Political Influence Costs Taxpayers Millions

[Below is an op-ed piece written by Charlie Wakeem and published by the El Paso Times in yesterday's Sunday paper. It was published under the title of Wakeem: City backslides on development issues. N.B.: Charlie is a gentleman. He won't name names but I will. Brad Roe replaced David Nemir who was a stellar member of the PSB. The attorney for the PSB/EPWU at the time was Bob Andron. Fortunately he retired and was replaced by Lupe Cuellar.]

In light of the recent revelations about the dysfunction and mismanagement in City Hall, I feel it’s time for me to speak about other issues I’m aware of.
One only needs to look at the difference in city government since the 2013 municipal election and decisions City Council has made since then.  Most of the problems are already well-documented, including but not limited to issues with the city manager and Rep. Larry Romero and City Council’s lack of vision and transparency.

I have served on several city boards and committees during the past decade, the latest being the Open Space Advisory Board.  Among others, I also served on the Subdivision Ordinance Rewrite Committee, the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, the PSB Selection Committee and the Capital Improvements Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to City Council regarding impact fees.

I was formerly chairman of the Open Space Advisory Board, which advises City Council on the Open Space Master Plan.  I was term-limited from the board last summer.

OSAB accomplished a great deal in the first few years of its existence.  However, things started to change after the 2013 municipal election.  City staff began to keep board members from having a say in setting the agenda and posting items for ineffective and useless Information and Discussion only instead of Action, thereby limiting the collective voice of its citizen board members.

I can only surmise that it’s the people with political and financial influence that are behind the silencing, since OSAB is unpopular with many of those people.
The City spent several years at a cost of millions of dollars, in large part provided in grants by the federal government, for Plan El Paso, El Paso’s nationally-recognized, award-winning comprehensive plan.

It has since been shelved.  Proof of this is that it is no longer available on the city’s web site.  Once again, it seems apparent that some people with influence have convinced the City to ignore it, because Plan El Paso discourages urban sprawl.

Impact fees are strictly regulated by the state and are designed so that new growth pays for itself, instead of the taxpayers or ratepayers subsidizing the new growth.  El Paso has imposed impact fees on new growth for water and wastewater infrastructure since 2009.

Impact fees are calculated by anticipating how many new housing units will be built in new growth areas over a ten year period and the cost of infrastructure to extend water and wastewater service to those new units.  The calculation was originally roughly $2,000 per new water meter (unit) in the city’s three new growth areas when the impact fees were imposed in 2009.  City Council approved 75% of that amount in impact fees.  That left the rest of us still subsidizing new growth for about $500 per unit.

Every five years the state requires impact fees to be recalculated.  In 2014 the El Paso Water Utilities calculated about $35 million more for infrastructure to serve the East and Northeast new-growth areas with a slight increase in the West.

I had term-limited off the Capital Improvements Advisory Committee by then.  The East and Northeast new growth areas are now approximately as much as $4,000 per unit.  The Capital Improvements Advisory Committee, the majority of whose members belong to the El Paso Association of Builders, convinced City Council to withhold any increase.

You and I are now left with subsidizing new growth for water and wastewater costs at up to $2,500 per unit.

Also, in late 2014, the PSB Selection Committee, met to select the engineer position on the PSB.  The incumbent was the very highly qualified David Nemir, who had already served on the board for the previous four years and was eligible for another four year term.  One of the other applicants, who I will not name, was a land development engineer.

There is a policy that land development engineers do not qualify for membership on the PSB due to a possible conflict of interest.  I pointed this out at the meeting.  However, the attorney for the PSB/EPWU said the applicant had recently sold his engineering firm and retired.  If he sold his firm and retired, why is he still representing land development clients at the City?  I’ve personally seen him do so.

The mayor, who serves on the PSB and chairs the selection committee, was absent at this PSB selection meeting.  The selection committee proceeded to re-nominate Dr. Nemir by a wide margin. 

When the committee’s recommendation subsequently went to City Council, the land development engineer was inexplicably appointed in place of Dr. Nemir. City Council has the right to appoint anyone it wants, but we have to ask ourselves whether political influence was involved. 

The best way for citizens to make change is elections.  Let’s choose the candidates with integrity and a vision for our city, who work for us and not self-serving financial interests. 
   
Charlie Wakeem

Cuellar To Replace Andron at EPWU

Here's some good news - great news really: Real Estate Manager and Counsel for the El Paso Water Utilities, Lupe Cuellar, will replace General Counsel, Robert "Bob" Andron. Mr. Andron officially retires tomorrow, May 29, 2015. Ms. Cuellar takes over as General Counsel on Monday, June 1, 2015. 

Cuellar has been a strong advocate for open space and conservation while remaining fair to other stakeholders. elpasonaturally was happy when she was put in charge of open space acquistions. She proved to be hugely successful with her negotiations for open space purchases. Following the direction of CEO, John Balliew, Ms. Cuellar put together a team and crafted a new and environmentally-sensitive wildlife and vegetation policy for the utility. She has also kept in mind the interests of petitioners and the compromise known as the Northwest Master Plan and elpasonaturally believes that she and Balliew were instrumental in saving that master plan from a potential threat to submarine it.

On the other hand, elpasonaturally has been critical of Mr. Andron particularly regarding an attempt to enforce a gag rule on PSB members following an objection by then PSB member, Rick Bonart, over a donation to the College of Engineering at UTEP. Dr. Richard Schoephoerster is the Dean of that college and the Chairman of the PSB.

Lupe Cuellar has a Master of Arts from Texas Tech University and a JD from the University of Texas at Austin. She was the Assistant City Attorney for the City of El Paso from 1996 until 2012 (over 16 years of service). She then became the Real Estate Manager and Counsel for the EPWU.

Andron is out. Cuellar is in. "God's in his heaven; all's right with the world." Well, at least this corner of that world.

More on the Proposed PSB Gag Rule

To refresh your memory read the draft of the proposed PSB gag rule communications policy found embedded in an earlier post.

Remember that the gag rule communications policy is the result of the failure to approve a water project for UTEP that was to be largely subsidized by rate payers. Keep in mind that the project was in essence a gift from the utility to UTEP - a violation of rules governing a utility. As a result of that failure Engineering Dean and Chairman of the PSB, Richard Schoephoerster wanted board approval of a "communications" policy drawn up by previous Chair, Ed Escudero, but never ratified by the PSB. The attempt to ramrod the UTEP project through the board had been preempted by another board member, Dr. Rick Bonart, who alerted the press. The gag order is meant to keep board members from preventing "official", "in-house", "good old boys" from getting their way.

At the November meeting of the PSB, both EPWU Attorney Bob Andron and Chairman Schoephoerster claimed that there is a distinction between elected officials and appointed officials. They were attempting to rebut the argument that, since any City Council representative can speak to the press at any time, their appointments can do the same. Unfortunately, the interpretation of law says quite the opposite.

First, the IRS makes no distinction between elected and appointed officials. In their document on classification of elected and appointed officials they give this list of examples:

"Examples of public officers are: the President and the Vice President; a governor or mayor; the secretary of state; a member of a legislative body, such as a state legislature, county commission, city counsel, school board, utility or hospital district; a judge, a justice of the peace, a county or city attorney, a marshal, a sheriff, a constable and a registrar of deeds; tax collectors and assessors; and members of advisory boards and committees."

The emphases are mine but you get the point.

Now read about municipal judges in Texas here. It reveals: "Most municipal judges are appointed by the governing body of the municipality (e.g., a city council), although a few are elected." In El Paso County we elect our municipal judges; but we are the exception not the rule. Whether appointed or elected, municipal judges have the same duties and responsibilities and are held to the same standards.

It is ridiculous to believe that PSB members, because they are appointed, should have a different relationship and interface with the public and the media. The real issue here is a little thing called the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States which guarantees freedom of speech and press. 

There is still one final reason why we must make sure that our PSB members are not gagged by the Shoephoerster-Andron Gag Rule (which I will henceforth call it). The PSB has a unique relationship with the citizens and City of El Paso. They are not just in charge of water and stormwater utilities. We have empowered them with the management of our land. Our Land - not anyone else's land and they are fiduciaries of it. In and of itself, this managerial responsibility of our land means that they are directly responsible not just to City Council but to you and to me, citizens of the City of El Paso. We should expect our land managers to have every right to speak out to the press and to us and not to be hampered by a gag rule.

Dr. Bonart has written a more positive policy - a real communications policy. Read it. It needs some tweaking but it is will lead to transparent governance and land management and not to good-old-boy style of internal control such as the one that has long been in place at the PSB/EPWU. One that operates behind closed doors in total disregard of the public and operates in a paternalistic, oligarchic style.

The Communications Committee will meet this Monday, December 2, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. at the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board Meeting Room, 1154 Hawkins Boulevard, El Paso, Texas to deliberate on the proposed Shoephoerster-Andron Gag Rule or to serve the public and recommend one more like Bonart's. This is a public meeting. Please attend if you can.

Catching Up: PSB Communications Policy

Read the history of the gag rule

I last wrote about the PSB's gag rule communications policy here. David Crowder reported about the contentious November meeting of the PSB in an El Paso Inc. story. I was at that meeting and spoke out against the gag rule communications policy reminding board members that it sprang from the failure of Dr. Shoephoerster to get approval of a water project at UTEP - a project that would have been funded by ratepayers. Shoephoerster called my allegation "untruthful" but the facts speak for themselves. I also took Bob Andron, EPWU attorney, to task for taking the communications policy into the closed doors of executive session in the beginning. (Shouldn't the PSB have their own attorney?)

Mayor Leeser again saved the day and the matter was kicked into a committee. 

The Chair has called a meeting of the Public Service Board Gag Rule Communications Committee to be held on Monday, December 2, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. at the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board Meeting Room, 1154 Hawkins Boulevard, El Paso, Texas. This is a public meeting. I might just wear a gag when I attend.