Romero Pulled a Gandara?
I saw a piece on TV last night on KVIA about the Romero road issue. I'm actually pretty surprised at what the report said, although I'm not at all surprised that David K is defending Romero on the issue given the fact that David's family business here in El Paso has done road construction projects for the city.
Maria Garcia's piece indicates that an alley was repaved that wasn't on the city's approved list of projects.
An alley.
Thats right, for those of you driving around central, or as David K himself points out, the valley - you're driving around on shitty roads while an ALLEY was paved.
Turns out that two of his campaign donors benefitted from a project Romero got done too.
Are you fucking kidding? First an ally and then campaign donors benefit from a project?
Look I'm not saying that donating to a campaign disqualifies you from ever having a project done on your street or anything. But I am saying you have to be aware of the optics of an issue and Jesus Christ this one looks bad.
Allow me to quote an old school hip hop song (bonus points if you know the name of the song) by Onyx when I say, "but, but, but, wait it gets worse..."
Romero apparently channeled his inner Gandara and had his own road paved! Oh I'm sorry, I mean he "suggested" his road be paved. Again, the optics.
And actually, the Gandara's didn't even pull that off. There was an agenda item earlier this year that would've had the streets paved in a subdivision that included the street Councilman Gandara lives on in Socorro. As soon as city council in Socorro got wind of that little plot it was killed.
At least Romero isn't refusing to comment this time. Or maybe it was because Garcia showed up to the State of the City with a camera, but she got comment from him. (Say what you want about Ordaz but have you EVER heard of her running and ducking from questions from the media on anything?) His explanation defies basic logic because in one breath he said that he doesn't think his neighbors know he's a city rep and in the next says that they know to contact his office about the street?
Are we to believe his neighbors are that stupid?
That would have been the most mind-blowing thing I'd heard from an elected official in that story if it hadn't been for Representative Noe.
Talk about an about-face!
In the El Paso Inc article I referenced recently Noe pretty much calls getting the street projects that weren't part of the CIP plan done a form of corruption. Hell he went so far as to characterize it as "abuse of power".
Now he says, "its completely appropriate".
I bullshit you not.
Here's the link to the El Paso Inc. article and here is a link to the piece on KVIA.
Noe and Romero have reverted to a time-honored tradition on council. When something bad happens, don't take responsibility for it, blame your staff. Just like they did with the MPO.
I guess what David K and Reps Noe and Romero don't understand is the fact that there is a process. If, as Rep Noe says, "its completely appropriate" then why the need to actually stop projects?
But since they both mentioned it...who exactly are Noe and Romero alleging made the call to have the streets done?
Surely not the City Manager right?
Maria Garcia's piece indicates that an alley was repaved that wasn't on the city's approved list of projects.
An alley.
Thats right, for those of you driving around central, or as David K himself points out, the valley - you're driving around on shitty roads while an ALLEY was paved.
Turns out that two of his campaign donors benefitted from a project Romero got done too.
Are you fucking kidding? First an ally and then campaign donors benefit from a project?
Look I'm not saying that donating to a campaign disqualifies you from ever having a project done on your street or anything. But I am saying you have to be aware of the optics of an issue and Jesus Christ this one looks bad.
Allow me to quote an old school hip hop song (bonus points if you know the name of the song) by Onyx when I say, "but, but, but, wait it gets worse..."
Romero apparently channeled his inner Gandara and had his own road paved! Oh I'm sorry, I mean he "suggested" his road be paved. Again, the optics.
And actually, the Gandara's didn't even pull that off. There was an agenda item earlier this year that would've had the streets paved in a subdivision that included the street Councilman Gandara lives on in Socorro. As soon as city council in Socorro got wind of that little plot it was killed.
At least Romero isn't refusing to comment this time. Or maybe it was because Garcia showed up to the State of the City with a camera, but she got comment from him. (Say what you want about Ordaz but have you EVER heard of her running and ducking from questions from the media on anything?) His explanation defies basic logic because in one breath he said that he doesn't think his neighbors know he's a city rep and in the next says that they know to contact his office about the street?
Are we to believe his neighbors are that stupid?
That would have been the most mind-blowing thing I'd heard from an elected official in that story if it hadn't been for Representative Noe.
Talk about an about-face!
In the El Paso Inc article I referenced recently Noe pretty much calls getting the street projects that weren't part of the CIP plan done a form of corruption. Hell he went so far as to characterize it as "abuse of power".
Now he says, "its completely appropriate".
I bullshit you not.
Here's the link to the El Paso Inc. article and here is a link to the piece on KVIA.
Noe and Romero have reverted to a time-honored tradition on council. When something bad happens, don't take responsibility for it, blame your staff. Just like they did with the MPO.
I guess what David K and Reps Noe and Romero don't understand is the fact that there is a process. If, as Rep Noe says, "its completely appropriate" then why the need to actually stop projects?
But since they both mentioned it...who exactly are Noe and Romero alleging made the call to have the streets done?
Surely not the City Manager right?
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