Download the Environmental App Please Mayor Leeser

Mayor Leeser is a great guy but he has got to begin valuing environmentalism more.


Last Tuesday I wrote an open letter to the Mayor following a Times story showing that there was no representation from El Paso's outdoor/environmental community. Here's what happened afterwards:

Near the end of the day yesterday I received a call from the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Taylor Moreno. She was following-up on my letter. She explained that the El Paso Times had not mentioned that there would be a "Community" meeting with Affion and that they (the Mayor's office) had invited Richard Teschner to represent the environmental community. She said that Dr. Teschner was not available so she had contacted Charlie Wakeem who agreed. (Charlie was one of three names that I had suggested in my letter.) While Ms. Moreno and I were talking, Charlie was trying to call me. I spoke to him a little later and he told me about being asked to be part of the "Community" meeting. Obviously around 5 p.m. yesterday, Taylor called Charlie and then called me.

Taylor was unaware that I had communicated with Teschner yesterday after my blog post. Teschner declined the offer because he had a class to teach and Richard never, ever gives the students a walk. Academia comes first - at least that is my experience of him. What Teschner didn't know until my post was that he was the one and only person from the green community to be asked. I advised him that he immediately recommend Wakeem or someone else. Obviously, the Mayor's office had not sought to find a replacement - again, until my letter. 

I am very glad that the Mayor directed Ms. Moreno to call Charlie. (I'm assuming that he did and that she didn't act unilaterally.) I'm also glad that he had approved inviting Teschner although it seems from other info that I have that the suggestion to invite Teschner came from outside of the Mayor's office meaning, of course, that his office had never thought about asking an environmentalist in the first place. Environmentalism just isn't a part of that office's zeitgeist even though it should be. (Kudos, however, to the Mayor for appointing Lisa Turner to the Advisory Search Committee.)

Disregarding for the moment the fact that this Council believes business values and environmental values are necessarily opposed (which they aren't), what does the oversight of a green appointment from the Mayor's office mean especially in the context of the dominant presence of business (and, yes, sprawlers) before Affion in the process of selecting a new City Manager? 

The Mayor is a very nice man. Some criticize him for not exerting more leadership during some of the more difficult moments at City Council. I have seen him more in action at PSB meetings and can attest that he is one not to put anyone in an awkward situation. When he disagrees, it's more nuanced. He subtly asserts (and he does assert) his differences. That is him as a nice man who values the feelings of others.

However, it is obvious that the Mayor is also someone who doesn't have a high value of environmental issues. That's something that I hope can be instilled in him. He needs to download the environmental app so that it is always running in his psyche even if just in the background.

That download probably won't be easy. However, Ms. Moreno did pick-up the phone to call Charlie Wakeem yesterday. Good start.