Update:
8.2.2005
My friends, I come to you
via email once again—with hat in hand and in all humility. I know I’m retired. But I’m not dead. And what I witnessed at Tuesday’s Council meeting and during this
week’s budget hearings has forced me—forced me I tell you—to submit my first
“Sid Alert” and update only a week after I decided to devote myself to
fishin’. (May the force be with
me.) I never had any idea that a Sid Alert
would be required this soon, but alas, because of the importance of this week’s
issues, the fishing trip had to be cut short.
Forgive my compulsive,
obsessive need to share information…but read on!
How to look a gift horse in the mouth
The first topic that got my
ire up was the following:
17. BOND
COUNSEL: (Attachment) [Bond Counsel,
Paul Braden, (915) 544-9997] Discussion and action on a Resolution approving
and authorizing publication of Notice of Intention to issue Combination Tax and
Revenue Certificates of Obligation, Series 2005.
As the El Paso Times reported, this should have
been a very routine item: Figuring out
how to pay for the legal obligation that was incurred four years ago and
acknowledged by three administrations (including this one).
As most of you
know, the El Paso Community Foundation (a local non-profit foundation)
purchased the Plaza Theatre—a jewel hiding in plain sight in our downtown that
has been unjustly neglected for decades.
The foundation then gave the theater to the City; that’s right…it was a
gift. The City and the Foundation then
formed a partnership (for the benefit of downtown El Paso, the entire
community, and I would argue, the entire region) to refurbish the aging theater. The cost, of course, is enormous. But, as the MasterCard commercials go—the
cost of refurbishing the Plaza Theater:
$38 million. Being able once
again and for generations to come to enjoy live entertainment in a forgotten
treasure: Priceless.
Mayors Caballero
and Wardy both were on the program (as is the current administration) and said
the City’s portion (half) should be paid for with increased downtown meter fees
and, yes, with those instruments of the devil…Certificates of Obligation.
What’s happened
most recently is that the costs have increased by $6 million. The City will now pitch in an additional $3
million, as will the Community Foundation (which has no obligation to fund this
project at all, but chose to do it
because it was the right thing to do for all of us).
Whether you
agree with the financing methods or not, whether you believe this should have
gone to the voters or not, and whether you support the Plaza Theatre or not,
the City has a binding, legal obligation to go through with this partnership
that was formed four years ago. Period.
Once the City
Council had been fully briefed by staff, the public spoke. First, folks wondered where the El Paso
Community Foundation representative was (certainly, this was a routine item,
but it’s always best to err on the side of being overly-prepared than
under-prepared). Then there were issues
about whether the theater would see a profit or not (it will not, not for a
while…why not, I don’t know), and about the increasing costs.
But the true
theatrics began once the El Paso Community Foundation representative finally
arrived (it was Eric Pearson, who rushed to Council chambers once he got a call
from Representative Beto O’Rourke, urging him to appear in order to address
questions).
Pearson, who
gave some broad and very general input about the Foundation and the theater,
wasn’t prepared for the ignorance that he was about to face. (I guess he hasn’t been reading Sid’s
Council notes—if he had, he might not have been so taken aback by the sheer
stupidity of a pair of Councilors.)
At one point
during his impromptu presentation, Pearson said the El Paso Community
Foundation (which took out a loan in order to give the City the money for the
refurbishing of the Plaza) would be fundraising to reimburse itself for that
loan (why he felt we needed that information in the first place is beyond
me). That statement sent Lozano and
Holguin into a tailspin that was both painful and hilarious.
“Who’s going to
reimburse the City?” Holguin demanded.
“Huh?” was the
response I half-expected from someone – anyone – near a microphone.
And then Lozano
threw in, “At first I thought that, you know, that this foundation was
donations but it’s not a loan it’s a loan [inaudible],” claimed Lozano (most of
Lozano’s statements that day were inaudible because he was having microphone
problems, in addition to his usual problems with logic and language. Pity.)
Neither Holguin
nor Lozano understood the fact that had been explained over and over and over
and over and over again. The City owns
the Plaza Theatre—it was a gift to the citizens of El Paso by the El Paso
Community Foundation. The Plaza Theatre
was in desperate need of repair. The
total cost is $38 million. The El Paso
Community Foundation has paid for half of the cost; the City has agreed (in a
legal document) to pay for the other half and then keep the theater and run
it. That was the deal. Everyone understood that (at least until
now, apparently.) No one was hiding the
ball.
Both Pearson and
Mayor Cook had to go through it and explain it for the two dim-witted
self-proclaimed budget hawks again—s l o w l y, v e r y, v e r y s l o w l
y. But that still wasn’t enough, so
City Attorney Charlie McNabb had to bring it down to the most elementary level
for these reps.
I’m still not
sure they got it.
At one point in
the discussion (after an informative staff presentation on the funding issue),
the Talking Melina Doll said, “I’m just wondering if I’m understanding this
correctly. Are we being asked to issue
Certificates of Obligation without voter approval?”
The answer, of
course (for anyone paying attention…or for anyone who bothered to read the
agenda item) was yes, and Wilson explained that the initial idea (revenue
bonds) was more expensive to the taxpayer than Certificates of Obligation. Of course, Melina had no response (how could
she? Luther hadn’t anticipated needing
Melina to respond to Wilson and didn’t prepare her adequately.) And although it was clear she wouldn’t
support funding the Plaza Theatre and fulfilling the City’s legal obligation
with CO’s, she didn’t bother to offer an alternative funding source.
In the end, the
vote was 6-3 (Presi Ortega was absent and the “no” votes were Lasagna, Melina
Castro and Eddie Holguin).
Just before he
cast his “no” vote, Lozano said, “You know, because this is a public
notification, and I need a, I need to quantify. At first I was gonna abstain, but today I’m gonna ‘no.’” It’s another pity that more people in
District 3 didn’t “no” on election day.
Then Holguin decided
to get on his “no new taxes/I’m not a tax and spend kinda guy” pander box and
said, “I cannot approve the, the, I can’t support it only because I don’t
support, uh, as Mr. Jefferson put it, uh, ‘taxation without representation.’ I don’t support CO’s. Uh, don’t get me wrong, I think the project
is a good project and it should move forward, uh, but I don’t think that the
public should have to pay for it, so many millions of dollars without approving
it themselves. No.”
First of all,
Holguin is forgetting that he, himself, is sitting there on Council,
representing (if you can call it that) the citizens of District 6, so this is
not “taxation without representation.” (Unless the folks in District 6 want to
argue—rightfully—that they really don’t have representation…because Holguin’s
leadership is quickly spiraling downward toward a big fat ZERO!) Second, Holguin and the other “no” votes
choose to ignore the fact that the City is LEGALLY OBLIGATED to find the funding
for this project. Of course, not one of
the “no” voting bloc members provided an alternative funding source or a
solution. Nah…in their eyes, their only
obligation is to vote things down, not to find alternatives or solutions.
I could sense
that Steve Ortega was itching to say something, and when it was his turn to
vote, he didn’t let me down! He said,
“Since we’re all taking comment, I’m gonna take this opportunity to take
mine. I ran on quality of life. We’re gonna have up to 17,000 troops coming
to the city of El Paso. When they come
here, guess what? They’re gonna want
something to do. And so many times
people complain about ‘there’s nothing to do in El Paso.’ Finally, the Community, thanks to the
Community Foundation, has saved the Plaza Theatre in 1987 from the wrecking ball. Guess what?
Quality of life projects cost something; parks don’t pay for themselves,
this Plaza Theatre project won’t pay for itself, the library doesn’t pay for
itself, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. To me, quality of life means something. I want people to stay in El Paso, I want people to be proud of
their downtown, so for that reason, I’m voting yes.”
As you can
imagine, folks were inspired, and Ortega’s statements elicited well-deserved
applause from the audience.
Once the item passed,
Cook said Council and the public would get to revisit the issue again over the
next couple of weeks. Plaza Theatre
folks, you better be there; dear readers, if you support this project and
believe we have an obligation to follow through on our legal commitments, make
your opinions known. District 3, 4 and
6 residents, if Lozano, Castro and Holguin are your representatives, you should
tell them that you expect them to
come up with viable alternatives and not simply vote no for the sake of
appearing (and I emphasize the word appearing) to be protectors of taxpayer
dollars. Make them get to work!
Abruptly
Bashful Babosos
Although the next item didn’t include much discussion, what happened
after the votes were cast was what was most exciting:
18. CITY
ATTORNEY: [City Attorney's Office, Jorge Villegas, (915) 541-4550] Discussion and
action regarding the granting of authority to the City Attorney to file a
Motion in Intervention on behalf of the City and to request a hearing in the
Public Utility Commission of Texas Petition of El Paso Electric Company For
Authority To Increase Fuel Factor and For Fuel
Surcharge, Docket No. 31332, SOAH Docket No. 473-05-7660. (Attachment)
Once Norman Gordon (who
looked like he was trying to suppress a pretty big smile—one probably inspired
by Steve Ortega and his kick arse response to Holguin) explained the item, the
vote was taken. Lozano and Holguin
voted against the City intervening in the rate case.
Cook, who must have been
stunned that any Council member would have voted against this, asked, “And if I
could just try to clarify, for the two ‘no’ votes, you do not want the City to
intervene in this rate case? Is that
what I understand?”
Neither Lozano nor Holguin
responded. In fact, they get this
week’s award for the best paper shufflers (they did it better than any local
anchor does it before a commercial break!).
Why were they shuffling papers and ignoring Cook? Hmmm…could it be because they didn’t know or
understood what they were voting against?
Could be! I guess Jaime O. Perez
had not briefed them well enough. What
incredible losers.
When Cook gently pressed
them, Lozano finally acknowledged his questions and said, “I have my
reasons. Just what it is. You know, that’s not [inaudible]. No misunderstanding.”
That’s right. No misunderstanding. Twin twits. Just what it is.
I’ve Got the Baboso Blues
And since I’m talking about
the twin twits…I’ve been watching the budget hearings and the wrap-ups, and
despite the fact that local ankle biters/citizen activists like Lisa Turner,
Ric Schecter and Ray Gilbert (yes…even Ray Gilbert!) applauded the City
Manager’s budget, said it was good and solid, we had the two babbling babosos
(Lozano and Holguin) making an attempt to (to quote a wise sage on Council)
arbitrarily and irresponsibly lower the budget even more—so much, in fact, that
the City would not have been able to bring the new quality of life projects
approved in 2000 on line!
Yes, folks, we approved
libraries, and yes, we approved parks, but in Lozano and Holguin’s eyes,
there’s no need to maintain those new parks, stock the libraries with books
(what an absurd idea!), or staff either department to fulfill the City’s
obligations to the voters.
Anyway, early on into one of
the budget hearings, City Manager Joyce Wilson said, “The debt service side of
this budget is actually what’s driving cost increases to the budget this year.”
William Studer, the Deputy
City Manager for Financial Services said that the only way to continue issuing
voter authorized bonds is to increase the debt service portion of the tax
rate. “As long as we continue issuing
debt, it’s almost impossible to cut the debt service tax rate,” he said.
Wilson also said something
very interesting: “We need to set the
debt service rate at a level that’s sufficient to service the debt. This
year we didn’t do that [emphasis added], and we had to transfer $1.2
million into the debt fund reserve to make it whole. And you cannot do that every year, and so we have to set the debt
service rate for what we owe.”
That’s right, folks. The budget created by the Crony Crew—and
suggested by then Representative John Cook and ankle-biter Ray Gilbert—caused
the City to have to transfer funds from our streets, parks, libraries, etc.
into the debt fund. I said it then, and
I’ll say it again: bad idea, bad idea!
Clueless in El Paso
During the discussion, Representative Susie Byrd pointed out that one of
Holguin’s recommendations was to have a $300 million bond election. Yeah.
This is the guy who doesn’t want to take care of what we’ve got now so
that he can pander to voters.
At one point, Holguin asked,
“Ms. Wilson, why can’t you reduce the M&O rate and increase the debt rate?”
“We did that,” she replied.
Duh! Pay attention, man!
Just before Holguin’s
recommendations were to be presented, she informed Holguin that “The reality
is, your assumptions are not accurate,” because “you used the wrong numbers,
you used the ‘requested’ numbers instead of the ‘recommended’ numbers.” Furthermore, she pointed out, his
recommendations would force cuts in services and layoffs. He vehemently denied that his dramatic (and
arbitrary) budget cutting would translate into reduced services. In the Jaime O. Perez world, you can be a
hero to taxpayers by slashing budgets, no one gets laid off and the level of
services actually increases! These guys
are worse than little kids with their magical thinking.
My friends, the Just Vote No
trio (Castro, Lozano and especially Holguin) isn’t about real solutions…these
three are simply about pandering. I
suspect that the nattering nabobs of negativism rarely offer alternatives
because, 1) it requires effort; and 2) they’d have to defend their
alternatives. It’s far easier to
criticize the work of others than to produce and defend your own work. Now, it is true that Holguin did make budget
recommendations. However, I’m very
suspicious about the fact that he did so using the wrong budget. He’s either even stupider than I feared, or
he deliberately used old numbers so his recommendations could not possibly be
enacted. That way, he can pander and get
his sound bites in the local news without any danger of his irresponsible recommendations
being adopted.
At one point in the budget
hearing meeting Beto O’Rourke responded to Eddie Holguin’s speechifying by
saying, “Mr. Holguin, I think your sign is pretty cute” (in a reference to a
juvenile hand-made sign he had placed on the dais in front of his name
plate. It read “No new taxes,” and had
a big circle and slash across “City Manager’s Budget”), and he continued, “I
don’t think your logic is…in fact, I think it’s irresponsible.” O’Rourke also later called it “arbitrary.”
He’s absolutely
correct. Lisa Turner also called the
twin twits’ recommendations “irresponsible.”
I’m glad that O’Rourke and Turner called a spade a spade and were
willing to let the public know how he felt about those sorry
recommendations. Cook later asked
O’Rourke not to use the word irresponsible.
As a side note, while Cook
asked O’Rourke to refrain from using the word “irresponsible,” the mayor never
asked Eddie Holguin to remove his offensive sign. So O’Rourke can’t speak openly about irresponsible budget
recommendations, but Holguin can be juvenile and disrespectful to staff. This brings back bad memories of Wardy’s
approach to parliamentarianism. How do
ya like that? An eight-syllable word to
wake you guys up.
Councilors O’Rourke, Byrd
and Steve Ortega all agreed that they wanted to keep spending down – within
reason and as long as providing services to taxpayers was not jeopardized – but
they asked Holguin to be specific about what he would cut within the budget. Holguin was never able to respond or give
specific examples of what cuts he’d make if he had his way.
The great moment in the
meeting came, however—as it often does—from Lisa Turner, when she said she just
didn’t understand where Lozano and Holguin were getting their ideas from. She made what was undeniably a not-so-subtle
reference to the Svengali-like power that Jaime O. Perez has over the reps in
Districts 3 and 6—call it the Jaime O. factor (he’s the real City Representative in those districts). Turner said that these representatives were
guilty of an LUI: Legislating Under the
Influence! I had to sit on my hands to
keep from applauding when she said that, and I probably should have been
shackled to my seat as well…it was all I could do to keep myself from running
up to the podium to high five her (I might have been charged with assault given
the vehemence of my high-five impulse at that point).
Anyhow, even the El Paso Times was critical of Holguin,
his confusion over the budget process, and his efforts to cut the quality of
life projects’ implementation http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005508040308,
and poor Eddie was so upset he had the Jaime O. Factor ghost-write a response
(which he signed his name to) which attacked Beto O’Rourke!
http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005508050332
My friends, I’m alerting you
to all this so you can stay informed on the budget process, provide your input
via email or phone call if you wish, and so you can know what’s happening with
your City Representatives and the Mayor.
From the City’s website:
There will be two public hearings to consider that
increase. The first public hearing will be held on August 11, 2005 at 2:00 PM
in City Council Chambers, located inside City Hall at 2 Civic Center Plaza, 2nd
floor. The second hearing will be held on August 16, 2005 at 9:00 AM in City
Council Chambers, located inside City Hall at 2 Civic Center Plaza, 2nd floor.
You have a right to attend the hearings and make comments. You are encouraged
to attend and make comments if you wish.
I’ll be sure to watch and
alert you if necessary.
Okay. That’s it for this update. I’m heading back to the fishin’ hole and I
hope I don’t have to come back for several weeks at least. But with the “Just Vote No” crew, I’m sure
I’ll have to resurface again at some point.
Until the next alert…
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