This post originally appeared on 23 April 2020.
Good news, everybody.
Sure, people are dying, and the economy’s in the pits, but our mayor has a plan.
Dee Margo has assembled a blue-ribbon task force of El Paso’s heavy hitters to fix El Paso’s economy.
Here’s the list of the task force members, as reported by KTSM:
- Mayor’s Economic Recovery Task Force
- Rick Francis, Chair – Economic Recovery Task Force, WestStar
- Ray Aduato, El Paso Association of Builders
- Gabriel Ayub, El Paso Hotel and Lodging Association
- Jon Barela, Borderplex Alliance
- John Balliew, El Paso Water Utilities
- Bill Burton, Burton Mithoff Partners
- Alvaro Bustillos, Vaquero Trading
- Richard Castro, McDonalds
- JJ Childress, Microsoft
- Julio Chiu, Seisa Medical
- Roberto Coronado, Federal Reserve Bank
- Alejandra de la Vega Foster, Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua
- Leo Duran, L&J Café – Restaurant Association
- Edward Escudero, Sierra Finance
- Miguel Fernandez, Transtelco
- Joe Gudenrath, Downtown Management District
- Jessica Herrera, City of El Paso Economic Development
- Josh Hunt, Hunt Companies
- Andrea Hutchins, El Paso County Economic Development
- David Jerome, Greater EP Chamber of Commerce
- Renard Johnson, Meti
- Matt Keats, Keats Southwest
- William Kell, Franklin Mountain Management
- Rick Lange, MD, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
- Crystal Long, GECU
- Don Margo, HUB International
- Mando Martinez, North East Business Association/Mimbela Contractors,
- Leila Melendez, Workforce Solutions Borderplex
- Ricardo Mora, Technology Hub
- Madhi Nair, Esperanto Developments
- Jared Nieman, Abundant Living Faith Center
- Elizabeth O’Hara, Texas Gas Service
- Dan Olivas, El Paso Realtors Association
- Shawn Ollis, Prudential
- Raymond Palacios, Bravo Auto
- Eric Pearson, El Paso Community Foundation
- Christian Perez Giese, CBRE
- Cindy Ramos Davidson, El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Adrian Rodriguez, El Paso Electric
- Allen Russell, TECMA
- Michelle Savage, Savage Goods
- Bishop Mark Seitz, Catholic Diocese of El Paso
- Dr. William Serrata, El Paso Community College
- VJ Smith, Marathon Petroleum Corporation
- Brad Taylor, El Paso Chihuahuas
- Nico Tejeda, Tenet Healthcare
- Cary Westin, City of El Paso
- Dr. Heather Wilson, The University of Texas at El Paso
- Bob Wingo, Sanders\Wingo Advertising Inc.
- Gene Wolf, Kemp Smith LLP.
- Tracy Yellen, Paso del Norte Community Foundation
- Marco Zaragoza, Windstar
That’s a lot of people. I can’t wait to see the Zoom gallery. Including that many people makes it certain that nothing will get done.
If they all chipped in a million bucks or two for economic stimulus checks, that’d be a first step. It would for sure be a more effective tool for economic development than the Quality of Life bond projects, or that $40 million we were going to give to Great Wolf Lodge.
The mayor made sure to include the parasites who have been sucking the life out of the local economy for the last several years, or their surrogates.
Running about ten percent of these visionaries out of town might be a positive first step.
Curious, isn’t it, that our landlord class isn’t represented? They’ll probably have more direct influence on our local economy than most of vampires on the list.
I can’t wait to see what solutions they come up with.
I was expecting to find someone representing The Great Wolf Lodge….since they were going to be given HUUUGE tax abatements to build a World Class Water Park….uh, oh….I forgot. They pulled out of El Paso. Seems they finally figured out that El Paso is not a “Destination Vacation” locale where one wants to spend a whole week hanging out. A day or two at the water park. Check. One baseball game for a Triple A baseball team. Check. Eating a steak at Catlleman’s Check. Going to Juarez. Nope, not gonna happen. Probably just as well. They were going to get paid $40 Million through the El Paso Electric Franchise fees…..But this list is a Who’s Who of who actually runs El Paso.