El Paso politics never change. The El Paso politicos remain entrenched in the notion that they represent a growing and vibrant community able to compete with cities that the rest of the nation takes seriously. They remain oblivious to the reality that when people mention El Paso around the country, at most people in other… Read More Provincial El Paso Politics
As many of you know there is an ongoing battle over the Durangito community and the proposed El Paso arena. It all revolves around whether a neighborhood should be displaced to make room for an arena. Like all El Paso politics, not all is what it seems as many pieces are moving around at the… Read More Shootout at the Durangito
As most of you know, on December 20, 2016, there was an altercation between Oscar Leeser and Ann Morgan Lilly at Thyme Matters. A police report was filed and an investigation ensued. There was no prosecution of E.R. “Rut” Lilly because the District Attorney, Jaime Esparza, determined that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. The… Read More Documents Detailing Oscar Leeser and Ann Morgan Lilly Tiff at Thyme Matters
For some time now I have been developing the thesis that in El Paso there is a protected class of citizen. It is class that can literally commit a crime in plain daylight and not worry about being arrested, much less prosecuted. I also, recently, and for the first time, revealed to you my feeling… Read More More Proof: the Protected Class and Unfriendliness Towards Immigrants
Yesterday I shared with you the three cases of assault that have been documented against Ann Morgan Lilly and her husband, “Rut”. Today, I am going to show you how the corruption in El Paso allows the Lilly’s to get away with assault. As we delve deeper into this, you well get to witness first-hand… Read More The Protected Class
Each year during the tax season, the politicians argue that either you voted to tax yourselves or you need to invest in yourselves for economic prosperity. Some even argue that they are not raising taxes. The tax debate is always purposely confusing because of nebulous pronouncements of tax exemptions, rising home values and the use… Read More Whatever Happened to Tax Relief?
Let’s play a little game today. Let’s assume for this post that the State of Texas has mandated that all government business must henceforth be done via email. For example, if you need to ask a question about your property taxes, or to pay them you must do so via email. That goes for all… Read More Bob Moore and Self-Serving Commentary
I recently filed several open records requests in order to conduct a test on how public officials are using technology and how it affects open records requests. The comments made by El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, about the Black Lives Matter group gave me an opportunity to experiment. I will share with you more… Read More A Chill Between Veronica Escobar and Claudia Ordaz?
Well, it’s that time of the year again, you know the time of the year that the politicos look for ways to spend your money. As you know, spending other people’s money is the easiest thing to do. As has become the practice for city council each year, they pontificate about the needs of the… Read More Budget Season is Upon Us and Politicos Are Spending Your Money
Yesterday, the City’s Ethics Review Commission met to discuss the Tommy Gonzalez and Larry Romero pending ethics complaints and other complaints that were dismissed by the city attorney. As you likely know by now, the commission and Larry Romero agreed to a finding that Romero violated various ethics rules by having an alleyway on Polk… Read More Barbara Carrasco Files Claudia Ordaz Appeal
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
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
“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
It should not be a surprise to anyone that El Paso is facing various scandals at the same time, although they are hard to discern because, typically, the news media uses sensational headlines to grab your attention, thus distracting you from the details. Larry Romero is the de ‘jour flavor but in reality there is… Read More El Paso Scandals 2015
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
On Monday, KVIA posted an eleven-minute interview with Larry Romero. I believe that this interview is the first time Romero has answered news media questions about the latest controversy surrounding him. The latest controversy is where he failed to disclose his previous business relationship with Estrada Hinojosa while pushing city officials to replace First Southwest… Read More The Larry Romero Affair
On Tuesday, November 24, 2015, El Paso mayor, Oscar Leeser, issued a short statement asking that the city manager prepare a report on the events surrounding the solicitation to replace First Southwest as the city’s financial services provider. As you likely know, the El Paso Times has reported on Larry Romero’s apparent connection to Estrada… Read More Oscar Leeser Calls for Investigation Into Financial Services Solicitation
As most of you know, there have been various controversies involving the city’s engineering department. This has led to the abrupt departure of the engineering department director and the restructuring of the engineering department. All I have to do is point to the San Jacinto debacle for you to get a clear understanding of how… Read More The Engineering Department Evaluation Report
All of you who have been following the San Jacinto Park debacle have been made to believe that the contractor on the project is at fault for the delays in the opening of the park. The city has been creating this notion going so far as to state that the contractor is being assessed a… Read More City Negligent on San Jacinto
This past weekend a frequent reader to my blog pointed me to an online petition by a group calling themselves the “ELP Tax Guardians.” I am not sure who they are but their petition had close to their stated goal of 200 signatures yesterday morning. This is about three days after the petition had been… Read More Change.org Petition to Commissioners Court and Others
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
This is going to be one of those long posts that some of you hate. I can’t help it because there is so much to discuss about Tommy Gonzalez’ pay raise fiasco. Despair not, I’m breaking it up into two sections, I will devote the next seven short paragraphs to the fact that El Paso… Read More El Paso Proves Again How Ass Backwards It Really Is
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
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
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
For some time now I have been hearing rumors that Tommy Gonzalez’ family, especially his wife, are very unhappy in El Paso and want to leave the city. I haven’t mentioned this until now, although it came from multiple sources, because at this point it is nothing more than rumors. However, I found it interesting… Read More Is Tommy Gonzalez’ Wife Happy in El Paso?
Those of you that have been following the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) issues at the City of El Paso knows that the city has been embroiled in ongoing issues between ADA advocates and the city. Several months ago, the city’s ADA advocates had documented several city ADA failures at the weekly public city representatives… Read More ADA Coordinator Abruptly Leaves City
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
The problem with a city, like El Paso, which relies on creating illusions of reality, is that the inconvenient truth always comes out. Many of you are aware of the video of Sgt. James Brown that has been circulating on social media and on the national news circuit the last few days. It is poignantly… Read More The Death of James Brown Exposes El Paso Dirty Secret
Those that have been reading my blog for some time now know that I have been calling the city out on the “safest city” lie it has been perpetuating for years now. In “The Safest City in the Nation, Just Another Lie” I explained to you how the FBI’s data, used by the list compiler,… Read More City Issues Itself the Safest City Designation
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
Tuesday’s city council pontification about wages in the tax incentive deal with Douglas Steel Supply had nothing to do with wages and everything to do with the political season that is just around the corner. It was the perfect opportunity to embarrass Oscar Leeser and allow politicians the opportunity to plead that they are… Read More Yesterday’s Salary Pontificating Had Nothing to do with Money
Much has been said and written about the overwhelming voter support for the 2012 Quality of Life bonds. The local newspaper’s editorials love to point out how the voters voted for the projects that are leading to higher taxes being imposed on the taxpayers of the community. Last week when I wrote about the land… Read More Westside Pool, How Your Money Gets Played
Yesterday, city council patted themselves about the land swap deal they made. In the land swap, the city pays another city entity, the PSB, for land to swap with the Rescue Mission. Let us take a quick look at how we got to this point. The homeless shelter negotiated to sell their land to TXDOT… Read More Homeless Shelter Land Swap
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
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
As you probably already know, the recent questions about Sylvia Firth-Borunda’s employee evaluation is nothing more than a power struggle between Oscar Leeser and some members of city council. However, it is important to note that this is speculation at this point. We are forced to speculate because the city is notorious for keeping relevant… Read More City Attorney Caught in Power Struggle
The recently concluded fiasco at city council that has been dubbed “musical chairs” resulted in much online commentary about the cost to move equipment from one spot on the dais to another. The local news media reported a cost, which was attributed to Ann Morgan Lilly, in the neighborhood of $7,000. The purported cost and… Read More Price Quotations to Move Equipment on Dais
The problem with arguments that have no substance is that they readily fall apart when challenged. Many of you have probably noticed an individual by the name of Mark Mena who has been arguing against those on social media that have something negative to say about the El Paso ballpark. Politics always has multiple opposing… Read More Why Mark Mena Represents the Failure of El Paso Progressives Propaganda
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