And we're ready to go to work.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of the mayor's proclamations.

This morning we began with a pledge of allegiance.

And to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, we have students from St.

Matthew Catholic School at the invitation of City Representative Alejandra Chavez.

We have Kevin Aguirre, Diana de la Garza, Joshua Dowling, Jaime Gonzalez, Darina Yu, Franco Fuentes, Carla Frias, Nicolas Angulancan, Evelyn Wheeland.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God and if it's goal with the justice for all.

God bless America.

Hey, this Spanish translation is really cool.

It's translating everything.

Yes, it's on the TV, but it can be on everything that Ms.

Prime is saying.

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's all right.

Oh, go for it.

And then it's five.

All right.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

And then we'll see a little bit back.

All right.

All right.

Ready, big mild.

Oh, just the right hand on the front.

A little bit more over?

Perfect.

All right.

And then yes, have you come over a little bit and we'll try to end just out a little bit for me?

Beautiful.

All right, ready, big smile.

One, two, three.

We've got a lot of fans also.

Sorry, guys.

See you later.

Thank you, guys.

Yeah.

Okay, Miss Prime.

Yes, sir.

And Council, there is a glitch with a YouTube link, but IT is troubleshooting at this moment.

So the YouTube link is down.

The live stream is down at this moment.

That brings us to the mayor's proclamations.

For those of you receiving your proclamation this morning, your group will have up to four minutes collectively to speak at the podium and receive the proclamation.

We began with the first proclamation, which is Raymond The Geste.

Good morning.

If you all would come here as well.

And it's it's great for her to come home.

She came with her son, Raymond.

Um we want to keep him here, but I think they need to go back to LA.

But she did tell me that Piña might hold her back.

So we're getting a search for those to give to her.

So this is a proclamation of the city of El Paso.

Whereas the League of United Latin American Citizens, Lulac was founded in 1929 to impact economic and social equity, educational opportunities, civil rights, and cultural appreciation.

And whereas in 1932, LULAC was organized in El Paso and has remained an active civic organization, providing an array of social service programs throughout El Paso.

And whereas the Lulac Legends program was established to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of El Pasoans who have dedicated their lives to the service of others.

And whereas Raymond Thayas was the first Mexican American to be elected mayor of a major American city and the first Mexican American to be appointed a US ambassador.

Whereas Raymond Thaez volunteered for military service and served during World War II and the Korean conflict, and retired as a turn as a colonel and was awarded the National Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil, the Mexican Legion of Merit, the Peruvian Flying Cross, and the Bronze Star from the United States Army.

And whereas upon his return to El Paso, he ran successfully for El Paso County Clerk and was re-elected four times.

And whereas he successfully ran for mayor and became the first Mexican American elected mayor of a major American city and was re-elected in 1959.

And I'm just gonna preface this by saying San Antonio, get the history right.

Henry was not the first Mexican American mayor.

Raymond was.

Whereas President John F.

Kennedy nominated him to serve as ambassador to Costa Rica from 1961 to 1967, and later President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to head the US Mexico Border Commission in 1967.

And whereas he opened doors to whiten Mexican American participation and representation in Texas, and where a city council honors the memory and service of Raymond Theyas.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the City of El Paso that October 14th, 2025 shall be known as Raymond They're Day, signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

Okay.

Um well, first of all, I don't think I can begin to express the honor that I feel in being here before you.

And to also be participating in this wonderful Lulak event for Lulac Legends on Saturday.

And I want to thank in particular Javier Bañales, who was the program chair, organized all this, and uh the Lulac leadership, but also Lily Limon, who was at the airport to receive me on Thursday night when I came in, and has been with me like every step of the way during the last few days, and also for organizing uh the proclamation.

I just as most of you know, my father loved El Paso.

He was born in Segundo Barrio here, and made his way to become mayor of this wonderful city.

And even when his various presidential appointments and even military service took him far and to far corners of the world, including Korea.

He always left his heart in El Paso when we were in Costa Rica and Washington and El Salvador, he would tell me he loved that song I left my heart in San Francisco, which we're probably familiar with.

But he loved it because he said it reminds me how I feel about El Paso.

He loved El Paso.

He loved all the El Pasoans.

And quite frankly, it is a very special city.

And I have traveled also all around.

But there's nothing like El Paso.

The people are so warm and so generous, so hospitable and strong.

El Paso's been through a lot.

But it's also special.

When you look at not political, but when you look at the map following elections, there's this little blue dot.

That's El Paso.

It's different.

It's always stood for something special.

So I just want to again thank all of you and tell you how honored I am to witness this proclamation and how I hope to be coming now, coming much more often now that I'm back from Costa Rica, where Lili mentioned I was ambassador for three years, appointed by President Biden.

What a coincidence.

At first father-daughter duo to have served as ambassadors in the same country in our nation's history.

So again, I want to also just make mention a point of personal privilege.

My wonderful son, Raymond Jimenez Teyas, who's here with us today, and my wonderful cousin, where are you?

Carlos Cardinas, quez and Isaac, Bibermano.

Um and Kevin Taggart, who is here somewhere.

Um Lulak, your mission is so critically important now more than ever.

Our country is going through a very, very difficult time.

And we need you now.

We really need you to ensure that we continue to have a full democracy.

And so also get us so many of these.

Here's also uh Lulak legend, by the way, as you know, but she's received so many other awards.

Can't even begin to mention all of them.

So I want to again thank you so very much.

I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

So on behalf of my father, with great pride in El Paso.

Um, and with gratitude for El Paso having elected him mayor of a the first Hispanic mayor of Major US City that positioned him then to be ambassador and to serve five presidents.

Um with great love to all of you.

Thank you so much.

Well, we want to say welcome home.

I mean, we're glad to have you back here.

And your father has left so much history and a mark on our community that you know one simple Google search lights up the entire screen of the computer.

But there's a few things that you're hearing you can verify.

So, as you mentioned, you know, your your your father was born in El Segono Barrio.

And from the the research that I've done, it said your parents placed a strong emphasis on education despite your financial constraints.

In addition, I learned that uh your father attended St.

Mary's Elementary School, which was run by the sisters of Loreto, and the sisters decided to call him Raymond instead of Ramon, which stuck with him for life.

So hopefully these little facts are true and you could verify some uh some of that.

But again, your father did so much with um uh des desegregating a lot of the public spaces.

I mean, you had the opportunity to talk about our plaza theater.

And I would love for you to share that story about your father desegregating and helping there.

Thank you so much.

So I remember I was very little at the time, but I remember when he came into office, he came in with a passion and with a very noble cause, which was to make sure that he unified El Paso, that he cut through all the barriers and divisions that existed in our community.

One among many things he wanted to uh desegregate the police department, the fire department, as you know at that time, they did not admit um Hispanics, Mexican Americans, or African Americans.

They had one person in the police department that acted as a translator with a police in Juarez, if you can imagine that.

So there are many aspects, but another area that I thought was really interesting at the time, it was very kind of exciting, was the desegregation in the theaters here in El Paso.

And he then at one point said, No, this is not gonna happen anymore.

As you may, well, you won't recall, you're all way too young.

But um, in the past, when members of the Mexican American or African American community came to these theaters, particularly the African American community, they made them sit upstairs like in the rafters practically.

They weren't allowed to sit in the with the general uh audience.

This is wrong.

So he then gave an order to these theaters that they had to desaggate by a certain date, or they would face the consequences.

Some of them did it, some of them didn't take it in seriously.

Ah, this Mexico mayor, what does he know?

Whatever.

And so one of those theaters was a plaza theater.

And that day, they continued their same practice.

He said, Fine.

The next day he padlocked their doors and shut them down.

And they learned very quickly that they had to take this mayor seriously.

And the next day after that, they opened up their doors, and people could sit wherever they wanted to sit.

That's it's one of many stories I remember from my father.

That is a wonderful story.

Thank you, Ambassador, and we're glad to have you back home.

Thank you so much.

I love you guys, and I'll be back.

I'll be back.

Take care.

Thank you.

Oh, a picture.

Sure.

Where are we?

Which way do I go?

Oh, this way.

Okay, Miss Fry.

That brings us to the next proclamation.

And it is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

I know they are in the back.

They are coming up.

And I know they'll probably talk stats and tell you how many people are affected by domestic violence.

Um, and and I know that you all just are coming off uh uh symposium that you all had, was it last week?

Last week, and one of the uh Dr.

Richardson has been part of my life for I'd say, let's see, I'm fifty-three, so almost the last thirty years.

And she had her granddaughter was Jennifer Ann.

And Jennifer Anne was a victim of domestic violence, unfortunately, a fatal victim of domestic violence a few years ago.

And so this hits near and dear to me every year that it comes.

But uh, but I just love the work that you all do, and with that, this is so well deserving.

So let me read this.

Whereas domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior that includes physical, emotional, psychological, sexual, and financial abuse, and it affects people of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

And whereas across the United States, more than one in three women and nearly one in four men report experiencing intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and countless children are exposed to this violence, bearing lifelong impacts on their health and well-being.

And whereas domestic violence is not a private matter, but a public health and safety crisis, contributing to cycles of trauma, homelessness, poverty, and intergenerational harm that affect entire communities.

And whereas in El Paso and the surrounding region, the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, also known as CASVI, has served as a beacon of hope for more than 45 years, providing life-saving services, including emergency shelter, crisis hotlines, counseling, legal advocacy, transitional living programs, prevention education, and community outreach.

And whereas October is observed nationally as domestic violence awareness month, a time to remember those whose lives were taken by domestic violence, honor the courage of survivors, celebrate their resilience, and recommit ourselves to ending abuse in all its forms.

And whereas CASVI's theme, You're a Survivor, recognizes that every individual who has experienced domestic violence has endured unimaginable challenges, yet possess extraordinary strength.

And whereas the theme underscores that survival is not just about living through abuse, but about reclaiming power, dignity, and hope, and reminds the community that healing is possible when survivors are met with compassion, resources, and support.

And whereas domestic violence awareness month is also an opportunity to educate the public, challenge harmful stereotypes, and dismantle the stigma and silence that too often surround abuse, ensuring that survivors' voices are heard, believed, and valued.

And whereas preventing domestic violence requires the commitment of the entire community, from schools, businesses, and healthcare providers to faith organizations, law enforcement, and government agencies working together to create safe homes and safe futures.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that the month of October 2025 shall be known as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, signed by the Honorable Renard Johnson.

Good morning.

Good morning.

It's a great honor to be here with you, Mayor, and all the representatives of all the different districts.

My name is Sandra Never Storcia.

I'm the executive director for the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence.

As you know, domestic violence isn't a private issue.

Unfortunately, it's a community issue that affects all our different areas.

And unfortunately that's not something that we're proud of, but the idea of the impact when you're comparing those larger cities to ours, sometimes we think it's not happening here or it's not as impactful here.

It's not an issue in our community.

And so while our community is extremely giving and supportive, as mentioned before, um, it's really I think what makes the biggest difference in the work that we do because we know we are supported not only by individuals in the community in different senses of the way.

Um we're here to also support those individuals who are suffering through domestic violence.

We want to make sure that these survivors, as we go through our theme of your survivor, that they know that they're not defined by the in by the acts that they've endured, but more of the strength that it's taking for them to heal and move forward in their lives, ensuring that they are able to live a life free of violence.

This past year, the Center Against Sexual Violence provided over 3,000 individuals in our community with services.

It's something that I often joke about that I'd like to be unemployed at some point.

But unfortunately, there's still a lot of work to do in our community.

And so I think the way we've all been socialized and just kind of how we've grown up and how we've seen domestic violence in our communities feeds into the act continuing as you see it generationally, as you see within family households and leading up to the rest of the family.

This the proclamation sends a power powerful message to everyone, not only that you're not alone, but that help is here, and more importantly, that you're a survivor and that there is hope for you and that there are a life free of violence.

This month, as you know, is domestic violence awareness month, and there's several activities that we've partaken at the beginning of the month, and we'll continue to partake as the month continues.

Um to highlight too is we do have El Paso Giving Day coming up on October 16th, um, where individuals in the community can support the center, um, and we do have a matching opportunity to be able to leverage some additional funds.

Um of our biggest bread and butters is we've started this movie night where we um screen a movie night, and so it'll be on um October 21st.

And so the idea is a time to just bring people together in a setting that most of us are comfortable in, which is a movie theater.

Um it is themed, um, it has a domestic violence undertone, like there is a reason for everything that we do.

Um, so we engage in a little bit of conversation of just kind of tools, red flags, things that you can do and see um and how you can help individuals.

And so, if anything, if I leave you with anything, is as we move through our lives, as we interject with different individuals and have different touch points with different individuals, is that we all are aware when something's not right.

Um, you can see it, you don't know sometimes what to do with it, it's sometimes very uncomfortable.

The biggest message is that I can tell you is one that you remember that we're here to serve our community 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 360 days a year, 65 days a year.

But is that you believe them?

If someone's come to you and shared that they've experienced some sort of violence, please remember the amount of courage that it's taken for that individual to come to you and to be able to admit that because oftentimes you might be the only one that they've admitted it to.

Again, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity not only to be here, um, but also for the the staff members that were able to join me.

Miss Yasmin is our director of client services, so anything client service related to uh shelter, non-residential, um she's the one that's making the world go round really in that facility.

And then Miss Kristen is part of our admin team, also ensuring that you know we're mining our P's and Q's and making sure that we're submitting everything we need to submit to make sure that we're always in compliance.

And again, thank you again for the time.

It's really been a pleasure to be here with you this morning.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mary.

And I think something that she for she left out is what's the cost for your services.

So the cost for our services, it varies.

So it then shelter, you're looking at we keep it pretty low, probably about 150 uh uh a shelter night.

And so what we call the shelter night is that includes sheltering, food, um, and case management.

Um again, we do house anywhere between 750 to 850 clients in our emergency shelter every year, and those are unduplicated numbers.

The majority of those are children.

So one of the things we've also come to terms with is we're also your largest um shelter that houses children in El Paso.

Our non-residential though, people tend to think of the shelter and not our non-residential facility for whatever adball reason.

That building actually will provide it anywhere.

Actually, this past year it provided a little over 3200 clients with services, with the majority of those being adults.

And I'm trying to say that a lot of your services are free.

Oh, absolutely.

You have a lot of free services that are.

All our services are free.

Yeah, all the services are free.

And so anybody that sees themselves struggling at any point in in their life in their community, with your kids' friends, with anybody, this is an this is uh an organization that's willing to open up their doors and offer everything that they have.

So thank you so much for the incredible work that you all do.

No, thank you.

Yeah, and I I just want to add my thanks too, and you know the numbers are staggering.

One in three women, one in four men report experiencing uh partner violence in their lifetime.

And I know you guys started in 1977 with only a hotline, and now look at all the different programs that you have today, which is incredible.

So let me ask you what is the hotline number.

If someone needed to get in contact, how do they contact you guys?

Absolutely.

It's on uh nine one five five nine three seventy-three hundred.

And again, if it's for domestic violence or for sexual assaults, that's a number that anyone can call friends, family.

It is called a hotline, so sometimes people are like, well, it's not an emergency, it's just an information line that you can get um resources for friends and family and yourself if needed.

Very good.

And thank you guys again for all that you've done for the community.

No, thank you.

And congratulations.

Thank you.

And the next proclamation is Tom Lee Celebration.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

And while I wait from everyone representing the Tom Lee Institute to come to the podium, I just want to mention that um if you haven't been to the Tom Lee Institute, I highly recommend you go.

There are a lot of great pieces from someone native to El Paso, um, and a lot of just rich history that's a part of that uh museum.

I absolutely love his work, and I have actually three pieces of his on loan or in my office.

So in case you haven't stopped by the Office of District One, everyone is welcome to come see those those Tom Lee pieces there.

So this is the proclamation.

Whereas Tom Lee, a native Al Pasoan, chose to live and work in El Paso, even though he could have lived anywhere in the world.

And whereas this year marks an extraordinary milestone of the Tom Lee Institute, an El Paso nonprofit offering the community Tom Lee celebration with the theme the Tom Lee Trail across Texas and New Mexico, which is exploring the legacy of a great American artist, first artist named Trail in Texas, first embedded World War II artist correspondent for Life magazine in honor of the United States' two hundred and fiftieth anniversary.

A new traveling exhibit pays tribute to the resilience, sacrifice, and enduring strength of the human spirit across four theaters of World War II.

Whereas the Tom Lee Institute collaborates with other nonprofit organizations and cultural entities in the community to offer engaging and educational activities that showcase the region's quality of life.

Overall, 20 events will be held with El Paso serving as the capital of the Tom Lee Trail.

And whereas there are events scheduled at 14 El Paso sites, including the Emergence Health Network Veteran One Stop Center, where Tom Lee's World War II paintings created on the front lines of four different theaters of war will be presented in chronological order as part of a never before seen traveling exhibition, brush strokes from the front lines of World War II.

Emergence will also host iconic El Paso artist Joey Lee Cabral, who will lead an art session inviting veterans and active duty service members to explore expressive painting techniques.

These are just a few of many exciting experiences that celebrate the region's rich history, art, and culture.

And whereas Tom Lee Celebration offers a series of unique events centered in El Paso, designed to attract tourists and inspire El Paso citizens.

Now, therefore be it proclaimed by the Mayor and Council of the City of El Paso that the month of October 2025 shall be known as Tom Lee Celebration Month, signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

Congratulations.

And we're so privileged to have an artist and world-class writer right here who, as um Representative Chavez said, could have lived anywhere in the world, but chose El Paso.

And so we also want to welcome Adair Margot, who's the founder of the Tom Lee Institute since 2009.

And it was really her determination and inspiration and uh her the impact that Tom Lee had on her life when she was writing his oral history in particular that motivated her to realize that his legacy needed to be preserved.

And that's one of the important things that we do at uh the Tom Lee Institute.

So thank you so much for what you're doing here in honoring us.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Do you want to introduce the folks who are with you?

Yes, absolutely.

These are the team that make it happen.

We have uh Desiree Hanlin, uh Abraham Picardo, who uh is our marketing person, Lily Minton, and uh Corey Navarro, who's our office administrator, and of course, Adair Margot, who's our founder.

So thank you.

Very good, and congratulations.

Okay, thank you.

So most may not know this, and and Tom Lee, and I've seen a lot of his wonderful work throughout uh my lifetime, but most may not know that Tom Lee was also a mayor of the great city of El Paso.

And um, his father's father senior, his father was a mayor of El Paso from 1915 to 1917.

And um his father also uh Pancho Villa put out a bounty after his father for a thousand pesos in gold.

He wanted the mayor dead or alive back then.

So yes, a lot of great history in the Tom Lee family and the artwork is incredible and impeccable.

So again, thank you guys for all that you're doing, and congratulations on this day and your celebration for the uh the 14 uh uh the month and and all the events that you have scheduled.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Yes, appreciate it.

Mayor oh, Representative Chavez, we got time.

Just in honor of Tom Lee, um, I'd like to just say one of my favorite favorite quotes from his writings is the best day is the day coming with the work to do with the eyes wide open and the heart grateful.

I love that quote by Tom Lee.

Thank you.

And the next proclamation is American Red Cross Sound the Alarm.

Thank you, Mayor.

And oh, I know there's people from the Red Cross here, but we've been doing some great work together this year.

We had a great blood drive in July, and now you're having another great event.

And of course, you had to pick my district, and I'm really excited about that.

So I will read this proclamation and then you could say a few words.

Thank you.

Proclamation City of El Paso, Texas.

Whereas this October 18th, we celebrate the American Red Cross's National Sound the Alarm in El Paso, Texas, a campaign that works to prevent and save lives from home fires.

And whereas home fires claim seven lives every day, but having working smoking alarms can cut the risk of death by half.

And whereas American Red Cross volunteers and community partners will install free smoke alarms, create escape plans, and share fire safety information with families in Northeast El Paso.

And whereas advancing the Snowball mission, the volunteers and supporters who now give back through the West Texas chapter remain unwavering in their commitment to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of today's emergencies.

And whereas volunteers will install new smoke alarms and raise awareness of home fire safety helping fight people's biggest threat, home fires.

We hereby recognize this October 18th in honor of their remarkable service, and we ask everyone to join in their commitment to home fire safety.

Now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that October 18th shall be known as National Sound the Alarm Day.

Signed the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Um we, as Representative Acevedo mentioned, will be having a major event on Saturday, October 18th, and would like to invite all of you, any community members, volunteers, anyone who's interested in coming out and making our community safer.

We are installing the goal is to install in over 125 homes this Saturday.

Who has been pivotal in supporting our organization in this community?

Thank you, Anna.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you, Representative Vasavelo, for the proclamation.

As Anna said, this year I'm honored to be the chair of the American Red Cross, uh, West Texas chapter.

Um, thank you for recognizing the incredible work that the Red Cross does.

I don't think they get recognized enough, especially our volunteers who often deploy when disaster strikes.

Uh the Red Cross does so much work behind the scenes to include um hosting blood drives.

Um, and as Anna said, this weekend, our volunteers will be out in the community uh this time in the Northeast, saving lives uh by installing uh free smoke detectors.

And so again, thank you so much for helping us sound the alarm and and recognizing uh National Sound the Alarm Day.

Very good.

And that is it.

I hope anybody who would like to join us can come join us.

These these are events that we want to do throughout our community as the year goes forward.

So my hope is to do it in every single one of your districts as we move forward.

So you'll be hearing from us.

Thank you so much.

Where where's the event happening?

Oh what time and thank you.

Uh so the event is gonna be Saturday.

Our rally point is um the Almeida Shriners will be hosting us.

So that's at sixty-three thirty-one, Alabama, and we'll be out there from seven thirty to four PM on Saturday.

So please stop by.

If any, just to say hi.

Very good.

And Anna, do you want to introduce the rest of your team?

Definitely.

Let me introduce um my volunteers, but first let me introduce my staff member Paul Ferris, and then my um volunteers, Richard.

Richard, I'm sorry, I don't know.

Rosa Rosen, thank you.

I knew it started with an R.

Uh Francine, Karen Hamilton, Anita Alonso, and Charlie Weaver, who has, by the way, broken record in our chapter.

He has deployed to near almost 20 deployments.

So he his last appointment was obviously in the curve of flood.

So again, our volunteers are absolutely fantastic, and we're so grateful for them.

Well, thank you guys again for all that you do.

And and um Anna got one call.

What what does the West Texas chapter cover?

Which great question.

So we cover El Paso County, Hudsbith, and Coberson counties.

And we also offer support to Bresidio, Jeff Davis, and Brewster Counties as well.

Very good.

And you said the smoke detectors are free.

All smoke alarms are um at no cost to any resident who would like to get them installed.

Also, if you have any residents or know of anyone who may need support after a home fire, you can get uh smoke alarm requests done at 1800 Red Cross.

So just by calling the 1800 Red Cross number, you'll be able to get a smoke alarm.

But also it should you need support from a home fire, that's the number to call as well.

Very good.

Thank you guys for what you're done.

Representative Trail.

Thank you, Mayor.

So you're gonna be in Northeast?

Yes, we are.

Where where exactly in Northeast will you be?

We'll be around, we'll be hit targeting the neighborhoods around the Almeida Shriner, so around the Alabama area.

Okay, so that's in District Two.

Yes, thank you.

Appreciate that you again, thank you guys, and congratulations.

Thank you.

And the final proclamation is ESD and the community day.

All right, Representative Fiero.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, thank you.

So, Mayor, just on a personal note, as everyone's walking up, um, I'm very fortunate that my father uh's first position with the city of El Paso was with environmental services.

Wow.

Now it wasn't called that then, but but still it's thank you also very, very much.

And if anybody who visits my street, if you're here, please do not raise your hand.

And nobody wants to know how I run out there to throw my pull my trash can out last minute.

So thank you.

So may uh before we start, Mayor, may I ask um Armando Mando Avalus to raise his hand?

There thank you, sir.

And then Chris Rodriguez.

Is he oh he's not here?

Okay, all right.

All right, Mayor, thank you again for letting me read this proclamation.

Now, whereas the environmental services department plays an essential role in preserving the safety, beauty of our city through its daily operations, and whereas through our dedication, hard work, environmental services employees help maintain clean neighborhoods and protect the quality of life that makes El Paso proud and a thriving community.

Whereas El Pas the whereas beyond their duties, the environment environmental service department continually seeks to build meaningful relationships with residents, reminding us that the city's work is not only about service, but it's also about people.

And whereas one example of this connection is a story of the young Gael.

He's uh he's I think I'm boring him, and his mother, Mrs.

Kinones.

El Paso residents who developed a special bond with their neighbor, uh neighborhood sanitation crew.

Gail's admiration for environmental services teamed to uh turned his weekly trash collection into daily mementos of joy.

Whereas Armando Mando Avados took the time to connect with Gayen and share moments of kindness that left lasting impressions, and whereas stories about Hayel Gael reminds us that environmental services is more than a department, it's a team of compassionate individuals who serve with heart, respect the people they serve, and whereas the city of El Paso wishes to express its gratitude for environmental services department for its dedication, commitment, and contribution to our community.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council that October 14th, 2025 be known as community bonding through my environmental services day.

Signed our Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

Good morning.

My name is Sesuzzi Magucchi.

I'm the assistant director for environmental services.

Thank you, Representative Fierro, for this recognition.

Right.

Um, but as he mentioned also on this proclamation, there's a whole team behind this gentleman right here, which provide exceptional services through environmental services.

So I would like to have each one before Mr.

Mando and then everybody else introduce themselves.

But again, thank you, sir, for this recognition.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I want to thank God first and uh all you all of you, Mayor, all of you.

Thank you for noticing us.

And uh it's just been with Gayel.

Uh it's just been amazing.

And it's just a beautiful thing that we're God bounded us, and to show the world to show all El Paso, there is love.

There is a connection that we could be with one another, happy, peaceful, and there's love here in El Paso.

So I want to just continue and thank you very much.

I just want to thank um.

Yeah, Maguchi and um for all they do for my kid.

You can see that a small gesture goes a long way.

And if everybody here in El Paso would do that, we would be a great community, and they're a great example of it.

So I just want to thank you for inviting us and them for the all their hard work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Uh my name is uh Joel Hernandez Camilla.

I represent the air quality program from this beautiful city.

We are committed to monitoring and enforcing the air quality rules from the state and federal uh laws, and we appreciate all your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is uh Edward Cruz, I'm with uh Streep Division.

I'm with uh Streep Division.

My numbers Elisa Shoa represent to Miriam.

Nice to meet you.

Good morning.

My name is Amanda Hernandez, and I work for the fleet department.

Good morning.

I'm Natalia Noriega.

I represent the engineering uh department.

Good morning.

Hello, my name is Juan Garcia, and I'm a lead out of the Greater El Paso Landfield.

Good morning.

Ivan Bialos, uh Business Systems team.

Good morning, La Patricia Oliveira.

I represent CCES, which stands for Collection City and Citizens Collection Services.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning.

Um I'm April Flotus and I'm with Beautification.

Good morning.

My name is Erin Quintana, and I'm a part of the outreach program.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Jan Barber, and I represent Finance.

Good morning.

My name is Michael Lamalore and I represent the anti-graffiti program, maintaining the city.

Good morning.

Good morning, good morning.

My name is Roberto Diaz.

I represent the Customer Service Department.

Good morning.

My name's Josh Fidel Montes, and I'm with the containers division.

And again, thank you, Mayor Representative, for all this recognition.

As you can see, each person here represents one small portion of our department.

But thank you.

Yeah.

Representative Rocha.

I I just want to say that more importantly than anything, you all are the face of the city.

When people come and they see you out working and they see you at the Citizen Collection Station or the landfill or taking care of our medians or everything that you're doing with removing graffiti, it's just everything that you all do.

You all represent a lot of pride for me for helping to keep the city so beautiful.

And I see that a lot, and I know we're going through a tough time right now with weeds.

I get it.

But other than that, I mean, honestly, it is it is thanks to you and all of your teams that helped to keep El Paso so beautiful.

So thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Represent Nino.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I want to echo what my colleague here has said.

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

Um and also for partnering up with our offices to do community cleanups.

I know the proclamation is ESD and the community day, and you guys showed up and delivered, and we're extremely grateful for all the work that you all do every day for our community.

So thank you guys.

Thank you.

Representative.

Thank you, Mayor.

And and and actually this department also has a success story.

So Jesus, where did you start when you started working at environmental services?

Oh man.

Um make me all choke.

No, don't choke.

Um I started as a labor back in, I've been with the department 23 years.

Wow.

So I started as a temp through a temp agency and then uh got my CDL license through the department.

I have promoted seven times within the department.

Um, but I started in the back of the truck when there was no blue or gray containers, everything in the back of the truck.

That's how I started and promoted uh within.

But yeah, fortunately now I'm the assistant director and proud to be part of this team here.

I am very, very proud of what you have done because you have inspired others to do the same.

Um truly, this is an incredible department, thanks to your leadership and Nick.

Um you guys are the frontline people out there, and it comes the corazon from you.

Thank you very much, Jesus.

Thank you.

Representative.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just one last thing.

You all are just an example, a small example of this entire big uh community we have with city employees.

But I'm so proud to be here in front of you with you in and just acknowledging your daily work and thank you very, very much.

You make our jobs so much easier.

And um, Mayor, I can't let um Gael leave without telling him he's a constituent in my district, so I need to take him a t-shirt.

Oh, there you go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, Jesus and and team and and Nick and and everyone that's there.

And um again, they've said everything, so there's not much left to say, but thank you.

And I had the opportunity to to go out with you guys early one morning and and uh I can't tell you the the amount of work that your team puts in.

It's incredible.

And if anyone ever wants to see how hard these individuals work for your city of El Paso, voluntarily go out there with them one morning and you'll see how hard they're working.

But thank you for keeping our city clean.

Thank you for all that you do uh for all El Pasoans.

I mean, so on behalf of the the city of El Paso, we want to say thank you guys for all that you're doing.

And Gael stole the show already today.

He was blowing kisses and he was working the crowd, so yes, it's no wonder why he's famous and everything.

So and he knows he is, which is good, but it's just thank you to the entire team, and congratulations.

Appreciate it, Mayor.

Thank you.

Come on, please take your thing.

Yes, sir.

Good morning.

This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Tuesday, October 14th, 2025.

Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in Council Chambers along with Mayor Potem Chavez, Representative Acevedo, Representative Malonato Rocha, Representative Boyatrejo, Representative Nino, Representative Limon, and Representative Canales.

It is ten thirteen AM.

Will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting?

Hand rise for the invocation.

And this morning it is delivered by El Paso Police Chaplain, Joe Morada.

Good morning.

If you would like to receive the invocation this morning, let us bow our heads and call on our creator and maker for guidance and assistance today.

Lord God, we take the time this morning before conducting the business of the city of El Paso to ask for your guidance in all of these days, this day's proceedings.

Let your blessings be upon the work that is done in these chambers.

We thank you for these men and women who have taken upon themselves to serve the people of El Paso as elected officials.

Help each of them to find solutions to difficult problems, to ensure that all voices are heard and respected and to make the most of limited resources.

God grant them all wisdom and insight to be able to bring about amicable resolutions, to be able to see the heart of the issues and to understand the true needs of the people in this hour.

Let our community be a community of love and respect, respectful relationships, as has been demonstrated this morning between Mondo and Gayel.

Thank you for your guidance, assistance, and mercies upon all of us.

Let your blessings be upon the city of El Paso and its residents and our surrounding region.

As always, bless and protect our first responders and their loved ones in your mighty name we ask.

Amen.

Thank you, Chaplin.

Okay, Ms.

Bryan, call to uh public comment.

Yes, sir.

For the record, alternate mayor pro Tim Fedro join the meeting at 1014 a.m.

That brings us to public comment on agenda items.

This morning we did receive a few sign-ups, however, they prefer to speak at the time the items are heard, so that'll bring us to call to the public.

Okay.

And the El Paso City Council is a local government body charged with serving all of the citizens, and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge.

The city council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council.

All persons in attendance are expected to display civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting, profane, threatening, or abusive language.

Public comment will not be used for personal attacks, nor may any member of the public use this form for political statements or campaigning.

Please note that during call to the public, the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda.

However, council may propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda.

This morning we have 11 citizens that signed up to speak.

The first person is Frank Leao.

Mr.

Leal's topic is immigration and customs enforcement.

He will be followed by Elizabeth Crawford.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor.

My representatives.

My name is Frank Leal.

And for months now, we have seen this administration wreak havoc across major cities, targeting diverse populations.

Their activity escalates every day.

It would be naive to assume that this administration will not eventually target El Paso in the same way.

We are the ultimate example of what this administration fears.

That's tolerance.

That's multiple multiculturalism and community despite borders.

We cannot be complacent in this victimization and abuse of power upon our own people.

Already there are reports of inhumane and barbaric treatment within what could only be described as concentration camps.

Regardless of the immigration status debate, if targeted, El Pasoans will be disproportionately affected.

Our Mexican American population is 81% of the city.

Will our children have to carry documentation to go to school?

Will our elderly be apprehended simply for speaking Spanish in public?

Will our local businesses suffer because people are scared to leave their homes?

Our Constitution guarantees due process, protection from unreasonable seizure.

Yet when federal agencies operate in ways that disregard this, we have the right to fight responsibly and act.

Cities like Chicago, Denver, Boston, and the entire state of California have passed ordinances such as requiring judicial warrants, blocking the use of city property for immigration enforcement, and demanding transparency about who is being detained and why.

As well as banning the use of face coverings by ICE agents.

My question today is what protections exist here in El Paso.

What is in place to ensure that members of our community are safe from unlawful detention?

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Elizabeth Crawford.

Miss Crawford's topic is abortion, freedom or captivity.

Good morning, Miss Crawford.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you.

Many Al Passoans have been standing outside the plan parenthood these 40 days, as well as getting involved in a protest against the building of a massive abortion site in Las Cruzes.

A group of Alpassans have been tirelessly speaking up.

Abortion, is it freedom or is it captivity?

We are commanded in Proverbs 24.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

If you forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain.

If you say, Behold, we knew it not.

Does not he that ponders the heart consider it?

And he that keeps your soul does not he know it.

And shall not he render to every man according to his work.

I've had some time recently in New Jersey, and I had the enormous privilege of meeting Idan Alexander, the then 19, now 21-year-old who's held by Hamas for over one and a half years, an Israeli American.

I was thrilled to meet him after months and months of praying for him.

The kid who was the hostage, as we called him.

I got to hug him and tell him that we had been praying, and so thankful that he's still alive.

A big part of that ceremony with the legislator from New Jersey who has been absolutely relentless in trying to shut down pro-life effort in the state of New Jersey.

This legislator also agreed ethnicity, had me in shock as he started quoting Bible verses of that ceremony from the Tanakh passage at what we would call uh Genesis in our Bible, the account of Joseph.

I was very surprised.

I had assumed he was atheist or agnostic.

So I wrote to him to say, I just don't understand.

If Joseph really lived and he did, so did Moses.

God spared Moses from infanticide.

So did King David.

David wrote about God forming him in the womb and praise God.

How wonderful are your work?

So did Jeremiah.

God spoke to Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

And before you came forth, I sanctified you.

The sad irony is that here we were in Tenoply, New Jersey, celebrating the release of Idan from Hamas.

And one town over Englewood is the abortion bill.

This is one of the largest on the East Coast.

Infants captive in the womb, unable to escape their brutal demise at the hands of those that call themselves doctors.

Abortion is it freedom or captivity?

If you're the baby, it's captivity to destruction.

Proverbs 24.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

If you forbear to deliver them that are drawn into death, and those that are ready to be slain, if you say, Behold, we knew it not, does not he that ponders the heart consider it?

And he that keeps your soul does not he know it.

And shall not he render to every man according to his work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Claudia Contreras Siller.

Ms.

Hiller's topic is war against animal cruelty.

Good morning, ma'am.

You have three minutes.

Hello, good morning.

Good morning.

I appreciate you all very much.

So animal cruelty, uh, it's something that everybody needs to take part of, like to report.

Everybody can be the ice and the voice for the voiceless.

So some people go to animal services and get dogs for dog fights.

They just have to present an ID, and the dog is theirs.

They go pick up the dogs, use them for bait.

So something very bad happened to me.

The worst thing you can that a cat lady can go through, my black cat was just stolen from my cat colony.

And I'm very worried, what are they gonna do?

The person that I think did it, it's banned from animal services.

I saw her two times go with a lot of carriers and go to the cats that were for adoption, and she picked up seven cats one time and seven cats another time.

I don't know what she's doing to the cats, and I'm very scared on what is she doing to my cat.

She was there the other Sunday, Monday, the cat was missing.

I already reported with animal services with animal cruelty unit.

I am very thankful for the animal cruelty unit.

And I hope he my cat is alive.

He is a friendly black cat.

And he this person was there one day, my cat was gone the next day.

And I really want like higher forces to help the animal cruelty unit to go to the bottom of this on what is she doing to the cats and why is she banned from getting more animals?

I want to thank you all for giving more money to the police department.

And the animal cruelty unit needs a secretary.

It needs to become bigger, and there's a lot of stuff going on.

I was after this case for a week, and they're very loaded with work.

Also, I know the that you guys are taking into consideration what the community has to say about the new director.

I see that you guys are looking for a business degree.

Please remove that because we do have people that are very qualified to take over the director position.

There are creative people, and I don't know if he wants to be a director, but I think Sergeant Cerna is perfect for the position.

He's very creative.

And he he was posted in FITFAM for being inside of a hot car to demonstrate how how hot it gets.

So I would pick someone from the animal cruelty unit to be the director, so the people that are going to get those dogs for dog fights and the cats for bait or witchcraft can know a police officer is in charge.

And please take into consideration and for the cat people, please speak up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Brenda Garvajal.

Brenda Carvajal.

I don't see her coming forward.

The next speaker is Ron Como.

Mr.

Como's topic is exercising his constitutional rights to the rescue 1983 animal services.

Good morning, so you have three minutes.

Good morning, good morning.

Good morning.

Morning.

Well, we finally have an opening.

Now the question is what are we going to do about it?

I have issues with some of the people that are being put in place to qualify our next director.

We've got a group that has done nothing but been cheerleaders for our previous one.

And uh and being a part of that group for a while, I can tell you, and you can look, there's been nothing done.

There's been no attempt to protect the community.

There's been no attempt to commit protect their pets or the strays of El Paso.

I would strongly suggest that this group gets taken out of the mix as far as trying to figure out who our next director should be.

Um I'm happy to see that you're talking to the community.

I hope that even though I'm not appreciated that much, I would be included in that group because I think I've been at it for a while.

Um of the things that we need to discuss is rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and dog attacks.

Let's discuss dog attacks for a second, Ms.

Lamone.

How many critical dog attacks have you seen or heard of since you've been back?

And how many did you see prior when you were in before?

Yeah, you gotta think about it, right?

Yeah.

Didn't have to think about the first question, though, right?

We have a problem.

The problem is we don't follow rules and regulations.

I sent you all the procedures to change the policy on how the shelter runs, the the sheltering plan.

That has not been done since the no-kill plan in 2015.

I strongly suggest that we stop screwing around and put it back in place so we can get back to doing business and we can start protecting the community, their pets, and the strays.

When you stop and consider that as far as policy and procedures, the committee I was talking about, supposed to follow Robert's rules, but I was told at a meeting with the mayor, yeah, kind of.

Okay.

Policies and procedures here.

We discussed the one about the changing plans.

That was not done.

So again, we didn't follow it.

We don't follow Title 7.

We don't follow State of Texas laws.

When it comes to El Paso Animal Services, we do not follow anything but what it takes to protect certain people.

Enough folks.

Let's get back to protecting our community.

We need to get this one person plan of handling it out and the people that we voted in to represent us actually representing us on this problem.

That's you all.

We elected you to do this.

It's time.

The next speaker is Masley Pamela de la Oya.

Her topic is economic development, animal services, and community unity.

Good morning, ma'am.

You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So I want to talk about uh primarily community unity and the things that Al Pasoans can unite around.

Um it's my hope that by mentioning uh these things we can continue to unite around things that matter to the vast majority of us or really to all of us.

Um so for the most part, I think that we tend to get along as people as Al Pasoans wherever we are on the rainbow of the um political ideology wherever we come from.

So that's something that I'm very proud of.

Um but with regard to economic development, I just want to talk about encouraging people here in El Paso who have entrepreneurial ideas, um, who want to launch startup companies to go ahead and launch the businesses here.

Um, maybe there's something that we can do to advocate for uh local wealthy individuals to invest in these businesses, um, whether it's through the universities or the high schools or even people that are older that are thinking of launching their business.

Um then also we don't have that many co-working spaces anymore, it seems.

Um, so if we could somehow encourage people to build more, that would be great.

Um, but with regard to animal services, um, I would like for there to be more events so that people can interact with dogs and cats and continue to help socializing animals and also to continue to create awareness of the importance of adopting versus um going through breeders.

And for us to market El Paso as a pet friendly city.

Um, I think that a lot of people can agree on the importance of pets and how much of a difference they make for individuals, and it would be wonderful for us to say, hey, like people in Austin, you know, Mr.

Mayor, when you go visit Austin, when you go visit um all these other places, like O Paso is um a pet friendly city.

We just invested, you know, this much more in animal services, and that's important to our community.

And you know, just talking about how we have a very diverse population, and we are a border community, but all of these things unite us, and it's important for us to continue to work on things that we agree on uh versus things that are divisive.

Um, and that's actually all I have to say.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Wanda Helgeson.

Ms.

Halgeson's topic is the ground lease at the El Paso International Airport.

She will be followed by Patricia Osmond.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning again, Mr.

Mayor, Council members.

My name is Wanda Helgeson, and I'm the executive director of Border Rack.

We're a nonprofit organization that serves to coordinate emergency health care and disaster preparedness amongst our health care providers.

While we're daily behind the scenes, I feel certain that the hospitals and the EMS agencies would attest to our contributions in the regional coordination of time-sensitive emergency health care events and our commitment to the community, the emergency health care system and disaster preparedness.

In August of 2012, the council approved a sublease at the airport of a hangar owned by TJW Aviation.

It was noted for the storage of hospital and emergency medical supplies, along with disaster response equipment assets that could assist the airport in the event of a catastrophic incident such as a plane crash.

In July of 2023, we were notified of a need to demonstrate an aeronautical use of the hangar.

We submitted a plan to the city that reflected guidance provided by the airport.

After six months with no response, we received a notice of default.

We resubmitted the plan and waited an additional eight months with no response, no return phone calls, emails, or even communication regarding certified letters.

It seems our attempt to cure the default was ignored almost as if a predetermined outcome was sought.

The termination of the ground lease came to council on June 24th consent agenda, and we were notified of the termination July 9th.

The city received an S FAA determination letter August 7th.

We remained unclear as to the exact question posed to the FAA, as a later conversation confirmed areas of our earlier intent were not conveyed to them.

An eviction notice was filed September 24th.

We received that notice October 1st.

We appeared before the JP judge on October 9th.

The judge denied the eviction, indicating that the city's termination of the lease was improper.

We remain committed to working with the city to resolve any issues and move forward with what has always been a very collegial working relationship.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Patricia Osmond.

I don't see Miss Osman and Chambers are in the queue.

We'll move on to Ian Valdez.

Hello.

Oh, Miss Osmond.

Hello, Miss Osman.

Are you in the queue?

Miss Osmond.

Hello.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes.

Ms.

Osman's topic is transparency, rights of citizens, and undue influence and ethics violations, municipal code violations allowed by city paid people.

Go ahead, Miss Osman, you have three minutes.

Really quick, I do want to verify since there was an issue right there, that all of my uh signs up sign-up today is by phone.

Thank you, ma'am.

Uh, I'm sure city clerk process should have that corrected.

Thank you.

Uh the reason that I am speaking that I'm bringing this up during call to the public.

Is because I doubt it will ever come in front of city council.

But a brief history is Article 2 of the Ethics Code, City Council, whether it be commissioned, council members, officers, or people on a commission.

Once you are placed on a commission by the documentation that you find, you cannot speak adversely against the city.

That is just the paperwork people.

And people have been silenced by being on those commissions in committees.

But I bring that up because we have a system that they at the city government are putting even more red tape in front of regular citizens of Al Paso, stripping our rights away by being able to hold our leadership in departments in our taxes held to account.

In the fact that if your area has a neighborhood association, city representatives, city departments will say to anybody who calls in that they have to contact their neighborhood association.

Basically stripping away the rights of that citizen, even if they are not a member of a neighborhood association.

Now with that back that history, there's a particular neighborhood association president who happens to be getting favors.

Committing a violation of the immunity code violation that has been brought up for a couple of years now.

Still nothing done.

Brought up to code compliance directory, still nothing done.

I called 311.

Reporting it to PD.

They tell me, because the officer showed up yesterday, that is not a PD issue.

So there's also an issue with 311.

But the fact that this neighborhood association president is getting special favor.

Nothing is being done after even verifying that there is no way within the city that they could even receive a permit for putting planners on the roadway, causing a hazard.

That is special favor for why.

So that they don't inform the residents of everything that's going to be.

And I'm not here to advocate for their project, they got their own people to do that, so I'm here to talk about the one that I'm part of.

I've been involved in climate advocacy for years now.

From direct lobbying of elected officials to leading green efforts at UTEP and founding organizations, and now this climate fellowship.

I am proud of the work I have done because I believe each and every one of us has a moral obligation to give the next generation a fair start.

A fair start to afford a quality education, to buy a home, a fair start with less debt, less inflation, and yes, a cleaner, healthier planet.

Whether it's floods in central Texas or extreme heat waves here in El Paso, the effects of climate change have proven to be deadly and are felt by everyone, regardless of race, age, religion, ethnicity, or political ideology.

Shouldn't we all work together then to find solutions to the problem?

As the fellowship enters its final stages, we have had discussions on how the CAP will be funded.

Like many projects, the goal is to secure external funding in the shape of federal grants, state grants, and generous philanthropists to offset any burden on local taxpayers.

And I want to be abundantly clear.

I personally believe that this council should be as fiscally responsible as as fiscally responsible as possible and always look for opportunities to lower taxes and not raise them.

In an ideal world, we would have a deck plaza and animal shelters and new hospitals and renovated buildings and parks, but the reality is that we cannot afford to do all that.

So as our city representatives, I rhetorically ask you, why did you become a public servant?

Is it not to help people and improve their lives through decision making?

As you grapple with how to prioritize the CAP and other initiatives that come before you, I'll leave you with a quote from utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham that says, quote, the greatest happiness for the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Arnold Fernandez.

I don't believe he's in chambers.

We'll move on to Luis Reese.

Louis Reese.

If you're in the Q star six.

Luis Reese, if you're in the Q star six.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Mr.

Reese's topic is no King's protest this weekend.

Go ahead, Mr.

Reese.

We can hear you.

You have three minutes.

Okay, thank you.

Uh thank you for your time and uh allowing me to speak today.

So there is a no kings protest this weekend in El Paso with thousands taking a place around the country.

The potential for violence is incredibly high, given the boiling hot tensions after the public assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Tyler Robinson, the man who the FBI took into custody for the crime of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, was radicalized by the same rhetoric expoused by No Kings and broader Antifa aligned groups as well as a local local elected officials past and present.

Over the past two weeks, there has been an uptick in activity in both Portland and Chicago, as elements of the radical right are working to escalate tensions with the radical left, who is incapable of helping themselves, took the bait and even stabbed one right wing instigator.

Overall, there was 28 arrests in both cities over this past week.

Online, there is chatter of right wing and undercover ice playing the role of Antifa agitator, but I do not believe this to be the case.

As right wing agitation will be overt, not covert.

It is my informed analysis of having tracked Antifa in El Paso and around the country for six years now.

I can tell you that they are getting more and more desperate as evidenced by attacks on ICE facility in facilities in Chicago and here in Texas.

History has taught me something, it's that people on the left will pretend to be right wing in order to radicalize people and push them to violence.

It was just six years ago that a man named Thomas Bartram pretended to be a right wing terrorist here in El Paso, collaborating with local immigrant shelter Casa Carmelita on a hoax to cause fear.

Earlier this year, Bartram was shot having an after having an armed confrontation with police.

Please issue a statement encouraging people to protest nonviolently, but to be aware that there is hidden risk associated with protesting with Antifa aligned groups.

Please make the public aware of the tactics used by Antifa linked groups as they have already been used in El Paso to make a staging ground.

However, that plan was thwarted.

I have personally witnessed these groups put thousands of lives at risk in Los Angeles during the no text protest and the lead up where scores of antifa linked agitators work tirelessly to create civil war conditions.

Once again, they failed, but this time they are more determined than ever.

I have already informed I and DHS and FBI.

Thank you, Mr.

Ruiz.

Thank you, sir.

You've reached the three minute limit.

Council that concludes call to the public.

Okay, Miss Brian, let's move to the consent agenda.

Yes, sir.

Council, just to reminder per the rules of order and our use of personal cellular devices should take place on the dais when the meeting is in session.

Once you obtain the floor from the mayor, you will have up to 10 minutes for each to debate each motion and may speak twice per item.

Please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations at the dais when the meeting is in session.

For those of you joining us virtually, please mute your microphones to reduce any background noise.

And the YouTube live streaming has been restored.

That brings us to the consent agenda.

All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members.

Prior to the vote, members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda.

When the vote has been taken, if an item has not been called out for separate discussion, the item has been approved.

Council may, however, reconsider any item at any time during the meeting.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Ms.

Prime.

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions.

Page four, item nine, move to the regular agenda per mayor pro tem Alejandra Chavez, page five, item 11, revised per city clerk's office.

And that revision is to note that Ms.

Baron's appointment is an initial appointment and not a reappointment.

Yes.

And uh page 11, item 34, take to the item at 11 a.m.

per Mayor Johnson.

Second.

Page 11, item 34.

Take the item at 11 a.m.

per Mayor Johnson.

All right.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda with the second?

All right, Miss Bryan, call for the vote, please.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Mayor Potem Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor pro tempieto to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Representative Nino.

Thank you.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

We now turn to page number six.

And this is items.

This is for items 15 and 16, the introduction of ordinances.

Mayor make a motion that we move on the introduction of the first reading of these ordinance.

Okay, is there a second?

And Miss Bryan, I understand we have um comment on item 15.

That's correct, sir.

We have Miss Osman that signed up to speak on item 15.

This is the introduction of an ordinance changing the zoning south of Ardcraft.

Go ahead, Miss Osman.

You have three minutes.

The reason I signed up to speak to this is in the backup material.

I want to point out for not only city council but all citizens of El Paso that it there's a line in there in regards to stakeholders.

And it says that neighborhood association was notified.

Everybody needs to be aware the scale that is going on in regards to using neighborhood associations.

The community, one letter to the neighborhood association president in bent is all that is used.

If that neighborhood association president does not notify the residents within their area, says nothing.

It doesn't even open up that letter.

One letter to neighborhood association.

Citizens and citizens need to be notified.

Not maybe a requirement by sending out one letter to an association neighborhood president to meet that qualification.

This agenda item, any agenda item that is on vote.

It is highly suspect.

Because the city is using that practice to push it through and get it rubber stamped through that.

You can say there's no opposition community was notified.

Then in fact, only one letter was sent out to the neighborhood association president in that area.

That is an appalling practice and stripping away the right of everyday tactic in our community.

By using neighborhood association in that manner.

Anyway, um I think any of the agenda items that are brought up with that stakeholder notice to association should be invalidated.

Thank you for that.

That's all that I have to say on this agenda item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, Miss Prime, call for the vote, please.

Yeah, so the motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Representative Madonado Rocha to approve the first reading of ordinances on that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And the motion passes unanimously.

All right, Miss Bryan.

I think we're going to take agenda item number nine.

Is that right?

Item number nine was moved to the regular agenda.

And this is a resolution that the city manager be authorized to sign an agreement for professional services between the City of Al Paso and WSP USA Inc., a New York USA foreign for profit incorporation authorized transact business in Texas for a project known as Architect and Engineering Services for the Sunland Park Shared Use Path Project in an amount not to exceed 799,621 dollars and five cents.

Move to approve.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

Super happy to see this one here, Joaquin.

I think again, not to overly pat myself on the back.

I I came up with the idea for this one years ago.

2018, maybe was the first time it was brought up, and it was the first time I was working as a staffer and was uh attending MPO meetings, and there was a first, it was my first experience of a call for projects.

And I did very little of the work.

I had the early idea, and staff packaged a really excellent submission uh for this, and you know, years later got you know their their hard work paid off through an award of the funds for this project, and so I'm super happy to see it.

Uh you know, it's it's one of the only things that I can trace way back to before my time on the council that I uh you know pitched something and and um seeing it come to fruition.

So thank you all for the hard work on it.

Really happy to see this, and um again, there's a whole network of hike and bike or walking and bike paths, uh shared use paths that we hope to tie this into further up Shadow Mountain and some other projects that uh we're packaging for submission at the moment, right?

So uh really happy, thank you, and hope I have council support today.

Okay.

There's a presentation if council wants to see it.

I see, can you bring up the presentation for item nine, please?

Thank you.

Next slide.

So item nine is a ward of the professional engineering uh professional services contract to WSP for the Sunland Park Drive shared use path.

This extends from Mesa to Cadiz and District 8.

The total amount of the contract, 799,621 dollars and five cents.

Uh, this is a federally funded project.

Uh the funding comes from the congestion mitigation and air quality uh off system funds.

Next slide.

The scope of work is essentially a shared use path from Mesa to Cadiz that would be built partially above an existing stormwater drain that follows that same alignment.

Um more details on the scope of work would involve project management surveying everything that you see listed there, but essentially a full turnkey design uh from concept to construction drawings ready to bid uh for these funds, which are programmed to let in FY27.

Next slide, please.

This is a map of the project location.

Um, you see here it'll run adjacent to the southbound lanes of Sunland Park from Mesa to Cadiz.

Next slide.

Here are some images of the existing conditions.

Um you can see even to the casual observer, it's pretty obvious that there's gonna have to be some pretty intense stormwater uh redesign and coordination with that stormwater structure enabled in order to install the shared use path.

Um there's very little sidewalk and very little space to install any sort of meaningful path in that area.

Next slide.

Uh this is some more existing conditions.

Again, you see the stormwater uh channel there and the residences nearby and the intersection there of Cadiz and the termination of the project.

We'll also be including some intersection improvements so that folks using the path can safely get across to the park that's in that area as well.

Next slide, please.

So quick summary: eight firms submitted bids, all with local offices here in El Paso.

WSP USA Incorporated was ranked as the highest qualified firm.

We are recommending award to WSP in the amount of 799,621 dollars and five cents.

Happy to take any questions.

Okay, Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Joaquin, for the presentation.

I know you briefed me in my office.

I did have a chance to review the backup.

I know there's a lot of backup.

There's like about 93 pages of it.

So I do have some questions in addition to what we talked about in my office.

And I do agree with uh representative Canalis that this area, excuse me, needs improvement.

I I my district is right next to it, so I travel this street frequently.

Um the backup actually says that the loan is from Text DOT.

And right now you said it's a federal loan.

Is the backup not correct?

So the loans that we're getting are for our local match requirements.

Um that's where the required match for the project will come from.

Right now, the federal funding identified for this project is about five and a half million dollars.

So the remainder of that would come from the loan from the Textot State Infrastructure Bank.

So it's coming from Techstar or federal?

The federal funds come from Federal Highway Administration, and then our local match will come from a loan that we receive from the uh state infrastructure bank.

Okay.

Um there is uh the award says in the backup that it's $799,000 with with the change that you just uh mentioned.

But um there is some contingency, there's some additional funds being allocated, 100,000.

Where do those come from?

So that's typical of our awards for professional services.

We include an additional $50,000 for uh reimbursables and additional capacity for $50,000 for additional services.

Um that's not necessarily part of the scope of work, it's not guaranteed to the consultants.

It's to give us some wiggle room to not have to come back to council to increase the award.

Um the city engineer has the authority then to add uh additional geotechnical services, additional design services, additional surveying, if we see the need for that throughout the course of the design of the project.

And so uh that money would come from where?

From what fund?

That'll also come from the SIB loan.

Okay.

So is it typical for it to be like a lump sum like that, or should it be like a percentage of the product?

Because I think items uh seven, eight, and nine all have that same allocation, a hundred thousand, but they're not all the same amount of dollars in terms of the the project itself.

So is it typical to just put like a lump sum amount next to it versus a percentage of the project?

It is typical.

We usually do the the 50 additional reimbursables and 50 additional services.

Okay, so that's just the way it's always done for professional services.

Yes, or for these types of loans.

Um for professional services.

The loan is completely separate to this.

Um council approved staff to apply for the loans back in April, I believe.

Um we're in the process of submitting those applications, and then if the loan is approved, we'll come back with uh a separate resolution to execute the loan.

And the reason I ask is because it's about 12 and a half percent of the loan uh amount, so it seems a little bit high.

We we usually do like a 10% up to a 10% change order, so that's that's the percentage looked a little high to me in terms of the dollar amount for the for the actual project.

I'd like to talk a little bit about um the firm WSP.

How many uh firms submitted?

I think the backup said nine, is that correct?

I believe so.

And how many um are local that submitted?

All firms who submitted do have a local office here in El Paso, including WSP.

And the reason why I asked that is do you know how many employees WSP has in El Paso?

In the local office, I'm not sure.

We'd have to follow up with you on that.

Because on page 43 of the backup, there's 12,000, a little over that, allocated for travel for this project.

Do you know why they need over 12,000 of travel funds?

Um typically we see consultants traveling in uh because this project includes different disciplines, not just roadway design but civil engineering and the NEPA process.

We typically see consultants bringing in a lot of their out-of-town team for those uh specialty services like the stormwater design and the the NEPA public hearing.

That's a requirement of the federal process.

Yeah.

And I just I I want to point out because I think it's it's something that I've affirmed in in many council meetings about supporting local businesses.

And the fact that you know, when we do support local businesses, the money stays in our community.

And to me, this sounds like you know, someone could have a local office, maybe with one or two people here, but they're they don't really reside in our community.

So they're not really a fabric of El Paso.

Um I I don't know the team at WSP, but I'm assuming that they're gonna be contracting people from other cities, and so basically our dollars go to other places.

You know, that money gets reinvested in other cities and not El Paso.

Um, and that's just something that I would like to point out that there is over $12,000, including $5300 in airfare.

I'm assuming for people that they will need to bring in to do this this work specifically here.

Um the RFQ was put in February, is that right?

Was advertised in February?

I believe so.

And we're awarding it now in October.

Is that typical this eight-month span between advertising a project and awarding it?

It is typical.

We spend a lot of time, especially on more complex processes, uh projects, sorry, um, coordinating and working on the fee with the consultants.

Um the Text DOT process also adds time to that because Techstot has to uh review our solicitations when they go out and review as we develop the scope of work as well.

You said to the casual observer right now there was going to be a lot of improvements to the stormwater drainage.

Uh was that in the scope of work as well, like specifically everything that they were gonna have to do?

Uh the second bullet point on the RFQ did state that we wanted uh that the scope of work would include stormwater improvements.

Um we try to not be too specific on what we feel internally the solution is.

At the end of the day, we're hiring a consultant that we expect to help us develop that solution.

Okay.

So basically from what I just understood, sometimes what you present in an RFQ for scope of work has interpretations that should be done by the consultant, not necessarily conveyed for directly from the city to uh as part of the bidding process.

So one of the evaluation criteria is the we expect the consultants to put into their SOQ their their understanding of the project and the challenges and the issues and how they will address them.

Um so we put out what the scope of work needs to do.

At the end of the day, we want someone who can design a shared use path for Mesa to Cadiz, right?

We have an expectation that the consultants will do some investigation, do some field work, look at aerial drawings, and come up with what they think the solution should be and how they're gonna address all the issues that would be involved in developing that solution.

Okay.

I'm just wondering if the scope of work is not precise, Joaquin, and this is you know a question I think that the community would like to know as well.

If the scope of work is not precise and there's room for interpretations, and we don't have a budget, because I don't think a budget is part of the the RFQ, is it?

You don't have like a budget that you post on on that you're trying for people to stay within a research.

We don't we don't typically post that in the RFQ because then we get consultants who develop an expectation of what their fee should be based solely on that and not based on the actual level of effort required for the design.

And I'm just providing feedback.

I think if the scope of work is not precise and there's room for interpretations in it, and there's no budget that's also tied to a certain bid, then it's difficult for people to I I guess it's not a a legal level playing field because people might say, I want to add this to the project, I want to add that, I'm leaving it to this interpretation, I'm gonna do this, and then maybe in the process, someone goes way over budget or way under budget.

I don't know.

It just I think an important uh thing to really note here with professional services, we're issuing a request for qualifications, not a request for proposals.

So we are legally required to evaluate consulting uh firms based on their qualifications.

Are they qualified to answer the engineering questions that we need them to answer?

We're not requesting proposals, we're not asking them to come up with a design with their statement of qualifications, right?

We want them to be able to identify what that solution might entail and what they need to do to get to that solution, but we're not asking for that solution at that time.

And I understand that, but like on page 56 of this item, you know, there's there's a big design here in place, and and there's others, right?

That are part of this backup.

So I'm just looking at it and thinking um, I mean, obviously they they went into great detail about it, and it looks like it's gonna be a good project, like I mentioned earlier.

I do think this project is very much needed in the community, um, and I think it's gonna add a lot of value to the residents that live in that area, especially those that are trying to get to the park.

Um, I I I think it's a great project.

I'm just wondering um the the process that it took to get here.

So I know that you are doing uh based on qualifications, but they also added a lot of um you know um details to the project itself that probably at the end of the day added a lot of value when the raiders were looking at it.

Does that make sense?

I it makes sense at the end of the day.

The the second uh criteria from our RFQ is the project the proposers project understanding, coordination required, site observations and evaluation, expend expected conflicts and approach to address these issues.

And that's worth 30 percent or 30 points on their evaluation.

So ultimately it's up to the proposers, the consulting firms, to present you know their their statement of qualifications in a way that's gonna get them the highest points on that.

Um but what I do what I did learn today is that there's always room for interpretation, right?

Because the city is not necessarily giving them the specific scope of the case.

We're not going to feed them what we think the solution should be.

At the end of the day, it's it's up to them to come up with that.

Umaquin, I appreciate your time.

Represent Murcia.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Joaquin, and and thank you so much.

I I have a couple of questions.

Uh originally when this and and first, before I do that, let me preface it by saying I know that the community needs this.

I know that Rep Canales has been fighting for this for a long time.

I have no doubt, and I have nothing to say about the actual project itself.

It's about the proposal and the way the contract was awarded.

That's uh the question those are the questions that I have.

So, in regards to the proposal, the proposal went out as a simple sidewalk project, shared use path.

Um understanding is that a few of the firms said it did not include storm drainage work.

They found out it had storm drainage work during the scope of work when it was awarded and the backup was uploaded on Thursday.

So can you tell me, Joaquin, if it included that storm drainage work?

And the reason I say that is because when the proposers put their bids in or their proposals in, my understanding is that they did not include it because of the fact that it did not include storm drainage work in the original proposal.

So on page three of the RFQ that was advertised, the key project objectives uh selected consultants is expected to achieve design services for the following project scope.

Bullet point number one, shared use path running along Sunland Park Drive from Cadiz to Mesa Street, bullet point number two, stormwater improvements.

Okay, so that was included in the proposal.

Yes, ma'am, absolutely.

I just wanted to make sure, so thank you for that.

The second thing also um this should include does WSP have a project manager in El Paso?

My understanding is they do have project management staff in El Paso.

So you know, I have I have some trouble when you say that we've included travel in the actual award.

If this was awarded to a local company and it's a simple from what I'm understanding, based off of the conversation, a simple storm train and shared use path project.

Where would the travel requirements or that allocation come in to play?

Typically, we see travel from the consult the part of the consulting team that has to come in for the NEPA public hearing.

All of our projects require a public hearing under the National Environmental Protection Act.

Um that's typically when we see the out-of-town team come in because quite frankly, that talent doesn't really exist in El Paso.

Even our larger local firms are using teams from out of town to uh provide those services.

Okay, perfect.

I don't to be clear, travel is reimbursed on a uh cost basis.

So whatever the actual cost of travel is, that's what we reimburse.

We don't just give them a blank check for travel.

So uh if at the end of the day they don't end up bringing anyone in, or we don't end up having to have that public hearing because of things like a categorical exclusion, um, we wouldn't have to spend that travel money.

And it's not necessarily that you're giving them a blank check.

There's allocations on the on the backup, so I'm aware of that, but you know, it's not just airfare, it's meals, it's everything else that's included in that.

And my question would be why isn't the company paying for that?

And why does why does the city of El Paso have to have it included as part of the award?

Would you happen to know that?

It's it's typical of our standards, yes, ma'am.

Okay, is that standard policy, or is that standard um to to exclusively just to the city of El Paso?

Is that standard across all municipalities?

Because I wouldn't have an answer to that.

We'd have to give them purchasing to see if that's typical of other municipalities.

But it I know it's something that we've done typically.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you so much, Joaquin.

I appreciate it.

Represent Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

Comment on mostly unrelated to the contract.

I didn't mention earlier actually that the genesis of this is that there is no sidewalk along that entire stretch along what is El Paso's number one most traveled arterial street.

And so initially, I think it was you, Joaquin, who I was working with.

I found I found the original emails back from early 2020, actually.

Later than I thought.

But um we we first discussed the possibility of uh using the ADA on demand program to fill this as a sidewalk gap.

And obviously, given the stormwater needs and and the fact that it uh has to coexist with the existing stormwater canal, it became a much bigger project.

Uh obviously exceeded the budget of what was available for the the ADA on demand, it was a much larger project, and so it ended up getting packaged into this.

Um but it is a very, very obvious and large uh gap in our sidewalk network there, and it's you know connecting two very highly trafficked commercial corridors, and so um again, uh very important.

I think that the project is able to proceed.

Um, you know, we're uh receiving federal funding, and we have some timelines that we have to follow as well.

So in uh in my review of this, it it looks like uh a fairly standard uh professional services contract.

Um I understand some of the newer members of council haven't seen too many of these professional services contracts, but um this is mostly standard.

Um again, I I've worked as a consultant in related field here.

Um, and I as far as I can tell, it is very standard for the hiring agency or or entity to pay reimbursables for travel.

I mean, that's that's like a pretty standard thing across consulting contracts.

And so um I'm very comfortable with it.

I really hope to have the support again today.

Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Joaquin, just uh to reiterate real quick.

Stormwater um improvements is different than covering a channel, is it not?

No, ma'am.

Stormwater improvements would would cover all of that.

Uh it's a pretty general term for anything related to stormwater, any construction related to stormwater.

So it's like a blanket statement to say, you know, do this design whatever we need to do to the pipes to the inlets to whatever it is that's existing there, we're gonna cover the channel that's also labeled as a shared use path because that's the way it was it was um presented, right?

As a shared use path the so you know I read the scope of work to Representative Rocha.

The second bullet point was stormwater improvements.

Um our understanding is folks who who do this work, if you see stormwater improvements, you should understand that you're gonna have to investigate what that's gonna be, what that means for this project.

Okay, that's that clarifies it.

Um again, just to reiterate, you know, supporting local is something important to me.

I know that it can't always be done, and I'm not saying that it's not beneficial to our community to bring in people from other places.

I don't want to be misunderstood, but I do uh believe that leaving our dollars within the city limits is important and beneficial to all of us at the end of the day as well.

Thank you.

So Representative Massavedo.

Thank you, Mayor.

And Joaquin, uh since a lot of this is stormwater, El Paso Waters engaged on this as well.

Yes, we've engaged El Paso Water improvements to this channel are included in their stormwater master plan.

Um not currently funded.

Um so we're gonna be working with them to see if there's a way for them to contribute to the project.

Um if not, we have worked with um our folks at Text Dot to ensure that the stormwater improvements required for the channel would be covered with our federal funding.

Okay.

Can you give me the funding again?

Because I got a little confused.

I know you said that we had a loan at the state level and then the other one was federal, but then the whole thing is like 700 something thousand dollars.

So what is the breakdown between the loan and then the actual grant?

Um around 5.5 million in federal funds.

Our required local share of that 5.5 million is about I believe 480,000.

We're currently working with the MPO to try and allocate more money, more federal funds to this project because our cost estimate right now is about 8.5 million for the entire project.

Okay.

What was approved by council in April for the SIB loan, I believe was a 1.1 million dollar loan to cover our local match responsibilities and our local contribution.

So contribution is anything above and beyond the match.

At that time we expected that to be about 1.1 million.

I think that's going to be higher.

Um but you'll see that when we come back to actually execute that loan agreement.

Okay.

That that puts it a little bit more in perspective.

I I also think it's a great project, and I could see the heartburn that my colleagues are having with the per diemes that are included, the travel and stuff like that.

So I wanted to ask you we've worked with WSP in the past, right?

I have not personally worked with them at the city in the past.

They do a lot of work right now for the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

We have worked with WSP's predecessors.

So WSP didn't you know come in to El Paso as a as a new company?

They um have purchased, I believe it's called Wood Environmental, a company that's good that's existed in El Paso for many years uh under different names.

Okay.

So it was an acquisition.

And I'm looking at the WSP website, and I mean it's a pretty big firm, and when I'm looking at exhibit B, which is the fee schedule for this project.

I I think this makes sense for somebody that has an LLC that is a one person, two-person show where they need this as part of the contract.

But when you have such a big firm like this, I I could understand the heartburn that comes with okay.

We're also gonna do your per diem.

Why doesn't the company do it on their own and we don't have to include these 12,000 dollars to go toward that?

So the the fee proposal is what the company thinks it costs them to provide these services, right?

We we are not able to we can negotiate the fee proposal, but we cannot select a consulting firm on the basis of cost.

So we couldn't tell WSP, you know, if you don't take out your uh per diem and travel, we're gonna go to another firm and and and then if they don't take it out, then we go back to WSP.

We can't do that.

We can't legally do that, right?

So they've provided what they feel is their cost of providing these services.

We think they're fair and reasonable, and we through the evaluation process, they're the highest highest qualified firm.

So our recommendation to you all is to move forward with that.

At the end of the day, it's up to council.

If the travel and and meals are a deal breaker for you, then um you know you can all vote this down, and we'll go on to the next highest qualified firm and uh negotiate a new fee with them.

Could be higher, could be lower.

We don't know.

We'd have to go through that process.

And and so I guess from everything that you just said about this fee schedule, there's nothing that we can do to say, okay, yes, approve this, but then take out the fee schedule exhibit B from this contract.

I I don't think that could happen now because those negotiations are done, the contract is in front of you.

Um if you're doing that, it's essentially you're rejecting the contract.

Okay, so it's it's all or nothing is what you're saying.

We could go back and see if they would remove it, um, but we'd have to come they'd have to agree to it.

We can't just unilaterally tell them don't include that.

Okay, thank you.

Representative Rocha?

I just have one more question.

So, in regards to this, it sounds like it's more of a drainage focus project than a shared use path.

It's both.

Uh, essentially within the existing right-of-way, there's not enough space to do our traditional shared use path, right?

Where we would just put a five-foot buffer, 12 foot path, landscaping on both sides.

That space doesn't exist.

Um, so we need a creative solution to be able to accommodate that space.

Um the solution that we're most likely going to move forward with is covering the channel in its entirety.

There were some other ideas thrown around about a cantilevered path that would sort of hover over the channel.

Um, but at the end of the day, in coordination with El Paso Water and just our understanding of the engineering principles behind this uh covering the channel makes the most sense.

Okay, thank you, Joaquin.

And then what is the the total projected budget at this time for the full project?

Right now the total projected budget is 8.5 million.

That's all in design services internal costs, um, both federal and and local match.

Okay, thank you so much.

Just one quick question.

How many bidders were there on this project?

I believe it was nine.

And did any of the other eight or nine protests this one?

The award?

There was no protest.

There's no protest.

Okay.

All right.

Um any further discussion on item number nine.

All right, call for the vote, Ms.

Bryan.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Canale, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve the resolution on item number nine on that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes seven to one.

Representative Madonna Dorothy voting nay, the remainder of council voting aye.

The motion carries.

All right, thank you.

Let's take item number 34.

Ms.

Prime?

Yes, sir.

We now turn to page 11.

Item number 34 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign an interlocal agreement between the city of Al Paso and the University of Texas at El Paso to include the City of El Paso as a co-applicant in the Build Back Better Regional Challenge Grant awarded by the U.S.

Economic Development Administration to jointly implement the awarded scope of work and to jointly administer 10 million dollars in federal funds.

Is there a motion?

Motion approved.

Second.

All right.

Omar.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

Omar Martinez with Strategic and Legislative Affairs.

We also have with us uh members from UTEP staff.

We have Dr.

Itani, we have Dr.

Meissner and Dr.

Lin who are uh managing portions of this project.

And I believe we also have Dr.

Sherry Welsh via Teams.

She is a aerospace UTEP aerospace director.

And so as Ms.

Brunt said it, um this action is uh requesting staff is requesting council for to approve a resolution authorizing this partnership between the city and UTEP.

And I want to emphasize the term partnership.

We will be managing all of these funds, all of the scope of work, and all of this program together.

You want to go through the presentation, Omar?

Up to you, sir.

Yeah, please.

Of course.

So the Built Back Better uh regional challenge uh started in 2021, where a coalition of agencies, including UTEP, the city, the county, workforce solutions borderplex, the rear grant council of governments, and other, including private sector partners, got together and formed the West Texas Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Coalition.

From this, this coalition applied to the U.S.

Economic Development Administration, Built Back Better Regional Challenge.

This region was one of 21 selected applicants out of a pool of 529 applications, and ultimately uh this region received 40 million dollars to create um a program and infrastructure for aerospace and defense uh manufacturing.

And the the intent was to create a space that is the advanced manufacturing district and programming for small and medium manufacturers that would help them enter uh the national supply chains and compete in this industry.

Ultimately, the city of El Paso received 25 million dollars to build the advanced manufacturing district that is at the airport, it is 250 acres.

And um UTEP received 15 million dollar uh in for programming, supplier readiness, and technical assistance to help the manufacturers that would be able to qualify for this contract.

Ultimately, this award is uh combined a joint award, the city and Utah were both awarded.

So we we uh the I apologize.

So as this program continues, this program started in 2023.

Uh UTEP and the City of El Paso have been working on this from the very beginning.

And recently, UTEP and City Staff reviewed the visibility of jointly managing 10 million dollars in federal funds.

This is from UTEP's portion of the grant.

We connected with UTEP and asked them what this process would look like, and they gave us all the forms and exactly what we needed to make such a such a transaction happen.

And the intent of this was to increase our partnership with UTEP to sustain the program beyond the grant period.

The grant is expected to end in May of 2027.

A little bit of history on agreements.

The city in city council in 2023 approved a match for UTEP's portion of this grant.

It was 1,875,000.

And the county in August 2023 ultimately also approved a match of 1,875,000 to for UTEP's portion of the grant.

Now the partnership that's the city staff and UTEP are proposing is to jointly manage the 10 million dollars out of the 15 million dollar award.

In this, we would jointly develop all of the progress reports and manage subcontracts with uh associated with this program.

So we would work on all documents together and submit them to EDA and essentially uh draft the the technical services that we would need to provide to uh medium, small and medium-sized manufacturers.

Also, as part of this program, the city and Utah would jointly work to uh to meet the grant metrics.

These include 500 jobs created in aerospace and defense industries, and also an increase of 20% in revenues from small and medium manufacturers that are participating in the innovation network.

The innovation network today is a group of more than 120 small and medium manufacturers that currently receive services for as part of this initiative.

The last task is to uh work with up to 150 manufacturers to get them to reach certain certification levels, industry certification levels, to be able to compete for aerospace and defense contract.

The term we will use for these certifications is level three and level six.

In summary, level three is everything you need to prepare for contracts, and level six is when you are already contracting in defense and aerospace, and you are uh maybe a subcontractor to a large company like Lockheed Martin or already uh have already secured Department of Defense contracts.

It's also important to note that UTEP has already made progress towards these grant metrics.

So ultimately, the U.S.

Economic Development Administration needs to approve whatever budget allocation we we propose.

Uh the budget would be spent over a 19-month period, and city staff is proposing that $500,000 of this be spent for grant administration internally to the city, and then the remainder of the funds be allocated in the breakdown that you see on the screen for the actual programming for the task two, the job creation and business development portion, and task three, the uh industry certifications portion.

Like other uh grant funded programs, we like to add a contingency line item that gives us flexibility with the budget.

The match requirements will continue to be the same.

Uh EDA would contribute the federal government would contribute $10 million.

The city of El Paso to date is still responsible for $982,000 and a little bit over that, as part of that interlocal agreement that we signed with UTEP and in-kind contributions equivalent to $338,000.

Usually the in-kind is paid for by city staff.

So we have our teams at economic development and at the airport that are already contributing to this project.

Uh El Paso County is also also has uh contributed needs to contribute uh $1,847,000 to the project, and we have city staff has connected with El Paso County on this, and we're we're expecting that uh this uh interlocal agreement with between the county and UTEP will continue and the week that we can continue using it.

And the project in itself, what you can expect in the coming months is if council approves this interlocal agreement today, we would come back to the EDA and submit our partnership documents after discussing them at detail with UTEP.

Assuming that the federal um shutdown ends sometime soon, then uh we can move forward uh with this timeline.

If the federal shutdown continues, then we can expect a couple of weeks of delay.

We would begin the project in November, and then in December, we would engage city staff would engage with regional manufacturers and also uh bring back a more detailed plan to city council for your review.

And and so today we're requesting uh this resolution um your approval to enter into this partnership with UTEP.

We want to take the time to thank uh our UTEP partners.

They have been with us since the very beginning.

It's a great opportunity for us to continue working in this space, and it is also an opportunity for UTEP students to to essentially enter into jobs once they graduate from the university.

That is the end of the presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Sure.

On the importance of this.

I think we have uh Dr.

Welsh available through Teams.

Okay.

Dr.

Welsh, if you'll unmute.

Yes, absolutely.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

Great.

I have a little bit of a head cult.

So if you uh see me turning off the mic, it's because I don't want to cough in your ears here.

Um, the original intent of the grant uh right was for UTEP to launch this program and then partner on the community engagement and economic development pieces.

That way we focus on sharing our expertise in advanced manufacturing in aerospace with the entrepreneurs building new business in El Paso, which we're very excited about.

And we believe the grant will perform better if the partners play to their strengths, and our strength is technical expertise.

Um, this doesn't mean we're not capable of doing other things, of course, but we're choosing together as partners with the city.

But we're choosing together as partners with the city, we're choosing to focus on what we each do best, and we believe that will be the most beneficial for the community.

So this proposed agreement voted on today includes those changes that kind of crystallizes and clarifies the original intent of the grant.

So we're just really excited about moving forward with the city on this.

So thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Welsh.

All right, Representative uh Vierro.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Dr.

Welsh, um, welcome, but even if it's um virtually, but I wanted to um tell you how disappointed I was in your introduction right now.

You didn't say one space bond.

I know, I'm sorry, I just let you down.

Thank you, Dr.

Welsh.

I just wanted to make sure there's silence here, so I I got scared for a moment.

Dr.

Welsh.

Let me say my my ending comment will be live long and prosper.

Oh, there we go.

We have to do this box signal.

Yes, there you go.

Dr.

Welsh, my my question was gonna be um could UTEP do this this uh grant without uh the city, or could this and what the city was gonna bring to the table?

But Omar and you have just so eloquently um put it together, and and this is just an example how we're stronger together.

I know that the mayor often talks about this is an industry that's gonna make our economic uh area even stronger or much stronger.

So thank you, Dr.

Wells, for your partnership.

Omar, thank you for putting this together, and our friends in the back from from UTEP, thank you for being here today.

Representative uh Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

Miss Brian, has there been a motion to approve?

Yes, ma'am, there is thank you.

Okay, umar, thank you so much for the presentation, and Dr.

Welsh, thank you so much for for the commitment and the partnership, and really the trust that you're putting within the city of El Paso.

I say that because I know that there's been some um some comments that have not been so so nice, and believe that you know um that this isn't something that is gonna be prosperous to use the live long and prosper, but I do believe that this partnership is is something that uh we are going to be able to maximize on our strengths on both sides.

I'm very excited about the advanced manufacturing district because it's in district three, and so I'm very excited about that, and I really look forward to seeing all the wonderful wins that um that this group and this team is gonna is going to uh accomplish.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

And as Omar said, we've already uh the city and the county have been so welcoming since I came on board.

So we're all already pretty tight.

Uh lots of coffee meetings and lots of lunches, and I so appreciate that partnership.

So this is just a natural progression of us continuing to strengthen our partnership.

So thank you so much for the comments.

Representative Assabeto.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I just wanted to thank you, Omar for always giving us a great presentation, putting this together.

I think this is really exciting to continue building upon this partnership.

I think it's really important for our city.

Aerospace is something that we need to continue to really push forward and really champion through throughout our city, especially for hopefully bringing people back to El Paso.

That's that's a big deal.

I think there are a lot of people that want to be here, but they don't have the jobs to come back to, right?

And so I think this ships away toward that goal that at least I have.

I know other people on council have to make sure that we're creating something like this in this sector and other sectors for people to be in El Paso.

And I also see um Mr.

Fred Borrego in the the back of the room.

I kind of wanted to bring you up and see if you could give us some of your thoughts and your wisdom as one of my favorite neighborhood association presidents.

Is this on the item?

Yes, on the okay, perfect.

Yeah, good morning, Fred.

City Council.

Thank you, Representative.

Um, this is exciting news for our advanced manufacturing.

I've been in it for my whole lifetime.

I do defense work a little bit, not much.

Uh, but I just wanted to let you guys know that you're partnering with UTEP.

It's important also to partner with community college, and it's important to partner, especially with our high schools in the vocational because this is high tech.

Because this is high tech.

One of the problems we have right now, we don't have programmers.

I've worked with the Texas Workforce Commission for about eight months.

And they couldn't find programmers for my shop.

Okay.

And we need that.

It's important.

So instead of just top down, we also got to make it bottom up.

Okay.

Um community college.

They need to uh help us with advanced programming.

Again, this is really high-tech stuff.

You guys need to come to my shop and see some of my high-tech equipment that I have.

And uh we don't get 100% out of it because we don't have the programming, we don't have the knowledge to really pull it out where this advanced uh manufacturing is required.

Now, another thing that's missing in our manufacturing region that we've lost over the years is heat treating for the metals that are provided uh that are needed for this type of work, hero space.

We don't have any here.

We have to send it out.

So logistics come into play.

Also, costs go into play.

Another one that we don't have that's super super important is electroplating.

And that's for uh chrome aid passivation anodizing hard chrome that aerospace industry needs.

So as you move along and uh work on this, keep that in mind, and I think we can get back to manufacturing and make El Paso really shine.

Thank you.

Thank you, Fred.

Thank thank you, Fred.

And and I think that that's a lot of really great information that we could, you know, take that feedback and see how we could continue to improve on this and make this bigger uh because it I feel like it's getting bigger with more time that passes, and that's a great thing.

So thank you.

Yep, Representative Trejo.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is this is great news.

I uh wanted to say congratulations and thank you for taking the lead to the city.

Uh and of course, you know, we have great community partners with UTIP.

I I have a couple of questions on slide seven.

So here we have the uh the tasks and the goals.

Task two, 500 jobs created in aerospace.

Within what time frame would that be?

So the remaining scope of work will be executed within 18 or 19 months.

We are currently evaluating where UTEP's progress is, and I want to reiterate UTEP has made a lot of progress towards meeting these metrics, but so that we can have uh a better sense of how we're going to create those 500 jobs, or they might have already been created and maybe we haven't captured them through surveys.

So a lot of the work that our economic development team will do, Karina Brazgala and uh Jessica Cordova who are here have been as part of this program from the very beginning, so credit goes to them actually.

They're gonna be doing a lot of the surveying work necessary to check what we have missed, capture it, and then continue developing the programming that will get us to that 500 jobs.

But our goal is to exceed that and create a pipeline that will continue beyond the grant period which expires in May of 2027.

Very good.

And so that my other question was on the 20% increase in revenues.

That's also something that you're you're looking at that is correct.

See where we're at?

That would be captured through the same survey mechanisms.

So you ask companies back in 2022 before the start of this initiative, what were your revenues like, what were your contracts like, and then now in 2025, 26, 27, how have they grown?

And how has the advanced manufacturing initiative in El Paso helped you get there?

Very good.

Okay, thank you.

Sure.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Omar, for the presentation.

Thank you to UTEP for being a part of this and and collaborating.

I want you to talk about the administration of this project, the program administration.

Because I know we have a lot of talented people here in the city that are ready to roll with this.

So who are they?

Sure, thanks.

So the city is really excited to come up with this initiative.

There are three departments that are working in this from the very beginning.

First, we have uh the El Paso International Airport, who are actually building the infrastructure.

And you heard from Shane Brooks yesterday, she's the one in charge of making sure that the 250 acres are ready for these companies that are interested in El Paso to bring their production here.

We also have economic development, which has been there from the very beginning.

As I mentioned, Karina and Jessica Cordova and other other team members at economic development, they're gonna be doing the actual programming side of it.

So they're gonna be the ones that do the business retention and expansion, they go to the companies, they perform the surveys, they coordinate from the technical services side, the consultants, to the actual businesses, and visit them day to day, like boots on the ground.

And then you have strategic and legislative affairs and the office of the comptroller.

We will make sure that this uh this funding is managed uh properly.

So with so much visibility in this initiative, we want to make sure that if there is an in medium or like the EDA, the federal government itself, they should have no questions over how the money is being spent, and we want to keep everything open record request quality.

So to put it more into perspective, we know exactly how many reports we have to submit to EDA.

There's four of them.

We know how many reimbursement requests we have to submit.

There's 19 of them.

And we know all about finance reports, audits compliance, contract management, hiring, procurement.

That's what we're going to be focusing on.

Does that answer the question in full?

Did you want more details?

No, no, that answers it perfectly.

Omar, I you know, we have full faith in in all of those departments that you just mentioned, and I know it's going to be a great collaboration between us and UTEP.

Thank you so much.

One last comment.

UTIP also will retain project management staff.

Again, we're going to be working at this together every step of the way.

They will see every single expenditure, and we will coordinate and expenditures from the very beginning.

Thanks for that clarification.

Thank you.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Amar, for also working on this and bringing this forward.

This is a perfect example as to whenever we all sit down, collaborate and work together as a community, we can make a lot happen, right?

Um I loved visiting the innovation lab with the airport and just getting to know even the current companies that are essentially could possibly be part also of the advanced manufacturing district.

When is that happening?

Do we have a timeline yet of when that's going to be completed?

The advanced manufacturing district, like the actual construction.

So the best answer for that is that the current the project is current has currently mobilized for construction and they're currently undergoing the design build process.

It would be up to uh this or Shane Burks to give you a more specific timeline.

But the grant requirements are the same.

We should be we have this completed by 2027.

Great.

Yeah, I know earlier this year we approved that contract, so I'm looking forward to future conversations and thank you for all the work that went into this as well.

I know that in conversations with the advanced manufacturing district, we had mentioned, I think it was like 3,000 jobs, correct?

Is it is that is that correct, Ms.

Matt?

Yeah, it's about 3,000 jobs.

So seeing uh slide seven of 500 jobs, it just overall with this grant um overall really shows that you know in the partnership we're creating for the jobs and skill development for our community.

So thank you for all the work and also to for UTEP for being here.

Thank you.

Representative Canalis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'll be super brief in saying I'm very grateful for the continued partnership with UTEP and uh very happy that the city was in uh great position because of the hard work you all have done to step in uh to pick up the additional work on the grant.

And so uh, you know, kudos to yourself, to economic developments, the airport, to the entire team uh for building that capacity over these years to be able to step in uh as as we've needed to and uh to Dr.

Welsh uh peace and long life.

Representative Russia.

One last thing, and and I think the thanks go across the board, but thank you to the previous council for really starting and pushing the project and believing in it, and you know, the staff that went in to the whole process behind it, just really trying to push forward.

Without them, I don't think we'd be here today.

And this partnership proves that all things can happen when you put some collaboration together.

So I do want to thank the previous council for their trust in the project to be able to provide um you know the funding that originally started this.

So thanks.

All right, Omar, before we call for the vote on this one, you know, this is a testament to this community too that uh we're making an investment in aerospace and and our university is has been a tremendous partner uh with the city and and I had an opportunity to talk to uh Dr.

Wilson yesterday about this partnership, and we both reinforced our commitments to to working on this uh together.

But you know, everything they're doing at the university with the advanced manufacturing aerospace center, and we have our advanced manufacturing district here.

You we've got to know that you know we're becoming the city that if you want to go to space, you're gonna have to come to El Paso.

So this is exciting times for not only uh the city and and in our university uh partner, but for the whole region.

So uh we'll continue to be committed to this.

And again, we want to thank our partners at the university at Texas at Al Paso, and I don't have any jokes or any any Star Wars things that the only thing I can say is go minors and we'll call for the vote.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by alternate mayor pro Tim Piero, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve the resolution on item 34 on that motion, call for the vote and the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Mayor, would you like to recess for mass transit at this time?

Yes, please.

Is there a motion?

So moved.

There's a motion and a second to recess the regular city council meeting.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the meeting is in recess at 11 44 a.m.

in order to conduct the mass transit.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

Representative Lima.

Mayor, uh, while staff is still here.

I did want to comment, Mayor, that every time that they how things are happening, so thank you.

It makes it makes life so much easier when we get here to vote.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

Is there a motion to adjourn the second?

All those in favor?

Anyone opposed?

And the meeting for mass transit department board meeting for October 14th has been adjourned at 1159 a.m.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to reconvene?

So move.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting.

All in favor?

All right.

Anyone opposed?

Let's take item number 17, Ms.

Bryan.

Yes, sir.

We're on page number seven.

Item number 17 is a public hearing of an ordinance releasing all conditions placed on the property by ordinance number 4928 at 5662 North Mesa Street.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

Do you want to make a motion?

Yes, motion to approve.

Is there a second?

Okay.

Um in speaking with uh the the Flume or the future land use map uh group team, small team but mighty of Casey Chanel and Alex Hoffman last week.

I did make a commitment to them that it's important for us to show the presentation on anything having to affect or that's going to affect the flume.

Um it's a it's a very it's a very community approached process.

And so I just want to make sure that the community is aware of what's being pre proposed at this time and things like uh item 17 where it is in line with with that uh designation, I believe is important.

So if you could just go through the presentation for me, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Well, I guess good afternoon.

Yeah, good afternoon here in council.

Luisa Mora with planning inspections.

So it's 17 is a uh a condition release request.

Um excuse me, for property at 5662 nor Mesa.

Uh so here's aerial.

Uh it's already existing.

Uh this is actually across the west side uh animal uh center.

Uh the zoning current zoning is C1.

Uh just to remind this is a condition release request.

This is not rezoning the property, everything's staying as is except the conditions.

Uh so the feature lines map that's in this this area as G4 suburban walkable, so it's mostly for uh mixed use development where we want to have uh um uh homes, uh businesses around it for people to have access to them.

This is the conceptual plan.

Again, this is existing.

Uh right now the the applicant is actually proposing some work on it.

Uh they had some issues with the conditions imposed in the previous rezoning that happened.

Actually, I don't remember exactly when it happened, uh back in the 70s.

Uh so they requested to remove those conditions.

Uh here on the screen, um, and it's a lot of text.

This is back in the 70s.

These conditions were uh imposed on the property.

The property included actually more than this subject property.

Uh it was actually kind of uh all the way to Mesa Hills.

Uh somewhere around this property, all going north to Mesa Hills, and then from Mesa obviously going back.

Um like uh half a mile, I believe.

So the the conditions imposed back then was that they wanted to or the city wanted to uh limit the housing uh to 700 apartment units and and this was 74 47 47 sorry uh acres on property that's zone AO, or that was the request, and right now it is on AO.

Um, and that they didn't want to have more than 22 apartment units per acre.

Uh that buildings needed to be uh 50 feet away from the property line along Nor Mesa Street.

Uh but signage was permitted uh to have to be within those 50 feet.

In addition, they wanted uh 250 feet of the subject property uh zone C1 that they will allow like la canopies uh no closer than 30 feet to the property line uh on Mesa.

Uh the connect condition imposed for and this is actually applicable to to this property to this zoning, uh the C1.

Uh they wanted uh before the any uh certificates of occupancy or building permits were issued for construction.

They wanted the the the property owners to uh landscape 15 feet of the property uh fronting Mesa Street.

Uh and then there's some kind of um exception there for the 250 uh feet uh close and actually those 250 feet closer portion of the property closer to Mesa Hills.

Um they say okay, we'll you you can do that, but you will you will allow you to have driveways and and uh aisles for the parking.

Okay, sorry about that.

And that's the uh condition three, uh, in addition to the all, which this is not part of it, but there were some something similar.

And then condition four imposed back then was uh permits uh require before the permit required that a detailed settlement plan be approved by the C Plan Commission of the City of Paso.

Uh so staff reviewed this conditions.

Um, before I go to the next picture, uh this can we review these conditions.

Uh some of them are not applicable.

For example, there's some condition apply only for the AO zone portion, which this is C1.

So that doesn't apply.

Uh landscaping, we already have uh landscaping requirements as part of the city code uh for any new development.

Um the detail site plan back then again.

This was rezoned in the 70s.

Back then it was a lot of of land that was being rezoned.

Uh it is understood that obviously the city wanted to protect the view, uh, the development, how much impact was there.

Uh this was probably the outskirts of the city back then.

And so we we understand those conditions were imposed probably to uh to check on those things, but right now obviously the reality is with the cities is bigger than that.

So a lot of these conditions don't no longer applicable.

We already have requirements that can match those.

And for example, editor side plan, we don't believe it.

It's something that we need to check for, especially when it's an existing uh structure there, and it's just a portion of the property that was rezoned back then.

So this is the existing property.

Uh it's already a medical clinic.

Uh surrounding property includes more more clinics, uh uh businesses, and then obviously that we have homes uh to the east side, technically northeast, which is going up the hill, uh, which is uh really far away from from this property.

So the applicant did notify the Mesa Hills and Mesa Hill neighborhood association so the condition release request.

Uh, when we started this up, the they started this application.

We notify as required, uh property owners were in 200 feet, and we have not received any support or uh opposition to this request from the public at this time.

So with this staff did uh recommend approval, the same as the C P Plan Commission recommending approval for the condition release request.

And it concludes the presentation.

Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, yeah, this uh to me is an easy one to support the deepest quali family.

There runs uh an ophthalmol practice and a med spa uh on Mesa.

They've they've kept their property in excellent condition, they have very attractive landscaping out front.

Um which again was required by condition, but it's not required by code anyway.

Uh they go above and beyond what's what's required by the code.

Um, and so I think it makes perfect sense to remove these the outdated conditions uh on their property.

So happy to support that.

Great.

Okay.

Any further discussion on item number 17?

All right, hearing Nancy and Ms.

Prime.

Yes, here the motion was made by Representative Madonna Rocha seconded by Representative Boya Trejo, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item number 17.

There is no public comment on that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Fantastic.

Let's take item number 18, Ms.

Ryan.

Yes, sir.

Item 18 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending title 20 zoning by amending Article 2 definitions, section 20.02.464, HUD code manufactured home, manufactured home in order to comply with the updated zoning notification requirements in accordance with Senate Bill 1341 of the Texas 89th legislative session.

Representative Brocha.

Motion to approve.

Oh sorry.

Items 18, 19, and 20 are related and presented together.

Can we read those all in and take them together?

Thank you, Rep Canalis.

That's what I was gonna say.

Thank you.

Okay, item 19 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending Title 20 zoning.

Section 20.10.270, home occupation uses.

Subsection 20 point 10.270 B.14 to include no impact home businesses as an exception to home occupation licensing requirements.

And item 20 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending Title 20 zoning, Section 20.04.460, protest procedure and article 7, public hearings, section 20.04.520 notice in order to comply with the updated zoning notification requirements in accordance with House Bill 24 of the Texas A9th legislative session.

Okay.

Representative Rocha?

I I'd like to see the presentation.

I know it's the same presentation for each public hearing except different pieces.

But because it's very relevant to what took place very recently with the with the ADUs, I I think it's beneficial for all of us to hear those updates from the state side.

Thanks, Kevin.

You're welcome.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council Kevin Smith of Planning Inspection.

So I'll be presenting the items 18, 19, and 20, which are three different code amendments, and all these are to comply with state law.

So as part of the 89th legislative session, um these bills were approved by the state, and all municipal all applicable municipalities are to adhere to these um these requirements.

So again, what I'll be going over are these three um three bills and the related changes on how they impact our city code.

So the first one is HB 2464, and this basically places limits on a city's ability to regulate certain home occupation uses.

And what we what the state means by um no impact home occupations, and this is uh the state requirements is uh businesses that do not generate on-street parking, uh that they have no operations visible from the street, and it does not substantially increase the noise in the area.

And again, this is for home occupation uses only for Senate Bill 1341.

This is solely to align our city definition of HUD code manufactured home with the state.

So the state modified their definition to comply with the federal requirements, and so they the state aligned it with the federal government, and we're aligning it with both the two definitions for the um for the HUD code manufactured home.

And the final amendment relates to uh public notice, and this is only impacting if the changes create more residential development.

So I want you to keep in mind as as go over this this slide here.

So if the changes create more residential development, um a comp a comprehensive plan amendment would only require newspaper notice and publication on the city's website.

If there is a proposed zoning change, and that zoning change has the effect of allowing more residential development than the existing zoning, then a 60 percent opposition requirement is necessary, and only a simple majority vote of council is required to approve the change.

So that is one change where um often you'll you hear about the 211, where is if enough um oppose it within 200 feet, that requires a super majority of council.

If this change here of a zoning change has the effect of increasing more housing, again it increases the opposition, and it only requires a simple majority of city council to approve the change.

Um the opposition supermajority requirement re remains the same for the zoning changes that do not have the effect of allowing more residential, so that that is not being touched.

Okay, so the change that I I brought up there under the second bullet point that is only if the effect has more residential housing.

The third one just reiterates that the remainder of the opposition requirement is still applicable and still there for uh for the city and in terms of how we follow in um and keep the you know uh keep uh keep the code, keep all in the code.

And then finally, the the last change there is if the change allows more residential development, no legal challenges are allowed after third 60 days after the approval.

Um those are the amendments and that this one is probably the most substantial out of the three, but again, out of these ones here, these are just simple amendments to the code to comply with the state.

And so again, staff recommends approval.

This was presented to the city planning commission.

They did recommend approval of this as well.

And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Uh representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Kevin.

Hi, Philip.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, ma'am.

How are you today?

Good, good, thank you.

So, what was the threshold?

Oh, good afternoon.

How are you guys doing today?

Philip, go ahead.

So just to clarify something that Ms.

Roche said at the beginning before um Kevin did his presentation.

This is not about the ADUs.

So the ones that we pro um we've been briefed, we've briefed you on several times, and we may come back and brief you again uh before um we bring it to City Council, which actually is gonna be on city council agenda in the next couple of weeks.

So those are two SB 15 and SB 840, those are not related to ADUs, they're just related to a housing options that is state you know passed.

Um and those bills took effect September 4.

So nothing about ADUs will be coming to you.

So I just want to make sure that we are clear on that.

Those two bills we've briefed each and every one of you.

Um if you need extra briefing, we can come back and do it again.

City uh City Plan Commission approved that last last week.

Uh we're behind the eight ball now.

We just need to amend these codes and move on with it.

Thank you, Philip.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Kevin, what was the threshold uh previously?

The 60 percent opposition and then the 60 days after approval.

It was the previously 20 percent uh previously, and that's is still like again for items that do not have the effect of increasing housing, it is still 20 percent threshold.

So within 200 feet, um if the area of opposition is greater than 20 percent, then it requires a super majority of council.

But as this bill um as we reviewed it, if that opposition is 60 percent, that could they can still oppose that that proposal, but it only requires a majority, a simple majority of city council.

Okay, um, but it's still a big difference, right?

From 20 to 60 percent.

Correct, correct.

But again, that is only if the effect has an increase of uh increasing housing.

And then for the other one, um I'll actually defer to legal.

I'm I'm not aware of the legal challenges, um Russell Russell Label and Assistant City Attorney.

There wasn't anything like that previously.

Um that's this is something new if the um if the rezoning has the effect of create creating housing or the code amendment, then it's presumed to be legal um after sixty days.

There wasn't anything like that prior.

Okay, thank you.

Represent Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Russell, just to clarify, it's not if it creates any housing, correct?

It's if it creates housing above and beyond what was allowed by the previous zoning district.

It it isn't very I don't think it's that specific.

Um I'll have to go back, but um I think I think you're probably right though.

Um it's um if it has the effect of increasing housing, I think is the language.

Uh okay.

I think it's if it's a if it increases the amount of housing that's permissible on the property.

Okay.

Not the re and not the actual conditions, just the the permissible amount of housing units from one zoning district to the other.

I think.

Just to clarify.

I just don't want the public to think like if it adds one more housing unit, that's necessarily going to trigger this.

Um I think it's if it if it's one more housing unit than what the previous zoning district allowed.

Right, right.

Yeah, I think it would have to be something like you know, changing from a type of zoning district that wouldn't allow any housing to moving to something that would allow housing.

Um it it isn't um, you know, there's not a lot of uh resources out yet on the interpretation of some of these, but I I think it would have to be pretty clear-cut that the the rezoning or the the code amendment has you know a real impact on an increasing hap, um increasing housing, not nominal, not um you know an argument that you know I'm creating a shopping center here, and that's gonna draw in housing kind of amendment.

Got it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any further questions or discussions on the item 18 through 20?

All right, Miss Pry?

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Maldonado Rocha, seconded by Representative Boy Artrejo, and this is to adopt the ordinances on items 18, 19, and 20.

There's no public comment on that motion.

Call for the vote in the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Very good.

Let's take item number 21.

Item 21 is discussion in action on a resolution that District 7 Representative Lilly Limon be appointed as a city's representative to the Texas Municipal League Board of Directors effective upon City Council approval.

Second motion to approve.

Motion to approve by Representative Nino.

Second.

Thank you.

There's a motion in the second by Representative Canalis.

Thank you.

To appoint Representative Limon to the TML board.

Yes, sir.

On that motion, call for the vote.

In the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

You're very welcome.

Let's take item number 21.

22, 22.22 is discussion in action on a resolution that the El Paso City Council hereby nominates Jackie York as a candidate for the El Paso appraisal district board of directors for a term of office beginning January 1st, 2026 and ending December 31st, 2029.

There's a motion, is there a second?

All right, motion is second in discussion on item 22.

All right, Miss Brian, call for the vote.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Malonado Rocha.

And it was seconded by Representative Nino.

And this is to approve the resolution on item 22.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Voting session is open.

Council no side conversations, please.

The voting session is open.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, let's take item number 23.

Item 23 is discussion and action on a resolution to authorize the expenditure of district two discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed $2,000 to support two fall festival events as well as a Halloween trunk or treat in District 2 for the purchase of food, beverages, event activities, candy, promotional materials, and prizes, and serves the municipal purpose of cultivating community pride, promotes cultural enrichment, encourages community use of parks, recreation, and city services, and enhancing the overall quality of life for Al Paso residents, families, and neighborhood associations.

This is Representative Acevedo's item.

Okay, is there a motion to approve?

Move to approve?

Second.

All right, Representative Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, you know, the community in District 2 throughout District 2 really values uh fall festivals, movies at the park, uh type of events, and um these have been happening before I was elected into this office, and I continued the tradition.

So this is basically what we're we're doing northeast central.

So just hope that everybody will support this.

Okay, thank you.

Miss Prime, I believe we have public comment on this one.

Yes, sir.

Um Ms.

Patricia Osman signed up to speak on item 23.

Miss Osman Star 6, please to unmute your microphone.

Good afternoon.

You have three minutes.

Yes, uh, do we think well?

I've got a question.

Uh the trunk retreat is gonna be held where in the northeast.

Uh somewhere in the northeast.

The northeast is large swath of land.

It's with one of the neighborhood associations in the northeast.

Uh is that gonna be the the same one with the fall festival?

Sun line?

That's on the other side of the highway.

It's on the other side of the highway.

Okay, so is that gonna be the one with uh Gilda at Wayne Thornton?

So your office doesn't seem to have any information on that.

Uh and then I understand so I did work both of your fall festivals last year.

So it's not that I'm not in support of that.

I just wanted some more clarification to as to the location on the trunk or treat which's not uh available.

And also, can I ask uh the two thousand dollars for that?

Is that coming from the four thousand dollars that you're getting in a grant from Marathon Petroleum?

Or is that aside from that?

Ms.

Osman, you still have a minute 30 seconds if you want to go ahead and ask all your questions, please.

Okay, well, so that was the last question I have on 23.

Is whether that $2,000 is part of the $4,000 that my representative Rafael is receiving from Marathon Petroleum, or is that separate?

Is there gonna be $6,000 for the fall festivals and the Tongue retreat, or is there $2,000 and uh $2,000 and $2,000 of that those funds are coming from $4,000 that he's receiving from Marathon Petroleum?

I would like clarification on whether it's six thousand dollars for this entire event, these events, or if it's two thousand dollars.

Those are my questions.

If uh my representative can answer, I'll get it on the next item.

Well, I would prefer that answer to be on this item.

I intend on speaking on the next item as well.

That's why I would like clarification on that on this item.

Thank you.

Okay, Miss Brian, call for the vote on item number 23, please.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Acevedo, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez to approve the resolution on item 23.

On that motion, call for the vote and the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, this take item 24.

Item 24 is discussion in action on a resolution that the City of Al Paso City Council authorizes the acceptance of a grant from Marathon Petroleum Company LP in the amount of four thousand dollars with no additional match required from the city to support the city of Al Paso District 2 fall festival events.

Okay, is there a motion to approve?

Move to approve?

Second.

All right, representative Severo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh so this is uh grant that we're receiving from Marathon.

This happened last year as well.

And the the purpose of item 23, which is a prior item, is to make sure that we will be okay in case something's come up.

We learned a lot from doing the events last year that there were some last minute things that were were coming up, so that's why we put there that we don't want to exceed $2,000, but we're hopeful that most of this will be covered through the marathon grant, and if there's any other little things that might come up with with these events, then we could use some of the two thousand dollars.

That's why it says not succeed.

Okay, any further and we have uh public comment on this item, Ms.

And there's also backup on each of those items, Mayor.

Okay.

Sorry.

Yes, sir.

We have Miss Osman.

Ms.

Osman, star six, please.

Go ahead, ma'am.

You have three minutes.

Okay, in regards to uh any grants that my historic representative is taking from Marriott Frost Patrol.

I spoke about the refinery, and it is not just Marathon, there is Freeport Matt Moran, who actually owns the property, Marathon Petroleum Facebook.

Marathon Petroleum in 2023, the last time I spoke to educate that city council in regards to their property, had an explosion in Galveston.

In June, Marathon Petroleum had an explosion in their Texas City plant.

Here locally, we they have had excessive release.

Environmental groups have, and instead, our representative is taking money to clean up their bad craft, so that they're advertised at these fall festivals as to look the good that we've done in the community, don't look at the excessive release of pollutants into your community.

Employees at the refineries have to take metal blood work every year.

After they repay a feeling, they are retired out.

Citizens don't get that.

And it's incredible that my representative would take money to help cover up and clean up the bad PR in the community in this way.

I had a problem.

I had a polynomial before, and I will still have a polympic.

And just so that y'all don't are aware.

One one is off a triggers the next.

The fate zone is Blackie Chester Park.

So you are covering up a place that could almost eliminate a good quarter of OK.

And that is shapeful.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms.

Brian Call for the vote on item number 24.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Acevedo, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to approve the resolution on item 24.

On that motion, call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Miss Ryan, it's 12 30.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we break for lunch till uh 145 second.

No.

What's 124?

What's the motion?

We go to lunch till 145.

Okay.

Is there a second?

Second.

There's a motion and a second to recess the city council meeting until 145.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the city council meeting is in recess at 12 30 p.m.

and we'll reconvene at 1 45 p.m.

It's an hour.

I think we're ready to go.

Yes, sir.

Council, is there a motion to reconvene?

So seconds.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene the council meeting.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the meeting is back in session at 1.45 p.m.

I believe we're going to pick up on item number 25 on page eight.

Yes, sir.

Item 25 is a presentation and discussion by the new cross-functional team providing an update on 311 operations and approach for future improvements.

Hey, oh afternoon.

Hello.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Um, today we're gonna hit a presentation on 311 and some of the efficiencies they've been making over there.

And so if we if we think back, you know, we we've done the 311 app a little over a year now.

We're tying it in with this new uh team that I will introduce today.

And so if I can pull the presentation up, there we go.

So what we're gonna cover today, we're gonna cover the for the team first and foremost, how we redesign that customer relations manager role.

And that was critical to what we feel like is gonna make it for a better customer experience for for our residents.

The key context will be the 311 head counts and their volumes of calls that they're making.

We'll give a snapshot of the 311 app as well as what's the planned improvements are coming in the future.

Our team, we have Josuina Setsu, she's our customer relations manager.

She's new, she's part of the what I'm gonna be talking about here earlier in the presentation.

We got Hector Santiago, he's fire battalion chief.

Uh Roman Sanchez from our chief information officer, Carolyn Pactic Patrick, our chief information officer will be presenting.

Ernesto Ariola is also on the team looking for the uh security portion of the IT part.

Watalimpa Corral, our chief data administrator, Denise Pulvida, Jasmine Flores, and Julie Baldwinos, who unfortunately can't be here today.

Her enrollment are out, but we'll have somebody else speak in their place.

The executive sponsors for this project was uh our city manager, Miss Mack.

So when we looked at the team, redesigning that customer management role was our first step.

So we had our employee who had been over 311, she'd been there for some time.

She retired earlier this year, and so we we we took a stop at that point, and we identified our insights.

So our approach was what do we need in that position?

Was is it truly meeting the needs of the system of the council and of the public at large?

So we conducted staff and stakeholder interviews.

We analyzed the gaps between the original job spec and the day-to-day duties.

The key insights that we were we were finding was the strong we wanted to have a stronger focus on resident experience.

We wanted to elevate our inner department, so we wanted our departments to talk together.

Wanted to make sure that they were working together.

So 311 is that entry point.

That's where people call in and they voice their concerns.

At that point, it's entered into the system, but it's up to the user departments to go out and make sure those problems are corrected or those updates are made.

And so that's what we wanted to make sure that we had that interdepartment collaboration going back all the way back to the customer relations manager.

So make sure they were connected.

We want to be able to use that 311 data.

We have a we collect a lot of data, and so we want to what's the best way to use it?

What's our strategic approach to using that data?

So we also took a look at our technology and workflow improvements to reduce the administrative burden.

With that, we reshaped the role, which is we updated that job spec, we focused on our resident experience, we had that clear liaison role laid out so that it would be known with the departments who was going to be in charge of what.

We use the strategic use of data for service improvements and technology and workflow modernization, as we talked about.

The recruitment aligned to a new role.

So we attracted numerous candidates.

We interviewed several candidates.

Um we were lucky to find our new customer relations manager, Miss Jasweena Setsu.

I'm gonna let her take it from here, but she brings a lot of experience to the city.

She's from the private sector, she's got over 20 years experience in telemarketing, and I'll let her speak to it.

But thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Again, my name is Jasweena Setsu, super excited and blessed to have joined the team.

Um I have about 20 years' experience in the contact center industry and different roles as client services operations, marketing and sales, uh opened up my business at one time, so I'm very much involved with the community engagement, uh, and I understand the importance at every level.

Uh things that I like to do, you know, throughout the career, I've learned how important it is to think of process improvements, uh, innovative ideas, um, contributing to the continued success of the city and leadership and my commitment to work with everybody uh to ensure that we provide uh uh stronger commitment, better customer service.

Okay.

On this next slide, uh, we will show the current 311 team.

We have 45 associates that handle the uh the general calls for the city and the non-emergency, the non-police calls.

So it's 45 agents, we have four lead operators, we have four supervisors and one call center manager.

We're open every day of the year from 7 a.m.

to 11 p.m.

with the exception of Fridays and Saturdays, where we're open until 2 a.m.

Uh in addition to that, we have you can see the call volumes on a monthly basis for the year 2025, and they're broken down by each level.

You'll notice that there's T 311 and there's general city.

The only difference there is that if a constituent dials 311 directly, that's that second row that you see there.

That's the call volume.

And if you see general city, that means the constituent is dialing the 2120 city hall number that's on the website.

But they're all calling for the same reasons.

Um in addition to that, one of the KPIs we have in our contract is service level.

So the associates in the in the contract, they must answer 85% of the calls within 20 seconds.

So very good news is that we have been meeting the contractual agreements for 2025 for our 11 contractual KPIs that are set.

Do we have any questions so far?

Uh Representative Fiero.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, that's exciting to hear that very positive that you have to answer a certain percentage within so much time and that you're meeting the matrix.

The issue that I have in my office, and I can't speak for other people, is wrong information, uh, no information, telling people issues are resolved, or no follow-up.

Is that part of the overview also?

So the overview will only um I'm gonna have Caroline, she's gonna go over the IT technology that's coming up uh to improve 311.

In addition to that, I have from the portal, we're gonna show the top categories and reasons that they're calling it overall for El Paso and by district.

So at this time we don't have those specifics, but I can share with you that during my onboarding.

I have a two months in the role, so I'm meeting every department, learning a little bit about are we handling your calls, how are we working together?

There's definitely an opportunity for us to improve.

That's part of my role of to answer your question where we can go ahead and make sure that we're answering the right questions.

Do we have the most updated information?

Um to make sure that we're providing that, and also the IT uh side of it, the platform, for example, animal services, they're at with Pet Point, that's a separate platform.

Uh comparing to 311 with code enforcement, um, and fire non-emergency and general questions.

So there's a there's room for opportunity.

The IT side to make sure that we're gathering the right information and making sure that the associates have the right scripts, the most dated updated information to answer those questions.

That's why we're bringing this forward, sir.

We've heard you talk about this issue and really talk about how important it is for us.

We know that you're brand pranking new.

We also wanted you to know that we're continuing this process um that we're thinking about it from a strategic um perspective in terms of not just one department.

And so you'll see you know, code enforcement here, our technology teams really get into the root of what we see as some of those major concerns.

And so we're really here just to let you know that we are launching those pieces, and what you'll see at the end is what our next steps will be to ensure that we can start to deliver to you those statistics that are really going to be meaningful in terms of helping you to understand whether we're doing a better job than we have been in some of these areas, and a lot of this is driven by those type of concerns.

And we thought about that as we were interviewing for this position.

Thank you, Mr.

I think this is the first time we've had somebody with a background that she's bringing to really understand that customer service piece and be able to call and follow up to understand the quality that we're getting it from people, and so that wasn't something I think we were doing consistently before.

So thank you, Ms.

Mac, and that's great because that will make our jobs much more easier.

So I'm hearing from you that you're gonna follow up with us.

Absolutely.

And we're gonna address the issues that are concerns and that we're having our offices.

Yes.

Okay.

Very good.

October 14th.

Thank you.

After lunch.

Um I'm gonna let Caroline, she's gonna go over the next slide, the 311 application, and I'll be back to talk about the topic.

We got a few more questions for you.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

And and very nice meeting you on the show.

I appreciate you.

Taking on the task to um to really try to streamline the process and make it very clear and transparent.

Just a quick couple of questions.

Since you mentioned that the service level is 8520, is that what you're currently operating at?

Yes.

We're exceeding the expectation right now.

You're exceeding the well, I imagine.

Okay, and and was that previously not being met?

For the entire year, it has been met.

Prior to that, I believe a quarter, the second quarter of 2024 is where I believe they did not meet it, but other than that, it's been a continuous meeting of that goal.

At the 20 seconds, okay.

And then um, do you measure like as far as this?

This is contractual work, right?

So 45 contractors that are that are handling the 311 calls.

365 days here for the most part, right?

And and then just another question.

Um they call in to 311.

What's is there a transfer rate that's associated to that?

Do they transfer to a different department beside giving them uh a certain number?

Or you know, let's say that it's an animal services, and we have to get you over to this, or is it just you drop and then all the calls to your question?

We answer all the calls.

However, some departments, depending on the reason that they're calling, absolutely, there may have to be there will be a transfer.

Not all of them.

Some of them they'll be able to provide the information just depending on the department and the scripts.

Okay.

So we open up the service request, and from then it gets routed to the department if they need to follow up and take action, or did we already provide resolution?

So there's a combination, but that's something I can definitely provide in the future to get the transfer rate by department.

We can do that and find out what are the reasons, right?

What's the what's the cost?

I because I want to see what that what that looks like, right?

I want to be able to quantify it and then use that as a baseline going forward to say this is really what it's going to, this is what it's at.

Is there an education component that could be given to that to that associate to be able to minimize the transfers or the length of time that it takes to resolve their issue?

I agree.

No one likes to be transferred to different departments.

It's transferred to different departments.

We want to help improve that.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

And then the last question.

So you mentioned that you're meeting all your contract contractual obligations right now.

Yes.

Outside of the service level, what other efficiency components are associated with that?

Great question.

We have 11 of them.

So we have information captured.

Do you want me to tell you the goal or just the category?

Uh well, you can do both, sure.

Give me the goal and then sure and the the category.

So information captured is 99%.

That's making sure that the associates entering all the right information into the CRM, whether it's a 311 admin app or if it's pet point.

Okay.

Again, we're on two different platforms.

Right.

Service level 85% within 20 seconds.

Those are the calls that must be answered.

The abandoned call rate is at 8% or less.

Voice calls process, they have to be processed within four hours of the call that came in originally.

The average handle time, 90 seconds.

Feedback complaints, less than 1%.

Coding error rate less than 5%.

Call quality, 95%.

Calls transferred, less than 5% of the calls.

There it is.

Okay.

First call resolution, 70%.

And the customer service satisfaction survey that they get is 90% or higher.

Ms.

Mac, is that something you can provide us?

That data?

Absolutely.

We'll send it out to you.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I appreciate it.

I think it's important for us to know what they're being measured upon.

Yes.

And the fact that they're actually meeting on all 11 categories is really superb.

I I think you know, speaking from your experience, it's very hard to meet those those numbers on very consistently.

I imagine they're meeting them consistently if they're not if they're still getting paid.

Correct.

Is that correct?

They are.

I think that I'm going to be very transparent.

I think there's an area of opportunity where I would like to do audit level from our side versus from who we're outsourcing to.

They're the ones scoring quality assurance and everything themselves.

Okay.

So I'd like to add another level of quality assurance audits to make sure that we're aligned and we're calibrating.

Internal.

That would be internal.

No, with a city of El Paso, yes, with data mark out that we'll outsourcing.

Understood.

Thank you so much.

And welcome again to the city.

Thank you.

And I'll be back in a few moments.

We'll have Caroline.

Hang on.

Representative Travis, did you want to go now or later?

Sure, I can go now.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Hi, how are you?

Hi, good.

Welcome to City Hall and to the city.

So I um I just want to echo what my uh colleagues have been saying here.

If you see the the chart on on slide 10, you know, district one infrastructure hands down is the number one concern through the time and survey through what I'm looking at right now in your presentation.

But um I know that you will be meeting with us, and I appreciate that because honestly, you know, we do have a lot of concerns regarding 311.

I think they've done a great job in in trying to make a lot of improvements to it, but just a couple of things that we've observed is number one, um, things not getting reported to the appropriate department.

So it's happened to me in the past where um I I was tracking something that one of my constituents reported, and I realized it was you know getting allocated to the wrong department, and I picked up the phone, called 311 myself and said, could you please change it so that the right department knows about this concern that's being um you know reported?

And they they literally told me that they had no ability to do that.

So they said at this point it's best if you just pick up the phone and call the department yourself and report this because we don't have an ability to make any changes internally.

So I don't know if that's something that could be corrected.

Uh absolutely thank you so much for bringing that up.

Without them, yes, and then another thing is you know, like really a duplication of efforts.

So sometimes things are reported through the 311 system, and yet you know we have to wait that 10-day window or whatever the magic number is before we know nothing's being done about it, and then we have to internally report it through our process here.

And we've done that many times because things are not getting um basically resolved or um, you know, I don't know, looked at for whatever reason.

So those are just two things immediately right now that I would um want to flag for you.

Okay and then going forward, you know, we can really um look into other things that have been of concern.

Thank you.

But uh you know, district one is definitely up there.

I think uh district eight is just a little bit higher, and then district, so district eight, one, and two have the number, the highest volumes, I guess, of totals things reported according to your charts.

So we're busy.

Oh, yes, yes, and we're we're gonna go.

I think they're looking for the slide.

We haven't gotten there, but I'm gonna come back on that.

Yes.

We're we're busy and we're thankful for for you uh being a part of the team.

Yes, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And I'll get back to that information.

We're not gonna let you get away yet.

Sorry, Jasmine Phil.

Yes, just uh just a second.

Um we have some good questions.

Not yet.

Um, we got more questions.

Representative Nino has a question for you.

Yes, so can I ask if they're if um we're still gonna go through the presentation?

Um I answer some questions.

I think they have a question for her right now.

Let's see.

Do you do you want to hold it to the end?

Or let's get the presentation and then yeah, okay.

I did have a question, but I'm good.

I'm good.

Afterwards, you're going to have to do that.

No, we're sure.

We're good.

Okay.

Okay.

Me too.

This is the one there.

Okay.

Next slide, please.

Because I want to ask one second.

All right.

Good afternoon, Carol and Patrick with City IT.

So I'm going to speak a little bit about the EP311 application, which you all are familiar with.

Just some reminders for anyone who might be viewing this for the first time.

We launched the newest version of the EP311 application in March of 2024.

The Citizen app, it's a web application, allows for both anonymous and registered user submissions.

We encourage people to register that facilitates stronger communication, two-way communication between the city and the person submitting the request.

But there is the option to submit anonymously.

It provides in the back end in the admin application dashboards, which give you all the ability to see details for your district as to volume, types of service requests, status, type of information pertaining to your district.

That is available to you through the admin application and the dashboards that are provided in the app.

The application automatically routes to service uh provider departments to work order systems.

And of course, it is ADA compliant.

So we are working on easier admin dashboard access for those of you that may be familiar familiar with it now or requires a different login.

We're looking to change that up to make that simpler for you to access your dashboards.

Additionally, we are improving the handling of duplicates and we're adding a function that will allow a person to follow a request.

If someone has already reported an issue in the neighborhood, if you go into the application and you're notified someone has already reported, you can simply um say I want to follow this and get all the same updates that are given to the original requester.

The last one I think is really important to mention because I think it ties at least in part to a couple of the concerns that I've heard, and that is um we're adding functionality to allow for reassigning requests.

So a request may come in, especially if it's submitted online, and um the departments get the information that they get, and so their practice in general is to get eyes on the issue to determine what is the actual issue, what is the actual request, and time at times that may require actually a rerouting to another department.

Today the system doesn't support that, and we have identified that as a top priority enhancement to add to the system so that when there is a need to hand the request off to another department, another program, the system is going to allow for that.

Um in addition, I would like to mention that the El Paso 911 ecosystem is incorporating AI to enhance communications, analysis, and operations efficiency.

Um of the AI support currently in place is real-time language translation and transcription of emergency and non-emergency calls, Spanish translation, um, Spanish translation bot, enabling accurate and timely support for monolingual telecommunications, automated call summarization and insights, thereby uh enhancing response quality, data analysis across systems, and quality assurance reviews for 311 specifically.

Is in a pilot testing phase.

This is uh going on currently after normal 311 business hours, so it's happening after 11 o'clock until the next morning when the um call center reopens, and this has been going on since September 7th.

This is a test phase, and the target is to reach 5,000 calls being handled by the AI agent with a high success rate.

So this is where we also will be able to identify collectively what is the accuracy of the information being returned.

So this will help in that area.

Um and it'll help us to identify collectively where can we make improvements in the routing of these requests.

And the test call counts as of today is at 4,265.

So the target of 5,000 is expected to be hit in about two weeks.

So these tools are not replacing personnel, but rather strengthening decision making, quality assurance, and public safety outcomes.

I'm gonna turn it over back to Jasona unless you have questions for me at this time, or if you'd like to hold them.

We didn't want to interrupt, sorry, but I knew she had the answer to that question.

No worries.

Sorry.

We'll hold the questions.

Okay.

Okay.

So these uh stats that you see are for March to September, and those are the top categories.

These are the top reasons that the constituents are calling 311, excluding animal services.

Again, they're in a different platform.

So this is off of your 311 admin portal that I believe you have access to.

So overall overgrown weeds, um, that's number one.

7,000 service requests from March to September.

Second is potholes, third, noise comp complaints, fourth, junk vehicles, and street light illumination.

The next slide, which I think that's gonna be the most interesting one that you want to look at, right?

That's broken down by your district.

So those are the top reasons by district, and we also broke it down even further so you can see the overgrown weeds by code, environmental services, or parks.

And we do have representation in case you have questions specifically from code enforcement and environmental services.

So I don't know if that triggers anyway.

Yes, represent uh Nino.

Hi, Justina, welcome to Team Opasso again.

Question for you.

I'm trying to understand the difference between the app and the call center.

I have I log on to the admin access oftentimes and kind of see how the whole system works.

And I do notice that sometimes the input says, you know, caller said XYZ.

Is the call center entering the information into the 311 app or how does that system work?

I'm trying to understand.

So I know there was an app, 311 prior, an actual app.

Right now, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, team.

You can go into the website and you click on 311 app, and that's where you're going to enter your name and email address.

You're gonna enter the request based on the category.

Uh say, for example, it's pot whole, then you're gonna enter that information, and automatically, if you provide an email address, if it's not anonymous, because you can do anonymous as well, it will create a service request, and that goes automatically to the department depending on what the constituent entered.

That's one way that the constituents can get a hold of us.

But what about when someone calls 311?

The agent who's receiving that phone call, do they input it into that same website?

Correct.

It's on the 311 app.

They enter the name, the phone number.

If they want to be anonymous, we can't enter their email address.

But they enter all the informations, they click down.

There's we have drop downs of the category, it creates a service request, and it automatically, depending on that, it will be routed to that appropriate department to take action.

Correct if needed.

Okay.

So yes.

I was trying to get that clear question.

About 25%, sir, are just going directly through the app at this point.

So we're going to have to do that.

25%.

Yes, we're all tracking that as well.

So we're not going to an agent.

Okay, great.

No, this is great information.

And I know Ms.

Carolyn Patrick mentioned about the duplicates.

That was something that I was also going to mention in regards to ensuring that when a constituent, you know, they could live in the same neighborhood, same street, they could submit the same request, and oftentimes a constituent or the member of the public will receive, oh, your case is closed because it's a duplicate, but they might not understand what that means, and oftentimes they reach out to our offices, right?

Um asking, hey, what happened?

Why was my case closed?

So I think really looking into how we combine all those systems to inform the community of what's happening, or if you know someone else submitted XYZ, so that everyone is in the know is going to be extremely helpful.

But um, I'll probably have further questions, but thank you so much.

And I know this is a big priority for us.

Um I will say a big portion of our job is you know having that uh outreach with our constituents and oftentimes them reaching out for uh help in regards to these requests.

So thank you for and welcome to the team open.

Thank you so much.

Now you have somebody to contact.

If you have any of those situations, please so I can help you.

Any other questions?

No, okay.

I'm gonna have Denise.

Good afternoon, Mayor Counselor Denise Pulreda with the community-driven innovation team.

Uh okay, so what's next, guys?

I know you have a lot of really great questions, and I think it's really important to understand the team's journey through all of this.

It's we what we did is that we took a really holistic approach on understanding not only the needs of our community and some of their pain points going through all of this, but bringing everybody together to understand their needs, but also do the next steps or like going into the customer review review process and the council requests, I'm sorry, council review council request process, and then going into understanding the SR and tying it all together.

So really like setting up the Legos, right?

Is what we like to say.

It's like we're aligning everything together, it's all gonna come.

So that slide that uh Carolyn showed is really gonna show you part of our journey.

And so behind that, you see you don't see all of it, right?

But all the work that went behind it, all the months of work that we're having these conversations with the community, understanding their needs.

But next up for you, right?

The discovery phase.

So we're still at we're at the end of the discovery phase where the team has taken a look at all the functional and technical reviews of the app and the processes.

Um yesterday we had our first meeting with uh district two and the team, right?

So we're gonna be starting to journey map with each one of you.

So please be on the lookout for meetings coming from our awesome Jasmine Flores.

She'll be she'll be reaching out to your team, and what we're gonna be doing during that time is really understanding showing you the operational mapping of how everything works, making sure that hey, do some of these pain points that you're seeing on how the process works, does that align to some of the things that you're seeing you're having difficulty with, right?

Like you uh Chavez, you talked about the rerouting, right?

So now that hopefully that will answer along with the team, but understanding some of those concerns with you, and then which is gonna lead us to unpacking the data.

So after we meet with every one of you, we're gonna unpack all the data, create some of those themes, and really create a need, um, have a needs assessment um developed for you, understanding some of these areas that really need improvement so that we can design together, which takes us into ideation.

And you guys are all gonna be a part of this along with the community and understanding like some of these improvements, some of these solutions, co-designing some of these prototypes, which takes us to delivery, right?

Really, we're gonna pilot and scale, making sure that we are looking at the timeliness, the the clarity, the process improvement.

I know some of the questions that we got from the D2 yes team yesterday was how does this work?

Help me understand it, right?

And so even somebody said, if I could just have a cheat sheet to like look at the two differences, right?

Things like that is what we're gonna take a look at as proposed solutions along with you and really um pilot again, refine and iterate to help you know produce this awesome platform to work together with our community.

Very good.

Representative Massavero.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you for the shout-out.

You guys are all next.

My my staff really enjoyed the the meeting yesterday.

So that we've been talking about it throughout this morning, how they were kind of suggest suggesting things to you, and they just really appreciated that I think it was a long time coming for them.

As I'm kind of looking through the 311 aspect of things, and this could be for anybody.

I'm just gonna throw out things that I was writing down throughout the presentation.

But this was one of the first things that got thrown in my face when I got to the city almost two years ago, and the council at the time was very, very um into you know, doing 311 and realizing that it didn't work, and it was the very unanimous vote that happened to make sure that we could get 311 going.

We were also having leadership changes, and you know, in the city manager's office, we'd have a permanent city manager, and so it took a little longer to get on the on working through this strategic plan.

And I was noticing on one of the slides, I believe on slide eight, it says that the EP311 application launched in March of 2024.

But from my understanding, it launched this year in March, didn't it?

So it's 2025.

Yes, I'm sorry, you know.

So I think that's um actually a point to emphasize.

Technically, this application has been live for only seven months, and already we've seen an improvement in the receipt and processing of the SRs under the new system.

The old system was very problematic.

Yeah, and and I don't disagree with that.

And and something that constituents have kind of shared with me on this is okay, great.

We're we hated the past 311, but this one is not the best interface, right?

And I and when I think about something like 311 and what I've seen in other cities such as San Antonio, where they have an application that kind of combines the features of next door and they get status updates.

So you say, you know, you submitted this on X day, it's in progress right now.

Um it's been two days.

Here's a whole follow-up.

And I think where we need to improve is how can we make this more user-friendly and more efficient, right?

Because the the web app I feel is past its time.

And if people are able to have an app that is gonna make their life easier, then that's gonna be better for all of us.

And and one of the other things that was also kind of coming up was the feedback that people get when they submit stuff on 311, they're getting an email that is very code centric, almost seems like HTML code where there's like greater than less than symbols on there and saying, Oh, yeah, here's the progress, and people are like, what do I do with this?

I don't know what this is, right?

And so that I think would be resolved if we had an app.

The other thing that has come to mind on this is we have very um limited access as to where things are.

We have you know, things are in progress or they're completed, but we don't know what's happening.

And and I think that's one of the biggest frustrations that my office has where we're trying to understand where things are, and then we go ask, and it would be, oh well, it's in progress or it's not completed.

And I'm like, okay, well, well, thanks for stating the obvious, but can you give me more information on where things are?

I also don't understand what the point of duplicating efforts is with Monday and 311.

If we are submitting something through Monday, why do we have to submit something to to 311 as well?

I think that's the number one frustration in the world.

And I think the answer is we need an SR number, and that's that's the whole answer.

But I don't efficiency wise and doing double the work when we have so many things to do in our offices, it doesn't make sense.

And so if you want to speak to any of that, okay.

So I will start with um the feedback we're hearing today is exactly the type of feedback that we need um so that we know where to focus our efforts on.

Um just for your awareness, our in-house team developed the current application, and we were under a very, very tight line uh timeline to get that completed.

We have a list of enhancements already in queue.

This feedback, um, the frustration that you hear from your constituents is the feedback that IT needs to hear.

So we need to establish a communication path with you all to receive that feedback so that we know um to address the concerns in the app.

Um, I'll say that as far as that goes.

Mobile app, it also is in queue for development.

I didn't mention that, but that also is um on our horizon.

Okay, and and I guess what what is the mobile app gonna look like, right?

Are are we gonna uh have a vendor come in?

Because I appreciate when city departments are you know, not just your department, and I've said this before, I said it during budget, where you're trying to do what you can with the resources that you have because things are expensive.

But when this is such a present issue and people are stopping us or at least stopping me in the streets or at the grocery store, whatever, to say 311 sucks and I don't know what to do about it.

I I think it would be great to pair that with getting somebody from the outside that can actually get the app moving and make it very engaging for people.

Um that is a fair comment, and actually is um a major factor is we are deciding right now what path we're gonna take for that mobile app development.

Um sustainability is critical, so absolutely valid point.

Okay, and and I think that as we're kind of seeing what this super city app is doing, I don't think that's a solution either.

I don't think that's that's been a very productive thing from things that I've seen and what I've heard, it's it's not the most helpful thing in the world.

So I'm like, how can we crack this code to finally make this work?

Because I think when I got on council, it was like, okay, it sucks.

And then now the conversation is it's it's better, but there's still a lot of things that we need to know what what's happening, and if I could get an answer more of a can we move away from having to do 311 and Monday.com, can we just do one thing because we're wasting our time doing those two things, and then we're still not getting answers, right?

So that is um what Denise was speaking to and meeting with all uh the council members to solicit that feedback, and they will be leading those efforts.

Thank you, Nick.

Yeah, so part of that that first journey, right, is really doing the customer experience journey.

So some of the things that you talked about right now is understanding some of the things that you have questions on, or the reason what's the difference between, you know, the team was talking about it yesterday, and they were like, What's the difference between submitting a CR versus an SR?

What is the difference between all of them, right?

And so understanding, like um, you know, having a cheat sheet, having informational like sessions with you guys, what are the things that you want to understand and how the process works?

One of the questions that came up, for example, is you know, um, if it goes to codes, when does it at what point do you decide that it goes to ESD or vice versa, right?

So it's really understanding some of those things that you have questions on, gathering insights from all of you, and then that's where the unpacking the data comes together.

So when we unpack the data is bringing you guys back in to say, like, this is what we heard, okay.

Now let's start designing together, right?

And so that's when you start building those prototypes.

So these next meetings that we're gonna have with you and your team are gonna be very important to help zone in on some of those questions.

Well, and and I appreciate the cheat the cheat sheet comment, but at the same time, I think the only reason you need an SR is to get a confirmation number, but for what the confirmation number should just be a Monday issue, and then the constituent knows that it got resolved, right?

And and I think that one of the things that we saw debut what 15, 20 years ago now, it was this pizza tracker where you started ordering pizza online, right?

And you did the pizza tracker.

So where are we with this once this is submitted where I can go into whatever application, whether it's gonna be Monday or this back end application that's forthcoming on 311 so I could see where things are, and I'm not asking people all the time, and I'm getting the same answer of it's in progress.

Well, duh.

I think we'll have an opportunity, sir.

I I want to make sure I think the team is trying not to solve individual issues, but make sure that we've spoken to all of you.

And so when we come back with our summary, it is a collective summary, and then it's prioritized based on the things that you say are most important.

So I think that's your hesitation to say that's an issue because I just asked the question because I still don't get it.

And so I'm like trying to understand that tracking.

So we're gonna try our best to get these um next sessions with you all within the next two weeks.

You know, once we go through each one of those phasing of steps, you're gonna get a summary to understand what we're moving forward on, and you'll understand from the collective body what those numbers and and things are.

We have heard these things from multiple folks going into this, and I did share this with staff as they were launching, but we really want to make sure that it it we are capturing the voice of the folks who are working on this at every level within the organization.

And to make it better.

And I appreciate that the collective issues there, but that and I'm trying to be collective here because I don't think anybody appreciates doing double work to do one and three one one and go write the same thing on Monday.

It like doesn't make any sense, that's not efficiency, right?

And so I'll I'll leave it there and I appreciate what you're doing.

Representative Chavez.

Oh, give me I'll finish with saying that we're looking at a solution that will sit on top of this.

So whatever the back end looks like, it will ultimately be transparent to you with one entry point.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

And uh I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to give you our feedback.

So I won't go into details on specifics, I'll wait till we meet one-on-one.

But what I do want to say is that this is really a great opportunity to empower our community, right?

Because there are many people out there that want to make our city better for whatever reason that is, whether it be uh junk vehicle or street light, um, it's all it's happened to all of us as we're driving to work where we see a street light.

I mean, I have the power of maybe sending a Teams message or you know, making a phone call and saying, you know, the street light needs uh attention, but what we want is to empower the community to do the same thing.

We don't want the community to feel like they have to come necessarily through us to get anything done at the city, and so I just think that this is a great opportunity uh to just iron out the curks, the the kink, sorry, um, and then figure out what the best path forward is to make sure that our community feels heard and that we can respond in a timely manner to whatever those concerns are.

Understood and completely agree.

We want um residents to feel comfortable and confident in the system.

Absolutely.

I would love to see the numbers for the online submissions to go through the roof because that's a good indicator that we're moving in the right direction.

Thank you.

And I look forward to that conversation.

Thank you.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor and Ms.

Patrick and Ms.

Mack and the entire team.

I'm also looking forward to future conversations.

I know that part of my lean state stigma project that I started with Denise, like three, four years ago, I don't even remember, was part of the CR process 311 process of just obtaining the data.

And I think what I'm looking forward to is the data that's gonna get you know put together here.

I know that we're gonna start working on our strategic plan by district, by the city.

The data that's gonna get obtained, we'll be able to work on the program-based budgeting to really ensure that we know where is it that we want to prioritize in regards to you know, every district might be facing different challenges.

Like right now, it's showing that there's overgrown weeds over 7,000 requests, right?

So we know that that's a priority for the community.

So I think it's gonna be extremely important, you know, uh, to collaborate with all of us and ensure that.

Um, and I'm looking forward to that, but um overall uh the data that's gonna be obtained from this so that we can make better uh you know fiscal responsible decisions moving forward.

So thank you for that.

Thank you guys.

Any further questions on this?

I know we have uh someone timed up for public comment on this.

Yes, Mayor, we have Ms.

Osman that's signed up to speak on this item.

Ms.

Osman star six, please.

Good afternoon.

You have three minutes.

Okay.

In regards to three one one, there are four more issues than what are even being brought up.

The PowerPoint presentation, it is a nice talking point, double speak, gaslighting of the taxpayer base in OpenStack.

Because quite frankly, personal experience.

I call 311 September 18th.

They tell me, hey, they file one report.

I call back.

I'm like, are you sure that's where it is?

They tell me.

I also needed to contact El Paso PD.

Non-emergency.

I did that.

Spoke to Officer Yamas, sent him photographic proof of the issue.

You've got a resident that has irrigation lines running off the curb on pavement on city right away.

Going to planners for big old trash cans.

It is impeding the bike lane, causing a hazard.

It's impeding the parking also.

But I get a call.

I and I also then because I'm told contact PD.

I then forwarded that email and spoke to Lieutenant Shield from Park on October 3rd.

I called back yesterday, October 13th, 311 to get a status.

They're saying in progress.

Four days shy of a month, it's still in progress.

Okay.

Citizens are getting diverted if you call, because I also called one stop.

Said one stop on another issue in regard to whether that individual can have a permit for personal property on the private right-of-way or on the public right-of-way.

They cannot.

But one stop, the person there with plenty of inspection, give me a direct number to streets and maintenance of 915-212.

0118 for streets of maintenance.

And departments are forwarding their calls to 311.

It didn't pick up at streets of maintenance.

It picked up at 311.

And so I spoke to Fedrio yesterday, trying to explain the entire situation.

He's trying to refer me again to non-emergency PD.

Three months ago, it was changed any parking issue from PD to code compliance.

Apparently, 311 is clueless.

It is not solving any issue.

It is causing more red tape and unaccountability to our tax dollars.

You're making sure citizens have zero accountability for the use of our tax dollars by another document.

All right, thank you guys.

Thank you for the presentation.

It was very good.

And we look forward to continuing to work on this and getting it better.

Thank you for your time.

All right, Miss Brian, let's take item number 26.

Yes, sir.

Item 26 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation 2025-0324.

West Side Medien's Roadway Lighting and Landscape Improvements to Jordan Foster Construction LLC for a total estimated amount of $9,297,781.75 cents.

This project will consist of new arterial lighting and medium landscape improvements at Executive Center Boulevard from Baisano Drive to I-10.

Sunlock Park Drive from Donovan Drive to Mesa Street, Shadow Mountain Drive from Mesa Street to Thunderbird Drive, West Wind Drive from Thunderbird Drive to Red Road, and Red Road from Montoya Road to I-10.

Okay, is there a motion to approve?

Move to approve.

Second.

All right.

I know.

There's a presentation.

Would you guys like to see the presentation, Council?

District 1, District 8.

You guys okay.

Okay, can we see the presentation, please?

If I take you bring up the presentation, please.

Good afternoon, Council.

Mayor, Council, my name is Danny Garcia from CID.

So for the West Side Medium Project.

This once again, as you were wearing this lies within district one and eight, and as mentioned, the construction or the award is for the 9.2 million.

This is the funding source of the 2019 certificate certificate of obligations.

Just a brief scope.

These are landscaping improvement median and last game median improvements with lighting all along the three quarters.

Well I'll show in the following slides.

The base bid one or the first uh quarter is between Executive Center Boulevard from Bison Drive to I-10.

The second, which is basebate two consists of Solomon Park Drive from Donaffin Drive to Mesa Street.

Base bit three, the other intersection is Shuttle Mountain Drive from Massa Street to Thunderbird Drive.

Base bid four West Wind Drive from Thunderbird Drive to Red Road.

And the last bid five Red Road from Montoya Road to I10.

This was procured through a competitive SEAL proposal.

So listen to advertised from March 18 to 2025 through March 25th, 2025.

There were six firms submitted bids.

All local vendors' recommendation is to award to Jordan Foster for the 9.2 million dollar contract.

Um start early 2026 and early 2027.

All right.

Representative Canalis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I have a question that might be difficult off the top of your head.

Uh this is funded with 2019 COs.

Yes, sir.

Do you know how much out is outstanding on that 2019 CIP?

I wouldn't know.

Okay, I had a feeling if that might choose, I think she's coming up in a minute.

Can you clarify what you mean by outstanding?

Do you mean what we have not spent or what we've not issued?

Um kind of both.

Uh I guess well, yeah, how how much have we issued or how much have we not yet issued and then um of what is already sold?

So what do we have?

2019 CIP, there's still 25.9 million roughly that was never issued as far as certificates of obligations.

Those projects have never uh been funded.

We've not issued those deals.

Okay.

Um do we have any uh uh sold but unspent proceeds from 2019?

So that's the unissued amount.

So um that overall 2019 CIP was 112.1 million roughly of that.

There's still 25.9 million that the city did not issue, but that's unissued, unsold.

Correct.

Okay, and we have no uh additional uh issued any proceeds from issued uh COs from 2019 that are unspent.

He's asking about fully spent, we've not fully spent the 2019, that's why we're using uh these projects moving forward.

We have not fully spent the 2019 bonds that we've uh already issued.

Okay, um I don't have the exact expenditure.

I mean, if you give me a few minutes, I'll pull it up, but we've not fully spent the 2019 of what we've issued.

Okay, that's coming.

Yeah, it's coming up so uh event on this for the record.

Um, for 2019, um a hundred and twenty-eight, sorry, a hundred and twelve million was the budget.

We've had sixty-eight point nine million for expenses, and we currently have roughly ten million that is encumbered, and so thirty-two million is the remaining balance, and not all of it has been obligated to debt.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

Representative.

Thank you.

Thank you, Yvette.

Before you leave, um, on this uh certificates of obligation um item was the money designated specifically to some areas, or are the areas being developed throughout the life of the COs?

No, these were um oh, these were identified with the certificates of obligation.

So the bond issuance for 2019 is streets, facilities, and maintenance, and these are the most traveled arterials that were identified when this uh CO was uh issued.

Okay, it was specific projects listed, ma'am.

So we can give you all the projects that were listed and what those funding levels were.

I think that's more detailed question that you're asking.

That would be good.

You know, I often hear of different streets in my district that are the most traveled arterials, the most dangerous arterials.

Yeah, when we get down to some projects, somehow they don't rise to the top.

At your convenience, may I have that list, please?

I really would like to see that and see if maybe there will be something for district seven.

Thank you.

Okay, Miss Brian, we have a public comment on this item.

Yes, sir.

We have Miss Osman signed up to speak.

Miss Osman star six, please.

Thank you, ma'am.

You have three minutes.

I'm spoken in regards to contract two at Jordan Foster in the past.

And as per our one of our West Side representative, this is a prime example of why contract also should not be enforced local.

Because it's too easy for local people to get their fingers in the pie of our tax dollars.

And I say this because I do have evidence of such that Mr.