Refuse the Juice

Neighborhood Associations to Get Some Long Overdue Rules

There's an old saying I just made up that I think covers city council's move to shackle neighborhood associations - the best defense is a good defense. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the proposed rewrite of the ordinance below.

Download Ordinance_DRAFT_Rewrite_12-5-2011[1]

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Here's a quick history on neighborhood associations.

Before Joe Wardy was mayor neighborhood associations were held to my father's single law of children - they are not to be seen or heard.  Wardy changed all that when he came into office when he mandated that neighborhood associations be recognized... coddled... empowered... it was a nightmare only people who had lived outside of El Paso knew of.  I think Wardy was the best mayor ever, but his neighborhood association stance was a bad thing. 

Once Wardy gave them a little recognition, it wasn't long until they morphed into the jackbooted political thugs they are now.  Thankfully somebody is doing something about it now.

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The proposed ordinance was born out of the successful recall initiated by Pastor Brown.  Pastor Brown isn't a neighborhood association, nor is he a "civic association" as mentioned in the ordinance - I understand that.  However, he provided the people on city council and the employees on the tenth floor of city hall with a trip down Worst Case Scenario Lane and it was an eye opening experience for them. 

Never had a recall been successful before Pastor Brown took down the mayor and two city council members.  That's an understatement... nobody had ever been within miles of recalling a city council member much less a mayor.  The idea that a recall could work was a funny joke on the tenth floor, a real knee slapper.  Then one day Pastor Brown made the joke quite unfunny.

Unfortunately for the mayor and many others, they are still convinced the only reason the recall was successful was because Pastor Brown allegedly broke the law.  While I do have to admit that some things they did now strike me as either on the line or crossing it, the bigger picture here is that thousands of people came forward to say they no longer want this guy as mayor.  For some reason Cook can't grasp the fact that no matter what may have been done wrong, it pales in comparison to the massive amount of people who decided they no longer wanted him to be mayor.  He thinks the problem here is a matter of political participation by a church group when it's obvious that it's his governance.  Well, obvious to everyone but him.  The car is missing its engine and he's worried about a bald tire. 

I can bet city council's initial reaction to the overwhelming success of the latest recall was to try and find a way to ban future recalls.  The rules had already been made favorable to people in office by narrowing the window considerably for when they can take place and how they take place, but getting rid of the practice all together was out of the question. 

Their second thought must have been to identify where the next recall may come from and then figure out a way to hamstring those groups.  This is how we got to this proposed ordinance rewrite.

Isn't government fun?  You'd never know it, but once in office politicians spend much of their time trying to figure how to make sure they are never made to leave. Why do you think congress passed a "campaign finance reform" bill that had only one goal - making it harder for people to run against incumbents.  Of course, you were told that they were trying to keep big money out of politics, but if you actually read the law and understood it, it allowed for ten times the amount of money to come into elections and go directly to incumbents instead of challengers.  One part of the law made it illegal for you to buy a billboard criticizing your member of congress! Yet, they swear they were thinking of YOU!

Anywho - back to the task at hand.

Neighborhood groups have become, as I noted above, nothing but bullies who threaten political recourse on any council member that doesn't do exactly what they say at exactly the moment they say it.  Because the reality of a successful recall is no longer a joke, city council needed to do something to protect themselves from these people.  So you have a rewrite of the ordinance governing neighborhood associations.

The most obvious change here is that ordinance is now banning neighborhood associations and civic associations from participating in politics.  What exactly this means is kind of vague, but I can tell you how it's going to be interpreted and these neighborhood association folks are going to have a fit once it's implemented. I take that back - they're probably having a fit right now, which makes me smile.

What happens now is that people involved in these neighborhood associations are going to have to be very careful about what hat they wear and when they wear it.  When addressing council on a zoning case they'll have their "neighborhood association representative" hat on.  When they don't get their way and they start the process of recalling their city council member, they better have their "regular citizen" hat on.  If they don't keep their hats policed just so, they could lose their neighborhood association status. 

I think this new rule is good and bad.  It's good because I do truly think that most of the neighborhood associations are way too political. 

I think it's bad because if you're a guy like Jim Tolbert and involved in a lot of things, your actions in reference to one issue may be applied to your work with your neighborhood association work on another issue and that will get them banned.

This is going to severely limit the political chatter that takes place within these groups.  I'm sure it will end their candidate forums as well.  Both of those situations are good for everyone involved. 

Some of you might say "this is limiting my rights! blah blah blah blah!"  The truth is that is not limiting anyone's right to vote or to form a neighborhood association.  All this ordinance is saying is that you get to have these certain privileges if you abide by these rules.  If you don't abide by the rules, you don't get these privileges.  Anyone can oppose a zoning change, you just can't do it as an officially recognized neighborhood association if your primary or secondary activities are political in nature as defined by the ordinance.  It's like saying you can be a Catholic priest and you can have sex, but you can't do both. 

What is going to happen once this rewrite is passed is that these neighborhood association leaders are going to have to make a decision. Do they like being the lead complainer for their neighborhood association?  Or, would they rather be a political organizer for their neighborhood?  Only one of those jobs lets you hang around city council poking your nose into places it probably doesn't belong and making impassioned speeches against real estate related progress in your neighborhood. 

This rule would have helped Councilwoman Acosta tremendously a few years back when the Cielo Vista Neighborhood Association threatened her with a recall if she didn't carry their water on the Three Legged Monkey issue.  She would have been able have their status as a neighborhood association revoked by the City Manager after they threatened her with political action.  At that point they would no longer have any official recognition by the city and that would have saved taxpayers millions in the end.  They would have been reduced to a group of loosely organized 911 abusers and faded off into obscurity.

I think that's probably the best example of why this is a good rewrite.  An even better rewrite would be stop recognizing any and all neighborhood associations.  Why? Because these groups rarely represent more than a few bored people in any given neighborhood even though they're supposed to have at least 15 members and two annual meetings along with a requirement that any stance they take on any issue in front of council or advisory board has to be announced as... well read the damn thing yourself ...

G. Establish and follow a clear method for reporting to the City actions which accurately reflect the recognized neighborhood association’s position on a matter that is the subject of a pending City Council agenda item. When the recognized neighborhood association presents its official position on the issue to the City, it shall identify whether the decision was reached by the board, a survey of the general membership, or by a vote at a general membership meeting, and the vote for and against the position.

I have been to a lot of city council meetings over the years and have heard a lot people representing neighborhood associations and I have never once heard any of them adhere to the above stated rule. I have never even heard them come close to following the rules stated above.  I can also tell you that no votes on these issues take place within the neighborhood association and I'd be shocked beyond belief if they have 15 active members that meet twice a year.  And since the neighborhood association representatives have a comment at every damn meeting, they must be having weekly association meetings to vote on their stance on each respective issue.  If they aren't, they're in violation.  And if they are in violation they need to have their status revoked!  An honest assessment would tell you that most of the people speaking on behalf a neighborhood association are actually speaking on behalf of themselves and abusing the recognition of their neighborhood association.

IF YOU'RE A DEVELOPER OR A REAL ESTATE PERSON OF ANY KIND YOU NEED TO READ THE NEXT WORDS ON THIS BLOG VERY CAREFULLY AND UNSERSTAND THEM.

The above rule got me to reading about what the revocation clause would say.  Item "G" is probably the one where my head started to spin.  It reads:

 B. The city manager or designee may revoke recognized neighborhood association status for one (1) year if the city manager or designee determines, upon receipt of a petition from the entity’s general membership, that a representative of the recognized neighborhood association knowingly made a material misrepresentation in materials or testimony provided in writing or at a public hearing on an applicant’s land use or development project.

This happens during 99 percent of the disputed land use, zoning or other related agenda items when a neighborhood association presents or speaks.  Flat out lies!  Not even well thought out ones a lot of times.  Yet, never once has the City Manager cut the speaker off and revoked their neighborhood association status.  This is a serious problem with neighborhood associations during all items dealing with zoning or development - they lie their asses off in order to try and get what they want because the laws on the books aren't in their favor.  These lies have cost people millions and it's not right that the city has never enforced the ordinance. 

I expect that the next time a developer gets railroaded by a pack lies from a neighborhood association that they will bring this part of the ordinance up.  If the city manager doesn't act they  should have a judge issue a writ of mandamus compelling the city to do its job and revoke their recognition of the association. 

Furthermore that item within the ordinance should be expanded to include lying about anything to the city in their official capacity as a neighborhood association.  That would have stopped the Three Legged Monkey debacle a few seconds after it started. 

So... I'm all wound up.  I'll take a breath here...

I think there's a clear opportunity here to hold these roving bands of thugs (neighborhood associations) to a higher standard so that they do not swing a heavier axe at the public tree than should be allowed by law.  They ought have to register as lobbyists and report their contacts with city officials just like the developers they're fighting have to do.  After all, aren't they fighting for what they consider a monetary gain - their property values?  I think so.

Commence arguing below.

Hawkins Bar Drama - Political Dreams = Taxpayer Nightmare

Disclaimer - everything you read below is simply my opinion and is all an assumption of what may happen in the future. If you'd like to sue me, remember that you can't defame someone in the future otherwise your high school guidance counselor would have been in court far too often to tell you that you'd amount to nothing in life.

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I'd like to thank the many people who have been emailing me all the inside info on the Cielo Vista Neighborhood Association (CVNA) and how the city took the wrong path at every fork in the road. I did not realize that the CVNA was such a closed group representing literally only a handful of very bored people who just happen to have one very big advocate within city government. What a download of knowledge this past week has been.

The sad part is that the more the more I learn about all of this, the more I think it could have all been avoided. There were definite warnings from David Cooper about how he'd respond if certain folks didn't back off. If anyone thought he was full of shit, he is easy to look up on the internet and if you did that you'd know that this was one bull that shouldn't have been messed with.

We've got a lot to get to, so go to the bathroom now and get yourself a snack - this is going to be good.

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We all know that Emma Acosta wants to be mayor. We also know that she can't win. Her past is known to the right folks in town who would make all of what they know public if she was even within spitting distance of that position. Former federal inmates, disgruntled former employees and a whole host of others would come forward and tell their stories and none of those stories end with Acosta as a heroine. She doesn't have a chance, which makes what I'm about to relate sting even worse - considering you're a taxpayer.

Way back when Acosta was first elected she was threatened with a recall. It was the CVNA folks who were behind that threat. They wanted Acosta to hunt down the owners of the Three Legged Monkey, capture them and then publicly burn them at the stake as a warning to anyone else who would think of trying to open a business they didn't approve of. Just kidding! Kinda…

Acosta, in an odd moment of clarity she has yet to replicate since, felt that she was vulnerable to a recall. Instead of telling the people to "mind your own business before I spend the rest of my days helping the owners of that bar sue you for everything you have plus whatever your kids have," she threw reason and sanity to the wind and became their biggest advocate. That poor decision will now cost YOU, the TAXPAYER, millions of dollars in legal fees.

You see, Acosta figured incorrectly that the CVNA would be her ticket to the mayor's office. Somehow she thought a few shut-ins with nothing better to do than harass private business owners would help her politically. Little did she know that she'd actually be getting herself and all of them sued while building the political future of someone else.

Even if Acosta wasn't damaged goods going into the Mayor's race based on her 20 plus previous years of shenanigans at the city, she'd still be spoiled produce after earning this latest lawsuit that taxpayers are going to be forced to foot the bill for. To be mayor of El Paso you need some kind of business support and nobody is going to support a candidate who is so anti-business that she got the city sued over it. Taxpayers, also known as "voters," aren't going to support a politician who seeks out opportunities to get the city sued. The price tag of those suits have quite a negative effect on voters as Acosta will soon find out.

As Acosta drowns in her deep pool of bad moves and bad ideas, CVNA boss Mark Benitez is all packed up and ready to go on one hell of a power trip. Benitez has done himself quite good by scaring Acosta into her role as his personal enforcer at the city. Not that Benitez really needed Acosta to carry his water since fellow defendant Irene Borunda had a family member employed at the city in a perfectly position to wage war on their behalf. It matters none, though - Benitez is set to stomp Acosta into the ground and it's all her fault.

You may have noticed that Benitez has been everywhere lately - TV, newspaper and... well, that's "everywhere" in El Paso. After an expensive and oddly timed ad came out in the times from the CVNA giving approval of the development of the old Farrah site, Benitez was on the evening news touting the beginnings of "new construction" at the site. From what I saw it looked like it was dust control and the mandated maintenance of the property in accordance with their Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SW3P, SWPPP), but I'm not there, so I don't know.

What I do know is that Benitez is very much acting like a guy who wants to run for office. How the CVNA could afford an ad in the El Paso Times is beyond me, but it sure makes me think that suing the neighborhood association should be on the table for the owners of the respective bars given that it appears they have money. When he's not shopping ads in the paper, he's on TV cherry picking what businesses he will allow to operate on his turf. In this case he has sided with the owners of the Farrah property and it's pretty obvious why - future campaign funds.

Now I'm not saying that Paul Foster is going to give this guy any money, nor am I saying he paid for the ad in the paper. I'm thinking Foster has done neither and probably doesn't want to. What I'm saying is that Benitez is angling for a donation with his sudden love of businesses and the riffraff they bring to his neighborhood. And “about face,” if you will.

Benitez also landed himself a spot on the quality of life bond oversight committee. He's tremendously outclassed and is serving only as a puppet for the PDN, which will be reflected in his inability to obtain meaningful funds for any project that isn't an arena downtown. I'm willing to bet not one single meaningful dollar will go to Benitez's neighborhood even as a "thank you" for being a well behaved pet of the PDN. He will probably see some campaign money going his way for his cooperation, but it won’t matter (more on that in a minute).

There's no doubt Benitez used Acosta as his stepping stone to public office. Once Acosta comes to grips with the fact that she can't be mayor, she's got to try and retain her seat and when she does that, Benitez will be in her way. Because she gave him immense power over what she has done in office and how she's done it, he's in a great position to smash her in a race for the seat. How is she going to debate the guy who has been pulling her strings from the beginning? So in control of Acosta is Benitez that he had her get herself sued over a bar that hadn't even opened or served one customer… How do you defend/justify your actions against a business that hasn't even turned the lights on yet? I guess we’ll see them try.

So we know that Benitez will be the death of Acosta's political career because she can't be mayor after being a party to getting the city sued over something idiotic and she can't beat him in her district because he owns her.

So, what about Benitez's real chance at holding the seat? It doesn't look good.

Problemo numero uno for Mr. Benitez is that he's being sued personally over something he could have come before him while serving on council - he'll be unable to ethically participate in the many regular agenda items and executive session items pertaining to anything dealing with Patriot Place, real estate contracts anywhere in the city, alcohol licenses/business licenses and zoning cases, the lawsuit itself and just about anything else you can associate with bars, business and real estate. Any subject mentioned above and a myriad of others I haven't even thought of could pose a conflict of interest for him and hinder his own case in defense of himself and the city's case defending its many named defendants. I could make a case of conflict over just about anything since he's facing a lawsuit of the kind he's facing. Smarter people can, and will, do it better than I. For his constituents he'd be a spiteful little man with no vote just taking up time and space on council.

That's why there's already three other people looking into that race and it's early. They want Acosta out and they want Benitez out. These aren't your run-of-the-mill ankle biting activists with nothing better to do, we're talking about business and industry folks who are well connected in that community and in others. These are the kind of people who don't need the money and are sick and tired of the Acostas and Benitezs of their district turning the place into a rundown retirement community. Granted, all three of these people disagree with me on the quality of life bond issue, but they're way better than Acosta or Benitez and nobody but Norma Chavez is perfect, right?

(Hear that sound? That's the sound of Norma slamming her finger into the F5 key reloading the comments section to see if anyone says anything about her. I'll have 5,000 page views from her alone!)

We can forget about all that if the city quickly hires outside councsel and they find that there was shenanigans going on with Mr. Cooper’s bars that the public wasn't previously aware of. Hell, the stuff we are aware of is enough to win their case - and that comes from the mouths of El Paso attorneys who have no skin in the game and contacted me just to explain how insane the city was acting throughout this whole ordeal.

Outside counsel will probably tell the city to settle the suit and that means the media would have to report to the world (El Paso is actually technically a part of the "world" - I looked it up) that the actions of Benitez, Acosta and others led to taxpayers paying Las Vegan, David Cooper, millions not to open a bar in El Paso. That would not be good for their political careers. And I can guarantee if the CVNA as an entity gets named in a suit, which they should have been in the first place, Mr. Benitez will find himself with very few friends and even fewer sympathizers.

And I can tell you really quickly here that if Cooper's attorneys put the new city attorney in a spot where she's going to have to go through the kind of deposition I think she's going to have to go through - she'll be screaming "SETTLE THIS SUIT NOW" as her advice in executive session faster than you can say "consanguinity." Not that she did anything wrong at all - it just doesn't look right from the public's perspective and God knows it doesn't get prettied-up during a deposition.

Basically things don't look good for anyone but David Cooper here and I can tell you that I "googled" the guy on the advice of someone familiar with him. The guy is beating the pants off of Clark County Nevada on what appears to be zoning and business registration law that he didn't like a few years back. You might know that Clark County is where Las Vegas is located and I can tell you that they are a hell of a lot more sophisticated than El Paso when it comes to this type of fight. If he's smacking them around, he's going to have no problem with the defendants he named in his suit.

How could all of this have been avoided?

First of all, Emma Acosta could have nipped this situation in the ass a long time ago. A quick conversation with any police officer or firefighter who worked in the area would have produced an interesting report - many of the calls made to 911 about the Three Legged Monkey were labeled by responding officers as "Malicious, mischievous false call, or other incident found." That means they went to the scene and found that there was no problem as described by the caller. In simple words - 911 abuse. One of the people who was making these calls just happened to be related to a tenth floor employee at city hall. Which makes me wonder what happens to people without relatives on the tenth floor if they make calls to 911 deemed "Malicious, mischievous false call, or other incident found" by the responding officers ever Friday and Saturday night.

I've seen the police reports of the 911 abuse calls and it's interesting that the cops note that the people calling were at, or near, Three Legged Monkey video taping people as they entered or left the bar. And when the cops did talk to the people who were calling 911 it appears that the reason for their call would change when approached with the news that the bar wasn't over crowded as claimed. The complaint would turn to people jaywalking, which isn't a Three Legged Monkey problem.

All of these frivolous calls cost taxpayers money and slow down response times for actual emergencies. Because police and fire can not ignore calls about over crowded establishments (it’s an issue they take very seriously and always respond to do the threat of a mass casualty situation) they must respond every time. How many people were without fire and police services while these people where phoning in frivolous calls to 911? Despicable.

If Acosta had done her homework she would have found that members of the CVNA were prone to inventing problems where there were none and it was well documented by many city employees, advisory boards and the general public. Instead, she helped put one of the alleged 911 abusers into a special volunteer position at the police station! You can find her picture in the lobby.

Acosta showed tremendously poor judgment in not digging for all of the facts surrounding the situation first. She was thinking with her "political brain" and we all know that the "political brain" doesn’t consider facts and instead only functions in making decisions on survival. Often the decisions made by the "political brain" are wrong and that results in “political brain” morphing into "political brain in post-political career denial" - i.e. Norma Chavez.

So... Acosta messed up and she'll pay for it dearly, but she wasn't the only one.

Somebody at the city - at the senior staff level - should have blown the whistle on the whole thing a long time ago. Everybody knew the names of the people involved here because they were/are chronic complainers. Giving them attention only encourages them. It's like feeding a stray cat - they'll keep coming back as long as there's food and they’ll poop in your garden as a thank you.

What happened in this situation is what happens all too often at the city - they'll do anything to stop the complaint calls and that apparently includes preempting someone from doing business based on what might happen in the future based on the opinions of people with an agenda. Let me be clear, though - nobody should be punished for a crime they might commit. Not that Cooper was going to a commit a crime, but he was punished for a nuisance that did not exist. Anybody with an ounce of cover your ass experience would have let the guy open up with a warning - "if the things happen that we think are going to happen here, we're going to be on you like a fat kid on a cookie."

What happened instead is the city doing everything they could to stop the complaint calls including allegedly violating this guy's rights (I use “allegedly” here lightly since I believe they did). It happens all the time at the city and I have seen it from experience. Having worked in construction on city projects I can tell you that they'll shut you down and make you open roads THEY ASKED YOU TO CLOSE FOR SAFETY REASONS because they don't like complaint calls. I didn't mind - it's called a construction delay and every contractor in the world loves them because the city pays you not to work because they can't stand up to bitchy shut-ins with nothing better to do than pick up the phone and bother people.

Believe me, when these bitchy shut-ins aren't bothering the police, fire or city hall, they're at the local supermarket bitching about the tomatoes being too red and the milk having too much lactose in it. Because the local supermarket can not sacrifice profits on the account of bitchy shut-ins they learn to deal with them by telling them to take a hike. One former city council ankle biter from the west side was banned from a store because they got tired of his shit. Somebody over at the city might want to spend a day with Joe the Grocer and call it "professional development."

I can only guess that the fact that one of the main complainers had a family member inside city hall on the tenth floor that this issue got a lot more attention than it deserved. It's suspicious at best once you find out that the city's allegations against Cooper were proved false at every turn. You also have to wonder how the scrutiny applied to Cooper was never applied to the many other establishments in town that have much worse problems than his short-lived nightclub had - a nightclub that apparently didn't do anything wrong given the raids turned up a smattering of stuff that never went anywhere past a funny story in the El Paso Times and subsequent retraction of many elements of that story by the El Paso Times. Again, there's an issue of fairness here that someone on city staff should have raised before it came down to a lawsuit.

And finally - my previous sentence a good segway - COOPER TOLD YOU HE WAS GOING TO SUE YOU IF YOU CONTINUED TO HARASS HIM!

I once dared someone to sue me and guess what - they did. As cool as all of you thought it was and how much "street cred" I gained from it, it was a bad experience. Because Texas didn't have a "slap law" at the time I had to spend a little money and pride to make it go away. Nowadays things would have been different and I wouldn't have learned the lesson that I did - which is that the judicial system in many ways completely broken.

For any of you hoping that the lesson I learned was going to be about exercising my First Amendment Rights, you're wrong. However, I still seek to establish my own religion and petition the government despite some people’s best efforts to stop me from doing so (some of you will get that, others of you are stupid).

Where was I? Oh, warned he was going to sue...

So I looked back in the press and everywhere else I could find info on this case and sure enough, Mr. Cooper told everyone he was going to sue them if they didn't back off. Nobody listened to him and he sued everybody. I'm sure they were running a "ten defendants for the price of one" special at the law office so Cooper got a deal when he came in with this bag of legal gold. I’m kidding, but the lawsuit is no joke. Try and remove yourself from it all you want, but YOU will be paying the city’s part of this debacle starting the day they sent this out to outside legal counsel (if they haven’t done that yet, lord help them/us).

How much YOU are on the hook for is unclear right now. It’s going to get expensive. Depositions are a $200 an hour type of thing and that’s before you add in the cost to have all those attorneys sitting the room for hours upon hours. And with an entire building full of potential witnesses, thing could get seven figures expensive very quickly. If it makes you feel any better there’s a slight chance they’ll let us see the depositions after we’re forced to pay Mr. Cooper several millions bucks for his troubles… so that’s nice.

I’m out of breath and you probably need to pee, so we’ll stop here for now. I have been receiving new information the entire time I’ve been crafting this digital piece of toilet paper I call a “blog post,” so I'll have to follow this up with new info later.

Please discuss below and refrain from using any manners – I wouldn’t want to get a better impression of any of you at this point.

Ps. Norma stop refreshing this page - it's messing up my stats.

Norma Has a Blog - The World is Now Dumber

Norma Chavez has a blog. 

Norma states in her blog that Jaime and I mention her because drives traffic.  Technically she's correct - I do get more traffic when she is mentioned on my blog.  However, it's because she sits at her computer reloading the page thousands and thousands of times waiting for someone to comment about her. 

The email traffic on Norma follows one theme - "the only time you should ever mention Norma again is when you find out she's moved away and no longer a burden on El Paso."  That's not exactly anyone clamoring for news on her.

She thinks she is going to have enough traffic to get advertising... good luck with that.

A short read of her blog proved to be a short trip through a very large ego.  It's sad.

I Was Wrong - They Want $500 Million From You

I can admit when I'm wrong... sometimes.  In some cases there's no getting away from it and no fighting it.  I had originally told you that the quality of life bond issue was going to cost you around $100 million.  Later on I revised that up to $200 million and I did that because I figured it would be a number big enough to cover even the most ridiculously extravagant wish list from the PDN group.  I was prepared for the $200 million guess to be ridiculed when the actual "ask" would be somewhere around $150 million. Little did I know that they'd blast that number out of the water and exceed what can only be described as "my wildest dreams."

Just so you have this straight - I was trying to scare you with what I saw as the craziest sum possible for this quality of life bond issue and they more than doubled it!

This all comes from a report by the El Paso Times today that struck me as remarkably calm considering the amount of money involved and the absolutely tiny amount of public input being sought.  You would think that putting the financially ailing public in El Paso into $500 million of debt would be a cause for a concern, but the paper seems to want to throw a party.  When every other major city in the U.S. is trying to reduce debt and regroup at the core service line, El Paso is spending like it's the best economy ever.  Why?  If you forget, I'll remind you.  The PDN hopes to make its exclusive membership rich in a poor economy by tricking you into voting them huge sums of money from the nonexistent public treasury. Didn't somebody say something similar to this a few years back?

To add insult to future injury is that the paper readily admits that a private group of citizens are controlling the public monies in an unprecedented power shift away from voters and their interests. PDN hired Horrow Sports Ventures to advise the city on how to collect and spend YOUR money.  It makes a person wonder what all those people in that 10 story building downtown are doing all day.  If they're handing over the details of spending all of your tax dollars to a private group of people and their out-of-town consultant without even a hint of a fair process when doing so, what else must they be doing?  We could probably save a ton of money by handing the day to day operations of the city to the PDN group.  They're making all the calls right now, why waste the money on city employees? 

I would have liked to have seen a fair bidding process open to all groups looking to co-opt  a  half a billion dollars of taxpayer money.  I think it was an unfair process letting one group just waltz in and take control.  Running El Paso into the ground should be fairly bid upon like any other project the city undertakes.

Stewarding this flight to financial ruin are:

City Manager Joyce Wilson - Just doing what she's told.

County Commissioner Veronica Escobar - Very good person, but over-sold on this downtown thing to the point it will be the early death of what I was hoping was a long career.  Smartest person in the room almost all the time, just not when it comes to this issue. 

Mark Benitez - Don't know who he is, but he's in way over his head and in no way able to match wits with the heavyweights he's been paired with.

Ruben Guerra - Perpetually on boards... He's a finance guy, but a puppet for the PDN and others.  He personally wouldn't advise any one of you to borrow this kind of money yourself under these circumstances, but collectively he thinks it's okay.  I'd like to see him try to reason this kind of terrible financial decision in front of people who don't have a stake in this game.

Brent Harris - Damn good real estate guy.  Any advice he gives will be beneficial - if you're going to spend $500 million, you might as well have one of the top commercial real estate guys around telling you where to buy.  Can't fault Harris for his involvement. 

Tripper Goodman - A very good business mind, but one that is beholden to the PDN crowd.

And that's it...

You don't see any Jim Tolberts, Lisa Turners or Bill Addingtons on that list.  They'd be too problematic seeing as how one of them is a budget hawk and the other two would ask for things that are not arenas or convention centers.  A person like Turner would ask too many "why does that cost so much" questions and these people don't like those kind of questions.  Addington and Tolbert would commit the sin of demanding real quality of life amenities like parks, nature preserves and other things not generally conducive to filling private business interests' pockets with truck loads of cash.  They're more into enriching young minds than old men.  They would never fit in very well at the kind of meetings the PDN folks are having. 

The second most obvious thing about the board is the lack of elected people on it.  There's one - County Judge Veronica Escobar.  Everybody else isn't constrained by the idea they may not be reelected or even worse, recalled.  If you don't like what decisions these people make with your money, you have no recourse - you can't vote them out.  Kind of scary, isn't it?  I don't like it when someone is playing with my money and has nothing to lose. 

Why this process can't be managed by a committee originating from City Hall to include their economic development team (what a joke), members of the city council (that's scary) and members of the community, is beyond me.  At least the public could hold the committee accountable via the next election.  Unfortunately the people who are expected to make the big sacrifice have no say.  That's as un-American as Volkswagen, crickett and tofu pie. 

The good news is that there will be a series of meetings held at 6:00 p.m. in various parts of town over three days next week.  The bad news - the article in today's paper is the only advertising they'll do of those meetings.  Nobody will go, which doesn't really matter since they've already made up their mind to the point they know exactly how much their dreams are going to cost - $500 million. 

Ooops! I almost forgot - you can get "comment cards" at the zoo and several other places you'll never go in order to put your two cents in.  You can even comment on the city website, not that they will read them or care - the city isn't involved in how the money is going to be spent, a committee run by the PDN group is the governing body.  You can send a million comments to the city, but they will just ignore them, they're not in charge, the PDN group is.  Maybe the PDN group should have a link on their site where you can send comments directly to them since they are running the show.  Better yet, since we're about to pay this Horrow character a few million bucks to spend our money, why not give us his email address?

Let's be honest, it's not like you have been ready with a comprehensive plan on how to spend a few hundred million bucks in your neck of the woods.  You were told today that they are taking suggestions next week and that's not enough time to map out your needs in a manner that is sufficient to prove your need of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Showing up and requesting some new park equipment or sidewalks in your neighborhood isn't going to get very far unless you've produced all the ancillary materials to go along with them.  Do you think the city is going to build you a park because you jotted down three sentences on a note card at the zoo?  They're not.  This thing is already written, signed and ready to go - they just need your vote.  Any meeting you attend is a charade where they are pretending to care about what you think.  If they did care, they'd give you more than a week to prepare... and they wouldn't have handed the whole process over to a private group of individuals who have their own plan as stated in the media months ago.  The train has left the station. You can never run fast enough to catch it and you'll only look like a fool trying. 

Bottom line - you're being asked to fork over $500 million and you get three short meetings a week from now to say your peace and you don't even have access to the decision makers themselves.  What a deal!

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Obviously the PDN group is thinking of building more than just an arena downtown.  What are they planning to do with the rest of the money no slated for an arena, the roughly $400 million or so left over?  I'm thinking this is a Nancy Pelosi deal - pass it to find out what's in it! 

The article mentions something about a Triple A baseball team and that couldn't be scarier if they promised the team would be made up of convicted murders who would live next to elementary schools.  Baseball as a whole is in the cellar and the minor leagues are leading the charge to the bottom.  I have a feeling that this was mentioned in an effort to dangle a carrot in front of the electorate.  So many times we hear these rumors that somebody or something is coming and they often don't pan out.  In this case it's especially offensive because public officials are making backroom deals with taxpayers dollars and not telling anyone who the players are.  Taxpayers have the need to know (we don' t have the "right" to know) exactly who is making deals with the city for taxpayer dollars.  It shouldn't be a secret and those people at City Hall better hope to God they can produce something when an open records request comes in or tough questions will be asked.

There is no likely scenario where any sports park of any kind will be succesful in El Paso.  The places currently available in El Paso for sporting events don't draw capacity crowds - adding seats will only increase debts, not interest. El Paso is poor - really really really poor compared to cities its size and the disposable income for events like baseball games and concerts just isn't there.  It's why Las Cruces gets the acts it does and why El Paso doesn't. 

One local promoter in El Paso (now doing most of his business in other Texas cities) always sends me an email when someone says something to the effect of "El Pasoans are day of ticketbuyers" or "last minute purchasers."  His take is very different - El Paso aren't "day of" or "last minute" they are "not at all."  He laughs hartily at the idea a new arena will change the bookings for El Paso.  He simply points to this years crop of concerts and events that prove not many acts are interested in coming here now and that won't change when you have a bigger place wanting a bigger piece of the talent's take.

Forget for a minute one local's opinion and focus on the Wall Street Journal and their recent op-ed on cities drowning debt over convention center and arena projects HERE.  If you don't feel like reading the article it can be summed up rather easily - huge public expenditures on convention space and other amenities are gigantic failures that are to be paid for by the taxpayers.  What makes El Paso think it has something Boston, New York City and a plethora of other major cities don't have? 

We only know for sure that an arena and a bunch of the downtown stuff is set to be funded by the $500 million bond issue.  This comes on the heels of a major law firm/title company leaving downtown preceeded by Regis Bernard furniture and let's not forget an entire national conference pulled out of El Paso due to the condition of our flagship hotel.  The downtown plan, as touted by the very group who wants your tax dollars, has failed miserably.  In 2012 downtown El Paso is likely to have a net loss of jobs downtown if things continue the way they are going so far. 

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The big question here is will there be significant money for the parts of El Paso that aren't a part of downtown.  There are still lots of parts of town with no curb and gutter or sidewalks.  Parks all around the city have had upgrades, but there's a lot more to do.  General infrastructure needs in many parts of the city have yet to be met, but they're talking about new arenas and baseball stadiums.  What about kids being able to walk to school safely on a sidewalk instead of the street? 

El Paso is on the brink of becoming that rundown shanty of a house with a brand new Escalade parked out front.  The arena is the Escalade and the shanty is the rest of El Paso.  Nobody is all that impressed with your Escalade when they realize your home is in serious disrepair.   Dollar for dollar an El Pasoan will get more out of better streets, sidewalks and parks than they ever will an empty arena. 

And do you know what the best part about spending money on real quality life of issues is?  They are fair bid situations where taxpayers get the best deal and local businesses aren't excluded from bidding because they didn't get invited to join the right club.

You have to ask yourself if you're being ripped off right now given the lack of input you have on the proposed use of your tax dollars.  Are the things I describe above what you really want?  If not, make sure you go vote in November... hell, the way your local government is giving away its power,  your vote might not count by then.

Bombshell Blind Item - The Biggest News You Could Possibly Hope For

Which top democrat in town may be entangled in the Aliviane scandal?  This is the big dog who supposedly secured them millions in federal grants and had a staff member leave to go work for the company. 

Sometimes membership has its privileges and it seems there has been a delay in naming this person so far. 

I have said for a long time it seemed that this big dog had a lot of friends tied up in public corruption from day one. It was only a matter of time before people either started realizing that the big dog kept bad friends or was a part of the reason those friends were bad. 

This big dog might have their name withheld long enough that it won't effect the dog's future. If not it will surely be a major blow to the bid dog's chances at keeping the status quo, which is good for the big dog and the big dog's family.

Then again we're talking about El Paso where criminalas are lauded and good guys are smeared.  What do you expect from a group of people who think Pancho Villa was one cool dude?

What's the Big Difference?

My bridge piece hit a nerve with a lot of folks.  I got tons of emails with all kinds of different themes.  Many of them were sob stories about how one time they had to wait at the bridge for hours. 

I get it - sometimes... once in a lifetime... you are severely inconvenienced and that means the entire structure and existence of what inconvenienced you should be torn down and rebuilt.  Makes sense to me.  Hell, they should fill the metro tunnels with dirt and mud and start over here in DC every time there's a delay because some jackass throws himself in front of the train. 

Anywho...

Thanks for all the emails.  I'm sorry traveling between two countries - one of them being the murder capital of the world - is a pain.  Do what I decided to do - stop traveling between those two countries. 

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The big question came down to what would be the difference between Beto and Silver in Washington.  What would be the difference? 

That's an easy question to answer.  For Beto to be any different, he'd have to vote with Republicans infrequently - or all the time.  Reyes' votes are predetermined by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.  He votes exactly how he's told to and always has.  That's why he was chair of a letter writing committee he had no business even being a part of - obedience. 

For Beto to set himself apart as a democrat in Washington in comparison with Reyes, he'd have to do things Reyes doesn't do.  That entails not voting like an obedient democrat. 

And that's it. 

I wish it was more complicated than that, but there is literally nothing Beto can do different.

The Ft. Bliss expansion had nothing to do with Reyes and it will have nothing to do with Beto.  Anyone who has spent more than five minutes in Washington knows that Congress does not have control over non-war associated operations of the military.  The guys at the Pentagon figure out where they want to expand, contract and develop their forces. Congress merely approves the overall funding package. 

Now, sometimes the military likes to provide "cover" for politicians when bases get expanded, closed or otherwise tinkered with so they let them have BRAC-type committees where everyone pretends that the results aren't pre-determined.  The fact is, no group of civilians is going to stand in the way of the military carrying out its strategic objectives. 

There was no way in hell that Ft. Bliss would ever be closed - BRAC applied to all bases because all the politicians wanted to use the gatherings to either toot their own horn or mount a valiant final defense of the base they knew they were losing no matter how many meetings they had.  In El Paso there is no shortage of people taking direct personal credit for the major expansion of Ft. Bliss and they are all full of shit.  You've got democrats and republicans alike saying that they are the person who made it happen, which makes me wonder when all of this "bipartisan" fun took place and why we weren't privy to it when it happened.

Ask a big wig in the military off the record sometime about the possibility of a member of congress or a local businessman steering the mission of a branch of the military through an ad hoc committee and they'll make you laugh with their response.  The last time I asked I was told "The whole BRAC process had about as much sway over base realignment as Venezuelan voters have over who gets to be their dictator."

I can say that I've only heard of one instance where a member of congress - in this case the Senate - had some effect on the movement of a military unit.  Toe Tapping Senator Craig from Idaho took his ball and went home refusing to come out and play until it was agreed that some bombing unit would be moved to Idaho.  His vote was needed to proceed.  I don't recall if they moved the unit or not, but I do remember it was quite the talk of the town in DC at the time and it was agreed that only a Senator could weild that kind of power due to the size of the body they work in.

Basically what I'm saying here is that anybody who tells you that they are responsible for Ft. Bliss expansion, should also take the time to take credit for delivering Jesus in that barn all those years ago and just about anything else they can think of because while you're lying you oughta go big. 

Success has many fathers - failure is always a bastard.  I said that and you can quote me on that.

Bridge Waits - Pandering at its Worst

The last couple of weeks in El Paso the issue of bridge wait times has come up yet again.  Hold on - the issue of the wait times at one bridge has come up again.  We're talking about the "free bridge" right?Correct me if I'm wrong, but the other bridges aren't much of a problem, right? 

Maybe we should look at bridge wait times and see.  Go to the link below to see El Paso's bridge wait times and tell me which one is the longest wait.

http://www.elpasotexas.gov/commute/bridge.asp

Now compare those times against all the wait times for all crossings to other countries (Canada and Mexico if you're keeping score at home).

http://apps.cbp.gov/bwt/

So you have one bridge that puts commuters right in the middle of the action (central El Paso) and it's FREE!  Who wouldn't want to use that bridge?  It's FREE!  I don't care if I waste $10 in gas waiting to cross the FREE bridge because it's FREE!

And there you have problem numero uno - people making a terrible decision based on the economic concept of "free."  After all, there are other concepts of "free" and this surely doesn't have anything to do with the moral concept of "free." These people pile into one choke point for the advantage of saving money - not time.  If they wanted to save time, they'd obviously pick another place to cross because everyone knows the free bridge takes a lot of time to cross - but it's free. 

The gripe we have here is that while these people have put cost above time, they aren't satisfied with the outcome.  Turns out that they want the time benefits to equal the cost benefits.  Somewhere in here there's a quip about "time is money."  More fitting is "having your cake and eating it too," which I've never understood because what else would you do with a cake other than eat it? 

And before you get all accusatory saying that I'm being racist for equating the love of "free" and the absence of intellect to being from Mexico - stop.  I work in downtown Washington DC and have seen men who make mid six figure salaries push each other out of the way to get a free sample of gum being handed out on a street corner.  The idiocy that the economic concept of "free" causes in an individual is not limited to a race, ethnicity, income level or any other defining factor - some people are just struck stupid by anything that is "free."  Like I've always said - you could be handing out free kicks in the ass and there would be people lined up around the block to get one and a few people sneaking back in line to get seconds.

Anywho...

So you have a lot of people going to one crowded point because they don't want to pay the cost for convenience that the other bridges offer.  It's like watching people pour out of a movie theater and only use the center set of doors and none of the ones to the left or right - it causes a log jam.  Of course - people on city council would blame the center doors and the size of the door opening for the problem, not the people who have made a conscious decision not to go to the other doors.  Nope - it's a door problem, not a people problem.  And that is probably why El Paso is the laughing stock of Texas... well among other things - Alex Lozano was elected to office... twice.

If we want to pretend this is a "door problem" as these people would like you to, we can assess why those doors aren't changing anytime soon.  And I plan on doing that...

Oh, and don't tell me that people use the free bridge because it's closer to where they live.  I have talked to hundreds of people who have crossed all their lives and they will readily admit that they live closer to another bridge, but don't like paying to cross that one so they drive miles out of their way to go to the free one.  Everybody in Juarez can't live within a mile of the free bridge - it's just a fact. 

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City Council members think the federal government should have more lanes open at the free bridge so they can move people through faster. 

The federal government doesn't give a shit. 

Any questions?

You see, people looking to smuggle illegal stuff into the United States don't want to use the empty crossings with no waiting because the Americans with badges at those crossings have nothing better to do than check everybody that comes by. Why not take your time and check them thoroughly?  It's not like the crossers had to wait in line to get to the little booth of interrogation and suspicion - at least that's what I call it because I sympathize with lawbreakers.  Just kidding, but it is a fitting description, no?

Smugglers like the confusion and sheer number of people at the free bridge.  The American authorities know this and try to keep the process under control. This means things slow down at the free bridge, not speed up.  The important thing to remember is that the agents waiting at the little booths of interrogation and suspicion weren't hired to direct traffic so it flows faster, provide directions for lost foreigners and give visitors a big Texas "howdy" as they pass.  They were hired to make sure you are allowed to be here and you aren't bringing illegal stuff with you.  That mission kind of slows things down given that we don't use the "wink and nod" system of citizenship verification anymore.  We don't use the "benefit of the doubt" or "honor" system at our border crossings either.  It's too bad because I'd like to think they'd be effective practices - cheaper too.

One solution to the problem would be for people from Mexico not to bring illegal stuff over to the United States.  Let the guys in the little booths of interrogation and suspicion go a few months without finding a ton of a marijuana dressed up as a Toyota Tercel and things might speed up a bit.  It's pure logic from my standpoint.  If they stop finding illegal stuff, they'll stop looking for it so hard.  As long as they keep finding it, they'll keep looking for it.  It works exactly like prospecting for gold save for the lack of long beards and dirty overalls. 

Ah hell that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of - asking people to follow the rules so others don't have to deal with the bullshit they cause... what was I thinking? 

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Now the second part of this is where some people are going to get their panties in a wad.  Well, maybe not - we're talking about loving liberals here, right?

This whole issue was put to rest years ago when people figured out that the reason the bridge had such long wait times  was because it was free.  Oh, and they did exactly what city council demanded they do - made the place much much much bigger and put in all kinds of stuff that would ease wait times.  Guess what?  The bridge attracted more people because they heard it was now free and faster.  Back to square one. 

The issue is only resurfacing now because Beto O'Rourke is running for congress against Representative Reyes and it's a problem just looking for an owner.  The Beto friendly people think that Representative Reyes should own the problem - after all, he's the guy with the office in Washington, right?  He should be controlling the day to day staffing at the bridge, right?  They're federal employees and he's a representative to the federal government - it all makes sense.  It's Reyes' fault. 

The newspaper got on board for whatever reason. They like Beto and don't like Reyes.  It's a "new blood" thing I'm sure and nothing personal.  Reyes has never been good at being open with himself when it comes to the local media and you can't blame the EP Times for holding it against him.  And why not see how much power you really have?  If you can move an election, what must you be able to do for your advertisers?  A lot... I would guess. 

The real story here is that the Congressman is a member of the legislative branch of government.  He doesn't have control over the day to day operations of any federal agency.  Any high school educated idiot should know that.  Apparently the EP Times and some other elected officials in El Paso have chosen to forget that little fact in an attempt to pen a crime of convenience on an innocent man for political gain. 

Sounds really dirty when I put it like that, huh?  Makes me wonder what these guys would do to others in the name of political gain... scary.

The fact is that the day to day operations of the border crossings are handled by someone who was essentially hired by the President of the United States of America, who is coincidentally the top guy in the whole executive branch of government thingamajig.  It's his people who decide how things should be run at those ports of entry and any anger about how they are run should be directed at the guy who gets his mail at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  But that doesn't really serve any purpose for Beto and friends, now does it?  Nope. 

Bottom line - even if Beto is elected, he won't be able to do a damn thing about bridge wait times. I hope you know that.

It's a brilliant strategy, though, because the masses don't know the difference.  Poor Reyes isn't a great orator or defender of himself because he's never had to be before now.  They could blame him for anything and I'm sure the EP Times would go along. 

The Cowboys missing the playoffs?  Reyes

Cold weather? Reyes

Hot weather? Reyes

UTEP Students parking in front of your house?  Reyes

Arthritis? Reyes

You get the point... and maybe a few ideas if you're seeking to help Beto. 

If these people who are pissed off about the bridge really wanted to bark up the right tree they'd call the federal government and plead their case.  Of course, we all know what the feds will say - "make the free bridge no longer free."  They've said it before and they'll say it again.  The problem isn't that hard to figure out.... well maybe to the simpletons we elect. 

The answer from the simpletons will be "but we have a treaty!" And the feds will say - "that's your problem not ours" and go about their business slowing down traffic at the free bridge.   

Asking for money at this point isn't going to work.  This is mainly because EVERYBODY ELSE ON EARTH KNOWS WHAT THE PROBLEM IS ALREADY!  You don't have to pay anyone to tell you what's obvious.  Oh wait, that's how the city of El Paso operates!  They always need a "study" to tell them what they already know.  It's a real boon for those companies that deal in telling people what they already know, which is good for them... bad for you, but you already knew that.  Confused?  Good, now hand us your money. Just kidding!  Sounded like a politician, didn't I?

Meanwhile you are missing out on $10 kabillion in shopping dollars from Mexico.  It's devastating, but I'm sure you'll get over it.  I mean, what would Wal-Mart and every other national big box store do without those Mexican shoppers?  They'd probably still ship all the money out of El Paso. 

One more question - why is it okay... take that back - why is it totally awesome that people from Mexico traveling over here to shop "create retail jobs" and Paul Foster's huge mall that creates retail jobs isn't?  Out of one side of your salsa stained mouths you bash projects that create "crappy service industry jobs" and then out of the other side you exclaim how truly wonderful it is that Mexicans shoppers create those jobs... hmmm. 

Another question - can you travel into Mexico for free?  Do they have "free bridges?"  I really don't know - so please tell me.

gotta go - wifey needs sleepy and I'm keeping her up - much to my detriment!

The Second Patriot Place Lawsuit Has Been Filed

Looks like the owner of the Three Legged Monkey has sued the members of the Cielo Vista neighborhood association as well.

Download TLM lawsuit

These people are going to be paying out the nose for all of their actions even if this thing never goes to trial.  Each new lawsuit is a new retainer - I would guess. 

Let this be a lesson to all neighborhood associations who make it their mission to mess with other people.

I applaud both bar owners for their efforts to defend themselves.  It takes one act of defiance to start a revolution and these may be acts #1 and #2. 

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I promise I'm going to get to the bridge situation and the economic development stuff next week. 

More on the Lawsuit that will COST TAXPAYERS MILLIONS

I have received a tremendous amount of background on the Patriot Plaza saga since the early days of this fight.  Because nothing had really happened with the clear harassment by the neighborhood association and the city other than some stories in the press, I had decided not to write about the ordeal.  It wasn't until the city took it upon themselves to start voting against people getting liquor licenses for what amounts to what they "think" might happen in the future that things really got interesting.  And then, of course, the city got sued and that was when I decided it was time to take to the blog.

Here's what I know.

Rep. Emma Acosta has been the biggest problem here given that she thinks by carrying the water for the out of control neighborhood association they will help her get elected mayor.  She has blindly done everything the neighborhood association people wanted her to do and it's about to cost you a ton of money.  Instead of being an intelligent person who understands that a few squeaky squawking screwballs from one neighborhood don't represent everyone they claim to, she jumped in with both feet and boy did she land in it.

What's worse is that city council participates in a dangerous little game where they "defer to the representative of that district" when it comes to certain things.  They basically don't act in the best interest of any El Pasoan because they have some kind of "professional courtesy" game going on.  It's a "you don't interfere in my business and I won't interfere with yours" deal that usually means someone isn't doing something right and they don't want to be stopped.  Case in point - Rep. Acosta appointed the wife of a city employee and union boss to the Civil Service Commission and NOBODY SAID ANYTHING! Why? Professional courtesy!  It's a BS way of these representatives not holding each other accountable.  In the next city council election you must require candidates to take a "no professional courtesy" pledge. 

This situation got way out of hand and it was because nobody stepped in to talk some common sense into city employees and Emma Acosta.  Every city council member has their own problems with bars in their own district, but you don't see them taking it as far as this situation was taken.  Most of the other council members know what kind of people the neighborhood association folks are and ignore most of what they say for the good of everyone else. 

So exactly who are the neighborhood association people?

When a person decides to take a "leadership" role with a neighborhood association it isn't because they are a reserved, thoughtful person looking to be a liaison to city government on matters that may pertain to their neighborhood.  Nope, they're pissy childish cronic complainers who have nothing better to do than look for stuff to bitch about.  They spend every waking moment of their life in search of the next thing they'll have to call the city and complain about.  The streets are too wide, the streets are to narrow, the cars are too fast, the cars are too slow, the sidewalks are too grey, the grass is too green, the trees are too tall, the trees are too short, the trees aren't native, the trees are too far apart, the trees are too close together, the park is too small, the park is too big, the park grass isn't the type of grass they want in the park, the kids at the park are too loud, the stoplight at the end of the block is too long, the light at the end of the block is too long, the light at the of the block isn't needed, they need another light on the street before the light at end of the block and on and on and on and on and on and on. 

These ne'er-do-well neighbor hood associations are a major thorn in the side of city government from the elected officials all the way down to the poor guys cutting the grass in the parks.  And when their power goes unchecked - you end up with a situation like this where all the other people who have a life and could care less about the bar and it's patrons now have to pay to settle a suit that was brought on by a tiny minority of the community falsely acting on the behalf of the whole. 

Here are some anecdotal stories I have from folks I know from the city.  They won't go "on the record" because it would mean their jobs, so I have to describe them as "anecdotal" to be fair.  However, these people aren't liars and wouldn't have any reason to lie to me. 

In one case a city employee related story about a citizen who literally called the city every single morning to complain that people were speeding by their house.  Every single morning at roughly 8:00 a.m. this person would call describing all kind of manner of hell raising going on in the form of hundreds of speeding cars zipping by their house.  One such morning the person picked up the phone, called the city employee I know and started in on the same routine.  The employee got the citizen to stop talking for a second and asked them to kindly look out their window to see if there was a cop out there.  Sure enough there was a motorcycle cop running radar right outside the person's house.  The guy had called without even checking to see if there was a cop out there.  This made the city employee wonder and they got in touch with the officer and his superior and they had an interesting fact to report - only about seven cars passed by the man's house between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and none of them were speeding.  Turns out that the person just didn't like anyone driving by their house for any reason at all.  The person lived midway down a dead end street and the number of cars passing by equaled almost exactly the amount of houses between complainer's and the dead end.  This person was a prominent member of the neighborhood association and often used that position to speak for the entire neighborhood when making demands. 

In another case, this one involved  a member of the Cielo Vista neighborhood association, the issue of trash in the park was brought up in an interesting manner.  The member of the association took the time to photograph a piece of paper in the park and take it to a city meeting to complain.  They didn't pick the offending piece of paper up and throw it away, they took a picture of it and rushed off to the city complain about its presence.  It seems that they wanted the city to staff a full time position to police the park for any pieces of paper that might find themselves in the grass. 

That's just two of the hundreds of crazy stories my city sources have involving these neighborhood association people. The most commonly used term to describe these neighborhood association people "out of control."

The word on the street is that these Cielo Vista neighborhood association folks are so obsessed with the Three Legged Monkey and it's patrons that they actually go spend their time in the parking lot writing down everything they see - and have been doing this for years.  This makes me wonder if there ever was a problem in the "neighborhood" or just in the parking lot itself.  It's hard to call yourself a "victim" of the bar crowd when you actively seek to be near them when you don't have to be.  Something tells me that a jury of your peers might see their actions as odd - at best... who knows how they'll interpret that behavior at the worst. 

I'm never one to get into suing people.  I've been sued and it cost me money even though I had people represent me free of charge.  The individuals named in this suit aren't going to be so lucky. Unlike my case where I was clearly protected by many many many laws, including the bill of rights and its biggest hits, these people aren't in the clear.  They're going to have to pay someone tens of thousands of dollars just to get them to a spot where they can negotiate a surrender.  Any way you swing it - the neighborhood association thugs are going to be out cash they probably don't have.  It's a tough lesson to learn, but maybe they'll get the message now - mind your own business, you're not God because you're a part of a neighborhood association.

As far as the city reps go - they're in some big trouble here.  Some of you may have heard of "UTEP" and the "Cincinnati area bar scene." Both of these places create nuisances for their residential neighbors - Kern and Sunset Heights.  And when I write "nuisances" I mean wreaking extreme havoc to the point of devaluing property, creating physically dangerous situations and promoting general all around mayhem that quashes the quality of life of everyone who lives in the area.  The city has never once voted to oppose any of those bar owners or their liquor license applications and they sure as hell haven't threatened UTEP with sanctions for the actions (parking) of their patrons (students).  So why is Patriot Place any different?

The city and the city councilors named in the suit have a tremendous hill to climb when it comes to legitimizing their acts against David Cooper and others involved with the bar business at Patriot Place.  There just doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern of that response in other areas where the problems are tremendously worse. 

I wonder if other bar owners in town have given campaign contributions to these city council members and if there's a case to be made that a little help (we're talking money here) come voting time has kept the city at bay.  I bet a case could be made. 

Then you have the mayor... This guy is named in the suit and I have to wonder if anyone on the Cielo Vista neighborhood association has any connection to him that would have made his thoughts on this whole issue sway violently to one side.  I wonder... I really really really wonder...   What if there was someone at the city that is close to this neighborhood association and is in a position now to carry out their will?  Would that be a conflict?  It wouldn't be, I don't think - but it wouldn't look good. Especially if there was deference given to this person by a person in power... a person who might not need the negative press given the existence of a premature election fight in their future.  It would not be good for the city, or anyone connected to it, if it came out that some neighborhood association had a "person on the inside" this whole time.

It's not like the mayor doesn't have a track record of playing nice with bar owners - because I'm sure he does.  I probably wouldn't call Al Frank Catucci to get his opinion on that statement, though.  Turns out that the one-time "bar mogul" (I use that term loosely) wanted to run against Cook for the big office on the 10th floor a couple years back.  Not long after that announcement Catucci, who had never been in trouble in his life, found himself in handcuffs more often than a Cincinnati Bengals' player.  I'm sure it was just a coincidence and there'd be nothing to it, but it was worth mentioning here since we're talking about bars, the mayor and such.

I think the biggest problem the defendants in the lawsuit have is the fact they launched an pre-emptive strike on Cooper and that's just not right by any stretch of the law.  If the city wants to be in the business of guessing how things are going to turnout, they need to start taking their money to the Sunland Park Race Track and Casino (featuring washed up loser musicians whose albums you didn't want to buy 30 years ago and sure as hell don't want to buy now) and betting on the ponies. That is, if they are still confident in their ability to see into the future like they did with Coopers proposed salsa bar.

I know this has been a lot of words, but I think it serves a couple of purposes here:

1.  You need to really think about all that has happened and put yourself in the bar owners' respective positions.  What if it was you?  What if you were labeled the enemy by an over-zealous neighborhood group of thugs and the city declared war on you and your business?  If you don't think it can't happen to you, then you need your head checked.  Mr. Cooper and the Three Legged Monkey are just the latest targets in a decade long assault on business.  Before them it was home builders, contractors, sign companies and anyone with a paved parking lot.  And that's just the ones I can come up with off of the top of my head. I bet you have five ready rattle off right now.

2. I wanted to show you how a few cage rattlers with time on their hands coupled with a ladder climbing politico can end up costing a community millions of dollars - your tax dollars to be more exact.

This lawsuit isn't "frivilous" by any stretch of the imagination.  The city is going to have to pay their outside council to handle it and that alone will cost $100,000 just to get started.  Once everybody gets through discovery it will be time to settle and at that point Mr. Cooper can pretty much name his price and the city will be encouraged to pay or risk going to a jury trial and losing millions more. 

God knows what is going to happen to the individuals named in the suit that have to pay to defend themselves - they could be out their life savings very quickly and lose their home, cars and whatever else they have of value not long after.  It's too late to start hiding assets now.  The courts will give you a big frowny face for that. 

The parties involved with trying to shutdown Cooper should have stopped and looked at what they were doing at some point.  They turned it into an emotionally driven issue and have now really screwed themselves.  Cooper warned them that he was going to sue them and they just kept plowing forward.  Good thing the taxpayers ar here to pick up the tab for irresponsible elected officials once again.

Document from Today's Lawsuit

Just in case you wanted to get in some good reading on how you're about to spend millions of your tax dollars fighting for city council's anti-business policies.

Download City lawsuit

You're on the hook for a lot!  Thank Emma Acosta for all her hard work!