Pete Gonzalez is a very busy man. I left him a message and an email asking for the names of those on the committee of five who decided which law firm to recommend to the City Commission to award the contract for delinquent tax collection for the City of Brownsville.
Fortuitously, I saw him walking down the street and asked him in person. I was stopped at a stop light. He rattled off the 5 names, but since he was in a hurry and I knew I couldn't remember all five, I asked him to email me the names. That has not happened yet, but Chris Davis came to my rescue, sending me information from pages 214,215 of the City Commission Agenda posting naming the committee of five.
Brownsville's Fearsome 5-Some
Jose Chavez, City Internal Auditor
John Chosy, Assistant City Attorney
Pete Gonzalez, Deputy Assistant City Manager
Lupe Granado III, Assistant Finance Director
Jesse Garcia, Chief Deputy, Cameron County Tax Collector/Assessor
The above committee of 5 are said to have carefully screened the three law firms bidding on the contract for delinquent tax collection. Pete Gonzalez, Deputy Assistant City Manager/Finance Director, presented the committee's recommendation to the City Commission on June 5, 2012. Several commissioners were a little taken back by having to make a decision without hearing the presentations of the 3 firms. It was decided that Gonzalez would conduct a workshop so the commissioners could "understand the process."
So, two weeks later at the next City Commission meeting, Gonzalez presents the same recommendation before the commission; Linebarger. The commission quickly approves. What happened here? What is the exact role of the City Commission in this matter beyond simply rubber stamping? What if the commission does not agree with the recommendation? Do we even need a City Commission and/or Mayor? Maybe, we should abolish the mayor/city commission aspect of city government and go straight to a city manager form.
The taxpaying public is the big loser here. Not only do they not get a public hearing with the merits of the three competing firms out in the open(as was evidently done last time according to the commissioners and is the format at BISD), but the elected city commissioners continue to lose power and the electorate lose representation. Remember, at the start of the Tony Martinez administration, he bullied two young commissioners to give up their board selections, then introduced some shadowy, unknown recommendation committee into the process.
Representative democracy continues to take a hit under Tony. The commissioner's role has been considerably weakened. The non-broadcast of public comment has killed public participation. Tony acts as if good chairmanship involves conducting a brisk, short commission meeting. To be fair, keeping the meeting moving along, not unnecessarily bogged down with repetitious banter, is part of good chairmanship. But, all issues have to be thoroughly discussed before making a decision. In the June 5 meeting Tony was willing to move on the next agenda item after a brief lull of indecision. What's his hurry? Boston Legal can be recorded for later view. Leadership is not demonstrated by the brevity of the meeting, but the ideas presented to help our city. If the meetings consist only of proclamations, employee of the month awards, zoning adjustments and rubber stamping the recommendation of a committee meeting behind closed doors, why do we need the City Commission?
Jerry Sandusky, A "Mother Teresa?"
Joe Amendola, the defense attorney for former Penn State defensive coach Jerry Sandusky, linked Sandusky with Mother Teresa, reading her poem, entitled "Do It Anyway".
The jury is considering 48 counts of child molestation, child endangerment, corruption of a minor, etc. Sandusky apparently groomed young boys for sex by taking them to football games or workouts, then showering with them, gradually increasing the playfulness.
The prosecution had the victims, now ranging in age from 18 to mid 30's sitting on the front row of the court along with their mothers. Most of the victims had been disadvantaged kids who were connected with Sandusky's charity, the Second Mile.
Matamoros to Offer Bus Service to Doctors
Matamoros officials are planning to offer Brownsville residents free bus rides for their doctor visits in Matamoros.
The bus schedules won't be posted for the view of the warring drug cartels, but instead will be worked out confidentially between doctor and patient.
The idea is to offer the people of Brownsville access to less expensive medical care and to aid the bottomed-out Matamoros economy.
Busses? Realy? As in "kisses?" Come on, Valley! Get your shit together on the use of English.
ReplyDelete2Empinate
2Emp,
DeleteEither buses or busses is a correct plural form for public transportation vehicles in most dictionaries. Your use of "Realy" is not proper usage in any dictionary. Get your shit together wherever you reside!
Jim
From the web: In 21st-century English, buses is the preferred plural of the noun bus. Busses appears occasionally, and dictionaries list it as a secondary spelling, but it’s been out of favor for over a century. This is true in all main varieties of English.
DeleteAfter bus emerged in the 19th century as an abbreviation of omnibus, buses and busses (the logical plural of buss, an early alternative spelling of bus) vied for dominance for several decades. By the early 20th century, though, buses was the clear winner, and it has steadily become more prevalent. Today, buses appears on the web about 15 times for every instance of busses.
Examples
Buses is far more common than busses in edited news sources that publish online. Here are a few examples:
New vehicles and routes and added frequency have helped draw people on to buses this winter. [Financial Times]
In many cities around the world, there are simple established rules for riding buses. [New York Times]
Aucklanders will be waiting until November at the earliest to use a single card on buses, trains and ferries. [New Zealand Herald]
But it’s easy enough to track down a few examples of busses in the wild:
Five school busses were required to transport Pueblo’s Heaton Middle School’s 180 band members and their equipment Saturday. [Canon City Daily Record]
Putnam County will provide shuttle busses to transport persons between the parking area and the funeral home. [Press release quoted on Patch]
These are much rarer, though, and most of the examples we find are from blogs, content farms, and other not carefully edited sources.
This is the case whenever there is more than one acceptable usage. One is "preferred", while both are acceptable.
DeleteJim
Yet additional proof that you live in a plebeian backwater part of the world, so far behind the intelligence curve that to merely look at it that way does not do justice to the stupidity. But keep trying. It is humor.
DeleteIt's a stupid idea! Don't they use buses to blockade streets?
ReplyDeleteIf you are not going to Mexico, WHY do you even bother? If Brownsville is a backwater part of the world, WHAT are YOU doing here?
ReplyDeleteHe isn't here. He is up in Kyle wanking to happy-happy thoughts that his life has some relevancy in the world and that he has some talent. Both constructs are sadly delusional. Brownsville chewed up and spit out the talentless hack years ago and he never recovered.
Delete