elpasospeak

It’s all good — but not as good as Tucson

September 7, 2013

MountainStar, the group that owns our new ball club stepped up to the plate and agreed to spend $70,000 to extend their ability to play in Tucson one more year, just in case our new ball park is not finished in time. I believe that at one time there were penalties in the contract between the city and Mountainstar if our ball park is not finished in time. Will this bill get sent to us?

Just in case — unforseen — strictly a backup plan

I took the quotes in this post from an El Paso Times article.

“It is a just-in-case alternative in the event something unforeseen takes place with the construction schedule,” said Alan Ledford, president of the MountainStar Sports Group, “Right now, everything is going along as planned, but this helps us make sure we have a contingency plan in place because with any construction project unforeseen things could come up. We are just making sure we have a back-up plan.”

“A lot of the angst about Triple-A baseball (ending here) could be for naught and they might be back again next season,” said Pima County District 5 Supervisor Richard Elías in a statement.

Note that MountainStar did not buy rights for a week or two or even a couple of months. They contracted for the whole season. That doesn’t make me feel confident that our facility will be ready as scheduled.

MountainStar Sports Group will have to pay a $35,000 termination fee and Kino Stadium will be open for other events [if the Tucson facility is not needed for the full season].

“Whether it’s half a season here or five games here, we get our $35,000,” said Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.

MountainStar Sports Group will have to pay $35,000 anyway and with the relatively low cost of the extension, it is a safe backup plan if any holds up the construction, Ledford said.

“It is a matter of the team exercising an existing option at a very modest cost to extend that lease,” Ledford said.

“There is a $35,000 termination fee regardless, and an additional $35,000 to bring it to $70,000 in the event we want to extend it to use the stadium for the 2014 season.”

Even the team manager recognizes that they may “want to extend it to use the stadium for the 2014 season”, referring to the Tucson facility. The whole season.

Now the obvious

We all realize that the chances of our ballpark being ready on time are slim. It might happen though.

The obvious question is why not have the games at Cohen stadium until the new ball park is ready?

Is a rift growing between the sports group and the city?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
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False image

September 6, 2013

Take a look at this rendering of the new baseball stadium that I got from the city’s web site.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

The left field looks huge, deliberately drawn to look never-ending. A local reporter (of the old school) recently posted an entry on a blog saying that it would be 250 feet from home plate to the left field fence.

The incredible shrinking outfield

The major league baseball site indicates that a distance of 320 feet or more is the preferred distance. The absolute minimum is 250 feet. If the reporter is correct and the left field fence will be 250 feet from home plate, then why does this picture lead us to believe differently?

Looking at the drawing, I wonder where home runs will go. Will they land in the party buildings in right and center field? Will they bombard the children’s play area in center left field? Will they crash into the high wall that will have to be built to compensate for the short left field? Will they escape the field and land on a windshield on Santa Fe street? There is even a rumor on the street that the standard bats will be shortened in order to compensate.

I hope that none of this is true.

Two step

According to the city web site the stadium fits. The picture makes us think the outfield is huge. Word on the street is that it barely meets the minimum size required.

Pay attention to what the cabal is doing. They carefully release their version of the truth to us in multiple steps. They initially publish numbers that are wildly wrong. They make statements that are simply not completely true. When an issue has had a chance to settle down they come back with more accurate facts.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government | Permalink
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Insider’s club

September 5, 2013

We learned last week that our former mayor intended to be a lobbyist for a downtown hotel owner.

The owner is himself a former city representative. He stepped up and rescued a vacant hotel and ended up with a fine property, a credit to the city and to downtown.

Evidently remodeling the old hotel was not feasible without tax breaks from local government. Those breaks are worth several million dollars.

This all transpired while our former mayor was either a city representative or mayor. The property was the subject of multiple actions by both the city council and county commissioners. Agreements made by the hotel had to be renegotiated because the terms were not favorable enough for the hotel to operate.

Nothing here is necessarily out of the ordinary. The city and the county give tax allowances to make it more practical for investors to take on projects.

What is unusual here is that the former mayor and the hotel owner (who is a lawyer) should have known that the mayor could not lobby for the hotel owner. City ordinance prohibits it. In fact it is a city ordinance that the former mayor himself signed. Another blog has written that the former mayor was warned by city staff that his activities would be illegal. The mayor chose to try to address city council anyway.

What for?

It seems that the hotel owner wants to build another hotel downtown. I guess he wants more incentives so he hired a lobbyist, someone who could get things done.

The money is tight but with the help of local government he might be able to build another hotel.

Did I point out that his current hotel is right by the ballpark? The city’s webcam sits on the hotel and provides images of the ball park as it is being built.

Triple A players make less money than players in the majors, but major league players often play in Triple A games while rehabilitating from injuries. I doubt that they will stay in a dump.

Could this insider have been part of the ball park cabal?

Just the right place

Word on the street is that the buildings the city is remodeling and moving into are to be temporary. Some say the city manager wants a “municipal complex”. There is now talk about tearing down the downtown jail. Don’t be surprised if the new city hall goes on that site.

How about the hotel? Where would it go?

Maybe they will tear down our new city hall. Don’t scoff, they torn down the old one.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Exceeding the others again

September 4, 2013

El Paso’s county commissioners just added another $10 to the annual cost of registering a vehicle in El Paso county.

Highest again

The fee in 2014 will be $20, the highest in the state. You can look at this chart to see rates by county in 2013.

FeeChart_1C (2)

We can thank our state senator and our local state representative who serves on the transportation committee for this. They worked to amend house bill 1198 to add El Paso county to the prior list of Cameron, Hidalgo and Webb counties. These lucky four counties are the only ones that can charge their citizens the extra $10 under this bill.

Wrong Again

One of the county commissioners claims that this is a benefit to property owners since some people do not pay property tax. The truth is that if you pay rent your landlord must pay property tax. That tax is passed on to you as part of your rent payment.

The increase in the fee is a tax increase. The county pays for transportation projects now. The over $30 million that the fee increase is expected to raise in the next five years would have otherwise come out of the regular budget.

Not accountable

To make matters even worse, the county intends to turn the money over to the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority. Remember that in another power grab there are plans to turn control of our international bridges to this group.

This group is composed of appointed citizens. They are not accountable to the voters. Local politicians have found another way to take control of how our money is spent away from the voters and transfer it to a committee that cannot be held accountable by the voters.

According to the city’s web site the duties of the the group are: “…to directly benefit the State of Texas, The City of El Paso, and the traveling public through the improvement of the state’s transportation systems in and around the City of El Paso”.

That mission statement deserves another post at a later time.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, County Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Top of the list

September 3, 2013

If paying high property taxes is your goal, El Paso is the place to be.

Getting Better

In For whom the bill tolls we saw that El Paso was the 6th most expensive city for property taxes on a $150,000 home among the largest 50 cities in the country for the year 2009.

We saw us getting closer to first place with a 2011 rating of 5th place.

These numbers come from the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence. The issues of state income tax, average home values, and commercial taxation were covered in For whom the bill tolls.

And better

The 2012 numbers are out. El Paso now ranks as the 4th most expensive city using that same ranking study.

If our goal is to get to the top of that list we are well on our way. We’ve steadily gotten higher on the list, going from 6th place to 5th and then to 4th.

More to come

The 2012 numbers are before demolishing city hall, remodeling new buildings for city staff, building the ballpark, building new hospital clinics, and the quality of life bonds we passed last year.

Wait until next year

We are seeing the local governments come forward with public and hidden tax increases. If the cities above us on the list don’t get to work and raise more taxes it looks like we can get to the number 3 spot for 2013.

This 2011 US News and World Report article puts the 2009 median household income for El Paso as next to last among US metropolitan areas of 500,000 people or more.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | Ball park, City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

elpasospeak

It’s all good — but not as good as Tucson