Joint City - County Meeting Yesterday...
I guess it wasn't really advertised much but I dropped in on a joint meeting of El Paso's City Council and Commissioner's Court. I gather that the main topic was shared services and consolidation.
If you think a City Council or Commissioner's Court meeting is exhilarating and entertaining on their own, imagine all that fun jam-packed in to one meeting! Sorry...that's sarcasm. I apparently have a reader who's lips still move when they read and they don't always understand sarcasm so I feel I need to point it out now.
For some reason, they beat the crap out of a dead horse on the topic of IT consolidation. Not sure why considering that is the part of consolidation that seems to have been the most successful consolidation venture. But for some reason Representative Robinson couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that a cost avoidance is similar to a cost savings. Either way, its money the tax payer's don't have to spend. Not sure why that is so difficult to understand for Representative Robinson, but after a testy exchange between Robinson and County Judge Veronica Escobar, Robinson replied, "Well maybe I'm not that smart."
Actually the testy exchanges were the highlight of the meeting really. Clearly City Reps Holguin and Robinson have issues with some members of Commissioner's Court since both of them seemed to clash with County Judge Escobar in one form or another during the meeting.
Commissioner Lewis had a bit of a testy exchange with Commissioner Perez, though he really went out of his way to convey that he "respectfully" disagreed. It was over going forward with a motion to explore the idea of a Parks Authority. The motion wasn't to create the authority, it was a motion to explore the idea of creating a Parks Authority.
It was also interesting to watch a meeting facilitated by two head hanchos, the Mayor and the County Judge. If you are a policy wonk, it was interesting stuff.
Sidebar - Sal Gomez was interviewed again. I cannot figure out why local media interview that guy. He's contrarian, we get it. Seriously reporters, photogs, and assignment directors, can't you get comment from ANYONE else? When he's constantly the go-to guy for contrarian view points it actually inflates his influence.
Don't expect there to be consolidation of law enforcement anytime within our lifetime. Its just structurally impractical. Although Chief Allen made a remark about there are not the egos in place now among the Sheriff and PD leadership that there was in the past. I'm not sure who that was a shot at...
I didn't stick around I left right after an exhilarating conversation about extending a lease...(to my slow reader, yes, that was sarcasm as well.)
If you think a City Council or Commissioner's Court meeting is exhilarating and entertaining on their own, imagine all that fun jam-packed in to one meeting! Sorry...that's sarcasm. I apparently have a reader who's lips still move when they read and they don't always understand sarcasm so I feel I need to point it out now.
For some reason, they beat the crap out of a dead horse on the topic of IT consolidation. Not sure why considering that is the part of consolidation that seems to have been the most successful consolidation venture. But for some reason Representative Robinson couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that a cost avoidance is similar to a cost savings. Either way, its money the tax payer's don't have to spend. Not sure why that is so difficult to understand for Representative Robinson, but after a testy exchange between Robinson and County Judge Veronica Escobar, Robinson replied, "Well maybe I'm not that smart."
Actually the testy exchanges were the highlight of the meeting really. Clearly City Reps Holguin and Robinson have issues with some members of Commissioner's Court since both of them seemed to clash with County Judge Escobar in one form or another during the meeting.
Commissioner Lewis had a bit of a testy exchange with Commissioner Perez, though he really went out of his way to convey that he "respectfully" disagreed. It was over going forward with a motion to explore the idea of a Parks Authority. The motion wasn't to create the authority, it was a motion to explore the idea of creating a Parks Authority.
It was also interesting to watch a meeting facilitated by two head hanchos, the Mayor and the County Judge. If you are a policy wonk, it was interesting stuff.
Sidebar - Sal Gomez was interviewed again. I cannot figure out why local media interview that guy. He's contrarian, we get it. Seriously reporters, photogs, and assignment directors, can't you get comment from ANYONE else? When he's constantly the go-to guy for contrarian view points it actually inflates his influence.
Don't expect there to be consolidation of law enforcement anytime within our lifetime. Its just structurally impractical. Although Chief Allen made a remark about there are not the egos in place now among the Sheriff and PD leadership that there was in the past. I'm not sure who that was a shot at...
I didn't stick around I left right after an exhilarating conversation about extending a lease...(to my slow reader, yes, that was sarcasm as well.)
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