Comadres at the Wall: Drama at the Carolina Recreation Center

Comadres at the Wall: Drama at the Carolina Recreation Center
Tania Chozet throws hissy fits at recreation center

 

 

The most amusing whisper this week was the incident regarding Tania Chozet and the Carolina Recreation Center.

 

As some of you may know, the center is one of the most busy early voting sites in the county.

 

We saw some posting on Facebook stating that Chozet had went into the lobby of the recreation center and sat down for about 30 minutes. Now this is contrary to state law folks and we hear some of her rival candidates were trying to get each other to go in and talk to the election judge and finally someone volunteered.

 

A person went in and complained and the election judge made Chozet leave the rec center.

 She immediately confronted the person who reported her and chastised that person for tattle-tailing, and she said that she was inside “training her aunts to vote.” It’s rumor that this person after being confronted by Chozet responded, “how would you know, you’ve never voted,” referring to Chozets lack of a voting record since she returned to El Paso.

 

The second incident regarding Chozet and the Carolina Center was that one of the candidates hosted a tardeada. Chozet showed up and talked to the person in charge asking why they allowed the rival candidate to host a election party in a public facility.

 

The rec center employees responded that the rooms could be rented by anyone for any purpose and that the candidate had rented it. Chozet then said that she wanted to rent it. The rec center employees then responded that the candidate had rented it far in advance and that Chozet would not be able to get a date close in time.

 

Rumor is that the city got the Southside Neighborhood Association to organize a meeting of three neighborhood associations last night so that Omar Villa, candidate for El Paso Independent School District trustee could campaign. This was foiled when the incumbent Rosa Benedicto showed up and local activist countered the candidate and incumbent’s speeches.

Not really a rumor, but does Chozet have volunteers. Her 8-day before election campaign finance report shows her campaign is paying people to canvass. If you need a job, you can get about $200-$240 for canvassing for two days. We don't have her campaigns phone number, but you can probably Google her.

Also, we hear Vivian Rojas and Chozet are crashing events that other candidates are sponsoring, like showing up to Ysleta Teacher Association candidates events to pass our their own literature. Que gacho!

Are Steve Ortega & El Paso Times “Collaborating” to Influence the Mayoral election?

Are Steve Ortega & El Paso Times “Collaborating” on Stories In An Attempt to Improperly Influence the Mayoral election for Ortega’s Benefit?
Is a part-time divorce lawyer qualified to be Mayor?

Updated: 10:46pm MST, 5/06/13

Guest Post by Eddie Torreal

The El Paso Times and Steve Ortega’s campaign share the same office building and sources are reporting they are collaborating on news stories in an effort to help a few special interests protect their financial investment in their funded mouthpiece -- Steve Ortega.
 

Once again the El Paso Times attempts to derail the mayoral campaigns of Oscar Leeser and Robert Cormell.

 

In the most-recent effort, the El Paso Times attempts to chill voter enthusiasm for superior mayoral candidates with a proven track record of success in creating jobs, revenue streams for El Paso, and community investment in El Paso’s future – the children.

Long before stepping up to run for mayor, both Cormell and Leeser have made tremendous personal and financial investments in moving the community forward for many years. Both have attained significant levels of advanced education, are innovative, and have a proven track record of success.

 

Steve Ortega has blamed all the past mayors for not moving El Paso forward.

 

Unfortunately for Ortega and the El Paso Times, all the past Mayors in the last 35 years have had college degrees so clearly by Ortega’s public statements, level of educational attainment is not a factor.

 

In addition, the Mayor is no longer CEO of the City. The City Manager is, and that office in unfortunately in the hands of Joyce Wilson.

 

If Ortega and the El Paso Times really believed education and experience matter, then they both would have endorsed candidate Hector H. Lopez.

 

So how useful is Steve Ortega’s Law Degree?

It is natural for the public to presume that lawyers know and therefore follow the law. Unfortunately -- as we have seen in the public corruption cases -- this is not true (see "Disbarment of Former County Judge Luther Jones Final" and "Raymond Telles guilty of fraud").

Is Steve Ortega a wannabe career politician?

 

Following in the tradition of lawyers, like Luther Jones, who became career politicians, Steve Ortega has used his legal education to circumvent the public interest and laws in place to protect the public interest.

Here are a few recent reminders:

 

1. Steve Ortega conducted City business using his personal email account to circumvent the Texas Open Records Act and has refused to release those emails in spite of specific direction from the Texas Attorney General;
2. Ortega voted to use taxpayer money to hire outside attorneys to sue the Texas Attorney General in order to delay and avoid releasing his emails regarding City business. Even the El Paso Times has called for a release of these emails which is why voters should strongly question the integrity of the El Paso Times endorsement and apparent pass on accountability they have given Ortega;

   

   Click to Enlarge. Email from www.chucoleaks.com

3. Steve Ortega relies on City Manager Joyce Wilson’s emails during City Council meetings to tell him what motions to make (see caption above). At a minimum, shouldn’t we require our elected officials to at least have critical thinking skills?
4. Steve Ortega disregarded his fiduciary responsibility to his constituents as well as El Paso at large by failing to disclose the expected Western Refinery valuation and negative budget impact in August 2012. You can read the details here;
5. Steve Ortega lacks the legal prowess to understand the City Charter. He allowed a referendum to go to a public vote in 2010 and then we were told in 2012 that the City Charter does not allow a referendum vote;
6. Steve Ortega supported discrimination against a poor ethnic group to benefit his special interest funding sources. You can read the details here.
7. Steve Ortega disregarded public sector employment prohibitions for elected officials in the City Charter and State law by teaching at EPCC during his first term in office.

Steve Ortega is a part-time divorce lawyer. 

Ortega states he has experience working with children as an attorney. Seriously???

 

Click to Enlarge
El Paso County records show Ortega has only filed in nine years.

El Paso County Court records show (see caption above) Ortega has only filed 10 cases since he was licensed in 2004 (that 10 cases in a 9-year period).  Of these 10 cases, the majority were divorces with no children and only 2 involved children which appear to be child custody.

 
Refusal to Represent the Best Interests of Children in District 7
 

In fact, Ortega has refused to represent the best interests and safety of the children and residents in District 7.

 

Recently he voted to approve placing all the railroad crossings in his district on a potential closure list jeopardizing public safety by limiting emergency routes and hospital access to just Yarbrough Drive.

Additionally, these closures would cost all Ysleta Independent School District taxpayers an additional $300,000 per year – money which should be used in the classroom for the education of children.

In May 2012, Ortega voted against helping YISD improving crosswalks in front of and near Bel Air High School.

 

Voter’s at the Cathedral forum got it right – Strong Moral Character and Public Trust matter and Steve Ortega is not qualified.

El Pasoans Should Vote “AGAINST” ALL 9 Propositions to Amend City Charter: Proposition Summary

Vote "Against" the Joyce Wilson Empowerment Acts

El Pasoans Should Vote “AGAINST” ALL 9 Propositions to Amend City Charter: Proposition Summary

Propositions a.k.a. Joyce Wilson Empowerment Act Hurt City Employees; Gives More Power to Joyce Wilson, City Manager

 

Vote “AGAINST” ALL 9 Propositions

 

§  The Charter Ballot language is vague and does not reflect the actual Charter Changes

 

§  Voters should have been given the opportunity to approve or disapprove amendments individually without having to approve or disapprove a group of amendments.

 

 

Proposition 1 Vote AGAINST:  Protect your representation on City Council  and the integrity of the election process from influence of wealthy special interests

 

Allows a few wealthy interests to influence elections by making running for office more expensive, requires greater numbers of signatures on petitions, result in national elections overshadowing local ones, and make an already complicated petition process even more complicated.

 

 

Propositions 2 Vote AGAINST: Protect your right as a taxpayer for financial accountability over conveyance of City property you paid for. Protect your right to participate and preserve Representation for all.

 

Significantly reduces public notice and participation by allowing the city to lease property by resolution rather than ordinance. Dilutes the Representative form of Government by requiring all board and commission appointments to be approved by the entire council.

 

 

Proposition 3 Vote AGAINST: Protect your investment in your home and the quality of life in your neighborhood

 

Negatively affects residential areas throughout the city by allowing bars in residential mixed-use zones, limiting the rights of residents to oppose bars, and allowing bar patrons to park in residential neighborhoods.

 

Proposition 4 Vote AGAINST:   Unjustified excessive salary increases.

 

Pays Mayor and City Representatives a salary equivalent of 2 people. The salary increases are based on a family of four and not individual income. Raises the salary of the mayor by $28,500 and council members by $20,050. The mayor & council will receive automatic annual pay raises with no public discussion.

 

Proposition 5 Vote AGAINST: Protect your right as a taxpayer for financial accountability of City Council and the City Manager. Protect your right to participate and hold elected officials accountable to a high ethical standard without fear of punitive retaliation.

 

Discourages public oversight by creating a “kangaroo court” with the power to impose fines and sanctions. Will discourage the filing of ethics complaints against public officials. Shifts auditor control to City Manager by the hiring and firing of the city’s auditor.

 

Proposition 6 Vote AGAINST: Protect the integrity of the Civil Service Commission and all city employee rights.

 

Guts the authority of the Civil Service Commission and the civil service protections provided to city employees. It will give power to the City Manager over all personnel decisions and disciplinary processes. It does not address the conflicts of interest of any current or future commissioners who may do millions of dollars in business with the city.

 

Proposition 7 Vote AGAINST:  Protect the rights of all City employees and against non-competitive discriminatory hiring practices of the City Manager.

 

Diminishes the rights of all city employees. Greatly increases the power of the City Manager to hire whoever she wants without a competitive hiring process. Allows the city manager to privatize city jobs by replacing certain civil service positions with outside contractors. Does not provide GLBT or any other employees with any protections or rights that are not already in place.

 

 

Proposition 8 Vote AGAINST: Protect the integrity of the City Charter, Civil Service Commission, and protections of city employees from arbitrary management.

 

Reduces public control over City Charter by enabling city staff to modify the City Charter to make some matters that are currently handled by the Civil Service Commission into administrative matters that will be handled by the City Manager.

 

Proposition 9 Vote AGAINST:  Protect your right as a taxpayer for financial accountability over debt issued in your name and your right to vote on Quality of Life projects for your neighborhood.

 

More debt without voter approval. Removes the restriction in the debt management policy that Quality of Life Bonds must go before voters for approval of debt.

Guilty of Fiduciary Malfeasance? Steve Ortega, Susie Byrd, and Cortney Niland Cause $3 MILLION Dollar Budget Shortfall

Steve Ortega, Susie Byrd, and Cortney Niland Cause $3 MILLION Dollar Budget Shortfall

$9 MILLION Dollar impact in Financial Damage to City

Fiduciary - A fiduciary duty is a legal duty to act solely in another party's interests. Parties owing this duty are called fiduciaries. The individuals to whom they owe a duty are called principals. Fiduciaries may not profit from their relationship with their principals unless they have the principals' express informed consent. They also have a duty to avoid any conflicts of interest between themselves and their principals or between their principals and the fiduciaries' other clients. A fiduciary duty is the strictest duty of care recognized by the US legal system. (Legal Information Institute).

Malfeasance - wrongful and unlawful conduct, especially conduct by public officials which interferes with their public duties (Black's Law Dictionary).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

by Jerry

An email obtained via the Texas Open Records Act and posted at Chucoleaks.org shows that City Representatives Steve Ortega, Susie Byrd, and Courtney Niland knew on August 24, 2012 that the Western Refinery Property Tax appraisal would be between $216 to $280 million dollars. Even though they knew this  -- they kept it quiet.  

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

As a result, this caused a $3 MILLION Dollar Budget Shortfall with a $9 MILLION Dollar impact in financial damage to the City, damage harming all El Pasoans.

 

Who Knew What and When?

Dinah Kilgore stated that she met with ALL the taxing entities in July 2012 and informed them not to count on the Western Refinery property tax money from the $780 million dollar appraisal.

 

Rep. Suzie Byrd

On August 24, 2012, Susie Byrd forwarded an email to Steve Ortega and Courtney Niland stating that the Central Appraisal District (CAD) board will not allocate funds to go to court and instead will negotiate a settlement with Western Refinery and the expected property tax appraisal would be between $216 to $280 million dollars.

 

Byrd attributed these statements to a conversation with Dinah Kilgore, Director Central Appraisal District proving that Dinah Kilgore is telling the truth about giving the City notice.

 

Steve Ortega, Susie Byrd, and Courtney Niland KEPT THE SHORTFALL QUIET!

 

Gary Hanson spokesman from Western Refinery stated his company notified all the taxing entities not to count on the $780 million dollar appraisal.

 

Furthermore, are we really expected to believe that the City Manager Joyce Wilson and Chief Financial Officer Carmen Arrieta Candelaria were not informed by both Dinah Kilgore and Western Refinery, but Susie Byrd was????

 

Could the Budget Shortfall Have Been Prevented?

 

Absolutely!

 

Photo obtained via Occupy City Hall

City Manager Joyce Wilson and the Chief Financial Officer Carmen Arrietta Candelaria had a responsibility to amend the budget and submit a truthful accounting of expected property taxes in July 2012 when notified by both Dinah Kilgore and Western Refining.

 

Steve Ortega, Susie Byrd and Courtney Niland could have prevented this from happening in August 2012 at the beginning of the budget year. Ortega, Byrd, and Niland had a responsibility to post an agenda item to review the impact on the budget rather than “keeping it quiet” until May 2013, the last quarter of the budget cycle when the budget shortfall would have triple the impact.

 

Who gets Harmed?

As a result of “their secret,” Steve Ortega, Susie Byrd, and Courtney Niland have harmed every person in the City.

 

Yes taxpayers, you will have to make up the shortfall in higher taxes or lose services.

 

What are the Financial Damages?

 

The expected financial impact is between $11.3 to 17.3 MILLION Dollars in budget shortfalls countywide.

 

KVIA reported Western Refinery CAD settlement leaves budgets short

You can read the KVIA story here

http://www.kvia.com/news/western-refinery-cad-settlement-leaves-budgets-short/-/391068/19981276/-/ep9bc0z/-/index.html

 

The Western Refinery Property Tax Settlement is expected to cost in budget shortfalls:

§  The City $3 million dollars and an actual impact of $9 million dollars

According to Mayor Cook with only a quarter of the year left that $3 million triples to a $9 million dollar impact on the city budget.

To put it in perspective, the City only keeps a $16 million dollar reserve fund and they want you to lower that in the Charter Amendment Propositions!

§  The County $1.7 million dollars

§  The El Paso Independent School District $5.3 million dollars

§  The El Paso Community College $500,000

§  The University Medical Center $800,000

 

The Convenient Scapegoats: Central Appraisal District Board (CAD) and Dinah Kilgore

 

Steve Ortega had no response which is no surprise since he thinks he answers to no one.

 

Amazingly, Susie Byrd’s response to the KVIA story regarding CAD was "It's almost

like they make this stuff up," City Rep. Susie Byrd said.

 

 Geez “It’s actually like Susie Byrd is completely lacking in both honesty and integrity.”

 

Courtney Niland has “volunteered” to sit on the Central Appraisal District (CAD) Board and “vowed to do what she can to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”  

 

Newsbreak to Niland! Your oath of office is a “vow”!

 

You had a responsibility to take steps to prevent this in August 2012. Do you really expect us to believe your “vow”?

 

Vote INFORMED EL PASO  - It’s time to Clean Out a Corrupt City Government!

Do you really think Steve Ortega is fit for public office much less Mayor?

 

Do you really think Susie Byrd is fit for public office much less an EPISD school board trustee?

 

Do you really trust Carmen Arrieta Candelaria to “fix” the problems at EPISD by serving on the EPISD Board of Managers?

 

Are you tired of being scammed for millions of dollars by City Manager Joyce Wilson?

 

Steve Ortega, Susie Byrd, and Courtney Niland should resign or be removed from office immediately by recall or fiduciary malfeasance. They should NEVER be allowed to run for elected office again.

 

Joyce Wilson and Carmen Arrieta Candelaria need to shown to the door.

Kids First Reform EPISD Now PAC: What’s Wrong and What’s White

 

Kids First Reform EPISD Now PAC: What’s Wrong and What’s White

Where Are All the Brown People: PAC has trouble even attracting Steve Ortega types

by Ben

The recent low-attendance of forums hosted by Kids First Reform EPISD PAC may be a clue how out of touch they are with people of color. Of course you remember, this is Susie Byrd and Elliot Shapleight's PAC trying to put Byrd on the EPISD school board among others.

 

However, a much better clue is their financial report filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.

 

Out of the 52 people listed as donors, only 6 appear to be Latino. Now we are basing this on the number of Hispanic surnames found in their financial report: five (5) which we counted (we counted 47 White surnames), and one surname whom we know the person is Latino despite the last name. So let’s do the math, that’s only 11.32 % of Kids First donors are Latino (out of the more than 80% Latino make up of El Paso).

 

Wow!

 

Kids First huh?

 

Who’s kids?

 

Definitely not 87% of the population of El Paso who are Latino -- not their kids.

 

What is 11.32% closer to? Who? We get it, the 14.2% make up. Which group is that: yes, Whites.

 

What Side of Town do Kid’s First Donors Come from

 

Certainly, Kids First has walked the barrios to make sure their organization is diverse.

 

70.5 % of Kids first donors live on the Westside

 

·         One donor lives south of I-10

·         One donor lives in Memorial Park

·         Eleven donors live in the North East (21.5%)

·         Four live in the Burges area

 

So much for diversity!

 

Gandalf the White

Paso del Norte Group/Borderblex Alliance Membership Cross-References

 

However, if you are trying to get a bigger percentage, look no further than whom the PAC donors are and how many of them are members of the PDNG.

 

Now, we may be using an old membership list. Some we could not find on the roles. But for people like former Assistant City Manager Debbie Hamlyn (known to be a terrific friend of people of color), we know she worked for PDNG or one of its affiliated entities during the stadium debacle (just a few day after her retirement we’ll add). There is also Tracy Yellen of MyrnaDeckert & Associates,* but not found the PDNG lists. We did not find her on the membership list, but she might as well be.

 

Edward Escudero

Perry Fienbert (Stephen)

Carol Glicrease (Paul)

Leanard "Tripper" Goodman (yep, the stadium guy)

Frank Gorman (Patrick)

Jimmy Janack

Frank Gormans

Robert O’Rourke (Beto O'Roarke)

Melissa O’Rourke (daughter of Bill Sanders)

Eric Peirson if he’s the same guy in Peirson and Peirson

Deberah Kastrin

Pearson and Pearson (Eric)

Tracy Yellen

JoAnn Casey

Michael Wenolt

 

That’s 29.4% of Kids First donors are PDNG members.

 

 

* Deckart is a co-founder of the PDNG and former executive director