The Dumbest Thing I Ever Heard

I've heard local leaders say some really dumb things to defend stupid, crooked, unwise, etc political or policy decisions.

Seriously I have a notebook full of dumb quotes from people locally that I have been saving for later use when appropriate.

And the dumb things I have heard from elected leaders in Socorro could be its own book.

But If you watch this story, this is possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard an elected official say to justify a really, really, really stupid political move to score points with voters.

First, here's a video of a news story done the other day about changing the name of a street in Socorro. Click this link to the story if it doesn't work.



Here's the short of it - Socorro has major mobility problems and in an effort to fix those problems Commissioner Vince Perez and Former Mayor Jesus Ruiz and current Councilman At Large Rene Rodriguez worked together to push through some projects that will help alleviate those problems. That is why you are seeing so many street projects in Socorro as of late including Horizon Blvd, North Loop, and Old Hueco.

There used to be a dirt road that ran from were Eastlake connects to the I-10, south between a few fields and eventually connected to paved roads in Socorro. So in a big project that would make that a major connecting artery to I-10, the Eastlake extension project was born and it would get that road paved and widened to continue Eastlake down from the I-10 and go almost directly south until it curved around a church and connected to Socorro at North Loop.

But Socorro City Rep Ralph Duran was recently narrowly elected and has to face a November election as well. So in an 11th hour attempt to appeal to voters, he pushed forward a street name change. He made some argument that it protects the integrity of Socorro.

I know what you're thinking. Changing a street name protects the integrity of a city? That has to be the dumbest thing I ever heard. 

But sit tight, it gets much worse.

Aside from the fact that Duran says the vote was unanimous when it wasn't (there was at least one member of council that wasn't even at the meeting, so it by definition was unanimous, but Duran says something else that defies logic.

When asked about the cost of the name change, Duran says the following:

“The amount of money that will be spent on a name change is negligible, considering the amount of money we will be getting back in taxes and sales tax,”

I was floored by the audacity of that statement. Duran either is lying to his constituents with a straight face, or he is completely ignorant of policy. Frankly, I don't know which is worse.

First of all, it will cost the tax payers in Socorro around $10,000 for this last-minute name change that  serves no purpose other than vanity. Second, the amount of money that Socorro is going to get from taxes and sales takes of properties in the area is something that will happen in the future, but has NOTHING to do with the name change.

In a community the size of Socorro, $10,000 of taxes pays for a lot. That is a lot of potholes that can be fixed or improvements to parks that will be forgone so that Duran can tell people in the November election that he pushed a name change to protect the "integrity" of the City of Socorro.

Socorro tax payers should be fit to be tied right about now. Duran had nothing to do with securing those projects and the future tax revenue that will be captured by his own admission. That was actually done by the guy he's running against in November.

But all he did was unnecessarily add an expense to taxpayers at the 11th hour. So he's the guy that comes in right before a home is ready, changes the color of the paint, and then wants people to thank him for the entire project.

More importantly, what is Duran gonna tell people when inevitably there is a problem with first responders being delayed because of confusion over the location of places along the road? There is a plan for streets throughout El Paso and the County to prevent streets from being referred to as different names in different places in order to avoid this very scenario.

Duran saying that $10,000 unnecessarily spent on a vanity name change was "negligible" because of possible tax revenue capture in the future is seriously the dumbest thing I have ever heard from a local elected official.

Even in Socorro.