El Paso Politics

As if this election cycle hasn't already been full of drama to begin with, there is actually much more and much worse than just Trustee Mickey Loweree allegedly lying about her experience, and allegedly lying about teaching certification, and allegedly lying about her degree, and being at all connected to Carlos Sierra. Volume 2 of this series is going to be the worst and will make everything else you've heard this election cycle pale in comparison. But I'll get to that later. For now, lets talk about San Eli's races. Its always the small town races were things get really intense. There is a school board race and a city council race down there that are pretty important to the community. To know San Elizario is to love it. While its most known for it's history, landmarks, historic, religious, and cultural sites, her beauty and tranquility, that isn't what is best about her. Its not even the fact that they seem to pretty much own the rest of Texas in cross country...

It looks like a slew of candidates gave up on transparency. Several candidates for the school board races simply didn't file campaign finance reports. Gary Berglund who is running in the Franklin area has not filed a report, and 8 day reports are required to be filed. For real. And I know this is going to shock you, but neither has District 7 Trustee Mickey Loweree. But come on, you just knew it was gonna be her, right? I mean, Carlos Sierra and filing a campaign finance report do not go together in a sentence unless its separated by the words did not file . Carmen Graham who is the incumbent for one of the EPCC Trustee seats, and should therefore know better, did not file a report either. Nina Piña apparently decided to leave Europe and come to El Paso where all us common folk are and filed a report, but it was late and hasn't been posted as of the time of this blog post. I'll go through them and post anything interesting about them.

Yesterday was an important hearing at TCEQ. It was to determine whether or not a medical waste facility, that has plans to be a regional dumping ground for medical waste would be allowed to begin operating in the Lower Valley. And not a single member of the El Paso legislative delegation attended, sent even a low-level staffer, or even bothered to send a letter opposing the facility. Had two elected officials - one from the County and one from the City - not shown up, the facility would've likely been approved and we'd have a medical waste facility in the Lower Valley. Everyone reading this knows that if this facility were planned for the westside, every damn member of the delegation would be leaning on that state agency to make sure a facility like that ever even had a machine start. Remember the recent "controversy" about the Hoover building on the west? They were building facility to process immigrants and everyone had a heart attack. Some fool even said that it di...

Are you mad as hell that Mickey Loweree appears to have lied to you about her education? Do you agree with what the El Paso Times Editorial Board said in their recent endorsements of EPISD candidates when they said: "Transparency should never be a luxury in public service. We should demand that those who choose such a role and take on the responsibility of guiding the education of our children meet the basic standards for transparency and accountability?" Because I do. I think that part of the editorial in particular spoke to a basic expectation that we should all have for elected officials that has been absent in EPISD lately. Well it also appears to have been absent in SISD Trustee candidate Josh Carter Guerra. I've made no secret that I'm not a fan of the guy, and this is just yet another example of why. While Josh Carter is running for the SISD Board of Trustees for the Montwood area in this cycle, he recently ran for the EPCC Board of Trustees in the 2017 cycle a...

I got Frank Macias' mailer today and it was interesting to me. He makes a "promise to never vote for a property tax increase." Never vote for a property tax increase. What an empty platitude. Seriously this kind of shit annoys me because its the kind of irresponsible things people say to get elected. But it damn sure isn't good policy. Now because you guys get your tangas in a twist, I'm not saying tax us to death, waste money, or be poor stewards of public tax dollars. If that is all you get from this, go back to elementary school and learn how to read. What I am saying is that if you've never served on a board or not the particulars about the budget, needs of the faculty, students, and staff, then you shouldn't say that you wouldn't raise taxes. The reality is you may be in a position where you have to raise taxes and there are any manner of situations that could put an entity in that situation. Saying you won't vote for a tax increase is the ea...

Niña Piña is a candidate on the eastside for an El Paso Community College Board of Trustees seat. Those are important seats but they have a really hard time with credibility in the community because, well its a school board seat for community college. People just don't know that is a thing. Well she apparently is SOOOOO committed to earning your vote, that she decided to take a European vacation during the run up to Early Voting and the first part of Early Voting. Nothing sends a clearer message that you don't give a damn about the office you're running for than going out of town in the middle of a campaign. Going out of the country, that is leveling up! Yep, that is how much she cares about being a trustee. Also, talk about being tone deaf about the community you're trying to represent...you're trying to get a seat on a board who's students are largely funding their collegiate investment through Pell grants and other financial aide, but you're off site seei...

Okay well it turns out just when you think Carlos Sierra can't possibly make things any worse for controversial EPISD Trustee Mickey Loweree, he apparently has. And this is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You just knew it was going to end like this when he was emphatic about Loweree having proof of a degree from UTEP and 10 years of teaching experience in EPISD. Take note people, when you tell a journalist something, they are going to check your story. They aren't going to just take your word for it. So the media put in open record requests to verify Loweree's employment and education. And guess what? No record of employment as a teacher, no record of a degree from UTEP. Mickey Loweree decides to blame this on being bullied by Ross Moore of the AFT. Ross is a union boss and doing his job, protecting is profession. That is the ENTIRE job of a what a union boss is supposed to do. Thats not being a bully, that is catching someone in a big ass lie. Obviously the who...