City Council Members Complain About Work Hours

Strap in people because this one is going to annoy you. If you thought how the city is handling the distribution of the virus was bad, wait til you hear this one...

Some members of city council are whining about the length of city council meetings. In other words they are complaining about how long they have to work - while working from home - in a job they asked voters to put them in.

I mean we aren't talking about soldiers manning a post in some far off desert, or some sailor making repairs on the deck of a ship in the North Atlantic. We aren't talking about a nurse who pulled a double, a cop on his 9th straight day working graveyard without a day off, or firefighter who's been battling a blaze for several hours. 

We aren't even talking a farm working picking produce in the hot sun or a waitress working the dinner rush. 

We are talking about politicians working from home. 

I mean seriously - they don't even have to wear pants to work. I know, because most days I don't have to either. 

But if you watch the last part of the city council meeting the other day all they do is bitch about their work hours but conveniently try to wrap it up in rhetoric to make it sound like they are somehow looking out for the constituents. 

And yes, the meetings do run pretty late. But somehow this council thought it was a good idea to lift the limit on how long speakers can speak during public comment. So instead of having a reasonable limit on the time people from the public can go off an a rant about legalizing weed or some other thing - council wants to implement another "fix". 

Seriously there were almost 20 people speaking during public comment against El Paso Electric on an item that was just introducing the CEO. Just stupid time management. 

City council wants to limit how long city reps can speak and ask questions on agenda items. If you look at the agenda, there's an item that kinda hidden under an innocuous premise - readopting Robert's Rules of Order to run meetings. Thats their way of limiting how much time the city representative you voted for to advocate on your behalf, ask the probing and challenging questions, is allowed to do the job you put them there to do. 

And considering how much of an absolute cluster fuck the city's vaccination effort has been, the last thing city council should be doing is taking time off - they better be burning the midnight oil. 

Complaining about their work hours is a slap in the face to all the workers that lost their jobs during the pandemic, lost hours - or have to work so hard that they don't get time off.

The reality is that some presentations are important but time consuming, like the 'Rona updates. Maybe they could be moved to a different day instead of on the same day as city council meetings but common sense is not so common. 

But the idea that members elected by the people - who's job it is to analyze policy, judge the impact of the implementation of policy, should be limited in their capacity to do so is just a flat-out insult to voters. 

Once you're elected to represent the people - and no one twisted your arm to run for office - you are their representative 24/7. You are never NOT an elected official. You're at church, the park, a gathering, the gym, or the grocery store and get recognized, you're going to have to answer questions and concerns of your constituents. 

Its your job. 

If you don't want to work, you can always step aside and give the seat to someone else who is willing to work for the people. 

And don't come at me telling me you have kids. You had kids before you took on this job. I'm speaking specifically about my City Rep Claudia Rodriguez. She literally pulled the I-have-kids card. Guess what? People in every profession have kids and have to work late. 

Y'all aren't singing that tune about your city staff. Hell no, it apparently is only a big deal when it applies to you, amirite?

When was the last time you heard me say something nice about Rep Cassandra Hernandez? Well she has young children. She wasn't whining about how long the meetings are. City Rep Annello spoke up and pretty much said, hey none of us like staying up late for these meetings but thats what we were elected to do. 

Let me remind you all that city council made the choice to start meetings at 3 in the afternoon. If they started meetings earlier in the day, then they wouldn't be going so late. There are plenty of fixes to the length of meetings other than infringing on representing the people that elected the city representatives. 

But listen, if doing your job in PJ bottoms in the comfort of your own home is just too much of a pain in the ass for you - then quit. Seriously the member of council that pisses me off the most in this conversation about the length of meetings is Rep Joe Molinar.  

Bruh - you were literally on your what, second meeting? Your second meeting and its already too much of an inconvenience to you to be the city rep? 

For that faction on council that is inconvenienced by having to stay up late, let someone with a bigger commitment to the community and a better work ethic step up and represent their community. 

And seriously, for once - try to think about the people you represent. Think about all the people that have to work shift work. All the people that don't have two days off in a row. The people that have to put in long hours outside or on their feet all day - for a shitty wage that barely pays the bills. 

And then stop bitching about staying up late and working in your PJ's. 

No mames.