Bridge to nowhere

May 24, 2014

One change that should not be attributed to our new city manager concerns the woman who holds (held?) the job of deputy city manager for transportation and public works.

After her dustup with city council on April 24, 2014 (Necessities first) she seems to have disappeared.

City hall insiders tell me that she is nowhere to be seen.  The rumor is that she was fired.

Our news outlets have not covered the story.  Maybe the rumor is not true.

I would think that the city would let us know.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

5 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Another city projection proven wrong

May 23, 2014

Southwest Airlines has announced that they will be cutting 6 flights a day out of their El Paso routes.  They have 26 flights currently each day.

That means fewer people will be flying into and out of our airport.  Some will argue that the remaining flights will be more full.  That is probably true but will not make up for the decreased capacity and convenience.

Passenger traffic is already down 4.4%  from last year.  Southwest represents about 50% of the daily flights at the airport.  Six flights out of 26 is about a 23% decline.

Meanwhile our city’s chief financial officer tells us that it’s all good.  New and de-proved told us about a presentation she made to city council supporting the spending of $45 million to build a new airport parking garage for the rental car companies.  Her projection was that we would see a 1% annual increase in car rentals.

This will also affect the hotel occupancy taxes that are supposed to pay for the new ball park.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

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

City budget audit

May 22, 2014

I don’t have a crystal ball, nor do I have an inside line to what our mayor is thinking.

The other day he announced that the city will bring an out of town firm in to audit our upcoming city budget.

There is not a lot to audit relative to something that has not happened yet.

I suspect that the focus of the review will be centered on revenue projections and the necessity of certain expenses.

Is the “audit” part of a movement to get a new chief financial officer at the city?

Maybe we will start seeing realistic projections instead of whatever number the city manager needed to  support her agenda.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

More trouble brewing at EPISD

May 21, 2014

Look for the controversy at EPISD to become more public and more heated.

Word on the street is that the district is playing dirty tricks with personnel in order to save money.

They need to be careful.  District employees deserve to be treated fairly and the board should not be saying one thing in public and doing something else in private.

If cuts need to be made then so be it.

Teachers are feeling that they are bearing the brunt of the process and that the administration is not.

This board is failing to instill confidence in the citizens and that was one of the primary reasons given for overriding the voters with the appointed board.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Continuing the mess

May 20, 2014

Our city council had a meeting this Monday (May 19, 2014) to discuss whether council had violated the open meetings rules when it came out of executive session the other day and did not hold a public vote on action that they evidently had decided to take.

The meeting was a farce, more about that in another post.

Not posted

It seems that the special meeting held Monday was not posted on the city’s web site.  The screen shot below was captured that Monday and it does not refer to a May 19 meeting.

Does the law say that council has to post it’s agenda on the city web site?  No.

They post their other agendas there however.  A reasonable citizen has the right to expect that all city council agendas are posted in the same place.  Otherwise they could be hiding meetings frequently.

 

agenda05192014

Deliberate or accidental?

If they deliberately skipped the posting they should be taken to task.  If this was an accident then we have further proof of their incompetence.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government, Open Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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