El Paso Politics

LVWD General Manager Jack Alayyan confirmed to a reporter, Kaylee Heck, from KFOX/KDBC yesterday that he is in fact on administrative leave relating to a charge of sexual harassment. Lower Valley Water had to pay out on a previous employment issue in which a claim of sexual harassment was alleged against Alayyan. This is now the second allegation against Alayyan raised that has risen to the level of the board. The person who was the alleged victim in the first allegation that the board ended up paying out money on went to the special meeting last night. She told the reporter she was there to show solidarity with the other woman raising the issue even though she doesn't know her. Alayyan told Heck that he would do an interview with her but was not at the meeting when the meeting started. He arrived only when the board had moved into executive session and he went in through a side door that had controlled access. He later tried to slip out of the building un-noticed but the reporter ...

I guess its bad timing for Senator Rodriguez, but an article I stumbled across in the Texas Monitor has a not-so-flattering mention of El Paso's senator which really put into perspective his recent comments regarding Duranguito and El Paso's city council in another publication, the Texas Monthly. More importantly, it points out something that might be embarrassing for the Senator that spoke about how we don't want gringolandia in El Paso. He is apparently totally cool with gringolandia in Austin. This is coming off a scathing letter from most of City Council about his comments regarding gringolandia and the Senator's insinuation that they are being brought off by developers that have contributed to their campaigns. Before I get to that, check out this story from KTSM about the letter. Check out Sito Negron's response to the news story. He's really not handling the media relations on this story well at all. Okay, so back to Senator Rodriguez's remarks and ...

Remember the guy that former City Rep Jim Tolbert called an asshole during a city council meeting? His name is Michael Patiño. He was initially one of the most outspoken advocates on the issue. There was talk of a recall of then-City Rep Cortney Niland. Well I was wandering around the Gringolandia - er I mean Do-ruhn-geee-toe - yesterday because well, I play a mean triangle. Seriously, I'm pretty freakin' good on that thing. Think Hendrix playing All Along the Watchtower, but me with a triangle playing Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star. Anywho, I saw that cool video on Facebook where Sito Negron and Max Grossman were having an impromptu drum session during the protest and I thought to myself, "Self, you know what that group is missing? The sound of your raging triangle." So I put on some cargo pants and some Vans with no socks, threw on some shades and went looking to join the band. What I found was more interesting. Mr. Patiño owns this building in the Do-ruhn-geee-toe are...

There is a special meeting tonight of the Lower Valley Water District and there are two very interesting items on the very short agenda. Both deal with Jack Alayyan and an allegation against him. Click here to see the agenda item . Item 8 deals with "discussion and possible action to address personnel investigation, pending personnel matter involving the General Manager, and status of General Manager's contract of employment." Items 9 and 10 also appear to be possibly related. They will "discuss the evaluation of the Chief Deputy General Manager's evaluation". Ricardo Hernandez is the Chief Deputy General Manager. He was previously a consultant for the LVWD until the position of Chief Deputy General Manager was created. Because the two are so close its not clear if items 9 and 10 are some sort of discipline for Hernandez or if they are on the agenda in the event that the Board chooses to replace Alayyan with Hernandez. As I previously mentioned, a similar it...

As I've said before, I post any campaign announcements that are sent to me. Chairwoman Holguin is having a fundraiser later this week.  She's been the best Chair the Party has had in years and I doubt anyone would take her on.  Also, reminder to anyone that wants the campaign events listed, all you have to do is email them to me at thelionstarblog@gmail.com

Stop saying Senator Rodriguez's statement was out of context. You're lying or stupid because it wasn't. You know who says that their statement was taken out of context? People who said something stupid and are taking heat for it, but don't want to apologize for it. But if you want to talk context, then I have an even bigger beef with it. The context in which the senator used the statement was essentially saying the young people leave El Paso and come back and want things better and change things to "gringolandia". First of all, how colonized is your mind that you think better means white? But lets talk about the term gringolandia itself. There is no context in which it isn't meant in a negative way towards white people. No one in the history of saying the word gringo , meant it in a good way. Mostly because its not a word you use with the intent of meaning it "in a good way". I had a friend on Facebook tell me "Gringolandia isn't racist ...

I've made mention of the fact that Dori Fenenbock has a mostly Republican voting history. The way Democrats that are supporting her are trying to reconcile that is by saying that both candidates are taking Republican money. Which is true, they are. But there's an obvious difference when one candidate, Fenenbock, took a majority of her money from out-of-town Republicans and Escobar that got a modest amount from Republicans. And to make matters worse, Fenenbock's biggest expenditure was to an anti-gay strategist. So its no surprise to me that Sam Morgan is supporter her. He has Republican history, but its been mostly Democratic voting history. Dave Jones is the Chair of the Northeast Democrats. He has been public about his support for Fenenbock, which is unique in terms of chairs of Democratic Party auxiliaries. None of them have endorsed a candidate yet because their chapters haven't held endorsements yet, so that makes Jones the only chapter boss that is already support...