El Paso Quality of life update

November 6, 2013

Our interim city engineer wrote a column for the El Paso Times this Sunday.

She said that her engineering and construction management department had made “profound” progress on the projects in the last year.  She suggested that we go to buildingtomorrowtogether.com to see their progress, so I did.

Most important

The web page lists ten of the projects that we voted for, one of which they have already started construction on.  The city was in a hurry on that one so they chose not to bid it out but instead use a “requirements contract”.

This Quality of Life bond project is obviously the most important one (or it would not have been the first one started), it is the “Convention Center North Pedestrian Pathway”.

The pathway will provide a pedestrian entrance to our ball park and is scheduled to be completed by April 2014, just like our ball park.  This project is scheduled to cost $500,000.  You can decide if it is really part of the ball park costs.

Another project titled “Pedestrian Crossing and Way Finding” will not have it’s first phase bid out either.  The city plans to use a “requirements contract” on that one too.  Remarkably the web site indicates that construction has not yet started but completion for phase one is scheduled for August 30, 2013.  This project will evidently make it easier for pedestrians to find the new ball park.

Tomorrow is right

The buildingtomorrow part is accuate.  Of the other eight projects three are scheduled to have construction complete in August 2015.  Three, including the children’s museum, do not have anticipated completion dates but are marked as “BEYOND THREE-YEAR ROLLOUT”.  One project is scheduled to be completed in August, 2016.

Incredible digital wall

In Something is rotten in the state of Denmark I wrote about a new $3 million digital wall.  At the time the city was planning to force five city staff members to go to Denmark to learn about it.  The wall is scheduled to be completed in August of 2014.  It is a good thing we sent our staff over early, you never know where they might move Denmark to.

Children’s museum

According to the web page this project is on schedule.  “Urban Planner Consultant selected.  Received proposal on October 14, 2014“.  For those of you reading this post at a later date please remember that at the time of this posting it was November 2013.

Maybe we should nominate city staff for an award in fiction writing.

For those of you who are either crying or laughing too hard to go look for yourselves, the web site presentation is below:

qolOctober2013

qolOctober2013-2

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

El Paso Infill

November 5, 2013

If you look at the city council agenda for November 5, 2013 you can see the benefit of having a capable mayor.

The agenda is short.  City council is not up to much mischief.

Four of the items have to do with an out of town company seeking tax incentives to build two dialysis clinics in El Paso.  They seek property tax rebates as well as sales tax rebates (for the cost of construction) for the facilities.

Everything looks on the up and up here in that it appears that the company and city are following existing ordinances.  The company is simply seeking to take advantage of something that the city offers  — the Infill Development Incentive Policy.

Competition

I don’t know how well served El Paso is with dialysis clinics.  I don’t even know if the infill policy considers the nature of the business.

What I can see is that the infill zones defined by the city cover most of the city.  It looks like remodeling a building or building a new building within the defined areas qualifies for tax relief.

infill

In this case the owners will get 100% of their city property tax back in years one and two, 75% in year three, 50% in year four, and 25% in year five.  If passed they will also get the city portion of the sales tax they pay for remodeling back.

Maybe this makes sense.  The buildings are on Murchison and Trans Mountain, hardly areas that I would consider to be blighted.  Then again it does not appear that the infill policy takes that into account.

Does this make sense?  On the one hand we are providing economic incentives to new businesses to compete with existing tax paying businesses.  On the other we seem to be being new business friendly.

Alternative proposal

One of you may be able to explain this to me so that it makes sense.  My proposal is that we work to lower property taxes so that El Paso is more affordable for all citizens to live in and operate a business in.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Great move

November 4, 2013

According to an article in the El Paso Times the Clint Independent School District (CISD) is cutting it’s central office staff by one third and placing that staff in classrooms.

Texas law dictates the student teacher ratios and evidently CISD was not meeting the requirements.

Remarkable

The article quotes the superintendent.  It makes no mention of the district imposing a tax increase on the citizens.

Instead the superintendent is quoted as saying:

“And we will continue to find ways to reduce the administrative costs at the district so we can spend 
more resources in the classroom.”

How unusual.

Comparison

Maybe CISD was out of line.  The other school districts may have a lower central office expense per student than CISD had.  Maybe our other districts are doing better.

With the number of senior level positions being filled at the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) it does not look like it to me.  Then again EPISD is bigger and maybe the ratios are normal.  The Ysleta district has a lot to do before it becomes transparent enough for us to understand what is going on there.

The CISD superintendent’s statement that I repeat here  “And we will continue to find ways to reduce the administrative costs at the district so we can spend 
more resources in the classroom” makes a lot of sense to me.

I hope that the other schools districts will make this a stated goal.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

El Paso county hospital in the future

November 3, 2013

With universal healthcare as one of the stated goals of the current administration I wonder why we will need a county hospital in the future.

Maybe there is a good reason for El Paso county taxpayers to be funding $150 million for new clinics.

I don’t see one.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | County Government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

YISD not transparent

November 2, 2013

The El Paso Times has printed many articles criticizing the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) but curiously seems to be ignoring the Ysleta Independent School District (YISD).

EPISD has certainly had problems, but at least it publishes the backup materials for the board meetings on its web site so that the public can get a better idea of what is going on.

YISD does not.  Take a moment if you wish and look for yourself.  You can see it here.  They simply post the agenda.  They do not provide any backup material.

YISD has had problems with the public corruption scandal.  It has had former officials plead guilty.

If YISD published the materials that the board members receive at the board meetings like the city of El Paso and EPISD do, we would be better informed about what they are doing.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »