Who Sucks? John Cook Sucks
John Cook Sucks. El Paso Mayor John Cook sucks. This man is single-handedly going to shut down the El Paso Adult industry, try continuously to prevent Asarco from opening at a cost to the El Paso taxpayer of $10,000,000 + dollars and counting, and do everything within his power to make the Juarez mayor happy at the expense of his El Paso constituents.
I hope everyone in El Paso that voted for this man is happy.
Maybe the FBI should look into Mayor John Cook's relationship and business dealings with the El Paso School of Excellence and it's founder, J. L. Lewis. While they are conducting public fraud investigations perhaps it would not be too much trouble for someone to take a look. Mayor Cook once sat on the El Paso School of Excellence's board, right up until the week he became Mayor of El Paso.
John Cook and his wife also have a catering company who has provided meals to the El Paso School of Excellence for many years without having to worry about competing with other El Paso catering companies for a contract. Those are, in part, federal dollars being spent and I believe that kind of stuff is supposed to be fairly bid.
This contract favoritism began while Mayor Cook was a member of the El Paso School of Excellence's board. John Cook was also a member of the EPSOE school board when the decision was made to terminate the employment of several teachers and staff in order to save enough money to pay taxes to the IRS who were threatening action against the school.
The El Paso School of Excellence lied to the persons they terminated and to the Texas Workforce Commission by calling their action a Reduction in Force due to TEA regulation changes. EPSOE had attempted to convince the TWC that the school did not owe unemployment compensation for the terminated workers because they were terminated under a Reduction in Force made necessary by rule changes from TEA.
The reality of the situation was that the Reduction in Force was a story concocted by the school to use in order to avoid payment of TWC benefits to the terminated workers. The workers were terminated because the El Paso School of Excellence had not paid taxes for the entire year, and the taxes became due and payable. Every year about the same time EPSOE has to scramble to find money to pay taxes they ignore all year long. Then they lie about what they are doing. The next year J. L. Lewis and his wife gave themselves a combined raise totaling over $90,000 on top of their overly-adequate annual salaries, even though their school's academic standing was worse than the year prior every year for the last 4 academic school years. The El Paso School of Excellence has been on a monitored status by the Texas Education Agency for years. Neither J. L. Lewis or his wife have any school administration degrees or college training. J. L. Lewis, for years the school's Superintendent and founder, is a Pentecostal preacher who also claims to be able to cure cancer.
John Cook was also on the El Paso School of Excellence board when they received monies from a State program, a TIF Grant for school computers and servers. These monies were inappropriately spent and the contract process went something like the Mayor's catering contract with the school, no competition at all. The contract went to a company who 'donated' certain items to the school as part of the agreement to obtain the contract. That doesn't seem to be a very fair use of our tax dollars.
El Paso Mayor John Cook was also on the EPSOE board for many periods during which children were taught in classrooms that had not been permitted for occupancy by the city. Many, many times and for months on end the school operated without a working fire alarm system. They probably do not have a working fire alarm system right now.
This was what John Cook was doing before ya'll voted him Mayor of El Paso, Texas. John Cook was helping to run an institution funded by public monies in a manner inconsistent with both the law and human decency, while enjoying personal profit and gain from the relationship. The El Paso School of Excellence is an absolute abomination who would not be there today if not for the help and work of the El Paso Mayor, John Cook.
I wonder if El Paso Mayor John Cook is proud of his relationship with the El Paso School of Excellence and the school's continuing record for being the academically worst school in the City of El Paso.