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El Paso: No federal issues at play in ballpark lawsuit

New El Paso Ballpark

A lawsuit filed to halt a new El Paso ballpark on the grounds city officials violated the Voting Rights Act is being challenged by city attorneys as not being within the legal purview of the federal government.

The lawsuit says ballpark planning should be shut down because city officials — including city manager Linda Wilson — have been antagonistic toward Hispanics. (No, we don’t understand the premise, either). Because of the antagonism toward Hispanics, city leaders decided to build a ballpark in downtown El Paso instead of another part of the city.

The response from the city is pretty simple: it says there are no issues for a federal court to decide and that just because some people disagreed with the decision of the City Council, there’s no cause of action here.

The El Paso City Council voted to build a new ballpark for the relocating Tucson Padres (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) in downtown El Paso on the current City Hall site. Voters are being asked to approve a 2 percentage point rise in the hotel/motel tax to mostly pay for the ballpark. The ballpark is currently slated to open in 2014.

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