Council Gives Staff Chump Change; Makes it Rain on City Manager

I actually recorded a video and was going to post it in this piece but decided otherwise because I dropped more than a few "F" bombs in it.

But seriously city council, are you people fucking kidding me? You throw chump change at employees and give the City Manager a raise that is twice the average wage in El Paso for a year and not much less than the President of the United States?

I should've known something was up on Monday when somehow they pulled $4 million out of their asses all of a sudden.

I'll get to the $1000 hush money in a minute.

In what might be the most tone-deaf awarding of money to a public official this side of last summer's Valenti bonus, city council apparently decided to give the city manager a pay raise he didn't even ask for...allegedly.

But lets speak a little truth to power shall we?

This was $60,000 in "Oh please, please, please stay in El Paso" money.

After several weeks of hearing about a range of issues that are going on at city hall that need to get fixed, after a press conference by the mayor and city manager in which they both acknowledged work needed to be done, city council decided to give city manager Tommy Gonzalez $60,000 in a pay raise?

On top of the pay raise he just got?

Well, you have these to gentlemen to thank for it:

City Rep Noe (L) - City Rep Romero (R)

This item was the brain child of City Reps Noe and Romero.

Noe and a few others on council are scared to death that City Manager Tommy Gonzalez is going to leave El Paso and that is likely the reason they decided to give him the please-stay-in-El-Paso-money.

I'm really starting to think that council doesn't have the first clue of how the public thinks of them. The fact that the city manager and mayor had a press conference just the other day in which they acknowledged the need to improve some things at city hall is at the very least a tacit acknowledgement that things are not what they should be.

If things are currently not what they should be, and this is all under Gonzalez' watch and he can't blame this on Wilson, then why in the blue-hell are we giving this guy a raise that is a whopping 25% increase?

Has he saved the city money? Well Noe and Romero say so.

Thats great. I sure hope he has saved more than what the city has lost out on during his tenure because you can spin it all you want to, but the city lost out on same major millions of dollars on that whole MPO screw up.

Oh wait, thats right. I almost forgot. The city manager says that was city council's screw up, not his. Or was it TxDOT? No wait, new rules at the MPO.

So a guy who has only been at the city for a couple of years now is getting a 25% pay increase. Hear that city employees that haven't received a raise in I don't know how long? That's right, city council on Monday tossed you a $1000 one-time bonus. That means you aren't getting it next year. You haven't received a raise in a long time but here's $1000 to forget that you aren't getting a pay raise. What are your medical insurance deductibles again?

Forget I asked that.

Lets continue.

Council hasn't given you a raise and there is no indication they are going to even look at getting you a raise next year. Well, other than what a couple of them might say in front of a news camera. But you know better than to trust their promises don't you?

Meanwhile, you're asked to make sacrifices for the budget over the last few years. Your colleagues in uniform, they have a union. That union takes care of them and fights for its members.

You, what do you have? Who do you have fighting for you? Hector Montes?

I don't know who is fighting for you, but I'll tell you this - they are doing a terrible job. Seriously, where the hell is labor on this? City employees that pay dues, you need to be asking some really hard questions about just where in the hell is your leadership in all of this? Maybe if everyone on council didn't hate your union guy you might be actually getting a raise instead of a one-time bonus he had nothing to do with getting for you.

Monday city council passed a one-time $1000 bonus for employees. Most of council voted for it but a couple voted against it because they felt the employees deserved a raise instead of a one-time bonus and the bonus money should've gone back to the tax payers.

But intelligence and common sense on city council is pretty much frowned upon these days.

Kudos to Representative Limón for sticking up for the employees and fighting for something from council for the employees. She has been the advocate for the employees for quite some time now. But because most of council acts like they are trying out for the sequel to Mean Girls (I hear the working title is Mean Girls - All Grown Up & Elected; Not Just for Girls Anymore) Limón has been unsuccessful at getting anything passed.

Now all of a sudden the same city council that was pointing at staff is now trying to act like they are staff's BFF? Give me a break!

How stupid do you think your employees are?

Staff should remember who it is that has been standing up for them and trying their best to do right by them and who was the most vocal opponent of the City Manager's raise. Its her:

City Rep Lily Limón has been the only consistent voice in favor of the employee at council. But since several members of council don't like her, her items rarely get the consideration they deserve. In fact, this council tried to go even further and make it nearly impossible for her to even put an item on the agenda. That is how your city council acts.

I absolutely dare any member of council to say I'm wrong about that too.

So council gives you $1000 but no pay raise. The very next day, they turn around and basically say that the City Manager is 60 times more important than you are.

But who gets thrown under the bus when something goes wrong at the city?

You do.

Not the city manager. He has electeds on council that shield him from any blame.

Not the electeds because when something goes wrong, God forbid an elected official stand up and take responsibility and say the buck stops here.

Nope. They look for someone to blame.

Who is that someone that usually gets blamed?

You.

Obviously all one has to do to get a sense of how people feel about this issue is take a quick look at social media or any of the comments on the local news sites. I have a grand total of ONE PERSON that I know that thinks its a great idea. City council is pretty out of touch and probably doesn't realize how much people dislike this action, but all they have to do is open their FB page and check out the feedback. It's not pretty.

City Reps Acosta and Niland still (amazingly) have mayoral aspirations - and they just gave opponents mail material. Congratulations.

So now the city manager makes $300,000 a year and they doubled his vacation time on top of that. Guess what city council? You can kiss your raise goodbye. You just sacrificed your modest raise in exchange for his massive raise. Congratulations.

Oh and one more thing city staffers, Romero and Noe knew on Monday when they were giving you your one-time $1k that they were going to dish out $60k to your boss the next day.

Happy Employee Recognition Day.