Comadres at the Wall: City Land Trade will Prove Lucrative for Paul Foster

 

Comadres at the Wall

 

1. Steve Ortega to Head Transportation Committee?

Rumor is that Ted Houghton is creating a transportation committee or organization with the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. It's rumored they will ask and pay Steve Ortega to lead it. When will he go away we ask?

 

2.  Great Wolf Lodge Land Exchange

The land being exchanged with oligarch Paul Foster is near a major TXDOT project.

 Read more here: https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/projects/studies/el-paso/northeastpky-lp375-fm3325.html 

3. Is a Port of Entry at Yarbrough poking its head out again?

A local organization began talking about the Yarbrough Port of Entry again. Could it be that Beto O'Rourke's potential election is getting El Paso's oligarchs ganas to bring this out again? More displacement to come folks.

55% of Steve Ortega’s Campaign Donations came Paso del Norte Group and Associates

Steve Ortega: Doughboy of the PDNG
55% of Steve Ortega’s Campaign Donations came from PDNG Members and their Associates
38% came from the 13 PDNG contributors

by Jerry

The Baker’s Dozen
 

Editors Note: We previously analyzed Steve Ortega’s financial reports in 21% of Steve Ortega’s Campaign Donations came from 6 Paso del Norte Group/Borderplex Alliance (PDNG) Special Interests. Since Ortega later amended his 8-day financial report and it was notoriously hard to read, we had to reanalyze it.

Update (06/02/130): The agenda for the Tuesday, June 6 City Council meeting lists that Ortega received $5,000 from Bill Sanders (for a total of $17,000), $5,000 from Rick Francis, $5000 from Charles Jordan, $1500 from Bill Burton, Jack Chapman $1500

 

38% or $105,659.88 of Steve Ortega’s $276,914.40** in total campaign donations came from the following 13 PDNG Members and their associates (see chart above).

 

1.    The owners and relatives of 500 W Overland donated $15,659.88. They also happen to have a contract with the City. 

 

Coincidentally the 500 W Overland tenants include Steve Ortega’s Campaign Headquarters, Steve Ortega’s PR group, The El Paso Times, and Beto O’Rourke’s Stanton Street Technology Group.

 

2. The William “Bill” Sanders and O’Rourke Clan plus employees donated $12,500. Sanders owns the Wells Fargo building through the Borderplex REIT. He is currently leasing space to the City for the Tax Department and the Finance Department because the Finance Department did not fit in the new City Hall. It does not appear that either lease went out to competitive bid.

 

3.  Hunt family and Hunt employees donated $10,100. The Stadium-MountainStar.

 

4.  J Kirk Robinson of Pizza Properties donated $8,000

 

5.   Robert Brown of Brownco Capital, Inc. and Brown Ranch donated $8,000

 

6.   Paul Foster and a Western Refinery employee donated $7,500. The Stadium-MountainStar.

 

7.   Rick Francis family of WestStar Bank donated $7500

 

8.   Robert Hoy family Hoy-Fox Automotive donated $7000

 

9     Dan Longoria of Mattress Firm donated $6900

 

10   Harold Hahn of Rocky Mountain Mortgage donated $6,500. County records show Rocky Mountain Mortgage wrote a mortgage for Steve Ortega for a property he purchased.

 

11.   Ted Houghton of the TxDOT Commission and Toll Road fame donated $6,000

 

12.  JA Cardwell of C&R Distributing donated $5,000. C&R has had contracts with the City.

 

13. Jonathan Abrams of JD Abrams donated $5,000. JD Abrams is the contractor that built part of the Loop extension.

 

The pie charts below show the break down of total campaign donations by interest group

 

(See pie chart above)

 

55% or $152,254.90 from Paso Del Norte Group Members (PDNG) and their Associates which includes those named above (38% or $105,659.88 of the Paso Del Norte Group Members (PDNG) and Associates contributions are from the 13 interests above)

6% or $15,250 from PACs and Companies

1% or $3325 from Family and Friends

7% or $19,700 from Builders and City Contractors excluding PDNG donors

7% or $18,150 from Out of Towners

Only 25% or $63,234.50 was donated from the “Average Citizen,” less than received by other Mayoral candidates

 

** Note: Total campaign contributions are based on line item calculation of contributions which as noted does not match reported summary totals.

 

Ortega Campaign Fianance Report Debacle: Mishandling of Finances

 

Ortega Campaign Finance Report Debacle: Mishandling of Finances

Does Steve Ortega have the skills to provide competent oversight of taxpayer money?

Editorial

Steve Ortega filed an amended report for each of the 3 filing dates. He filed the 30^th and 8^th day before election reports on May 16, 5 days after the May 11 General Election.

The 30^th and 8^th day before election reports had an additional $38,250 in contributions that had been omitted from the original filings.

 

What is disturbing is it is painfully obvious that the totals on the summary sheet do not add up.

 

That should have been the first clue to Ortega that his “corrected” reports may still not be correct and if necessary to seek some math help.

                                     

Based on his handling of his campaign financial reports, does Steve Ortega have the skills to provide competent oversight of taxpayer money?

 

This week’s recent debacle with the Downtown Ballpark costing more than actually predicted adds fuel to the fire.

 

There are important questions regarding Ortega’s campaign finance reports.

 

And these question are not necessarily about who contributors are as we have touch upon in previous post and as we touch upon on our next post. But -- we'll mentioned them anyway.

 

Did Ortega delay filing corrections so that voters would not know how much money he had on hand before the May 11 general election?

 

Did Ortega omit Paso del Norte Group (PDNG) donors to hide their influence on his campaign?

 

The table lists the omitted donors totaling $38,250.  $37,500 of this $38,250 are from PDNG Members or their family.

Date	Last Name	Amount
11-Mar	Sanders	$4,000	PDNG
12-Mar	Francis	2500	PDNG
12-Mar	Francis	2500	PDNG
12-Mar	Hoy	2500	PDNG
12-Mar	Robison	5000	PDNG
15-Mar	Brown	5000	PDNG
19-Mar	Cardwell	4000	PDNG
25-Mar	Houghton	5000	PDNG
25-Mar	Stewart	2000	PDNG
29-Mar	Wallace	750
1-Apr	Rogers	2500	PDNG
22-Apr	Hunt	2500	PDNG

 

The Table below is the summary sheet he signed and filed for each amended Campaign Finance Report.

 

It is obvious from a visual scan that Total Political Contributions Maintained as of the last day of the each report do not “look” correct, particularly for the 30^th and 8^th day before election reports.

 Ortega's Amended Report                  Jan 15       30th Day       8th Day        Total

Total Political Contributions                54,395       80,774.88     147,300.5     282,460.4

Minus Tot Political Expenditure          12,905.37  36,251.11      201,296.49  250,443

Minus In-Kind Donations                     125           1559.88         7429.5         9114.38

Equals Tot Political Contribution

       Maintained                                     41,479.63  23,162.41      23,496.24   22,893.03

 

Given the totals Ortega submitted, below is what one would expect to be reported as the summary totals, particularly for the Total Political Contributions Maintained as of the last day.

 

Based on the values provided, the actual contributions maintained as of the last day would have been $84,318.52 on hand rather than $23,162.41.

 

An underreport of $61,156.11 !

 

	January 15th	30th day	8th day	Totals
Tot Political Contributions	54,385	80,774.88	147,300.5	282,460.4
minus Tot Political Expenditures	12,905.37	36,251.11	201,296.49	250,453
minus In-Kind Donations	125	1559.88	7429.5	9114.38
equals Tot Political Contributions Maintained	41,354.63	84,318.52	22,893.03	22,893.03

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

 

 

Below is a table of the difference in amounts reported and expected for each amended Campaign Finance Report for Total Political Contributions Maintained as of the last day of the each report.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

	January 15th	30th day	8th day
Tot Political Contributions Maintained	125	-61,156.11	603.21

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additionally, Ortega’s political contributions were checked multiple times and the summary totals do not add up to reported line item totals.

 

The largest is $6,121.00 in contributions that could not be accounted for in the 8^th day before election report.

 

Overall, it appears there is $5,546.00 in donations with no line item donors but is included in the final summary page total.

 

________________________________________________________________

                                                       January 15th       30th day      8th day      Totals

Tot Political Contributions              54,285                 80774.88     147,300.5  282460.4

Tot Political Contributions              54,060                 81,674.88    141,189.5  276914.4

                Calculated

Difference                                      325                       -900             6121         5546

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Again, we pose the question, based on his handling of his campaign financial reports --

Does Steve Ortega have the skills to provide competent oversight of taxpayer money?