Lily Limon Backing Away from Arena

On October 18, 2016, 7 City Council members voted to approve the project site for the new arena.  They also approved the POSSIBLE use of eminent domain to acquire the land.  Reps. James Tolbert, Emma Acosta, Carl Robinson, Michiel Noe, Claudia Ordaz, Lily Limon and Cortney Niland voted in favor of the site.

In the last 24 hours, a recall has been started against Rep Cortney Niland and now Rep. Lily Limon is backing away from her vote.  She told the news that she is worried that people are being forced out.  Um, YOU VOTED TO USE eminent domain – what, exactly, did you think that meant?  Her concern prompted her to post a comment on Facebook:

 

As far as announcements go, this is a pretty lame way to go about it.  It is a comment on a Facebook post (not even her own Facebook page).  Will she now join forces with Cortney Niland push forward an alternative?  Who knows.  It will be interesting to see if any other City Reps start changing their votes as the threat of a recall is hanging out there.

 

Cortney Niland Recall Effort

 

Michael Patino, a Union Plaza resident has filed paperwork to recall City Representative Cortney Niland.  According to El Paso Proud, the paperwork cites 7 reasons:

• Failure to listen to the concerns of her constituents
• Lack of respect for residents
• Failure to keep the highest ethical standards
• Failure to respond t constituents of District 8
• Failure to protect her constituents in Union Plaza from displacement and demolition
• Failure to protect her constituents in Union Plaza from the threat of eminent domain

Now Cortney Niland is walking back from the arena.  According to KVIA: “So when they are saying to me they are upset and maybe there are some unintended consequences that maybe staff did not factor into the equation, we maybe need to take stop and listen,” Niland said.  She is also saying that there are some alternatives:  “I think we might have something pretty exciting to talk about on Tuesday. Where we can still do it in that fiscally responsible way, save the taxpayers money, not displace anyone and make everybody happy,” Niland said. If these alternatives were available, why weren’t they considered in the first place?

News reports are saying that it is possible that other City Reps could also face recall.  It is incredibly difficult to recall someone in El Paso, largely because nobody votes!  Here are the steps required for a recall:

1.  File notice of the recall effort with the City Clerk
2. You have 60 days from filing to collect signatures of 20% (more than 700) of registered voters who voted in the last election for that position (in this case, the last election for District 8 representative).  If you are a registered voter, upset at Cortney Niland BUT didn’t vote in that election, it doesn’t matter how many petitions you sign, your signature doesn’t count.
3. Signing the petition has some pretty strict rules:  signatures must be in ink, signer must enter their address, voter id number and date petition was signed.
4. One signer on each paper must make an oath that each signature is that of the person who it purports to be.
5. Within 10 days of filing the signed petition, the City Clerk and determine if it was signed by enough qualified voters.  If the petition is insufficient, then an extra ten days to get additional signatures.
6. IF the petition is adequate, then it goes to the City Council.  If the person doesn’t resign, then a recall election is scheduled.

For the recall?  Against the recall?  Let us know!

 

City Rep Lily Limon Crying, Again, And Her Tears STILL Aren’t For You!

In July, the topic of hourly wages for city and contract employees was discussed.  During the meeting, Rep Lily Limon tearfully pleaded with City Council to raise the minimum wage to $10 for contract workers.  Rep Noe said Limon’s plan would be bad for taxpayers. “We’re voluntarily, that is artificially, raising the price of a contract and saying ‘okay I’m not going to pay for it. The taxpayers are going to pay for this.”

Well, the topic came up again yesterday.  An emotional Lily Limon tried again to “raise the minimum wage for janitorial, security and grounds maintenance contract workers to $10 an hour.”  City staff reported the increase would have an estimated $3 million annual budget impact – that’s an extra $3 million that needs to come from somewhere.  They had to raise property taxes to accommodate the budget for this year WITHOUT the $3 million increase, so there is no way the current (or future) budget could account for this.

The City Council has tabled the vote until they get more information. “The City will seek input from UTEP, The Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness and its consultants in order to learn how other cities dealt with similar proposals.”

Interested in Being on the EPISD Bond Oversight Committee?

According to a recent interview with Superintendent Juan Cabrera on KFOX, one of the first steps with the new EPISD bond is to assign a bond oversight committee.  How will the select individuals for the committee?  “In terms of the makeup, it’s up to the trustees and how they decide to want to select it,” Cabrera said. “More than likely, each trustee will get a couple of choices and I myself as superintendent will get a couple of choices.”

So, if each trustee will get a couple of choices, we thought we would let everyone know how to contact the trustees so that people could volunteer:

Bob Geske: bgeske@episd.org

Al Velarde: avelarde@episd.org

Susie Byrd: sbyrd@episd.org

Diane Dye: ddye@episd.org

Chuck Taylor: ctaylor@episd.org

Trent Hatch: thatch@episd.org

Dori Fenenbock: dfenenbock@episd.org

The EPISD Board of Trustees haven’t actually asked for any volunteers.  However, if they are going to get “… a diverse group of people that represents the community, whether that’s a part of town, or what they do,” (as Susie Byrd stated), then why not let the community volunteer?  So, if you are interested, LET THEM KNOW! You need to hurry, they are trying to have the committee established by next Wednesday.

EPISD Bond Passes

There were so many surprises on election night:  Donald Trump won as president, 50.33% of registered voters in El Paso cast ballots, and the EPISD Bond passed.

We predict trying times for El Paso in the coming year.  Donald Trump has firm stands on immigrants and walls, both of which will have a large impact on our City.  Additionally, the citizens of El Paso just voted themselves a HUGE increase in property taxes.

“We’ve got a long way to go rebuilding trust,” Cabrera said. “This is a big step in the right direction.”  We disagree.  The rebuilding of trust should have happened BEFORE we gave EPISD the largest bond ever in El Paso County.  However, unlike the County Commissioner’s raises, we were given an opportunity to decide through our votes and the majority voted ‘yes’.

While EPISD is gleefully meeting this morning to start their plan to spend the money, we hope that they will be accountable.  We hope that they will be truthful and efficient.  The one thing they now no longer need to be is frugal.

Below is how the different parts of town voted on the bond:

To see full election results, click here.

Early Voting Monday, October 24, 2016 through Friday, November 04, 2016 – Have you Voted Yet?

What could possibly go wrong on November 8th?  Well:

• You could wake up late
• Have a family emergency
• Have a late day at the office
• Your child or spouse could get sick
• Your car could break down
• You could get picked for Jury Duty
• You forget that it is election day

Rather than hoping that everything goes perfectly on one day, why not make sure you get a chance to vote by voting early?  The nice thing about early voting is that you can go to ANY of the locations (as opposed to only going to an assigned location on November 8th).  Click here to find your nearest early voting location.  In fact, go do it now!  Why are you wasting time reading blogs when you could be out there making a difference?!

Why You SHOULDN’T Vote For The EPISD Bond

We don’t deny that many of the EPISD schools are old or that they need repairs.  We understand that the number of students is declining and that EPISD could benefit from consolidating schools.  Could EPISD use some new school buses?  Probably.  Here are the items we do have issues with:

1.  EPISD says that they need money for consolidations and that, regardless of whether or not the bond passes, they are going to consolidate schools.  Have they looked at other ways of financing some of the updates that are needed (selling property, cost cutting, etc)?  As far as we can tell, the answer is “NO”.  All they have done is told us that the consolidations need to occur and that they need to spend $237 million to save $9 million.
2. It’s been 9 years since the last bond passed for EPISD and they still haven’t completed the projects from that bond.  In fact, they still have money left over from that bond that they have “reallocated to other projects.”  That was a MUCH small bond, and they did a horrible job of managing it.  We’re going to give them three times as much money and cross our fingers that they get it done this time.
3. There are things included in the bond that are not part of ‘educating our children’ or ‘repairing old schools’.  The neighborhood wifi, for example is asking tax payers to provide internet for ~50 neighborhoods.  That is just one of the extras that they have disclosed, what else is included in the bond that we don’t know about?
4. Bond Accountability is a very large concern.  The current board would have you believe that they can be trusted because.. well, they can.  But, rather than show us that they can be trusted by taking a smaller bond and effectively using it, they are asking tax payers to jump off a cliff and just trust that nothing bad will happen.
5. EPISD has communicated very few plans about the closed schools.  Other than saying no to charter schools, they have given us no information.  Most likely, because they don’t have any plans.  So, as they consolidate and close schools, buildings are going to sit empty and possibly devalue property values in those areas.  We feel this lack of planning is indicative of how they are going to run the overall projects – lots of ideas and little planning and execution.

We agree that something needs to be done.  However, we don’t agree that throwing a HUGE amount of money at the issues are going to fix them.

Early voting has started and goes through November 4th.  You can find your nearest location by clicking here.  428,619 of us are registered to vote, get out there and let your voice be heard!

A Letter From A Follower Regarding the EPISD Bond

From one of our followers regarding the EPISD Bond:

As an educator in the El Paso Independent School District, I acknowledge the need to address the long-neglected condition of our schools, and the need to add facilities to accommodate for students enrolled in Fine Arts and athletic programs.

However, the notion that buildings and technology are answers to improve educational outcomes dismisses the role of educators. Technology does not provide the necessary encouragement to a student who comes from a home whose parent has to work two jobs to make ends meet. A new building does not provide inspiration to a student who goes to bed hungry. The closure of neighborhood schools dismisses the concepts of child behavior development, and the sense of community. Pedagogical considerations are a forgone conclusion.

The vilification of our education system is a strategy utilized by special interest groups to de-fund public education, promote test-centered curriculum, and further widen the economic gap between the wealthy and poor.

Realizing that early voting is scheduled to start on October 24, it is necessary to provide the following information that may assist in determining whether to support or oppose the $668.7 million EPISD Bond.

The following links provide insight to some private interests that have funded the El Paso Rising political action committee, that may profit from the passage of the bond, whether through construction or financial consulting services:

• Campaign Finance Report: 
  https://www.scribd.com/document/327350862/El-Paso-Rising-PAC-campaign-finance-report-Oct-11-2016

• Lockwood, Andrews, and Newman, Inc.  contributed $5,000 to El Paso Rising PAC, and are involved in the lead contamination of the Flint, MI water supply.:http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=4333041 

• TCG Services from Austin has contributed $10,000 : 
  http://tcgservices.com/

• David Neumark, an opponent to raising the minimum wage, has contributed $5,000: http://www.wsj.com/articles/minimum-wage-hike-has-losers-many-of-them-poor-letters-to-the-editor-1405274272

• Woody Hunt has contributed $10,000 to the El Paso Rising PAC, and $150,000 to Texans for Education Reform: 
  https://www.texastribune.org/library/data/campaign-finance/filer/232183/from/94993/

A significant contributor to the El Paso Rising political action committee is Dee Margo. He is a former Texas State Representative whose legislative record includes the cutting of the Texas education budget to the tune of $5.4 billion in 2011. He then later served as a member of the EPISD Board of Managers, of whom initially authorized the Jacobs Engineering study, currently used to close and consolidate schools included in this EPISD bond.

The campaign finance reports, include folks who have contributed significant amounts of money to Texans for Education Reform, an organization seeking to dismantle public education, through the promotion of vouchers and charter schools.

A prevalent concern expressed in our community is the issue of trust. A way to restore it, would be the commitment by district officials to re-locate administrative operations to one of the schools proposed for closure, or to the portable classrooms in which our students are currently housed. Given the City of El Paso’s non-renewal of the lease for the administrative offices on Boeing, this would certainly be a tangible action. 

Please consider the education of our children and authentically engage in advocacy efforts.

Best Regards,

No Charter Schools – Other Than That, EPISD Has NO Plan For Old Schools

In case you missed it, you can watch the town hall hosted by the El Paso Times here. When asked what would happen with the old schools, Juan Cabrera (EPISD Superintendent), stated that they would ensure that the land and schools did not have the opportunity to go to charter schools.  Mr. Cabrera threw out a mixed bag of ideas:  Trade land with other entities in El Paso (UTEP, EPWU, etc), retail, multi-family, a park.  “It can be anything that community wants.”

Consolidation of the campus will take 18 – 24 months.  So, as far as the EPISD is concerned, there is no rush to figure out what to do with the land.  Instead, they are going to wait and then work with the community to figure out what to do with the land.  “There will be at least one community meeting.”  In other words, EPISD has no plan and no timeline to figure out what to do with the closed schools.  They have put no thought into how they could use that land to generate income for the school district (and thereby off-setting some of the bond costs).  The only thing they are sure of is that it will NOT go to Charter schools.

The lack of a plan or any type of cost-saving information (other than the projected $1 million a year per closed school) is concerning.  The EPISD has just asked for a HUGE amount of money and told us that they’ll figure out the rest as they go along.  As a final note, EPISD has stated that, even if the bond doesn’t pass they’ll still have to consolidate those schools.  So, shouldn’t they be working on the plan for those properties now?

EPISD Bond Accountability – What We Have To Look Forward To

EPISD wants you to trust them with the $669 million bond they are asking for.  They state that this is a new EPISD that we are dealing with, something COMPLETELY different than the corrupt EPISD of the past.  As part of their presentation about the bond, they included the above slide on how they would be accountable for the bond money.  They are going to create a bond advisory committee – feel better?

Well, in April of 2015 the El Paso Independent School District Board of Managers overruled the unanimous vote of its own 2007 bond advisory committee.  The committee had made the recommendation to NOT spend $1.9 million of 2007 bond contingency funds.  What the Board of Managers was asking for wasn’t unreasonable, they wanted to put the money toward projects in its modernization plan.  However, the advisory committee wanted to wait until the elected board of trustees was in place later that year.  The Board of Managers did NOT, so they overruled their advisory committee.

This entire scenario is what has so many El Pasoans concerned.  EPISD tries to make you feel better by telling you that there is an advisory committee, a committee made up of tax payers just like you, who are working with them throughout the entire bond.  However, they don’t have to take the committee’s recommendations.  In fact, even when the committee had a unanimous vote, they still overruled them and spent the money.  Their reasoning:  “Why would we want to take [millions] out of the general fund, when we know it’s declining anyway and not use the readily available bond funds that are just sitting there and haven’t been appropriated?”