Ed Archuleta's Contract/More Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge

This is a blog about Edmund Archuleta's Half a Million Dollar a year "public servant" taxpayer paid salary. Mr. Archuleta is the head of the El Paso Water Utility, aka the Public Service Board (PSB). The El Paso Water Utility is one of the wealthiest water utilities in the nation holding about 28,000 acres of land. It sits in one of the poorest counties in the country and he who controls the water utility controls the price and development of land. The PSB is a division of the city, regardless of what anyone says. Ed Archuleta has been the manager of the water utility for over 20 years now. Under his reign, we have seen El Paso become an oven hot, cemented in nightmare, and water rates have become so high people are afraid to take baths. I haven't even touched on the fraud that is Ed Archuleta's monument to himself at taxpayer expense, our multi-million dollar desalination plant that is operating at less than 1% capacity.

The politics of water is just that, Politics. When Ray Caballero was mayor, he declared, with the full support of Ed Archuleta, a drought and decreed that no one could water their yard for more than 2 hours a WEEK! This was really an effort to control the price of land and its development disguised as "drought control." Several months later, Caballero lost his bid for re-election against Joe Wardy. Joe Wardy took office and lifted the watering ban. And then lo and behold Ed Archuleta did a complete volte-face and declared that there was enough water until the second coming of Christ. And not one drop of rain had fallen.

Recently, Archuleta has gone to city council and asked that they impose an "impact fee" which would be a tax added to the price of a new home. This in turn would make it harder for first time home owners to get a home. This in turn would mean that fewer homes would be built meaning fewer people working. El Paso ratepayers also have to pay a new storm water fee to pay for water run off. This fee/tax has amounted to thousands of dollars a month for many businesses. Some of these businesses have laid off employees to make ends meet.

Below is an analysis of Ed Archuleta's employment contract done by a friend of mine. Archuleta's salary and benefits add up to over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR not to mention what he has cost the El Paso taxpayers in business with his monkey business. Keep in mind that while Archuleta suffers from delusions of grandeur and calls himself a "CEO" like he is some Wall Street tycoon, he is in fact a government employee charged with running a water utility and serving the people of El Paso. Also keep in mind that very few people in the private sector in El Paso make this kind of money and the average citizen has to choose between grass for his/her kids and keeping the lights on, thanks to Ed Archuleta--I have appeared, to no avail, over the years at City Council and the PSB asking that Archuleta be fired. The reasons are too numerous to list here. Archuleta's actual contract will be posted by Martin later on today.

The total value of Archuleta's contract is $2,032,000 for 4 years of work, which comes to:

$508,000 per year.

(Math):
Annual numbers:
$225,000 base
$50,000 bonus
$50,000 additional
$32,000 annually to city pension account
$20,000 annually to 401(a) retirement account
$6,000 annual car allowance
(insurance and other fringe benefits not calculated)
$383,000 total (each year from July, 2007-July, 2011)

X 4 years
$1,532,000
+
$50,000 annual deferred compensation each July, 2012-2021 (years not under contract for any services)
$500,000 (10 years of pay)

X 10 years
$500,000
=
$2,032,000
/ 4 years

$508,000 per year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Red Oak Consulting is the "expert" Archuleta hired to do a wage survey to justify this latest increase for the board. Red Oak as you will remember is also the "expert" Archuleta hired to justify the illegal storm water fee and the illegal impact fee that the PSB approved--obviously if you do what Archuleta says, you get to be paid a lot of public money and declare yourself an "expert" on all subjects!

Red Oak's "wage survey" includes comparisons of "CEOs" from 8 "other" entities. They are the following:

Denver Water--has 1,115,000 ratepayers compared to 188,000 at EPWU, however their manager has a base salary of about 60% of Archulettas ($225,396 base, no bonus and 3% 401(k) match vs. Archuletta's $508,000)
El Paso Electric--a publicly-traded, privately-owned corporation that has nothing to do with public utility comparison. Still, their manager makes $500,000/year but has almost twice the ratepayers (350,000 compared to 188,000) as EPWU and an operating budget that is 10 times larger ($800 million for EPE vs. $77 million for EPWU)
Louisville Water Co.--Has over 4 times as many customers (810,000 ratepayers vs. 188,000 for EPWU) and Louisville manager gets paid $185,000/year plus an $18,500 bonus. Curiously, Louisville Water is able to serve 4 times more customers than EPWU with about half the employees (450 vs. 800 for EPWU)
Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Co.--Close to the same customer amount (165,000 vs. 188,000 for EPWU) and their manager makes the reasonable sum of $134,000/ year. Their manager also gets a 5% bonus ($6,700 annually) and a 3% COLA increase every year. Again, Albuquerque is able to serve about 88% of the ratepayers with 69% of the employees (550 vs. 800 for EPWU)
Miami-Dade Water & Sewer--Their manager makes "between a range of $138,049-$244,913," presumably a heavily-incentive laden contract. He gets a $1,500 additional annual bonus, plus a little more than $10,000/year for insurance and deferred compensation. Miami-Dade has 330,000 customers for sewer and 412,000 for water compared to 188,000 for EPWU. Miami-Dade also has an operating budget of $425 million annually compared with $77 million annually for the EPWU. Miami is the most expensive city to live in the southern half of the United States, east of the Mississippi.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission--I read this and figured THEY MUST BE KIDDING TRYING TO COMPARE US TO SAN FRANCISCO!!!!! Aside from having one of the highest costs of living in the United States (the median home price there was $847,000 in 2007 when this contract was signed vs. $132,000 for El Paso in 2007), SAN FRANCISCO PUC ALSO HAS 2,400,000 CUSTOMERS COMPARED TO 188,000 AT EPWU!!!! .....but guess what, ARCHULETA STILL MAKES MORE THAN THE SAN FRANCISCO MANAGER! $508,000 vs. $251,166!!!
San Antonio Water System--415,000 customers vs. 188,000 for EPWU and their manager makes $275,000 (no bonuses) vs. Archuleta's $508,000.
Greater Cincinatti Water Works--Close (20% more) customer base (235,000 vs. 188,000 for EPWU) and their manager makes the reasonable sum of $132,804 (no bonus). Also has fewer employees (637 vs. 800 for EPWU) to serve 20% more customers.

Also of note, Archuleta's prior contract was renewed by the PSB by then El Paso mayor Ray Caballero and the PSB on May 14, 2003--AFTER Caballero had lost the election miserably to Joe Wardy, literally days before Wardy took office at Caballero's last PSB meeting. The prior contract was set to expire in December of 2003, but Caballero extended it to December of 2005, not allowing Wardy the opportunity (as every other mayor had) to review and either extendmodify,or cancel the agreement with Archuleta. The contract was renewed twice by Cook and the current PSB, once on July 1, 2005--shortly after Cook took office and then on July 1, 2007 Cook and this PSB agreed to this hum-dinger of a contract we have now. It should also be noted that when he had the opportunity as mayor and sitting at the head of the PSB, Mayor Wardy failed to fire Ed Archuleta. (He was too busy being a big shot, attending West side wine and cheese parties, taxing El Pasoans to pay for the White elephant the Plaza Theatre and imposing a city manager form of government on us.)

It's all too hard to believe that this PSB could look at this "wage survey report" and come to the conclusion that Archuleta was UNDER-paid in 2007 and voted to give him this kind of a raise. He makes more than double the city manager makes at the entity that creates and owns the EPWU and all its assets. More evidence that the PSB is allowed to operate in a closet here, while all the media just passes by and looks the other way. The median HOUSEHOLD (most "households" in El Paso have more than one wage earner) income here is $37,700. It is criminal that Archuleta makes MANY TIMES that amount. I'm sure in this "study" Red Oak tried to find some of the highest paid managers of municipally-owned water utilities in the country--and if true, Archuleta tops them all! This is the kind of alleged public corruption that should truly be investigated.

Note: The press does not report on these things because the reporters utimately hope to be hired on at these government agencies as their spokesperson. Christina Montoya of Channel 9, KTSM, just got a job at the PSB as its spokesperson. The media and the press walk hand in hand in this muck. There should be rules of ethics preventing any member of the press from getting a job with a public entity for a certain number of years. Maybe then they'll do their job and report on this kind of abuse instead of covering it up and then asking for a job from them. Shame on Christina Montoya who was at 9, KTSM, for years and boasts that she made editorial decisions on what stories they would cover and which ones they would not. And we wonder why we are where we are.