User:Somnabot/Buried/Sandbox8
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On November 20, 2006, Two County Commissioners were outraged as the city asks the county not to participate in a key part of the city's downtown revitalization plan. The mayor's Chief of Staff Sylvia Borunda Firth, Deputy City Manager Pat Adauto and the Paso Del Norte Group's Myrna Deckert were dismissed by the Commisioners court after deleting the city's requests from the day's agenda.[1]
City officials gave a presentation at the meeting, voicing their intent to create a tax increment refinancing zone (TIRZ). They also asked the county to waive its right to have any part in it. Neither of the two agenda items sought county participation but Larry Medina expressed his disgust with the city for approaching the county now, months after adopting the plan from the Paso del Norte Group.
He said Firth's belated presentation "is a perfect example of the disrespect that this plan and the proponents of this plan and the people who started this plan in secret ... have shown to this community." "I am against this plan, not because I am against a plan," Medina said. "I am for a plan to revitalize our Downtown area and the Segundo Barrio. This plan I am totally against it because of the way it was started in secret."
Cook said the city, never counting on support from other taxing jurisdictions, can go ahead with the establishment of the tax increment finance zone next month as planned.
Asking the county, El Paso Independent School District and El Paso Community College district if they want to invest any of their Downtown tax revenues in the Downtown plan is only a formality required by state law. [2]
Medina and Commissioner Betti Flores were also upset that city officials were asking them to waive their rights for advance notice of the creation of the tax district and for an appointment of a director to the TIRZ board.
The court unanimously voted to delete the two items from the agenda, meaning the county will have a voice in the taxing district.
Medina offered a grim prediction of what may happen: "If you go forward with this plan, you will hit obstacle after obstacle, you'll hit lawsuit after lawsuit, picket after picket, and you know what's going to happen at the end?" he said. "Ten, 12, 15 years from now, we're going to have three or four scattered buildings, three or four blocks that were actually done and redone."
