El Paso Politics

Okay, before we go any further, don't get mad at me for what you're about to read. I didn't do it, I'm just pointing out what I saw. A few days ago there was a story about Dr. Uxer resigning from the El Paso Community College Board of Trustees. I read about the story on my El Paso Times app on my phone. Interestingly this was the ad that was embedded with the story. (I told you, don't get mad at me, especially if you laughed!)

Last night was the swearing in ceremony for the city representatives that just won the last round of elections. City Representatives Svarzbein, Noe, and Ordaz were in attendance. City Representative Cortney Niland was not at the event and was sworn in this morning. I see why Mayor Leeser rarely does public events. He's a terribly awkward speaker and he looks like he hates every minute of it. Shout out to the city protocol gurus who had a Christian invocation on the day the city was swearing in a new Jewish member of council. Talk about a d'oh! I knew it was coming to, I was waiting for the "in Jesus' name we pray" part and there was no disappointment! Svarzbein gave no reaction though. The new reps all gave speeches and thanked their families. The stand-out was Representative Ordaz and not because she was the only one who had a County Commissioner and not a judge, swear her in either. She stood out because unlike the mayor, she had acknowledged the rest of her col...

I know I left a few of you hanging earlier this morning when I finished a post about who is not running against State Rep Mary Gonzalez with "but I know who is..." For those of you reading this that live in the Valley, you already know who it is, but for those of you who live in the 79912 and think good queso is melting down cheese-itz, let me let the cat out of the bag. Former State Rep Chente Quintanilla wants his old job back.  Obviously he has a huge steep hill to climb (her money, his age, etc) but it's not impossible especially considering his name is synonymous with a slogan.  I'll give you some analysis on this race later but I thought I'd let the rest of town know what the valley already knows.

You know, this isn't the first time it's happened but I was told that Rep Ann Morgan Lily didn't leave really anything behind for her successor other than a copy of Robert's Rules of Order and The Rise of the Creative Class. She's hardly the first to do that. Former County Commissioner Sergio Lewis did it to County Commissioner David Stout and Tanya Chozet did it to Commissioner Perez. The most egregious example was former Congressman Reyes to Congressman O'Rourke. I can't even begin to imagine all the case work that was just stopped because of ego. And let's be real, that's what it is. It's all ego when an elected decides to screw over the person taking over at the sake of the people. It's the most disrespectful act to constituents an elected can do next to public corruption. As a staffer at the time, I can tell you it sucked really bad to be new at the job and then only to find out that you're expected to do the job without all the tool...

Only because this is probably the 10th time I've had someone ask me, but Socorro Mayor Jesus Ruiz is not running for state representative. Yet. He may consider it some day in the future, but it isn't something he's going to do this session or probably even the next. There is still lots of work to do and under his leadership and administration Socorro is a much better place.  He's led the city to invest $10 million in infrastructure projects and unlike the little Jesse Gandara regime managed to do so without controversy over how the infrastructure was completed. At the same time the city has increased the number of family events including Easter egg hunts, movies in the park, etc. Perhaps the biggest contribution and what he has led that has been the biggest departure from the Gandara regime has been the increase in transparency. Documents and back up are now more readily available and citizens have an easier time having feedback with the city reps during public comment....

The candidates that recently won the last round of elections will be sworn in tonight downtown. The following people will be sworn-in: Rep-Elect Peter Svarzbein - District 1 Rep Michiel Noe - District 5 Rep Claudia Ordaz - District 6 Rep Cortney Niland  - District 8 So which one of you crazy conspiracy theorists are still spreading the rumor than I'm going to work for Svarzbein? Let me clear up those rumors. I'm not. I'm going to work for the Mayor. I hear he's a good boy.

The local impact of the SCOTUS marriage equality decision centers around what the reaction of some judges will be regarding the decision on their part to conduct weddings. Ted Cruz, the poster boy for Texas Crazy, has come out and said we should elect members of the Supreme Court. I guess he thinks he knows better than the founders and I'm sure the rest of the Tea Party Crazy Train are perfectly content to follow him down that path. Go ahead Teddy, make this a campaign issue as long as you're still in the race. Thanks for the help. The state of Texas has elections for pretty much all judges, except associate judges that are appointed.  Despite what libertarians will tell you about some "false left-right paradigm" the truth is there is a big difference in the values of parties. The local judges that have expressed some concern about same-sex marriage are Democrats. Marriage equality has always been a part of the platform of the Democratic Party. If a judge is religious...

Texas Governor Greg Abbot and his tag team partner Attorney General Ken Paxton have found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. For the Republican Party the SCOTUS decision on gay marriage would've been a blessing in disguise. Gay marriage was an issue that allowed Democrats to appeal to moderates and pull the away from the GOP. And without that issue, it would've been one less tool for us to get the base out in the upcoming elections. Conservative governors could say they are against it but the Supreme Court ruled and its now the law of the land. But perhaps its a little nostalgia kicked up by the Confederate Battle Flag coming down, but those governors, including our own, are now starting to sound like sessessionist all over again with the shouts to ignore the supreme court and start practicing nullification. The Texas AG issued the most non-sensical opinion in recent memory on Sunday, which I posted yesterday. Basically his argument is that religious freedom means...

I have called every Justice of the Peace in El Paso County to ask the direct question if they will or will not conduct weddings for same-sex couples. Here are the answers I received from each Justice of the Peace. Justice of the Peace Precinct 1 (Westside) Judge's Name: Robert Pearson Party Affiliation: Democratic Who I Spoke With: Staff Answer: Didn't know at first because the judge is at a conference. The staff member called me back a few minutes later and indicated that he had spoken with the judge and he will be performing the marriages and said one could be scheduled as early as Thursday this week. Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 (Northeast) Judge's Name: Brian Haggerty Party Affiliation: Democratic Who I Spoke With: Judge Haggerty via Text Answer: "As a judge I have taken an oath to uphold the laws of the United States and the laws of the State of Texas. If anone has the correct documents I have to conduct the ceremony." Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 (Cent...

The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon just issued an opinion that judges don't have to perform same sex marriages and county clerks don't have to issue license if they have a religious objection.  Here are some highlights from the opinion: “County clerks and their employees retain religious freedoms that may allow accommodation of their religious objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses. The strength of any such claim depends on the particular facts of each case. “Justices of the peace and judges similarly retain religious freedoms, and may claim that the government cannot force them to conduct same-sex wedding ceremonies over their religious objections, when other authorized individuals have no objection, because it is not the least restrictive means of the government ensuring the ceremonies occur. The strength of any such claim depends on the particular facts of each case.” Paxon goes on to say,  “It is important to note that any clerk who wishes to defend their relig...

EL PASO COUNTY CLERK COMPLIES WITH SUPREME COURT RULING  BY  ISSUING MARRIAGE LICENSES TO SAME-SEX COUPLES   After this morning’s Supreme Court decision to recognize the legality of marriages between people of the same sex, the El Paso County Clerk’s office immediately proceeded to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.   El Paso County Clerk Delia  Briones  explained that for weeks her office had been working with the El Paso County’s IT Department  and the County Attorney’s Office  to prepare to comply with any Supreme Court ruling regarding the same-sex marriage.   “After an early morning meeting with the El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal, we reached to the conclusion that same-sex marriage was the new law of the land, and there was no need to further wait for clarification on how to proceed,”  Briones  said.   “When the first same-sex  couple  came into my office to request a marriage license at 11:48 a...

I don't personally know these two vatos but I extend my congratulations to them on becoming the first same-sex couple married following the SCOTUS decision. The wedding was officiated by Judge Carlos Villa in County Court at law #5. I previously posted about some of the judges not wanting to perform the weddings out of their personal or religious beliefs. Several have already reached out to me and assumed it was the JP's. That may or may not be true, but those aren't the names I was given. Weddings is a big revenue stream for the JP's as individuals. They can charge what they want and don't have to give it to the county or even their offices for that matter. The Supreme Court just doubled their potential clientele, why on earth would the JP's say no to all that money? Since Texas elects judges, this is now a campaign issue when they run for office. I think there is talk of a list of judges that will be available to perform gay weddings which I'm guessing is ...

At least three El Paso judges have questioned if they are required to perform gay marriages apparently citing their religious beliefs. Yes, I know their names. They are all Democrats too.  I sure hope they are otherwise living the life of a good "Catholic gentleman". The reality is that they have to perform weddings for all couple or none at all. Sources in the courthouse indicate that at least three judges took issue with the possibility of having to perform the marriages and asked for a legal opinion from the County Attorney. The County Attorney sent them the opinion yesterday and it says that they cannot discriminate and that the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct mandates that judges perform their duties without bias or prejudice. Therefore their options are to perform marriages for all people or to perform marriages for no one. The County, and by that I mean you the tax payer, can be sued if a judge does hetero marriages but not gay marriages. I have the entire documen...

The landmark decision from the United States Supreme Court legalizing marriage equality across the country just came down. I spoke with the most outspoke legislator on LGBTQ issues in the state of Texas, State Representative Mary Gonzalez, on the decision. Here are some of her comments:

A couple of quick blurbs too small for their own post. I'm late on this but Leticia Van De Putte's loss in San Antonio demonstrates what I've said for a long time. The TDP is not close to turning Texas blue. She lost to an African-American in San Antonio. If a Latina Democrat with her notoriety, coming off of a statewide race can't win in San Antonio...dayum! It shows how hard it is to come back once you've lost and it shows that the Party is no where near as strong as we like to tell ourselves. Donald Trump talked a lot of smack about raza and we are finally standing up for ourselves which is a good thing. But I want to know where the GOP's  establishment leadership is on all of this. They've been trying to court the brown vote for years. Why aren't they pushing back on this?  Where are the Latino Republican organizations? And where are the brown Republican candidates? Are you guys just gonna letTrump  say this crap and not stand up for yourselves? Your...

I wrote a piece yesterday about something that happened involving fundings some projects in neighborhoods in the valley. Anyone who lives in the valley knows that there is a big difference between the way City Rep Claudia Ordaz and her predecessor do city business. Her predecessor was known for one thing, saying no. Sure he was able to tell taxpayers he was looking out for them but the reality is that he didn't do a good job of ensuring that those tax payers who still had to pay taxes no matter how many times Holguin voted no, were getting their fair share in tax dollars back to District 6. One of the reasons that happened is because of neighborhood associations. In this case, lack thereof. At the time of Ordaz's election there was only one active NA. From what I gather, her predecessor didn't care much for NA's because they were a pain in the rear and because of the same fear every other elected official in the city has...that when you give someone in the community a l...

As always I publish any political events sent to me as a courtesy.  Here's the latest one sent to me:

Politics is politics and sometimes it makes people do things that will leave many scratching their head. Usually there is a strategy behind the scenes that the public isn't always privy to so they don't always know why electeds do the things they do. But other times people just cut off their nose to spite their face. It looks like that is what happened during yesterday's city council meeting when Rep Ordaz didn't do what a close friend and constituent of Rep Limon wanted done with some canopies. The end result was Rep Limon voting against a funding measure for $100,000 in projects that included a park canopy at E.L. Williams Park requested by the Lomaland Neighborhood Association and swings and benches at Thomas Manor Park requested by the Thomas Manor Neighborhood Association. Pretty sure ol' Willie Mays at Thomas Manor Neighborhood Association isn't going to be too happy. Not sure why any rep would say no to $100,000 for parks in their district but she must...

The amount of times a week Fallas Paredes is wrong about something or one of his conspiracy theories is equal to the number of posts he writes. So it's not anything new when he gets something wrong. But yesterday's fuck up of the day was particularly funny because the way he built it up you would've thought he had pics of Peter Svarzbein riding the Loch Ness Monster while hunting Sasquatch and the chupacabra using the rifle that shot Kennedy.  Instead it was a picture of Svarzbein's brother flipping the bird. Except that the dumb monkey thought it was Peter. It was a photo given to him by an anonymous source. So much for the discount blogger's sources. I'm betting the anonymous source was bitter Bobby Jindal look-alike Daniel Lopez who has been riding Martin nuts pretty hard lately. Which is probably a first for Martin. Well long story short, you should never screw up like that by trying to mock a comedian. Looks like Svarzbein's brother and comic friends go...

I wrote a piece earlier today about the Tax Assessor-Collector's Office and I made the point that its one of those offices that people don't care about. Well it got me to thinking about the fact that most of the offices that are elected at the county level are offices that no one gives a shit about, like the County Clerk, District Clerk, and the DA and CA. Relax office holders, I'm not saying your office isn't important. It is. I'm saying it isn't important to most people voting. They don't know/care what you do. However I will say this. Most of those jobs are administrative in nature. They have a lot of potential to save/cost taxpayers a lot of money so it helps to have a good administrator in that office more so than a good politician. And therein lies the problem. We elect department heads. Elected department heads costs you money. Every time they screw up and get sued, it costs you the taxpayer money because the County almost always settles out of court ...

Siria Rocha (Center obviously) Thanks to a couple of candidates for constable, everyone and their nana is now announcing for office much earlier than normal. Thanks a lot guys. Anywho - long-time county employee and staffer for the Tax Assessor-Collector's Office has thrown her hat in the ring to replace the former office-holder Victor Flores. Siria Rocha, a prominent member of the Westside Democrats, has already let it be known that she is a candidate for the Tax Assessor office. Many thought she might seek a seat on city council for the westside before the filing deadline passed earlier this February. There is already word that the appointed Tax Assessor-Collector is likely going to run for the office and there is also talk that former Flores right-hand Frank Ortiz will also seek the office. That should make things pretty awkward around the ol' water cooler in that office until next March. The Tax Assessor-Collector is one of those offices no one cares much about and fewer st...

I hate that the County has banned fireworks again. But I hate it for my own selfish reasons of wanting to shoot off fireworks because its fun. The reality is the fireworks ban is a necessary thing. And its an annual drill we have to go through. The County Judge tells everyone for weeks that she's going to ban fireworks and people are still stupid and go buy a bunch of fireworks anyway. Then the fireworks industry goes and finds some kids and parades them in front of commissioner's court to say how selling fireworks is their main fundraiser for their fill-in-the-blank (scout troop, t-ball team, teen youth cult, etc) in order to guilt the commissioners into not banning fireworks. The County uses some index that measures the fire hazard in a given area that I think is named after Katy Perry. A few of you will bitch and moan that you won't be able to participate in a 4th of July tradition and that its your right as an American to do shoot off fireworks to celebrate 'Muricuh...

Martin "Fallas" Paredes, the discount blogger who follows the orders of his masters wrote a piece about Peter Svarzbein that, lets be real for a minute, 90% of you reading this wouldn't know existed if I didn't write about it. The only reason I'm even writing about it is because it underscores just exactly how much of a dumb mule Paredes is. But more importantly it shows how irresponsible he is about what he writes.  Now Martin really holds himself up to be a legitimate news source. He fancies himself a journalist. Well when journalists don't fact check and publish something as wrong as this one, they usually get fired. But he won't be because he's the only dumbass his mule-bosses can convince to blog for them.  So Fallas posted this picture of what the dumb mule thinks is a photo of Peter Svarzbein flipping the bird. This wouldn't be the first time there was a photo of a westside politico flipping the bird posted on the internet. David K posted on...

I don't know why this bothers so many people but the reality is that it is more likely than not that Jaime Esparza will lose reelection in the March primary. Maybe people are sensitive because Esparza is probably the last of the "Old Guard" left in office.  But let's face facts, this is going to be harder for him to win than any other race because the last few years haven't exactly been stellar for him. He went from the heir-apparent to Congressman Reyes to a reelection race with two opponents, neither of whom are bat-shit crazy this time, one of whom is a Latina, more than 9 months out. The Marmolejo case(which he personally argued), the Villegas case, and not putting a single witness on the stand against Gandara during the sentencing phase of his trial, those aren't exactly bright spots in his career. He's gonna need more than DUIs and a domestic violence program. The public remembers big cases. The Gandara case alone is a targeted mailer to the valley w...

It's been several months since the passing of Constable Robert White and there has been no replacement appointed for him yet. Most constables aren't going to like to hear this but let's be real, unless they are in a rural area, they aren't that important. The fact that months have passed and there's been no replacement appointed, and most of you didn't even know that, underscores my point. I know, I know, you're mandated by the Texas constitution and all. And yes, in rural areas they are very important. I get it. But most of El Paso county is urban and the importance assigned by the Texas constitution is reflective of the time it was written. Houston is where the Texans play, not the governor anymore. Nonetheless I'm curious about the fact that the constable precinct is essentially run by deputies. How can you legally have a deputy if you don't have the office holder? I thought the sheriff deputies derive their authority from the actual elected sheri...

I made a rare appearance at a fundraiser last night. I typically don't attend but I was interested in this one because so many candidates have already announced. Plus it was a birthday celebration and who doesn't like birthday parties? Normally when you hold a fundraiser you pick a smaller size room so that when Don Williams takes pictures it looks like a lot of people are there. This one was held in the lobby of a hotel and so it was a big space. I forget the name of the hotel, but its the one with Teddy's on the bottom floor. Or as I like to call it, the Cougar Palace. Even with a big room there were a lot of attendees including a few people I haven't seen in years. As expected, there were several candidates in the building including the constable candidates and all three candidates for District Attorney. I snapped this quick photo of District Attorney Jaime Esparza and challenger Leonard Morales but Yvonne Rosales was also there. I didn't get a chance to visit wi...

For whatever reason candidates for a range of offices in next year's primary have been coming out of the woodwork since before the last round of municipal elections were even over. And now the rumblings of judicial candidates has started as well with news of a couple of incumbent judges likely to square off for a seat on the Court of Appeals. Gone are the days of the traditional Labor Day kick-off.  I also saw a really cool episode of Last Week Tonight recently that is pretty timely.  This primary is already being called the Year of the Woman because of the Hillary factor on the Democratic side, which is the only side that matters in local judicial races. That spells big trouble for most of the incumbent judges.  Let me explain why. A while back, Commissioner's Court said the judges were out of compliance with the Fair Defense Act that was passed in 2001. The judges defiantly went to Commissioner's Court, proudly thumped their chests about how none of the members of the C...

Sources indicate that a meeting was held last night at around 6pm at the United Blood Services on the westside to talk about the progress of the Mexican American Cultural Institute (MACI) and their plans for the Hispanic Cultural Center (HCC). Apparently the District Attorney Jaime Esparza gave a presentation about an idea that pretty much sounds like deprogramming the funds for a downtown stadium that was approved by voters during the bond election in favor of directing the funds towards the HCC. Several prominent Latino business and political leaders were allegedly at the meeting including City Rep Lily Limon, Aliana Apodaca, Hector Gutierrez, Dora Oaxaca, Terri Garcia, Oscar Venegas, Joe Cardenas, Henry Gallardo, the Rosales', Queta Fierro, and Ralph Adame among others. Interestingly I'm told Aliana Apodaca introduced Representative Limon and indicated that she was there as a member of MACI, not in her capacity as a city rep. I think that raises a question as to whether she ...

Since I posted an announcement about her fundraiser I have been getting several emails or text messages all asking me basically the same question. If she's termed out, why is she having a fundraiser if she's not going to have another campaign and her last campaign had no opponent? Well, you do the math. Why do you think she's having a fundraiser? The other question I get asked is what she's running for. Well I think she lives in Rep Blanco's district so it's not likely she would take him on. She's in Commissioner Leon's precinct, so not likely she would think about taking him on either. So she could conceivably run for Justice of the Peace, County Judge, or Mayor. What do you think she's going to do?

Former Socorro City Rep Jesse Gandara, who often refers to himself on social media as "El Teflón" apparently pleaded guilty to another charge of theft last Friday. Gandara appears to have received two years of probation that is set to run with his current 10 year probation sentence. The fact that he took a plea is a likely sign that he won't be pursuing an appeal for the felony conviction earlier this year.

No two ways about it, the loss of Al Weisenberger was a total failure on the part of Forma. Especially after dumping Svarzbein in the middle of the race, after a contract was signed and checks paid, to go work for the opposition just because they paid Rick Armendariz and the boys from Forma more money. Svarzbein gave them the ultimate payback by beating them solidly. Seriously that was such a bad business move on the part of Rick. I mean I get it, he doesn't pull the strings, he has his strings pulled. But now the word is out that even if you sign a contract with them and another candidate comes along willing to pay more money, they'll chase the check. But to lose on top of it? Now everyone is going to wonder why they should pay them the fees they charge if they can't deliver. They'll be on life-support for a while. They'll have to get by on poaching judicial candidates that don't know any better or are too lazy to run for themselves. Forma has been on a big los...

In a pretty decisive win, Peter Svarzbein thumped Al Weisenberger Saturday night to win the District 1 seat currently held by Ann Morgan Lily. Before people start making excuses the reality is that turnout was similar in this election to what turnout is like in most municipal elections. And for a runoff election without any other issue on the ballot, it was pretty impressive.  And anywhere you go in politics if you win by more than 10 percentage points, it's a pretty solid win. Peter was up by only 7 votes in early voting. Then he extended his lead by far more than what the needle normally moves between early voting and Election Day.  So David K is already stomping his feet and holding his breath over the fact that Peter won and even in the face of the obvious he still has this desire to try to sell you ocean front property in Arizona. The fact of the matter is that Peter's campaign showed we'd what ice said all along and what most people know to be true, grassroots orga...

I've got plenty to say about this weekends race, but first I'd like to make a quick observation. If you believe David K all those times he basically made stuff up about me running Scarzbein's campaign, then it must really pay off to listen to me right? So when do I start working for Peter again?

Sofia, the young lady I wrote about yesterday has been found. She is home and safe.  Her family would like their privacy right now but asked the I extend their thanks and heartfelt thanks to all that helped look for her and shared her photo on social media.

I was talking to a buddy that has run a few campaigns on the westside and he pointed out that in terms of voter data there is a pretty sizeable Jewish voting block in the Western Hills area. Svarzbein is Jewish and some folks think Weisenberger is as well. Election Day is Saturday. That is Shabbat, or the Sabbath, for Jews. So the observant Jews won't be voting on Election Day. That means that if there was a concentrated effort to GOTV that voting block, it had to have been done during early voting. Not being familiar with the finite details of Jewish custom I googled whether or not it was okay for Jews to vote on the Sabbath. I found this website that offered three answers. One from an Orthodox rabbi, one from Conservative rabbi, and one from a Reform rabbi. Without getting into too much detail essentially the Orthodox and Conservative rabbis said no, the reform rabbi says yes. Here's the article if you are interested in the details. http://www.jewishvaluesonline.org/951 Just ...

For those of you that like stats there are some really interesting voting stats as of last Saturday's early voting. Early voting ended earlier this week, so these aren't final numbers by any means, but rather just a snap shot at what things looked like up until that day. 1738 people had voted as of Saturday and 1051 of them were over 65. Another 449 were voters between the ages of 50-64. So the lion's share of voters were, as expected, the older crowd. As of Saturday that meant that only 238 people in district 1 that voted were under 50 years old. In the 35-49 year old age group 178 people had voted and only 46 people between the ages of 25-34 had voted. Sadly that means that you could probably fit all the 18-24 year olds that voted as of Saturday into a single 15 passenger van. Those numbers are depressing when you look at them but they shouldn't be surprising for anyone that follows election numbers regularly. They are pretty much the norm. If you're thinking thes...

Just a quick correction to what I posted earlier this week. The flier imposter of Dr Noe's fundraiser was incorrect.  His fundraiser is TODAY not Thursday. Please make a note of it if you are planning on attending. 

I've never done this before but I know the little girl well. She's 15. She works at Hideaway Lakes on weekends and holidays. She's a sweet kid and is great to my daughter when we go fishing. She goes to Riverside High School so she may be with someone in the lower valley area or she may be in the area of Chapin High School. If you even THINK you might have seen her please call the number.  Her mother is a dear friend and her siblings are worried sick. Spread the word!

I'll make this one quick. The vote for mayor pro tem was postponed for three weeks so that the new city rep from the westsiders would be able to vote on the matter. Representative Ordaz and others questioned why the issue needed to be voted upon today. After initially wanting to vote on the issue today Rep Niland and others ultimately went along with the delay on the vote.

Say it ain't so David K!  Unfortunately it is so. David K has wandered off into conspiracy land in a recent post on his blog. And trust me, he went full-on Martin Paredes in this one. All that was missing was some shitty photoshop work of an infographic depicting David K next to a big steaming pile of bullshit and several uses of the phrase "connect the dots". First I take issue with the demotion. DK now says I'm a "top aide" to Peter.  What happened to mastermind? I thought DK said I was the mastermind behind all of this. I really resent being demoted to "aide".  Let me give you two realities. Reality #1 David K had his head so far up Weisenberger's ass he can taste what he had for lunch. And that's because he wants to protect his family business which is pointless because it's not threatened. I've never heard a single bad thing about his parents firm. His public tantrums are a bigger threat to the family business than Peter winnin...

City council will be taking up the issue of having a new election for Mayor Pro Tempore during Tuesday's meeting. Pay attention to that vote because I think someone is getting screwed over. And that someone is City Rep Emma Acosta. And its likely because of potential mayoral aspirations. We all know the talk. There's talk that Representative Acosta will make a run for mayor. There is still talk that Representative Niland will make a run for mayor too. So Mayor Leeser is constantly looking over his shoulder while he's trying to occasionally break a tie. Niland has held the position for a while now and she can't wait to give it up. Acosta wants it and so does Representative Noe. If you followed the agenda review today you'll notice that Representatives Limon and Acosta both questioned the need for the vote to take place on Tuesday. Let me remind you that this city council has a major tendency to ram home things if they have the votes. If you recall this is the same ci...