Downtown Demolition

Okay let me lay things out as I understand them about the downtown demolition that happened yesterday.

There was a court order that went into place on September 11th in the afternoon. That was a result of a court case filed by Max Grossman. The Court granted an 11th hour Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that would stop the City of El Paso from continuing with demolition.

So here is the part you need to pay attention to because there is definitely a screw up and definitely a bad guy here for everyone to be mad at.

The City of El Paso doesn't own the property yet. Its still owned by the property owners and the City is still trying to acquire the land. They property owners don't get paid for the property until the demolition is complete, which makes sense because its a cost savings for the tax payers and it avoids the scenario of there being some kind of court case that leaves the city stuck with property it can't do anything with and blighted buildings.

Grossman screwed up. He mentions the City of El Paso in the case, but didn't mention the property owners. The Court granted the TRO and the City had to halt their process and comply with the order.

But the land owners already had a demolition permit for their buildings. This is the part where people erroneously blame the City. The City probably doesn't have the authority to just revoke a demolition permit once its granted unless they had cause, otherwise the City would be getting sued all the damn time for pulling a permit because land owners put money into demolition projects.

Heres some basic facts and sequence of events:

***The property owners own the land, not the City. 

***The property owners had a demolition permit that was legally acquired when everything was green lighted. 

***A TRO is granted by the Court but the property owners aren't covered in the order because Max Grossman didn't enjoin them in the order. The central case he's making is that the City didn't comply with a Texas law before proceeding. His case wasn't against the property owners. He wasn't alleging they did anything wrong, he was alleging the City of El Paso did. 

***The City, probably knowing they didn't have the legal authority to stop the property owners (because this is Texas and property owners have a lot of rights to their own stuff) asked the attorney representing the property owners to halt demolition because the City was going to comply with the letter and spirit of the order. 

***The City asked because they didn't have the authority to TELL them. 

***The land owner, knowing there was a TRO in place, having been asked to not proceed with demolition, went ahead and started anyway. 

You know how I know that the City didn't screw up here and the screw up was with Max Grossman?

Because no one was held in contempt of court. 

As much as people want to read into the language of the order, the order doesn't say what it wants them to say. After reading news reports, which I highly recommend people do so that they get informed on the basic facts, the residents were originally part of the action that Team Grossman was requesting relief for, and somewhere along the line, Team Grossman or the Court didn't include them in the emergency ruling the Court issued on Monday.

Is the property owner that saw the big giant loophole and drove a front loader right through it an asshole? If you ask me, yes. It was a dick move to start the demolition, even though at the end of the day its his shit and he can do what he wants with it.

Was he violating the Court's order? Not if he wasn't named in it.

There is a rush for people to say, Well the City should have revoked the permit when they got the order and they didn't, therefore they are violating the order. 

Okay, under what authority? You want the government to just suddenly invent authority it doesn't have because someone else screwed up?

The property owner knew about the Court Order. The City advised the attorney representing the property owners that there was a Court Order in place and requested that the property owner comply with the order even though they weren't named.

The City explained they were going to comply and took the extra step of asking the property owner to comply.

The property owner knew all of this and proceeded anyway. Thats the guy we should all be mad at. And frankly, Lizarraga needs to do more than just put an item that revokes permits - thats already been done by the Courts.

She should put an item on the agenda making the property owner reimburse the taxpayers for the police they had to have there to maintain order.

Also, shoutout to the media that covered this story all day. I know its all the fashion these days to trash journalists but they reacted quickly to a breaking story and they used all the tools in their toolbox to bring you the stories throughout the day, including their social media.

Good hustle. I know that people on both sides of this issue think you're supposed to be their mouthpiece for their position, but if they are all pissed at you, then you're doing your job.

Also, shout out to former City Rep Eddie Holguin for bringing pizzas and water out to the protesters that were exercising their first amendment rights to free speech. He risked getting arrested to make sure he "fed the troops" as it were.

Also to the police for keeping order.

So now the correct order is in place. Now if the property owner proceeds, he will be held in contempt.

Commissioner David Stout...

We get it, you're running for County Judge...enough already...