Public confession

July 6, 2013

I watched the video of this week’s city council to see what they did with the proposed new ordinance that deals with deadlines and procedures relative to placing items on the city council agenda.

In two prior posts I explained that the new ordinance would change the rules.  The old ordinance (17616) required that each member of council receive all of the proposed legal documents by noon of the fourth day before the city council meeting.  If those documents were not provided to each council member in time, council could not vote on the item unless it first took a special vote to declare that failure to take action on the item would be detrimental to the interests of the city.

I also showed that they have been using the wrong old ordinance number.  They used the number 17016 (which established the capital improvements advisory committee) several times and then changed public documents improperly to cover up the problem.  As of this writing they still have not fixed the copy that was posted for the public.  It still repeals 17016 instead of 17616.

At this week’s meeting the city attorney incorrectly told council that the old ordinance required them to table any item if all the backup had not been posted by noon the Thursday before a meeting.  That statement was incorrect in that council was required either to table the item or take a special vote declaring that failure to act on the item would be detrimental to the interests of the city.

Then the shoe dropped

The city attorney then said of the requirement to table the item “council wasn’t doing that anyway”.  Violating a city ordinance is an ethics violation for council members.

I would think that the city attorney would advise city council members if they are breaking the law.

Absent that, the municipal parliamentarian certainly should.

Our current municipal parliamentarian is the city attorney also.

It would appear that she is not doing either job here.

We deserve better

Brutus

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

Curve Ball

July 5, 2013

Over thirty years ago, a small group of El Paso Citizens thought that the City needed a venue to teach our children science. All science, a “hands on” museum where they can learn about nature, space, gravity, anatomy, etc. They put their money where their mouth was and through their tireless efforts, Insights Museum was born. Over the next 30 years plus, over a million Children from our school districts alone, learned the beauty of science. Countless physicists, chemists, physicians, engineers and even an astronaut, had their first exposure to the beauty of science at our museum. “Poof”, says the Wilson Quintet of Byrd, Cook, Lilly, Ortega and Niland and it’s gone. So we needed a downtown ballpark so the children can sit in the stands and eat junk food while watching minor league baseball players, hit, catch and scratch. Such a deal!

Always thinking of the children since they are our future, they tossed the Insights Museum out in the street, replacing it with first base.

Did they give us an interim location for our children? How about the El Paso train Station? No lets rent/give it to the Texas Tech Architectural School for $1.00 a year for 75 years. Some of our kids may become architects. I’ve got a better idea, let’s stick a Children’s museum into the Quality of life Bond issue which if they approve, will result in the City hall and the Insights Museum imploding. They think they are getting a museum but it will take 5 years if ever. Give the kids popcorn and cracker jacks.

Despite the City’s efforts, Insights lives on. There is an active board of directors who like their predecessors, see the value of a science museum for the children of El Paso. They see, out of the Rubble of the old Insights Museum a new and better era coming. I’m sure that the new Mayor and Council will see their value and give them the support they need. Oh yes we want to support the baseball team but isn’t this important?

Just think of it, dedicating space in the new baseball stadium addition in honor of the Insights Museum on which the stadium is situated. How about a display about the physics of a curve ball? a sinker? a fastball? ala George Wills. the art of hitting the ball, opposite field hitting etc. I’m sure we can come up with that type of display. Things don’t just happen by accident, there is a science to baseball Misters Doubleday, Foster and Hunt.

2 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by M.T. Cicero

Independence every day

July 4, 2013

… That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their  just powers from the consent of the governed.  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it …

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

2 Comments | City government, County Government, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Pay up

July 3, 2013

I guess city staff thinks it is time for us to pay up.  Since November 2012 this blog has covered the wanton spending that the former city council authorized.

Now the city manager is evidently going to propose a 3.6% increase in our taxes for next year.  I wrote in For whom the bill tolls about El Paso being the 5th most expensive of America’s top 50 cities in terms of tax rates in 2011.

Now it appears that we will climb up to 4th position unless the rascals in the other cities can out do our efforts.

Much of what we have been writing about here has not been about the policies behind what city council has been doing.  We have been trying to point out that the way they have been doing it is wasteful.  The articles are in the archives so I will only post their themes here:

Issuing no-bid contracts for construction work.

Buying through buy boards when in some cases 4% of the money we spend on them goes to out of town governments.  This percentage has cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Declaring an unneeded emergency around building the ball park.  This caused us to tear down city hall and commit to spend over $70 million (at this point) to relocate city facilities.

Rushing into ball park construction without valid cost estimates.  The official ball park cost number is now in excess of $62 million when we were told it would be $50 million.

Tearing down the mayor’s office. Building a new one and tearing it down before even occupying it.  Then building an even bigger one because in their haste the city did not plan.

Paying for alterations and moving city departments into temporary facilities throughout the city while waiting for newer facilities to be designed and built as a result of tearing down city hall.

Spending $3 million that a reasonable person would know would not be collected from property taxes on a local refinery.  The appraised value of the refinery  increased from $280 million to $1.1 billion in one year.  A settlement was reached placing the appraised value at $320 million.

We now have the highest hotel occupancy tax in the state.  Our tax rate is so high that the Texas legislature passed a bill limiting the tax rates other cities can charge at a rate below ours.  El Paso was grandfathered.  So much for tourism.

In addition to the proposed tax increase the city staff plans to recommend increasing our garbage bills by $1 per month.  Is this to pay for the increased cost of garbage collection?  No.  Staff plans to use the funds to help pay for other services.  This is another tax increase, plain and simple.

There is no denying that these bills now have to be paid.  Our hope lies in believing that this mayor and council will do a better job of stewardship.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Cover up

July 2, 2013

It’s hard for me to believe that city staff would do what they have done.

I’ve been writing about a proposed ordinance that would change some city council procedures.  When the item was posted on the agenda the posting indicated that passing the ordinance would repeal a prior ordinance.  Unfortunately city staff listed the wrong ordinance number to be repealed.

I watched the video of the city council meeting and missed the part where council approved the ordinance introduction.  I waited for the next agenda to be posted and saw that included in the agenda was an item to approve the minutes of the meeting in question.  That new agenda did not have the required backup material (the minutes to be passed) attached even though it should have.

This morning I see that someone has finally attached the minutes to today’s agenda.  Reading the minutes I see that the ordinance number to be repealed was changed to the right one.  How did that happen?  It is against the law in the state of Texas to tamper with a government record.

I went back to re-watch the video of the original introduction.  I saw that he item was passed without reading and without correcting the number.  Normally the city clerk reads the introduction.  Curious.

What happened?

If the agenda was changed after posting but  before the council meeting, the Texas Open Meetings Act has been violated.

If the agenda was not changed until after the council meeting, then the newly posted agenda has been tampered with — a violation of Texas law.  The minutes would then also be false.  Falsifying a public document is also against the law in Texas.

We still have the fact that the backup material posted on June 27, 2013 for the public comment session still refers to the wrong ordinance to be repealed.  So even today they have a fatally flawed ordinance in spite of their efforts to falsify the public record.

This is serious business.

We have the right to be informed in advance about what council is considering.  We have the right to have accurate records about what they have done.  We are not talking about simple clerical errors here.

I guess now that the cover up will not only continue but will probably get more involved.

The records will show who did what and when.  More than one person must have been involved.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | City government, Open Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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