Max Powers

Team Shapleigh Has Met The Enemy...

...and it is them.

There are some things that I agree with Team Shapleigh on, particularly our Congressman Beto O'Rourke.  Things like ending or so-called revisiting our War on Drugs, and bike lanes.

But it is the other stuff, that they lose me on, things like health care.

The Children's Hospital is a Shapleigh idea through-and-through.

It is the one failure that the Team Shapleigh cannot blame on:

-  Governor Rick Perry

-  Luther Jones

-  Norma Chavez

- Willie Gandara, Sr.

- Willie Gandara, Jr.

- Oscar Leeser

- Lily Limon

- Dora Oaxaca

Granted, many of those folks mentioned above are staunch Democrats, and absolutely love it when the federales dole out free stuff.  If they are upset it is not so much of because they hate paying property taxes, it is because they wish they had thought of it first.

But I digress.

People like  Veronica Escobar and Susie Byrd, are more of your idealistic folks (unlike Beto who actually ran a business and married wisely).  They actually believe they are doing you a favor.

Case in point...Community Scholars.  I mean, come on.  Getting a bunch of high school acne-ridden complusive masturbators to come up with "solutions".   I don't say that to be offensive.  When I was an acne-ridden complusive masturbator I had all sorts of ideas, but thank God none of them were takenly seriously.

For Veronica and Susie like to fancy themselves as policy experts.  But as it is in the real world it still should hold true in the "policy world", you cannot write checks with your mouth that your ass cannot cash.  

And that is what has happened with the Children's Hospital. 

 

 

 

Susie Byrd Has Failed At Her Job

....that or her job is no longer required.

Former City Rep. and current EPISD Trustee, Susie Byrd, is the Children's Hospital spokesperson. 

But when SPOKESperson Susie Byrd was asked by the El Paso Times to comment, well, we got this:

Susie Byrd, a spokeswoman for the children's hospital who attended Monday's UMC's meeting, declined comment.

It's odd.

A spokesperson's job is to, I dunno, speak no matter how awkward things get unless they get legal in nature at which point you still have something to stay.

I am sure our County Judge, Veronica Escobar, probably called up Susie and told her not to speak anymore. 

In light of this, does the Children's Hospital need to have a spokesperson, especially one that does not speak?

There's what?  Over 50 folks at the Children's Hospital that will be receiving the pink slip?  Why not Susie too? 

Is having spokesperson who is not speaking necessary for a hospital that is fighting for its life?

 

Veronica Escobar Can't Say She Wasn't Warned

Our humble County Judge, Veronica Escobar, has been spending her waking hours writing op/ed pieces for far away newspapers about an issue that is not even under her jurisdiction, blasting the Governor of this state for "wasting" taxpayer money, adding another layer of bureaucracy at the County, among other things. 

And when she is not doing that she spends a few moments trying to resolve the UMC-Children's hospital fiasco.

One thing Escobar cannot say was that she was not warned.

From an El Paso Inc. article linked (and attached Download Epincchildrenshosp) on Veronica Escobar's county page:

Of the dozens of citizens who spoke at the Commissioner's Court meeting Thursday, none opposed the children's hospital.

That's not because there is no opposition. John Harris, CEO of the Sierra Providence Health Network, for one, has said the children's hospital at Thomason will duplicate services already provided at Providence's 144-bed Children's Hospital. He believes the study commissioned by Thomason administrators to determine the feasibility of the hospital is "severely flawed," and that the hospital would likely become a drain on county finances. (emphasis added)

 

 

Has Cesar Blanco Been Replaced?!?!

Not too long ago it seemed that State Rep.-elect Cesar Blanco, and El Paso's lil' pansexual, Mary Gonzalez, were getting it on...err....hitting it off.

Well there appears to be trouble in paradise.

From the look of things Mary has found someone, I mean, something else to ride instead of Cesar.

It was a beautiful morning to ride! Even more amazing bc I finally got to ride the Pinto. Great start of the week pic.twitter.com/jscIMNzU96

— Mary Gonzalez (@RepMaryGonzalez) July 20, 2014

Poor Cesar.

Have a great weekend!

Claudia Ordaz: The Disturbance in Veronica's Force

So by now we all know that County Vince Perez's girlfriend, Claudia Ordaz, handily won her race for City Council. 

And boy (and girl), City Council is gonna get more interesting with a Lily Limon not only taking on Niland, but Ordaz as well.

But I am not interested in City Council drama quite yet.

I am more interested in how this drama plays out with Vince.

Let's not kid ourselves.  We all know that in that relationship, between Vince and Claudia, it is Claudia who calls the shots, and now even moreso.

The "But-honey-I-am-an-elected-official-you-dont-understand" card has been revoked from Vince, not that he probably had much sway with it to begin with.

It is not like County Commissioners do much anyways now, and what little they do now will only get more little once Veronica Escobar has her Chief of Staff...err...County Administrator...in place.

Meanwhile, Claudia is gonna be busting her ass for shit pay at City Council. 

Okay, we have some resentment building here, but nothing out of the ordinary.   What relationship does not have any sort of resentment issues?

Here's where the drama plays out.

Vince is Veronica Escobar's errand boy.  But this being El Paso we know all the broads get very territorial, e.g. Norma Chavez vs (INSERT NAME), Lily Limon vs Cortney Niland, Emma Acosta vs Joyce Wilson, etc.

Veronica may rule Vince's world on Commissioners Court, but it is Claudia that is rocking it in the sack. 

So now Veronica is gonna be pissed because Vince is sleeping with an elected official.

We all know how persausive the chocha can be, just ask ex-Superintendent Sergio Garcia.

Oh, there is the whole thing that Veronica has been Shapleigh since day one unlike Ordaz who worked for Shapleigh and Reyes. 

*****************************************************************************

Look, I can talk about the "oppostion" or the Crazies, but that is like worrying about the Taliban or ISIS.  Yes, they are threantening, but ultimately they cannot build anything nor will they amount to anything.

The drama is all gonna be in the Shapleighista camp, it is our Tudors. 

Martin Paredes: Being an Idiot...Again.

Orlando resident, Martin Paredes, recently blogged about how life in Orlando is so much more wonderful than in El Paso because taxes and fees are lower, which okay I am with him so far.

But then he comes out looking like a jackass saying the reason why taxes and fees are higher in El Paso has to do with corruption.

Where to begin?

Hmmm.

Ah!

Orlando has a population under 300,000.  El Paso has double the population with over 650,000.

Want to know how many people visit this city of less than 300,000 on a yearly basis?

Oh more than the combined populations of the state of Texas and New York.  And all those people are paying sales tax, hotel taxes, and car rental fees.  

Never mind the fact that Orlando is probably a lot more commercial property rich than El Paso.

THAT'S why Orlando is able to do a solid for its residents...it's the out-of-towners that pay. 

Nothing wrong with that.

But let's not blame EVERYTHING on corruption, especially tax policy.

Is, or was, there corruption in El Paso? Sure. 

Seriously though.

Higher taxes and fees in a Democratic town? No phucking way!!!

Although oddly enough fiscal conservatism in this town has gotten a bad rap because its advocates happen to have been Luther Jones and Co.

El Paso Trolley

I like trolleys. 

But I am not exactly jumping up in glee regarding yesterday's news about trolleys in El Paso.

More often than not the governments that push for public transportation are the ones that usually set it up for failure.

Look no further than City Engineer Irene Ramirez's words.

According to her, the project will not start until NEXT YEAR, and can take up to 3 1/2 YEARS.

So by 2019, El Paso will have trolleys up and running on less than 5 miles of track.

Just for some perspective, the First Transcontinental Railroad was 1900 miles long and took about 6 years to complete. 

Yea.

Now when it comes to highways...Sheeeeeeeeit.  Granted, not necessarily under the City's purview,  but the City does lobby the State for highways, and man the ink on the contract is not even dry and highways contractors are already shoveling dirt.

The other way that governments, particularly municpalities, set public transit for failure is by not changing land use policies.  By still having auto-centric policies in place, especially near a transit line, you are still setting up the transit line for failure. 

That being said, highways themselves are a failure as well. 

Don't think so?

There are thousands of unsold vehicles in England that beg to differ.

So I guess between a highway failure and mass transit failure, I'll take the mass transit failure.

 

The Passion of Veronica Escobar

County Judge Veronica Escobar finally got what she wanted... a glorified Chief of Staff...err...Chief County Administrator.

Now Escobar likes to fancy herself as a policy wonk, and often times come off as the smartest person in the room.  While the latter may be true, this is more akin to being the smartest person on Tribal Council at Ysleta and less so the smartest person at Sandia National Lab.

As far as her being a policy wonk, well does this sound like a policy wonk:

"I feel very passionate about this only because after eight years (on the court as commissioner and judge) I feel we can finally accomplish a lot more going into the next four years," Escobar said during the meeting. "There is so much more to tackle. I would like to get it done and I think if we give ourselves the tools to get it done, we can." (emphasis added)

Passion?

You know who has passion? Lily Limon.

You know who else had passion? Eliot Shapleigh.

What has that got you?

The difference is we can forgive a legislator or representative for being passionate.  An executive? Not so much.

The County is probably of the most boring units in government.  People are likely to take pride in their city, state or country.  A County? Meh.

That is an issue for Veronica. 

She wants to change that. 

Now with a majority, we can only expect more "passion" from Veronica Escobar. 

Which for you means a larger and more bloated form of County government. 

Commissioners Court and Pay Raises

We know County Judge Veronica Escobar has no problem voting to increase her own salary.

What will be interesting to see if this proposed Chief County Administrator can make recommendations regarding the salaries of elected county officials.

At the City, then-City Manager Joyce Wilson and the new guy, have no say over the salaries of Mayor and Council.  The salaries of the Council are enshrined in the City Charter.  Which is a good thing.  Civil servants cannot butter-up council members with salary recommendation increases.   If Council wants an increase, they will have to ask the voters.

At the County, no such thing. 

The Commissioners Court decides and in the near future, the Court will receive "recommendations" from the Administrator. 

Do not think for a second Escobar wants some that is fiscally responsible that will recommend against increasing the salary of an already well-paid Commissioners Court.  

An argument "for" a Chief Administrator is to prevent corruption (which is a weak argument, but whateves).  But here you have an office that is being created that can easily curry favor with its board by simply recommending raises that otherwise would not fly at the City.  You're gonna tell me that is not susceptible to corruption?

Max Agrees with Joe Muench

Joe Muench had a fantastic column this Sunday regarding the pay of our County Judge and Commissioners, and the proposal to create a Chief Administrator position at the County.

Muench says:

The county judge in El Paso makes $87,027 a year. The four commissioners make $60,855 each. Both those salaries are about double that of the mayor and members of the City Council, respectively.

Raise your hand if you think the county judge and the commissioners work twice as hard as the mayor and council members.

Fantastic stuff.

It's like what I said last week:

County Judge Veronica Escobar makes over $80,000, while Mayor Oscar Lesser makes $45,000.

As I said before, the County has a lot less of a workload than the City.  So it makes no sense that a well-paid elected board, Commissioners Court, and its staff, needs to create an additional department.  Well, take it back, it would make sense if only the Commissioners Court voted to decrease their own salary. 

I know. I just pulled a Jaime O. Perez and quoted myself.

Now I want to hear Veronica Escobar's reason as to why the pay for Commissioners Court should NOT be reduced in light of this new position.

She's got nothing.