Ordaz Questions Loss of Millions; City Engineer Retires; 3 Vote Rule is Back
And as I read it, it looks like it was because of avoidable mistakes in applying for the projects. If you look at page 4 of this document I found on the Metropolitan Planning Organization's website, you'll see that Mike Medina, Executive Director of the MPO lays out the reason that the city lost out on the projects - "...many applications contained errors, ineligible funding sources, missing CMAQ analysis, late submissions, and other obligation discrepancies...".
Bottom line is that it looks like someone screwed up somewhere.
Rep Ordaz is asking why that happened, a key player for projects run by the city abruptly resigns, and now a controversial item aimed at killing public discussion of some items has suddenly made its way BACK on the council agenda after being killed recently.
Walk with me for a moment...
Here's a run-down of projects that the City of El Paso lost out on last Tuesday:
• Districts 3-7-8 lost out on a quiet zone project (Pages 41-44) to the tune of $2.2 million. This would've been quite zones in the areas of 5 Points and area's in the vicinity of the Medical Center.
• District 5 lost $945,000 in project money (Pages 28-31) for a roundabout at the intersection of Rich Beem and Edgemere. That is down the street from one of the largest high schools in El Paso, two middle schools and several elementary schools. Anyone who's ever tried to drop off their kid at school during that morning commute knows that is the intersection of Give Me A Break and Are You Effing Kidding Me?
• District 6 lost out on a $12.4 million project (Pages 32-35) that would have taken a section of Pan American from 2 lanes to 6 lanes in a heavily traveled industrial area.
• District 8 Paso Del Norte roundabout which was about $1.1 million.
Let me underscore the ineptitude of the city on these projects... each and every one of the projects is on its second strike! Meaning the city screwed up on these projects before.
Since we like to equate everything bad with the ballpark I'll use baseball terminology. How many at-bats does the city need to get something right? At some point you need to call in a reliever...
The total cost for this screw-up is $20,711,885.00
In layperson's terms the tax payers would've been able to get $20.7 million in projects with only $4.1 million dollars.
And that is just what happened under Tommy Gonzalez time on the MPO.
But there is obviously more to this. The Federal Highway Administration has been having the El Paso MPO under increased scrutiny because of what sounds like ineptitude. Here's what I mean -
The Winn Road project in District 6 has been an issue previously as well. This link shows that in 2014 the city had this project fail.
The City had already lost out on $18,058,357,000 including the Winn Road Project, the first time because they weren't going to start on time. Projects have to meet deadlines within fiscal years they are assigned to, if not it will be a problem with the feds.
So the failure on the part of the City of El Paso on these important projects can not be underscored enough.
What the Hell?
Rep Ordaz eventually got wind that one of her district 6 projects was canceled for the second time and let it be known that she was considering putting an item on the agenda to call for a full public disclosure of the Call for Projects and get a status report on each individual item. Basically it sounds like she wants to know What the hell?
She isn't one of the members of council that sit on the MPO like Reps Niland, and Noe, Mayor Leeser and Tommy Gonzalez, so it makes sense that she would want an open discussion about what exactly happened to projects involving so much public funding.
The fact that Ordaz was in the dark about the failure of a major project in her district when she has colleagues in a position of knowledge of the issue, and its not discussed with Ordaz, is indicative of the toxic and petty nature of this current council.
City Engineer Retires Abruptly
The City Engineer, Irene D. Ramirez, has abruptly retired according to an email dated July 6th and will be with the City until July 31st. That is noteworthy because aside from being the first female City Engineer in El Paso, she was only recently elevated to the position. According to the El Paso Times, she took over in March of this year. In the Times article Ramirez sure didn't sound like a woman contemplating retirement.
In fact, she said the opposite. "This may be my 32nd year with the City of El Paso, but the job is just beginning," Ramirez was even recently elected to the chair of the EPMPO Project Advisory Committee.
And the she resigns a few months later?
So lets get this straight, in the time that Ordaz had questions about the failure of the project in her district, the City Engineer abruptly retires, and now the ordinance that makes it harder to get items on the agenda is back for city council approval?
And no one thinks that sounds fishy?
This is the ordinance I wrote about previously that is essentially city council ganging up on one member of council (Limon) because she continuously puts items on the agenda that bother a couple members of council.
I found out something I didn't know before and because of what I found, I think we need to have an open conversation about this issue and ensure the due diligence that El Pasoans are entitled to actually happens. I recently found out that the Mayor Pro Tem can actually delete some items from the agenda unilaterally and behind close doors. Doesn't need to ask anyone, check with anyone, or even inform anyone after the fact.
Council needs to have an open and frank conversation about what the motives are of bringing back an item that is clearly meant to stifle conversation and dissent on issues.
Something isn't right and questions need to be answered.
The total cost for this screw-up is $20,711,885.00
In layperson's terms the tax payers would've been able to get $20.7 million in projects with only $4.1 million dollars.
And that is just what happened under Tommy Gonzalez time on the MPO.
But there is obviously more to this. The Federal Highway Administration has been having the El Paso MPO under increased scrutiny because of what sounds like ineptitude. Here's what I mean -
The Winn Road project in District 6 has been an issue previously as well. This link shows that in 2014 the city had this project fail.
The City had already lost out on $18,058,357,000 including the Winn Road Project, the first time because they weren't going to start on time. Projects have to meet deadlines within fiscal years they are assigned to, if not it will be a problem with the feds.
So the failure on the part of the City of El Paso on these important projects can not be underscored enough.
What the Hell?
Rep Ordaz eventually got wind that one of her district 6 projects was canceled for the second time and let it be known that she was considering putting an item on the agenda to call for a full public disclosure of the Call for Projects and get a status report on each individual item. Basically it sounds like she wants to know What the hell?
She isn't one of the members of council that sit on the MPO like Reps Niland, and Noe, Mayor Leeser and Tommy Gonzalez, so it makes sense that she would want an open discussion about what exactly happened to projects involving so much public funding.
The fact that Ordaz was in the dark about the failure of a major project in her district when she has colleagues in a position of knowledge of the issue, and its not discussed with Ordaz, is indicative of the toxic and petty nature of this current council.
City Engineer Retires Abruptly
In fact, she said the opposite. "This may be my 32nd year with the City of El Paso, but the job is just beginning," Ramirez was even recently elected to the chair of the EPMPO Project Advisory Committee.
And the she resigns a few months later?
So lets get this straight, in the time that Ordaz had questions about the failure of the project in her district, the City Engineer abruptly retires, and now the ordinance that makes it harder to get items on the agenda is back for city council approval?
And no one thinks that sounds fishy?
This is the ordinance I wrote about previously that is essentially city council ganging up on one member of council (Limon) because she continuously puts items on the agenda that bother a couple members of council.
I found out something I didn't know before and because of what I found, I think we need to have an open conversation about this issue and ensure the due diligence that El Pasoans are entitled to actually happens. I recently found out that the Mayor Pro Tem can actually delete some items from the agenda unilaterally and behind close doors. Doesn't need to ask anyone, check with anyone, or even inform anyone after the fact.
Council needs to have an open and frank conversation about what the motives are of bringing back an item that is clearly meant to stifle conversation and dissent on issues.
Something isn't right and questions need to be answered.
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