El Paso Council Rejects Vote on Bond-Financed Ballpark

DALLAS — The El Paso City Council rejected a citywide vote on plans to demolish City Hall for a bond-financed minor league baseball stadium.

The council voted down an ordinance to overturn its decision in September 2012 to raze El Paso City Hall. The city has promised build a baseball stadium on the location with more than $50 million of revenue bonds supported by an increase in the city's hotel tax, approved by voters in November.

Opponents have filed petitions seeking an item on the May 11 municipal ballot overturning the stadium plan. Another election ordinance based on the fourth in a series of petition efforts will be decided by the council next week.

David Ochoa, a retired city employee who led one of the petition drives opposing the demolition, promised a continued fight over the stadium plan at next week's council session.

"We insist on our right to be vote on this issue and we will be heard," Ochoa said. "This is not about a baseball stadium. It's about saving City Hall."

The council's 5-3 vote against putting a repeal provision on the May ballot was not surprising, Ochoa said.

"The tradition of this council to ignore the will of the people is well documented," he said.

The current schedule calls for City Hall to be demolished in April prior to the May 11 election.

Ochoa's Citizens For Taxpayer Justice filed anti-stadium petitions with almost 1,800 signatures in January. City Clerk Richarda Duffy Momsen has certified the validity of the petition signatures

On Feb. 26, the council must either adopt the language in Ochoa's petition as a ballot question or reject it.

The defeated election ordinance was on the Feb. 19 agenda at the request of Councilman Eddie Holguin. Its language reflected anti-stadium petitions filed in September by the Coalition for Responsive Government seeking to stop the demolition.

The petitions were certified by the city clerk but rejected by the council. A second petition was filed and certified, and was the basis of the ordinance turned down by the council on Tuesday.

The council's action came as a state district judge in Austin was presiding over the first day of a bond validation suit filed by the city to resolve issues hanging over the project.

El Paso is seeking an expedited declaratory judgment giving the go-ahead to its plans to issue $50.4 million of bonds supported by the hotel occupancy tax to build the 9,000-seat stadium.

The city contends that voters knew that the demolition of City Hall was part of the stadium project when they approved the hotel tax increase Nov. 6.

El Paso City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth said the city is confident it will prevail in the lawsuit, but if it is not the stadium project will go ahead with financing from general fund revenues. The general fund could be reimbursed with bond proceeds later, she said.

The case was set to go to trial Feb. 4 in the 353rd District Court, but was delayed when several of the stadium opponents sought to have it moved from state to federal court.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks returned the case to the state court Feb. 8 and fined the petitioners $5,000 for what he said was an invalid effort to postpone a decision.

"The removal of this case was obviously a sham designed solely to delay the trial scheduled for Feb. 4," said Sparks.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Texas
MORE FROM BOND BUYER