Tightening the Belt?

In what world does cutting pay by five percent for the highest paid City staffers make sense?

Tommy G is making a little less that $400k a year. A five percent cut works out to less than $20k. You think $20k is going to make a difference to a city with a billion dollar budget, and debt of more than $2 billion?

Nuh uh. That nominal cut is just for appearances. That’s a token gesture to let the C-suite execs get their shit together before the ship sinks. I reckon the suits are cutting their personal expenses and packing their bug-out bags before the shit really hits the fans.

“Look,” they’re saying. “This is just a temporary situation. Tomorrow we’re all going to wake up and this will have just been a bad dream.”

Right. It would be nice to get a little leadership from our high-paid leaders. Unfortunately, there’s not a chance of that happening.

10 comments

  1. This bullshit about civic and local “executives” having to receive yuge salaries so that we can compete with private enterprise is so much crap. Nobody does enough work to justify being paid a six figure salary, and that includes professional athletes.

  2. You do have to wonder what other cities would be foolish enough to hire Tommy G, or Ms. City Attorney, for any amount of money? They’ll stick around, expecting that someday soon when the yokels aren’t looking they’ll get the 5% restored…meantime, WHO are the 400 furloughed? What duties do/did they have? What city functions will be downgraded?

    1. I have waited for the El Paso City Council and Mayor to say they would also take a pay cut but so far I have seen no proof of it. Yet they want the city worker to take a pay cut and furlough. But I guess they have only one mode and that is to spend and not reduce.

      1. mayor Margo “donates” his salary. In short, he’s screwing El Paso for FREE.

        1. Jud is he donating his salary to Operation Noel? If so, that is his foundation. He never thinks of the food need in El Paso.

    2. Some of the employees that were furloughed include most of the staff at the El Paso public libraries and the recreation department.

  3. The El Paso Airport, a City agency, just closed the Butterfield Trail Golf Course…citing maintenance expenses and lack of supporting revenue.

    Last weekend I saw in the New York Times a piece about golf players during the pandemic, and it raised some questions about that course…Golf is increasingly an Elderly sport…the NYT piece pointed out that the number of golfers peaked in 2003, and golf course closings began to substantially out number openings.

    WHAT WERE THEY THINKING ??? Opening a $11 million course as the golfing business began to contract? $460,000 for water maintenance every year?

    AND the idea apparently was to attract a resort hotel next to the course, which never happened. But now the airport management says a recent offer can’t be accepted because the FAA won’t allow residential buildings around an airport…well, perhaps a resort hotel might not be prohibited as “residential,” but really? Build a resort hotel next to an airport, with constant noise from arrivals and departures?

    Was the idea that golfers would fly into El Paso and take a taxi (this was pre-Uber!) to the hotel, and just stay there, play golf on the Fazio course, have dinner, get up and play some more golf? How would that have benefited El Paso?

    So now we have a golf course that will just dry up minus half a million bucks to water it for the year, and somewhere around $2 million yearly losses since it was opened, so $20 million and change…

    WHO came up with this idea, and who approved it???

    Same kind of crazed thinking that produced the multi-million dollar bribe plan to get Great Wolf here…or build that “arena…”

    1. I guess in hindsight it does seem a little wacky. Maybe a trolley would make it better.

  4. I detest the word “furlough”, especially the city’s contention that it’s only for a year. It’s disingenuous. Those workers have been fired for all intents and purposes. It costs less to let them have their medical because they’re going to look for work to feed their families. The city uses that term instead of saying fired. How about firing some of the upper ranks instead? Like the bloated staff that Tommy G. has, or all the administrative assistants for the mayor and city reps. THAT would make a difference. By the way, you know they’re still working on that water park at Cohen? WHY?

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