Refuse the Juice

Larry Medina still looking after your tax dollars!

It's been brought to my attention that Larry Medina still sits on the Board of Directors for Bienvivir Senior Health Services.  Is Larry Medina a felon? 

Beinvivir receives federal funds and hasn't thought that maybe having Larry on the board isn't a good idea.  One has to wonder what's going on over at Beinvivir. 

I guess once you get enough Conquistador Awards you can do anything you want!

El Paso Times proves development community right about growth

The El Paso Times' editorial yesterday inadvertently put in an honest word about growth. You can read it HERE.

The bottom line - no tax increase for the folks who live in the city proper.  Why?

Because of the new development over the past few years that has expanded the tax base.  Bigger tax base means the pie of expenses is cut into more pieces, ensuring taxes stay where they are (they'll never go down - you know that).  It's all right there in the op-ed.

It's simple math really.  A developer pays for every stitch of construction that goes into new development.  Streets, utilities, signs and drainage all come at no cost to the city.  If the development provides 100 new homes valued at $100,000 a piece the city gains $10,000,000 in taxable property.   The city's part of the deal for that new development is that they may decide to put a pavement overlay on the road in fifteen to twenty years.  So, the city gets $10,000,000 in taxable property in exchange for maybe spending a couple hundred grand to lay some new asphalt sometime next decade.  That sounds awesome to me. 

People in older parts of the city where property values are sagging tremendously get to retain a somewhat fair property tax rate due to the new development.   The new subsidizes the old.  If there is no old to subsidize the new, you know what happens - the government run appraisal district starts pumping up the values of older homes while the taxing entities start taking a higher percentage. 

Without new development, local governments will zero in on older development.  Go hug a developer and a home builder today if you're happy your taxes didn't go up.  Their effort to turn a profit helped you keep some money in your pocket.

Allala proves she's an idiot and easily manipulated

It's always interesting what local TV news stations decide to run when it comes to politics.  Local TV news consultants tell them to stay away from politics as much as possible - stick to visual stories.   So it was interesting that KVIA ABC 7 went with this STORY yesterday. 

If you're too lazy to read or watch it, I'll sum it up.

Stephanie Townsend Allala was given emails obtained from the city through an open records request.

Whoever gave the emails to Allala told her that they were proof of two violations/crimes/atrocities committed by city council members and others.  One accusation is that the open meetings act was been violated and the other accusation is that somebody didn't register as a lobbyist and they were supposed to.

Rep. Steve Ortega explains why the opens meeting charge is bogus. 

Tripper Goodman explains that the accusations are false and don't make logical sense because the alleged subject of the meeting put forth by Allala and the actual stated purpose of the meeting aren't the same.

Reporter reads rule regarding lobbying  at the city and admits the rule was not broken.

Got it?

Here's my beef with ABC 7 - IT'S A NOT A STORY! 

If someone calls the newsroom and says the County Judge beat up the Sheriff in a fight over the last bagel at a meeting, you go check it out.  If your reporter finds that it's not true at all, you don't run the story.  In this case the allegations were all found to be  not only completely untrue, but didn't make any logical sense either - NO STORY TO REPORT!

People send me crap all the time with their theory that it's the smoking gun proof of a conspiracy led by whoever they don't like.  Jaime Abeytia gets the same shit too.  In fact - sometimes we just email each other to laugh at the pure insanity of the stuff people try to get us to believe.  Pretty much 99 percent of the time we thank the person for their interest and hit delete.   Every once in a while you get something useful and I usually send that stuff on to an actual reporter like David Crowder.  I don't have the time to go verifying the veracity of volumes of city emails.  It's also the reason you never see me "break news" here - I'm not a reporter and don't pretend to be one. 

Next subject - Allala is easily manipulated

Allala is new to the ankle biter game and she just got sucked in like a freshman buying a ticket to the pool on the roof of the gym.  She trusts the whackos who have coalesced around her misguided, misinformed crusade against... well - at this point I'm not sure what exactly she's after since she doesn't know either.  

Let's be honest, this is how interested Allala is in her issue - she doesn't know the difference between the baseball project, the quality of life bond issue, PDN, MountainStar, Horrow, Hunt/Foster, her ass,  her elbow or a hole in the wall.  Makes you wonder how valid her arguments are if she doesn't know who the players for each project are. 

Because her antics are more about seeing her pretty face on TV and massaging her ego, she lacks the true dedication needed to know the issue.  And because she's clueless as to what is going on, people can take advantage of her.  She's facing not only people with separate agendas looking to piggyback on hers, but those morons who are convinced they see something in official documents that doesn't exist (this case).

I'm sure someone who has long blown their credibility with every political player, reporter and activist in town got a hold of her and fed her the bullshit she later spewed to a reporter.  Allala doesn't know the political ankle biter scene, so she doesn't know to vet the stories told to her by the kinds of people she's attracting right now. 

She also apparently isn't smart enough to go read the open meetings act or the lobbying rules for the city before she claims they were both broken.  She's a lawyer and you'd think she'd at least skim the statutes before making accusations that can be considered a malicious disregard for the truth. 

Because of all her mistakes listed above, she looks like an idiot now.  Or should I say - more of an idiot now.  I think everyone knows that Horrow isn't involved with the baseball park and you don't have to register as a lobbyist if city officials call you and ask for your FREE advice.  The fact that she doesn't know that the open meetings act hinges solely on the presence of a quorum, is unforgivable.   She may not know what the word "quorum" means.

Any legitimacy her group had - just went out the window.  What did I tell you yesterday about letting the crazies run the show?  The end up doing stupid things that wreck your credibility.

And you have to wonder why an attorney would give evidence of a crime to a reporter first instead of the proper policing agency?  Why not go to the FBI if you think a crime has been committed?   I always wonder if they're just stupid, or they know they have no proof of anything. 

The sad part - ABC7 let her defame no less than ten people with this bogus information.  You would think ABC7 would have better ethics than they're showing by running this story.   What a shame.

More on the Baseball and Quality of Life Bond Issue

It looks like the "occupiers" moved across the street to a lonesome park where they can stand around being crazy without screwing up parking for the Insights Museum.  Who am I kidding - nobody goes to the Insights Museum!  The occupiers have given up ground already. It's a sign of their strength - their severe lack of it.

I hadn't thought about it yet, but if they do get their signatures there's going to be a ballot issue.  That ballot issue is going to be set for May 2013 - about nine months away.  I'm assuming the language on the petition has been vetted and is actionable via the ballot measure route.  I have not seen the wording, so I can only guess what it says given the people involved.  The people involved are rather dense, so I'm sure it reads:

"to not make city hall fall down and make a baseball park and make Chico's Tacos free on mondays, amen"

You might remember the time Alex Lozano asked if he could "make an emotion" during a city council meeting.  No word on whether or not Smokey Robinson and the Miracles would second it if given the opportunity.

Quick note: Want proof my parent's generation was smarter than my generation?  Pop music back then used a play on pieces of Robert's Rules of Order for lyrics.  Most people my age have no idea what Robert's Rules of Order is (it's not "are" because while whole the title is plural, the collection of them in a book called "Robert's Rules of Order" is not) or what it pertains to. 

Back to the task at hand.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the baseball plan call for demolition to start in early 2013?  If that's correct, what can the petitioners do?  I'm guessing they could get a judge to issue an injunction to stop it until after the vote.  At that point the city would not be living up to its end of the deal with MountainStar Sports Group and something ugly would have to happen.  The petitioners would likely be costing the City of El Paso (taxpayers in reality) millions in damages as MountainStar sees their deal with Triple A baseball go south as well.  It would be an expensive "charrette" on the future of downtown and City Hall for the taxpayers should an injunction be procured.

If they can't stop the demolition before the vote, then it's just going to be a silly little waste of time - far too little coming far too late.  It would be a moral victory.  And moral victories are like regular victories except they're useless because they don't count. 

I think the crazy thing here is that if the schedule for demolition of City Hall is anyway altered by the ballot measure, the whole thing fails.   It doesn't matter what voters say in May 2013.  If things don't start on time - the deals off.  In reality - a successful petition ends any chance of Triple A baseball in El Paso. 

Think about that for a second...

There will be no discussion, no negotiating and no community input.  The deal will be dead.  If Allala and friends think they can win the ballot measure next May and force a discussion about the placement of the stadium somewhere else, they're wrong.  There will be no team and no stadium to discuss.  Taxpayers will have to fork over a few million for jerking around MountainStar and MountainStar will likely have to pay a few million to Triple A baseball for not delivering what they were required to deliver by contract.  And no other sports team of any kind will ever  consider relocating to El Paso again. 

So basically if you sign Allala's petition, you're saying "screw having professional sports of any kind in El Paso forever."  Don't believe me?  Why do you think Los Angeles doesn't have a football team and insiders say San Antonio has a better shot than they do at getting one?  Unreliable constituencies led by stupid politicians scare sports teams.  Signing that petition shows you're unreliable. 

Again, that all hinges on the injunction.  No injunction = no problem.

So let's say it does come down to a vote. There are many reasons why Allala and friends will lose if their issue is taken up on a May 2013 ballot.  Let me see if I can swim through all these numbers and not lose you.

In 2009 Mayor Cook cruised to victory with 61 percent of the roughly 32,000 votes cast.  That's a 9.5 percent turnout for those of you keeping score at home.  In May of 2011 a whopping 22,000 people showed up to vote county wide.  That's a 7.48 percent turnout.

It should be noted that 2009 and 2011 featured two different numbers of registered voters - 100,000 less in 2011.

Turnout in May 2013 is going to be dismal.  It won't cost a lot of money to buy that election.  And by "buy," I mean - send 50,000 pieces of direct mail and pay an army of "volunteers" to turn out the vote for this issue.  The anti-baseball crowd won't be well funded and will have to rely on earned media to spread their word.  Too bad the El Paso Times won't be open to helping them out.

Winning the money game in that election isn't the only strategy the pro-baseball crowd can use.  Having the leaders of the anti-baseball crowd remove themselves from the issue is key.  Appointing them to various boards and commissions in the near future should give them something better to do than bitch about this issue. 

President Obama wasn't the first politician in the history of the world to give his biggest rival (Hillary) a great job (Secretary of State) in order to keep them busy doing something other than being a rival.  A smart city council member would recognize a cry for attention and resolve the problem by redirecting their efforts to something more useful - like the parks board. 

With no leadership the anti-baseball crowd will take care of itself by letting the crazies sit in the big chair and say whatever is on their mind.  Prime example - when Genna Pendergras stepped away from the El Paso Tea Party movement it went from having the biggest, most successful political gatherings in El Paso to nothing.  The crazies took it over and crashed it.  The same crazies are involved in the anti-baseball movement.  How do you think they'll do this time around?

The election the pro-baseball crowd is going to lose for sure is the nearest one.  The HOT increase is going to fail along with the other quality of life ballot measures.  I've been through all the reasons why, no need to rehash them here.  So what happens when the HOT increase fails?

The city council can't pull out their certificate of obligation fail-safe in this instance.  It's against the law for the city to do what the anti-baseball crowd is erroneously claiming they're doing.  Why do you  think the PDN's arena ended up on the ballot instead of being funded through a certificate of obligation?  Because there are rules against that happening for all the obvious reasons we've stated before. 

After the HOT fails, the city is going to have to use some kind of "corporate bond" mechanism to fund the stadium and the demolition of City Hall.  This is not ideal since their original plan was to have a funding mechanism not tied to property taxes (the HOT plan).  The PDN's ill managed, badly proposed quality of life effort is to blame for ruining what was a great plan to limit the taxpayer's exposure here.  The HOT vote should have been deferred to May so that it could stand on its own.

Any questions?

City's former Solid Waste Department was a naughty bunch

It's funny that the reporters covering the indictments of vendors and former city staff involved with the G.O.T. Supply Inc. scandal haven't looked harder at the facts.

When was the original contract signed? 

What did their proposal look like?

Who approved their contract?

Did the person who approved that contract go on working for the City?

How many scandals involving fraud have come out of the department formerly known as the "Solid Waste Department?"

Has anyone gone to federal prison in the past because they were caught committing fraud in a Solid Wast Department contract?

Is there an elected official serving office right now who was involved with the "Solid Waste Department" in the past  - including the dates when these questionable contracts were sought and then signed?  Maybe this person was the "Director" at some point. 

I don't know... maybe these aren't good questions to ask.  Nothing to see here - move along folks.

 

Allala fails - Lying starts

One report has 600 signatures.  Another report has 800 signatures.  An El Paso Times photographer was told it was only 100. I'm sure by this afternoon it will be 5,000 signatures with President Obama signing the petition himself!

In the El Paso Times' piece HERE the protesters admit something rather interesting.  They tell Aaron Bracamontesthat "most of the signatures" were gathered on location behind City Hall where sidewalk traffic hovers around three dozen people per day.  I'm guessing 550 people showed up, parked and signed the petition during the day and that the traffic jam that crowd caused can be verified by the police units called out to control the situation.  Right?

Well, unfortunately for Allala and friends, they lied here and I'm now exposing them.  Think for a second about the mayhem that takes place on the day your city taxes are due.  It's quite noticable.  Think about a city council meetings where a very controversial issue is to be heard like gay benefits - huge crowd, no parking and there weren't nearly 200 people there. 

So, either they're lying about the number of signatures they have or they're lying about how they got them.  Interestingly enough - they haven't offered up at least a picture of them as prideful proof of their efforts.  I have never seen a successful petition drive where the organizers didn't require the media to photograph their stacks and stacks of signatures as a warning to the worlds that they mean business.  In this case, I would especially think there would be a huge press play-up here. 

Thinking about it now, the 600 signatures in one day is the most successful day of petitioning in El Paso's history!  It took Tom Brown a month to gather 4,000 signatures and he had an army of people ar0und the city working on gathering them 24/7.  Looks like Allala and friends should have roughly 3,600 signatures by the next council meeting. 

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Here's the problem with lying about this stuff - it kills your reputation.  Having a faux following for your issue is the best way to make sure you never get an audience with the people who make the decisions.  At some point they're going to have to produce the petition for review and the date people signed is going to be verifiable - will it match up?

I think Allala has to reconcile one thing - the company she now keeps.  I wonder if Republican Congressional Nominee - Barbara Carrasco's views on abortion and gay rights align with Allala's?  And for Christ's sake, Allala's new spokesperson is the ignoramus of the century - Alex Lozano.  Is this what she wanted?  Are these the people who you put on your team to take on the city?

Allala Shuts Down City Hall! Has Baseball Deal Canceled!

Just kidding.  The effort was even more pathetic than I could have imagined.  

When I said it would be the usual suspects - I had no idea it would be literally every single person I could name off the top of my head who show up to any kind of protest on any subject.  I'm surprised they didn't bring their own signs with whatever issue they're pissed off about so they could piggy-back on Allala's effort.  I guess she got to them before they could hi-jack the protest.

I think it's kind of odd that they held the protest on the side of the building where nobody enters or leaves.  Granted there's car traffic on the eastern side of the building, but there's no foot traffic.  People who have business at city hall park on the other side.  

What gets me is that there's already a petition being considered on the matter - why is she duplicating that effort?  The ultimate vanity is at play here and it's going to cost taxpayers money - again.  Is it wise to use city staff's time to verify another petition asking for the same thing?  No.  What a waste of money.

The loudest person in the room isn't always the smartest.  

 

Occupy City Hall - Another Failure in the Making

You may remember back in the day when there was local talk radio in El Paso that a woman named "Stephanie Townsend Allala" would pop up on air all the time.  She's a former TV news reader, winner of the marriage lottery and now a sub-par attorney.  She's desparate for some attention and looking to try and make a power play with the anti-baseball crowd. 

The El Paso Times reports on the activities slated for Monday at City Hall HERE. 

Allala must be missing her past appearances on talk radio where she'd talk faster and louder than anyone who disagreed with her very naive view of life and politics.  Having been blessed with good looks and the gift of gab, she's made quite the life for herself.  Winning the marriage lottery didn't hurt either.  Unfortunately for her, that's not enough.  She's got to try and become some kind of political organizer to keep her name out there.  Too bad it's just going to end in embarrassment.

There's a legitimate movement of folks upset about the baseball stadium and city hall deal.  The usual suspects are all vying for control of that group.  There are always egomaniacs looking for a new cause with its built in minions to manipulate.  Allala is just the newest one to the game. 

She's about to find out that she is about as bad of a community organizer as she is at other things. Her bombastic, in your face style won't play well when the audience isn't captive.   Facts are not her friend.  Hell, she said this "I believe there was a violation, if not in the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law was broken."   It's a laughable thought coming from someone who doesn't practice law and an extremely disturbing one coming from someone who does. 

I do, however, like watching flaming liberals act like right-wing republicans when it suits their ambition to control others.  Remember, direct democracy (vote on everything) is a conservative ideal, not a liberal one.  If you're against the stadium, you're taking a popular conservative stance in this case.  If you're for it, you're a liberal - at least for the moment (I'm a liberal in this case). 



At least she'll still be rich and pretty after her "Occupy" party goes nowhere on Monday.  Had she done her homework she'd know that nobody ever shows up for these type of things at City Hall.  How many people have promised to march on City Hall only to have a handful of the usual suspects show up?  Too many to list.

I'd wish her luck, but it wouldn't do her any good.  Maybe she ought have coffee with Tom Brown - the last guy to do anything of note with his minions. 

Some thoughts on the bond issue(s)

City Council voted to go forward with the ill-advised bond issues yesterday.  It's a loser from the word "go."  Here are some thoughts about what I see happening here.

First of all, the El Paso Times wrote about yesterday's vote HERE and failed to mention anything about an arena downtown.  There are two general obligation bond items totalling $473 million dollars.  The arena is a quarter of that total.  The arena would be almost half of either of the two seperate measures, but not mentioned.  Why? 

We know the El Paso Times is knee deep in supporting the PDN portions of this deal.  From the beginning they've asked relatively few questions about the arena and are now going along with the PDN mandated mantra of "we don't talk about the arena."

Am I wrong to think that the times should have mentioned the biggest single project in the quality of life bond run-down?  It can't possibly be an honest mistake.  The arena is the thing that sparked this entire issue!  Now all of sudden the El Paso Times in cahoots with the PDN is trying to cover the fact that an arena is part of the deal.  Why? 

People aren't stupid and negatives travel faster than positives in this era of hyper-communication.  Everybody will soon know that talk of the arena is being purposely omitted and they're going to wonder why.  Letting the electorate's mind run wild with theories on why you won't talk about your biggest project is a recipe for serious backlash.  

As of right now I hear that Mithoff Burton Partners and campaign consultants of the moment Forma are going to handle the issue.  Tripper Goodman is in charge of raising the dough. 

Goodman is just that a - good man.  He's a guy who has known my father since childhood.  Tripper wants what is best for the community and has put years of work into making El Paso better.  I can not begrudge his solid intent in this case.  However, he and his group of 20 or businessmen are not in any way equipped professionally to manage this kind of ballot issue - especially when it's on a presidential ballot. 

Mithoff Buron is Mithoff Burton... They aren't Two Ton.  They are big, slow and about as creative as a potato.  They are old money in an old money town - the thing that impresses their clients most is that they've know them for years and they run in the same social circles.  That's not exactly how I would shop for a PR firm, but then again I'm a results driven type of person.

Forma is formidable.  They've been on a hot streak and they've got a formula that works - beat the ever-living shit out of your opponent with negative ads and then celebrate victory on election night.  With nobody's ass to kick here, I'm not sure they're going to be very effective. 

The team really doesn't matter all that much seeing as how they're late to the party with their efforts.  People are beyond mad.  The time to soothe them was months ago.  The omission of the arena by all those involved now has pretty much locked this up as a loss - nobody is getting anything.  No parks, no museums, no HOT increase and no arena.   The political side of this was poorly handled from the beginning and remains in the hands of people how are better suited to excel at things other than bond issues. 

The baseball stadium will have to go through a little different route to get funded, but it will be funded despite the HOT failure.  It's not the way anyone wanted it, but poor planning and a stubborn city council looking to pin a medal on their chest before they leave office have insured its failure. 

Listen up council - delay bond issue or fail

Council should take today's quality life bond issue and delay the item a week.  That have the time to sit down and listen to reason.   If they pull the trigger today on the package as is - it fails in November miserably and that includes the HOT prop too.

First of all, November is not the time ask voters for money.  Nobody in America is going to want to raise their own taxes after hearing the rhetoric of both campaigns leading up to election day.  You're going to find that while El Paso voters are overwhelmingly democratic, they're fiscally conservative.  And it's likely the straight ticket voters won't even bother with that part of the ballot - leaving only the angry tax payer paying attention to that section and they're not going to vote themself a tax increase in this economy.

This ballot issue needs to wait until the next election day if it is to succeed as is.  The biggest advantage with an off year, non November election date is that you have a smaller audience to win over.  Election turnout in May in odd years is dismal.  A campaign can reach each likely off-cycle voter several times given the small number of targets.  Right now, in a presidential year - there's no telling who is going to show up, but there are going to be a lot more of them and they'll be hard to get an audience with.

If they decide to stay with November, they need to axe the downtown stadium at a minimum.  The public is already digesting the baseball stadium and they won't vote for another venue this year.  The arena will sink whatever is tied to it on the bond issue as well - it's a born loser.  Foster did it to the PDN once again.  Whether or not he meant to, is unknown, but the baseball stadium sunk the arena. 

There has been no publicity surrounding the arena other projects as of yet and I can't imagine starting something in September for November will be very successful. The time to gin up support was yesterday.   There simply isn't enough time left to convince a very suspicious electorate of the benefits of such projects.  They're mad a local government for many reason - corruption first, taxes second and customer service third.  Changing the attitude takes a longer than a couple of months.

The HOT increase will fail because of the name.  Voters will be wary of the word "tax" by November.  It will be screamed at them in El Paso a million times given New Mexico's second tier swing state status and the shared media market (Las Cruces is El Paso for campaign purposes).   Even though we know that the "tax" is only on people staying in hotels, the mere mention of the word will turn voters off.  I guarantee it fails unless pushed back or renamed. 

Renaming the "tax" sounds shady, but that's what I'm paid the big bucks to do - make people like things they probably don't really like.  Rename it "occupancy revenue" or something less aggressive than "tax" and bring to the voters in May of next year.  Do not let the baseball financing fall victim to an angry November elctorate and then put the stadium on a certificate of obligation where nobody wants it to be. 

 

Thoughts?  Have to run - sorry for massive errors

EPISD stays secret - EP Times remains hypocrites

The El Paso Times have made it their mission to make life miserable for the folks running the show at EPISD.  I can say EPISD's board did earn that attention all on their own.  The coverage continued today HERE. 

Seems like their "task force," made up of people whose identities will remain secret, have a problem showing up and with public observation of their meetings.  That doesn't sound like a shady situation at all, does it?  No, it sounds very shady.  What would you expect from the most corrupt school district in State of Texas?  At least they're first in something!

First of all - why would an advisory committee need to meet behind closed doors?  They have no "executive powers" - so to speak.  They can't take action, only suggest it.  What suggestions would they make that the public couldn't hear?  An advisory committee shouldn't be analyzing top secret documents due to the fact that privilege is tied to the ability to act in these cases.  They are essentially "volunteers" and they shouldn't be put on top secret missions where secrecy is a must. 

I find it odd that there is no list of these people advising the most corrupt school district in Texas.  I also find it odd that two of them consulted attorneys on their involvement with the advisory board and that they felt the meetings had to be held in secret.  And it was also odd that half people on the board just didn't show up.   Oh wait, it's El Paso - not showing up to meetings for a board you were appointed to is par for the course (Larry Medina).  And it's always the ones who don't ever show up who brag the loudest about their seat on the board. 

The big question remains - who are these people and what do they want?  Are they meeting in secret because their advice to EPISD is going to be to send money their way?  I'm talking about the board advising EPISD to hire their company, friend or family member to solve problems.  I'm talking about the same corrupt schemes that have been pulled in the past.  I'm talking about getting a secret group of people together to figure out how to line their pockets with taxpayer dollars. 

Now, that might not be happening at all, but how would we know?  In El Paso you have to just assume that when people don't want you to know who's involved or what they're doing, that they're up to no good.  If they were planning a surprise party for someone all of this would make sense.  Somehow I don't think that's what they're doing in this case. 

And I'm still shocked that members of this board would be consulting attorneys before they've even met for the first time.  What are you planning to do that you have to retain the services of an attorney before you do it?  If you're that sure you're going to try and commit a crime, spreading some money around the elected judge circuit might be a good next move. 

As usual - the whole thing is just shady as it can be.  EPISD needs to be completely dismantled and built from the ground up.  The stink of corruption is in everything and no one can seem to get it out.

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Here's where the EP Times looks stupid.  They're all up in arms over not having access to an advisory board meeting where nothing but suggestions can be made.  On the other hand - they think an unelected board of citizens controlling hundreds of millions of dollars should continue to operate without any oversight whatsoever.  How do they square that? 

They took a giant shit on Rep. Niland for demanding transparency when it comes to the use public dollars, but turn around and take the opposite position in the same paper on the same day.  So which is it?  Let unelected people run free with public dollars or force them out into the light of day so that the people whose money is at stake can participate - pick one, please. 

And how about a pat on the back for Rep. Niland whose advisory board co-op with the PSB was so open to the public that too many people with position and title showed up and a quorum was had.  She did exactly what you are crying for the EPISD to do and you smacked her hand for it.  Shame on you EP Times.  Add this to your long list of failures. 

The Truth About the PSB and Niland/Others - El Paso Times Dead Wrong - duped again!

Taking things out of context is dangerous when you're in the business of reporting the truth.  The El Paso Times has stepped in it big time with their character attack on Niland in today's op-ed and yesterday's poorly written article they posted under "news." They fail to recognize the context in which all of this lives. 

First of all,  Niland is just doing what Susie Byrd and friends wanted to do for ages - castrate the unelected decision makers at the PSB.  Byrd is just pissed because she doesn't like Cortney Niland - for whatever reason... you can pick one and you'd probably be right.  Byrd so hates Niland that she voted for Gene Finke to be place on the Charter Review committee just because Niland voted against him.  You might remember that Byrd was oh so against "hate" when the gay benefits issue was hot, but forgets her morals when hate speech spewing Finke is up for a spot on a key board.  Byrd decided to vote opposite of Niland no matter what the issue is and has now joined Dr. No (Holguin, not "Noe") and Rep. Acosta as a consistent voting block.  Byrd has shown she'll be irrational to carry out her bitchy sorority girl feuds with other women on council - how mature.

Byrd and friends have disagreed with moves the PSB has made for years now.  Must we bring up the Northwest master plan debacle?  Council was all but powerless to stop them from selling the land and turning it into a mountainside Manhattan (I'm totally kidding, but to hear Byrd and her minions speak, that was the plan).   The calls to dissolve the PSB entirely and make it a city department were many and they were all coming from Byrd and her minions. 

Now, all of a sudden Byrd and friends think the PSB is the greatest autonomous government agency ever and should be left untouched by elected hands (members of city council and the mayor).   You would not find a bigger flip flop on Shaquel O'Neil's right foot.  Her political career is over, so I guess there is no real damage to her in the long run.  However, the idiot reporter at the El Paso Times should have at least pointed out the change of heart.  It would have completely shattered Byrd's credibility along with her minion's. Not that they had a shred of it to begin with.

Byrd and friends want the PSB to keep the land, never sell it and zone it to complete uselessness making it completely devoid of value.  This is dumb for about 50 reasons, and we can go into if you'd like, but just imagine if you took your assets and revalued them at zero and tried to get a loan with them as collateral.  Stupid, right? It is.

Byrd hates development.  She hates developers.  She hates progress.  She wants everyone in El Paso to live in a rundown piece of shit house in Manhattan Heights like she does because her life is the correct one and you should be living exactly how she lives.  I'm not kidding - that's why she got into politics - to dictate where and how you live.  And in order to pull this off they've come up with a bunch of lies to tell the public.  Lies I'll dispel at the end of this piece below.

I digress - Niland's position is not about land sales and we must look at that before we end this.

Niland's original beef with the PSB was pretty simple - they have no oversight.  They are not beholden to the taxpayers, yet control hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars.  She simply asked why their budget was not even presented to council and why the elected officials on council couldn't even comment on what was in the budget.  It's something many watchers of local government have commented on in the past.  Niland simply wanted to see what they're doing with your tax dollars - is that so bad? 

I remember being asked by one notorious ankle biter about the PSB's budget in 2009.  The person asked me "what if they put in the budget a line item to buy $5 million worth of rubber duckies - who could tell them not to do it?"  I told that ankle biter that the PSB board could.  That ankle biter asked me what the penalty for the board would be if they let it through.  I had to say "there is no penalty, they're not elected." The ankle biter smiled, said "chew on that for a while Mr. K" and walked off. 

I chewed on it for a long time and watched as one controversial decision after another was made by the PSB - some I agreed with and some I didn't.  I came to the conclusion that the PSB in its current form isn't in line with our country's democratic ideals.  It surely doesn't fall within the "throw the bastards out" reality most all other government lives with.  I realized that making the PSB political would be a much more preferable situation than letting it stay in the shadows where a secret elite few have extreme access.   There's no down side for the PSB if it behaves badly - and I'm not saying it has behaved badly - it's just the idea that there's no recourse for misuse of tax dollars that bothers me.

Niland's initial work on the issue spawned this odd little co-op between City and PSB that reviews land usage/sales.  I have on good authority that it was only part of what she was looking for.  The land sales and usage part is an important issue, but Niland felt there was a bigger issue of the PSB's autonomy and the reality of what they have control over - taxpayer's assets.

The joint task force formed and the PSB board has been pissed ever since.  The PSB board operated without any oversight and with little input from the outside.  Now the City of El Paso was muscling in on the their territory and it made them mad.  But why?  If they're doing everything they're supposed to be doing, they should welcome inspection.  Instead, members of the PSB board cut a deal with Cook to support him politically if he'd try and end the co-op and remove Niland's nosy little ass from their business.  They knew all to well what Niland did to El Paso Electric and they weren't about to let her do the same to them. (have you thanked her for that lately?)

Need I mention the El Paso Times' and everyone else's question about Maria Teran's seat on the PSB board and her subsequent selling of equipment to the PSB?  It was completely legal and on the up and up, but all of sudden nobody remembers their outrage at the board's makeup and rules.  Where is that outrage now?  You have an entire board spending millions of your tax dollars and they don't want any taxpayer input - how is that okay?

This stupid argument over land sales is hiding the bigger issue - unelected officials spending YOUR MONEY without any oversight.  Besides, even if the City Council controlled the land directly - do you think they aren't capable of doing it right?  If they're too stupid to approve land sales (which they already do) and too dumb to rule on zoning (which they already do) then why are they even in office?  This is an idiotic diversion away from the real issue.

What you have here is a battle over territory (PSB's autonomy) where the Mayor bartered political support to remove any effort of oversight over a public entity.  The mayor did it by confusing the issue - land sales.   That's not the issue and anyone with half a brain knows it.  This stupid little co-op committee was the first step in moving the PSB under the city's wing where it now belongs.  Once it is operated like any other department, cushy spots on the board of directors will disappear along with any financial advantage that may come with those spots - IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN AND YOU SHOULD.

The El Paso Times has been making hay over the corruption at EPISD and the County calling for stricter oversight.  They even ran an article today bitching about the closed meeting the EPISD task force is having.  In the very same newspaper on the same damn day they scream at the top of their lungs for open, observable and actionable government and then admonish a local politician for trying to establish open, observable and actionable government.  So which is it? Bring them into the light or shove them back into the dark?  We know how ballsy the locals are with corruption in open government forums, want to see what they can do when no one is watching? 

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Special section on development...

Byrd and friends want you to believe that development doesn't pay for itself. They're wrong.  Development pays for itself and then some.  I've been over this a thousand times.  The developer has to pay for ever single piece of water and sewer pipe that goes into a new development.  Every fire hydrant, valve, lift station and meter.  Taxpayers don't pick up a dime of that. 

Developers also pay to build the streets, parks, sidewalks and all that other stuff you're told they don't do.  Developers saddle the entire burden of infrastructure and then graciously give it to the city free of charge when they're done.  The city then taxes you to "maintain" this infrastructure even though they do very little "maintaining" of it.  The developer makes his money a single time - the sale of a lot.  The city rents that street to the taxpayers for eternity.  It's a nice deal if you can trick someone into doing it. 

If development didn't pay for itself then electric companies, cable companies and gas companies wouldn't be so eager to run their infrastructure out to the new developments.  Fact is - every new house is a new subscriber and more profit.  It works the exact same way with the water company.  The only difference is that the water company in El Paso is a unique bird and has a lot of people speaking for them that have no right, or position to do so. 

Development is a huge job creator.  Every new subdivision requires the initial labor to build it.  After that it requires all the other services, both public and private to service it.  If development didn't create jobs, the United State wouldn't have expanded past Roanoke.  I'll debate anyone who wants to debate this in a public forum using the obvious facts anytime, anywhere.

I think it's also worth mentioning that the very same people who are now pro-PSB were ripping them post storm 2006 when they were handed the storm water drainage system.  Back them the PSB couldn't possibly be worthy of that task, but now the same people will tell you they are awesome and need to be left alone. 

I think the bottom line here is that Byrd and friends don't really care who watches over the PSB land as long as it is not sold to developers. They fear that if City Council gets a hold of it they'll sell it and let people build on it.  Byrd and friends are willing to compromise their morals to ensure this land stays as it is - a giant ugly trash pit. 

Holguin protects taxpayers by requesting a hiring frenzy

It's well known around City Hall that Rep. Eddie Holguin does more "ribbon cuttings" than every other council representative and the mayor combined.  The running joke is that he'll do a ribbon cutting for a teen foot section of repaired sidewalk in his district.  He likes to take the credit for that kind of stuff even if it strikes others as too much too often.

It wouldn't be such a bad thing if he didn't require the City's PIO office to supply him with a camera crew to record his many many many "ribbon cuttings."  He has that office following him around like he's on a reality show.  Even worse is that he requires that department to film him and his wife doing a Christmas greeting every year - something no other representative does, or would care to do - not even Emma Acosta.  One could argue that so much back patting using city resources gets to be like he's campaigning on the city's dime.  It's perfectly legal - it's just frowned upon. 

So it comes to no one's surprise that Holguin is requesting a budget expansion to hire more people in that department so they can capture even more of his "ribbon cuttings."  The "defender of the people and their tax dollars" wants to spend more money hiring city employees who have zero benefit for constituents.  These jobs would only benefit city reps - most notably, Eddie Holguin. 

City Hall insiders tell me that the general feeling was that he was joking until it became clear he was not.  The guy who votes against everything and never wants to spend a dime all of a sudden wants to spend money on staff that does not serve constituents.  It's no like he suggested more staff for the permits division or for police and fire.  Nope - he wants more people to follow him around reporting on all the good he's doing.  Not only is this a waste of taxpayers dollars, it's rude to suggest it in this economy.  Budget cuts are the norm right now and many cities are seeing a reduction in staff that interface with constituents - only Holguin is bucking that trend and growing vanity departments like the PIO office. 

Of course, it does make a little sense - Holguin does have the biggest personal staff payroll having to dip into his discretionary fund to his high-priced help.  Other representatives simply share staff - but not Holguin!  He needs cast of thousands to help him vote against everything.  His district loses out on street light requests and park improvements because he thinks he needs crowd of people assisting him while he performs his part-time job as city rep. 

Let's hope those voters in the valley stay on the path of wising up to those who do them no good.  If I were Holguin I'd stop acting like Norma's puppet and start thinking about his constituents - they are not sheep and have proven it in two straight elections.

Consider this my "told you so"

I told you Larry Medina was a piece of shit. None of you believed me.  A bunch of you protected him like he was a saint.  Turns out he's a piece of shit - just like I said. 

You owe me and the world an apology for promoting this guy - whether it was your radio show, a story you didn't do that I fed you (this is just for those reporters who ignored me for years) or just telling a friend or neighbor that Larry was okay.  He was not.

Again - I told reporters in El Paso for years about Larry's corruption and they all told me "Larry's a good guy, why are you picking on him?"  I was right and you guys were wrong for falling in love with someone you were supposed to be reporting on. 

Almost every architect and engineer in the city leaped with joy upon hearing that Larry went down.  The stories they have of his shenanigans make the Sunland Park mess look tame. 

You have a duty to eliminate any in office today who had any connection to Larry in the past.  Acosta, Cook and Holguinneed to go right now.  Cook and Acosta put that criminal in a position to steal from you time and time again knowing he was under investigation for more than one crime.  If they'll appoint criminals to boards, what other horrific things will they do with their powers?

And on the Acosta front - how many of her friends havenow pleaded guilty or were found guilty of felonies?  The list is very long.  That list will be published in the El Paso Times every single day if she even tries to run for mayor - I have the backers willing to put the paper and in mailers.  If she can explain Hector Villa, Larry Medina and the rest, she can be mayor.  If she can't - she'll lose in a landslide.  It's about time she starts telling the truth.

And you know what - this little thing was the tip of the iceberg for Scary Larry... but it's enough I guess.   I feel a lot better and that's what counts.

Pat yourself on the back El Paso - You Finally Did Something Right

Chente, Caballero, Lizarraga and Arditti all lost their run-offs as they should have.  All of them are ugly warts on the face of El Paso politics and hopefully you've removed them for good after this cycle.

I do know that at least a couple of those people on that list are likely to be meeting with prosecutors in the future.  It's better they do it from where they're going to be rather than where they could have been.

Good Job El Paso - I may come visit you in October just to show my appreciation.

Also, this wouldn't be a complete post without a mention of NORMA...  Looks like she lost every single race she wanted to win this cycle.  Her magic touch turned everybody she supported into a loser.  How about that?  I just love it.  A wholesale rejection of her and her friends has taken place yet again.  NORMA only remains relevant because I choose to let her be.  When I'm no longer entertained by her, she won't even be able to get the attention of a waiter at an empty restaurant.  I expect she owes me a bit of a "thank you" for keeping her alive all this time.  I'll be waiting.