If you a long-time reader of my blog then you probably remember Jane Shang, the former El Paso deputy city manager fired by Joyce Wilson. Shang is now the city manager for Deltona, Florida. Shang and her former boss, Joyce Wilson, were looking to fill the Deltona city manager position after the controversy in El… Read More Former El Paso Deputy City Manager Doing Community Service
Once corrupt always corrupt seems to be the way it is. Just look at two old El Paso controversies to get a sense of how corruption seems to continue to blossom. Remember Victor Bieganowski and Jane Shang? The Bieganowski brothers, two of El Paso’s finest (in jest) continue to practice law and deliver medical services.… Read More Revisiting El Paso Related Corruption
During the controversy over the El Paso ballpark there were many rumors about impropriety. Many were true and others were wrong. One of the longest running controversies involved the improper election interference benefiting Steve Ortega’s run for mayor. Ortega lost. However, the election subterfuge with the bond monies for the ballpark cost the taxpayers of… Read More It’s the Emails Dummy
(CORRECTION: This post was updated on 26, Feb, 2017 at 10:50ET to correct a mistake about the fireman. The commissioner’s son was approved for a SHIP program that has been alleged should not have been approved.) You all remember Jane Shang, right? If you don’t, that’s ok, let me give you a quick reminder. On… Read More You All Remember Jane Shang?
Yesterday, I discussed how civilians are losing faith in their government to do the right thing. Much of the dissatisfaction is centered on the notion of them versus us. As you likely know, there is a controversy brewing over the comments made by El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen in regards to Black Lives Matter… Read More Greg Allen and the El Paso Police Department
As you all know by now, the City of El Paso Ethics Commission issued two letters of reprimand to Tommy Gonzalez, the city manager. Both letters were issued on June 3, 2016, two days after the ethics commission held a hearing into the allegations made by Jim Tolbert against Gonzalez. There has been some comment… Read More The Tommy Gonzalez Letters of Reprimand
As you all know, I like to connect the political and corrupt dots for you. In today’s edition I am going to show you how engrained the political system is in El Paso. It involves a family that is well-connected politically and how the local political system enables the many problems the community faces. There… Read More Connecting the Cortinas Dots
Last Tuesday, two incumbent candidates pulled off the unlikely win over their opponents in their respective runoff races. Conventional wisdom holds that incumbents forced into a runoff election are unlikely to keep their office. Jaime Esparza pulled off the unlikely win and remains the District Attorney for El Paso. Although not a candidate for office,… Read More Joyce Wilson Won a Victory Last Tuesday
Editor’s note: The following is a guest editorial by Barbara Carrasco. Anyone interested in writing an editorial about topical topics that I cover on my blog is encouraged to submit them to me. I will contact you once I have made the decision on whether to publish your editorial. If you would rather self-publish, I… Read More Ordaz Dilemma – El Paso's Shallow and Narrow Talent Pool
In the continued quest to make El Paso the most corrupt city in the world, Joyce Wilson has given us an opportunity to analyze, dissect and explore how corruption is incubated, maintained and spread throughout the city. As I have stated before, corrupt practices is not just the criminal element of a quid pro quo.… Read More Anatomy of Corruption: Another Case Study with Joyce Wilson
The deception to cover up the $20+ million because of the delay of the bonds continues. In the latest installment, city council spent over four hours in executive session discussing Tommy Gonzalez. As with all cover ups, this latest deception is hidden behind the argument of “personnel matters.” However, as usual, not all is what… Read More The Tommy Gonzalez Deception
(This is the last part of a 5-part series) From the onset, the ballpark process was designed to keep secrets. This was on purpose. The less information we had to work with, the easier it was to label any discord as nothing more than the rantings of the crazies. Without verifiable information it was easy… Read More Peeling the Onion – The Politics of Corruption
(This is part 4 of a 5-part series) Infamously and very smugly, Joyce Wilson referred to those that opposed the ballpark as “crazies.” Every corruption needs an individual to work through the bureaucracy in order for the corruption to succeed. Joyce Wilson was the instrumental tool that navigated the destruction of city hall, the building… Read More Peeling the Onion – The Joyce Wilson Saga
(This is part 2 of a 5-part series) Plain and simple, the ballpark fiasco was never properly vetted by the community. It was rushed under the notion that if the City did not act immediately they would lose the opportunity to bring the Chihuahuas to the city. Throughout the process, certain information trickled out that… Read More Peeling the Onion – The Ballpark Bonds
Most of you, if not all of you, are aware of the Ross Fisher Ethics Investigation Preliminary Findings and Advice Report dated February 26, 2016 and released by the City. There is much commentary and speculation about the report and its findings online and, of course, by Bob Moore’s newspaper. The report has already generated… Read More The Fisher Report Peels the Onion of Corruption
The City released a copy of Tommy Gonzalez’ answers to the questions asked of him by the investigator looking into how Gonzalez and Larry Romero handled the financial advisor and other issues. In the case of the financial advisor debacle, there are two major issues that need to be addressed. The first is whether Larry… Read More Tommy Gonzalez Answers and the El Paso Times $20 million Bias
As I expected, as soon as Claudia Ordaz got over the shock of the ethics complaint, she went into immediate damage control mode. As an experienced politico who has lived off of taxpayer monies almost from the moment she became an adult, she fully understands that it’s not about the facts but rather the public… Read More Claudia Ordaz Activated Her Public Relations Machine
As most of you know, late last year, the El Paso city council contracted Ross Fischer to report on the various issues surrounding the aborted attempt to replace the financial advisors for the city. You also likely know that city council discussed Tommy Gonzalez in executive session yesterday. With all of the controversies surrounding Larry… Read More Outside Investigator Ross Fischer Looking Into Joyce Wilson
When Poisoned Pawns was finalized and Bob Jones and other public officials went to jail, some of the city’s officials proclaimed that corruption had ended in El Paso. But did corruption really end? Let’s look back at 2015 and see what corruption looks like in a corrupt city. January 1. The University Medical Center of… Read More The 25 El Paso Corruption Scandals Of 2015
“I am going to Luther Jones you.” That is a comment I frequently hear. It is in reference to the notion that Luther Jones was targeted by certain individuals in the community in order to remove an obstacle to their public agenda. I have previously written about how certain individuals are targeted for scrutiny while… Read More 2015 Cover Up: Luther Jonesing Tommy Gonzalez
As many of you know, city council is set to vote tomorrow on whether to authorize an outside investigator to investigate how the attempt to terminate First Southwest’s contract came about. The city also released three reports last week. The first one, the Norton Rose Fulbright report was released on December 2, 2015. On December… Read More City to Vote on Outside Investigation and the Release of the Reports
[This article was edited on December 3, 2015 at 08:37ET to correct typographical error in the amount of the loss] Thanks to KVIA’s reporting we now know that the city taxpayers have been saddled with a $22 million loss on the sales of the bonds to pay for the ballpark. Yes, I am aware that… Read More The $28 Million Question
Many of you know that yesterday, KVIA’s Maria Garcia reported on an email she uncovered via an open records request about the delay of the sale of the ballpark bonds. KVIA has also reported that the delay in the sales of the ballpark bonds has cost you, the taxpayer, about $22 million in additional fees… Read More Taxpayers Paying $22 million for Political Favors
As if Tuesday’s embarrassment of a dysfunctional city government wasn’t enough to keep you worried about El Paso’s future there are three other city indicators that I am going to bring up today. I believe all three are related to the continued El Paso exodus. They are the latest unemployment figures, the El Paso Times… Read More Tidbits on the El Paso Exodus and the City Tax Increase
For those of you that still do not believe that El Paso is a scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours kind of town I’m going to offer you another example as proof. As most of you remember, Leila Melendez was Joyce Wilson’s Chief of Staff at the city when Wilson was the city manager.… Read More Scratch My Back and I Will Scratch Yours
City council is set to appoint former city manager Joyce Wilson to the Central Appraisal District (CAD) Board of Directors. Wilson was nominated by Oscar Leeser for the appointment. If city council (Item 1.1 in the additions to the agenda) approves the appointment, she will replace Ann Morgan Lilly on the board. Morgan Lilly resigned… Read More Today's Joyce Wilson Appointment
In its continuing quest to erase the uniqueness that is El Paso, the Borderplex Alliance went out and hired an outside consultant to tell El Paso how to market itself for economic development. The report, released on June 2, 2015, has already stirred up controversy, according to Vic Kolenc at the El Paso Times. What… Read More Borderplex Consultant Apologizes for Cut-and-Paste Report and Refunds Money
For many years now, I have been connecting the dots for you between various characters that consistently remerge on the El Paso political scene. Many of these characters are clouded in controversy. It is par for the course that in a city, like El Paso that has been mired in corruption for so many years,… Read More Questionable City Council Appointments
As most of you already know, the ballpark is supposed to be paid for by the two percent Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) the city has added to the hotel accommodations’ tax. Many of us, including me, argued that the hotel tax would be insufficient to sustain the debt service for the baseball stadium. A reader… Read More 2011-2013 HOT Tax Metrics
Judging by the comments on my blog and other comments on social media there is much disinformation about the cultural center going on in the many discussions about it. The majority of it lies on the perception of what the voters voted on. In addition, there is an ongoing discussion about whether the taxpayers should… Read More Cultural Center: What’s In The Name?
As you likely know, on March 5, 2015 I alerted you that rumors were all over the place that David Almonte had left the city. The circumstances of his departure are murky. I have heard many opinions as to why and how he departed the city however; the city has only responded with the standard… Read More David Almonte; More Hush Money?
Through many blog posts, I have been showing how your taxes will be rising soon and that there is nothing you can do about it. I’m not pointing out short incremental tax increases but a substantial increase in the amounts of taxes you will be paying in the coming years. The worst part is that… Read More Further Proof That Taxes Are About Explode
“There is something in the air.” A conspiracy was created in 2000 to drive El Paso into bankruptcy. It is the public policy agenda that is driving El Paso into bankruptcy. As promised earlier this year I am going to start making more use of other multimedia materials. As such, today I bring you the… Read More The It’s All Good El Paso Conspiracy
Politicians are known for contorting themselves into so many positions on a political issue that in no time they are so twisted out of shape that a pretzel looks straight compared to them. Last Tuesday, city council in their continued pandering for public attention once again took up the San Jacinto bathroom issue. As is… Read More The San Jacinto Bathroom
For many years now, there has been an ongoing battle to reinvent El Paso under the utopian vision of a powerful elite. I have been documenting this and have offered you many examples of the destruction of El Paso’s identity. Sometimes it is important to just focus on the most basic element to make a… Read More Do you really think there is a place for you in the revitalized El Paso?
The recent public debacle between city council and the city attorney’s office led me to file open records requests asking for information for amounts paid to outside law firms for legal work for the city. As expected, the largest expenditure paid by the taxpayers to outside law firms involves the issue regarding emails and open… Read More City Payments to Outside Law Firms
I realize that for many of you this blog post is going to sound like one giant crazy conspiracy theory. I guess that is why I’m labeled one of the “crazies” by certain political operatives. My theory is based on my observations over almost fifteen years of El Paso politics. I offer it as a… Read More My Theory on What is Happening with Rising Fees
As you are all aware, Cortney Niland has been sitting sandwiched in between Ann Morgan Lilly and Larry Romero for some time now because she refuses to sit in her assigned seat. There are many rumors as to what has transpired that has led to her refusing to take her seat. I have shared some… Read More Cortney Niland Abuses Senior Citizen
One of the things I have noticed through the years is that by the time an issue comes to the attention of the community much activity has transpired behind the scenes. Many times the behind the scenes actions are created and managed by political operatives in order to control the outcome of a certain public… Read More Anatomy of a Public Perception Manipulation Campaign
Every day I get three to four emails with leads about political issues at the city that readers want me to address on my blog. Some of the leads provide detailed information and some give me just the basics. Each are welcome and each requests gets my attention. Sometimes I do not write a blog… Read More Limon and Robinson Throw a Party
