Sit back and watch

November 21, 2013

Hang onto your hats.

Three of the projects that the voters approved as part of the quality of life bonds were:

  • Multipurpose Cultural & Performing Arts Facility
  • Hispanic Cultural Center
  • Children’s Museum

Each project had a dollar amount attributed  to it when we voted for the bonds.

More efficient to combine

A recent presentation to the bond oversight advisory committee explained this city staff objective:

Combine planning for 3 major assets to leverage collective $205M taxpayer investment

In other words they want to combine the money for all three projects into one big project.

They go on to explain that this will:

  • promote tourism
  • enhance other venues (is that the ball park?)
  • catalyze revitalization
  • comply with smart growth principles

What about the children?

Short shrift

Who has the confidence to believe that the city won’t rob money from the children’s museum and hispanic cultural center projects to spend it on the arena?

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government | Permalink
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Do they even read what they write?

November 20, 2013

The November 11, 2013 El Paso Independent School District board agenda includes an item to reappoint two of the members to the El Paso Central Appraisal District Board of Directors.

Summary

The backup material provided to the board and the public says:

Current terms for the El Paso Central Appraisal District (CAD) Board of Directors will expire on December 31, 2013; however, all members serve until they have been reappointed or replaced.

Consequences of nonapproval [sic]

This (consequences of nonapproval)  section of the board material  then says:

The El Paso Independent School District will lack representation on the Central Appraisal District Board of Directors.

Quality of staff work

It is unfortunate that our various governing boards do not demand better performance from staff.  Then again it appears that the board president signed the document.  Is this the kind of attention he is paying to other district issues?

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Mayoral mission

November 19, 2013

Our new mayor has been traveling around the country trying to make good on his hope of bringing some new employers to El Paso.

He wrote a report a couple of weeks ago where he said two things that I found remarkable:

  • First, he said that a message that he heard frequently from the firms that help companies find cities to relocate operations to was that he was the first official from El Paso that they had ever spoken with.  Our suspicion that our economic development team has been letting us down seems to be confirmed.
  • The second thing that he mentioned is the perception in other cities that El Paso is a dangerous place to live.  While out of town last week I experienced the same mistaken perception on the part of people from out of town.

Maybe we should consider dropping our new city slogan “El Paso It’s All Good” and use something concrete like “El Paso The Safest City”.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

EPISD purchasing changes

November 18, 2013

An upcoming EPISD agenda has an item on it that would change some purchasing policies at the district.

Sole source

The changes include requiring board approval for sole source purchases over $10,000.  Hallelujah!

Pick who you want

Their purchasing policy currently requires staff to get three quotations for items between $10,000 and $50,000.

The agenda item would give the superintendent authority to wave the requirement for three quotes.  In other words they would be able to  choose vendors without competition.  The justification in the backup material includes this explanation:

All proposed changes will provide the Administration the needed expediency and agility for the procurement process.

Honestly

Google’s definition of expedient is “convenient and practical, although possibly improper or immoral”.

I could not have said it better.

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | El Paso Independent School District, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Rumor mongering

November 17, 2013

This blog normally does not address rumors, it tries to stay factual.

This is a rumor

I heard last week that the choice of the new city manager may be inevitable.  Our current mayor is friendly with a former mayor, the one who lost to the guitar player that just left office.

Could it be that the this former mayor will be the new city manager?

We could do worse

Brutus

16 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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