The County Spent $10,000 On This...

Quite frankly it is impossible to see anything productive that County Judge Samaniego has done. He rarely does anything noteworthy but has a lot of pet projects that seem like a waste of time and money.

The latest is probably the most egregious. At a time when the tax payers have been hit pretty hard lately, Samaniego decided to push forward an idea for a float in the Sun Bowl Parade. 

Now mind you, the budget season just happened last month. Why this wasn't discussed then is ridiculous. Maybe be knew it was just a stupid way to spend money that he didn't want to put it in the budget. 

At any rate, the County Judge pushed the idea of a float for the County of El Paso in the Sun Bowl Parade that would cost the county tax payers $10,000. Yes you read that right, ten grand for a float!

Commissioners have always just ridden in cars provided to them by the parade organizers, or they get their own vehicles. 

I guess Samaniego figures that he's living in the shadow of Escobar and has to do something different. So I guess he felt "different" was the $10,000 float. 

What is WORSE about this pendejada is that they are taking away road and bridge staff in order to focus on the construction of the float. 

That is seriously some irresponsible leadership on Samaniego's part. We are in road striping season. For those of you that don't know, there is a sweet spot of weather in which to stripe roads. Samaniego wants to divert staff from performing an important function of the county in order to complete his exercise in frivolity. 

It was a 3-1 vote, with only Commissioner Perez being opposed to the expenditure. But what boggles the mind for me is how in the hell could mostly-absent Commissioner Carl Robinson vote for this project? He has roads outside the city of El Paso that could use some striping. He should've been advocating for his constituents instead of supporting another Samaniego vanity project that doesn't serve a public service. 

Since he's been a Commissioner, and the few times he's actually shown up to work, Commissioner Robinson has really turned in to a different guy than he was when he was a city rep. When he was city rep he didn't vote for tax increases or frivolous expenditures. He actually prided himself on that. Now the guy who campaigned on never having raised taxes, voted for allow UMC to tax to the max and voted for the County tax to the max budget ... now he votes for a $10,000 float!

Seriously why wasn't this discussed during budget session? They were just in budget session last month. Why the need to suddenly break out the check book for a freakin' float? This is seriously irresponsible.

I honestly can't believe it hasn't been a news story.