I’ve always said that if you’re going to sell a blind horse, the first thing you tell the mark is how good that horse can see.
And that message hasn’t been lost on Dee Margo.
Can you believe that Mayor Margo is running on his response to the Coronavirus?
Mayor Margo has done less than nothing to prevent the spread of Covid in El Paso. When County Judge Ricardo Samaniego amped up restrictions for local businesses, Mayor Margo ran to the State Attorney General to squelch Judge Samaniego’s order.
Under Mayor Margo’s “regime,” the City bought five buildings with money that could have been used to support local businesses.
And remember that picture of Mayor Margo and his wife dining al fresco, sans mask, at the Country Club, surrounded by his Country Club admirers?
If Mayor Margo had just followed his own advice and stayed home (and kept his mouth shut), maybe El Paso wouldn’t today be one of the places hit hardest by the Coronavirus.
Wouldn’t that be a refreshing message for a campaign mailer?
“Vote for me. I fucked up.”
I think voters might appreciate honesty from the mayor, for a change.
Maybe that is why we are going to see Oscar back there, and, in my humble opinion, he is not much better for us. I, for one, would really like to see somebody run with a platform that included dumping the current form of city government in favor of a return to a strong Mayor. But, then, the problem will be finding a strong person willing and able to serve in that role. We’re damned if we do, and damned if we don’t, I guess.
I too support a stronger mayoral form of government. Some years ago, EP Inc. let me publish a guest editorial in which I recommended that the mayor be given some additional portfolio – Planning; Economic Development; Finance not including Purchasing and IT; Attorney – in order to drive his/her agenda instead of being just a figurehead as now. These are the non-operating departments. The city manager would be designated as COO and have the remaining departments along with the deputy managers, a strictly operational role, and reporting to city council.
The current form allows the city manager to control the financial and regulatory reporting on his own performance. I do think that Purchasing should not be under political control and should remain with a COO.
Of course, this would solve all of our problems including COVID-19, climate change, the arena, Durangito and sprawl and we would never more deal with lack of transparency and the Usual Suspects legally bribing city council with contributions 🙂