El Paso Politics

The rule changes at city hall are largely a joke and changed how I view several members of council.  The bickering is just stupid and embarrassing and completely unproductive. Several rules changes were put forth to solve problems that already have a solution. Before I go further, yes I think Rep Limón is largely disruptive and likes to bully to get her way. She wants everyone to shut up while she's talking but won't shut her trap when others are speaking. But that doesn't give other members of council the right to create draconian rules to reign her in. The mayor just needs to control the meetings more efficiently and the rest of council just need to learn to use Robert's Rules and the problems are solved. What happened was rules were trying to be slipped in under the guise of making the meetings run more efficiently. But they were more about personal beef than anything else. I want to highlight three rule suggestions that I had a major problem with. The first one is t...

I seriously hate watching El Paso City Council meetings. It is painful because they are the most immature elected body and toxic environments in the County by far. There is an agenda item that is being discussed about rules to conducting the meetings and one of the comments made by Rep Noe was trying to avoid people acting on the dais like "third graders throwing tantrums". I'll get to that in a moment but I found that statement particularly poignant considering the conduct of Representative Robinson earlier in the meeting toward a staff member. Representative Robinson was basically throwing a tantrum about some unprogrammed funds that were left over and they didn't go immediately to his district. As a former staffer I can tell you exactly what happened, his office got out-hustled and he wants someone to blame for it. The bottom line is what kind of elected official allegedly makes a request for funds and doesn't put that request in writing? In fact, unless its in...

Under City Manager Tommy Gonzalez's watch, the City of El Paso (meaning you the tax payer) has lost over $20 million in project funds. And as I read it, it looks like it was because of avoidable mistakes in applying for the projects. If you look at page 4 of this document I found on the Metropolitan Planning Organization's website, you'll see that Mike Medina, Executive Director of the MPO lays out the reason that the city lost out on the projects - "...many applications contained errors, ineligible funding sources, missing CMAQ analysis, late submissions, and other obligation discrepancies...". Bottom line is that it looks like someone screwed up somewhere. Rep Ordaz is asking why that happened, a key player for projects run by the city abruptly resigns, and now a controversial item aimed at killing public discussion of some items has suddenly made its way BACK on the council agenda after being killed recently.  Walk with me for a moment... Here's a run-down...

Alls I'm sayin' is that FIFA is the most corrupt organization in the world not run by a Gandara so you'd think someone would've made this happen... Is it too much for a vato to ask for the most corrupt organization in the world to have rigged a 4th of July FIFA World Cup Final between the U.S. and the Brits?

It's no secret I'm a staunch Democrat and it's also no secret that I believe pretty firmly in the values of our party. I'm usually the guy that calls people out publicly when they vote against the values of the Democratic Party.  So if the latest rumors I'm hearing are true, it would be devastating for the local party. Word around the campfire is that Eddie Holguin is now eyeing a possible bid for Decocratic Party Chair. I guess he realized he would get beat badly if he ran for county commissioner after his performance in the race for county judge.  Holguin should not ever be chair of the Democratic Party. He actively endorsed, supported, and advocated for a candidate running against a Democrat in the valley. On what planet would anyone in the party find that acceptable. What's worse is that candidate is anti immigrant and referred to El Paso as a suburb of Juarez. His most trusted political advisor, confidant, and mentor for more than a decade has been Jaime O....

If you are anywhere near the courthouse you've no doubt started to hear the buzz of people talking about how are getting opponents and which sitting judges are going to run for other seats. Here is a list of all the judges that are up for reelection but I might have missed one or two. Anna Perez Luis Aguilar Mike Herrera Patrick Garcia Angie Juarez Laura Strathmann Sam Medrano  Sergio Enriquez Diane Navarrete Yahara Lisa Gutierrez Carlos Carrasco Jesus Herrera There is also the Court of Appeals position. There's a white guy there, I forget his name, but he was appointed by a Republican. He's basically toast. I hear two judges that already have benches are considering running for the position as well. One of them will have issues because this judge has run for other benches before. I'll break down who I think the judges that are most vulnerable to a challenge.

This is a big deal for the valley and for tourism along the Mission Trail. Its also yet another example of seeing substantive change in the valley. El Paso's history is one of its strongest assets and some of its richest history is located in the valley along the historic Mission Trail. For years there has been a push to highlight our history for tourism valley but it has moved along at a snail's pace for a variety of reasons, one of which has been that there are so many govermental entities along the corridor betwen the Ysleta and San Elizario missions. Okay, San Elizario is not a mission, its a chapel. But it looks like a mission so the only real sticklers about that are people in San Eli. The point being its easier to refer to it as mission trail, not two missions and a chapel that looks like a mission trail. Click play to hear more details and some interviews: Leaders from the county (County Judge Veronica Escobar and Commissioners Perez and Leon), the city of El Paso (Rep ...