by Rich Wright
Former City Manager Joyce Wilson must be off her meds again, God bless her. Here is the entire text of her opinion column from ElPasoInc.com.
The present state of affairs of city government is sad and embarrassing. Over the past two years, the City Council and mayor have done nothing other than create chaos and conflict.
They fired the city manager, paid him out nearly $1 million, and then waited nearly 18 months to find a replacement. Now as most of them are going out the door, they’re rushing to hire someone, which is a true disservice to the organization and the new council.
I think the reason that City Council hasn’t been in a rush to hire a new City Manager is because the Interim City Manager Cary Westin is doing such a good job. Col. Westin is a good soldier. He follows City Council instead of leading it (the way the last two City Managers did).
In the meantime, they’ve run off significant talent who basically have had it with the bullying and gross negligence. The organization is in chaos, and morale is at all all-time low. They’re also being super quiet about the process, which should further raise suspicions.
Did they run them off, or did they give them the opportunity to retire? Inquiring minds, you know.
It took two years to hire a new public health director, and the appointment was immediately immersed in controversy over his previous record. Yet instead of defending the appointment and clarifying concerns, they go dark and throw him under the bus.
Now Ms. Wilson is complaining that the City is not managing the conversation. The way she’s trying to do right now. The way Tommy Gonzalez’ administration adeptly managed the news during his tenure.
This City Council basically destroyed the internal audit function. The internal auditor has filed a lawsuit against city, and a valuable tool is now being weaponized and politicized.
The voters approved Proposition J in the May 2023 election, which mandated a change in the way audits were reviewed. Now the City Auditor reports to City Council instead of the City Manager. That change led to the discovery of widespread gas card abuse. And Edmundo (Mundo!) Calderon filed a suit against the City because of alleged abuses under the administration of Tommy Gonzalez.
They killed the Downtown multipurpose center and then tried to sneak in an amphitheater in a ridiculous location, hoping El Pasoans were too busy or naive to notice. Then because they were called out, they approved another boondoggle in the Northeast with ridiculous conditions and restrictions in what would be considered a grossly negligent and spiteful act by any terms.
What? That paragraph is all bullshit. This whole opinion column is bullshit. I’m thinking Joyce was into more than a few mojitos when she typed it out.
I bet she can be a mean drunk.
Our infrastructure is a mess. The same streets are constantly under construction and repair. Orange cones are everywhere and traffic lanes constantly closed, with no one doing any work.
The way I see it, after Mr. Gonzalez got in trouble for some questionable paving, and in a fit of pique, he decided he wasn’t going to repave any more. Mr. Gonzalez was just collateral damage in the fight to get rid of District 2 Rep Larry Romero. Remember that whole shitstorm?
Opportunities to partner on significant projects like the Downtown freeway expansion and deck park are being torpedoed for petty reasons. The sheer incompetency and waste of city resources should make everyone enraged.
I was enraged by the sheer incompetency and wastes of city resources when Ms. Wilson was City Manager. They blew up City Hall to build a ballpark! They paid Russ Vandenburg $300,000 a year to work for the City as a real estate consultant, and then let him earn a $500,000 commission on the sale of the El Paso Times building to the City. Though Ms. Wilson is indeed an expert on sheer incompetency and wastes of city resources, that doesn’t mean she’s any good at it.
These same city leaders have also alienated major community partners and abandoned long-standing practices of community collaborations and public/private partnerships. More recently, they abused the power of the city to retaliate against organizations like the El Paso Zoological Society for filing a lawsuit to retain their assets.
Those “major community partners” have had their hands in our pocketbooks too long. During Ms. Wilson’s tenure, public/private partnerships meant that the public put up the money and the private partners reaped the benefits.
In the meantime, El Paso continues to fall behind other Texas and similar U.S. cities in terms of population growth, median income, quality of life indicators and business growth. The city is not just treading water, it’s losing ground. El Paso is one of the few cities post-COVID that has not benefited from emerging industry investment and creative opportunities for business growth and development. Lack of good leadership is at the heart of these problems.
Hey, there are a lot of things that are fucked up about El Paso government. But some of the stink in City Hall comes from a rotten culture that dates to Ms. Wilson’s term as El Paso City Manager.
Ms. Wilson acts like the mean girl that didn’t get invited to the party. Or maybe she’s losing it.
Rich; the political and business class are blind to the larger community, i.e., us. We are invisible to them, the reason why the city takes no position on Marathon when it was seeking permit renewal from TCEQ, why CC deletes an agenda item asking for a letter to GSA to get trucks of the BOTA so school kids can breath clean air, freeway expansion that will obliterate more neighborhoods and small businesses, letting Jobe build a concrete plant next to the Bosque, requiring developers to pay for water connection instead of offloading it to the taxpayers. And these are just recent issues!
The City Manager from day one starting with Wilson were in the pocket of this class and drove their agenda into the bonds and debt and taxes paid by us – The Invisibles – for the benefit of these people. Now they are promoting a candidate with no political experience except a commitment to more of the same. It never ends.
Kennedy. It’s time.
And I’m not referring to shithouse rat RFK Jr.
I don’t know why Joyce Wilson keeps on pining for “the good old days.” They were only good for her and her Oligarch buddies. All she is, is a an ex city employee. Nothing more or less. A citizen of both Florida and El Paso. Lets start on how she pointed out how El Paso is losing population. True. But, Midland, Lubbock, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, and Port Arthur. have all lost population. Abilene and Amarillo “grew” by 1,000 each. But, let me focus on Tommy. He’s been followed by controversy wherever he has gone. His first gig in Lubbock resulted in a payoff to an accuser of $400,00 and in Gonzalez’ severance package worth $332,000 in 2024 dollars. A mere 18 months later, Tommy signs a resignation letter provided by Harlingen. He is forbidden from suing or seeking employment with the city. He is given a severance payout of $66,250 plus earned salary and unused vacation time. His next 6 years at Dallas and at Irving are far too long to describe, but may be googled. It is a time filled with controversy, squeezing vendors, favors, sports, concert and even circus tickets. Dinners and even a chauffer is involved. By 2013, the City Council of Irving has grown tired of all the drama and declines to renew his contract. His next move is to El Paso with the motto, “Win First, Ask Questions later.” Part 1.