Roll call

June 27, 2013

Now that we have the TEA imposed board of managers in charge of the EPISD, let’s take a look at the people who compose the board.

We have a lady that was appointed by the TEA to be the EPISD monitor.  We know little about her other than she is a career educator that seems to have made a difference wherever she was.  Other than the fact that she is not an El Pasoan that was elected by El Pasoans I think her appointment was a good one.

We have a former Texas state representative from El Paso who voted to cut $5.4 billion in funding out of Texas public education.  Actually I respect his vote, evidently one made on principle.  For my part I would prefer that the state not get involved in funding education.  Lower the taxes and fees that they take out of a community and let the local residents decide what their education system should look like.  I certainly don’t think that the feral government should be involved.  Of course I doubt that many would support my view on this.

The man who is most responsible for El Paso having one of the best water usage rates and capacities in the desert is on the appointed board.  He is a well known, well respected force in the water community.  He also operated as a tyrant with a “my way or the highway” approach to government.  He evidently saw no problem with his government organization buying major construction equipment from one of his board members.  Yes it was done legally, but that did not make it right.

The chief financial officer of the city, who is also on the The El Paso Firemen and Policeman’s Pension Fund board has also been appointed.  It seems that with both of those organizations the public has had difficulty getting to the truth of their respective finances.  Beyond that we will have the incredible conflict of interest between her duties to the city and to the school district.  I know nothing of her intentions here but do feel that other people without her conflicts should have been chosen.  How will she find time to do her many jobs?

The head of the Region 19 (it used to be Region XIX but during their period of existence public education declined to the point where they changed the name so that the public might understand it) head start program has also been assigned.  I hope she does well.  The matter of her conflict of interest in serving two separate institutions that frequently interact is another disappointment.

We know that government officials do not relinquish power easily.  How long will they stay when we have elected a new school board?  Your prediction is probably the same as mine.  State law gives them two years.  I know of nothing that would keep the TEA from appointing another board after that.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Another person’s thoughts

June 26, 2013

There was a comment posted yesterday that I think was saying that we edit or refuse to post comments that we do not agree with.  I say think because the comment was hard to understand. I reprint it here for your convenience:

Sounds like someone is making excuses for editing or deleting comments that he doesn’t agree with. Chicken shit bloggers always fail.

If your commenters are hurting your ego, maybe you ought to rethink your incorrect conspiracy theories.

To my knowledge every legitimate (non spam) comment that has been sent in has been posted.  There may have been an instance where I edited out some vulgarity.

I don’t know why this blog is getting spam.  The service we are using  catches several bogus messages every day.  When I  set the site to allow all comments to be published automatically, some spam messages get through.  This is an inconvenience to those who get an email from the site when activity is posted.

I choose to vet comments from new posters before they are published.  Those who have commented more than a few times are evidently white-listed and their comments go through without delay.  I have published every comment that seemed to me to not be spam.  I plan to  continue to do so and I  also reserve the right to edit comments to keep them civil, although most on this blog are civil.

It appears that the same person who made the comment also has his own blog.  I do not know that they are the same people but I do know that the names match.

He published this yesterday about ElPasoSpeak and it’s readers.  While I appreciate the different point of view, I have great difficulty understanding why some people feel the need to get personal or to try to put words in someone’s mouth.

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Pruning

June 25, 2013

Several people have made similar comments to me recently.

They feel that government at the local and national  levels has become too active.  In Texas local governments are only allowed to do those things that the laws specifically authorize them to do.  They don’t seem to care though.

Now it seems that their attitude is aggressive.  Their government is in charge.  Citizens should do what they are told.

We will never be able to write laws that are specific enough to stop that kind of thinking.  Those that want to game the system will always be able to find a loophole that they can use.

What we need is people in government who know how to do the right thing.  Not the right thing in their arrogant view, but the right thing according to the will of the people.

Local governments in Texas must be authorized by law before they can conduct a specific activity.  Our national government should only do those things that are specifically allowed by our Constitution.

Shortly after we adopted that document the people saw the government doing things that the people thought was prohibited already.  The 9th and 10th amendments were clear language designed to inhibit growing government.

Unfortunately those amendments  have long since been eviscerated.  What we should learn from this is that we cannot legislate morality.

Our hope lies in demanding the right conduct from our governments and the people who work in them.  It would help if shame could become an element of our fiber again.

You know that I often refer to our national government as the feral government.  While we strive to reign them in we should recognize the growing problem locally and tell our local people how we think.

Our recent election was a good start.  Now we must be vigilant as Cato says.  We should watch their activities and provide input to help them govern properly.

We deserve better

Brusus

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Creating their own trouble

June 24, 2013

Quality of life

Don’t tell me that includes more city lawyers.

According to the budget posted on the city web site, the 2013 budget for personal services in the office of the city attorney  is $3,144,928.  They are authorized to have 39 full time employees.

That could include receptionists, clerks, secretaries, paralegals and attorneys.  Averaging this out, an employee costs $80,639.17 per year. According to the El Paso Times website most of those attorneys get paid well over $100,000 per year in salary alone.

It is not for me to criticize how much some other person makes.  I do know several private attorneys that feel that the pay vs. capabilities vs. workload equation down at the city works out to be overly generous.  Then again I don’t know many attorneys that do not think they are better than their peers.

What is important here is the money we are spending for legal services instead of parks or libraries and other services.

I wonder what the economic impact on the budget would be if the city attorneys would advise council to do the right thing instead of finding a way around what the public is entitled to.

I do know that Scrivener seems to be involved in a lot of issues.  He seems to be working hard.

We deserve better

Brutus

6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Testing the newbies

June 23, 2013

It is disappointing but not surprising that city staff is taking the opportunity to try to increase their power at the very first meeting of the new city council.

Item 1C on the regular agenda is titled “AN ORDINANCE FOR ESTABLISHING DEADLINES AND PROCEDURES FOR PLACING ITEMS ON THE AGENDA FOR CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS AND REPEALING NO. 17016”.

Why?

Ordinance number 17016 was the old ordinance according to this item.  It required council to take a special vote before approving any item where the backup material is not complete  declaring that failure to take action would be detrimental to the interest of the city.  I wrote about this in Sneak Attack.  In other words council needs to be given all the paperwork that they are being asked to approve.

If city staff does not make the material available per the requirements of the old ordinance, and city council votes on the agenda item without the special vote, city council members violate an existing ordinance.  Violating an ordinance is an ethics violation.  That could lead to severe consequences for city council members.

Not explained.

What the backup material for this proposed new ordinance does not explain is that city staff frequently submits agenda items without the required backup material.  This makes it easier to keep council members from doing their homework.

Why now?

City staff has put this on the first agenda of the new council.  The new members are trying to get their feet on the ground.  The new ordinance removes the requirement for the special vote as well as other things.  Staff is trying to get this through before council figures out the rules.

City staff will now be able to leave important documents out of the material that they give to city council without breaking the law.  Council will not know what hit them.

I hope that someone finds a way to explain this to the new mayor and the council members.

The new ordinance is a very bad idea.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Cato

9 Comments | City government, Open Government, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Cato

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