Meet me in the stacks

December 12, 2012

It would appear that City Council intends to conduct its meetings in our main library for the foreseeable future once city hall is torn down.

I guess that means city management staff has to leave it’s offices on Tuesdays, drive (or walk, that might take longer) over to the library, and spend much of the day away from their offices.  The way it works right now many of them can have someone watch the progress of the agenda and go down to attend the meeting close to when they will be needed.  They are in the same building after all.

We have been told that the library has all of the equipment necessary to conduct and broadcast the meetings.  Let’s keep an eye on what they have to buy to make this work.

Will they arrange the agenda to be convenient to staff (department “A” will be on the agenda after lunch, department “B” will be first on the agenda) so that they will not have to attend all day?  What effect will that have on the public?

Speaking of the public, where will they park?  How much will it cost?

I predict that this is step one of their old two step.  At some point in time we will hear about plans to build new council chambers.  After all they will need to spend the money to increase efficiency.

In the interest of efficiency, why don’t they meet in the county commissioners court chambers, or where the El Paso Independent School District board meets?  They have already greased their skids.

We deserve better

Leave a Comment » | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by jcurrey

So much for quality of life

December 11, 2012

The El Paso Times reported recently that 75 city employees will be moving into the Pat O’Rourke Recreation Center (formerly the YMCA on Montana avenue) next month. The city will be occupying the space for nine to twelve months.

They will occupy a computer lab, a game room, an activity room, and a multipurpose space.  The kids and citizens that use these facilities will be “inconvenienced” according to the article.

The city is thinking about leasing parking space for the employees it moves from a Baptist Church across the street, “leaving nearby street parking available for the public”.

We will have to wait to see how much the required remodeling, parking (which was free at the old city hall)  electronic equipment, and moving expenses will add to the $63.9 million (out of $33 million — go figure) already committed to facilitate the move out of the city hall that will be torn down.  About a year from now we ought to be able to see how much it costs to move these people again.

Some of us think that recreation centers contribute to a community’s quality of life.  Evidently some people don’t care about that.

We deserve better.

Our children deserve better!

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

Watsagoinon in ELP

December 10, 2012

Let me tell you, Brutus has been a busy man. Earlier this week he was spotted at Home Depot and Lowe’s pricing of all thing, ceiling tiles. Later, he was spotted driving up and down Durango and Santa Fe avenues. He does his homework, you betcha.

Rep Ortega joined the City mangler in referring to the voters (nebobs of negativism, I guess) in addition to crazies, as amateurs. He tossed his bagel into the voters rings hoping to be our next Mayor. Never practised law (or baked), so he needs a job. Speaking of Bagels, we have real Bagelman, Robert Cormell entering the race. A real working man who has successfully managed 3 shops without using East River water for the Bagels (New Yorker say.. aw fowgetaboutit). I guess the Dementia getting the best of me.

Speaking of Dementia, our Westside Rep in an EPT Editorial, did her thing about the Chucoleaks and the Emails that were uncovered. Can you imagine any pol not knowing that these thing are public property? Even the Chicago Pols figured that out. Well, in either case she praised the City Mangler for calling her Demented. I think that what she said. Stephanie, you better stop with the Emails.

Now getting back to what I originally wanted to say before I freely associated. “Anonymous” comments about the Canutillo School Board on 12/08/12 are very revealing. He puts a lot of loose ends together in his explanation of their actions. Not much to add. That’s investigative reporting. Crowder, someones stealing your thunder.

This is an Open Forum and we want your comments. Don’t let Brutus steal the tiles, or the street signs. Put your 3 cents in. Just leave me alone. I’m very sensitive.

Arcus Senilis

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Inc., El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by M.T. Cicero

It almost fits if you take the roads beside it

December 10, 2012

There has been quite a bit of talk about the ball park not fitting on the city hall site.  There has also been talk about the roads downtown not being able to handle the crowds that might be brought to the ball park after the new team miraculously becomes a winner instead of a loser.

Here comes the two step.

Step one:

  • Tomorrow’s (December 11, 2012) City Council agenda introduces an ordinance  to change the classification of streets around the ball park.
  • Durango is the street that runs in front of city hall (the west side) and around it (the north side).  It is currently classified as a “minor arterial”.  That is evidently inconvenient for their yet to be revealed plans.  They want to remove the classification.
  • Santa Fe is the street that runs behind city hall (the east side — most of us think of that as the main entrance).  It is currently classified as a “major arterial”.  They want to classify that street as a “minor arterial”.

Will this be step two?

  • Build the ball park on top of Durango 
  • Build the ball park onto half of the width of Santa Fe

If there is going to be a traffic problem, removing those streets can only make it worse.

You can see the details here (there are some nice maps a few pages into the document).

Also on the agenda you can see the city considering a purchase of “wireless phone service, mobile broadband services, and related products” funded through the “Capital Equipment Lease Agreement” whatever that is.  Services are not considered “capital” items on any legitimate financial document that I am familiar with.  It is item 10 on the regular agenda.  Note that once again they are using a buy board instead of bidding.  I would think that for $845,048 we would have gotten some competitive rates.

Also on the agenda you can see the city proposing to spend $122,527 with an out of town vendor instead of $61,107 with an El Paso vendor.  The city did actually bid this item, then they used their rating system to justify spending twice as much.  You can see this here.

We deserve better.

1 Comment | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by jcurrey

Trust me this will hurt me a lot more than it hurts you

December 9, 2012

Let’s talk about the Social Security Trust Fund.

By law those of us in the system must pay 6.2% of our paycheck up to $110,100.  Our employer must pay an additional 6.2%.  Congress reduced the employee portion to 4.2% as part of the financial “recovery” effort.  The 2% reduction is scheduled to be terminated on January 1, 2013 and we will be back to 6.2%.

The money gets deposited primarily into two accounts–one for retirement and the other for disability.  The law calls these “Trust” Funds.

Most of us think of a bank or financial institution when we think of a trust.  Indeed the people at Oxford Dictionaries define trust as ” an arrangement whereby a person (a trustee) holds property as its nominal owner for the good of one or more beneficiaries”.  The word “holds” says a lot — we do not expect our trustee to spend or sell our property and then pay us off when we want our value — we expect the trustee to hold our money.

Sadly, the use of the word trust here is a deception.  The law allows the United States  government to borrow money from the funds with the promise that they will pay it back when the funds need money.  Right now more money comes into the funds than gets spent on benefits.  The remaining money we deposit gets spent right away by the government.   At the end of 2011 the government had borrowed about $2.7 trillion dollars of our money with the promise (“the full faith and credit” of our government) to pay us back.

Sure, and the check is in the mail.  They have already spent the $2.7 trillion dollars.  There are only a few ways that the money can be recovered:

  • Increase the number of payers and/or the amount that they pay.  This is a Ponzi scheme that requires younger people to pay for older ones.
  • Decrease the benefits paid out.  Lower payments, introduce means testing (“you paid in but you don’t need it”), make you wait longer before you can start to draw benefits.
  • Pay with general revenue funds.  Tax more or spend less.  Either way it is still a Ponzi scheme.

Then again maybe they will not pay us back.  I doubt that Congress would openly default on the loans.  More probably they will come up with some new program and just dissolve the program that you and I paid into.

They never intended to put our money in trust.

If you don’t agree with my analysis, read this from a former President’s state of the union speech:

“Some in our country think that Social Security is a trust fund – in other words, there’s a pile of money being accumulated. That’s just simply not true. The money – payroll taxes going into the Social Security are spent. They’re spent on benefits and they’re spent on government programs. There is no trust.”

You and I would go to jail for implementing such a scheme.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

1 Comment | Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

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