Going down under

February 10, 2014

The February 11, 2014 city council agenda shows that council will consider hiring a firm to help us with the “digital wall” that voters approved as part of the quality of life bonds.

This will be the second such wall on the planet with the other one at the Museum of Copenhagen.

The city has evidently decided to use the product marketed under the TouchCity brand.  The agenda proposes a “sole source” procurement since there is only one company in the world that makes the TouchCity brand.  That is obvious but it does not mean that other companies could not bid on the work.

The agenda backup material contains more of the city spin when it says “TouchCity Wall (Digital Wall) was overwhelmingly supported by the voters in November 2012 bond election [sic].”

Bunk

None of us voted for a TouchCity Wall.  We voted for a digital wall and now staff wants to buy a particular brand so they tell us that we voted for that brand.

The company that makes TouchCity is headquartered in New Zealand.

Train wreck

The proposed contract (read it here) is a train wreck waiting to happen.  Among other problems:

  • It contemplates that the wall will be “integrated into a “welcome pavilion” to be built by others onto the exterior of the museum”.  The pavilion has not been built and as far as we know has not been funded.  The city has been looking for someone to donate the one million dollars needed.
  • The contract contemplates completion in December 2014.  Remember that the “welcome pavilion” has not been built yet.
  • The specifications are almost non-existent.  “The first phase of the work will also see the parties agree and document a process path and schedule for the completion of the rest of the phases of work …”.
  • The normal “Applicable Law and Venue” portion of city contracts (where Texas law is said to govern the contract and El Paso is where any lawsuits will be tried) does not seem to be part of the contract.  In fact the parties agree to mediation where the party picking the mediator “will be instructed to take the international nature of this Agreement into account when appointing a mediator”.
  • Roughly $1.8 million will be paid to the firm for services, not product.
  • Part of the work will be done by the New Zealand firm, part by the city, and the equipment will be acquired from other firms.  The equipment to be acquired separately is projected to cost over half a million dollars.  This is a recipe for finger pointing.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

More shortfalls

February 9, 2014

KFOX TV ran this segment about local hotel occupancy the other day.

“I can tell you that hotel revenue in this city is down 3.1 percent from last year,” said Rick LaFleur, president of the El Paso Hotel Motel Association.

The city budgeted a 3% increase for this year.  That comes to a 6.1% shortfall.

Ball park funding

The hotel occupancy tax has been designated as the primary funding source for our new ball park.

The segment showed our city manager deliver this line:  “”All of our revenues are meeting our projections so I don’t know what they’re talking about”.  As though we should believe any financial numbers coming out of her office.

Not to worry

The city manager explained “Well, we have multiple sources of revenue that are going to pay for it. So it’s rent, it’s parking revenues, it’s sales tax”.

If they take money from sales tax revenues (which are not meeting the city’s budget either) then you can expect a property tax increase again next year.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | Ball park, City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

El Typo Times

February 8, 2014

A recent comment on this blog came from an El Paso Times reporter.

He explained:  “A lot of people don’t realize this, but the people who do second edits on stories and build pages in EP don’t just do that for the Times. They do it for five New Mexico papers as well.”

It appears that part of the editing and production of the Times is done by a team that may not be controlled by Times management.

If that is the case and I were running the Times, I’d be furious.  The grammatical and spelling errors as well as the lack of effective editing contribute to the poor perception that the public has about the Times.

The title of this article is not meant to be cruel.  It reflects one of the many names that I have heard the Times called regularly.

Ask around.  Many people will tell you that they have not read the Times for years.

It now seems that part of the problem may have been exposed.  I hope that they can get control of the situation.  I think it would go a long way to improving their credibility with the readers.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Cover up

February 7, 2014

Take a look at the city’s agenda search page below.

search

City staff asked for new software to change the way we access city council agendas.

The result is that we can no longer search for things that occurred before 2014.

Neat, huh?

Opaque

Any embarrassing details about what was said or done in the past are now effectively hidden from us.

This has to be deliberate.  If the new software cannot handle the old agendas, then leaving the old system up would give us access to past events.

Shameful!

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Tell me a story

February 6, 2014

Part of the dialogue the other day resulting from the post Timely irony was this comment from a Times reporter:

If you think we’re missing an important story like this, don’t just assume that we’re pulling our punches because it’s Foster. Email Bob, Ramon Bracamontes, Armando Durazo or Melissa Martinez and ask for coverage. Feel free to email me, too, but unless it’s a state story, what I’ll probably do is foward it to one of the people listed above because they have the power to assign them. Humans being what they are, a note that is laced with abuse probably isn’t going to be read with more alacrity than one that isn’t.

Let’s do it

I have my own list of things that I would like the Time to do impartial stories on.

Feel free to make your suggestions as comments to this post or email the Times people directly.  Please remember to filter the venom as much as you can.

Let’s see what they can do.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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