Confused

November 15, 2012

I’ve always had difficulty with planning. I’ve been a disorganized guy most of my life. I’ve always been impressed with those who can quickly efficiently plan. While reading the El Paso Times the other day, I realized why I could never be a City Manager. The article points out how our City Manager carefully planned, on short notice, to accommodate city employees during the move from the City Hall to the 3 mini City Halls in downtown El Paso. I realized the importance of careful planning . Since we are demolishing the City Hall and the Insights Museum (couldn’t get the temple) so that we can accommodate the Pacific League and get Padres out of Tucson (cause, they’re losing money) and into El Paso, the 3 Mini’s to will not be ready for several months. We therefore will have to move city services to the several recreational centers around the city which are well equipped to handle exercise mats, pool tables game rooms and the intricacies of city government and….

OOPS!

What are we going to do with the children?

Well, let’s send them to the Insights Museum.

But it rubble .

Let me start again… I’ve always had difficulty with planning….

1 Comment | City government | Permalink
Posted by M.T. Cicero

There They Go Again

November 15, 2012

The link at the bottom of this post it to an  October 12, 2010 video of discussion of item 12B on our City Council agenda.  It shows the City Engineer telling City Council that he wants to issue a 1,500,000 dollar contract to a company that has a contract with the Harris County Department of Education.

You will hear and see the City Engineer repeatedly assure council that the contract will only be used for minor work and certainly not for anything that has to be designed.  That was step one.

In step two, a short three months later, the City issued a purchase order under this contract to replace approximately 17,000 square feet of ceiling on the 10th floor of City Hall for just short of $95,000.  That works out to about $5.59 per square foot.  Most people in the construction business will tell you that $2.00 a square foot is a good number to use as an estimate.  They also spent some 53 to 54 thousand dollars to replace some roof drains and piping.

Then two months later on March 2, 2011 they modified the purchase order to replace the entire roof of City Hall (per the design work and specifications created by a local architecture firm) with a foam roof for around 543 thousand dollars.  For a foam roof!

Let’s summarize–694 thousand dollars on a contract for minor repairs, without requesting bids using a contract that the City Engineer said on camera in a City Council meeting would not be used except for minor projects that do not require design work.

All this on a building that we are about to tear down!

If that is not enough to get you going, be aware that City Council passed 3 million dollars worth of these contracts on October 21, 2010.  The Harris County Department of Education (Houston) gets 4% of every dollar spent under these contracts.  That comes to $120,000 that Houston will get (if El Paso spends the entire amount) simply because El Paso finds it too burdensome or inconvenient  to have the Purchasing Department conduct bidding.

We deserve better.

You can see the video here:  The Video (the segment starts about 2 hours, 8 minutes, 20 seconds into the recording–use the slider bar to get there–and lasts about 9 minutes).

Leave a Comment » | City government | Permalink
Posted by jcurrey

Camping Out At City Hall

November 14, 2012

The El Paso Times yesterday had an article where the City Manager was informing us that they would be moving city departments to recreation centers and the airport for some number of months while construction is finished on the buildings that they plan to move into after tearing down City Hall.

Recreation centers?

What about the people who use the recreation centers?  Will the centers be available for use as before?  If the answer is no we (the citizens) need to stop this nonsense now.

If the answer is yes then we have vast amounts of unused recreation center space that could be used by the public.  Why is it available for offices?  Are we out of money?  If so, maybe we should stop buying gadgets and invest in our children.

As far as doing business with the city I guess customer service (yes they are supposed to work for us) and efficiency are out of the question with this group running our city.

They evidently knew about this disaster before the bond election but chose not to tell us.  This is another example of their “two step” process whereby we do not get the whole story until after it is too late to do anything about what they are up to.

I also note that the Times continues to report the cost of the move at 30 million dollars, when the spending already totals 37 million dollars.  See City Hall Relocation.

We deserve better.

Our children deserve better!

3 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by jcurrey

Sole-source or favoritism or laziness?

November 13, 2012

This article is an example of how the City uses sole-source justification to avoid competitive bidding.

In this case the Fire Department wanted to buy 200,000 dollars worth of “cardiac monitoring and defibrillation supplies”.  I suspect that would include some actual units since pads and batteries appear to the most common supplies and $200,000 would be a whole bunch of them, but maybe I am wrong here.

The notarized sole source affidavit indicates that the vendor is the sole source for “External Defibrillators with the name LIFEPAK 500, LIFEPAK 12, LIFEPAK 15…for the City of El Paso Fire Department”.

The documents attached to the agenda are here:

http://www.elpasotexas.gov/muni_clerk/agenda/06-26-12/06261208E.pdf

A quick search on the web shows several companies that offer to sell the units and the supplies.  They claim that they offer the manufacturer’s warranty.

Some examples are here:

http://www.aedstoday.com/Medtronic-Physio-Control_c_15.html

http://www.aedprofessionals.com/Medtronic-LIFEPAK-500.html

http://www.aedsuperstore.com/physio-control-lifepak-1000.html

http://www.aed.com/physio-control-lifepak-1000-aed.html

http://www.aedbrands.com/defibrillator/medtronic/accessories/lifepak-1000

In fairness to the Fire Department a quick search on the web returns results showing that the manufacturer signs sole-source documents regularly.  Maybe they convinced the Fire Department that they are a sole-source supplier.

I have a harder time believing that the city Purchasing Department did not know that multiple sources exist.  They should have checked.

It is against the law in Texas to defeat the bidding process.

It is against the law in Texas to falsify a public document.

These items should have been bid.

Maybe when we get a new Fire Chief this kind of activity will stop.

We deserve better.

Leave a Comment » | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by jcurrey

City Management

November 12, 2012

I liked the editorial in the El Paso Times yesterday.

You can read it here: http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_21972302/city-manager  (It may take a minute to show in your browser but it does show in mine after about 50 seconds).

Maybe the Times will start reporting the happenings at City Hall with a bit more independent analysis.

City staff works for the City Manager and what they do is a direct result of the tone set by the boss.

The result is that what we see during City Council is often just a stage show.

They frequently use a two step system where a presentation is first made before Council making certain representations.  In the second step they proceed to do something different from what they promised (an example will follow in a later post).

Sometimes they claim that they do not have time to do something the right way because time will not allow it.

Or they will claim that something needs to be bought “sole source” without bidding when the facts do not support avoiding bidding.

As the editorial points out some members of Council correspond privately with staff during open meetings.  An exchange of electronic mail during an open meeting is considered a form of deliberation and must be open to the public.

Watch a City Council meeting.  See how they react when a member of the public addresses them.  Council needs to start listening to the public.

Staff and Council need to start following the rules.

We deserve this.

 

 

 

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by jcurrey

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