfortunately he has hired an out of town company to help with that process. I guess he does not believe that El Paso has any talent to speak of.
We deserve better
Brutus
2 Comments | Ball park, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The troubles at the Children’s Hospital are coming to a boil.
Their new CEO raised the issue of the rent that they pay to our county hospital.
You may recall that the county hospital issued $120 million in general obligation bonds back in May 2008 to pay for the Children’s Hospital and Women’s Tower construction.
These bonds were not revenue bonds that would normally be paid from the money that the facility collected. Instead these were general obligation bonds that are being paid for through property taxes. In other words the county sold the bonds and we are paying for them through our property taxes.
The new Children’s Hospital CEO is now asking why he has to pay the county hospital approximately $11.6 million each year to lease the building.
His point is that the county hospital is already getting paid for the bonds by the taxpayers. Is the current agreement actually a subsidy to the county hospital at the cost of the Children’s Hospital?
Maybe the lease includes operating expenses like utilities.
Unfortunately it will be difficult for the citizens to figure out what is really going on. It seems that as part of the dispute resolution procedures agreed to by both parties neither one can discuss the issues publicly for the next 60 days.
We deserve better
Brutus
19 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
elpasospeak 
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