You’ve heard the news.
El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez is among three other finalists being considered for city manager in Frisco, Texas.
They posted the job back at the end of February. Tommy Gonzalez probably heard about it before it was posted. He’s got cronies/co-conspirators back in that part of the world.
If you only hear about a government job after it’s been posted you’re not in the running for it. I reckon that Tommy’s got a lock on this one. The visit and interview are just for show.
I also reckon the rest of our local carpetbaggers are floating their resumes if they haven’t already started clearing out their desks. Will they take their arrogance with them?
So where do we go from here? If Mr. Gonzalez leaves, we’ll need a new City Manager. Remember, Oscar Leeser was mayor when we hired Tommy. Do you think the mayor has learned anything since then?
If, through some cruel twist of fate, Mr. Gonzalez doesn’t get the job, are we supposed to keep him? After he’s been running around with that floozie, City of Frisco? Will we have enough self respect to kick his ass to the curb?
Mr. Gonzalez’ current contract with the City of El Paso stipulates that he walks with a year’s pay and pay for any accrued sick or vacation days. Many of the current City Council representatives, with little experience in the private sector, thought those perks were a good idea. Maybe they thought that giving him a lot of money to leave would encourage him to stay.
Maybe they’re day drinkers.
Here’s a link to a piece I wrote about Mr. Gonzalez’ contract extension back in 2021.
If it takes a million dollar buyout to get rid of Mr. Gonzalez I’d say it’s cheap at that price. We’ll save money and lower our taxes in the long run. Besides, we’ll have to pay him some day, anyway.
The property tax rate for the City of Frisco is 0.4466. The property tax rate for the City of El Paso is more than double that, at 0.9073. Mr. Gonzalez has lots of room to grow out in Frisco.
If Frisco is dumb enough to hire him given his horrible track record here in El Paso, they can keep him. Sucks that you can fuck up and move on while we’re stuck here with his stupid decisions.
How could the city attorney and city council approve a contract that offers a golden parachute to someone who leaves voluntarily in response to a job offer (a job offer I hope he gets)?
Wellll…let’s just say that many City Council members are not the sharpest tacks in the box….another gem in his contract is the removal a year ago or so of any penalty for wilfully misleading Council!
The city will try hard to find someone even worse.
I hope a burro kicks Tomas in his ass when he finally leaves El Paso.
We knew this was coming a long, long time ago. We can only hope that his very expensive personal staff leaves with him. And, then, it would be much too much to hope that City Council would move back towards a strong Mayor form of government, and just dump the entire very expensive idea of a City Manager.
It is mind boggling that the City of El Paso negotiated a contract that GIVES Gonzalez an EXTRA year’s worth of salary. It should have been negotiated the other way around. Gonzalez is getting $404,375 per year. That means he will end up $808,750 when he departs. According to the data that I could find, which was from 2020, the city of Frisco pays $323,954–for a city of 188,387. Meanwhile, the Austin City Manager is earning $350,000….There is ALOT more going on in Austin in terms of City Management than El Paso. I’m not talking about things to see and do, but very large moving pieces and parts. Please remind us again what exactly Tommy Gonzalez did for El Paso? Trolleycar? Having John Romero, a bookkeeper and brother of former city councilman Larry Romero, do his taxes for $100? Never resolved the Duranguito issue. Incredible! Because of the incompetence of the city “leaders” El Pasoan’s are constantly being taken to the cleaners.
It’s time to challenge the enforceability of the contract.
I’ve been doing a little “homework.” The position of Frisco’s City Manager has been posted since the last week of February. They’ve only had ONE City Manager for the last 30 some years, so I am sure that the City Council (5 members) and the Mayor will be carefully screening the final 4. Initially, there were 55 applicants from 17 states. More than 1/2 were from Texas. The Final 4 are: Tommy G of course, Ron Patterson, current deputy city manager of Frisco, Majed Al-Ghafry, assistant city manager for economic development and tourism, conventions and events for Dallas. Finally, Wesley Pierson, city manager of Addison. My bet would be on Frisco’s current deputy city manager. Logic. He is “homegrown,” knows the ins and outs of Frisco, and I am sure has developed relationships with the current management in Frisco. Plus, all they have to do is google Gonzalez’s past…..Controversy has followed Tomas’ past. KCBD Aug 16, 2012…”Former Lubbock leader, now in Irving, accused of suppressing open records act.” Please look at the Dallas Morning News, Feb. 10, 2013….it has a timeline on Gonzalez. Especially his stint in Harlingen. Tommy agrees to step down and is forced to sign a resignation letter provided by the City of Harlingen, agreeing not to seek reemployment and agreeing not to sue the city. He also is given 6 months severance pay. Plus all of the other events in his timelines…I’ve not included his other controversies as this would turn into a very lengthy post. To Be Continued.
Only in government can you fuck up like this and still be employable. Look at Wilson. CAC.
A city manager getting paid 400k a year. There is no amount of work that this guy could do in a day over the course of a year that could justify that kind of pay. 400k. To what? Coordinate? Hire people and contractors? To be on a phone? He’s not a civil engineer, he’s not laying down blueprints or designing anything. It’s a failure of government as a whole to have to pay someone 400k to hold others accountable to make sure they’re not being “inefficient”. Daylight robbery and disgusting.