County official questions use of Eastside Annex building

the county’s new eastside annex today… was it a big waste of money? abc-7’s andrew j. polk is live with some disturbing revelations that came to light at commissioners court today. andrew? estela — commissioners wanted to add offices for the tax assessor-collector to the new annex on george deiter… but county clerk delia briones has already moved her employees out of that location due to lack of business. the eastside annex at 23-50 george dieter just opened about 6 months ago in may… but briones says it hasn’t been cost effective. tax- assessor collector: “merely 40 thousand dollars hav been in, in the matter of 6 months. that barely pays for the employee’s pay and insurance.” in fact, the doors were locked when we went by today. briones says it’s not worth keeping manpower there for now. but the county voted 4-1 today to have the tax assessor collector set up there as well… despite other concerns from briones on how to keep the income for each department separate. commissioners say it’s too early to abandon the $4 million dollar building… and the assessor-collector says it’s not about the income anyway. ruben gonzalez: “to those constituents in that particular part of the county, or the city, and allow them less driving time, less travel time, and have the services taken care of closer to them.” david stout: “and i think that just after si months of the annex being open and that office being open there is just way too premature for us to be deciding to go ahead and close that office.” stout voted against the motion today, because he wanted the original plan for all services to be offered at the annex in place. in the meantime though, the county will be looking at having a clerk kiosk installed for paying basic fines there and a couple other places in the county… and considering having flyers in water bills promoting the other locations available. rick and estela? commissioners court today also appointed michael rodriguez as el paso county’s