Popular Italian tenor Max Grossman sent me an email this week that contained this interesting information:
The Mayor of El Paso, through Kemp Smith attorney Mark N. Osborne, submitted his response to the multiple ethics allegations leveled against him by Stuart Blaugrund, a native of El Paso with deep roots in his native city. (see attached) On page 6 of his reply, it is stated that “the Mayor owns only approximately 1.64% of the [Borderplex Realty] Trust’s shares and has no role in its management.” Well, that would amount to “only” $492,000 based on the company’s original capitalization of $30,000,000, and that was in 2007!
Very interesting is his contention that the value of Borderplex assets would be entirely unaffected by the presence of a $250,000,000 “Arena” only blocks away.
Also interesting is the casual mention that the Mayor dumped his shares of Hunt Companies Finance Trust in July, after the ethics allegations were filed.
Did the Mayor reveal his interest in Hunt Companies Finance Trust during discussions concerning tax incentives for Hunt Tower? Didn’t former City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth get in trouble for that same sort of thing shortly before she got fired retired?
(As an interesting aside, I wonder who ended up with Mayor Margo’s shares.)
I’m sure we haven’t heard the end of this.
I agree that we have not heard the last of this, but I also strongly suspect that no harm will befall him or any of the other rich bastards that own our once fair city. I swear to Gawd, if I thought we could sell up and find another place comparable (cost wise) to live, we’d be gone, even though we’re retired and gettin’ older by the minute.