Here's what City Employees can get away with and not get fired

The city employee union (kind of - they are "classified employees" or "non-management") has snuck in some egregious changes to the the rules during the Charter Review process.  City Council is set to blindly accept some very serious changes in the rules that means YOU THE TAXPAYER are getting screwed.  You can watch the videos of the meetings to see how all this went down and how Lisa Turner, David Thackston and Isela the Terrible's son showed up to one (or two) charter meetings and screwed YOU. 

In the section of THIS DOCUMENT labeled: "Section 6.13-3 CAUSES OF SUSPENSION, REDUCTION OR DISCHARGE" there are five changes you need to know about. 

The explanation of each item falls under the description:

 

A. Conviction of, or deferred adjudication community supervision for, a felony or of a Class A or B misdemeanor involving moral turpitude;

I. Exerting improper use of political influence Failure to meet or maintain qualifications, including but not limited to, failing to obtain or maintain required certificates, licenses or other credentials established for the employee’s position or classification;

J. Inducing or assisting another to commit an unlawful act; Reserved;

K. Exerting improper influence on behalf of a relative Deliberate or careless conduct endangering the safety of self or others;

L. Engaging in improper political activity; Reserved;

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Let's take these one at a time.  Remember - I linked to the full document so you can check my work and you watch the meeting videos to see how they came up.

Item "A" is pretty simple.  No longer can the city deny that pedophile a transfer to the library or that guy convicted of intoxicated manslaughter his right to drive a Sun Metro bus.  LUCKY YOU!  Your city is open to pedophiles and rapists.

Item "I" is also simple.  They just took out the rule against using "improper use of political influence" in your job with the city and replaced it with something completely unrelated.  So, if you're a politically connected employee at the city, you can have your favorite city council member fire anybody you want - or at a minimum single them out and make their life a living  hell.  Does anyone smell the smoke from the burning city hall in Sunland Park yet? 

Item "J" makes it okay for a city employee to commit a crime with another employee or help them commit a crime without the fear of losing their job.  The example that was given in in the meeting was of a Sun Metro employee taking the parts from the shop for his own financial gain with full knowledge and help of other employees in doing it.  Basically this means a city employee may not be fired, demoted or given a frowny face for stealing from the taxpayers.  HOLY SHIT!  Seriously, if you are not pissed by now, you should be.  The "reserved" part means they chose not to replace the rule with some completely unrelated rule like they did above.

Item "K" is another one where they just simply erased the old rule and replaced it with something completely different.  Now a city employee can give a relative a building permit they don't have the proper paperwork for without fear of being fired.  They can also grease the wheels with everything from parking tickets to property taxes.  Why not take away the rule that keeps employees from breaking the rules on behalf of their family?  I mean, what's a job with the city if you can't give your family perks? 

Item "L" is the grandaddy of them all.  The one thing that was holding the city employees back from turning the City of El Paso into the City of Socorro was the fact they couldn't openly  campaign on city time using city resources.  Need 1,000 color copies of your campaign flyer?  Just hit up your friend who works at the city who supports your candidate - he will make them o the city color copier using city paper.  Need those flyers handed out?  That city health inspector can carry those flyers to each place he visits and encourage those establishments to post the flyer in exchange for a better score on their inspection.  After all, items I, J and K cover their ability to give out false scores to restaurants based on favors given by said restaurants.  This deletion turns the 6,000 employees at the city into one giant campaign machine. 

Just think about it - city employees can now send emails to each other soliciting campaign contributions for their favorite council member. They can use the database of addresses of El Paso citizens to mail out campaign material on city time using city envelopes, paper and stamps.  There is nothing anyone can do about it.  There's no longer a rule governing any of these actions. 

Way to go El Paso... Way to go...  And you people are electing the candidates supported by the idiots who forced all these changes.  Priceless.  No company will  ever move to El Paso because you are legislating corruption into your employee handbook.   You are literally making corruption legal.  Unbelievable. 

And the next time you hear Lisa Turner pound her fist about corruption - remember that she voted for all these changes to happen.  The same with Isela the Terrible's son and David Thackston (RINO).  Watch the video.  These people hurt your city.  Watch the video. 

 

Comments

[Que?]

wow.....speechless and in disbelief....

[Rotten Peppers]

The charter does not define the day-to-day rules for employees any more than it defines their benefits and vacation policies. If it did we'd be in the trouble you aptly point out, heading toward the fate of San Diego aka "Enron by the Sea."

On the city website you can find the Civil Service rules that all employees including non-civil service abide by unless otherwise specified in the document. There is a long list of prohibited and allowed political activity in it.

Don't think we didn't research this looking for violations by Wilson & Co related to the stadium, to match up with TORA emails and documents. Still researching it, too.

[Lslsls]

It certainly did in 2007 when it was changed extensively. The current Charter still has language in it about vacations, leave time, etc. that has been recommended for removal. Yes the rules are on the website there is also Ord. 8064 and 8065 which are the rules, classification and compensation and then there are admin rules.

The items J, K, L are listed in the Charter as grounds for termination, suspension or reprimand if violated. What the Ad Hoc committee did is essentially delete those items so there will be no termination, suspension or reprimand for political activity, unlawful activity or influence. That's the big problem. A rule can be made but trust me Ochoa, Bautista and Sandoval will be at CSC screaming about not adding those causes into the Rules.

If you listen to the ankle biters - Ochoa, Bautista and Sandoval they do not want anything to change, but then they want it to change. If they had their way everything about CS would be in the Charter.

So you think Wilson & Co somehow violated CS rules, process over the stadium deal? That doesn't make any sense. And there were no violations of the Charter in the QOL, HOT bond issues. Nor is there a statement in the Charter that says you can't ever sell, demolish or abandon city hall. Not in there.

You need to understand representative form of government. You can try all day long to find the smoking gun of Wilson doing something wrong but she didn't. Council made all of the decisions because they are the only ones that can vote. For some reason you and others just don't get it. Elected officials vote and it counts; staff cannot vote and council doesn't have to listen to staff or take their advice.

[Alonzo Soto]

How's this for a David apophasis: By claiming that he has no intention of controlling what we do and how we do it, David is in fact acknowledging just the opposite. He seem to think that the government's policies should be at odds with the will of the employees. If David's ravings had even an ounce of integrity they would challenge rather than accommodate the mainstream's presuppositions.

Happy Valentines!

[yep...that's me]

@DavidK
The item in quotes below was in yellow highlight at the end of section 6-13.3.....

How come the statement below states some of the changes were recommended by the Civil Service Commission? And who serves on the CSC?
Also, what does the term "reserve" mean next to Items J & L?

Did I understand correctly that some of the items you were concerned about were removed because they are already addressed elsewhere.
Please explain....thanks
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"Note: The above revisions are proposed to make clarifications in the causes for disciplinary action so that the wording used is clear to City administration and the employees, and appropriately encompasses the actions for which disciplinary action is appropriate. Two provisions that are now encompassed in the City’s ethics ordinance are deleted (I and K) and new provisions are now included under these subsection letters. This language includes the CSC’s recommendations for minor revisions to subsections A and F, and to delete the proposal to remove the word “wantonly” in subsection E. This language also includes the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee to delete subsections J and L."

[David K]

yep... that's me,

I don't think you understand what happened here and I did answer most of your questions in the post.

If there is no punishment for breaking a rule, then there is no rule.

[yep...that's me]

@DaidK

Thank you....for responding exactly as expected.
Enjoy your day...

[David K]

yep... that's me,

Thank you - you have a great day as well.

[Josie Bustos]

How ridiculous. Civil Service rules are for civil service employees and no one else. The garbage truck is waiting and you reek to high heaven. Jump in.

Isela "girlfriend" Castanon-William's son is just like her. Did you see his idiotic behavior at the meetings? Like his mother, he just wants attention and has no clue what he is talking about.