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
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
Riddle me this, the El Paso Times has reported numerous times that Larry Romero has resigned. The paper has even published the affirmative assertion that Larry Romero resigned “effective Sunday.” KVIA, for its part, initially stated that Larry Romero had resigned referencing the El Paso Times as its source. KVIA followed up its initial report… Read More Riddle Me This About the Supposed Resignation
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
In the last two days I have demonstrated to you how a cover up is underway to protect certain individuals. A cover up requires an outlet to distract you by focusing your attention on one of the issues to keep you from asking the important questions. As you know, the El Paso Times has been… Read More Another Cover Up Example – Open Records Hypocrisy
[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
As you know, city representatives discussed ethics yesterday at city council. The issue of Larry Romero’s streets was glossed over with Romero remaining quiet during the discussion. Claudia Ordaz, for her part, took the opportunity to take back control of the discussion. Ordaz used the opportunity to drive home the point that she set precedent… Read More Michiel Noe Innuendo
City council is scheduled to discuss agenda item number: 19.1 that was postponed last week. The item, “Clarification of ethics rules/ordinances, including clarification on Council’s ability to interact with employees without violating ethics rules” was posted by Michiel Noe. It was originally scheduled for last week’s meeting, immediately after Claudia Ordaz’ emails were made public… Read More City Council Has An Opportunity to Clear Up Issues Today
By know you have either had an opportunity to review the text messages or have heard enough about them to get a general feel for their content. Besides the fact that an elected official, Claudia Ordaz, is being coached by a County employee on city public policy, there are many more issues that the community… Read More Here Is What You Need To Know About the Ordaz Texts
Late last week, Ali Razavi, aka MaxPowers, published a set of text messages from Claudia Ordaz’ telephone. Razavi received them pursuant to an open records request he filed with the city. The over 100 pages of text messages gives us an unprecedented look into who is managing Claudia Ordaz for their own political gain. Unfortunately,… Read More Claudia Ordaz Receives Instructions During City Council Meeting
I have to hand it to Claudia Ordaz. She made a very politically savvy move that politically and personally benefits her. As you know, tomorrow, city council is set to revisit Tommy Gonzalez’s pay raise because Claudia Ordaz put it on the agenda. By putting the item on the agenda, Claudia Ordaz scores some significant… Read More Claudia Ordaz’ Revenge
As you likely know, Tommy Gonzalez, the city’s City Manager, was awarded a $61,040 pay raise by city council on Tuesday. To write that the community is indignant is an understatement. Universally the distaste in the pay raise is based on how the city council handled the measure, as if that’s a surprise to anyone,… Read More The City Manager Pay Increase
The recent debacle over the MPO and the city’s incompetence of how it has handled transportation monies is a classic example of a political power play in process. Recently some issues have arisen that has given Vincent Perez the opportunity to consolidate his powerbase and start establishing a political dynasty for himself. I am going… Read More Claudia Ordaz and Vince Perez Pillow Talk Politics
As I have been pointing out for some time now, Jaime Abeytia has become the go to person for politicians looking to control the public perception of issues. Ever since Michiel Noe was chastised by members of the community for his attempt to appoint Abeytia to the Hispanic Cultural Center sub-committee, some of the politicians… Read More The Claudia Ordaz and Jaime Abeytia Connection
Those that have followed El Paso elections for any amount of time knows that the results for Saturday’s election has already been determined. No, it is not because someone manipulated the election results but rather because El Paso elections are generally determined during the early voting period. At about 7:00 pm on Saturday, when the… Read More The F Factor
You would think that in a city like El Paso where the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently put almost 30 public officials in jail for public corruption, that politicians would not pay criminals for advertising their campaigns. The message clearly being sent by Cortney Niland, Michiel Noe and Peter Svarzbein is that you need… Read More A Criminal Gets More Money Than I Do
In an example of how citizen journalism is taking over the delivery of news, Miguel Juárez last night broke the story about artist Margarita Cabrera filing notice with the city notifying it that she is looking for restitution from the city for the destruction of her artwork; “Uplift.” As you might remember, in March of… Read More Miguel Juarez Scoops Local News
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
The two underlining themes in the questions and comments I received, as a result of my articles about Jaime Abeytia’s criminal travails, were about why Michiel Noe would appoint him and why did I bother to write about Abeytia. I would like to take this opportunity to address those two questions. The first question is… Read More Why Abeytia and Noe
As most of you know, the impetus for my blog is the continued distortion of the public record by the El Paso Times pretending to be a newspaper. Distorting the public record, especially when it comes to influencing an election, has been an ongoing activity for Bob Moore ever since he came out in support… Read More Just So We Are Clear, Bob Moore Distorts The Public Record
Apparently, Jaime Abeytia has been telling anyone that will listen to him that I distorted his extensive criminal record. Several of you have requested a complete list of Abeytia’s criminal record as well as the sources for the information. Rather than respond to each request individually, I am going to publish it on my blog.… Read More The Extensive Jaime Abeytia Criminal Record
Let’s not mince words here, Jaime Abeytia is a criminal. As such, please don’t bother with the threats of defamation and libel suits that follow each time I point out he is a criminal. In October 2014, Abeytia pleaded guilty to his latest crime. He is currently on probation hoping to complete it in order… Read More Michiel Noe Wants to Appoint Criminal
Yesterday city council took no action on Ann Morgan Lilly’s request to have the city attorney evaluated by department heads. Ann Morgan Lilly moved to delete the item and it was deleted on a unanimous vote. Before the item was deleted city council members discussed the item. For the political junkies this whole fiasco was… Read More The City Attorney Debacle Meeting Results
On Tuesday, city council discussed the possible annexation of land “along Zaragosa”. During the council’s discourse, there was an outburst by Cortney “Sin Zapatos” Niland towards city attorney Sylvia Borunda-Firth and Oscar Leeser. Many of you who have followed Cortney Niland since her election knows that Niland lacks basic interpersonal skills frequently belittling individuals she perceives… Read More Cortney Niland’s Hypocritical Defense of One of Her Benefactors
Update: At 16:30 on July 16, 2014 I added the handout given to the mayor and council yesterday. It was sent to me as a result of an open records request. As expected city council yesterday quashed all attempts to have public discourse on the Jane Shang severance package. Although Michiel Noe had put an item… Read More City Council Releases Documents Related to Jane Shang
There continues to be much ongoing commentary about the paid administrative leave that can best be described as a “golden parachute” that Jane Shang is receiving from the taxpayers of the community. Unfortunately, the commentary is based on lack of information because the city continues to hide behind the “personnel matters” illusion. Because of this… Read More The Shang Affair Revisited
The problem with serving a master is that eventually the truth reveals itself no matter how much someone tries to keep it a secret. Ann Morgan Lilly, Cortney Niland and Michiel Noe revealed the masters they are serving during the city’s emergency meeting last week to stop the demolition of the Lincoln Center. As you… Read More Serving Master: Morgan-Lilly, Niland and Noe