It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World!

The heat must really be frying everyone's brains here- this whole debacle now with the CAD f-i-n-a-l-l-y releasing open records to Thomas Dorman (see newspapertree.com and thestrelz.com ) has turned into an FBI and internal (lol) investigation due to the CAD releasing CONFIDENTIAL records!!!

I don't know if I should laugh, cry or pound my fist on the desk. What I DO know is I feel for Thomas. He was just being a good citizen, and dilligent at that, and now he finds himself in this whole mess!

It's about time they have their turn under investigation (if they haven't been already), but I don't know how all this mess will affect the budget hearings going on now.

We'll most likely be kept in the dark, though, as this may all be tied into the blanket investigation going on.

So what does that mean for anyone requesting open records from the CAD at this time?

Probably a whole lotta waiting!

We all make mistakes- we're all human. But like I mentioned in an earlier post- sometimes those mistakes have huge consequences.

There's people like me and Thomas who are everyday citizens trying to keep our government fair and transparent. We do our part to try and make things better, not just complain. And what do we get for all our trouble?

More trouble!

Don't worry- I still believe that no good deed goes unseen- but that's higher power... right now we're dealing with humans!

I had my own little debacle with the city making a mistake in their dealings with me on the Citizen's Advisory Committee to the Mass Transit Board/Sun Metro.

I received a letter saying that I had to contact the city clerk's office as I had not filed my financial disclosure papers as full-voting member of the CAC. I received this letter on a Friday (evening). The next day I received a letter stating that I had not filed those papers so I had been removed as a member! It being the weekend there was nothing I could do about it at the moment. This was the end of March,I believe, and I had just been nominated in February at the MTDB meeting.

Thinking that I had royally screwed up, I took it like the woman I am. Can't say it didn't sting, tho, and my ego was quite bruised for a little bit. I had been working so hard on certain projects on the CAC and had lots of plans for future projects. I had enjoyed an open communication with who became my rep even as an alternate member of the CAC and we would talk in person or on the phone or via email every once in awhile- not every week or month I must add.

Soooo.....

being the person I am, I finally dusted myself off and got to thinking... hey- something's not right here. I'm not going to give up that easily.

In the meantime, my rep nominated someone else for my position.

Then it dawns on me..... wait! I didn't do anything wrong! I had my papers on file with the city clerk's office since last year and good through June 2009! I DIDN'T have to file any papers again as it was not required! The city clerk's office made a HUGE mistake that literally cost me my position on the committee!

And I hate to say that- because I have nothing but respect for Richarda Duffy-Momsen- I think she's the hardest working lady in El Paso- but it was her signature on my letter stating I had not filed in time. It was her office that made that mistake and cost me my position!

I have to say, when all this went down I heard through the grapevine that my rep would try and do what she could for me and to contact her, but remember- I thought I had made the mistake and thought there was no way out of it and felt like a fool for overlooking such a small yet significant detail and I certainly didn't want to speak to anyone- I felt like an idiot! So I acted in accordance with what I had been told by the city clerk's office- I was no longer a member so I had nothing to say, probably wouldn't have changed things anyway.

So- I get on the horn with our assistant city attorney that now attends our meetings of the CAC and is there to advise us and Sun Metro (Raymond Telles used to attend until he went to the MPO). Upon her investigating also and realizing that the city clerk's office made a mistake, we held off on certain discussions until we had clarification from the city clerk and my reps office.

Here's where things get even more weird.

The city clerk's office never bothered to contact me with any kind of apology.

My rep contacted me and the conversation went basically like this-
She had already nominated someone else for my position because she received notice from the city clerk's office that I had been removed. Have to admit she wasted no time in doing so. I have absolutely NO record of her ever trying to contact me but ONCE via a voicemail from her assistant on this matter. She claimed she tried several times to call me and sent me tons of emails trying to sort this out. WRONG! I went through ALL my emails dating back months before and I never received one from her on this matter, nor from her assistant. Mind you, I had sent her an email when I found out she was nominating me thanking her and expounded on some things we had talked about previously- and I never received an email back from her acknowledging anything about that email. I never called her office back that one time her assistant left a vm for the reasons I stated above.

So who is more wrong? The city clerk's office for making the original mistake that led to my behavior and lack of action because of such, or the feeble attempt by my rep's office to communicate with me, or me for believing there was a mistake made on my part and thus taking the action (or inaction) that I did because of such?

My rep also stated that she was going to remain with her other nomination basically because he seemed more willing to talk with her- this really gets my goat! My rep and I had always had open communication before this incident and NOTHING was said or written or agreed upon between the two of us that she was nominating me because I was to call or email her daily or monthly or with any set schedule! She replaced me in a matter of WEEKS of being nominated by her with the sad excuse that we don't communicate!

I have to say, I did get some good backup from CAC members. I was renominated as alternate in case this whole mess did not come out in my favor. Alternate is nothing to sneeze at- last year I voted as a full member more times than not because we didn't have a quorom.

What also burns my behind is that our reps can take back their nomination of a citizen on a board or committee at will and without cause!

That fact seems hardly transparent.

So if they decide they don't like you or what you say or whatever they can dismiss you without any explanation. Yet we hear all the time that we need our citizens for the public input process- but the city doesn't want to treat us with the smallest amount of respect!

There's much more drama with this whole episode- the novella continues sin fin and I will post more on this later.