Another two step

March 17, 2014

Remember the $152 million that our county commissioners authorized the county hospital to spend for new outpatient facilities and partial remodeling of our county hospital?

Changing plans

Now that the county hospital has the money, they want to change how and where they spend it.

The February 25, 2014 minutes of their board of managers meeting shows the hospital chief executive explaining to his board that the money needs to be “reprioritized”.  From the minutes:

Mr.  Valenti noted that after discussions with the design team they had come up with the following:

1)  To implement what was discussed, however it would not be advisable because is not the integrations that everyone wants.

2)  To reprioritize the $152M similar to how they have reprioritized the Annex and the Central plant based on patient needs.  He added that within the next 45 to 60 days management must take the $152M and reprioritize.  They need to slim down the ancilliaries, keep pharmacy robust, expand office visits, may decrease the footprint and look at contingencies to look towards an enterprise solution.

Translation

Now that we have the money let’s figure out how to spend it.  Forget what we told the commissioners.

Reprioritize

I’ve got another idea.  Since everyone is supposed to have health care coverage now why don’t we reprioritize and shut down the county hospital?

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Another suggestion for the Times

March 16, 2014

A Times reporter suggested in a comment on this blog that if we have stories that we think the Times should write about we should come forward with our suggestions.

Suggestion

You might write an article telling us how each of the members of city council, the mayor, the city manager, and the city attorney explain that the city is continuing to sue the Texas attorney general to block the release of correspondence.

The city attorney was told by this new council to bring the issue to closure.

Yet we are continuing to spend taxpayer money to try to deny us the right to view the records.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

A name that will live in infamy

March 15, 2014

This post is not intended to highlight an event or present facts.

The post reflects my opinion.

I think that naming a restaurant in the new ball park “City Hall Grill” is a horrible act.

I can only think that the name was chosen either out of insensitivity or a desire to make an “in your face” statement.

Either way it will be a constant reminder to those of us who while not opposed to the new ball park were opposed to tearing down city hall.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Glass house resident throwing stones

March 14, 2014

According to the Times our city manager is upset that a government agency can’t get it’s numbers right.  She evidently wrote this to our chief appraiser:

“A (valuation) variance of this nature is egregious and on the surface seems either irresponsible or incompetent,” Wilson wrote. “Per the City Council’s direction, I am filing a formal complaint with you, the CAD (district) Board, and State Comptroller and asking that immediate measures be taken to prevent this from happening again.”

What about?

What will the real cost of moving city hall be?  Her chief financial officer told us it would be $33 million.  The costs we know about at this point exceed $70 million.

The ball park was supposed to cost $50 million according to her crew.  We are now over $64 million without counting the $17 million in extra financing costs because they were  either “irresponsible or incompetent”.

Responsibility

And then there is the question of why she did not make allowances for the huge increase in valuation when developing the city budget.  The fact that she had to cut the budget mid-year is a testament to her actions or failure to act.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Tortured English

March 13, 2014

The El Paso Times published this interview with the incoming superintendent at the Ysleta Independent School District.

We are all probably getting used to typographical errors, especially in text messages.  Many of us would like to see our newspaper avoid those errors.  Maybe the new superintendent has difficulty with the English language and the reporter quoted him accurately.  Either way, this article had several problems.  I present some of them below:

“And if we determine that it was intentional and malicious and done with the express to circumvent accountability measures then you cure it.”

“He or she are the valve. “

“So I think they already taken steps forward to address it.”

“I’ve learned with my recent experience that if you move too aggressively to reorganize or downsize — even if it is exactly what an organization needs, even if you are going to address a significant deficient, even if it’s for all the right reasons — it would be premature to begin to calculate how you are going to save money.”

“It was a delegate issue that involved consolidating or eliminating positions and those positions are held by people and no matter how well you try to deliver the message. It does create stress and anxiety in an organization.”

“The board of education ask that it be done and it was done.”

Solidarity

I’m not normally the first person on the union band wagon but statements from the new superintendent make me wonder what the employees of the district have to look forward to.  When asked about his job difficulties in California he said:

There is no collective bargaining in Texas. We don’t spend a lot of time negotiating and laying the ground work. We move quickly on behalf of kids.

That’s simply not the environment in California. With the strong union presence it takes time and you have to sort of navigate those politics.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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