Whither the Times

June 17, 2013

Where does our recent election put the Times?

If for the moment you were to assume that their editorial policy has been well intentioned and that their conflicts of interest did not influence them,  the fact is that the Times is woefully out of touch with the voters of El Paso.

Unless I have missed something, only one of the eight candidates they endorsed was chosen by the voters.

Maybe their circulation numbers will not be affected and as a result the Times does not care.

What to do?

Stay the course and be proud in knowing that the editorial board is smarter than the citizens.  74% is an incredible number. Personally I have never heard of that kind of victory in any free election of this size.  The voters do not like what has been going on.  The Times claims it does.

Hector the new mayor and council.  Point out every little thing that they can to put them in a bad light.  The Times largely ignored the mis-deeds of the city the last few years.  Attacking the voter’s choices would be interesting but dangerous.

Switch horses and claim righteous indignation as the facts come out about what has been happening.

Pretend nothing happened.

Some combination of the above will probably be their choice.

On a side note, I was particularly irked the other day when the Times needed to refer to an article in El Paso Inc.  Instead of attributing the article to the publication’s name the Times referred to it as a weekly newspaper.  Maybe that is how the game is played and the Times followed the editorial style of other newspapers.  I found it to be petty.

I hope that they find their way.  El Paso needs a good newspaper.  It would be nice if I could start reading the Times looking for balanced coverage of news items instead of to see what news they are trying to influence.

Muckraker

4 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, Uncategorized | Permalink
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Stewardship

June 17, 2013

What were the voters saying?

Was it about gay rights?

Was it about city council ignoring the results of an election?

Was it about downtown, destroying city hall, the ball park?

My take is that it was about competence and honesty.  All in all, El Pasoans are a pretty tolerant bunch.  We tend to live our own lives and pay little attention to the temporary tempests that happen here.

What we have witnessed from the city for the past few years got our attention though.  Tearing down city hall and building a baseball stadium with poor planning is costing us a lot of unnecessary money.  The city chief financial officer told us that it would cost us $33 million to move into new city facilities.  We now know that the number is over $70 million and we are still learning about more.

The city manager admitted in public that the true cost of the stadium won’t be known until we finish building it.  If the project had been handled in a measured manner instead of the “hurry up, we have an emergency” way it was handled, we could have known — down to the penny.  I would have voted for a well planned ball park.

The voters approved $470 million of quality of life bonds last November.  The city hall move and the ball park showed the citizens that the team down at city hall could not or would not manage our money with respect.

It looks to me like they chose the mayor based upon his ability to manage money and his promise of honesty and transparency.  My take on the city council election is that the voters wanted to get away from the rubber stamping mentality seen on council.  The voters rejected all of the candidates the Times endorsed for election to city office.  The runaway train must be controlled.

We have committed to spend almost a billion dollars recently.  I think the voters want to get their money’s worth.

In a word, this was about stewardship.

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty

Cato

1 Comment | City government, El Paso Times, Open Government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Cato

The tide turns

June 16, 2013

The voters have spoken.  Loudly.

Now we should hope that the new city council will work to fairly and wisely administer the funds that will be spent .

Congratulations to the winners.  Thank you to those that lost.

Brutus

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
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What else are they hiding?

June 15, 2013

The backup material for item 10A on next week’s city council agenda has some interesting language.

Item 10A asks for approval of a resolution that would approve of the first amendment to the ball park lease.  The modification to the lease requires an ordinance changing the original ordinance.

Here is the language from the backup material:

In addition, due to the bond validation suit and other timing issues, certain language with respect to the financing needs to be amended.

I have no idea what that really means.  The backup material certainly does not explain it.

What I do know is that I don’t trust them here.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, Open Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

They giveth and then taketh away

June 15, 2013

The ball team owners are stepping up to the plate and offering to change their agreement with the city.

They are offering to pay $12.8 million more to the city over the life of their agreement.  All the city has to do is to sell $8 million more in bonds.

The issue of the cost increases came before city council a few weeks ago and was shot down.  At the time city staff told us that the increases were just “contingencies” — you know, not needed.

Now the truth comes out and we see the team owners stepping forward because the ball park needs the extra money.

How charitable!

Actually, the owners promised last August (before city council approved the deal in September) to donate their profits from the venture to local charities “for the foreseeable future”.

Now that the owners have generously offered to pay the city $12.8 million we should subtract the $12.8 million from the profits they would otherwise have made.  That means that local charities are in fact paying the bill at least for the foreseeable future.

City staff and council should be ashamed!  And the Times?  Don’t get me started.

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty

Cato

Leave a Comment » | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
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