Good money after bad

May 29, 2014

Our county hospital (UMC) and it’s tenant the children’s hospital are having a fight over who owes whom how much money.

The county hospital’s CEO says that the children’s hospital is making it lose money.

The chairman of the children’s hospital board says that the county hospital is overcharging.

No difference

It doesn’t make a difference.  The contract between the two makes the county hospital write off monies that it does not receive from the children’s hospital if the children’s hospital does not meet it’s revenue goals.   That means that the taxpayers foot the bill.

This is one giant power play and a game of finger pointing.

Reality

Anyone with experience in the area knew that the children’s hospital would lose money,  contrary to what the county hospital CEO told us.

He went to our county commissioners last year and got permission to sell $150 million of bonds for expansion and remodeling.  Now even before the first brick is in place he is telling us that he needs to “repurpose” the money.

Repurpose

That’s a great idea in my opinion.  Repurpose the money by taking it away from him before it goes down another drain.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | County Government | Permalink
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Resume enhancement?

May 28, 2014

According to a recent press release the chief financial officer of our city government is now a member of the board of the United Way of El Paso.

Day job

Her day job is to be the chief financial officer of our city.  We are facing budget cuts because of revenue shortages.  We have witnessed wildly inaccurate cost estimates relating to the demolition of city hall and also to the building of the ball park.   It would be nice if she would take the time to give us accurate figures.

She is a member of our fire and police pension board.  Some say that the funding shortfall over there is in excess of $200 million.

Board of managers

She is also one of five people appointed by the state to be on the board of managers of EPISD.  We are told that there is a $17 million revenue shortfall and that teachers will have to be fired.  It would be nice if she could take the time to provide us with a solution other than having the budget axe fall only on the teachers.  There must be some other savings that can be achieved.

Familiar pattern

It seems that we are seeing financial problems with organizations that she has a senior role in.  There was a time when people saw to it that they had one job under control before they undertook another.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
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Charter violation?

May 27, 2014

In addition to the possible criminal violation that our west side city representative may have committed it appears that she might also have violated the city charter.

A city employee evidently started to trim a tree on the city representative’s property.  We are told that the employee has now complained that the city representative threatened him.  The situation is stalled.  No one is saying anything.

It looks like they are trying to kill the issue through burying it.

City charter

Our city charter says:

Section 5.5 INTERFERENCE WITH PERSONNEL OR ADMINISTRATION.permanent link to this piece of content

Except for the purposes of investigations under Section 3.8 and inquiries, the members of the Council shall deal with City employees who are subject to the direction and supervision of the City Manager solely through the City Manager, and neither the Council nor any of its members shall give orders to any such employee, either publicly or privately. Neither the Council nor any of its members shall in any manner control or demand the appointment or removal of any City employee whom the City Manager is empowered to appoint, but the Council may express its views and fully and freely discuss with the City Manager anything pertaining to appointment and removal of such employees.

Ethics review commission

It would appear that our ethics review commission has the duty to look into this issue also.  Someone would need to file a complaint.  From our code of ordinances:

 2.92.150 Penalty.permanent link to this piece of content

The failure of any officer or employee to comply with this chapter or the violation of one or more of the standards of conduct set forth in this article, which apply to him or her, shall constitute grounds for expulsion, reprimand, removal from office or discharge. In the case of an employee of the city, disciplinary action and appeals therefrom shall be in conformance with procedures established by the City Charter and personnel rules and regulations. In the case of an officer, the matter shall be decided by the ethics review commission in accordance with the provisions in Section 2.92.080 or by a vote of the city council in accordance with the charter or in accordance with applicable state law. The decision of these bodies shall be final.

Why won’t they bring this issue to closure?

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Washington Post advertising

May 26, 2014

The May 20,2014 agenda of the EPISD board of managers has another example of what goes on in many of our local governmental purchasing units.

Item E8 on the consent agenda seeks approval of contracts for structured cabling products and services.  They want to make the purchase through a buy board, The Allied States Cooperative.

A visit to the cooperative’s web site  tells us that they are a “national government purchasing cooperative”.

Local schools

The EPISD agenda item explains that the purchases will be for data wiring of local schools, including a new elementary school.

EPISD staff has not even published the specifications yet.  They want permission to hire one of the four local firms each time they are ready to start a project.  Formal bidding will not be used.  They want to ask the four   “to provide competitive quotes based on walk-throughs conducted for each project”.

Ignoring the kinds of mischief that situation could foster let’s focus on how they (the cooperative) advertised their “bid”.

They published their announcements in the “Washington Post”.  No kidding.

National cooperative

Allied States tells us that they are a national contracting organization.

Maybe they are.

Reviewing their web site you will see that they are part of our local Region 19 Education Service Center.  They offer contract administration so that government organizations across the county can avoid competitive bidding and use their buy board.

All of the contact information for Allied States points us to employees of Region 19 here in El Paso.

Restrictive

Why would our local education service center advertise this in the Washington Post?  Could it be that they did not want other local vendors to know about the opportunity?  Did they reach out and inform their favored few?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

4 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
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Revived

May 25, 2014

I don’t know much about our interim city manager so I went to the city’s web site to see what I could learn.

The page below was what the site showed May 21, 2014 in the afternoon.

McGlynn

He must not have been a favorite of our former city manager if she did not move his office before she blew up city hall.

Even more remarkable is that city hall was imploded April 15, 2013.  City documents on April 30, 2013 still show him as the director of a city department, not as a deputy city manager.  In other words it would appear that the web page above was created after city hall had been blown up.

Now I guess the worm has turned and he will get her office.

Does anyone pay attention over there?

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
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