The El Paso City Council held a regular meeting on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, beginning at 9:00 AM with proclamations and continuing at 10:00 AM for the regular agenda. Mayor Renard U. Johnson presided, with council members in attendance (Representatives Alejandra Chávez, Josh Acevedo, Deanna Maldonado-Rocha, Cynthia Boyar Trejo, Iván Niño, Art Fierro, Lily Limón, and Chris Canales via video conference). The meeting included three proclamations, public comment, consent agenda approval, first reading of ordinances, public hearings, and several regular agenda items. All voting items passed unanimously unless noted.
Across the state of Texas. And whereas El Paso Matters was recently recognized by I guess this is repeated, sorry. Whereas the City of El Paso honors El Paso Matters for its outstanding contributions to journalism and congratulates them on being named Newsroom of the Year in Texas. We extend our deepest appreciation for their commitment to truth, accountability, and the betterment of our community. Now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that July 8th, 2025 shall be known as El Paso Matters Day. Signed Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson. Good morning, Bob. Morning, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. That was really impressive. And thanks to Representative Rocha for organizing this today. I think most of you know that this used to be the El Paso Times building before it was City Hall. And I want to start with a story about how that came to be to talk about how or why journalism is so important. When the city made the decision to buy this building from Digital First Media, which was the company that owned the El Paso Times at that point, they reached a sales price agreement. And because we are journalists, the newsroom of the El Paso Times filed an open records request with the city for the appraisal that was done by the city on this building. And much to our surprise, we found that the city had agreed to pay significantly more for this building than its appraisal had showed. So we ran that story on the front page of the newspaper. It stopped the sale of this building for several weeks and led to renegotiations that eventually lowered the sales price of the building by about a million and a half dollars. And Sergio, to his credit, said if Bob says it's a front page story, it's a front page story. As a nonprofit news organization, El Paso Matters is very much owned by the people of El Paso, and it's supported by them. So I want to thank everybody who's donated to El Paso Matters, who's uh uh read our work over the years. It really helps make uh this work possible. El Paso is a pioneer in this nonprofit news space. Uh uh, we were doing this before other communities ever got around to doing it, and uh it's not a cure all for what we need. Uh we still need strong local television, we still need strong local newspapers, but a lot of that isn't in our control in El Paso. Having a strong nonprofit news organization is in our control. Um so uh we have several members of of our team here. The thing that makes me proudest is that uh everybody you see uh behind you has deep roots in El Paso. We choose to be here and to be part of this community and to help tell the s the most important stories of of the community. So I'm very proud of the work this team has done. The proclamation mentions the uh Newsroom of the Year award we got. We're the first nonprofit uh news organization to ever win that award. We're the first non-traditional newspaper to ever win that award. So uh it really is a testament, not just to these folks here, but to the people of El Paso who found a new way to make sure that we stay informed. Uh one last note on an award that I think really recognizes uh El Paso in in particular, but also El Paso Matters. Because we build from this community, that means we have a lot of talent on our team. And I just want to share an award that I was fortunate enough to pick up a couple of weeks ago from uh investigative reporters and editors, which is the largest uh international organization that uh uh helps uh journalists really do the hardest work, which is investigative reporting. Um El Paso Matters, along with our partners at Laverdot in Ciudad Warez and Lighthouse Media in the Netherlands, won the award for outstanding video investigation for a project we did looking at what caused that tragic migrant detention center fire in Juatos that killed 40 people. Um was great recognition for for that work, but I think it's also worth noting that second place in that contest went to the New York Times. Um that's the talent that we have in this community. That's something that we can all be proud of. We all talk about the challenges we face, and we're aware of that. And that's part of our job at El Paso Matters is to make people aware of those challenges and possible solutions. But it's also our job to celebrate the things that make us unique, and that always comes back to the people of El Paso. So thank you for this recognition and thanks to everybody in El Paso who's made this possible. And I just want to wrap up with giving uh Cindy Ramirez, our editor who's the leader of our newsroom that does all of this important work to say a couple of words. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for having us here today and for recognizing the hard work that all of my colleagues do. Um this has been uh a new journey for me, even though I've born and raised in El Paso and I've been in this um uh area uh for all my life. Um but doing with doing this work with El Paso Matters has been really, really life-changing.