May 19, 2008
Instead of going after Mayor John Cook and three or four city representatives with recall petitions, a group of concerned citizens who are unhappy about the stormwater utility apparently plans to focus on the mayor.
“We’re definitely going ahead with the recall … of the mayor,” said Lee Urias, a member of a group calling themselves the Concerned Taxpayers of El Paso Committee. “We thought about it, and this is about the whole of El Paso.”
That decision was reached during a meeting of the group this weekend, he said.
Normally, a recall effort has 60 days from the time its organizers give the city notice to gather the signatures of at least 20 percent of the number of voters who voted in the last election for the official who is the target of the recall.
But a new City Charter provision prohibits a recall petition from being filed in the last year of an official’s term.
In the mayor’s case, that means recall petitions would have to be turned in by June 22 with the signatures of at least 7,967 registered voters – 20 percent of the 39,834 who voted in the 2005 mayoral election.
Cook said he thinks a serious recall effort would hurt the city.
“I think the recall provision in the charter was not meant to handle single issues that you might disagree with somebody over,” he said. “I think it was really meant to keep you from getting a complete dud or idiot serving for four years.
“If they decide to go ahead with a recall, I would be real disappointed. Not necessarily because it’s against me, but because I don’t think it makes us look very professional as a city to have recalls and threats of recalls running around all the time. From an economic development standpoint, it’s really not the way to go.”
Cook conceded that the introduction of the stormwater utility is going far worse than anyone anticipated and said he would like to see additional changes to make the monthly fees more acceptable to the public.
The utility was created by City Council to give the city a sustained program for taking care of about $100 million in remaining repairs and improvements needed after the floods of 2006, to provide consistent maintenance of the city’s stormwater system and to generate the money to ensure that future drainage facilities are designed and built to handle the city’s needs.
Two weeks ago, the Public Service Board reduced the stormwater rates by 37 percent across the board and gave schools, churches and nonprofits an additional 75 percent reduction.
That reduction will lower the Ysleta school district’s bill from over $41,000 this month to less than $6,600 starting next month.
But, the reductions for schools, churches and nonprofits are set go away gradually over three years, and that is what Cook would like to see changed.
“Why do we have to get them back to 100 percent,” Cook said. “Why not leave them at 25 percent? You will probably see an exemption for schools districts approved by the next Legislature.”
Those entities must reapply for their reductions annually. Newspaper Tree was unable to learn the deadline from the PSB’s customer service or public information office.
David Crowder can be reached at dcrowder@epmediagroup.com