Two order, Miss Bryan.

Yes, sir.

Good morning.

This is a work session of the El Paso City Council for Monday, October 13, 2025.

It is 9.02 a.m.

Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in council chambers along with Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, Representative Boyatrejo, Representative Nino, Alternate Mayor Pro Tempiero, Representative Limon, and Representative Malonado Rocha and Representative Canales are approaching the days.

Okay.

Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you.

Representative Fierra, would you lead us in a pledge of allegiance?

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you again, Mayor.

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God.

Good morning, good morning, morning.

Okay, Ms.

Ryan, I believe that brings us to agenda item number one.

Yes, sir.

Item number one is discussion in action on a resolution to approve the Department of Aviation's El Paso International Airport five-year capital improvement plan FY2025 through FY2030 in the estimated total projects cost come out of 316 million eighty-three thousand five hundred and five dollars and to authorize the city manager to make all necessary budget transfers prior to the execution of the projects.

And Representative Acevedo has joined the meeting at 9.04.

All right.

Good morning.

The airport.

Good morning.

While IT pulls the presentation up, I'd like to take a minute and introduce my team if you all don't mind.

Sure.

So in the in the crowd today, I have Vicky Ruiz, who's our capital improvements program administrator.

I have Roberto Ortega, he's a project manager, Enoch Bordier, Zhuhei Monghe, project manager, and Adriana is our chief planner.

So they're a big part of our success at the airport.

Shane they asked, is Tony Invisible?

Thank you.

Tony's here.

Okay.

Uh just jumping into the presentation.

Uh we are a um department of the city.

We fall under the strategic plan goals number one, grow the core business of air transportation by expanding airport development.

And then today's agenda will go over a capital improvement plan overview, recently completed projects, projects and design, projects and construction, program highlights, and then looking ahead into the future with planned projects.

So a little background, capital improvement planning 101.

Um we follow a regularly approved capital improvement program.

It is a five-year span containing all of the individual capital projects, major equipment purchases, and major studies that we have planned.

The EPA, the airport programs at CIP anticipating an annual receipt of approximately 10 million in airport revenue, 5.1 million in FAA airport improvement program entitlement funding.

That is our formula grant that we receive from the FAA, so it's based on the number of passengers we receive through the terminal each year.

And then 7.1 million in passenger facility charges.

PFCs is the $4.50 fee that you see on your airline ticket when you book your ticket.

We collect those and program them for projects around the airport.

So uh airport CIP growth.

Uh it was sitting at 276 million.

Today we're sitting at 316 million, and that's a result of potential grant awards.

We do consider ourselves or we're looking to be successful in our grant program in the future.

Increased construction costs, and then continued investment in airport development.

Okay, so where does the funding come from?

You can see the FAA is our largest investor at 131 million, and the airport is the second largest at 100 million.

Um passenger facility charges is sitting at 27 million, and then up at the top is the airport infrastructure grant, bipartisan infrastructure law at 21 million.

That was a formula grant that we received starting in FY22.

We received 6.2 million a year for five years.

We have obligated all of those funds, and then Vicky is very good at her job, and so we've even captured some of those funds and moved them over.

So we're stretching those dollars as far as we can.

Other grants at 27.5 million, that's essentially everything that's not FAA, so that's the EDA build back better and a few others.

And then the tax increment reinvestment zone.

The airport sits on tours 14.

Okay, and where are we investing the funds?

We're investing in the terminal by enhancing passenger comfort, accessibility, and experience.

We're investing heavily in the airfield by improving safety and operational efficiency, and then non-aeronautical is the strategic investment we do in the land for development.

And then very proud of our grants program.

And so we consider ourselves successful and create opportunities for ourselves by being prepared with data to demonstrate a justifiable need.

That data also allows us to be proactive in our planning and to effectively communicate with our FAA partners, and then we're ready to receive by having shovel ready projects in queue.

Okay, we've recently completed 51.7 million dollars in projects, starting with the parking lot improvements, the new point of sale.

So I'm sure everybody's had the benefit of going through the parking lot.

Now you just scan your little barcode and you can pay in advance.

Taxi Bay Mike relocation, and then the reconstruction of Taxi Bay Golf.

I like to highlight golf because it has that 8.5 million in supplemental.

That was a great grant that we received with no match requirements, so the limits of golf were replaced at no cost to the airport.

Cargo 3 improvements are some tenant improvements we did in the cargoes to welcome new tenants, specifically Blue Origin.

Ameristar hangar improvements was some remodeling we did for Customs and Border Patrol.

It's now their hangar, and then terminal ceiling and lighting.

We currently have 86 million projects in design, the airport sustainability master plan.

We're strengthening our relationship with our economic development team by welcoming the business one stop shop to the airport, and then we'll relocate our information desk out to the front where it used to be.

In 2018, 2019, we did some landscape improvements in front of the terminal, installed all the color changing lights.

We're building on that, and we are working with our partners at MCAD, and we brought on artist Michael Stoltz through the public arts program, and we're gonna install four wild horse sculptures around Terminal Drive.

And then TSA exit doors.

Those are the old revolving doors as you exit Concourse A and B.

We're getting rid of those, and we'll go to the hallway type door where it's got like the saloon doors.

So as long as somebody's walking through, they stay open and free egress, so everybody will get to baggage clean quicker.

Continue on projects and design.

We have terminal improvements phase three.

That's our FIS, the Federal Inspection Station.

We announced that project, um, that project, the flight to Chihuahua in 2026.

So we brought on a design team to help us improve the area.

Currently, it's an old design, doesn't work well for airline operations, doesn't work well for passengers, so we're gonna make some improvements.

Terminal ramp reconstruction is our next FY26 project with the FAA.

Um the pavement is at least 20 years old.

About 10 years ago, we did um expansion joint replacement in the concrete.

So this is the concrete ramp that the terminal building sits on that the airplanes park on.

And it's about 12 inches thick, and underneath it are a lot of utilities that are old too.

So it's cast iron pipes that we have problems with leaking.

So since it will be open, we're also replacing all of the utilities underneath the terminal.

And then Conrack improvements, that's our consolidated rental agency complex.

That project, or the building opened up in 2016, so it's been about 10 years, and it's time to just make some investments so that we keep it in tip top shape, and that's the expansion joint specifically.

So it's a it's a parking structure, and there's fluctuations in the concrete, and it's just time to replace the expansion joints.

Currently have 114 million projects in construction.

The five node remediation is our 26.8 million.

Um, FAAP entitlement discretionary project, I'll touch on that more in a minute.

AMD phase one, the advanced manufacturing district, uh general aviation ramp phase one, and then HR and patching office remodel inside the terminal.

Um, continuing projects and construction.

We have two solar covered parking projects, one that's just wrapping up on top of the sorry, top of the rental car center, and then one in our short-term parking lot.

And so both of those projects are twofold in benefits.

They're um they directly offset terminal energy consumption, and then they provide premium covered parking for the passengers and short term, and on the CONRAC, they provide covered parking to the rental cars inventory.

And then West Parking lot improvements.

That's the expansion of the West Lot, so it's directly across from the CONAC, it's the dirt law right now, so we're making some improvements there.

And short-term solar is going under construction now.

I believe they started last week.

Um, so we will have that portion of the lot closed during the holidays, but we are expanding the West Lot um temporarily, so it's gonna create about a hundred spaces through the holidays to make up for it.

Continuing on terminal improvements phase two is a roof replacement project.

We were awarded 813,000 and a supplemental opportunity, so we did apply and win.

And about three weeks ago, the FA reached out and asked if we had any more eligible square footage in the roof for more funding, and we do, and so they awarded us just over a million a couple weeks ago.

It was it was a lot of fun, so that means that we were ready, and another airport was not so very exciting.

Iron Dust Off uh Bypass is a roadway project that's a partnership with Fort Bliss.

It provides um secure access for them into the William Beaumont Hospital, and then it allows us to keep access to airport land.

NASA improvements, NASA's been a tenant for at least 30 years on the airport, and so we're making some investment in their facilities, specifically roofs on two of their hangars, and then Lone Star Irrigation.

The airport does own two golf courses, and through their lease, we have requirements, and so Lone Star is getting a new irrigation system.

Okay, moving over into program highlights.

I touched on our uh grants program.

Very proud of it.

It's an indicator of how well we've stuck to a master plan by identifying projects being ready.

I've highlighted a few of the larger ones, and then mostly on this slide, I wanted to take a moment and recognize that we're successful because we're part of an organization that supports us.

So Elda at the office of the Comptroller couldn't do without her, Claudia and Crystal at purchasing a strategic sourcing, um, Omar and Alley, strategic and legislative affairs, and Josette and Ignacio at the city attorney's office.

Um, when we had the the fire drill three weeks ago, I had everybody on the phone at 8 30 at night, signed the grant.

Um, and then moving on into program highlights, airfield improvements.

Again, um, this slide is important because it illustrates in a very visual way if you pick a plan and stick with it, you can make it successful.

So in 2018, the airport issued bonds to reconstruct runway 422, and so that's at the top of the screen there in orange.

And since then, by 2030, we will have improved all major pavement surfaces across the airfield.

And that's important because if we stay on the path we're on, we're not issuing bonds.

We're gonna replace everything through grants and and airport funding.

And then also in 2030, our program pivots from looking for large investments from the FAA to a maintenance program, which is much more affordable, much easier to maintain, and um it's incredible the progress that's been made out there.

I was talking with our FAA counterpart, and I was telling her, I was like, this is neat, right?

Like all the improvements that we've done, um, we're gonna have improved everything by 2030.

And she was like, Yeah, and it is unique because some airports they don't do their own planning, they rely on the FAA to tell them what to do.

But we've always had a strong team going back to 2016.

This program's longer than me, right?

But that's the importance of identifying a plan, sticking to it, and you're ready to receive the funding because in my opinion, it hit a peak last year when we got that 26.8 million for the five node.

That's the largest investment that I think the FA has made in our program at one time.

And um, just very excited about it.

Moving on, program highlights sustainability projects again.

Um, the importance of identifying goals and a master plan and sticking with it.

Sustainability was identified in the airport's master plan, and within the last five years, we've secured over 10 or just about 10 million dollars in sustainability projects.

Um, and then terminal ceiling and lighting.

Um I know I'm like hammering it, but it's just part of a strategic plan, right?

So this was the yes, sir.

You could go slower.

Yeah, what you could take your time.

Okay, sorry we're not in a rush.

Okay I get sorry, okay.

This is exciting.

So there you go, take your time.

There's so many words.

Okay, um, I'll breathe for a second.

Um, again, uh sticking to a plan and keeping with it, identifying a plan and keeping with it.

Um the ATP was the airport terminal improvement program that uh was a new program in 21 or 22, I don't remember off the top of my head, but nobody knew it was coming.

And so when it came out, you're reading the NOFO, and we were lucky we had terminal ceiling lighting in queue because again, we identified sustainability in the master plan, so we had projects coming along.

We submitted it, first round grant recipient, we're awarded five million dollars, it reduced terminal lighting consumption by 20%.

It also uh modernized the look of the terminal, it was twofold, and then uh Vicky Uise, I can't sing her praises high enough.

She got it into our technical specs that during construction demoed materials were sorted and recycled, so we recycled 55,000 uh pounds worth of electrical components.

And then again, um just an ancillary benefit of grants.

Uh the grants didn't go into the new ceiling, but they did offset costs enough that we could afford new seating.

So hopefully you've had time to go out to the terminal and see all the beautiful, like purple and blue seating throughout.

And then we um we're really enjoying our baggage claim well right now.

It's got the blue and the yellow and the coral and the green.

So we looked for thoughtful ways to pull those colors throughout the terminal.

And then future phases of this project, we're we're not done yet.

Um, we're gonna update the wayfinding and make it bilingual.

So be fun.

And then looking ahead into the future, planned projects, um, terminal bathroom remodel.

We've gotten a lot of comments on the terminal bathrooms, and it's time they need a facelift.

Uh terminal improvements phase four, that's carpet and wallpaper, just continuing on keeping the terminal modern and looking good.

Planned projects and the non-aeronautical range.

We've got the extension of George Perry, uh, Bonanza Street improvements, and then of course uh district development, advanced manufacturing district.

And that's the end.

This is a summary slide of the funding, and I'm happy to answer questions.

Very good presentation.

Sorry.

And sorry, you guys.

Okay, Representative Rocha.

Move to approve.

And I just have a quite a couple of questions, Shane, on this, and it's more for clarification.

So, first, we um the airport was out at a community meeting, I I think a couple of months ago with the artist for the horses.

And so that was really amazing, so that the community was actually able to meet the artist that was going to create these sculptures, and he brought um an example of the material that he's gonna be using for it.

And it was really it was really interesting to see how the community responded to him when they were able to actually touch and just hear from the person that's gonna be creating this art within within our community.

That's the first thing.

So thank you for that.

Second thing on the project for the ramp project or the um, let me go back to it, sorry.

Um the airfield improvements.

Yes, ma'am.

Was were all the stakeholders included in those prior meetings, Shane?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, thank you.

I just wanted to make sure.

I know I know I've already talked to you and told you what I was gonna ask.

Yes.

So um there's there's that piece.

And then the other piece is that we we talked about the closure for uh the improvements that started last week in the parking, the short-term parking.

And I know that I've gotten I've gotten some some requests, um, very few, because I included a certain piece of language that I don't think you included in here, but I think it's super important.

The reason why we had to do it today.

Why did we have to do this right now, Shane, in the middle of holidays when everybody's rushed?

Can you just explain that for me, please?

Yes, thank you for asking.

Um we have to do it now because it is a grant funded project.

That one came through us through the Department of Energy, and it's uh it's got a very short timeline on the grant, so we've got to be done by it no later than February, essentially.

So we've got to close the parking lot now.

Thank you, Shane.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Representative Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Shane.

Page seven.

I I find this an interesting page.

Um, specifically because to ask the questions where we invest the funds.

And my question is does the airport invest funds or spend money in areas other than the terminal, the airfield, and non-aeronautical.

Does um airport money go like for sponsorships or for marketing?

Yes.

For marketing, yes.

Okay, for the marketing.

Yeah, does okay, thank you at our last community meeting, and I had an opportunity to share with with um with Miss Mac.

Um, our community started working on our strategic development, our strategic plan uh prior to what the city is going to do.

And I do need to share with you and Tony and all of the staff that when we were talking about a variety of things, um, the visibility, um, they were extremely complimentary of the airport as being the first place that a traveler traveling by air sees.

Um, the grounds, the maintenance, the friendliness of the people.

That was such a big plus that they would use it as everything should be modeled like this.

And so it's a compliment to you all, Tony.

Thank you all very much for putting such a beautiful eye in a beautiful place for our visitors to see when they arrive to our city.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you, Representative.

And Shane, I just want to add my comments too.

The airport looks really, really good.

Um the modernization of the terminal, the chairs that you guys are putting in place.

One question is will those chairs have charging stations eventually?

They will, they will.

So um, everything that had power before will immediately have power now.

I think we're still in the process of putting it in.

Um, it is being installed by local installers, and we there's three people that so it's a little bit slower than we'd like, but everything that had power before will be powered right away, and then we're bringing on an electrical contractor to run power to the rest of it because we bought everything to be powered.

So whether it had power or not, we ordered power for it.

Very good.

And you know, we uh to echo what uh representative was saying, you know, we really appreciate the the extra effort that you guys do put into our airport, like the the Halloween decorations and the things that you do that are above and beyond the normal call of duty.

I can tell you that there's so many photos being taken, you know, around the the beautiful uh um characters and things that you guys are putting in the airport.

So this capital improvement plan, the next five years.

I can't wait to see what you guys continue to do because it is really transformational what you're doing with our with our airport.

And as the representative said, you know, it's our first entry into the city, you know, when you come to the airport, and it looks really, really good.

So keep up the good work and we have a motion and a second on this.

Is there any further discussion?

Okay, Ms.

Bryan.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Maldonado Rocha, seconded by alternate mayor Potem Piero to approve the resolution on item number one on that motion, call for the vote.

Mayor, I need to do a verbal vote.

I change my password this morning, and so you know how that is for a few days.

I thank you.

And the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Representative Fieron not present.

Thank you, guys.

Item number two is a presentation and discussion on international bridges, capital improvement program update.

Good morning.

Good morning, mayor.

Good morning, C Reps.

Uh Roberto Tinajero, director of the international bridges department.

I do have a presentation.

It's very straightforward.

This is an update or essentially a progress report of the projects that we're currently doing.

Uh first a little bit of background.

Um all these efforts started back in 2015.

The first uh CIP was approved in December of 2018 with the work uh that we established with the bridges steering committee, essentially all uh major stakeholders of the bridges on both sides of the border contributed to these uh to this plan.

Then we did an update uh in August of 2021 with the work that we uh were conducted uh with uh TechSoup for the Texas Mexico Water Transportation Master Plan.

And then uh last year with that the another update uh just to include all the all the uh essentially all the grants and new projects that that we had.

Uh these new or the current CIP was approved and adopted or on like I said on October of last year.

And the next slide um needs for the funding sources.

Mayor and council, I just wanted you to have the opportunity to see the full scope of the CIP.

So although some of these had come forward before you came in, between now and in December, you will have seen every department CIP, whether it's for discussion or adoption, just so you can see the totality of it.

Very good.

Okay.

Yes.

And then international bridge users in terms of our P3 program and our cash differential program.

This effort is not easy.

A lot of coordination with uh CID as well, which are our main uh point of contacts for these uh capital projects.

Uh and just to give you an idea on the funding that we collect for the P3 program, it's about three million a year.

So again, it this require a lot of savings, a lot of planning, a lot of coordination.

Similar on the cash differential, we only collect about two million uh dollars per year.

So again, it it's it's a big effort to to uh to our here, in other words, uh to be at where we are right now.

Um let me move on into the actual progress update.

You approve this contract recently, September of uh September 30.

Uh it's the new toll collection system upgrade, about 6.2 million dollars.

This will include uh complete upgrade of our toll collection system.

Uh was long overdue.

Uh we're gonna include uh toll collection software upgrades, new equipment for each of the lanes, uh pedestrian turnstiles, which we don't have currently have right now, and then additional detection technologies so that we can facilitate uh the work not only for our toll collectors but also the flows uh and our border crossers.

And I should mention that uh if if you notice uh the overall objective of the CIP is to facilitate border crossings and trade.

Also to improve our current workspace and to provide better customer service.

Additional information for our customers uh and that you you can see throughout the uh the other projects, but again, I just just to let you know in advance.

Another big one big project that we have it's the intelligent transportation system for Bridge of the Americas and uh the Isler Saragosa Bridge that came uh into uh state funding uh that was the writer, 32 million dollars.

The scope includes to install first design and then obviously the installation, uh dynamic messigns, uh CCTV cameras, border crossing, border crossing time uh collection devices again to provide better information to the public and facilitate uh border crossings.

Uh this is at 100% design, and we're gonna start the implementation uh in January of next year.

Uh next project is uh is the Isleta restrooms and break room area for our staff uh at the commercial lanes.

We don't have uh permanent restrooms uh there, so we're gonna be uh building uh new restrooms plus a small breakroom area.

This is at 100% design, and we're currently procuring uh the construction contract.

Next one, it's our bridge maintenance and repairs.

Uh we first inspect all the city-owned bridges.

Uh these inspections are for structural uh damages or issues.

So now we are in the process of the design uh to repair those structural uh issues.

Uh haven't found uh many, so but we still need to do the maintenance.

Uh that it is at 100% design, and it is under final review.

Once we're finalize it, then we will move to procure the contract to uh do those repairs.

Next is the traffic study for the two downtown bridges.

Uh in this, we're doing it in two phases.

So phase one is the analysis of current conditions, traffic patterns, and future demand, which is currently uh under final review.

Then we're we would like to move forward with phase two, which will be uh a strict design improvements and recommendations for traffic control.

In terms of our uh working space, we are doing uh some modification to our stand on building.

We are essentially uh adding uh additional space, uh office space, and expanding our current uh break room that is at 100% design, uh which is under final review.

The next one is a an infaspass office for our prepaid customers.

Uh, we're gonna build a new one.

Uh we currently have one at the uh Is that a Saragoza uh facilities, so we would like to have another one uh here at the downtown area so that again just facilitate uh the prepaid uh passes to our customers.

In that we will improve uh the office space, expand uh the current parking lot, and we're gonna build a new uh storage unit that is at a 60% uh design.

Next one is our race grant for uh Saragossa pedestrian improvements.

Uh you have heard of this one before.

Uh it is at a 30% design.

It's one of our main uh projects.

Uh we're gonna do improvements at all the intersections near the port of entry.

We're gonna do uh or install design and install uh canopies.

We're gonna have a uh pedestrian plaza, we're gonna have pickup and drop-off areas, we're gonna have public restrooms.

So this project will change the landscape of the nearby and the portal entry for pedestrians.

So again, very uh one of our main projects that we're currently working on.

Uh next one is uh a smart grant that we currently receive.

Uh I mean recently received a two million dollar grant from the Department of Transportation with no city match for this one.

Uh we uh will uh design the intelligent transportation systems for the two downtown bridges.

That way we can complete uh the ITS system.

So this one will design it, and then uh part will be uh to integrate integrated with uh the bridge of the Americas and the Saragossa system.

This one is we are procuring the the design of it.

And then we obviously we also manage the parking meters for or under our CIP, we have earmarked about $800,000 for uh parking meter upgrades.

These will include new technologies, uh branding, weight finding, uh, and website enhancements to our current park915.com website.

Uh for this one, we would like to present a console like a five-year plan in the next couple of months.

So we're finalizing the implementation uh plan.

So essentially on this, what we're doing is analyzing all the meters and their usage, uh, especially the coin uses usage to see if we can convert single middles, meters to dual meters or even to multi-space meters.

Uh that way we can uh clean up a little bit the sidewalks and again provide better customer service.

Then last for not least, uh this is related to an item that uh Karina from Economic Development and I will bring tomorrow for your approval.

But if approved, essentially the plan is to invest up to five million dollars in a uh feasibility study for a potential expansion of the Isletas Saragosa Bridge.

Uh the scope will include the needs assessment, uh the permitting requirements, because we know this will require presidential permit.

Then we would like to design automated technologies, and we will also require for for this to uh design a little bit of preliminary design of the potential uh solutions in terms of adding capacity and and view.

Well, uh, we are currently developing the scope of work.

Once we're done, the plan is to share it with our corner parts, which is Fidecomiso de Puentes to see if they can do a similar effort on their end.

That way we have uh uh one cohesive uh project at the end.

Uh again, you will hear more about this one uh tomorrow, especially regarding the funding.

And uh I believe this is all I have.

Uh obviously, more projects are on the pipeline.

We do have uh the border crosser uh survey that we are also currently conducting.

It is part, it is not essentially a capital project, but it it is part of our CIP uh for the funding side.

Uh we are also planning on presenting the results uh very soon to you, along with an economic impact of those uh results.

So again, a lot of projects in the pipeline, uh, a lot more planning because there are additional needs uh and additional projects that we uh haven't funded or don't have the funding for them, but uh we we will take it as we need.

Thank you, Roberto.

Uh representative Lamont.

Uh representative Lamont Thank you, Mayor.

Page 12.

If you could go back to the presentation of the or this slide.

Mayor, once again, um I had the opportunity to meet with Roberto last week or a week ago, and just as important as the airport is for that first visibility.

This the Saragoza bridge is also equally important.

It is the ugliest looking passage.

Um it it really is it's horrific.

Um but there's hope right here.

And on page 12, you know, right now it's at a status of 30% design.

Uh Roberto, allowed me to take uh two second sneak peek at the design.

It is going to be beautiful.

So it's like preliminary design.

Yes, cannot share, cannot maybe even discuss.

But once again, I think this is another fabulous opportunity to really put our city in such a positive measure.

I'm really helpful.

I'm very thankful for the work that you all do in your department.

And this is going to be great news for our city.

I just keep telling him hurry up, hurry up.

I'm only in here for another three and a half years.

You gotta finish before I leave.

So hopefully we'll be able to get that done.

Roberto, thank you very much for all the work.

Thank you, thank you.

And just to add a little bit to that, related uh in terms of beautifying or bridges.

We also have uh two current projects additional on this ones.

One is for striping and replacing the the lane dividers at all the City on bridges.

That's on also ongoing.

And uh we do have some painting uh on the fences, several fences that that we own that that it's also another project that we're currently conducting.

Uh plus uh the painting of the rail guards.

Uh that that's more of the technical stuff and and of the guards, uh concrete uh guards that we have for toll boots.

Those are gonna be painted, some gates, fences.

So you you're gonna see you're gonna start seeing the changes uh little by little.

But again, um it it has taken us some time, but now it is the action.

This is the action that we're doing, the action plan.

Very good.

Uh representative.

Thank you, Mayor.

And you mentioned the the surveys.

Do you know when they're gonna come and give us that presentation?

Um I don't have a date just yet.

Hopefully in the next couple of months.

Okay.

And I I believe we got a presentation last year.

And do you know if I know you're not the one that's actually doing it, but do you know if anything changed between last year and this year in terms of the methods that they were using and the times that they were going to do these surveys?

Uh my understanding is that the methodology hasn't changed.

Uh we continue utilizing the same methodology.

Uh now what we would like to present, it's a full year of data, which is last year, 2024, from January all the way to the end of December.

So that's uh slightly different.

Uh the last time that we presented, we present uh, if I recall from July of 2023 through March of 2024, or or I I can't remember the exact dates, but but I think the good part is that now we have a complete year of data, and that's how with that complete year we're able to do or estimate the economic impact of those uh responses.

Okay, and do you do you remember what times they're doing the surveys between?

Uh between 6 a.m.

and 11 p.m.

Okay, so they okay, 6 a.m.

Because I remember last year one of the things that I was telling them was if they could start at four in the morning, because my my big thing with that is I want to understand what impact students are having and see what we can do with that data.

And and I know that they had said 4 a.m.

was a little too early and it was hard to get that data, but I'm hoping to get something with 6 a.m.

It is hard based on the methodology because what we actually need to do, or they in this case, this is a collaboration with um a colegio de la frontera norte in Juarez.

So what they are the ones that are conducting the survey for us in in the Mexican side.

So what we need is actually a queue.

So at early in the morning, there is no queue.

So it's hard to implement a survey.

Uh that's one of the main reasons.

Uh, in terms of students, we can only or they can only do uh 16 years and older.

So we we cannot do uh younger, younger than that.

So I mean a little bit of of uh caveats in terms of of the survey results, but but I think it's information that we didn't have before.

And now with the uh potential economic impact, again I think it will be very helpful for for all of you uh to have.

Okay, thank you.

Roberto, thank you for the great presentation and um and good work on getting all the grant money that you guys are getting in your department and uh team effort, like I said, with uh all the legislative affairs uh people, Omar especially, uh, has been uh very great for us.

And again, it's a lot of coordination with not only him, but all his team, economic development, purchasing, CID, pretty much everyone.

Yeah, and you got a lot of work in the uh design phase.

We can't wait to uh it gets out to procurement and reality, and we get that Zaragoza Bridge nice and pretty.

Yes, yes, for sure.

Thank you, Roberto.

Thank you all.

That brings us to item number three, and this this is a presentation and discussion of the Sun Metro Capital Improvement Plan.

Good morning.

Good morning, Jerry DeMuro, Deputy Transit Officer for Sun Metro.

So this is a presentation on the capital improvement program for Sun Metro.

For our agenda, we will have the capital improvement plan focus, recently completed projects, projects in the design phase, and projects in the construction phase.

So as a major grantee, about 60 percent of our funding, 60 to 80 percent of our funding comes from the federal government through either discretionary or formula grants from the Federal Transit Administration.

The Federal Transit Administration requires that we maintain a state of good repair for all facilities that there is a federal interest in.

What does that mean?

That means like every three years, we need to do a full assessment of each one of our facilities and determine what condition it is in and rate it on a one to five scale.

If we fall below a three, we lose federal funding.

So we are on our third year of our transit asset management plan, our current plan, and are implementing a new plan to do another uh assessment to see where we are in the state of good repair.

But our focus really uh for our capital program is on maintaining the state of good repair so we can continue to get grant funding from the FTA.

We spend about 6.4 million dollars a year in maintaining our facilities.

So uh it's it's quite an investment from Sun Metro standpoint.

Our second focus is on system optimization.

You have all heard about Sun Metro Rising.

It's a program for a complete route restructuring, which will begin in 2026.

Uh we recently completed a week's worth of community uh outreach to users of the system.

We will be compiling that data and to get an understanding of whether our proposed route changes are consistent with the needs of our community.

Part of that plan is restoring Sunday service.

We when we uh finalized Sun Metro Rising, we said that we would restore Sunday service within three years of implementation.

So our projected Sunday service timeline is 2028 to 2029.

And we would also, consistent with the expectations of our users, extend evening hours, and we indicated that would be four years from implementation of Sun Metro Rising, so that's 2029 to 2030.

Our last focus is on system expansion.

Our system expansion really is going to uh be uh determined by how well Sun Metro Rising works.

We want to get that effort behind us.

We want to um restructure our routes so that they're more frequent so that there's better efficiency.

Right now, for those who use our system, our average route frequency is about 58 minutes per route.

Sun Metro Rising will get that down to 41.

Our end goal to get it is to get it down even even lower, but we won't know where to make those changes until we get the route restructure in place.

So right now you would ask uh where do you have your system expansion focused?

Our system expansion isn't really focused at this point in a certain area of town.

It's focused on getting Sun Metro Rising implemented so we can then begin our assessment.

Where do we need additional service?

We did recently uh receive a grant to evaluate the feasibility of extending the Montana Brio from its current terminus to the Beast Urban Park.

The Beast Urban Park is our second largest park in the system, and with all the amenities that are there, we think it might be worth uh extending Montana Brio to get there to service the park.

Right now, it is not serviced.

Uh there are a number of those who know the area, there are a number of street and sidewalk improvements that are needed.

So the purpose of the feasibility study is to assess the physical condition of the pathway between its current terminus and the Beast Urban Park, and then uh create a plan for making those improvements and then hopefully secure grants to actually facilitate those improvements so we can get service to to there.

Following all that, we'll be looking at expansion to other parts of rapidly growing portions of the city, including the Northeast and the Far East.

Some of our recently completed projects in 2024, we completed a number of citywide bus riding bus route bus stop improvements, including the installation of 112 bus pads through the city.

The installation of bus pads is important not only for customers accessing our system, having ADA accessibility.

It also gives us a potential source of revenue, and installing a bus pad allows us to install uh franchise benches, which we gain uh revenue from our advertising.

Back in 2024, we also completed a major renovation of our transit operations center.

That was completed for about 1.5 million.

That added additional conference room space as well as office space to uh accommodate our growing staff.

We completed in 2025 uh the transit center and transit operations center busway yard concrete improvements, as you know, buses riding over concrete that's 10 or 20 years old, the concrete degrades.

We then have hazards associated with a bus with potential bus damage or pedestrian access issues.

So we completed a major upgrade of a lot of the concrete at Northgate, the West Side five points, and our bus yard at on Montana.

And then in 2024, we also did a number of bus stop enhancements, primarily installation of shelters, which was comp uh which it was about for 1.1 million.

It's important to note that our current system has a uh about 2400 stops, 655 of those have shelters on Sun Metro Rising.

We will have 784 stops with our uh shelters of about 512.

The industry average for number of shelters per stops is about 10 percent.

We are running anywhere from 25 to 30 percent uh shelters at our stops.

Projects in design, the transit operations maintenance uh building reconstruction.

This is in response to the incident that occurred back in February.

Uh we will be bringing forward a presentation on the building and the recovery operations that we've been doing there over the next month.

Uh but right now our initial estimate is that it's going to take about 25 million to restore the the revenue fleet maintenance facility at the at the transit operations center.

Uh those of you who have been to the transit operations center, if you look out to our our bus yard, you see these beautiful canopies on one side of the yard, and you see these big yellow foundations on the other side of the yard.

Initially, when the when the facility was built, it was built to have canopies not only on one side of the yard but on those big yellow foundations that are on the other side of the yard.

We were successful in securing an $8 million grant to install those canopies that'll help us uh have the buses sheltered at all times while they're parked in the yard, making it easier for our maintenance people and uh easier for the buses to stay cool before they take off.

At the Northgate Transit Center, we have uh significant renovation of the retail space.

Uh it's a rehabilitation, it's about 3.3 million, it's pending construction right now.

That'll be funded from our fund balance.

We I mentioned we do have a grant for the Montano Brio to Beast uh urban park uh expansion.

That's about 750,000.

That schedule is due to take place in 26 to 27.

And then annually, we spend about half a million dollars a year on sidewalk gap improvements and accessibility improvements throughout the city.

So that is scheduled annually.

Projects currently in construction.

We will be wrapping up construction at the end of this year on the Paratransit Fleet Electrification Program.

That project, the infrastructure alone is about 2.7 million.

It's a discretionary grant, and that is ongoing at this point.

We are finalizing construction of a Brio station at Montecio.

There was a station there when the system when the Mesa Brillo was built.

It was damaged in an automobile accident.

It is now being replaced with a smaller station.

Um that'll be completed uh this month.

We are completing, and that is funded by the original grant that that was for the Mesa Brillo.

We are installing two smaller stations on Dio to enhance uh accessibility for the those using the Dyer Brio.

This again is through the grant for the Dyer Brio.

It'll be completed in December.

And then we are implementing the Sun Metro Rising accessible pathways.

You may be asking, well, well, you know, you've been talking about Sun Metro rising since 2020, and and nothing's really been done.

Well, if you remember how we did the we initially did a state of the system study where we figured out what we had, and then we wanted to do a study on what where what we wanted the system to be to improve the frequency, and then we looked at how do we we improve the frequency was primarily reducing the number of stops.

Well, reducing the number of stops required us to install accessible pathways between those stops that we're taking out and those stops that will remain.

So we have spent the last year installing uh or completing sidewalk caps and installing uh ADA accessible ramps at various corners to allow our users to continue to ride our system.

And that is the extent of our presentation of our capital program.

I'd be happy to take any questions.

Very good, Jerry.

Uh representative uh brocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Jerry, for the presentation.

I just have a couple of questions.

You um Sun Metro held 10 meetings or you met at the bus stations last week.

When can we expect to see the results of what those riders are thinking?

So we'll be compiling the results over the next month, and we'd be happy to present to council the results of that outreach effort.

I I'd be interested to see it.

I I I love the way that you all rolled that out and actually sh met with the riders at the locations that they're taking the the bus from to see what what they find and what what their thoughts were in regards to the overall project.

The the second question I had is I had a a constituent reach out about Route 63, particularly very specific to that route.

Um and it's it's in front of one of the senior centers, I think that's over on Carolina.

So I I would also like to hope maybe have a conversation later.

This just came in late last week, but to be able to have that conversation with you on what those findings were early on, just so that I can see and make sure that those individuals that have there they have walkers, they have canes, they're a little bit less um able to be able to see what the answer is for them.

So other than that, I love the project.

I think it's it's much needed, and I appreciate the briefing and and uh the presentation today.

Okay, we'll be happy to take a look at Route 63.

I want to also mention that in addition to the outreach that we did last week, we will be repeating that effort in the spring so that we have right before we go implementation.

In addition, we'll be actually doing onboard surveys of the buses.

So we'll be putting uh people on the buses to survey the users on the bus.

So we're catching not only the people at the transit centers, but also the users along the routes.

Awesome.

I really appreciate the approach.

Meeting people where they are is something that's so important.

So thank you all for the work.

Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Jerry, for the presentation.

Um I was at the meeting uh last week on RemCon, and I spoke to Claudia and I suggested to her at the time, and I think that she's uh taking a look into doing this.

It's providing maybe a QR code where riders can scan it at the bus stop that's getting eliminated so that they can know where the closest bus stop is from where they usually take the bus so that they know exactly where to go.

So instead of them having to to figure it out on their own, if they could just scan something and maybe a map pops up and says, you know, the next bus stop is here.

Okay.

It's a suggestion.

Okay, we'll take a look at it.

Thank you, Jerry.

Representative.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Jerry, and also Mr.

DeKaiser for all the work that you all do.

I'm looking forward to further conversations on this feasibility study for the Montana Brio extension to the B Serpent Park.

When do we first see the Sun Metro rising um implementation taking place?

You said after the spring survey?

So our initial assessment was we would implement in March.

In March.

And when we looked at what all is happening in March, we realized that school is still in session.

So rather than disrupt schools during the spring uh school session, we opted to delay the actual implementation until March after school is over.

That's our current intention right now.

Thank you for that.

And I know it's a I've had great briefings and meetings with you all as well in navigating how we continue connect to connect District 5 to O'Pasol.

So thank you for all your hard work.

Thank you.

Representative Trahall.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh a few questions.

It's great that you're doing a feasibility study for Northeast.

How far out does the bus currently go in that area?

It terminates at one of the transit centers, and off the top of my head, I I don't know whether it's the Northgate Transit Center or whether it's the Far East Transfer Center.

I believe it's the Far East Transfer Center that it terminates now.

I'm having a hard time hearing.

I believe it's the Far East Transfer Center that it terminates now, the Montana Brew.

Okay.

And the the Dyerbrill, how far out does that go up?

It's just a great one.

That runs the full length of Dyer.

Okay.

And these stations are within the Dyer corridor itself between existing stations.

Okay.

Is there is there an increase in usage or do you have any information of that you know regarding the other?

The ridership of Dyer has remained relatively consistent.

Our our most used route is obviously the Mesa Brio.

Okay.

I think what one of the reasons we decided to do additional enhancements on Dyer and installed the Montecillo station is we had leftover federal funding.

And if we did not use that federal funding to enhance the Dyer corridor or the Mesa corridor, we would lose that funding.

Okay.

The the uh the station at uh Northgate, there's there's there's some space there.

It's warehousing or office space, or what is that gonna be?

Yes, that space is designed as retail space, and that is actually the area where the rehabilitation needs to take place to make it suitable to be able to do the tenant improvements for occupation.

We are working with our real estate team or the city's real estate team to be able to find a tenant interested in tenant or tenants interested in leasing that space.

One of the things that has precluded us there is we've had some building defects that have when a potential tenant comes in and looks, they look at the building and they say this needs to be repaired.

I can't afford to do that.

So we are implementing those repairs over the next year.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions for Jerry?

Jerry, so on the Sun Metro Rising uh outreach meetings that were from the 6th through the 10th.

Was that sufficient enough to get the information and we did get some very good information?

What we want to do is repeat it again uh before it implements so next spring, and then also have onboard surveys because we're we're catching the population that is using the system now from the transit centers through our current outreach.

We are missing the population that boards the bus and goes to their destination without going to a transit center.

So that phase will be able to gather more information from the actual user that may leave their residence and walk down the street and catch their bus and then off to their destination.

Okay.

We'll also be uh gathering additional information from social media uh inputs.

Okay.

Any other questions for Jerry?

Thank you, Jake, for the presentation.

Ms.

Bryan?

That brings us to item four.

This is a presentation from Al Paso Water on the utilities capital improvement projects, upcoming fiscal year, and other related items.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council Mayor.

Uh for the record, Gilbert Drecho, Vice President of Operations and Technical Services for Al Paso Water.

Today I'll be presenting the regularly scheduled meeting and report from El Paso Water to Council.

Um Capital Improvement Project Updates.

I'll be also be presenting on some hot topic items uh that'll be of interest to council.

Uh be presenting on the led state legislative update, a rather successful uh update uh or legislative session for the water industry as a whole, and I'll be wrapping up uh discussing about the budget calendar for Alpassa Water.

Uh briefly, the uh mission for Al Paso Water closely uh aligns with the city's uh mission as well, providing customers with sustainable high quality water services.

We do that through a um strategy involving four very basic um practical goals, including customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, infrastructure performance, and total water supply.

Um lead off this morning with a couple of key performance indicators associated with these goals.

Um strategy that was implemented a couple of years ago was to get get ourselves fully staffed.

Uh we have a key performance indicator on uh position vacancies, and we're currently running uh just at around 10 percent vacancies for the utility.

This was very important because we got uh our vacancies filled strategically throughout the utility.

But I want to highlight at in our HR office.

Once we got everyone staffed up in HR, that was able to get all of our other aerials staffed up as well.

And as I mentioned, in our goals with that level of uh employee satisfaction, we don't no longer have so many employees are working uh long hours, although they already do work long uh they continue to work long hours just out of good work ethic.

Uh they're able to fill positions all over the utility.

Uh that then leads to uh a lower customer wait time.

So now we have uh low vacancy rates in our customer service.

Our customer wait time uh is just under uh three minutes, and we will continue to strive to make that lower.

And the other one I want to highlight here from a key performance indicator from the employee satisfaction goal is employees feel well informed.

So through employee surveys, we want to make sure that our employees uh enjoy working at Al Paso Water.

That'll improve the level of services that are that they provide to our customers.

On the operation side, I want to highlight two uh key performance indicators water loss being one of them.

So when you think about water loss, very basically there's how much water we produce, we track that, and then how much water we bill for.

Uh there is a delta there in between, and that is what is known as water loss across the country.

Uh, this is a metric used by all water utilities.

Uh this number did start to get away from us uh here in the last couple of years, but we really dug into it, understanding the importance of it.

Uh and this number is also tied to state funding.

So uh we dug into it.

We saw that there was an issue with metering, so our large production meters, whether it was at the wells, at the plants, anywhere else, um uh at booster stations out in the system.

We noticed that those were outdated, needed to be calibrated.

So we've started a program to update all of those.

As a result, we already saw very sharp decline in the water loss.

So that gap between how much water we bill for and we produce has slight sharply decreased here in the last year.

So very proud to report that.

And of course, leaks per 100 miles, another metric that is that is a good metric to track by the American Waterworks Association, and we track it.

Leaks per 100 miles.

We are average about 1.2 leaks per 100 miles of our water pipelines, which is in the yellow, seems to be in the acceptable range, but we'll continue to work to get that into the green.

But it'll also help with this water loss number as well.

And the last time I presented to council, I was here talking about steel plate steel plates and paving.

So there was a lot of steel plates on the line on the roadways.

We worked towards getting three contractors on board instead of just one.

One was just overwhelmed.

There's just too many street repairs to be done.

But once we got the three contractors on board, uh, again, you can see the positive trend in the right direction, a lot less steel plates on the road.

If you see one, it's not gonna be there for uh much longer, or our goal is to get it off of the and get it fully paved and get the seal pay plate off the street uh within weeks, and we are working towards that.

Uh, this one in particular could not be done without the help of city staff.

So the city streets and maintenance department has been really crucial in helping us get this down because once we open the street, we need their permit to get this paved uh to meet the city ordinance to get it done quickly.

They've also stepped up their game, it's been great working with street and maintenance maintenance.

We couldn't have gained have these gains without their help.

Now on the legislative side, so very successful uh year, monumental year, I would say, for the water industry in the state of Texas.

So uh this legislative session, there was um a generational investment made by the legislature in the water industry.

Uh number one, it started with a 2.5 billion dollar investment.

So this is a one-time uh investment into a water fund by the state legislature, which is important, highlighting all the needs for water supply, water infrastructure all across the state.

Um, inclusive of that on November 4th, there will be a um an item on the ballot for an additional 1 billion dollars per year uh to be added to this fund if approved by voters.

So this is a very important uh measure to add to the already the 2.5 billion dollars invested.

So this would be great for not only the state of Texas but for Al Paso as we remain very active with water supply projects here for our community.

So, how did El Paso benefit from this $2.5 billion?

So this initial investment was um direct benefit to El Paso water, thanks to the work of Senator Cesar Blanco, Representative Mary Gonzalez, and Representative Joe Moody.

With their efforts, they were able to secure 14 million of that 2.5 billion uh here for El Paso.

We are going to use this money to fund the design of a new river water treatment facility in the upper valley.

Upper Valley continues to grow.

We're seeking to add water supply in that part of town, and to be able to have this seed money to design this river water treatment plant in the upper valley is a very important um project for El Paso.

Now, one of the other uh major initiatives for Al Paso Water that we work very closely with our state legislators and with our delegation is affordability.

So this remains a very important measure for us here locally.

Things in our control, we're dealing with it through agua cares.

So Agua Care is this program where any of our rate payers, if you receive uh when you receive your water bill, you'll see where you can check if you want to donate uh water towards Agua Careers.

Uh, this is a program that we have currently in place.

Big picture, we want assistance from the state to help uh people at risk who cannot pay their water bills, people at risk of disconnection.

We are asking for a program with a state to allow us to set up a program to use ratepayer money to to assist these folks that are at risk.

Now, the way the Texas water code is set up, is that this is the only way that we can provide this type of assistance to customers at risk.

Uh so again, working through the office of Senator Cesar Blanco and our other delegations, Representative Vince Petis, we are working with them uh to set this program up.

Uh we were unsuccessful this last session, but we'll continue to work hard to try and get this going.

Uh big even bigger picture at the federal level, there's all water utilities across the country are working through the association of metropolitan water agencies to again set up a larger program at the federal level to then fund something at the state level to then can trickle down to municipalities.

So there's different at all different levels of government.

We're working towards trying to get these separate programs set up for our customers at risk of disconnection.

Other things that we are doing.

So in other in separate briefings with with council, we talk about our menu of affordability options.

So this is another way that El Paso Water has set up and has in our control to help folks who are at risk of disconnection or folks who are just having a hard time pairing their water bill, or they're already conserving.

If they're already very low water users, we've rearranged the rates so that they could pay a lesser amount.

The year before was the very low water user rate.

So again, these are things in our control trying to help folks who are already doing more than their part and using very little water to have to lower their water bill and reduce the risk of disconnection.

And of course, I just finished talking about the other things that we've done, legislative priorities, and we continue through our conservation team to offer rebates for any customers who want to continue to lower their water footprint in their homes.

This next section is titled Hot Topics.

So for a couple of you council members, I think for everyone.

So the new meter installation program.

So this is definitely a hot topic associated with El Paso Water right now.

So we're rolling out these new digital meters.

Digital meters, very good conservation effort, very good way to have every single homeowner be in control of their water usage real time.

So while we're rolling out these new uh water meters, we're about 40% complete.

Uh but the news I like to uh break to council is next year the app is coming.

So there is an El Paso water app that is being under development right now.

Currently, if you interact with El Paso Water digitally, you go through our website.

We're working on an app.

You'll be able to download it, whether it's uh Android or iPhone, it's our it's our app.

That app then will be connected to your digital meter at home, and you'll have real-time information on what is going on at your home with your meter.

You will be able to see how accurate these meters are.

This is one of the benefits of these meters.

I think our customers would argue, you know, these meters.

My bill has gone up.

And our answer to them is yes, they have gone up because you are using water.

The old meters were mechanical, they were rusted, they were old.

At very, very low flows, the meter was not turning.

So this one is showing that water is being used.

That's a good thing.

If water is being used overnight when nothing's running in your home, you will now know something, you have a leak.

It could be a toilet, it could be a sink, it could be a drip irrigation system that's running when folks maybe don't even know that it's happening.

So, again, maybe a little bit of change going on, but ultimately really good information coming back to each homeowner associated with their water usage, and their water usage will again be uh fully in their control.

I think an added benefit for these meters too that I like to add, it's not just measuring how much water everyone's using.

Each one of these meters is gonna provide pressure readings at every single home, which is gonna allow us to provide some really good pressure maps all over town, which is very beneficial from an operation standpoint.

It'll allow us through time if we see pressure in an area go down, we'll be able to react quicker to it versus the reactiveness.

I just got home, I don't have pressure in my house.

Once we see pressure start to drop, we know something's wrong, we can react.

So that's gonna be a benefit.

And of course, all of these come with leak detection as well.

We'll be able to know when leaks are happening, not only on the customer side, but also uh in the street.

We'll be able to start to triangulate all of these meters talking to each other.

Where is there a leak?

We can react quicker.

So there's there's added benefits to the customers as a whole.

All of this will equate to water savings and ultimately uh a rate savings if we can again continue to uh conserve and save water.

Next item on this hot topics is the blue lids associated with the water meters are blue lids.

So we were all accustomed to the nice metal lids, but the blue leads have to be in place for the radio transmission to to make its way out of the meter box into uh the airwaves or we can collect it.

So these are plastic lids, they have to be plastic.

Um they have to have a way to lock in because if they don't lock in, it could rain.

If water gets underneath it, it'll get buoyant and float up and go off down the street as we've already seen this happen.

Uh residents like to have access to their to their to their meter valve.

Um I like to have access to my meter valve because you never know when something happens at your house, you want to go turn it off.

Uh so now there's videos online, a lot of outreach has been done so folks can understand how to gain access through these blue lids.

And we're also working on an alternative blue lit design as these uh either break or get lost.

We're working on a new meterly lid that is also plastic, but it'll look more like the old uh metal one where it could sit in and twist on.

So we're working on that as well.

So just through attrition, we'll roll those out into the at people's homes as well.

Uh if people want to know more about how to deal with their current blue lid, El Paso Water.org, YouTube, you can type in blue lid, how to remove it, a lot of uh information out there and videos as to how to work with these.

Uh airway construction, very good news on airway construction where for the holidays, uh, construction crews will clear out.

Construction crews will clear out in time for Thanksgiving before just slightly before Thanksgiving tool for airways to full traffic flow, no no orange barrels, no reduction of lanes.

We're gonna clear it out.

Now, after the holidays in January, we will come back because we do need a paved.

So the paving here, again, a lot of really good coordination here with streets and maintenance.

This is a special street design.

This is a thick reinforced concrete design.

It takes time for the concrete to cure.

We don't want to do that now, and then it rolls into the holidays.

So we're going to demobilize, clear up airways for the holidays, but come back in January for a couple more weeks, pour the concrete, let it dry, cure, and then we'll have a very strong uh new airway boulevard.

Monsoon season, so as it continued to drizzle last night and all this weekend.

It's been a very active uh monsoon uh season in 2025.

Um to the point of this presentation is 42 events.

I'm sure that's up closer to 46 events now.

Um this monsoon.

Uh monsoon season is officially over, um just as we enter October.

Uh, but there was no disruptive events, nothing that we would consider very disruptive events, like we've seen in previous years.

Uh but there was a lot of issues that did show uh flash flooding uh signs of localized flooding, which our crews responded to uh in various different ways, uh whether we staged uh vector trucks to vacuum out water off of these areas that are prone to localized flooding, a lot of very good coordination uh with city staff as well with your offices so we know where we need to stage um equipment so that we can respond quick.

I think the other good news about this uh monsoon season, although very active, we saw a lot of the infrastructure that we've installed work very well, whether it's the new channel along Arroyo 1A near Tippen Elementary, um structures that have been in place much longer, um like several that we have in in the northeast.

Um we have the Fairbanks um sediment capture on Fairbanks Street as well.

Uh gateway ponds continues to work very well, uh currently holding about uh six uh feet of water.

You still can't see it uh with very very deep ponds, but those continue to work very well for us.

And then newly constructed Fort Bliss diversion boxes.

I think some of you, if you've took if you took the trip of or the tour of the stormwater facility, these huge boxes uh that we refer to as the Fort Bliss Diversion boxes working very well, allows us to go in, clean those out very quickly as it rains.

So again, although although uh very active, we've seen that the infrastructure is responding and working very well.

Although there's still uh room for improvement, I-10.

There was a stretch of I-10 that flooded a couple times uh this summer.

Um I think the good news that came out of that is we've established some really good contacts with um tech stop.

So with Textile, there is a uh pumping station that we assisted with getting it back up and running.

We assist with vector trucks to ensure that we can just drain I-10 and keep it moving.

Uh but we've also established uh very good relationships with their design team.

So as I as Text Otts are working on the expansion of I-10.

We're working closely with them uh to once and for all fix all of these drainage issues here uh in the stretch from all Saikopia through downtown.

Um this area is very difficult to spill to build stormwater infrastructure on.

So while we have plans uh from I don't want to confuse you.

Well, we currently have plans to build ponds and and obtain uh private property all along I-10.

That that was the current plan because there was nothing else in place.

Uh expensive, time consuming, disruptive to the public, but that's really the solution to get rid of all the flooding in I-10.

Now, while that's currently the plan, now we're working with TechStot that as they plan to expand I-10, we want to work with them to put the infrastructure in place, uh, raise I-10 so that we can build ponds and risk infrastructure underneath so we can contain all that water within that right-of-way instead of buying private properties all along I-10.

Um, so again, we're that's the goal.

Uh, we're working closely with them, but ultimately that that's what we would want to do in in conjunction with TechSoup as they expand I-10, raise it up.

We can put in pump stations, some ponding so that once and for all the new I-10 as it's expanded, we'll not experience these issues.

I think best of all, we want to be disrupting uh private properties adjacent to I-10 in these areas.

Top CIP priorities for El Paso Water.

So the last couple of years, we've had two of the higher CIP programs in the history of the utility.

As we're working on our budget for next year, we're actually going to have the largest CIP in the history of El Paso water.

That'll be a new high water mark.

Years after that, we expect it to come down.

But again, in order to continue to meet the needs of aging infrastructure growth, water supply.

This is the story of why CIP projects for El Paso Water are high.

It may seem repetitive, but that's what it is.

In order to make sure aging infrastructure is gets replaced, so we don't have uh disruption in service, that's important.

All of this ties to economic development.

Uh, we can't have any chinks in the armor.

The water system has to be tight.

Uh, we have to keep water in the pipes, we have to keep treating water, and it's not only a perception, the fact that there is not a water supply issue in El Paso has to continue to be a fact, but we have to keep doing these projects in advance proactively and not wait till something uh bad happens.

So, again, next year you all will be briefed here in the coming weeks with what the budget looks like uh for next year.

Uh but again, aging infrastructure, growth demands, and water supply to maintain a high level of service is what's driving the the capital premiums project.

I'll highlight just a couple of projects.

Uh, again, the Pure Water Center that's currently under construction, we'll add 10 million gallons a day to El Paso's water supply, the ultimate form of water recycling uh in that is possible.

And again, this will be the first of its kind facility in the country and of this size in the world that will take this ultimate step in water recycling for our customers.

I mentioned growth.

This is a very exciting part of El Paso uh infill development here near the airport.

Uh there's the iron point development that's coming in, but a lot of infrastructure that that is required uh to meet the demands of this growing area, whether it's on the wastewater side, but we're keeping an eye on the water supply side as well.

Uh just a brief history.

So this is between the the airport, which was um never planned, and when that I'll say 30 years ago, um not planned for development at the scale that it's seeing right now.

Uh the yellow, the part highlighted in yellow that used to be Fort Blissland that recently was sold.

That was never federal land like that was never planned to be developed.

So our system starts there, meaning these are either real really small wastewater lines that grow as they get closer to the treatment plans or they're um the large transmission lines to convey water here.

I never assumed that this would develop.

So the infrastructure is just not there.

We're working with city staff, uh, our engineers, we're sharpening our own pencils to figure out how we can serve this area.

We will serve this area.

Um, and through the help of like the Iron Point development, they set up a mud so that they could pay for these costs.

Uh, some of the other areas, like in the airport development, that will fall fall on us.

But again, working closely with the city, we will find a way to serve this area.

And the wastewater plants, uh, the large majority, I'll say at least 60% of the CIP, next year's CIP, this really big one that I mentioned, it's it's about the wastewater treatment plants.

I was talking to um a family member yesterday and saying I was mentioning nobody wants to think about wastewater where it goes, nobody wants to think about how it gets uh treated, uh, but it's a reality.

It's a very important part of the Clean Water Act.

It's how we keep uh the environment clean, and we provide a very clean water to the environment and to farmers.

That's who uses this water.

This infrastructure is very important, um, and it's time to improve it.

Um, it's time to improve it, it's time to rehabilitate it.

Um, and that's what's that's the driver in all of these um treatment plant projects that are going on uh currently and driving the CIP.

Mentioned the budget.

Um here's our budget uh timeline.

Uh most important, November 13th, 6 p.m.

This is the public uh workshop public service board meeting and availability for the public for anybody to come and comment on our budget.

Uh so again, November 13th, 6 p.m.

Uh, if the board sees the need for a second public meeting, that would be held on November 20th, but that's the only if.

So the the real important one is November 13th.

That one at 6 p.m.

And then the board will take action on adoption adoption of the budget on Wednesday, December 10th at a regularly scheduled public service board meeting.

I'll finish off on some good news and recognitions.

So credit goes to the city of El Paso, the El Paso Fire Department, and our own uh El Paso Water Fleet.

They were recognized as the National Association of Fleet Administrators, best 100 fleets.

So credit to the city's fleet department, the fire department, and our own uh fleet for uh reaching uh this goal.

Uh they work very hard.

I got to see first time what our uh fleet department does in order to be considered and apply, but then to get award that says a lot when you think I'm how many fleets are all around the country.

So your own fleets at the city at the fire department again, a lot of hard work went into this, so credit to them.

Uh related to economic development.

So we got to take care of Fort Bliss.

They're one of our major stakeholders, one of our major customers.

Uh, we did receive an award for um it was the Army Community Partnership Award uh for all the work that we do with them.

Highlighted within this are these intergovernmental support agreements.

Um heard of them as IGSAs, so these are ways that we interact with Fort Bliss to help them with their own capital improvements and improved services on their on their contonment base.

Um and we were we did receive this award from them.

Uh you can see there on the picture, not only our government affairs officer lead Hector Gonzalez, but our public service board chair Brian Morris were at the Pentagon receiving this this award.

And lastly, at the Water Environment Federation Technology Expo Conference earlier this month, we received a water utility of the future award uh under the category of energy efficiency.

Uh we showed that we were able to reduce our energy footprint and our power usage footprint by 10% using a automated system that helps us run how we fill up our tanks, how we what pumps we turn on, our pumping stations, a very complicated system, but we have an automated system that helps us do this.

Uh we showed a 10% savings, and because of that, under that category, we were recognized as a utility of the future by the Water Environment Federation.

Lastly, I'll finish with our interactions with city staff.

Uh it's just been great working with Ms.

Mack and with her staff.

Uh myself personally working with Ivere Hernandez.

It's just been really great and refreshing uh to uh to work with them.

I mentioned city streets.

Um we've got a meeting coming up here shortly with Nicole Cody as well.

Just everybody's been great.

And while everyone was complimenting the airport, I'll compliment the airport as well.

It is such a fantastic experience coming through the airport.

And a lot of uh people who who work with us, they tell us the same thing.

Pleasure to come to El Paso because of the airport.

So congratulations to them on all their work and Sun Metro as well and the bridges, everyone.

So it's just uh an honor to be part of this team.

Very good.

Good presentation, Gilbert.

I got one quick question.

Uh knowing that we're going into the second week of the government shutdown, and customers that may get into uh buying where they're at risk of uh disconnection.

Are you guys currently looking at something for our military personnel?

That's a good question, Mayor.

Um, I'm gonna say I'm sure we are.

So anyone who's at risk, um, we have our customer agents trained uh to either offer uh delay payments, payment plans, whatever it may be.

So um, so yes, not only for um our folks who in the federal government who are experiencing this, but really for any one of our customers.

If they're at risk and they're having a hard time meeting their payment plans, our agents are are trained on on different ways to to assist them and help them.

Very good.

Thank you.

Uh Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for asking.

That was one of my questions.

And so thank you, Gilbert.

Uh I'll start.

I have about seven questions that I have to ask you, roughly.

Yes.

I'll I'll be very quick though.

Yes, no, no NAVKIN math today.

Um so you also left out one of your awards in here, your community award.

So please, if you don't mind, just tell us what you recently won.

Well, uh thank you, Representative Rocha.

So um last week I I was a recipient of the McDonald's Triumph award uh given to in the area of government service, um, not only for my work uh in the office but outside of the office and that I received that award.

So I really appreciate you.

Thank you, and congratulations for that, government.

So I have a couple of things on on slide six.

Um, you were talking about the average call wait time that you had, and it's at 2.62, I believe.

I'm not looking directly at it.

But uh the goal is five.

Although you've been trending for the last year, well under that five.

Is there any chance or I guess process at this point for you all to consider bringing that that target down?

Yes, so as part of our KPI team, and we set it up five year correct, but we're working on bringing it down.

So anywhere between enhanced automation and there's additional work uh that we're doing to provide more data in the hands of our customer service agents so that they can more quickly answer questions.

Um it's much of it's part of a much broader effort that we're working on, but but yes, the short answer is yes, we are working uh towards bringing the goal down, um, but putting in the systems in place to make our customer agents more nimble with data at their fingertips so they can more quickly uh process uh calls and provide the information to our customers that they need.

Thank you for that.

I look forward to seeing what that new target's gonna be.

Uh secondly, so in kind of uh springboarding off of what Mayor Johnson just recently said, you know, I know that you said, and and that was actually my second question, which is on slide 13 about what you and the the water company do, uh the utility does to be able to provide uh payment arrangements and and and um and such for those that are struggling.

I I'd even stretch that to say would you consider a moratorium at this point?

I know it's something that I've asked El Paso Electric to do.

I had a conversation with uh with a representative from from there on Friday until we can determine what happens.

So this isn't a situation where you know you're still getting paid every week, but this is a situation where there is no payment, and that furthers to our TSA employees, that furthers to our air traffic control employees, so that affects all operations across the city as well.

So I would just encourage you and and leadership to consider that as well, um, not just for that payment plan, which you already have in your in your process, but possibly to consider a moratorium for that if you wouldn't mind.

Absolutely.

We'll certainly take that back to the team.

And during COVID, there were you know unprecedented times, so there were things in place that we did then that we stopped doing since we rolled off of it, but but you're absolutely right.

I'll certainly take that back to the team.

Thank you.

I I appreciate that.

So then on the airway update, one thing that was missing was the VICONT.

So first I want to thank Renee and Adam for really being the outreach for that area.

The businesses are very, very anxious to get this strip opened already, but just as much as the the residential community is.

So Airway, I understand, you know, I I understand the explanation.

What's the update on VICOUT?

On Vical, so sim similarly on VicOunt, working with the contractor, it's a different contractor.

It is uh different contract, uh, but understanding that these are are are tight together.

Um is is the question are we going to also uh demobilize on Vical?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um I don't know.

I'm gonna have to get you announced on that.

Thanks for me.

Renee.

You're on speed dial now, Renee.

Yes.

Uh the good news is Vicant will reopen during the holidays when airway reopens.

Okay.

And when we come back in 2026 after holiday travel, uh, we should be able to finish the pavement on that.

Wonderful.

Uh but the good news is all the groundwork, all the pipelines are in the ground, so when we do come back, it'll solely be repaving.

Thank you.

I appreciate the update, Renee.

Thank you.

And then along those lines, possibly in the next presentation, I think we'd also like to see the update on Hawkins.

So that directly also affects kind of those alternate thoroughfares that people use in that neighborhood.

They use airway, they use Hawkins, and now we're moving them over to um more to Geronimo and and even possibly McCrae.

So just because I know that that coming into the holiday, you know, we're gonna see this possibly in three or four months.

We'll still be in that in that Hawkins closure at this point.

So if you could just include it in the presentation, I would appreciate it.

We sure will.

Thank you.

And then um two more, two three more things.

Am I on am I good on time, Ms.

Prayne so far?

Yes.

When we talk about infrastructure and we talk about what um hazards are out there, I understand that you know it does take additional money, funds, grants, wherever that comes from.

However, one thing that I think is really quick to just add for purposes of keeping everybody as safe as possible.

Could we add signs to the text dot areas to the areas that are in the residential areas on Mesa, um, in in all these areas that have now really are flooding, and we're in these storms.

Is that a potential option, right?

To to do that.

I I know that TechStot does a really good job of doing the the banner over the highway to be able to say, you know, look at this, but can we look at something more permanent that talks about the heavy rainstorms and this possibly being a flooding zone?

That is in the works.

Uh so there is a flood warning system that we received the grant for that we're working jointly with the county.

Um currently we've uh brought on or we're in the process of selecting uh the uh engineering company to help us uh define the scope and define exactly where this would be uh of of most use or really for the grant that we have and additional funding needed.

Uh they'll help us divine the scope, but short answer yes, that that is uh on the way, a flood warning system for these uh areas prone to flooding.

Thank you so much for that.

Okay.

And then um the last thing, I'd also like to see, if possible, the on on slide 23, we talk about what um what is happening with what we're doing to help with the water situation that we currently have.

One of the items that constituents want to talk about a lot are the data centers.

So this is a great area.

Um when you brought up Iron Point, when we talk about what's happening with Meta, also possibly talking about um what the updates are with that as well.

I know there's a big concern within the community when it comes to water usage and what the day what that does when we add data centers to it.

So if if that could just be added, I would appreciate it for the next quarterly update.

Yes, ma'am.

And then um finally the water festival.

I was able to go and enjoy the water festival when you all had it just a few weeks ago, so it was really enjoyable.

It was a lot of fun-filled uh time for families and kids.

We're running around everywhere on the property at the at the Tech H2O.

And it was just a lot of fun.

Next time, send an invite to us.

We'd love we'd love to join and support you all any way that we can and also be that additional component to send it out to to our our constituents as well.

It was a lot of fun.

I would just love that to see that you know, maybe everybody else had the opportunity to share with our with our constituents.

So thank you all for everything you do, and thank you for answering my questions.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

And you know, I'm gonna ask John, I see him in the audience, to come up here in a minute, but to talk about one of your questions about where we're at with water, because he made an announcement uh and to John just received an award also.

He received the Woody J.

Hunt uh excellence in economic development.

So I want to give him a round of applause for his award.

Yeah, and John, before we go to the other representatives, you made an announcement uh at the luncheon about the 50-year water supply, then you you said about going into the future.

Do you mind kind of giving us uh an update on that again?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

I'm John Balou with El Paso Water.

Uh so yes, what I was referencing is that there's a lot of things coming together when it comes to our our water supply situation.

So Gilbert just announced the uh grant from the state of Texas for uh starting the process on an upper valley surface water treatment plan, and so that presupposes that there'll be additional surface water available for that plant.

And how that's helpful is that uh that most of the water from for the upper valley comes from the Mesia Bolson Aquifer.

This will allow us to preserve that Meso Bolson aquifer when water is available for the river, we'll be able to utilize it on the west side.

So that's a supply that we have not anticipated for many years because it would just wasn't available.

Uh so that's uh that's one thing that's that's uh in in the works right now.

The other thing that's in the works is our importation projects.

So we uh we feel that we probably need to preserve the weccable zone as well.

So from 2003 to the present, we've been cycling in and out of drought.

And so when that happens, when we have less water from the Rio Grande, we have to turn up the weccable sound supply, uh, which is finite.

So we we're considering advancing one of the importation projects to uh offset the pump so we preserve the the weccable sound supply.

Uh we also are in the the last phase of an expansion to the desalination plan.

So we haven't really talked about that a whole lot, but uh but we we have three phases going on.

We have the third phase, which we receive funding from I think it was the DE EG funding funded project for a sixth treatment unit at the D Cell Plan.

So we have all these things coming on uh board, plus we need to reassess the uh the populations.

I'm sure that you uh seen at council, you've seen the school districts uh struggling with the population, so we're looking at the same thing.

So for the next decade, seeing the population growth kind of flatten out uh over the next two decades, and so we'll uh figure all that into our our our water planning.

But the long and the short of it is it looks very good for us for all those areas that are working together that we'll have plenty of water going forward into the future.

Wow.

Very good.

Thank you, John.

Uh Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Gilbert and John and Renee for always having the door open for any conversation that uh you know our constituents want to have.

Um, I was also gonna ask about the government shutdown, but in perspective to that, what percentage of customers do you currently have that are at risk?

Do you happen to know that?

I I don't have that number on me, representative, but we'll get that to you.

Yeah, I would definitely like to to further know how we could support even in our next legislative priorities of focusing how we can even push further for that legislation.

So please let us know how we could be of support.

I have no further questions, but um I know Paso Water does have a program um that kicked off about three years ago.

It's the El Paso Citizens Academy.

I would uh you know recommend that program.

I was part of the very first cohort a couple of years ago, spend six months with them visiting all the stormwater facilities, all the wastewater facilities.

I know that you said that not ever not everyone wants to know where wastewater goes to, but I actually got to go into these domes with masks and see the process of um everything that El Paso water does.

So I'm very grateful for all the work that you all do.

When is the next cohort opening?

Do you guys know by any chance, Rennie?

Okay, cool.

Yeah, so I mean, even if our staff could take part of it, it's a great learning uh opportunity for our community.

I mean, water is one of our best resources in our community.

So thank you for all the work that you all do.

Thank you.

And Represent Nino, thank you for that good graphic of the mask and the smell and everything.

We appreciate that.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Gilbert, for the presentation.

I I like Representative Maldonado to have a few questions as well.

Um I guess just because uh John mentioned it, uh, Mr.

Balou mentioned the Mesia Bolson Aquafour.

Um a lot of my constituents inquired about it, especially recently in my community meeting, which with Renee attended because of Project Jupiter and the data center that was being uh built there and some articles that were being uh passed around saying that they were going to rely on that aquapore and if it was going to affect us.

So if we could just touch on that briefly to make everybody aware.

Thank you.

Okay, so that's uh that's a great question.

So the uh the Messio Bolson Aquifer is recharged by the river.

And uh so the uh the pumpage from our our well field is in the Cañatillo area, so it's right adjacent to the river.

The uh data center is pretty far removed from the river.

So our estimation is we probably will not have any see any difficulties from that because as they they draw water, comes out of the river.

We have the first wells, the first straws in the in the aquifer at that point.

Uh so we don't anticipate that there'll be any adverse impact to us.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Thank you for clarifying that.

And um and I know that you have made a lot of stormwater improvements in District One, and uh I I appreciate that from El Paso Water.

Um I also want to ask you about the meter installation, which is on uh page I think it was 12.

I'm not sure.

Well, uh it says that you've installed 40 percent of of uh the new meters in town.

Are you doing that in any specific way or uh are you starting at any point or where are you at right now?

So the majority of those 40 percent has been on on the west side, uh, and we're working our way east.

Uh so the next um group or the part of town that'll see the meters one will be the the east side, and then the last group will be uh in in the valleys in in both valleys is where is the plan.

That will be the last group.

And by when do you think that will occur?

So by the number we're using internally, so by April we'll be at 75 percent, and we expect all of them to be in uh by the end of 2026.

By the end of 2026.

Okay, thank you.

Um also the blue lids.

So I know that you said there's several videos online and on your website as well to um guide people on how to remove them.

So just FYI, I had received some questions from actually from our fire department.

They've been responding to some calls and some homes, and they were having a difficult time removing those blue lids.

So I don't know if I should refer them to those videos as well, or if you have any other information uh to help them, especially during you know crisis, basically, that they're called to respond to.

I would offer one more.

So aside aside from the videos online, they can contact uh myself or we'll make available uh Ozzy Muniz, who's our uh emergency response uh security and safety officer uh who's a former uh firefighter as well.

Uh so we can make him available.

They they can coordinate on on how best to make these available or whatever the fire department needs so that they can do what they need to do.

Yeah, they were wondering if there was a specific tool that they needed or something to make them respond quicker to emergencies.

A flathead screwdriver at the end of the day, a flathead screwdriver with a video is is really um what what's needed.

So thank you for that.

Uh the ultra-low water use on page 13.

When did you implement that?

Ultra low this year uh in this budget year is what we introduced the ultra-low.

Okay, and that's great because uh I did have a constituent that was uh concerned about that only because I guess they're very conscious about the amount of water they use, and they were telling me that they were having to pay at least a certain amount.

And so maybe this is something that they could tap into so that they're not um obligated, I guess, to pay more than they they think they should.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Let me see.

Um in terms of projects in in district one specifically, I just want to thank Renee for always keeping me up to date.

I know that Love Road is happening right now and and a few others, and so I just appreciate all the updates um and communication that you provide for my community because it is very helpful to be able to be in front of things instead of reacting to things last minute and trying to get information for constituents.

Um so thank you, Renee, for all the work that you're doing.

Um and let me see.

I think that's it, Gilbert.

I'm done.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, John, and thank you, Renee.

Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor.

A couple of questions for you, please, not as many as my colleagues on that side of the room.

But um, you talked about these meters being installed.

Uh, what was the um how were the consumers, the homeowners um informed about it?

Because I know Paso Electric, they spent a couple years informing the public through social media through mail, and and this just recently I've started hearing about the water meters.

And I I'm not I'm not a good thermometer source, right?

But but it just seems fairly new to me.

Have it how's the outreach been in the bill in, sir for sure was was a way that that we announced it.

Um our communications team, I think also through um different forms of social media was announced as well.

Uh, when the whether the program or these are being installed with our staff and with a contractor uh in both cases, uh right before the uh installation is about to go in, there should be a door hanger.

Uh we try and interact with everyone, but as it's going throughout the day, maybe some people are not home.

Uh but that's that's been the way that that we've been doing it.

So when you finally make it to the east side, because I know you're spending all the time in District One, but when you finally make it to the east side, you'll we'll get a door hanger prior to the installation.

There will be a door hanger, yes.

Short answer, yes.

Uh but we'll also talk to our team about ramping up uh communications.

We we use like the the next door app so we could target neighborhoods, and I think we can do that everywhere, even now as we're doing it.

I think we can wrap it up some more.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

Um, yes, are you to that's a great question.

Are you able to opt out of this new meter?

No, no.

Okay.

And then um lastly, what how how long does the installation on this question?

How long does the installation take?

Gosh, I've I've I've heard every everything from 15 minutes to 30 minutes to an hour.

It happens very quickly.

Okay.

Uh and then on page 26, you don't need to pull it up, but uh you were talking about the public hearing, and then you said if we need to, we'll have another public hearing.

What what are you going to use as a measuring tool for that?

That's the decision from the public service board.

What we've seen in the past is after the first public meeting, the public service board may ask for different options.

They may come back to staff and say, show us different options, different rate options.

What if this, what if that?

That would trigger the second one to be able to provide those results.

Okay, but it won't be on the tenants.

Um we can reach out to our member on the public service board to lobby first.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah.

Representative Savedo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I had a few questions on the meters specifically.

Um what was the thought B Kind not allowing an opt-out provision on this?

I'm I'm thinking about this as this has been on the minds of people just because there was a lot of public engagement that El Paso Electric did, and then now the water utility is doing the same thing.

And El Paso Electric allowed for opt-out, but it's a very small percentage of people that did it.

So why no opt-out?

Yeah.

I think the main reasons is because the overall goal for the utility.

So this this is the best way and very effective way to conserve water.

It's good information for the person, the resident, to know their usage and if they have any type of leakage.

So it it's just part of a broader strategy, the total water supply strategy, uh, to really tighten up the city's water footprint uh to allow and open the door for opting out.

Um, the meter is inaccurate, and it could be inaccurate in both directions, but um it would be inaccurate mostly and uh on the not reading enough side, and I know residents that's what we're experiencing.

My bill got higher, it's simply more accurate.

Uh, but it's part of it's about the bigger strategy.

So uh everyone knowing and accounting for every single drop of water.

That's our own goal from a utility to understand where all of this water goes.

Um, but it's to provide this information to every single user so they could have control of their water usage is really what it comes down to.

It's it's part of a bigger philosophy uh to account for every single drop of water.

And everyone here in the desert, everyone chime in.

Uh here's good information.

We want everyone to have that type of information at the palm of their hands.

Gilbert.

Uh councilman, I think uh a big point of contention during the El Paso Electric new meter uh debate was the cost associated with the new smart meters.

In this case, there is no cost for the new meters for the customers.

So I know that was a big question for customers for El Paso Electric.

Can I opt out so I don't have to pay for the new meter?

There's no additional cost associated with these meters.

Okay.

And and I guess just going back to the the meters being more accurate and having really old meters that were not exactly accurate, and now people are seeing higher bills because now they have a more accurate reading, I guess.

That does concern me in in the sense that people were not prepared for that, and I don't know if that was one of the unintended consequences that would come out of this, and it was explained to people in uh in a way that for years your meter hasn't been the most accurate, but now it is, and that's why you're gonna see this increase, especially with the increase that El Paso Water did this year, El Paso Electric.

I think there's this is top of mind for people.

I think if our customers are are feeling like they didn't get enough of a heads up or a chance to brace themselves, uh I think that's that's fair, and it clearly shows that we could have done better to put the word out there.

Um so we we just need to do better in terms of of that understanding.

Some of the stories that are starting to come in with constituents or with our own customers that were upset.

Um, a lot of the times there there's programs in place to complement what is going on.

So they see the higher water bill, not happy.

Uh, we go out there and see what's going on.

Not always, but a good amount of time, and and and I don't want to talk in generalities, but more often than not, there is a leak that they had no idea was happening.

Um, and that will then trigger one of our other programs that if they had a leak once it gets fixed, um you uh your bill gets adjusted.

Um the so there's other programs in place that could kick in.

So these are some of the stories that are coming in.

Others are just using uh more than what they thought.

Now their eyes are are open to their usage, but uh to your point.

If they felt that they needed more time to brace themselves, we we can sure do better in and and how we rolled this out.

And and I guess I'm also curious to know if you know a dollar amount of how long these inaccuracies have occurred because now you have better meters, so you could put a dollar amount to that, you're gonna make another million dollars to million, etc.

So that it's a very good question, and and I like to make sure that everyone understands that this is a very small dollar amount that we're talking about.

So the the inaccuracies of Gilbert references are are low flow inaccuracies.

So let's say, for example, at night you don't have anything running, but maybe your evaporative air conditioner, and so water is running to your evaporative air conditioner.

The current meters are not registering that small amount of flow.

The new meter being very accurate picks up all of that flow.

So it's a it's only these very small amounts, like like Gilbert was talking about leaks.

You might have a small leak, evaporative air conditioner use.

That's what is now going to be metered that the previous two was not.

So these are all small uh small amounts that that we're talking about.

Okay.

I I'd still love to see something maybe a year from now or something to say this is what was inaccurate, so we could put it in the middle of the year.

We do have a video that we're working on that shows uh two meters, the current meter and the new meter with a small stream of water flowing through it, and you can see the current meters not turning at all, and the new meter is registered.

So we'll have that video on our YouTube channel as well.

Okay, I appreciate that.

The other thing that I wanted to ask was about the I-10 stuff that you were talking about where you said that you want to build more retention ponds around I-10, do it under it, and all of that, but then you said something that was contradictory and I needed a little bit more clarification where you said you could acquire properties along I-10 and do it that way, but you'd rather work with Tech Study and kind of embed it into the freeway.

But then on the slide it says solutions will involve property acquisitions.

So I wanted to get clarification on that, please.

I I think the clarification is what is on paper now, what is the plan now, which is the property um acquisition, and what I and staff will be working with TextDot on, which is not official and something that we're working with them on.

So I'm sorry to cause confusion.

Current plan does involve property acquisition along the I-10 corridor there from Copia to downtown, uh, because we need to build large ponds.

The solution to completely um uh alleviate the potential of flooding are these large ponds.

If you could just imagine more of these gateway pond type structures along I-10, that is currently the solution, that's really the only solution right now on paper.

But now that I 10 is working on this expansion, um uh myself staff will work with them uh to put it within the right-of-way, add pumping stations within the right-of-way to avoid uh as little uh property acquisition as possible.

Okay, I appreciate the clarification.

And similar to what um representative Maldonado Rocha was saying earlier about you know a flood warning system, something along those lines.

I I think that my constituents come and tell me, well, what is El Paso Water doing?

They haven't done anything for stormwater, right?

And and I think it's a very um big reaction that they have when they're experiencing flood issues.

But you've actually done a lot and we've done hundreds of millions of dollars in in that right, and so I think that what I see as this being more like bad luck where you haven't got into a certain area and you have a flash flood, and then you're having those flood issues because you haven't tackled that area yet, right?

But in the other areas where you have tackled stormwater, that's working well.

And so I'm I'm wondering if there could be more of a public education piece on explaining what you're doing and why you're kind of experiencing this, and not necessarily saying, well, it it was bad luck that we haven't tackled that area, but more of that public piece so people know what you're doing with stormwater and how much you've invested.

I I feel like you come to council, you tell us that we're doing all of these things, but the public isn't always watching this, right?

So I'm more of this campaign to reach people so they understand how difficult this topic is to tackle.

Yes, sir.

We can do it.

And then the other thing that I wanted to ask you about was on these budget workshops with the PSB.

I guess you're you're saying that this is a public PSB budget workshop on November 10th 13th, and then there could be a second budget workshop.

So the way you kind of frame that was if the public wants to come and hear about the budget, they could come to this, but you're not planning on doing any sort of community meetings on what the PSB budget will be or the water utility budget will be.

That that is the community meeting for for the public to come in, listen, comment, and and express themselves at that meeting.

And and I think that that is a bit problematic for me because you're you're public utility, right?

And so I think that there should be more of this outreach where I'd love to host you in my district to come and talk about what this budget is.

I I think El Paso Electric has done a really great job on really going out into the community to discuss this rate case.

People were not happy about the rate case, right?

But at least they were very accessible, and they went to three of my meetings too to discuss this, right?

And as a public utility, I think the onus is more on you just because you're public and and they're private, so they didn't really need to do all of that.

But I think the community engagement piece is really important because what happens is that in January, February, you're gonna announce an increase, and people are kind of saying, Well, why are you doing an increase?

And there was no public knowledge of it, there was no public education on it, and and I think that that would be really great if you would offer yourself to the council or just host community meetings because at the same time you're out by Sylvista, right?

And you're asking people to go to that meeting, and it's a whole thing with construction right now.

That and so I think you need to be a little bit more accessible in that sense to let the public know what their public utility is doing with public money for their budget, right?

So I'd appreciate that.

And the last thing that I have is these data centers are are really concerning to my constituents.

This continues to come up at community meetings or any time that I'm in the community.

And I think the big thing that I see with these data centers coming in is that at the beginning they say they don't really need any water and they're fine, and five years, ten years later, they need water.

So, what is El Paso Water going to do about that strategically to kind of tackle this now in the future when this arises, because I've read articles in other communities that it's become such a big problem.

So we we track we track all of that research, all those articles ourselves had conversations, are in contact with the city of Phoenix, for example, who have a lot of data centers in in theirs in their service area as well.

So I I think the the assurance that we give to the community is the these initial agreements that we have with data centers, uh that's really the cornerstone of of what of what will happen in the future.

Um these agreements have to be held up and uh the coordination that has gone on with the data centers, even leading into these agreements that that's why because they understand too that these contractual agreements are in place uh for them to uh stay within uh their water demands that they have expressed to us.

Uh now with that said, um again, we uh it is upon to us to hold the line uh with these data centers, but to find ways to serve them.

Uh similarly, like I mentioned in these other areas, um in north of Montana again as a water utility is our job to find uh ways to service.

That's where our engineering kicks in.

Um but in terms of water usage and demands, yeah, it's these initial upfront agreements that the were where where that has to be held.

Okay, I'll leave it there because I'm out of town.

Thank you.

Representative Limon.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you very much.

We've we've uh listened to a lot of the different aspects of El Paso water utility, storm water meters and things like that.

But there's another section to it, and that is availability of water to our outlying communities.

And I'm gonna call on John.

He's hiding behind the pillar right now.

But I'm gonna ask him to come forth because yesterday at Reimagine El Paso that was sponsored by Episoya, Episo Young Adults.

It was a wonderful opportunity to hear.

Um maybe tell us a little bit about Alisia and then the numbers that you shared with us, please.

So thank you, Representative Lamont.

So yes, I did have the uh the pleasure of of introducing uh Alicia Franco who uh has done an amazing job for for 40 years.

I've only worked with her for about about 30 years, but uh she was the the face of water for the colonials for many, many years.

And uh so uh she was helpful in in tr in connecting uh people faces and neighborhoods to the the bureaucracy, if you will.

So we look at it in terms of maps and places on the maps and pipes and that sort of thing, but uh she's she was very helpful in introducing us to people in the neighborhood and having us interact with them and talk to them about their particular needs.

And so over the course of uh her 40 years, uh we uh we connected up about 120,000 people to the system for first time uh water service.

So we're very happy with that.

That remains a priority of the public service board.

So uh just two weeks ago I was out in the East Montana area uh at a ribbon cutting for another another project.

We're shortly gonna have a ribbon cutting in the upper valley for another uh one of those projects.

And so we continue going forward with that.

Our our delegation, especially uh Congresswoman Escobar has been very helpful in getting funding to come in, whether it's through uh USDA Office of Rural Development or the Texas Water Development Board or the Corps of Engineers or or these other funding opportunities to be able to put together these packages and connect up neighborhood after neighborhood into the system.

So we're really uh happy to to do that.

And that was a great event yesterday.

And John, a hundred and twenty thousand plus connections.

And thank you for being the person that was able to navigate through the bureaucracy and opened up the door for all the community or the people to have access to to water.

Greatly greatly appreciated, John.

Thank you.

That's one of the fun things about my job.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Representative.

Representative uh Trejo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I also have questions regarding the data centers.

And their water usage.

We when we look at the one in Santa Teresa and the one in in uh in the Northeast, what is the difference in the usage of water?

So you the um Project Jupiter and Santa Teresa and the data center.

So we we have not seen those numbers yet.

So I I've I I don't know what the differences are between the the size.

They just talk about I'll say anecdotally, like the size that it's gonna be really large compared to the one that's being built in Northeast El Paso.

But the water demands themselves, uh those I have not seen those.

I don't believe those have been made public by that project.

Are they using similar ways of cooling the air?

I'm gonna say I I I don't know that either.

And Gilbert, I think you should mention that crew is different from you guys.

Yes, so that data center is in New Mexico and is in a different service area, but a different water utility in New Mexico.

Um they will be served differently.

Um I think to John's point earlier, they are gonna be using the Mesia Bolason Aquifer, um, but at different uh in how and strategically well spacing all of that, that has not been made available to us.

Okay, so that's not something that the the water company, El Paso Water needs to be concerned with.

So we I'm gonna say that it does, it's water in the region, so we are concerned and we are paying attention.

Uh we just that's just not our service area, uh, but certainly we maintain close ties with any water provider and water user uh or large water users and water providers in the area.

So yes, it is of concern to us.

Um we're just sitting by, I think like most of the the public uh waiting to see what these numbers actually are.

Okay.

Yeah, that is uh very, very important information to share with the community.

The you know, the the the data center in Northeast, uh they have a different way of cooling their what how they have it planned, and so those that information is so important to the to the community because I know that's a major concern.

You know, what is that water, how is it gonna affect El Paso in the long run?

Are you all communicating this to the community either maybe through the bills or something?

Your your water bills so that they can have that information?

Uh information specific on the data center and northeast.

No, that has not been communicated uh to our customers like through bill inserts or or or anything like that.

Is there is there are there any plans to communicate with the community so that they can have an understanding of that?

I think what we can do is take this concern uh internally to our communications team and see how we can start packaging it up in a way to to uh either alleviate concerns and really to highlight all of the the good coordination and the good water management strategies that were put in place as the discussions with uh the folks from uh Meta were were ongoing.

So yes, I I think it's a great idea.

Okay, thank you.

Uh and then on page 10, you you mentioned uh the um SB7 and the the funding that's uh gonna be happening over the next 20 years, one billion annual over the next 20 years.

What percentage of that would go towards El Paso?

And are you all working to get a piece of that pie?

So we we are working towards getting a piece of the pie.

Um there there is no set uh percentage that comes, I think, to any community, but certainly how hard we work towards uh getting more of that piece of the pie is certainly up to us and our efforts in Austin and and uh educating and working with our delegation so that they could push uh for this as well.

They're going to use current um agencies to distribute this money, so the Texas Water Development Board is is a way that they'll do it.

There's there's there's already established processes and ways so that communities can apply for for these funds, and certainly we we already um are beneficiaries of these processes.

We use these already, we have our our connections and and good uh established relationships with Texas Water Development Board.

Uh we know how to gain access to these funds.

It's really just incumbent to us to make sure we we stay on it.

We have a great team with uh Lisa Rosendorf and we have our own grants writer uh as well to help us stay on top of it.

So so yes, ma'am, we we are on top of it to make sure that uh El Paso gets more than their fair share of this money.

What would be the focus?

Would it be stormwater or is it?

I I think all of the above, as we see the the in the CIP, so the CIP, the the pressures of ageing infrastructure and uh water supply and to meeting the demands of growth, all of these will fall into those categories.

This specifically a lot of this focus was new water for the state of Texas, so water supply especially uh will be an emphasis, and we have because of our 50-year water plan, because of what we're executing right now, we we're in really good position to apply for these funds as they come up, not only with this new river water treatment plant in Upper Valley that we mentioned, uh, but there's also um additional water supply projects that are planned here in the next 50 years that we can uh dip into these funds.

Very good, okay.

And then on page 15, you mentioned we've you've had a few questions on this already, but you mentioned an app.

Is this something that individuals could download or is it a m an app where you website or what does that look like?

The El Paso water op not available yet, but will be available in the spring of 2026.

So it's coming and it's in development.

Once that is uh developed, it will be available for download um through uh the regular means that people download apps to their phone, whether it's an Android or whether it's an Apple phone.

Uh but yes, it'll be just like any other app, very easy to use, download um and and start using it.

Okay.

But not until spring of 2026.

It would it be strictly for the meters?

Is that the intention for it?

That'll be the way.

So the idea of an El Paso water app has been in the works for a long time, but the meters component the meter component uh was a driving factor to get this out there sooner sooner than later.

But it'll be the one stop shop for anybody's business with the water utility.

So it's not going to be just for the meters, but for really any other way in all the many ways that people interact with us.

Communication with the with your with your customers.

Anything in there considering uh notifications for flash flooding or anything like that.

That is you're you're on it, yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Very good, very good.

Uh I think that's it.

Thank you.

Gilbert, thank you guys for the presentation.

It was it was uh informative and we appreciate it.

And congratulations on the award.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Ms.

Bryant.

Item five is a presentation and discussion on the federal shutdown preparation and updates.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So for the record, my name is Alejandra Gorski.

I'm legislative liaison for uh focused on federal affairs for a strategic and legislative affairs department.

So I'm here to pick up the conversation on the shutdown.

So this is going to be a presentation.

Um it's gonna be an update and discussion on how the city has prepared to address the government shutdown.

So the purpose of this presentation is to discuss the city's readiness and preparation to address the risks arising from the government shutdown.

We are still in the shutdown currently.

It began on October 1st, so a little bit over a week ago.

Um I'm going to review the context for the shutdown, the preparations that we've taken for the city to address the risks from the shutdown and do uh look at our outlook and next steps.

Um, but this presentation is really focused on our readiness to address the shutdown.

So with that, um, if there's anything you want to take away from today's presentation, it is that uh city services remain uninterrupted even as the shutdown has continued.

They um the services to the public remain stable.

And I'll go into why that's the case later.

Um and this, you know, I do want to mention that uh the rapid response framework that we have for the federal program in Strategic Legislative Affairs, it's a core part of how we operate.

So it's not just about responding quickly, it's also which is also the case, but it is also about being ready.

Um there's an element to government affairs that will always to some extent be reactive.

Um but what we like to say is that we're not just um waiting to react, we are ready to adapt.

Um, and that's what we do in our program.

We anticipate federal developments.

So we've seen, for example, the executive orders that passed earlier this year that really ramped up our program to be ready for what came next, which was the um, for instance, HR1 or the big beautiful bill.

So that one we were anticipating and working on prior to it being passed.

Um, and now uh most of what you're gonna see here, uh, we really started to prepare once we saw that the government shutdown was likely going to happen.

What you'll see on this presentation is a lot of work that we did uh prior to the shutdown actually coming into effect.

Um so I'll describe that a little further.

Um but just for your awareness as far as this the status of our work is concerned.

Right now we're actually focused on after the shutdown.

Um so we're preparing for the potential impacts that may come from once Congress comes to an agreement on appropriations, and how can that potentially impact city programs?

Um, what is at stake or what is just potentially going to be impacted by that those negotiations.

Just to offer a little bit of context around the shutdown.

So, as I mentioned, the it came into effect uh a little over a week ago.

That was Wednesday, October 1st, and that's the start of the new federal fiscal year.

Uh you know, Congress uh funds the federal government.

Um they must approve 12 appropriations bills that are need to be agreed upon every fiscal year.

Uh there are uh circumstances where the House and the Senate may not agree upon appropriations packages or bills, and in that case, uh what they can do is they can come into an agreement to maintain the status quo until there's a final agreement.

So you may hear the term um continuing resolution, and that's really what it is.

It's a stopgap measure to maintain funding.

Um but sometimes even a continuing resolution is not approved or agreed upon, and that is when a federal shutdown comes into place.

Um but the government does maintain its operations.

Um that that really does bring up the question that folks ask is how long is the shutdown going to last?

So we don't have a crystal ball, you know, we can't really predict how long it will last, um, but just to give you an idea, the longest shutdown um was in 2018.

It lasted 35 days.

Um, and when this happened, uh the political makeup was a little different.

So we had uh Democratic majority in the House, we had a Republican majority in the Senate.

And um with that, they kind of ping-ponged back and forth uh proposed appropriations.

Um so that is different from now.

Back then, uh, you know, some appropriations packages had passed.

Currently, we have a unified political party, both in the House and the Senate, and of course, in the executive.

And in this case, um, we found that they couldn't come to an agreement on all appropriations, not some of them, but all of them.

Um, but really what's uh precipitated this shutdown is that there wasn't an agreement.

Uh the Democrats in the Senate couldn't quite come to an agreement as far as a continuing resolution goes, and this disagreement is uh specifically focused on the extension of tax credits or described as subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.

So this is folks uh this would impact premiums for folks who are under the health care marketplace.

Um so that is currently underway and under discussion.

So I'll shift gear, well, we'll shift gears into describing how the city has responded to this.

But I do want to know, of course, that this has um impacts throughout our region, and I'm very, very grateful.

Our team is appreciative of the partnership of the Congresswoman who we have um Emily Loya from her district office here.

She's the director, uh district director for the congresswoman.

Because this does affect our region.

Uh, and just as far as you know, what does it mean when the government shuts down, um, as I mentioned, it does need to continue to operate.

Uh but if there's no funding, what this means is that staff will either, for example, essential employees will have to come in, but they temporarily won't receive their paychecks or they won't be paid.

And then folks who are considered non-essential, and this is on an agency basis, they won't come into the office and they won't get paid, so that's when you're when staff are furloughed.

That is the implication of a shutdown.

Um, I will know because we there have been questions about um this, you know, social safety net and um specifically Social Security and Medicare and Medit Medicaid are entitlements, so they're funded continuously.

This is different from appropriations, so those paychecks are still coming through.

And um currently the discussions center around issues of back pay, and um as of last Friday, there's also been some um discussion around basically a reduction in force and what that means for agencies.

Um just stepping back and thinking about what this means for our region, El Paso is a vet, as you know, is a very federally driven region.

Uh based on our estimates, we found that it's about 14,000 uh individuals, residents, members of our community that are service members or work in the military.

And um El Paso Inc.

actually did a great article uh describing the economic impacts to our region, and as part of this, they noted that for every week that the shutdown continues, uh, we are at risk of approximately 65 million dollars in wages as it the shutdown goes on.

Um but if folks do have questions, the Congresswoman's staff has put an amazing comprehensive review of resources.

So I'd really like to recognize her district office.

We have Emily Loya here who's gonna uh talk a little bit more through that.

So good to be with you all.

As you all are aware, since we went into a shutdown, we've been continuing to update you all and communicate from the Office of the Congresswoman about our resources, and um we have a kind of FAQ page about the shutdown as well as resources from financial institutions and our utilities have been in touch.

Thank you for your continued advocacy to work even further with our utilities on um financial um moratoriums or you know, more flexibility for folks while they're not receiving a paycheck at this moment, because I think everyone in El Paso would agree that you might not be a federal worker, but you probably know someone in your family or your immediate circle that um works for the federal government in our community.

Um as Ali highlighted, um, talking about impact and why we're here, though, is also important to understand that nearly a hundred thousand Alpasswans depend on the ACA and will see impacts to their cost for health care if um an agreement is not made or negotiated around extending tax subsidies.

So understanding the why behind um why there's um not an agreement at this point and why we're holding out because nobody likes a shutdown.

And um right now it's really on the Senate side because the House has been not called into session since before the shutdown began.

Um also just want to highlight that we held a federal resource fair, this um federal um worker resource fair on Saturday with the Congresswoman and worked with our local credit unions as well as like our food banks and um endeavors, a few other groups to share resources and um we'll continue to be updating our page, sharing those resources with folks.

But there are a lot of opportunities for federal workers because they will get paid on the back end.

It is in law, no matter what's been said by administration.

It is in law that um back pay will be given when we go when we reopen the government, and um, so it's a little easier for a decision for credit unions to um extend low interest or zero interest payments.

There has been concern about our um, you know, we're waiting to see what happens on the 15th, but supposedly administration says that our military members are gonna still get paid.

Um, but we've been in really close communication with Fort Bliss about um making sure they're connected with our local credit unions as well as Fort First Light has said for sure that they're waiving credit checks as well and offering zero percent interest loans.

So uh just wanted to let you know we'll continue to keep you posted.

We had a great meeting with all local mayors just to keep them updated on where we are and a chance to interact with the Congresswoman and ask questions directly of her.

And no, we don't have a magic ball either, we don't know when it ends.

But what's been really different about this shutdown has been that um the House hasn't been in session, they haven't been there, the House hasn't been forced to be there to negotiate, and um we really need the opportunity for both sides to come together and negotiate so we can come to an agreement and reopen.

So I'll stick around for questions, but I'll let Ali continue with the presentation.

Thank you, Emily.

And thank you guys for the great work you're doing.

Yeah, thank you so much, Emily.

So just tying this back to all of our conversations we've had today around funding and capital improvement projects.

I'm gonna review the biggest question that's come up for us here in the city is how are how is our funding, our federal funding impacted by the shutdown?

So essentially uh grad programs, uh funding that is going to the city is safe, obligated funds that includes formula funds and non-discretionary grant programs.

Um, and so along with that, um, we're still drawing down on that funding.

Uh the sub-recipient nonprofits that also uh you know, we pass through funding to them are continuing to deliver their services.

That's a question that has come up.

Um, and I re I would really like to appreciate and recognize um the Office of the Controllers, so Margarita Marin, Eldar Rodriguez Helfner.

We have our grant uh OTC's grants team here.

Thank you so so much because they are a very core component of the rapid response program.

When these questions come up, we ask, well, how does this impact grants?

And along with this, currently they are uh very closely tracking uh the re reimbursable funding.

So this is funding that is on the pipeline to the city, and we are well aware of um just the quantity and what we're we're waiting on essentially.

It I say this because one of the impacts potentially could well we're likely to see delays in reimbursement for grants.

So that is something our team is is conscious of, and what are the impacts of that?

So we're preparing managing accordingly.

All right, so all of what I've shared with you today is uh the really the city's work in protecting our resources.

Uh our team has held continuous coordination and check-ins with potentially impacted departments.

Um, and as you saw, the Congresswoman's district staff were here.

We really leverage our local partnerships, but also our national networks through the National League of Cities and also peer cities.

So, for example, Austin shared us shared with us their contingency plans to manage the shutdown, and those relationships have really strengthened and given our atmosphere right now.

Um we shared uh regular updates to you all and let us know if you would like, you know, we we try not to crowd your inbox too much, but also keep you apprised of what's happening, including this presentation.

Um, and we also prepare contingency messaging through Laura Cruz Acosta to our um wider audience and to the media.

So all of this really helps.

Um I just want to at a glance show the multiple departments that we've uh worked with closely that could potentially be impacted.

And as the airport, we we've given a lot of kudos to the airport, but they really deserve it because of all the seriously love the work they do to protect our federal workers.

They've got some really good stuff that they're preparing down the line.

We have, you know, they they do uh partner or have you know staff that are federally paid.

Um, but they have had experience with this and work to uh do a cont like plan for a continuity of operations.

Um and they it's they've just really chat like led the charge for showing how we could prepare for these um types of situations.

Uh I'll let you review the others, uh, but we we really work closely with our departments to be sure they're ready.

So moving forward, I mentioned we're looking at what may potentially happen um just through uh these negotiations through the potentially approved or when the shutdown is over and we approve Congress approves appropriations.

Um I'll mention, for example, uh, you know, we are monitoring right now all the types of uh contingency plans and memos that are being put out.

Uh moving forward uh for after the shutdown, we are advocating, as I mentioned, for programs that may be impacted.

And and I also do want to give a shout out to Nicole uh Hita Rodriguez.

She's uh with our community human development department, really thinking about, for example, as far as formula funding goes, how this could impact our housing programs.

And we have worked with the Congresswoman to flag that that is an issue of concern for us as part of the negotiations.

So that's just one example.

Uh so just looking forward toward uh what is the outlook and confidence moving forward.

Uh right now we don't uh we haven't seen service disruptions and departments are coordinating to ensure that that is the case.

Um when this presentation was drafted, we were looking uh next toward basically if this shutdown continues, which is it's happening still as of today, uh we're approaching uh missed paychecks for uh federal employees, including military um service members, and how that may impact them.

So for the medium term, at least as far as the city is concerned, we're monitoring our reimbursements.

OTC is working on that and making sure that we continue our communication with Fort Bliss and partner agencies that may be impacted.

Um and then in the long term, this continues to strengthen our rapid response framework for future events.

Um so and thank you all as well for in just discussing uh this environment and how we can prep better prepare for it, any developments in the future.

So uh we'll see how the shutdown goes, how long it continues.

If it extends uh beyond two weeks, we will uh revisit uh potentially updating you all on how that is going, maybe provide uh more detailed review.

Uh we are monitoring our reimbursement timelines and we'll continue coordination with city departments and continue outreach with our um impacted partners as well.

So this concludes the presentation, and we're happy to take any questions.

Very good presentation.

Uh representative.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a few questions on this.

I I think it's pretty safe to say that it will extend past two weeks because that's Wednesday and the House won't be in session all week, right?

Because the speaker hasn't called them in.

So I think we're gonna go into next week and maybe Emily could chime in if um she wants but more on on this.

Like maybe some insight on why we're not getting the House called back into session to at least negotiate and is that unprecedented just anything on that?

Because I uh I hope you can add to this one.

Yeah, the Congresswoman has spoken on this um as well.

But yeah, that's what's really different about this shutdown as opposed to the Congresswoman also was serving.

She was, you know, brought into office during the first the longest shutdown of 35 days.

But um, they were stuck in DC and like forced to negotiate and be together.

And Speaker Johnson has taken the position of just like the House with a simple majority passed it because they have a simple majority of Republicans and they passed their clean CR, what they call clean CR.

Um, and they say it's on the Senate, so they've continued to stay out of session.

Um, but I would say that the Congresswoman very much feels like we're not being put in the members are not being put in a position to be forced to negotiate and work together, and that is pretty unprecedented, and um we've the she feels that the need is to bring folks together to in order to come to some agreement.

Um right now it's still very unclear when the end is in sight and and what we'll come to.

Yeah.

And I know that there's you know, you said, you know, back pay is the law, but I feel like we're also living in really odd times where there are so many things going through the courts and precedent is really no longer precedent.

And so what is the thought there on back pay?

Will that go through the courts?

And then these layoffs that are happening.

I don't think they're legal, but what are your thoughts to?

I feel like we're still we'll start we're still learning more about the layoffs because that's very recent and and where that may be taking place.

But um, but that's been a looming threat um from the shutdown.

But also the administration has kind of backpedaled on some of the pain points of the shutdown in terms of potentially paying the military and others like that.

But um, but I would say on the back pay, the Congresswoman has continued to say that you know that is the law that was passed after the last shutdown, and she believes that there's enough um Republican members that have pain from their own communities that would fight against it and and also um work to pay towards that.

So, yes, unprecedented times definitely an administration that has pushed the envelope, and that's the other side beyond the healthcare fight on the shutdown is um Democrats are pushing for when we pass appropriations in a bipartisan way um together that they would actually be held to that because this administration has backpedaled and removed um funding for programs um in different ways with even though it was already appropriated, and those are kind of the two main points on um on the shutdown and why um it's being fought at this level.

And the the ACA credits in November 1st as a deadline.

I wanted to give you an opportunity to kind of speak to that and why it's important to get these ACA credits with this shutdown that's happening rather than waiting after.

Yeah, so um it's interesting timing.

So some states have already started to roll out their um like their expected amounts.

November 1st is the actual enrollment period opened up.

The enrollment period was shortened under this administration.

They shortened it as well as um gave less funding for like navigator programs and other resources, but you can purchase on the marketplace um through individuals as well through through private um brokers.

But um the rates we should be actually seeing rates probably later this week or beginning of next week for Texas um and and rolling those out, but um, but they will then take effect for January 1st, but people have to enroll in November.

And um, so these are really immediate.

Though one big beautiful bill created a lot of um impacts that are going to happen actually after the next election cycle with Medicaid um cuts, but these cuts, if they're not, if we don't negotiate and find some extension or some middle ground on these subsidies, these impacts will be felt sometimes doubling or even more than that.

Some a lot of estimates are over a thousand dollars increased.

Um so we've been doing surveys with the community and hearing from folks about how much how many folks will just go without health care because they can't afford it.

I mean, you guys are really focused on affordability.

I've every question for the water company was also about affordability, and um, you know, ACA tax credits are a big part of that for affordability for our community too, and nearly a hundred thousand I'll pass ones that will see an impact.

Some may be able to afford that increase, but at the risk of other um, you know, expenses in their budget, but a many just won't be able to make up the difference and um will then go without health health care to be devastating.

And I think that's the importance, right?

Where healthcare is so crucial to people and losing that and kind of having that risk of okay, we'll deal with it after the shutdown, that might not happen because there's no There's no guarantee that it will get negotiated.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

And two more things, sorry.

Um I've been hearing a lot.

The the president has been saying that we have democratic agencies.

That was news to me.

And can you explain that?

Because from my understanding, these are just government agencies.

It doesn't matter who is in power, right?

No, agencies are not partisan.

Um agencies are um are there to do the work that they have been directed by Congress.

Um and but you may see if you've gone to some of the agency pages that they've been given some pretty partisan messaging.

Like if you go to the HUD page, there's a big flashing thing that says that um it's the radical left that has caused the shutdown and things like that.

So um quite the opposite.

I mean, there's a lot of um things that this administration said that might not all be based in fact.

But um there's definitely the aid the administration is using some of these agencies to message during the shutdown to point the fingers at at the other party.

Um, but there's not a partisanship in any agency.

And you know, we're closely in contact with all of our federal worker unions and you know, very conscious of the fact of their impacts, but also communicating just like we are with you guys about the why behind where we are right now and the desire to negotiate.

That isn't really happening at this point.

Um and um very much our federal workers are just there to serve the public and do their job, um, no matter who's in control of the government.

So it's a real disservice to all community members and constituents when we can't negotiate and come to an agreement and keep our keep our government services running moving forward.

The last thing I have is on the FAA.

My my concern I saw last week and that Bird Bank had to shut down some flights because they didn't have any air traffic controllers and uh people were not showing up to work.

So what does that situation look like for El Paso and our airport in that sense, and probably both of you could answer it.

But do we expect to see something similar that it might affect uh people coming in and out of El Paso?

Great question.

Um I would defer to the to the airport and to Ale to say anything on specifics, but I will tell you that we're in in touch with our TSA workers' union and with our um with our NACTA with with the folks that do air traffic control, and um, and you know, they have yet to flag for us that they're at like a critical point, but I think the longer any shutdown goes, the more it's hard to keep your workforce motivated.

Um historically we've seen impacts, but I do think that El Paso hasn't isn't like Burbank, it hasn't been the first place to see that, but I think the longer it goes, the more we're at risk.

But I'd defer to the airport to speak anymore on that.

Thank you, Tony.

If you want to go ahead.

Hi, Tony Navades from the airport.

I just want to echo with uh what Emily said.

Um we're talking to the air traffic controllers, uh, the management every day, really dedicated employees in El Paso.

I can I can tell you that just even in our region, some FAA folks that are furloughed, they're still communicating with me on topics that we need to know about.

So no impacts.

I I don't see anything.

Uh we haven't been flagged, but um the longer this goes on, obviously, you know, the the more difficult things we're at.

But uh we're not having the amount of call-outs that that we see in other parts of the country right now.

And just one last comment.

Safety and security, are we seeing that quality go down because of this?

Not at all, not at all.

We have a I can't stress how great the the team here in El Paso is our employees at TSA and FA, they're communicating every day.

Um the the outreach from the public as well.

We had our first drive for uh supplies, we're seeing diapers, wipes, uh, food items, water.

So um the community's been great.

The the teams at at uh the feds, the federal agencies have been uh uh outstanding and communicating with us every day.

So uh they are concerned with safety uh of travel as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Representative Lyman.

Thank you, Mayor.

And and Tony, before you depart, um Alejandra, looking at slide on page eight, if we could go back to page eight, please.

Good preparedness at a glance at the top one is specifically the airport.

Tony, my question is aside from the air traffic controllers, right?

Are there other employees that work directly with the airport?

Have they been furloughed?

So none that are working on the front lines sort of in furlough.

Like I said, we do have some like they call them non-essential, but they are communicating with us.

Uh I don't want to call anybody out because you're probably not supposed to be working, but they're calling us out and letting us know hey, you know, we see this, we see this, just keep an eye on this.

They're they're truly professionals that are focused on 100% on safety and security at the airports and our our national airspace.

Okay, good.

But uh good.

Um how many employees at the tower at the air traffic control tower?

Do you know?

Uh and I mean really air traffic controllers that are that are on the job.

Um I I don't have specific numbers, but I know it's they are short staff, they should be somewhere in the 30s and they're somewhere in the 20s.

All right, good.

All right, thank you, Tony.

Very much.

Representative Treho.

Thank you, Mayor.

This this is this is really sad that this is going on.

It's uh it's a ripple effect across all uh across the across the board and with uh Escobad.

And and helping with those uh zero percent interest loans.

It's gonna be a great help for for those that can that can apply for that.

And my question is is there anything that she's doing within the community help with child care?

So that's another area if the individuals are having to still go to work, they're still having to need the daycare.

Are there any resources out there for that?

Since you're sp you're specifically asking for the congressman, okay.

Um, we also had workforce solutions, borderplex at our recent fair, and um are they have some child care programs related, they do take some time.

Um, but again, I think it's there's so many expenses and bills that are really important that we're focusing on help folks connecting with their financial institutions and their credit unions and working with those.

You know, we were reaching out um over the weekend, even from some things we heard from some individual constituents just to have some additional communication with some national groups like USAA and Navy Federal as well to get some clarity on some things because ultimately we know folks will get back paid, so we can't deal with every single creditor, every single person you have to pay, but to make sure that folks know um that they can get um financial relief from their credit um and get up to their same amount in their paycheck um forwarded for this month.

Um, you know, folks get paid on different timelines, some are monthly, but most are every two weeks or every 15 days.

Um so they're just about to to hit that time.

So not one specific resource for child care.

We have encouraged folks to go talk with workforce as well, but mostly to connect with their credit with their credit unit or their financial institution to see about you know being able to pay those essential um items like child care so they can continue to work and serve um and to work with um those that they um they use individually um to have that conversation about maybe just deferring for a week, but no specific resources per se.

Thank you.

Representative.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to the Slate team and also the Office of Congresswoman, Congresswoman Escobar.

Um one quick question.

I know that um on this presentation it has the resource tab with the website of all the resources.

But does the city of El Paso also have a resource website or something that the public can have access to?

The reason I'm asking is because you know a lot of people oftentimes look at their local governments for resources and help.

And I've had a couple of constituents reach out saying, hey, what are you doing about the government shutdown?

Um so I would like to see how we can possibly do like a simple FAQ website where they can know how to have access to food, uh, resources, XYZ.

I don't know if that's something that we can navigate in Ms.

Mac, but I think it will be extremely beneficial to just making the community aware of um how we could communicate that.

Hello, Laura Cruz Acoso with the communications department.

So basically, we do have um a couple of different options what we could do for the community, and we'll be able to put that on the website.

We have our EP strong website, which is intended specifically for these types of scenarios, and so we can do that too as well.

Yeah, I think that would be extremely beneficial overall because again, I mean, this is a ripple effect if individuals cannot pay the rent or have access to food, they are gonna reach out to our individual offices.

I've had a couple of individuals ready to reach out to me and just say, like, hey, I'm I'm I'm I'm terrified, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

So I think that would just say, you know, our part of uh informing the individuals of where could have they could get access to the resources could be extremely helpful.

We can definitely do something along those lines.

All right, thank you so much for your help.

And I do I do agree that it's absolutely important for the city to support.

I I do want to invite any folks listening to look at the congresswoman's resource pages ongoing.

It's it's very comprehensive, but I I understand it's also city responsibility.

So thank you.

Yeah.

Well, Alejandra, thank you for the uh presentation.

And I want to go back to what you said in the beginning.

So currently we're we're stable on it uninterrupted here at the city.

And that you are adapting to the ever changing environment on a day-to-day basis, but you're also focusing on after the shutdown.

So I think that's important that you're looking that far out to make sure that the city is protected.

Also, I want to commend you on working not only with the state but our federal um our congresswoman's office to to make sure that you guys are communicating because this is affecting so many El Pasoans, and uh we appreciate everything that you guys are doing.

Yeah, thank you, sir.

Yeah, thank you, and we're hopefully we'll get this over with and don't have to see you back and back giving us an update on the that's the positive news I would say.

Um and and just thank you.

I I I hope to not be back in a couple of weeks too.

Um and I I just do want to say for the record that strategic and legislative affairs, we don't we're apolitical.

So the political positions as far as our team is concerned is the city's legislative agenda.

So just wanted to note that that is uh the a reflection of our city's priorities and that we really do want to be sure that we stand by that.

Um but we also our partners have been an excellent support.

We appreciate that too.

Thank you, Alan.

Thank you guys for your presentations.

Is there a motion to retire into executive session?

So move.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to retire to executive session.

All in favor?

Anyone opposed?

And the city council of the city of Al Paso may retire to executive session pursuing to section 3.5A of the El Paso City Charter and the Texas Government Code, Chapter 551, subchapter D, to discuss any of the following.

Executive session item one, Ruben Aldaz et al.

versus City of El Paso.

Cause number 2019, DCV 2807.

Under 551.071, consultation with attorney.

Executive session item two, Adrian de Luna et al.

versus City of Al Paso at all.

Cause number 2021, DCB 3548.

Under 551.071, consultation with attorney.

And executive session item three, discussion on economic development opportunities in East El Paso, Texas, HQ number 25-5376, 10051.087, deliberation regarding economic development negotiations.

It is 1143 a.m.

Council, is there a motion to come out of executive session?

So moved.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to come out of executive session.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the work session is back in session at 12 38 p.m.

Mayor Potem EX1.

Thank you, Ms.

Prine.

Motion made, seconded, and carried that the city attorney in consultation with the city manager be authorized to accept the settlement offer in the matter.

Ruben Aldaz.

ETAL versus the City of El Paso, cause number 2019 D C V 2807 in the county court at law number six, El Paso County, Texas, and to take all steps necessary, including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this authority.

Exactly.

Ms.

Brian, there's a motion and a second.

Would you please call for the vote?

Yes, sir.

The motion was made and read into the record by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor Protein Fierro.

This is on EX1 to accept the settlement offer on that motion.

It's not coming up from Jason.

She hasn't sent call for the vote.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Oh there's air.

And that motion passes unanimously.

EX2.

Motion made seconded and carried that the city attorney in consultation with the city manager be authorized to accept the settlement offer in the matter, Adrian de Luna, ETAL versus the City of El Paso, ETAL cause number 2021, DCV 3548 in the county court at law number six, El Paso County, Texas, and to take all steps necessary, including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this authority.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right, there's a motion and a second, Miss Prime, please call for the vote.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Mayor Potem Chavez and read into the record, seconded by Representative Limon.

And this is to accept the settlement offer on EX2 on that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Let's take the next one.

EX3.

No action.

Thank you.

Motion second.

There's a motion and a second to adjourn the work session.

All in favor?

I guess for lunch maybe anyone opposed.

And the work session for Monday, October.

Thank you guys, 2025 is adjourned at 1241 p.m.

Thank you, Council.