3.22.2005
This week, Lisa Elizondo
keeps her secrets secret, Council’s hallucinations run mild, Sid wishes he were
young again, and Cushing is finally outed as the absolute monster and deadbeat
that he is.
Correction Alert! (maybe)
Before I begin the notes, it
appears that there is some disagreement over whether or not Nick Bombach works
for Tropicana (whom I reported as having lunch last week with Representative
Alexandro Lozano and City Plan Commissioner Ray Mancera to discuss annexation). I made a mistake when I said that I was told
Mr. Bombach works for Tropicana Homes…I was, in fact, told that he works for
Tropicana Realty.
Also, I have made two calls
during business hours this week to Tropicana Realty in order to get
confirmation (or denial) that Bombach works for them, but I have yet to get a
person on the other end of the phone.
My source also emailed them and has yet to receive a response.
If it turns out that Mr.
Bombach works for another developer or realtor, my apologies, and I will correct
the record as soon as I get an answer.
I’m always willing to correct the record.
However, the fact remains
that the focus of the inappropriate lunch between a City Representative, his
appointee to the City Plan Commission, and Bombach (who is a registered broker)
did occur. All discussions about
annexation, which is something quite costly and has enormous financial
consequences for local taxpayers, should be discussed in open, public
meetings…not at cozy, private lunches.
Unstalled Minutes
Finally this week, Council
approved all minutes on the City Council agenda:
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: [Municipal Clerk, Richarda Duffy Momsen, (915) 541-4127] Approval
of Minutes for Regular City Council Meeting of March 15, 2005, Special City
Council Meeting of February 17, 2005 (Joint Meeting with Las Cruces City
Council), and Special City Council Meeting of March 15, 2005 (Animal Emergency
Center crematorium). Special City
Council Meeting Minutes of February 17, 2005 POSTPONED FROM 03/15/05, 03/08/05
AND 03/01/05
(Attachment) Minutes for
Regular City Council Meeting held on March 15, 2005
(Attachment) Minutes for
Special City Council Meeting held on February 17, 2005
(Attachment) Minutes for
Special City Council Meeting held on March 15, 2005
The
items were approved on the consent agenda.
Politicians Against Progress
Unite!*
*You Have Nothing to
Lose But Your Scruples!
The following item was a
perfect example of why Certificates of Obligation are NOT bad things and why
their demonization, besides being cheap political rhetoric for elected
officials running away from their records, leads to inefficiency and trouble:
15. Request that the City Council authorize an
emergency procurement and that the City
Manager be authorized to sign
a contract with Star
Construction in the amount of $52,240.00 for the construction/replacement of
the roof at the Paul Harvey Park Shelter Building.
Background: During the week of December 13 to 18, high winds damaged the
roof of the shelter, the wind blew away considerable portions of the roofing
membrane (shingles) and roof deck (plywood).
Adverse weather conditions through the rest of December further
deteriorated the remaining roof structure increasing the potential for injury
to the park visitors, damage to adjacent private properties and additional
damage to the shelter structure.
This procurement is necessary to preserve
the public property of the municipality and is exempt from the competitive bid
requirements of Chapter 252 of the Local Government Code, as noted in Section
252.022 General Exemptions.
Department:
Parks and Recreation
Funds Available in: 14200401-PBE04PA103-29103-508027
Funding Source: 2004 Bond Election
Amount: $52,240.00
District: 8
(Attachment) [Purchasing
Department, Byron Johnson, (915) 541-4308]
This item would help fund
the repair of a roof that was blown off of a recreation center by high
winds. It was placed on the consent
agenda by City staff, and the funding source was listed as the 2004 Bond
Election; however, during the revisions of the agenda, Cobos stated that he
wanted the funding source revised to General Funds because he did not want
funding to come from the 2004 Bond election money.
Debbie Hamlyn, Deputy City
Manager for Quality of Life, said, “There’s a motion for that to come out of
the General Fund. The funds
available…is [sic] from the 2004 Bond, and unless we can find another source of
funds, we’ll have to delete this and come back because we do not have the funds
in the General Fund.”
“No, ma’am!” responded
Cobos, his voice rising with indignation at the very suggestion. “That is not a correct statement. First of all, this is an emergency…
procurement [boy did he struggle with that three-syllable word!]. Because of the City’s negli, uh,
[“negligence,” another three-syllable word that was ultimately too tough for
Cobos] neglect [much better, only two syllables] to maintain it over the past
years, the wind blew the roof off.
Okay? And I don’t think it’s
right that constituents of District 8 have to sacrifice some of their Capital
Improvement Project monies to compensate what the City failed to maintain over
the past years. Now, I know for a fact
there are monies available…and I don’t think that we do need to bring this
back.”
As Hamlyn was about to
debate the issue with Cobos, City Manager Joyce Wilson said to her, “Just leave
it, as amended, and we’ll address it separate from this discussion because we
do need to fix this project.”
“And again, this is an
emergency procurement,” said Cobos, “It’s a public, health safety and welfare
issue.”
Council voted unanimously to
change the item’s funding source to the General Fund, not the 2004 Capital
Improvement Project Bond Election Fund.
I knew this would happen
(but I hate, well, to say “I told ya so”…well, maybe hate is a strong word…I
don’t hate saying it…truth is I kinda
like it).
Anyway, my friends, instead
of using Certificates of Obligation (CO’s) like every other major Texas city to
take care of the most basic city functions like maintaining City property,
replacing damaged roofs, filling potholes, fixing streets, and repairing drains,
Wardy, Cobos and Cushing have decided to portray Certificates of Obligation
(CO’s) and the people who support using them as THE ENEMY OF ALL THAT IS GOOD
AND JUST. And what do they do propose
to do instead to perform basic city functions?
“Take it to the voters!” They
have duped our community into believing that inefficiency and wasteful
expenditure of taxpayer money is a good thing
and that the voters need to approve even the most basic expenditures that we
expect from our most immediate form of government – City Hall.
Why would they do that? Why not just use CO’s (as every other major
city in Texas does) and be efficient?
Why create an issue out of nothing?
Because, according to one of
my 10th floor inside sources, Luther Jones told them to. The entire Certificates of Obligation issue
is the brainchild of Luther Jones, who has openly opposed their use for a long
time, and who also just happens to own Wardy, Cushing and Cobos. At the same time, because these guys have
succeeded in creating a campaign issue out of whole cloth, these do-nothing
guys can appear to have done something about the horrible CO “problem” (a
“problem,” of course, that never existed until they created it).
Certainly they can’t just
keep biting into our General Fund every time there’s an emergency like this
one. If they do that often enough, it
will eventually mean a tax increase because those precious general funds are
intended to be used to provide City services.
Ah,
details, details.
Sigh.
Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda
The following
item was an ordinance introduction, but one that the City Manager wanted
explained to Council before they voted on it:
22.
INTRODUCTION AND PUBLIC HEARING - FINANCIAL & ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES: An Ordinance authorizing the issuance of "City of El Paso,
Texas, General Obligation Refunding Bonds,
Series 2005"; levying a
continuing direct annual ad valorem tax for the payment of said bonds;
establishing procedures for the sale and delivery of the bonds; and delegating
matters relating to the sale and issuance of the bonds to an authorized City
officer or employee. (Attachment) [Delgado, Acosta,
Braden & Jones, P.C., Paul A. Braden, Bond Counsel, (915) 544-9997]
Hector Zavaleta from First
Southwest explained the item. “Two
weeks ago,” he said, “we had the opportunity to refund approximately $163
million [worth of bonds] to realize almost $10 million in savings. Unfortunately, the market has been very
volatile between now and then. Now we
have the opportunity to refund about $46 million to refund $3.2 million.”
Looking for a Few Good Parameters or
John Gotti Lives On!
He stated that because of
the volatility of the market, he was recommending that Council pass a
“Parameters” ordinance (there’s that Gottiesque word again!) “This would delegate the City Manager or the
Deputy City Manager of Finance to implement the transaction if certain
parameters were met.”
Those “parameters” included
a maximum on the bond issuance of $153 million, and other limitations. The Teflon Don, ever in search of parameters
in a parameter-less world, would have been pleased.
Cobos called the policy
“brilliant” and thanked City Manager Joyce Wilson. Whenever Cobos praises anything, dear reader, taxpayers should
grab their wallets.
City activist Lisa Turner
came to the podium and said, “You know we wouldn’t be in this position today if
we’d just spent the money…if you’d just go ahead and spend the money and get it
done, we wouldn’t be carrying this bond, paying this interest year in, year
out.”
She’s
exactly right, and Wardy agreed with her, saying it was a good point.
Irony Alert!™
Good point, indeed! This Council (with the exception of a couple
of members) is STILL not spending the money.
In fact, it just happened again, a couple of weeks ago. Instead of spending old CO money that had
been programmed to remodel the City Manager’s office, they decided to let it
sit idle and be eaten up by interest.
And these are the guys who like to portray themselves as the fiscally
responsible opponents of those horrible CO’s.
What a joke. But if we fall for
their cheap political rhetoric once again this May, the joke will be on us.
Turner added, “This is not a
bad idea. Six months ago, nine months
ago, this was a better idea than it is today.”
Again,
she’s right.
Demon CO’s
When Cushing cranked up the
CO’s are single-handedly ruining our city rhetoric, he looked like a bloated,
gum-chomping version of Carrie Nation.
I half expected him to whip out a hatchet (though, given Cushing’s
history, it would more likely be a .44 magnum—see below). Lisa Turner then stepped in and registered
her disagreement with the demonization ploy.
“We have a representative form of democracy,” she said. “We vote you all in, we expect you to make
the decisions.”
“I would disagree with you,
Ms. Turner,” said Wardy. Of course you
would, Joe. But I know, I know, it’s
not your fault. You’re just following
orders from Luther Jones and Martie Jobe.
And God forbid you all make decisions!
You leave the decisions up to your puppet masters.
At Luther Jones’s bidding,
he and Cobos and Cushing successfully fooled this community into believing that
“leadership” means asking for permission to address the most basic municipal
issues (like fixing a roof that’s blown off of a recreation center). I wouldn’t be surprised if Wardy asks
permission from Luther to go to the bathroom during Council.
“Since the time I’ve been on
Council, and I respect the Mayor for this,” continued Cushing, “we haven’t gone
down this road of just basically going on a spending spree without the voter’s
approval.”
Spending spree?! You know, you’re right! I can’t believe the irresponsibility of
using CO’s to replace a blown off roof.
Woo Hoo! Spending spree
time! Roofs for everyone! Roofs on the house (pun intended)! Yee Haw!
No, Bob, you’re right. Instead, better use our precious general
funds and if they’re all used up, better wait a year and then spend more of our
precious tax dollars to conduct an election and hope the voters do the right
thing (and hope it doesn’t rain too much in the interim). You go, Righteous Bob!
Turner pointed out the
obvious: The next bond issue might
fail. How, then, she wondered aloud,
would the City provide for basic repairs (like, say, for example, a roof blown
off a recreation center)?
“If they decide, then we
don’t spend it, it’s real simple,” replied Wardy with that stupid mierda-eating Cheshire grin on his
face. You’re right, Mr. Joe. You know, those selfish kids and senior
citizens who expect roofs over their heads really get my goat, too.
Better, Mr. Joe, to shirk
your responsibility, blame it on the voters, and watch our City’s
infrastructure continue to age, fall apart and become more expensive to
repair. Got it.
This
is what passes for leadership in El Paso.
Council
approved the introduction unanimously.
Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies
As I first reported last
week, this item was placed on the City Council agenda after City Attorney Lisa
Elizondo and Jimbo with the Jumbo salary (a/k/a Jabba, a/k/a “El Superstar”)
wanted to charge City Council Representative John Cook over $600 for
information about the real “spending
spree” going on in the City Attorney’s Office.
Instead of paying the fees, City Representative John Cook, as he
explained it, asked his City representative for help and, lo and behold, City
Representative John Cook placed the following item on the agenda:
23A. Discussion and briefing regarding legal fees
paid by the City of El Paso to outside attorneys in private practice; to
include the name of the firms, the total amount paid, billable hours and hourly
rate. [Representative John F. Cook,
(915) 541-4140]
Trippin’ Down Memory Lane
My friends, there is no need
to wonder why Cook is asking these very legitimate questions. Your old buddy Sid will fill you in. As I wrote several weeks ago, many folks
believe Ms. Elizondo is not only incompetent but that she’s also brazenly
dishonest.
I feel the need to provide
my new readers (and older readers, who, like me, need consistent reminders of
the corruption…there’s just so much to remember and we oldsters forget things
sometimes!) with a little background information.
Let me first remind you of
the first time we heard about the excessive outsourcing of our legal work to
Carl Greedy…er…Carl Greenbacks…er Carl Green back on August 17, 2004:
Payday for
Carl Green
I referenced the following item in last week’s notes:
6A.
That the City Attorney be authorized to negotiate and sign retention agreements
with outside counsel for the representation of the City in lawsuits. (Attachment) [City Attorney's Office, Lisa A. Elizondo,
(915) 541-4550]
Representative Susan Austin pulled this one off the
consent agenda for separate discussion.
As you may or may not know, after firing her chief
litigators (Laura Gordon and Mike Moffeit, who replaced Gordon), Lisa Elizondo
handed over all the City’s litigation to Carl Green, a local attorney who was
Jim Martinez’s former law partner and one of Elizondo’s previous employers.
During the meeting, Susan Austin (referencing the
item and the handing-over of cases to Green) wanted “a handle on whether we were
talking an open-ended number of cases…or whether we could put a time limit on
it.”
Defending her actions, Lisa Elizondo replied that
“This is a somewhat unique situation…we expect this to be very temporary in
nature,” and she said her ultimate goal would be to hire a candidate who would
take over the litigation for a position. What position? She didn’t say, but she
later mentioned a “Full Time Trial Supervisor” position.
Elizondo further recommended that “any and all
litigation that we have received to date be referred to outside counsel.” She
admitted that a list of all the lawsuits against the City she provided on
August 9th wasn’t up to date, so outside counsel (Carl Green) would
be receiving even more cases than Council was originally told. How many? Well,
she gave the classic Elizondo response: she didn’t know. “I don’t have an
active list for you of those cases,” she further admitted.
Should the City Attorney have such a list, dear
reader? What do you think? Do you think it would be important to know just what
cases the City is litigating? Do you think it would be a good idea to know,
just approximately, how much of our tax money Ms. Elizondo is paying outside
attorneys for litigation? Particularly since, by Ms. Elizondo’s own admission,
her staff is not competent to handle it? Do you think the fact that she has
fired every chief litigator she’s ever had (including one she herself hired)
might have been a factor in placing her office in the dire straits she claims
it’s in?
When asked if the litigator currently on staff (an
individual hired by Elizondo) would be doing any litigating, Elizondo’s
response was “If the determination was made either because of her workload or
her experience level it was appropriate to send it out to outside counsel, we
could do the new cases under the existing authority.”
The meaning of Ms. Elizondo’s non-answer, as I
interpret it (pardon me, Mr. “Only the Author Can Interpret His or Her Own
Words” Cushing) is this: No. But Elizondo doesn’t have the guts to give Council
a straight, non-tortuous answer. And Council lets her get away with this. Shame
on Council.
The bottom line is all cases will be outsourced, and
the City Attorney will continue to send out new cases because she has the
authority to do so (courtesy of City Council)) and because the staff she
herself has hired is not competent to do it.
Beautiful.
But her current authority to spend up to $5,000 per
case just isn’t good enough, she argued, stating that “I have authority for a
$5,000 cap on each case…the problem is that several of the cases are set for
trial…and they [Carl Green] have raised some concern that they will exceed that
cap and they’re feeling restricted by that monetary amount...I need the
authority to be able to approve these [retention agreement] invoices in excess
of $5,000.”
Well, of course they’re feeling restricted! When
there’s a bottomless pit of money is being dangled before your eyes, wouldn’t
you, too, feel restricted by a measly five grand per case?
Just how much money this blank check would end up
costing us (the taxpayer) in total, no one asked. I guess it’s not important.
I’m sure, though, the answer would be Elizondo’s classic “I don’t know.” Or
probably something like this: “If the determination was made either because of
the dollar amounts involved or the amount of work required, we would make a
decision on expending fees to outside counsel to perform litigation work.”
John Cook asked how many cases had been sent to
outside counsel (Carl Green), and the answer was that it was between 35-40
cases. Cook asked why she couldn’t bring those cases to Council on a weekly
basis for approval (which would limit her power). I couldn’t document the
non-answer quickly enough in my notes, but it didn’t matter as her response was
meaningless. And unfortunately, Cook had no support from Council.
I did some quick math when I heard Elizondo report
the number of cases that needed an excess of $5,000. If you multiply 40 cases
times the $5,000 cap, the initial total is $200,000. Wow. That $200,000 is just
for the first three weeks and doesn’t even include bills for September and
October yet. That Carl Green is one lucky guy.
I’d like to remind folks at home that the chief
litigator Elizondo fired was making $90,000; the litigator currently on staff
is said to be paid around $70,000 a year. So the City was paying two staff
members $160,000 a year to handle these cases. We’ve already exceeded that
number and Carl Green has just gotten started, folks.
http://www.thestrelz.com/shm/2004_0817.htm
So City Representatives
voted to give Lisa Elizondo a blank check with no limitations on it for Carl
Greedy…er…Carl Greenbacks…er…Carl Green (sorry, Carl…I just can’t seem to keep
it straight!). Of course, the only
person on Council who voted against this blank check was…you guessed it!...John
Cook, who gave a firm “no.”
And if you recall, back on
February 8th, 2005, I gave Lisa Elizondo a reality check after she
openly lied to City Council and the community about the hirings and firings in
her office:
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!
I’d like to revisit something that came up at the
January 11th Council meeting.
It’s an important issue because it goes to the deceptive and dishonest
nature of this administration. Those of
you who are loyal readers of mine will remember the following details from
those notes when a discussion about the City Attorney’s Office came up:
“Lobbing a friendly softball question
at her, Paul Escobar then asked [Lisa Elizondo], ‘You’ve also cut down on staff
attorneys, is that right?’ Responding, Elizondo bragged: ‘By a significant number. We’ve reduced the office from 27 [attorneys]
down to currently 17 [attorneys] if you approve this appointment.’”
http://www.thestrelz.com/shm/2005_0111.htm
I said it then, and I’ll say it again. She was lying, and here’s the proof. The following is a specific breakdown of
City Attorney Office staff before and after Elizondo’s reign of terror and
incompetence came to City Hall (my thanks to a helpful alert reader…gotta love
those alert readers!):
City Attorney’s
Office Before Lisa E City Attorney 1)
Rita Rodriguez RESIGNED/REMOVED Litigation Attorneys 2) Laura Gordon RESIGNED/REMOVED 3) John Gates RESIGNED 4) Perry Piñon RESIGNED/REMOVED Transactional
Attorneys 5) Lupe Cuellar 6) Kevin Elkins RESIGNED 7) Sylvia Borunda Firth
(Airport) 8) Marvin Foust 9) Terri Garcia 10) Elaine Hengen 11) Lee Ann Koehler RESIGNED 12) Lupe Martinez 13) John Nance 14) Ruth Reyes RESIGNED 15) Raymond Telles RESIGNED 16) Matt Watson Municipal Court
Attorneys 17) Al Avila (City Prosecutor) RESIGNED 18) Luz Walker RESIGNED 19) Reginald Bussey RESIGNED 20) Stephanie
Osborn RESIGNED After Lisa E City Attorney 1)
Lisa Elizondo Litigation Attorneys 2) Jim Martinez 3) Michelle Little Locke X) Michael Moffeit RESIGNED/REMOVED Transactional Attorneys 4) Jennifer Farleo Callan 5) Lupe Cuellar 6) Sylvia Borunda Firth
(Airport) 7) Theresa Cullen Garney 8) Lisa Hayes 9) Elaine Hengen 10) Lupe Martinez X) Jeff McElroy RESIGNED 11) John Nance 12) Ernie Rodriguez 13) Jorge Villegas 14) Matt Watson Municipal Court
Attorneys 15) Mark Briggs (Part-Time
Municipal Prosecutor – never went to Council for approval) 16) Terri Garcia 17) Marvin Foust
As my alert reader pointed out, there
were not 27 attorneys in the office when she “took over.” A recent addition to the City Attorney’s
Office is Mark Briggs, who is now the Municipal Prosecutor. But guess what, folks? Mr. Briggs’ appointment never went to
Council for approval…AND…he only has to serve the citizens for half a day
because Lisa E. allowed him to retain his private practice. Wonder how much Mr. Briggs is being paid for
half a day’s work.
Also, please note that only 8 attorneys
from the original group remain – and that means (yes, yes, I know I sound like
a broken record) that valuable and significant institutional memory and legal
expertise is gone.
So what’s the harm in that, you ask? Well, folks, it harms our pocketbooks and
eats up valuable and precious taxpayer funds.
http://www.thestrelz.com/shm/2005_0208.htm
Once Again, Back to the Future
So, now that you’ve been
appropriately briefed about Lisa’s history of, shall we say, difficulties with
the truth, let’s see what happened when John Cook, a sitting City
Representative, asked for some accountability from our $155,000 per year City
Attorney.
As soon as the item was read
into the record, Elizondo stood at the podium while Wardy gave John Cook the
floor, saying, “Mr. Cook?” Cook
replied, “I asked for a briefing. I’m
not prepared to give the briefing; I’d like to receive it.”
Elizondo looked extremely
uncomfortable and none too happy. She
began by acknowledging that this agenda item was originally an open records
request submitted by Cook.
“Because of the information
requested, and because of the record-keeping prior to 2004,” Elizondo said, “it
was difficult to respond to in the form that it was given, so what we have
provided to Representative Cook yesterday was a listing of all of the firms in
private practice who have done work for the City as well as the total amount
paid to those firms. In terms of
billable hours, in order to do that analysis you would actually have to pull
every single invoice and there would be hundreds, if not thousands of them…that
would require an awful lot of staff time, and we are capable of doing that, but
before I proceeded with that, sort of, expenditure of resources, I wanted to
take this to the entire Council and see if that was the direction of this
Council.”
Hmm…interesting.
Lisa Elizondo, the City
Attorney, a woman whose salary is paid for with taxpayer dollars, was refusing
to provide a City Representative with information he had asked for and that
should be readily available to him and any member of the public.
And while she was
essentially thumbing her nose at Cook’s request during a public City Council
meeting, not once did Wardy instruct to her to make the information
public. That takes cojones on both their parts.
Elizondo addressed part of
Cook’s request and said that the firms charge about $150 per hour, which is the
basic hourly rate charged to the City (with some exceptions).
Elizondo also explained that
all outsourcing goes before Council.
She’s right. But because the
majority of people on this Council are RWRS’s (Reliable Wardy Rubber Stampers),
the only no vote usually comes from Cook (see the old Council item I referenced
earlier). And I’ve noticed that the
RWRS’s are particularly solicitous of Elizondo; several of the male members of
Council fairly fall over themselves to accede to Elizondo’s requests. Lust is blind, I guess.
What a Fool Believes Redux
Elizondo proceeded to go
through a power point presentation which did not address the agenda item at all
(where’s a real City Attorney when you need one?). Her presentation focused instead on how much the City paid for
legal work related to the Courts of Inquiry.
In her presentation, she said the courts of inquiry represented 71% of
the amount spent on police cases ($723,708.46) as opposed to other cases, which
represented 29% ($296,278.24). She said
that the “pre-Hollebeke” monthly police legal fees were $18,802 on average, but
“post-Hollebeke” the monthly police legal fees were averaging $69,963.
While
that’s interesting information, she still was not addressing the agenda item.
Elizondo also claimed that
the “one time outsourcing” (which she said happened over four months) was “for
the purpose of essentially auditing our litigation files.”
Hmm…interesting.
I smell another Lisa tall
tale! Back in August, when the
outsourcing issue came before Council, Lisa E. claimed she needed the Green law
firm’s help because her staff was neither “experienced” nor “competent” enough
to handle the caseload (this was after she fired good attorneys). Now she’s claiming it was done because she
needed the cases audited?
Do
you think this adds up?
Lisa E’s reputation has
caught up with her, and I don’t think anyone can believe her anymore. She lied about the number of lawyers she’s
hired and fired; she lied about not creating a special position for
Jabba/Jimbo; and she refused to publicly discuss how much money is being spent
on outside lawyers.
Elizondo’s power point had a
graph showing that our outside legal fees have decreased when compared to
previous years (another one of Lisa E.’s statements that is difficult to
believe).
When
she finished, she nervously asked, “Any questions?”
Cook
asked, “Are you finished with your presentation?”
Giving
an incredibly uncomfortable smile, she responded, “Yes, sir.”
“Let me read the agenda
item,” said Cook. “‘Discussion and
briefing regarding legal fees paid by the City of El Paso to outside attorneys
in private practice; to include the name of the firms, the total amount paid,
billable hours and hourly rate.’ You
say the billable hours and hourly rate you’re having problems with, but I don’t
see those other two issues there, the names of the firms and the total amount
paid.”
What a Tangled Web We Weave . . .
Busted!
“Uh, I’m happy to provide
that to this Council,” she replied, “That’s about a 20-page report that is very
hard to digest. I’m happy to circulate
that after this meeting.”
“I
have the appetite for digesting that,” responded Mr. Cook
She claimed to have
hand-delivered the document the night before the Council meeting (although the
document bears the date of March 22, 2005, the date of the Council meeting).
“So you did not want to make
it part of this presentation, which is what I asked for?” asked Cook.
“Uh, Uh, I mean, I wanna be
honest with you. [You’re kidding,
right, Lisa E?—I mean, my mendacity meter went to the reddest part of the red
zone at that statement.] I didn’t make
it a part of this presentation because it would require me to put 20 pages
worth of documentation on the ELMO [the overhead], which I did not think was
going to be particularly helpful to this Council, nor to the members of the
public. And that’s the only reason I
did not include it in this presentation.”
What?! Who the hell is she to decide what is
helpful or not to the public? A City
Representative asked for the information; it is her job to respond. Period.
My friends, it couldn’t be
more obvious that Elizondo simply does not want to discuss this in public…and
make no mistake about it: this is
PUBLIC information. But then I can
understand why. I have seen the 20-page
report, and, like Mr. Cook, I didn’t find it difficult to digest. It is simply a list of law firms and the amount
paid to those firms. I don’t see why
it’s so complicated (but then again, I’m not working with Lisa E.’s “Barbie
Goes to City Hall!” brain).
What is difficult to digest is the amount of our tax money she has
turned over to Greedy…er…Greenbacks…er…Green.
I have done the math. Carl Green
has earned $320,501.74 of our money in a short few months; the vast majority of
that money came as a result of the outsourcing by Elizondo last fall—and
remember, the outsourcing happened because she kicked out good attorneys and
hired attorneys she admitted were neither “experienced” enough nor “competent”
to handle the work.
Well, dear readers, I have a
copy of Lisa E.’s report, which is actually in the form of a memorandum. While I can’t attach it to these notes, I
will talk about it in detail for you.
First of all, let me tell
you about the cover. It reads, in part,
“Confidential Attorney-Client And/Or Attorney Work Product Communication Not
Intended for Public Dissemination.”
Hmmm. I don’t believe that how
much the City Attorney’s Office is paying outside law firms with our tax
dollars is “confidential.” And I most
certainly do believe that such information should
be publicly disseminated. After
all, dear reader, you and I are paying these bills. Does Lisa E. seriously believe that the amount of money the City
of El Paso spends on outside attorney’s fees is not public information? Or was that standard boilerplate language
she routinely (and in this case, I would say, inappropriately) inserts in all
her memos? So much for the Wardy
administration’s commitment to “transparent government.”
Okay, let’s go to the meat
of the report. While it’s true that, as
one lazy (and possibly partisan) reporter observed (see below), there are a lot
of firms and individual attorneys listed, if the reporter had bothered to do
the simple addition, she would have seen that the lion’s share of our taxpayer
dollars has gone to one firm in a very short period of time (August through
February…the March bills aren’t available yet). Any guesses as to which firm this is? . . . Drumroll, please. If you guessed Mounce, Green, Myers, Safi & Galatzan, you win
the Carl Green “In Like Flint” Award for this week.
Actually, folks, another
Lisa E. “stretcher,” as Huck Finn would say, is that she didn’t have to put 20
pages worth of documentation on the overhead; in fact, all she had to do was
list the law firms (which she said total between 20 and 25) with the grand
total amount paid to each one. That’s
it. She didn’t have to do a line-item,
month-by-month listing. But again, this
would have required that she strain her brain and do some simple math. More important, it would have meant that the
gross (and I do mean gross) amount of attorney’s fees for each firm or private
attorney would have been displayed for all to see. Yikes. Can’t go there,
eh, Lisa E.?
So, what did this exercise
in mendacity and bureaucratic legerdemain demonstrate? Well, at a very basic level, it shows that
Elizondo is afraid of the truth. She
simply does not want the public to know just how much of our tax dollars are
going to one friend, supporter and former employer and partner (of Jim
Martinez’s). But it also shows that she
will go to considerable lengths to defy (at least one member of) City Council and
it also shows the extent to which the Mayor and a majority of City Council is
complicit in Elizondo’s bureaucratic obfuscation.
I’m sorry if this sounds
extreme, but this is an outrage…an absolute outrage and a perfect example of
the lies and deceit used by this administration.
It was very telling that
Elizondo was extremely uneasy and couldn’t look Cook in the eye for more than
one or two moments at a time (yes, it’s hard to look into the eyes of the
public, isn’t it, Lisa E. … especially when you have so excessively abused the
public trust).
“I think I might do my own
presentation,” said a disgusted John Cook.
“I think you’re entitled to do that,” she said in response.
Cobos, who is absolutely
repugnant in general but who is particularly so when he tries to be flirtatious
(just check out the used car salesman-like photos on his campaign website), did
his best to flirtatiously ask leading questions of Elizondo. He claimed that the City Attorney’s Office
under-spent their budget in the previous year (but if I recall, at one Council
meeting, there was a discussion about how the office was “out of money”); he
also brought up Lisa’s claim that she has “significantly” reduced the number of
attorneys on staff (which, as I have documented, was another one of Lisa’s
lies); he also brought up the famous “billable hours” issue. If you will recall, Lisa E. mentioned to
Council that she was having the attorneys in her office document their
“billable hours.” Let’s go back to
those notes and that original absurd discussion, shall we? Here’s what I said back on January 11th:
“Ms. Elizondo…I don’t know about being a lawyer [a
shocking admission from lawyer-in-his-own-mind Robert Cushing], but when you
talk about billable hours, is that an accepted business practice with attorneys
that they at least show billable hours so you can know what they’re doing and
not doing or as you say, documents and everything?” asked Cushing.
“Right,” she responded, explaining that it helps her
know what the attorneys are spending their time on and it helps her track grant
funds.
Cushing asked, “And prior to you coming into office,
this had not been done even though it’s pretty much accepted legal practice
from a business standpoint?”
“Right,” she
said.
Serving Multiple Masters?
No, Bob, I do not believe it is “accepted legal
practice” for government attorneys to maintain diaries of their billable hours,
since they typically don’t submit bills to anyone—but I would be interested to
know from any of you government lawyers out there if it is. I wonder if the real reason Elizondo has
them keep track of their hours is because she allows her lawyers to maintain a
practice outside of their responsibilities at City Hall. That’s right, folks. Lisa E. is allowing our assistant city attorneys
to work for other clients. (I guess
their salaries just aren’t high enough.)
I sure hope they’re not working for those private clients during normal
working hours. This merits further
investigation. Of course, since we
don’t have a real newspaper in town, I won’t hold my breath.
http://www.thestrelz.com/shm/2005_0111.htm
Cushing (the man who also
has a documented history of lying, but in his case his lies have to do with
committing violence against women—see below) also stood up for Lisa E. and her
pillaging of the City Attorney’s office, saying that all her outsourcing
decisions must go through Council. She,
of course, responded that he was correct.
That’s right, folks…another reason to vote out Bob Cushing (as if his
spitting and gum chomping and corruption and bullying and documented violence
against women wasn’t enough).
Paul Escobar, another Lisa
E. apologist, diverted the conversation to the Courts of Inquiry and how
expensive they were. That’s right. Let’s change the topic, and quick!
Cobos had to have the last
word, “Ms. Elizondo, I think you have done a fabulous job.”
I agree, Tony…she’s done a
fabulous job…of driving the City Attorney’s Office into the ground and making herself,
Martinez and Carl Green a lot wealthier on the backs of the taxpayers in this
community.
“I’m extremely comfortable
where our legal department is now,” added Cobos. I have no doubt of that, Tony.
Cobos, like Cushing, makes
my skin crawl. How can West and Central
El Paso tolerate these losers?
No
action was taken on the item.
As a side note, KVIA,
Channel 7, had a report on the issue that evening. Their online link is called, “Stonewalling or an Overly Sensitive
Ego?” On the site, you’ll see the
following:
“ABC-7’s Myrna Membrilla added, ‘I've looked through the report
and I counted 15 different law firms - not just Mounce, Green, Myers, Safi and
Galatzan.’”
http://www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp?s=3112726
Now, that was a hard-hitting
in-depth report, Myrna. Did you do the
basic math, Myrna? Or is that asking
too much from a reporter? Glad Myrna’s
on the KVIA/Joe Wardy for Mayor team!
What would good ole Joe do without Kevin Lovell and his KVIA cronies?
Phillip LoPiccolo, one of
Wardy’s Executive Assistants, spoke on the following item:
23B. Discussion and action on the approval of the
"2005 Federal Legislative Priorities" for the City of El Paso. (Attachment) [Mayor's Office,
Philip LoPiccolo, (915) 541-4145]
Calling
it “ambitious,” LoPiccolo said that the legislative priorities are all possible.
Let’s take a look at this
“ambition,” shall we? What’s at the top
of the “ambitious” list for our community my friends…is it a creative project
that will thrust El Paso into the 21st century?…no…is it a
fascinating and innovative binational economic development plan?…no, no, think
more ambition…think beyond your wildest imaginings. . . think . . . BUSES!
Indeed. Buses.
Buses, along with
fingerprint equipment and other exciting priorities, are what Wardy and
LoPiccolo call “ambitious.”
In fact, it wasn’t just
these two who believe the agenda to be ambitious; that evening, on the 10:00
news, Gary Warner, reporting straight from Joe Wardy’s Campaign Headquarters
(KVIA news, that is) responded to Myrna Membrila’s nearly four-minute headliner
about the agenda by calling it…that’s right…”ambitious!” I’m so glad that Gary got his script from
City Hall that night!
Real World: El Paso?
Unfortunately for Sid,
LoPiccolo, who seems like a perfectly nice individual, isn’t the most exciting
speaker. These “ambitious” projects
weren’t exciting either. And because I
think my blood sugar was low, I began to drift. However, I perked up again when I heard LoPiccolo move from his
discussion of buses to something else and said, “We’re also looking into
support of an El Paso Charter School concept.
This is actually a private endeavor, which has received federal support
in the past, it’s called the Real World Schools Project.”
My imagination went crazy (I
had to entertain myself somehow during this painful display of mediocrity).
Wow. Real World El Paso! Would our El Paso Real World School have the
typical players seen every season on MTV:
The sexy young 20 something women; the jocks; the teen alcoholics; and
of course, the one angry young black man who may or may not be gay.
Maybe, just maybe, they’d
let Sid try out for that season of Real World El Paso. Is there room, among those beautiful young
folks, for a cranky old columnist?
Could there be some appeal to the public for an elderly, moody and
generally cynical individual obsessed with municipal government? Would it be possible for me to keep up with
those kids?
Lordy,
lordy! Maybe my fifteen minutes of fame
has finally come!
Maybe not. The mere idea of all that cavorting has made
me grow tired. Very tired. . . . . So very tired . . . . and LoPiccolo keeps droning on in the
background… ZZZZZZZZ. Wake up, Sid! Okay, sorry, on to more specifics.
Avoiding the Wardy Guillotine: Regional Lab Project
One of the projects on the
legislative agenda (the only substantial idea) is a hold-over from the previous
administration. Both Mayor Caballero
and then-Police Chief Carlos Leon had an idea for a regional border crime
lab. Thankfully, Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison liked the idea, which may be why this mediocre mayor—who has made it
his mission in life to kill everything else begun in the Caballero
administration—has kept the project alive.
It was on their federal agenda (along with the riveting buses and
fascinating fingerprint equipment ideas) and Representative Vivan Rojas asked
where this lab might be placed.
Great
question!
LoPiccolo responded that it
might go near the medical school, on
property just off the freeway near Thomason! Folks, this is the same property I’ve talked about in the past,
and it’s the same property that Cobos, Wardy and Presi are eager to sell.
Isn’t that ironic? Oh, oh.
Irony Alert!™ They’re
asking for money to fund a project when they’re seriously contemplating selling
off the land it would sit on. Make
sense to you?
Riding the Magic Bus Instead of
Lighting the Flag
LoPiccolo also mentioned
that Mr. Robert Cushing had added a line item calling for “rail safety.” When Ric Schecter, a local activist and
candidate for District #1, asked if Council was in line with Gov. Rick Perry’s
idea to relocate rail from urban centers, he got an earful from Wardy and
Cushing, both of whom wanted to kill the project, precisely because it was
championed by former Mayor Ray Caballero.
In case you missed it, the El Paso Times did a story about Perry’s
project to move trains from urban centers, again, a project begun under the
last administration (see “Trains to Leave Cities” http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005503190331).
And, in yet another Irony
Alert™ moment (my poor irony meter!), our backward newspaper even published
an editorial supporting the relocation of rail (http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005503200314). The
irony here is that they never said word one in support of Caballero’s plan and
then they endorsed railroad man Cushing and trucker Wardy, who openly
campaigned against the project in 2003, promising to kill it if elected. Make sense to you?
Wardy, who was irritated by
Schecter’s suggestion and who was also probably aggravated by the reminder of
the former administration, said that “visions without the resources are what we
call extreme hallucinations.”
Yes, Mr. Joe, and corrupt,
mediocre cronies whose idea of ambitious projects is increased funding for
buses are on their very own and very pathetic hallucinogenic trip. Too much, magic bus. I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it.
You can’t have it! Oh well. The story of my life.
Actually, at that moment, I wished I had some psychotropic substances
handy—a drug-induced hallucination would be preferable to the Cushing- and
Wardy- and Cobos-induced hallucinations I regularly have to endure.
Cushing, positively thrilled
at the opportunity to show off to Schechter that he knows railroads, said his
“safety” item didn’t include moving rail away from the inner city and then
proceeded to give a long-winded and pompous speech about all the reasons not do
it. He also whined about the lack of
funding for the project.
Hmmm…interesting.
Once upon a time, my
friends, there was no interest in a medical school in El Paso on the U.S.
Mexico Border. It was a dream (Wardy
probably would have called it a “hallucination”), a vision, a goal. People criticized the innovative, thoughtful
(and tiny) group championing it…people called it “pie in the sky” and did their
best to tear down the idea. But a
couple of good folks made it a priority, fought for it, and made it
happen. Now, everyone’s on board,
everyone’s a fan, and everyone claims to have made it happen. And although it is far from being completed,
we now see the brick and mortar reality of it in Central El Paso.
The moral of the story, my
friends, is that it takes something called leadership to make innovating,
community-changing things happen…we currently have no leadership when it comes
to this mayor and the majority on Council.
Railroading a Good Plan
Let’s talk a little about
the rail relocation issue, shall we? I
did a bit of research on what’s going on with rail relocation. Here’s what the former mayor wanted to do
before he was unseated by these guys:
Recently,
Caballero shared his vision for the rail yard, which sits on about 100 acres,
with the Association of General Contractors.
"A project like that would certainly be very attractive. It beats
the hell out of what we have there now," said Gary Olmstead, the group's
executive director. The rail yard
targeted by Caballero runs along Interstate 10 between downtown and the Piedras
Street overpass. It is owned by Union Pacific.
John
Bromley, a spokesman for Union Pacific, said the railroad is considering
Caballero's proposal to relocate or submerge the rail lines to free up the
land. Union Pacific officials will meet
with the mayor Wednesday to continue discussions. Bromley said railroad
officials have engineers producing reports that will inform the mayor on what
is feasible from their perspective in regards to the land and the railroad's
operations.
"The
real issue here is money,..." Bromley said. "Everything is on the
table for discussion; with money everything is possible." Caballero
estimates that the project would cost in the tens of millions of dollars and
take more than three years to complete.
The mayor said the first phase of the project could be to convert about
50 acres of rail line between Downtown and the Cotton Street overpass into a
park, maybe with an arena. The park could also have bike, walking and running
paths, as well as ponds, playing fields, trees and picnic areas. This portion
could be completed in about three years after acquiring the land, he said.
Caballero
plans to tap the state and federal governments for money to relocate or put the
rail lines underground, establish the park and clean up the land to make it
environmentally safe. Some of the
agencies he plans to approach for money include the Environmental Protection
Agency, the Federal Transit Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
The
arena could be built through a public and private partnership, the mayor said.
"We can do it. The money is not the problem," Caballero said.
http://www.utu.org/worksite/print_news.cfm?ArticleID=4291
And it’s clear that the
plans in place before Caballero lost the election are something embraced by
other leaders (except our own, of course), like Mexican President Vicente Fox,
New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Examples:
Ø
Governor Bill
Richardson on the idea: “The President and I discussed the great interest that the
communities of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso
have in removing some of the railroad tracks and the rail yards that bisect
their cities. We agreed that a rail by-pass around Juarez was to the advantage
of all concerned, and that an appropriate first step is to build a by-pass west
of the San Jeronimo-Santa Teresa Port of Entry. As a result, we agreed that our
representatives would work on the state and federal levels, and with the
private sector, to obtain land and financing on both sides of the border for
this project.”
http://www.vote-smart.org/speech_detail.php?speech_id=12397
Ø
“Richardson said that
he and Chihuahua Gov. Patricio Martinez, also at the meeting, plan to study a
proposal for a railroad loop around Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso.”
http://www.abqjournal.com/AED/836883biz02-21-03.htm
Ø
“$100,000 [of New
Mexico funding] is allocated to complete a study to determine financial
feasibility and alternatives for relocation of international rail service from
Central El Paso and Ciudad Juarez to Santa Teresa.”
http://www.governor.state.nm.us/press/2003/dec/120103_2.pdf
Ø
The El Paso
Metropolitan Planning Organization listed it as one of their priorities: “The needs-based plan for the El Paso region
will include…the El Paso Regional Intermodal Rail Project.”
http://www.elpasompo.org/TMMP_Final_ELP.pdf
(page 18)
Ø
NM
Congressman Steve Pearce promised “help with a proposed $240 million regional intermodal rail project in southern New Mexico...[where] train tracks that go
through Ciudad Juarez and El Paso to Santa Teresa” saying “The
project would benefit the region
as a whole, not just southern New
Mexico,"
www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/nm02_pearce/021904albquerquejournal.html
But no. No, no, no!
A thousand times no! El Pasoans
Robert Cushing and Joe Wardy say it won’t work, so I guess that must mean it
won’t work; it also means El Paso isn’t part of that plan anymore. Gotta love our leadership.
The
ambitiously mediocre list of Joe’s legislative priorities passed unanimously.
Million Dollar Baby
Lisa Turner protested the
following item:
4B. That the City Manager be authorized
to sign an Agreement for Architectural Services between the CITY OF EL PASO and
MIJARES-MORA ARCHITECTS, INC., a corporation, registered in the State of Texas,
for architectural consulting services on an "as needed" basis, in
connection with construction projects designed by the City in-house or designed
by Consultants hired by the City or other services for an amount not to exceed
ONE MILLION AND NO/100 DOLLARS ($1,000,000.00). (Citywide) (Attachment) [Engineering
Department, Irene Ramirez, (915) 541-4431]
Turner expressed concern
that an architect was receiving a $1 million contract (with an option for
another year) for unspecified work called “miscellaneous assignments.”
The City Engineer, Rick
Connor explained that this hiring would allow the City to “do several projects
that are smaller” and that have “tight timelines” funded by grant money. He said that “this is the opportunity to
select the right firm through the right process and use them as
appropriate.” For other projects
without a tight timeline, the City would have time to follow the process of
getting another firm.
City Manager Joyce Wilson
said that these “open ended” contracts are not unusual and they all enable the
City to “augment and supplement our in-house staff, which is very
limited.” She later said there is only
one in-house architect available for these smaller projects.
John Cook explained to
Turner that one in-house architect simply cannot handle the load. However, he did want to stretch the one
million dollars over two years instead of one.
Turner also took issue with
the loose language (with no parameters!) that allowed an expert witness to be
called in. She asked for an amendment
to the language, and Wardy replied, “We have a process for expert witness. An expert witness is not called in unless
the City Attorney authorizes it.”
Yikes! I wonder if Carl Green will soon be called
an “expert witness” by Lisa E., too!
Cook tried to make an
amendment to the item that the $1 million be stretched out over a two-year
period instead of a one-year period.
Wardy didn’t allow Cook to try to amend the item and pressed on with the
vote. The only “no” vote came from
Representative John Cook.
Before the discussion was
completely closed, Turner reminded Wardy that he had promised to put the big
contract items on the regular agenda, not the consent agenda.
Wardy didn’t answer her
question and said nothing, except, “Thank you, Ms. Turner.”
So
much for transparency.
And
that was that for the meeting.
The Damage Continues
This week, Becky Duval
Reese, the talented director of El Paso’s Museum of Art, announced her
retirement, which the Times said
shocked most who know her
http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005503250362.
It seems that
under Wardy’s administration, we are losing talented people at the almost the same
rate that Carl Green’s law firm gets richer!
This is a sad
loss for the Museum and El Pasoans who have witnessed the museum under Duval
Reese’s leadership become a first-class institution we can all be proud of.
Small Miracles Sometimes Happen
This week, the El Paso Times finally published two
articles about Robert Cushing’s monstrous and vicious attack on a woman he
dated 30 years ago.
If you recall, the court
documents show that as a result of Cushing’s horrific attack, the woman (who no
longer lives in El Paso) lost several teeth, suffered blows to her back, had
scrapes on her legs from where Cushing dragged her along the ground, and lost
chunks of hair from her scalp.
In the first Times story, “Cushing Owes Money for
Assault,” one of Cushing’s supporters said the following:
“West-Central
area resident Amparo Rodriguez, a supporter of Cushing, said these ‘old things’
are only now surfacing because of the coming election. ‘These papers have been sitting (at the
courthouse) for decades and no one said anything before,’ she said. ‘It's just
dirty, I think.’”
http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005503230335
Wow. A woman said that? I don’t care if (despite all the evidence) you believe Cushing’s
done a good job. I don’t care if
(despite all the evidence) you believe that Cushing has been a good
representative.
When a man attacks another
human being—and a woman, at that—so violently that he causes her the kind of
bodily harm I detailed, it doesn’t matter if it happened five days ago or
thirty years ago. That’s a horrific
act. And it makes him a criminal.
Furthermore, the fact that
he has failed to pay the $50,000 a local judge ordered him to pay makes him a
deadbeat, too.
According to that Times first article, Oscar González “said he would decline to comment on the incident
itself because he made campaign promises ‘to take the high road when it comes
to negative things.’” What crap. This is not just a campaign issue, Mr.
Gonzalez, this is a VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN issue! I’m glad you’re taking a road so high that you can’t or won’t
condemn this kind of violence. That
says a lot about your values. Sorry,
Mr. Gonzalez, but your stance amounts to cowardice, plain and simple.
The guy sent a woman to the
hospital, didn’t have the guts to answer her charges, and has thumbed his nose
at a lawfully obtained civil judgment.
How about exercising some strength here? It should make everyone’s stomach turn, and we need people to
stand up against it and demand his resignation! Enough with the pussy-footing!
The second article, called
“Cushing says he didn’t beat woman, doesn’t owe her money,” depicted in tragic
detail what the poor woman and her family had to endure at the hands of this
menace to society we call our District 2 Representative. Among many other chilling details, the woman
stated that, after Cushing beat the tar out of her, he threatened to kill her
with his .44 magnum if she told the police what he (and his roommate) did to
her.
Despite the court judgment,
despite the hospital bills, and despite the family witness, Cushing claims the
attack never happened. But then,
speaking out of the other side of his mouth (and with a forked tongue), Cushing
claims that, “I'm sure that if you go back 20 years in anyone's life, you could
find something that is highly questionable” (http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550324004).
Highly questionable? Yes, we have all exercised bad judgment in
our youth. But sociopathic and violent
behavior is something else. For Cushing
to try to sell this as being “questionable” is beyond me. I simply cannot understand what is going on
in that sick mind of his.
According to the Times,Cushing also killed another former
girlfriend’s dog, stabbing it repeatedly and breaking every bone in its
body. In reference to the attack on a
woman, he said to the Times, "The
only thing I've done wrong in this case was failing to respond to the civil
action…But I was young, and I knew I had done nothing wrong."
Sorry, Cushing. Choosing to ignore that you have brutalized
another human being or an animal and pretending it didn’t happen doesn’t mean
it didn’t happen.
He’s unbelievable. And the fact that he shows absolutely no
remorse speaks volumes. No one can or
should try to defend such acts or such a man.
I’m grateful that the Times finally reported on this story,
and kudos to Gustavo Reveles Acosta. I
wish Mr. Acosta had also pointed out to the reader that Cushing brags about
refusing to take his salary (portraying himself as a generous, benevolent guy
in the process), and that Cushing has been able to evade justice and a lien
from the judgment because he doesn’t own property (which helps him get away
with his deadbeat behavior).
My friends, this is the same
guy whom Wardy gleefully put in his campaign mailer. This is the same guy supported by the Bowlings. This is Luther Jones’s and David Escobar’s
good friend and puppet. This is Wardy’s
reliable rubber stamper and partner in bid-rigging. And this is Anthony Cobos’s main ally on Council. This speaks to the type of person these
people are associating themselves with.
As Anthony (“I’m Mangling Spanish as Pathetically as I Can”) Cobos tried
to say, “Digame con quien andas y te digo quien eres.”
We should now, collectively
and loudly, demand that Cushing resign his position. A violent man like Cushing has no business being a community
leader. At the very least, I hope this
will convince the editorial board of the El
Paso Times not to even consider an endorsement of Cushing in his bid for
re-election.
And the Caring Crony Award of the Week
Goes To…
Kevin Lovell and Myrna
Membrila of KVIA! [applause,
applause] How wonderful! A dual award this week!
Not only did they try to
water down Lisa Elizondo’s abuse of taxpayer dollars, but the station seemed to
endorse Wardy’s UN-”ambitious” legislative priorities during their
newscast. They also—as of Friday the 25th—failed
to cover the Cushing violence against women and animals story. This is the same station that covered every
piece of gossip in the 2003 election that would help Wardy and hurt Caballero.
This week, these two have
proven that the media can be biased and damn proud of their bias. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be here to
accept the award. They’re too busy
putting I ♥ JOE WARDY bumper stickers all over their office walls.
Congratulations
you two!
Until
you next week.
Comments or questions: shmaven@yahoo.com
My commentaries are posted
weekly at http://www.thestrelz.com/shm/shm.htm
Also, if any of my readers would
like to add their own comments or thoughts, they can do that at
http://strelzbacktalk.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=shm