The EP Times is Bi-Polar
Yesterday we talked about the EP Times' "about face" on school taxes. They all of a sudden are worried about how much money ISD's are spending and who's watching the budget.
Today they are patting City Council on the back for spending $15,000,000 to save $2,000,000. Tell your wife you want to do something like that and watch how fast she's on the phone with her mother telling her what a moron you are and how she was right about you from the start.
You can read the opinion piece here http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9901007.
Anytime you start your column with,
"Taking out a loan may not sound too advisable in these troubled financial times."
you know you're about to write something completely idiotic.
There was another option for the city in this case. They could have simply asked the utility companies to charge them less or else the city would jeopardize their franchise agreements. No change except the price of the energy you are already consuming. No need to worry about changing lights, retro-fitting existing structures to incorporate "green" technologies and no change orders.
Change orders? Yeah - change orders. Companies like Franklin Controls will practically give away their "study" in exchange for the contract to make the changes. They estimate a cost for the city and the city accepts it. Two months down the line Franklin Controls comes back saying that in order to put the LED traffic lights on our existing poles they're going to have to rewire each one at a cost of $10,000 per pole. That's a change order.
Then they may figure out that the motion sensor lights don't work because there's too much natural light coming and the cubicles block the sensor and they simply don't work. So they'll need to go ahead and install ceiling mounted "master sensors" that will run the city another $20,000 a floor to install.
This thing is a boondoggle that could have been avoided. The city could have simply put the pressure on the local utility companies to lower their price. It would be as simple as asking the electric company to identify something they may want of the city's in exchange for a reduction in rates. It happens all the time every place but El Paso.
This thing is such a bad idea the "no crew" even voted for it. My buddy Steve Ortega should have been a little suspicious when Holguin and friends voted "aye" on the measure.
I guess we'll just have to be content with more loans that need to be paid. Something tells me that if you don't have enough money to buy something, you shouldn't be buying it. I'm talking about living within your means. Financing is all well and good, but we Americans have borrowed ourselves backwards and it's not healthy.
For now - the city staff can work in the dark. It's restful and calming as well as a money saver.

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