El Paso Politics

Another item that council will be putting forward to voters is regarding municipal elections being held in November. Putting the municipal elections on the same ballot as all the other elections was a well-intentioned attempt to get more people to vote on municipal issues. Sure, more people theoretically will vote but does it make anything better? I think you'll still end up with a significant number of undervotes because its so far down the ballot and November elections are partisan affairs. That means you have a significant number of people that will vote straight ticket and not stick around for the rest of the ballot. At least when you have the May elections you have school board elections, also nonpartisan affairs, and you have a targeted group of people who at the very least care enough to vote on municipal elections. Opponents to having the elections in November for the city have raised several other issues like run-offs being in December. I don't think that is really tha...

Yvonne Rosales had her announcement event yesterday in the downtown area. I grabbed a quick interview with her after the crowd of supporters left and asked her some basic questions.

Both challengers for the District Attorney seat currently held for the last two decades by Jaime Esparza are having events this week. Yvonne Rosales has her campaign announcement today at 5:30pm at the Arts Festival Plaza next to the Plaza Theater.  Leonard Morales has a campaign kick-off event/fundraiser tomorrow at Nolita's Corner Bistro downtown.  I haven't seen or heard of any new events for the incumbent although he did have a fundraiser earlier this year when word got out that he had opponents.

I don't know much about this guy but he recently filed. Sources say he is a bit of a salty character.  Whatever that means.  Ha ha, got'em

Well I whacked Svarzbein earlier today and mentioned Grossman too. However lets look at this issue a little more deeply. There's a glaring question that is not being asked in this conversation about the grant. Why isn't the El Paso County Historical Commission applying for the grant themselves? The EPCHC is its own county entity. They don't NEED the city to make the survey happen. They have the authority to do it themselves or partner with a private entity or the County. Its all legal . The reason that the EPCHC wants to hook up with the city is the fact that its a hell of a lot less effort on their part if they are with the city on this. A quick google search and this document pops up and lays down everything that can be done. Its the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook of the EPCHC. So if the EPCHC wants to save a building downtown there needs to be a preservation plan. You can't have a plan until after you have a study, which requires some cash. And here is exactly how they...

Photo Credit (Left) Richard Baron It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to rationalize City Rep Peter Svarzbein's campaign rhetoric and his vote to kill acceptance of a grant for historical designation of the downtown area. Candidate Svarzbein said one thing - he was supportive of, and even participated in, historical preservation projects, while Representative Svarzbein votes against it. He has no cover for that vote. It was a bad vote. He took the easy way out the minute there was a little, and trust me when I say a little, adversity. Svarzbein the candidate would've backed that grant every day of the week and twice on Sunday. For whatever reason Representative Svarzbein didn't. Critics have said that he sold out. That is probably one of the worst criticisms that can be laid out against an elected leader. Is it true? I don't know. All I know is what Svarzbein actually said on the record during an interview on ABC 7 Xtra last night and that was essentially this...

Despite only being in his 30's Michael Apodaca has years of experience as a party activist for the El Paso Democratic Party and sources indicate that he is ready to run for chair of the El Paso Democratic Party. Apodaca probably has more street cred within the Democratic Party this side of Queta Fierro.  There was a sense of urgency to draft a good candidate since rumors first surfaced of former city rep Eddie Holguin considering a run for Party Chair.  Holguin was elected chair of the Tejano Democrats recently. The original information I had received was that he narrowly defeated former city rep/county commissioner/JP Barbara Perez. A couple of people closely aligned with Holguin - Dr. Anna Perez and Othon Medina - took issue with my characterization of the narrow defeat and sent me an email regarding the issue. Dr. Perez was (mostly) polite but Medina was his usual confrontational self. But he quickly backs down whenever anyone shows those tactics don't work. Good luck tryin...

Who doesn't love a little sexual innuendo with their morning coffee, am I right?

In the circus freak show that is El Paso City Council these days there is a pretty toxic environment and trust me, anyone who spends any amount of time there at city hall can see it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the current incarnation of city hall described as "dysfunctional" "toxic" and all other manner of non-flattering adjectives. But I saw this on FB the other day and it really says something about the environment there. This is a Facebook post from Maria Garcia at KVIA: That in itself isn't all that remarkable. That is remarkable was the last comment. Its just a sad, sad commentary on politics at council.

In certain circumstances gay couples are denied legal assistance from the Catholic legal services and referred to outside legal resources despite the fact that the program receives federal dollars and that has some attorneys and immigrants up in arms. The Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, Inc is the largest provider of free or low-cost immigration services in the borderland and is now struggling with a major social issue. The DMRS is affiliated with the Catholic Church, specifically with the Diocese of El Paso. The DMRS operates through the financial support of the diocese, non-profits, and grants from state and federal entities. According to the Executive Director Melissa Lopez, an attorney who specializes in immigration law, the organization's board has not made an official policy regarding the provision of legal services to gay couples who would otherwise qualify for legal assistance from the organization. The organization therefore does not provide those services to gay...

I forgot to mention earlier today that I posted a new poll question on my blog. Its in the usual place. Have fun with it.

At this point someone might want to unionize all the drivers of the buses people are getting thrown under at the city over the last few weeks. The apparently have a fleet on stand-by. In case you missed it, here is a story done by Maria Garcia of KVIA on even more issues with transportation dollars at the city. There's a couple of things I think are worth pointing out in this video. First of all, notice how staff is actually pointing the finger at council for pushing the projects that were not ready? So can we stop pretending that the members of council on the MPO are blameless? Mathew McElroy is actually echoing the sentiments of the City Manager that I posted yesterday. This is interesting because of what Rep Noe said in last week's council meeting. He said part of the reason that there were screw ups at the city is because staff are afraid of the city council reps. He never said which members or if he meant all. Either way Noe is in a bad spot because he's saying they ar...

If there is a record for how quickly a city rep steps in it, City Rep Svarzbein may be the new record-holder. Ideally you want to spend your election honeymoon going on the offense on something. Svarzbein is already having to play defense thanks to being at the intersection of campaign donors and his support of preservation. The El Paso Historical Commission is having a bit of a public meltdown over the fact that the city turned down grant money. I tried to reach the commission by messaging them through Facebook to see if their social media posts are the official position of the commission or if its just one member posting. Without hearing otherwise one would have to assume that this is their official position since its on the organization's Facebook page. For those of you who are living under a rock and somehow missed it, here is a screen shot of what they had to say about Rep Svarzbein following yesterday's meeting ahead of today's city council meeting. I don't know t...

One of the issues, and likely to be the most controversial, is whether or not to give the mayor and council a pay raise. Currently the city representatives make $29,000 a year and the mayor makes $45,000. To put that in perspective, staff members for commissioners court make more money than the mayor. The proposed increase would raise the city council members to $39,000 and the mayor to $55,000. This would be a total increase to the budget of $90,000 annually. Even after the increase, those salaries are significantly less than what the County Judge and commissioners make. The increase would put them in the middle of other Texas and regional municipalities. Why I'm Voting for it Hear me out. I know that city council isn't exactly giving me a lot to work with in terms of advocating for this position right now, but it makes sense. Ultimately city council will probably lose out on this one and it will be their own fault because of the constant and unnecessary drama presentation the...

I'm going to do a series on the Charter Amendments to lay out what they are and then give you my own opinion about where I stand on the issues and why. I'll take each issue individually so that I can be thorough about them. Tomorrow we start with the pay raise for city council because it is by far the most controversial. But I wanted to briefly talk about an issue that was first raised by City Rep Lily Limón. During the presentation made before council by the ad hoc committee set up to look into a few charter amendment ideas, Limón pressed former Mayor Joe Wardy, who was presenting, on whether or not the committee looked into creating a charter amendment issue to change back to the strong mayor form of government. To my knowledge the only people on council calling for this change has been Limón and former city rep Eddie Holguin. There was more of a conversation to revert back to the strong mayor form of government back when Joyce Wilson was the City Manager but that was pretty ...

Maria Garcia hosted ABC 7 Xtra last night and dedicated the show to the discussion of the MPO problems the city of El Paso seems to be having as of late. It was a year ago to the day that Rep Ordaz was first elected to represent District 6 on City Council. You remember those problems right? The ones that when they first surfaced most of the rest of the blogosphere reacted like the Wizard of Oz when Toto moved the curtain? Based on news coverage late last week it looks like the problems are even worse than they were when Ordaz first raised the issue.  And when she did raise the issue, the Mayor and Rep Noe claimed Ordaz was doing all of this to get on the MPO.  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain that missed out on $40 million, thats not important.   But leveling a counter claim is a classic distraction move straight out of the kindergarten sandbox playbook.  City Manager Tommy Gonzalez and City Rep Emma Acosta began tap dancing for the city and acting like...

This post is to invite and ENCOURAGE your participation in a public meeting, hosted by ONEOK Partners to present their plans for the Roadrunner Pipeline. The meeting is  Saturday, July 25 at 1pm at the Clint Community Center located at 200 North San Elizario Rd - Clint, Texas 79836 . As a reminder, this is one of two natural gas pipelines headed our way. It is a 30-inch steel pipeline from Cayanosa, Texas, that will connect to the Tarahumara gas pipeline in Chihuahua. I have learned the format of the meeting is to be held in workstations. The preference is town hall so that we may collectively hear from them and they from us. Town hall would better allow us to understand our neighbors concerns because we'd all hear questions but more importantly, it would require them to give clear answers that in theory, should all be the same. I reached out to a contact in the Big Bend region who has gone through this type of presentation and in her experience, the workstation approach was a bit ...

With the revelation of the first candidate to throw their hat into the ring to place State Rep Marisa Marquez there's been a buzz in political circles about who else is going to try to make a run at the seat. But sources close to Hector H. Lopez, who previously ran for mayor and was a former colleague on talk radio, indicate that Lopez is pretty close to making a decision. If you recall several years ago Lopez lived in another part of town and was considering a run at the HD 75 seat now held by State Rep Mary Gonzalez but changed his mind and he was ultimately the guy who shopped Gonzalez around locally because she was living in Austin at the time. Lopez, a Democrat, attended Cathedral High School and went on to Georgetown University and Villanova. I'll keep you posted.

So State Rep Joe Pickett declined to have a portion of the Loop 375 named after him. The city council should do what Pickett asks and remove the item from consideration. If Pickett doesn't want it, don't give it to him. Pickett has certainly earned it. The man is synonymous with transportation in this town along with Ted Houghton. Let be real about what this is though. Pickett hates Ted Houghton. The city passed a smiliar measure last week to honor the work Houghton has done for El Paso. Its hard to see how we shouldn't look at this as just some political gamesmanship meant to embarrass Houghton. Personally I think the members of council that sit on the MPO should be more concerned about ensuring the city has its collective crap together when it comes to securing funding for mobility that naming portions of roads after people, but thats just me.

Thought this tweet was of interest. Looks like we may have the first candidate in the race to replace Rep Marisa Marquez. I know nothing about him so far other than he popped up on the courthouse scene a few months ago. You can add him to Lina Ortega as the latest names that have surfaced as candidates.

 courtesy of fusion magazine The cultural center committee released a suggestion for the location of the Mexican-American Cultural Center and I think it's perfect. I haven't done an open records request but I'm betting the Abraham Chavez Center doesn't make much money, if any, for the city of El Paso. It's just not booked enough. So the idea of using an existing structure like the Chavez Center and investing the budgeted money (which was really under-funded to begin with and isn't respectful of the will of the voters while the soccer moms of the pool get too much money for westside pools) into upgrades and changes was a stroke of brilliance.  Nestor Valencia should be credited with the idea.  It really makes the most sense to use a structure that is already built and can be more effectively leveraged. The location is already downtown and is an excellent addition our growing downtown area. It was really smart to use that location because it has the most minimal i...

Stacey. The cat's name is Stacey.  When I was at city council the other day I spoke to Diana Washington Valdez of the Times and she explained to me that cat in her tweet the other day is her house cat. Since so many of you were asking about the cat, you now know his name!

It was pretty sad to see that Chairman Houghton was getting recognized for bringing billions of dollars to the El Paso region for mobility on the very same day that a conversation about the inability of the city to get their shit together happened. But lets rip the band aid off and get right into the politics of the MPO. The MPO is competitive and the city of El Paso has always enjoyed a big advantage on the MPO by having the most members of any entity. The only other entity that has a number close to the city is the County of El Paso. Lets deal with a reality. Most of the city representatives don't think regionally. They think of their districts and pretty much nothing else. Occasionally they might get together on something and think in terms of the city but that is pretty rare. So amidst all the bullshit coming from the city folk that sit on the MPO is a steady drum beat of what basically amounts to whining because they game isn't 100% rigged in their favor anymore. You heard...

I purposely waited a while before I posted thoughts on yesterday because I was watching what was happening and laughing to myself. Politics makes strange bed fellows indeed. Its funny to watch people who aren't really about issues try to find a delicate way to support people they spent the last year talking smack about. Even Hector Montes, my favorite little internet munchkin has come to the defense of Cortney Niland. But lets back up a minute and call a spade a spade. Representative Ordaz raised an issue about the city losing out on over $20 million in funding. C-mon all you ball park people, this is your kind of issue isn't it? Oh yeah, it was never really about the money right? That's why you're so silent on this issue. For whatever reason Ordaz raising this issue has created an alliance between Mayor Leeser, the City Manager, and Representatives Noe, Niland, and Acosta. Lol, just kidding. By "for whatever reason" I mean, they all sit on the MPO and are try...

Jesse Gandara was in the 210th court yesterday to ask to be declared indigent in order to get an attorney for free and pursue an appeal of his conviction.  If he is able to get the appeal going, his probation will end, at least during the appeal process. This is going to make a lot of people in the valley furious when they find out.  Gandara hails from one of the most wealthy families in the valley but from what public records indicate, Gandara doesn't have much personal wealth. Property he lives in is actually in his father's name. During the hearing Gandara mentioned going to college but not having any income and being supported by his wife.  People in Socorro and San Elizario already feel like he got off light, so if his probation ends an entire community will not be happy about it. 

The city of El Paso that can't seem to get its administrative shit together strikes again. If you read this article in the Times ( "El Paso City Council abruptly postpones meeting on $20M transportation funding errors" http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_28477904/el-paso-city-council-abruptly-postpones-meeting-20m)  you'll notice that they screwed up and agenda posting.  Ironically it was to discuss the administrative shortcomings of the city that have led to the city missing out on $20 million in mobility funding.  Today's meeting should be fun! It's like the keystone cops over there. Jesus, get it together! 

Since the discount blogger Martin "Fallas" Paredes loves to live in the Land of Make Believe and create all manner of imagined connections I thought I'd write about an actual connection that is real, as in the world and dimension we all live in. The Flying Monkey is a close friend and associate of Theresa Caballero and the guy who created and maintained her now infamous website. If you go to the old rules there is a place-holder for his business. It explains why he always hammers that same old tired drum beat of the Ray-Caballero-is-the-devil dialogue. It also explains why he zeros in on the elected leaders he targets. It also explains his beef with the El Paso Times. He is taking orders. He does what he is told, like a good little puppet.  Fallas Paredes is also being a big hypocrite. He's guilty of what he blames everyone else for. Sound familiar?  I might also add that he's been trying to get campaign work from candidates in the upcoming election. I know at lea...

There will be a bunch of people line-up to take a stab at Marisa Marquez soon to be vacant seat in the Texas Legislature. Expect everyone who has ever run for city council in the area to run. Not sure what the new Chairman of the El Paso Republican Party is thinking, but there is no way in hell that seat is going to be competitive for the Republicans. Not sure if he was just trying to be optimistic so we will chalk it up to a rookie mistake. I hope someone pulls him aside and shows him voter data. The GOP have the Precinct 4 seat on commissioner's court and a JP seat...thats it. And that is all they are going to have for the next few years. Until they lose those too. Anywho, back to the replacements. Their will be a clown car of candidates to replace Marquez so ridiculous it will rival the GOP's current stop of presidential hopefuls. There will be several people who aren't your usual suspects of candidates that also throw in their hat. Pretty sure the next rep will come fro...

Socorro Mayor Jesus Ruiz asked his girlfriend to marry him over the weekend in front of a group of friends and family.  Lidia Valadez, the girlfriend, said yes. No date has been set as of yet but if it's anytime soon she will become the First Lady of the county's second-largest municipality.  Looks like the attention-starved Jessie Gandara, who can no longer vote but really wants attention on his not-so-anonymous Facebook account, is going to be even more upset now. Looks like Socorro's answer to John Boehner is going to have to find something else to insult the mayor about. Gandara, who keeps showing up like a bad case of hemorrhoids, has been insulting the mayor and others who ousted him from power in Socorro on his little Facebook page for months, calling him "Tutti-Fruitti" for quite some time now.  Looks like Mayor Ruiz has the last laugh.

For the second time now County Commissioner Vince Perez has called for UMC CEO's Jim Valenti's head. The first time was when Valenti accepted a big bonus after letting several employees go.  The latest vote of no-confidence from Perez came this evening after word came from the El Paso Times that UMC lost accreditation in a unit. According to Bob Moore of the El Paso Times, "The accreditation issue involves the 7-person sterile processing unit, which prepares instruments and equipment for surgery to prevent infection." This is a rare step to be taken, happening in only 3% of accreditations. In a statement released earlier this evening, Commissioner Perez didn't hide his displeasure with UMC.  "Once again, the UMC administration failed to communicate with the commissioners court - this time regarding the decision to temporarily suspend elective and non-emergency surgeries. The court (as a whole) received no advanced notice of this decision. This is yet another ...

I've been bugged all day long about when I was going to write about the Marquez resignation so he is the first of a couple of posts about it. No I didn't know ahead of time that she was going to retire and no I don't know why. There are plenty of rumors already floating around because of the abruptness of the decision, much like Senator Shapleigh. But that is assuming it was abrupt to begin with. Just because we didn't know about it doesn't mean it was an impulsive thing on her part. People are wondering aloud a number of scenarios from avoiding a scandal to running against Senaotr Rodriguez. She's a newly-wed, which I'm sure breaks Ali's heart since all he does is talk about her boobs, so maybe she just got tired of the legislature. Maybe she wants to start a family and possibly run for something else in the future like County Judge or Congress someday. Who knows. Critique her all you want, and there are plenty of things to critique her about, but she w...

The big story, other than Marquez, is the city's apparent decision to turn down a grant for the downtown area. If you have Facebook you have no doubt seen the post floating around from the Historical Commission regarding the matter. I know what you're thinking, what is up with the city lately? First they lose a grip of money to the tune of $20 million and now they are going to turn down free money.  I'm afraid it's likely worse than that. It appears that the decision to not go forward with the grant never made it to policy makers and instead was made at the staff level.  In an email from Jessica Herrera, the Redevelopment Manager from the City of El Paso, it was staff that clearly made the choice to not go forward with the grant. My question is why? It makes no sense at all that the elected leadership wasn't left to make a decision involving money. I've included the operative part of the email but the justification for the decision was basically not enough buy-i...

Well maybe this will become a thing on the LSB. If you come across a cool one text it or email it to me. Today's tweet is Rep Noe making things clear to another Twitter user. 

The two challengers against District Attorney Jaime Esparza were hitting the pavement on Saturday. Leonard Morales and Yvonne Rosales were each at a 4th of July parade over the weekend. Morales hit the bigger of the two parades on the west side while Rosales hit the Eastside parade run by the Lions Club, of which she is a member. Fun story - during the Eastside parade an old convertible carrying Commissioner Leon and his wife Bonnie over-heated and broke down on the parade route with about a 1/2 mile to go. The Commissioner and his wife took a page out of Jimmy Carter's playbook and walked the rest of the way.

AEl Paso Times reporter Diana Washington-Valdez posted a strange tweet yesterday.  Well the tweet itself wasn't strange so much as the image.  Here's the tweet: Like I said it's not so much the tweet.  Or the fact that the taxpayers lost out on a whopping $20 million.  Or the fact that the headline should actually say Ordaz since she's the one that really raised the issue in the first place. It's the cat pic... I have  no idea why there is a brown furry pussy cat in this tweet. I don't know if it's a subliminal  thing, an unintentional thing, or what. Is this DWV's kitty, a stunt kitty, or does she just collect random cat pics? Or perhaps it belongs to a member of council? Let's come up with a narrative shall we? Craziest, most Martin-Paredes level of stupid conspiracy-level of lunacy wins a prize.  Ready go!