Webb County Civil Service Commission rejects micro-managing attempt by county commissioners

We no need no stinking Civil Service!!

 
Your friendly Laredo Morning Times (aka El Empty) is reporting this morning on an apparent attempt by Webb county commissioners to interfere with the county's Civil Service Commission.  Here's some of the proposed changes that did not sit well with the commissioner's court:

1

) New language barring department heads from tailoring job descriptions to particular people.


2)Preventing human resources from forwarding disqualified applications to departments.


3) Additional revisions clarified the timeline and process for filing a grievance in response to a termination or disciplinary action.

The Civil Service Commission came up with these revisions late last year after holding a workshop for employees to discusss their concerns with the way prior grievances have been conducted. 

I have to say that these revisions seem to have been carefully thought out. They would have the cumulative effect of decreasing the chances of favortism by standardizing qualifications and letting only those who meet those standard requirements proceed through the application process.

Still, Jaime Canales and Wawi Tijerina's office have indicated that they are unhappy with these changes. Canales claims to want more transparency while Andy Arellano (Wawi's spokesperson) says that the Civil Service Commission is over-reaching its jurisdiction.

Instead, county commissioners voted Monday to put together a group of "elected officials and department heads" to go over the proposed changes and provided feedback? 

It sounds like they simply want to keep their hands in the hiring process so that they can continue to repay political favors. All in all, good job Civil Service in rejecting this particular attempt at extending cronyism in our county government.

Misnomer: City of Laredo's lack of word power

I couldn't find a picture of the City of Laredo's recently-opened "annex" on loop 20 in South East Laredo. Still, as I was driving past the former Paul Young auto mall, I realized that no one must have given much thought to what they were going to call the new tax and water offices. So, someone who probably gets paid a lot of money  simply decided to call it an "annex".

Yet, according to the dictionary, the definition of annex is as follows:

1. A building added on to a larger one or an auxiliary building situated near a main one.

Laredo's  City Hall is miles away in downtown, so there is absolutely no chance that this new building would be situated anywhere close to the "main" edifice. That being said, the building on loop 20 is not really an annex afterall.

 Perhaps with all those hundreds of thousands of dollars that we taxpayers are paying those who make such decisions, someone should at least go out and buy themsevles a dictionary.

RedMeat Chronicles: Santorum on Obama "What a snob"

If you thought ignorance was in any danger of becoming extinct, here's proof that it's alive, well and thriving in pockets of GOP white voters who continue to hate on Obama:

"Heh, heh, that' Obammer feller is a dang snob for wanting us to get learned in his librul colleges. What's he take us fer? fools?"

As Santorum point out, Obama wants everybody to go to College- as in Laredo Community COLLEGE. That's a lot different than wanting everyone to go to a UNIVERSITY.

Town's ban on Fracking NOT pre-empted by state law

From Bloomberg News


Bans on natural gas drilling in two New York towns were each upheld by state judges this week.

Middlefield, New York’s 2011 ban on gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, was upheld by State Supreme Court Judge Donald Cerio Jr. yesterday, according to Tom West, an attorney representing Cooperstown Holstein Corp., a dairy farm that challenged the ban. On Feb. 21, State Supreme Court Judge Phillip Rumsey said the Town of Dryden’s ban on drilling wasn’t preempted by state law.

The local bans target hydraulic fracturing for gas, a process in which chemically treated water is forced underground to break up rock and free trapped gas. Environmental groups say the process threatens drinking water supplies.

“This is really the kiss of death for drilling in New York,” West said in an interview. “No prudent operator is going to invest in leases in New York if those leases are at the mercy of a zoning ban.”

New York placed a moratorium on the drilling process known as fracking in 2010 while state regulators developed environmental rules. Since then, about 20 towns in the state have adopted laws to ban drilling, according to Karen Edelstein, a geographic information-systems consultant in Ithaca.

Mind Games of the 1 per cent

Cheap Bastard Banker leaves less than 1 percent tip, plus free tip of his own 

From The Huffington Post

A banker left a 1% tip in defiance of 'the 99%' at a Newport Beach restaurant the other week, according to his dining companion and underling who snapped a photo of the receipt and posted it to his blog, Future Ex Banker. (Update: the blog is now offline.)

In posting the photo, the employee gave some background on his boss and the receipt:

Mention the “99%” in my boss’ presence and feel his wrath. So proudly does he wear his 1% badge of honor that he tips exactly 1% every time he feels the server doesn’t sufficiently bow down to his Holiness. Oh, and he always makes sure to include a “tip” of his own.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/banker-1-percent-tip-receipt_n_1299280.html

It's time to check what the city council's meals are costing us again



Is Johnny Carino's still a favorite at city hall?

A couple of years ago, the Laredo Morning Times ran a story reporting some pretty expensive meals being enjoyed by our honorable seedy council.  I recall some rather fine cusinie was being served by those mysterious closed council doors.

I, for one, think it would be interesting to once again check into how much we're paying to feed our self-serving public servants (double-entendre intended). If anyone from the LMT happens to peruse this humble blog, please consider doing the public a service and let us know if it's costing us an arm and a leg to feed the mayor and his buddies a wing and a thigh.

Question for fellow blogger Keyrose: Are bloggers considered "press" and would any be allowed behind the closed council doors to inquire on behalf of the taxpayers?  I remember you mentioned the status of bloggers in the eyes of the city politicos but I don't recall all the details.

Old Cotulla Bar-b-que place called eyesore; developer to turn it into Maquinitas Joint?

At Monday's Laredo seedy council meeting. A local developer spoke out in favor of a proposed zoning ordinance change that would re-classify the current location of the Old Cotulla Pit Bar-b-Que place on McPhereson.

In his brief time at the podium, the developer called the old Cotulla place an eyesore and said that he planned to re-do the entire place much as the Danny's (a block South) did a few years back.  He added that this would create much-needed jobs for the local economy.

It was unusual, even by Laredo's standards, that not even a single question came from the city council as far as to what type of business was going to be creating these new jobs. This, coupled with the recent trend of other former restaurants (El Rancho, White Swan) being turned into maquinitas joints is what makes me think that the seedy council is only too willing to continue to enable questionable maquinitas operations to further contaminate Laredo.