10.12.2004
This week, folks, swimming
pools, Spanish skills and streamlining kept me awake for the full meeting!
Minutes for Your Review…
Those of you, who, like me,
are gluttons for punishment and enjoy reading though the City Council minutes,
have three sets of minutes to read through.
At this week’s meeting, all but the September 21, 2004 minutes were
approved on the consent agenda (guess who asked that they be postponed?):
4. APPROVAL
OF MINUTES: [Municipal Clerk, Richarda
Duffy Momsen, (915) 541-4127] Approval of Minutes for the Regular City Council
Meetings of September 21, September 28 and October 5, 2004.
(Attachment)
- Regular City Council Meeting Minutes - 09/21/04
(Attachment)
- Regular City Council Meeting Minutes - 09/28/04
(Attachment)
- Regular City Council Meeting Minutes - 10/05/04
Also approved on consent was
an amendment to the special election for the District 5 seat. The amendment changed two early voting
locations:
6M. An Amendment to the Resolution calling for a
Special Election for the Election in the City of El Paso of a District
Representative for District No. 5. (Attachment)
[Municipal Clerk, Richarda Duffy Momsen, (915) 541-4127]
At the Car Wash
The first item of note to be
discussed was one I have been anxiously awaiting for several weeks now:
13. BEST
VALUE PROCUREMENT:
This contract shall be awarded to the bidder who
provides the best value to the City.
The City may consider price and other relevant criteria listed in the
request for bids.
Bid No.:
2004-226 Washing of Heavy Duty
Equipment (Rebid)
Award to: A & E Truck & Car Wash El
Paso, TX
Item (s):
All
Amount: $150,000.00 (estimated yearly)
Department: Fleet Services
Funds available:
37370510-45202-503125
Funding source:
Fleet
Services-Inventory Sales -Equipment Outside Repairs Total award: $450,000.00
(estimated)
District (s):
All
The Fleet Services Department and Purchasing
Departments recommend award as
indicated, on the basis of Best Value
Procurement.
This is a thirty-six (36) month contract with the
option to extend the term of the contract one additional year. (Attachment)
[Purchasing, Ray Heredia, (915) 541-4316]
Dear reader, the City owns a
large fleet of vehicles, including garbage trucks, which need to be washed on a
regular basis. As I have been reminding
my readers, this is an item that David Escobar (Luther Jones’s partner) and
other bidders initially fought when it was time to award the bid. Each company claimed that it was offering the
best value for the City.
Representative Robert
Cushing asked during the revisions of the agenda to postpone the item for one
week but City Manager Joyce Wilson and Director of Purchasing Byron Johnson,
who would clearly be an obstacle for Cushing and Cobos, wanted to get the thing
passed and get it awarded to A&E Truck Wash.
Wilson reminded Council that
“This item’s been on the agenda for some time and has been postponed. The
challenge we’re facing right now is that the current contract has expired and our
ability to extend contracts is limited by the code…and we can’t go without the
service.” She wanted to know what the
concerns were about this contract and what it would take to get this thing
through. Good question. The answer can be stated in one word: Cronyism.
I guess learning about the rampant cronysim in Wardyland will be an
important part of the “shakedown” period that Ms. Wilson is going to have to
experience. She can get her feet wet
with this item.
Cobos explained that “I’m
baffled as to the criteria that’s under best value and to my understanding best
value includes cost, insurance…” and he allowed Director of Purchasing Byron
Johnson to finish his sentence. In all
fairness, the points relating to this bid had indeed become confusing…but
that’s because the Council made it so.
Johnson explained that the
other factors had been set by City Council including the cost of City employee
and travel time and the distance between sites.
Kwik Clean, one of the
bidders, was offering a significantly lower cost for the services, half of what
A&E Car Wash charges, so Cobos asked “why aren’t they getting the award?”
(The calculations are all available on the backup in the link to the agenda
item for reader review.)
Staff explained that
reclaimed water would be used by the winner of the award (A&E) and because
Kwik Clean did not offer that option, they did meet the City’s requirements.
Cobos then took apart
various details reference the bid and Cushing soon joined in. Call me cynical, but do I smell an ulterior
motive here?
“I have a problem with the
methodology in which you are awarding these points,” complained Cobos, who
noted a few times that none of the bidders were present (I’m sure they were all
used to having the item postponed), and he added, “I sure wish they were here.”
Byron Johnson argued that
A&E’s use of reclaimed water and their ability to provide on-site washing
provided a significant savings for the City (other companies are near the City
limits, forcing employees to drive their trucks back and forth every time they
need their vehicles washed).
Because he obviously was not
going to be able to get what he wanted, especially without the bidders present
to help fight for the award, Cobos made a motion to postpone the item for one
week. There was a tie and Wardy cast
his vote in favor of postponing the item.
I have now lost count of how many times this item has been postponed. (But never say that certain Councilors don’t
work hard for the money.)
I’ll keep a close eye on
what happens with this interesting bid next week. We’ll see if the bid gets awarded based on merit or something
else like, oh, I don’t know, pressure from certain Troika members?
Phantom Phone Calls and a Concerned Conde
During the revisions to the
agenda, Vivian Rojas wanted the following item to be postponed:
23B. An Ordinance changing the zoning of A portion of
Lot 1, Block 112, Vista Del Sol Unit 16, El Paso, El Paso County, Texas (11129
Pelicano Drive) from P-I (Planned Industrial) to C-4 (Commercial). The penalty being as provided in Chapter
20.68 of the El Paso Municipal Code.
Applicant: Grys Group, LLC. ZON04-00099 (District 7) (Attachment)
[Planning, Research and Development, Jorge Rousselin, (915) 541-4723]
There was a brief discussion
on this item and when Representative Vivian Rojas asked for the postonement,
Wardy informed her he had received a phone call from the applicant
“respectfully asking that it go before the Council.”
Rojas countered and said, “I
understand that the applicant did not call, so I don’t know which applicant
that is who made the call.”
Council took a separate vote
on this item, and when they did, George Sarmiento, the Director of Planning,
Research & Development, said that “there’s just an issue here between the
uses…I believe the applicant really wants a C-4 flexibility on the sign, but
there was a question from Rep. Rojas’s office as to the restrictions on sexually
oriented businesses.”
Oooooh. Sounds juicy, eh?
Rojas asked if the applicant
or his representative was present.
Conrad Conde, the representative, said “we were not aware of any request
for the table from the representative’s side...we’re at your mercy.”
Conde said he had no problem
with the postponement. The motion to
postpone passed unanimously.
Summertime Blues
Representative Robert
Cushing put the following item on the agenda:
18A. Discussion and action on the status of the
Memorial Park Swimming Pool project, that has remained dormant since 30 July
2004, after initiation of construction prior to the start of the summer season,
with emphasis on what steps, if any, are being taken to ensure completion of
the project within the "...360 day..." time frame as set forth in the
contract to allow for public utilization of this City owned and operated
complex for the summer of 2005.
[Representative Robert A. Cushing, Jr., (915) 541-4416]
He began by saying, “Yes, I
brought this forward. This is a quality
of life bond issue, and I was agreeable to have this thing [demolition of the
pool] start prior to the summer season of this year…this project has now been
sitting with nothing done on it now for over two months and I’m very concerned. We’ve outsourced…and have a project
manager…and really, what I wanna know is how this thing happened.”
Juan Contreras, Program
Manager for the City’s quality of life bond program, said that the project had
been delayed because of an electrical pole near the pool that provided power to
the Memorial Park Library. The
construction company has had to reroute the power, but he promised, “The pole
should be out by the end of this week.”
Cushing wanted to know “Why
was this not looked at before the project started?” He added, “The residents of District 2 were out a swimming pool
for the entire summer of this year, okay?
At the time we hired you all as project managers was to get these
projects done quickly … And I wanna know why wasn’t that done.”
Contreras said his company,
P+3, took over the project after the bidding process happened; before that
time, the City’s Engineering Department was dealing with the process.
Cushing asked who was
responsible for this oversight and Contreras said it might have been the
engineers at the City. Cushing kept
trying to pin the blame on P+3 but Contreras kept insisting that it fell
through the cracks long before they took over.
Contreras informed Council
that as a result of that darned pole, the pool project would not be completed until
September 6, 2005 (a 10-week delay, as the original completion date was set for
June).
Irene Ramirez from the
City’s Engineering Department said that the City had transferred the pool
project to P+3 in January of this year, which fueled Cushing’s fire.
Contreras said Ramirez was
right, P+3 had assumed that the electrical pole issue had been taken care of
during pre-construction (which the City was in charge of); each party was
pointing the finger at the other.
Pole Dancing
Cushing, meanwhile, was not
happy. “I’m very upset about this. It
really doesn’t show to me that you all are doing what you’re supposed to,” and
added that P+3 is always blaming the City’s Engineering Department.
Wardy said, “I’m sure you
have the expertise to advance this project so the kids of that area have a
swimming pool for at least part of that summer…we want that swimming pool built
for that summer, and I think that’s a mandate given to you by this Council.”
Shaking his head, Lozano
added, “And, Mayor, you know, may I say, you know, I’m surprised that, you
know, a post delayed a project this big and I agree with you 100%.” I guess, you know, he felt the need, you
know, to jump on the bandwagon (or more appropriately, on the diving
board). (Too bad there’s no water, or
even a pool, right now.)
Susan Austin reminded
Council that the completion day is not necessarily the same thing as the
opening day.
Cushing wanted to know who
would take responsibility for the “liquidated damages” written into the
contract—if not the contractor working on the pool, would it be P+3?
Austin, in a rare display of
anger, interrupted Cushing and called out, “Now just a minute!” But Wardy cut her off and asked her to let
Cushing finish. Cushing continued and said
that someone needed to be held accountable for the lost time on the project.
Austin pointed out that
there is a clause in P+3’s contract for remuneration based on poor performance
and Austin called that a “relief valve.”
Vivian Rojas added that she,
too, has projects in District 7 that have been delayed for years (not
necessarily P+3’s fault) and asked that the projects stay on schedule.
Pat Adauto, Assistant City
Manager, said that the City meets with P+3 regularly and they are all committed
to meeting the deadlines. She intimated
that it wouldn’t be difficult to stay on schedule since the pool wasn’t being
rebuilt—it was only being made into an indoor pool so construction was
happening around it. Au contraire, mon
frère! (Or should it be ma
soeur!?) Cushing had to correct her,
pointing out that the old pool was no longer there. The project involves demolishing the old pool and constructing a
new pool and structure to surround it.
Before closing the
discussion, Cushing said he wanted an update in 2-3 weeks and wants to be
notified P+3’s next evaluation.
Hats off to Cushing and the
Council for pushing this issue. Cushing
is absolutely right – a project manager should work closely with the City to
ensure that projects move forward and are not stalled due to miscommunications
or unwarranted assumptions (or unwarranted natural occurrences for that
matter!). But instead of simply
pointing the finger at P+3 alone, he should also have been asking City staff
why this pole dance hadn’t been completed before the project was turned over to
the project manager.
It’s clear to me that
Cushing can’t wait to find something with which to stick it to P+3. He and other Council members were not happy
about awarding the construction manager contract to P+3 in the first place, and
we can expect that during the course of these bond projects, he will seize on
other opportunities to try to hammer P+3.
In addition to Cushing’s pugnacious attitude, what I found interesting
was Wardy’s eagerness to support Cushing on this issue. Kinda makes one wonder why they accept the
tremendous incompetence of Lisa Elizondo and the blunders and wastefulness
attributed to what she calls her “leadership.”
If only they were this tough on her and demanded the same kind of
“responsibility” and “accountability” from their own City Attorney!
I can see it now…Cushing
demanding to know why she had spent $12,000 of taxpayers money to remodel her
office (and to add insult to injury, using the tackiest of décor)…asking why on
earth she had gutted the City Attorney’s office, draining it of very important
institutional knowledge and experience…challenging her decision to outsource
all our cases to Carl Green, running up a tab of hundreds of thousands of
dollars…publicly questioning how on earth she had allowed the City to
incorrectly assume it had passed a vote in June on $50 million worth of bonds,
potentially costing taxpayers another heaping sum of money, and asking her to
pay “liquidated damages” for that price tag (for more on this, see last week’s
addendum)…and finally, stating unequivocally that he wouldn’t tolerate her
inability to answer basic legal questions about municipal government.
If only.
Finally Furthering Previous Administration’s Goals
The next item was also
interesting:
18B. Discussion and action on a resolution to
establish the intent of the El Paso
City Council to engage in "joint meetings" with the Las Cruces City
Council in areas of common interest not limited to military and transportation
infrastructure issues. (Attachment)
[Representative Robert A. Cushing, Jr., (915) 541-4416]
For those of you paying
attention to City government for more than just Wardy’s administration, you’ll
know that previous administrations have done their part (some more than others)
to work regionally with our area neighbors.
I recall that previous administrations, for example, held joint council
meetings with Ciudad Juárez municipal representatives and the last
administration created the Alliance for Regional Military Support (ARMS), which
was a regional committee of military installations, the City and the Chambers
of Commerce.
Acting as if he were the
first guy on the planet to think of this issue and beaming with pride, Cushing
heaped praise on the Mayor’s Office for working with him to have a joint
meeting with Las Cruces and El Paso.
Lozano asked, “I mean, is
this a full complete membership meeting?”
He was informed that it would be and he said that he was surprised that
Cd. Juárez was not included.
Wardy said that an
international meeting would be difficult (I can’t see why, if other Councils
have done it) and boasted that he’s had lunch with the new Juárez mayor, a
statement I interpreted as his idea of a substitute for a joint meeting with
our sister city.
Lozano asked for more than
just ceremonial events and Wardy told Lozano that there were many reasons why
they couldn’t do a meeting with Juárez.
The motion passed
unanimously. This is another good
thing. I hope that this and future
Councils expand on the regional work done by previous mayors and Councils –
regional approaches are vital to our area’s success.
If you recall last week’s
notes, City Council approved shifting the Public Information Officer (PIO)
assignment from the Mayor’s Office to the City Manager’s Office. And as I mentioned in prior notes, this is a
very good thing. A city our size should
definitely have a professional Public Information Office to help the media and
the public.
This week, Mark Matthys, who
has been the acting PIO, got a little extension on his contract (and a raise,
to boot, it seems):
6D. That the
Mayor be authorized to sign a Contract between the CITY OF EL PASO and MARK
MATTHYS, to develop effective relationships with the media and to provide
information to the public on city programs, projects, events and city
government at a biweekly rate of $2,400.00.
The contract period shall be from October 15, 2004 through October 14,
2005. This contract is subject to the
concurrence of the City's Civil Service Commission. (Attachment)
[City Manager, Joyce A. Wilson, (915) 541-4844]
I checked my previous notes
and sure enough, Matthys used to make close to $60,000 a year. He’ll now be earning $62,400 a year
(although it’s only a small increase, I’m sure it warms City employees’ hearts
knowing that while some people at City Hall are being threatened with layoffs,
others are getting raises.).
Matthys’s original contract
was set to end on February 15, 2005 and he was hired to replace Irma Medina,
the wunderkind Luther Jones helped Wardy find and whom Wardy shortly
thereafter, it is widely rumored, forced to quit. (Easy come, easy go, I guess.)
Speaking of which…remember that ad Luther placed at the Missouri School
of Journalism and the controversy surrounding the fact that Luther was doing
Wardy’s recruiting and hiring? (http://www.newspapertree.com/muschool.html)
For all the juicy details be sure to check the newspapertree archives, the
section called “It’s a Public Relations Emergency!” (http://www.newspapertree.com/newsletter.ssd?section=feature&c=61308b3183ee488d).
Back to the meeting. As I’ve mentioned before, in my humble
opinion, a public information officer for a major U.S. city on the Mexican
border who probably deals daily with the Mexican press and Mexican government
officials as well as the very large number of monolingual Spanish speaking
constituents should…well…speak, read and write Spanish as well as he/she does
English. Wouldn’t that be the progressive thing to do? But also, doesn’t it simply make sense?
Apparently, I’m not the only
one who thinks so because Representative Vivian Rojas took this item off the
agenda to ask if Dallas transplant Mark Matthys is bilingual.
Rojas said, “I had a concern
regarding the high population of Spanish speakers in El Paso, and I was
wondering if Mr. Matthys spoke Spanish.”
Joyce Wilson, Matthys’s new
boss, said he was indeed not bilingual but added that “we have the capacity
within the organization.” She added
that because Matthys is “already on board” it was better to “not lose
time.” She promised that language
capability would be added into the program in the future.
Cobos, who was trying to
throw in a distraction to avoid the real issue being discussed, said that there
are numerous languages spoken at Fort Bliss. “Given the dynamics of El Paso,
Fort Bliss, having many different people speaking many different languages,” he
tried asking casually, “do we have a list with the different languages that
different employees speak?”
Huh? What on earth did that have to do with the
subject at hand? He might have well
just screamed, “Look! Over there! A UFO!”
That age-old, time-honored distraction technique among school-aged
children would have been about as subtle.
But then, subtlety has never been Cobos’s strong suit.
Wilson said she was not
aware of a list, but reminded Cobos that the predominant foreign language
spoken in this community is – hold on to your hats! – Spanish. It’s sad when it takes a transplant to El
Paso to remind Cobos of such a fundamental fact.
Lozano supported Rojas and
reminded Council that the Mexican press has a significant presence here.
Matthys, who came to El Paso
from Dallas, tried to diminish the significance of the need for a bi-literate
Public Information Officer said, “It has been a smaller issue” than he expected
it would be.
Matthys stated that he’s
received interpretation/translation help from Laura Uribarri and Wardy, who he
claimed both spoke fluent Spanish. I
don’t know about Uribarri, but if you’ve ever heard Wardy have to put together
more than two sentences in Spanish, you’d know he’s not “fluent.” He can get by, though. (Matthys is being very loyal or knows even
less Spanish than I thought, or both.)
Matthys then said he’s also managed to find other employees at the City
who spoke Spanish to speak on his behalf to the media and that they would
continue to do that.
Lozano said that was the
problem – it takes two people to do the job of one.
Matthys argued again that it
wasn’t really that big of a deal. It
might not be to a Dallas transplant, but to some of us, it is indeed a big
deal.
Lozano suggested that the
contract be approved for 8 months only instead of the 12 (I still don’t
understand why they didn’t just let the original contract go until February,
which would give Wilson plenty of transition time and time to look for someone
of her choosing).
Cook quickly made a motion
to approve but Wardy stepped in to defend the hire.
Lozano then asked Joyce
Wilson if she would be able to respond to Spanish media concerns; Wilson said
that there are 13 other communications specialists at the City who are
bilingual and added that her challenge was to build and formalize the program. So I guess that was a no.
Mo’ Money
Lozano said that the
previous administration had a bilingual media office and this administration
would do well to follow suit. He told
Matthys that while this was not personal, the City needs a bilingual public information
officer and to depend on other people to do that work is duplication. Wow.
I completely agreed with Lozano!
My head began to spin.
John Cook, who seemed
irritated by the discussion, said that there are several language translation
services available throughout the City and Richard Momsen felt it necessary to
throw in the fact that the Municipal Court hires “a number of certified court
interpreters on contract.”
Right. There are qualified interpreters in El Paso
(but not nearly as many as some people think—it takes more than proficiency in
Spanish and English to be a competent interpreter). But there’s a fee attached to both language translation services
and the pay-by-the-hour contractual interpreters.
Mr. Cook and Ms. Momsen both
missed the point entirely. We’re paying
this guy $62,400 a year to be our communications guy. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to expend any extra money in order to
pay for the same work in Spanish.
Again, I know there are
probably many of you out there who disagree with me, Rojas and Lozano (I can
hear it now…this is America, damnit, and we should speak English!)
Like it or not (I happen to
love it), El Paso is a border City. All
press releases and announcements should go out in both English and Spanish; we
should also have a spokesperson fluent in both languages; when monolingual
Spanish-speaking constituents contact City Hall (and we have many thousands of
such people in El Paso), and when Mexican dignitaries or members of the press
call, the Public Information Officer should not have to go look for someone to
interpret. This is a community that is
interdependent with the one across the border – a fact that many folks might
not like or want to admit, but a fact nonetheless. And if the City is going to hire a Public Information Officer
(again – a good thing), let’s do it right.
The motion John Cook made
passed unanimously with Lozano and Rojas voting no.
Twice the Work…Half the Pay!
The next item was also quite
interesting. John Cook, one of only two
City Representatives who looks out for City employees, took the following item
off of the consent agenda:
10. STAFFING TABLE CHANGES: City Attorney
Delete
1.00 Personnel and Payroll
Clerk GS 17
Delete
1.00 Accounting Clerk GS 16
Add
1.00 Personnel &
Accounting Clerk GS 15 (Attachment)
[City Attorney, Liza Elizondo,(915) 541-4550]
Cook turned to Elizondo and
asked her, “Can you explain to me what you’re trying to do with the elimination
of two positions…and also was this included…during the budget session?”
Looking like a deer caught
in headlights, Elizondo said that the change was in fact not in the budget but
that she wanted to consolidate two full-time employees and replace them with
one.
Cook wanted to know whom the
payroll clerk currently does payroll for, and she said this person does it for
everyone on the 9th and 10th floors at City Hall (that’s
a lotta folks, folks).
“So we’re taking a GS16 and
GS17 and asking a GS15 to do the work of these two people?” Cook asked.
The answer was yes. And only Cook was concerned about this
issue.
The motion was made by
Lozano to pass the item and it passed with only Cook voting against it.
Once the vote had been taken
Joyce Wilson added that the administration was looking for ways to streamline
and cut costs and this was in keeping with that directive. I’m glad to know that.
However, had Wilson just
turned and looked behind her, she would’ve seen a perfect way to “streamline”
and “cut costs.” Laura Uribarri, one of
the mayor’s $75,000-a-year assistants and now an utterly obsolete “liaison”
between Wardy and the City department heads, had been sitting idly at the
Council meeting—presumably because she had nothing else to do (I guess Adrian
Ocegueda, Wardy’s other assistant, was on luncheon and convention duty that
week). Once the meeting was over (only
minutes later), I could’ve sworn I saw her pick up her popcorn and soda and
leave (to go on her lunch break, I guess).
Here’s another
suggestion. Had Wilson turned to her
left and taken a look at the useless City Attorney sitting beside her, she’d
see a huge dollar sign dancing over her head.
Firing Lisa Elizondo would result in a savings of $154,000 a year. That would pay for a lot of interpreters for
Mark Matthys.
Hey, you can’t say I’m not
for streamlining and cutting costs!
Recommended Reading
All El Pasoans should be
required to read the following article; if you haven’t, here’s your
chance. Thanks to the readers who sent
it to me.
“Clean Up or
Cover Up? Will El Paso finally confront a century-old toxic legacy?”
by Jake Bernstein
http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1766
Recommended Voting
And finally, I’d like to
remind all my readers that early voting begins on Monday the 18th
for this very important national election.
There are also some important local races being decided, so please…get
informed and get to the polls. Here are
the details for early voting dates, times and sites: http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041017-182277.shtml
Until next week…
Comments or questions: shmaven@yahoo.com
My commentaries are
posted weekly at http://www.thestrelz.com/shm/shm.htm
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