Isn’t it a violation of the City’s ethics rules for Mayor Renard Johnson to support the deck park when he owns apartments only a half a mile away?
Here are the first three rules from the City of El Paso’s general provisions of their Code of Conduct for employees and officers:
1. Shall not use their official positions improperly to secure unwarranted privileges or exemptions for themselves, relatives, or others. This provision does not preclude officers or employees from acting in any manner consistent with their official duties or from zealously providing public services to anyone who is entitled to them;
2. A city officer or employee shall not acquire an interest in, or be affected by, any contract, transaction, zoning decision, or other matter, if the official or employee knows, or has reason to know, that the interest will be directly or indirectly affected by impending official action by the city;
3. Shall not participate in making or influencing any city governmental decision or action in which they know that they have any financial interest distinguishable from that of the public generally or from that of other city officers or employees generally;
I’m thinking it’s that third one. Door Number 3. The way I see it, building a park a half mile away from his apartments is a lot better for Mayor Johnson than it is for me or you or the public generally.
Mayor Johnson owns that apartment complex less than half a mile from the proposed park. His rentals lie on a desolate spit of land between the freeway and the train station, by a freeway underpass, on the edge of a neighborhood that had at one time one of the highest concentrations of paroled sex offenders in the country.
I’m thinking they didn’t put all that on the advertising brochures.
The people who support the deck park promise that the project will raise the values of the surrounding properties.
Does building a park a half a mile away from Mayor Johnson’s apartment complex raise a conflict of interest for Mayor Johnson? Wouldn’t a park that close to Mr. Johnson’s rentals increase the attractiveness of his property? Wouldn’t that raise its value? Doesn’t advocating for a project that makes him richer an ethical lapse?
Renard Johnson has been an enthusiastic supporter of the troubled deck plaza over Interstate 10 in downtown El Paso.
Here he is referenced in a CBS4Local.com story1:
Mayor Renard Johnson expressed strong support for the project, stating, “I am fully committed to seizing this once-in-a-generation opportunity for our community. The Deck Park is not just a visionary project for enhancing quality of life—it’s a smart investment in economic development.”
I’m thinking that support for the deck plaza was one of the reasons Mayor Johnson raised more than a million dollars for his election campaign. A lot of that came from out-of-town contributors who aren’t really concerned with the well-being of El Paso.
One of the pitches that the deck park advocates advance in support of the project is the likelihood that the deck park will raise the values of the surrounding properties.
Does anyone in local government care about ethical lapses? Or is expecting honest government these days quaint?
Politicians know that their term will end, so they seek a legacy to be remembered. A bronze plaque with your name on it as a member of the council that made it happen is a big incentive. Stadium; museum; deck park… it’s all the same thing – immorality as long as it lasts.