EPISD cuts

April 16, 2014

The El Paso Independent School District superintendent wrote a guest column for the El Paso Times that was published last Sunday.

Enrollment is declining at the district and thus state and federal funding is being reduced.

He mentioned teacher cuts and other changes that are being considered.  He asked for community input and pledged to “continue to learn and listen”.

Suggestions

There are a myriad of reasons why many things at the district seem to be inefficient from a cost perspective.  Rather than talk about the bloat that is caused by mandates (or the way the district chooses to interpret them), let me offer some suggestions that are within our control.

  • Don’t spend the $57 million from the 2007 bond issue just because you have the money.  The voters approved that money for a new high school.  As it turns out we don’t need one.  Save the money and the interest.
  • Don’t build a new central administration facility.  EPISD staff estimates currently indicate that this will be a $40 million project.  Work with the city to stay where you are.  Let the voters know if city council forces this spending on us.
  • Quit spending money to have unique designs for each school.
  • Maintain your buildings so that they last.  Quit neglecting maintenance until it costs less to replace a school than fix it.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

CBP thanks you

April 15, 2014

The City of El Paso signed an agreement with the U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) organization at the end of January of this year.

The plan was to use $1.5 million of city money to fund overtime pay for customs officers in order to shorten waiting time at our international bridges.

The Times quoted the the CBP port director as saying:

“The goal is to get the wait times down to 15 minutes and no more than 30 minutes. We can’t go out and guarantee that. But the goal is to keep the wait times low and manageable.”

And the answer is

The folks over at Newspapertree.com post a “bridge wait times” section on their home page.

The CBP reported numbers for April 12, 2014 at 3:41 PM show the wait time at the Cordova bridge (aka Bridge of the Americas and free bridge) to be 50 minutes.

The user submitted passenger data section shows a 117 minute wait at 7:15 AM on the same day and 127 minutes at 12:49 PM.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Just do it, we can force city council later

April 14, 2014

Item 5.1 on the April 15, 2014 city council agenda would authorize an additional $200,258 for design services related to the new ball park.  That brings the new total to $4,020,838.

Why?

The backup material says that the design firm will:

  • Modify the right field building by shifting back the east facade (facing the playing field) by 4 feet
  • Relocate an elevator shaft, increase the size of other elevator shafts, and change one elevator from freight to passenger
  • Change the team store design
  • Redesign the playing field drainage system

Other changes were listed.

Better hurry!

If the ball park needs design changes and is scheduled to open this April 28 those designers need to hurry.

We all know that those services must already have been performed.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Missed again

April 13, 2014

Items 7.1 and 7.2 on the consent agenda of the April 15, 2014 city council meeting deal with granting a local preference in city bids.

City staff is proposing to give a 5% advantage to local bidders that meet certain requirements.  Unfortunately the proposed resolution is not well thought out or worded and will the subject of much argument.

The proposed resolution even uses the verb “headquarter” when attempting to refer to the headquarters of a business.

“Headquarter means the executive office where the corporate offices are located …”

“Tier 1 Principal place of business:  means a business whose primary headquarter is located within the incorporated city limits of El Paso …”

Pay to play

The bidders will have to pay a $150 application fee for a three year period.

Purchases made through buy boards will not be controlled by the resolution.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

Leave a Comment » | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Timing the delivery of bad news

April 12, 2014

Have you noticed the number of changes to parking ordinances, special zones, streets, parking meters, and other things related to downtown that are happening just before the ball park is scheduled to be open?

How many more surprises will we see in the coming days?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

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