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El Paso County Judge - Anthony Cobos

El Paso Inc. Q & A with Judge Cobos
El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos has been in office long enough to preside over just three weekly meetings of commissioners court and is already making waves.
Cobos has arched a few eyebrows at R.E. Thomason General Hospital by calling for new policies that give the county commissioners greater oversight of certain aspects of the county hospital's $300 million annual budget.
He's set what to many seem like improbably lofty high-tech goals that would turn El Paso into "the solar energy capital of North America" and establish wireless Internet service throughout the county.
And he's crossed paths with editorial writers at the El Paso Times over his dismissal of the county's public information officer and the hiring of his chief-of-staff.
Cobos, 39, enters the office of county judge after a year-and-a-half absence from local elective office. He represented District 8 on El Paso City Council until mid-2005 when he lost a bid for re-election to Beto O'Rourke.
Last year, he won 54 percent of the vote in a Democratic runoff election against Barbara Perez to win the county judge's seat.
Q. Shortly after your election as county judge, you said: "This is a political rebirth for me. There's a big difference between where I am now and where I was three years ago. I will no longer be manipulated, blinded and influenced by special interests." What kind of special interests blinded you back then?
What I realized on city council was that people patronize you, people mislead you, people try to charm you. When you're an elected official, the special interests out there try to persuade you to do certain things.
With that statement, I was declaring, and I declare today, that I am totally objective. I totally have a mindset that we're not going to be manipulated, influenced or blinded by special interests.
I did not have the level of suspicion that I have now. My guard is up all the time. My suspicion level, my defensive system, is always up when I am visited by all people, really. I ask myself, what's the motivation behind different conversations?
And that's what I meant. I'm not going to be taken advantage of by anyone. Ever.
Q. When you were on the city council, I'm sure you formed opinions about how county government operates. Did you have any preconceptions about the quality of county government?
For the past eight years the county has been pretty much slammed on a regular basis, especially by the El Paso Times. That led me to believe. and probably leads the community to believe. that there's some dysfunction inside the county. We've had three meetings thus far and I now realize that the El Paso Times probably did not give the prior administrations credit where credit was due.
Q. Did you come to office with grand visions of what you hope to accomplish?
One of my greatest ambitions is to make El Paso County the renewable energy capital of North America. We have very few natural resources. We don't have any lumber. We have very few minerals. It's not practical to mine any more in El Paso.
Our greatest untapped resource, one that is definitely in our country's energy future, is sunshine. Our founding fathers who named the Sun Bowl did it for a reason. More than 85 percent of the days in El Paso County have sunshine. It's a renewable energy resource and it's the way the world is headed. Fossil fuels are being depleted. They're bad for ozone. They're bad for the environment. Renewable resources are the thing of the future.
This is one of my greatest objectives. We have put that in our state legislative agenda as one of our priorities. I'm going to pursue it.
Q. How do you do that?
The first thing you have to do is bring it to the consciousness of the populace. The public must grasp it and get behind it. We are going to be hosting a National Solar Summit in June to let the nation know this is what El Paso is about. We need to visit with and try to recruit companies that produce components of solar energy and that research and develop the technology.
I've spoken with people from Fort Bliss (who are experimenting with solar energy). They're very excited. In fact, we high-fived each other over the table when I said I wanted to make El Paso County the solar energy capital of North America.
I'm also working with a firm, EnviroMission, which will soon have specifications for a solar wind chimney they're going to build in Australia. We potentially have some land identified and may start looking at the construction of one of these energy producers.
Q. Much of the county judge's job is more mundane than that. At the last meeting you approved the hiring of temporary employees to address backlogs for a justice-of-the-peace office and the county clerk. You also raised a question about a judge who attended a seminar in Las Vegas. Do you like this kind of work?
This is exactly the broad range of topics I think I can govern very well. I am extremely detail oriented, especially with numbers. Let's talk about the judge's trip to Las Vegas. For too long, government people have traveled at taxpayer expense for the purpose of going to a seminar for continuing education, yes, but also for having a good time.
We can spend what is required for continuing education if it's in the budget. What we have to stop is employees taking advantage of it. What I mean by that is just because there's a travel budget doesn't mean you have to spend it.
Rather than going to a seminar and spending $2,000 on meals, travel and car rental, why can't we do it over a TV monitoring system where you can take an online course or a real-time course rather than spending that money traveling. We need to use the technology that's out there. It's very simple.
Q. Does the county have a problem using information technology?
Absolutely not. Our information technology department is the finest in the region. It is a leader in wireless (Internet service connections). In fact, the County of El Paso is spearheading the wireless for Downtown. We're working in conjunction with the city, the Housing Authority and El Paso Independent School District.
I'm working with Peter Cooper (the county's chief technology officer) very closely. After a few conversations, I decided we should make the whole county of El Paso wireless in the next four years. We put that on our state legislative agenda. I think it should be a goal of not only county government but of all the municipalities in the county and all nine school districts. To make El Paso County wireless. There's a direct co-relation between poverty and education. If we can bring information, the Internet, to every home in El Paso, I think we can bridge that digital divide. That can only enhance our income level in El Paso. It will set us up for the future.
Q. Why do you want the county court more involved when Thomason Hospital awards contracts?
It's not my goal to take a bigger part in awarding county hospital contracts. And that's not what's occurring. Given the fact that Thomason asked for $120 million in certificates of obligation and a $7-million tax increase in over what they levied last year, it's the county's responsibility to serve as the ultimate oversight authority in dealing with large capital expenditures.
The real red flag, the thing I was most disturbed about, is that the hospital district's board of managers is authorized to approve change orders on major construction projects without further approval of commissioners court. Change orders can amount to 7 percent of the job. When you look at $120 million in hospital projects, 7 percent could add up to $8.4 million. That's too much latitude for the board of managers. I just think the taxpayers deserve someone who is going to challenge or question what they're doing. I want to be able to ask the question: Why did we go over the budget? Simple as that.
James Valenti (Thomason Hospital CEO) is authorized to enter into contracts not to exceed $100,000. I'm fine with that. We don't want to micromanage anything under $100,000. But when you start getting into some of the policy language, I really grow very, very concerned. For example, the policy allows the board of managers to enter into some types of contracts "without further approval from commissioners court." The key about this is there's no cap, there's no $100,000 cap. They can purchase a million dollars of consulting services and I just think that taxpayers deserve someone who is going to challenge or question what they're doing.
I have met with Jim Valenti and expressed my concerns to him. We have agreed to work through this. He's going to be getting some dollar amounts and figures that address each and every one of these. He told me he understands where I'm coming from, especially on the change orders.
Q. You mentioned earlier this month you would establish a blue-ribbon committee to examine the selection process for members of the Thomason board of managers. Where is that?
First of all, I'm going to be running this by the commissioners court. I'm going to be seeking their approval to appoint a committee to evaluate the bylaws regarding the board of managers. Not just the selection process but the terms, the minimum qualifications, those types of things. This is as a result of a meeting I had with Valenti regarding the future of Thomason Hospital. We want it to be the most professional board of managers the county has ever had. We want to take politics out of the selection process. What we're looking at is some consistency in the professionalism and knowledge of the board of managers.
Q. Would you describe yourself as a pro-business kind of guy?
Absolutely. Very pro-business.
Q. What can you do as county judge to spur business development in El Paso County?
Control our tax rate. Businesses considering relocating here, or considering staying here for that matter, definitely look at their taxes. If we can control taxes, as I am committed to do, that's the first step. Any time we can cut through the red tape and bureaucracy, that's another plus. But the county cannot do as much as the city.
What we can do is meet with business leaders and have a good representation of county government. Other than tax abatements and those types of incentives, we're very limited.
Q. In your runoff campaign for county judge, you accused your opponent, Barbara Perez, of relying too heavily on Woody Hunt to finance her campaign. How are you getting along with Woody Hunt these days?
Woody Hunt is a gentleman and a visionary for El Paso County. He has done more to lure the four-year medical school to El Paso probably than any single individual in El Paso County.
Shortly after the election, we met and expressed our positions. We were not on the same page during the campaign but we're definitely on the same page now. I think that is something extremely positive. There were six initial candidates and everyone had support. It's important that after a campaign everyone come together and work in unison to get the job done.
Our primary job is the four-year medical school. Secondary is enhancements for the influx of population pertaining to Fort Bliss.
Woody Hunt and I are getting along excellently. We have four years to work together. And we are off to an excellent start. I could not have imagined being in as great a shape as we're in now with the business community and with Woody Hunt.
Q: You've been subject to some editorial sniping by the El Paso Times. They criticized you for dismissing your public information officer, claiming that you were closing the lines of communication. They criticized you for the hiring of attorney Travis Ketner as your chief of staff, noting that his professional conduct had been questioned in a complaint filed with the state bar association. How do you respond to that kind of criticism?
Let me first say, the El Paso Times never contacted me to clarify any action that I have taken or that I have considered taking. They've never contacted me.
In the situation with our public information officer, the Times failed to tell the public the she (Guadalupe Silva) is a former employee of theirs. It's a very important detail that they conveniently left out.
They also failed to get the numbers right. They said the appointment of my chief-of-staff cost the county $100,000. It did not. We actually saved the taxpayers more than $50,000. When we removed the (information officer's) position, we left a vacancy in our staffing table. That was a net savings of $50,000 to our budget.
Public information is extremely important in any organization, especially a public organization. In this information age, the public has more access to public information than in the history of the county. They can watch our meetings live via the Internet. They can watch reruns of our meetings on Wednesdays. They always have access to public information via public records requests. So removing the public information officer did not mean removing access to public information.
The El Paso Times really owes my chief of staff (Travis Ketner) an apology. When you look at complaints filed to the state bar, those are very private, confidential situations. What the El Paso Times did was unethical, it was wrong. A complaint has been filed against my chief of staff but nothing has been finalized. There hasn't even been a hearing. The El Paso Times is serving as accuser, judge and executioner.
Send comments on this article to tomfenton@elpasoinc.com.