Less city transparency

June 18, 2014

Following up a little bit on the issue of online transparency on the city’s website I decided to look into some board meeting minutes.

You will recall from Cover up that the city installed new software this year that eliminated our ability to search council agendas prior to 2014.  This act undoubtedly makes it more difficult to research and prove what has been going on.

Looking at the Downtown Development Corporation section of the city website we learn that they have had four meetings, the last of which was in August of 2013.  Only two sets of minutes are available.  The minutes of the last two meetings are not.  This makes it hard to know what was discussed and who voted for what.

The Bond Overview Advisory Committee section of the web site shows 14 meetings.  Minutes are shown for four of them.  As decisions are being made about how to spend the money from our quality of life bonds one would think that it would be important to know what our “overviewers” are up to.

Our Financial and Audit Oversight Committee has eight agendas listed with six sets of minutes.

Neat huh?  You get the idea.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Me, me! I’m more important

June 17, 2014

The Tuesday, June 16, 2014 city council agenda goes on with this under the title “RECOGNITIONS”:

El Paso Municipal Courts–Government Collectors Association of Texas Award for Collections Program of the Year 2014

Congratulations!  And thank you.

That is an important achievement in this city where we do not have enough money.

Somehow more important?

Then down in the consent agenda we have this “NOTICE FOR NOTATION”:

City of El Paso earns The Platinum Leadership Circle Award for financial transparency online from Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.

That evidently is so important that requires a vote from city council.  After all it was put on the agenda by our chief financial officer.

This is yet another example of self promotion at the expense of others.

Evidently your numbers do not have to be accurate in her job.  What she seems to think is important is that she be very open when she misleads us.

If El Paso really is more transparent in it’s online presentations than other Texas cities, then I feel badly for them.

We will look at some of our city’s online content in later posts.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

More, in fact too much

June 16, 2014

The Tuesday June 16, 2014 city council meeting starts off with a slap in the face to the crazies.

Item one has our mayor proclaiming Bob Moore Day.

For the record I respect Mr.  Moore and his right to an opinion.  I also respect the right of the Times to openly advocate for or against issues without pretense of fairness if they do it based upon principle.  If we don’t like what they are doing we can stop buying their newspaper.

I do not respect the way the Times has prostituted itself and become  a propoganda machine for the faction that has taken away our right to control our own destiny.

And I in particular resent how the editor of the Times holds himself out as the protector of the people, the inquisitor of open records, the beacon of transparency–selectively–when the issue does not gore his employer’s ox.

Yes, Mr.  Moore has done good things.  And no, I should not begrudge him an honor.

In this case I have to wonder what is going on in the alleged minds of our local leaders.

Naming part of the ball park “City Hall Grill” was an offense to some of us.  Some are suprised at not being able to find the Insights memorial urinal.

Haven’t we paid the Times enough by paying so much for their building?  Are we now paying them more to obtain their continued collusion?

Now asking us to recognize a day named in honor of one of the facilitators of what has been happening is at the least insensitive if not insulting.

Then again someone once said “Only the mediocre are always at their best”.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

Creating demand through shortages

June 15, 2014

Our county commissioners have banned fireworks in El Paso county.

Except

Except for “professional shows”.

Another tax burden

Expect our ball park to host some of these “professional shows”.  That’s our ball park that is adjacent to Sunset Heights, one of our oldest neighborhoods.

I wonder what it will cost us to have our fire department respond to or be on standby for any fires that may be caused by burning embers landing on those old roofs.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | Ball park, City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Public enemies

June 14, 2014

This article in our El Paso Times deserves comment.

According to the article an off duty Border Patrol agent allegedly saw three people allegedly pointing what allegedly looked like an automatic rifle at a building.

I guess we can skip the issue of how three people work together to point a single rifle.  I certainly hope that one of them was not in front of the alleged automatic rifle.

The culprit

County sheriff’s deputies arrived and chased the three.  The alleged automatic rifle turned out to be a paint gun.

Two of the alleged building killers were held  “on suspicion of terrorist threat and evading detention”.

Imagine what they would have been charged with if they had actually squeezed the trigger.

There was a time when you did not get arrested until you had actually committed a crime.

There is a better way to handle youngsters.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

4 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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