Good morning, Mayor.

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

This morning we begin with a pledge of allegiance, and the pledge of allegiance this morning will be led by Saint Clement School at the invitation of city representatives Lily Limon and Art Piero.

This morning we have Lulu Carmona, Rivers Anderson, Prescott Colquit, Bishop Ferrah, Charlie Follett, Aria Forney, Anton Getty, Gia Gerardo, Sebastian Macías, TJ Marmolejo, Kel Martinez, Levi Murray, Anna Emilia Ramirez, Belen Recendez, Renee Roldan Puentes, Hannah Shumov, Vivian Stockard, Amy Ann, Alia Davis, Matilda Genridge, Riley Grammys, Blake Huffman, Iwonosa Irada, Raul Lopez, Amelia Martin, Caroline Mata, Isabel Tamaris, and Rose Tullies.

Yeah, like actually that's doing the shadow.

That brings us to the mayor's proclamations.

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

Representative.

The first proclamation this morning.

Mayor, uh thank you.

Um did want to acknowledge that we have uh former state representative Marisa Marquez in the house.

Marisa, thank you very much for joining us and for bringing Cal to this meeting today.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

The energy.

Let me go in.

And the first proclamation this morning is for Adair Margo.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Great to be here.

Good morning, Adair.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Whereas Adair Margot is a distinguished third-generation El Pasoan whose lifelong commitment to the arts, humanities, and civic engagement has enriched both her local community and the broader broader cultural landscape.

And whereas over more than four decades, she has demonstrated leadership and vision in the arts, founding the Tom Lee Institute, preserving the legacy of artist Tom Lee, and producing award-winning publications, and whereas she served as chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities under President George W.

Bush, contributing to national arts policy and advocacy.

And whereas she has shared her knowledge and passion with students throughout teaching appointments at the University of Texas at El Paso and New Mexico State University, and whereas her efforts to stand as a testament to the power of individual dedication to nurture cultural heritage, community pride, and artistic legacy.

And whereas honoring her work inspires current and future generations to pursue creativity, civic service, and the preservation of cultural history.

Now, therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that October 28th, 2025 shall be known as Adair Margot Day.

Congratulations.

Adair is my constituent and a proud resident of District One as well.

So we thank you for all that you do for our community, Adair.

Well, thank you.

Yeah, of course.

And without her, there would never be the recognition.

But when I thought about it, I thought that's exactly what I've loved doing my entire life.

And my exposure through UNESCO and serving the president has proven that to me more and more.

From El Paso.

Wow.

Uh Jose C.

Sneros won the National Humanities Medal.

Uh Tom Lee was hanging in the Oval Office.

Um Jerry Rubin sponsored our reception at the White House.

And someone on my committee said, Do all roads lead to El Paso?

And I said, they most certainly do.

And I wanted just a final thing.

There's so many, I I've never been by myself, but doing the oral history of both Tom Lee and Jose C.

Snare of C UTAP was an eye-opener to me because it taught me how our community relates to other people and how we like no matter where you've come from to be elevated.

Tom Lee was working on the most well-known mural, not the most well-known, the finest mural of the New Deal period is our federal courthouse mural called Pass of the North.

Because he didn't have paper.

And he went to the courthouse to show his drawings to Tom Lee.

Tom Lee got off the off the scaffolding, looked at him, told him it was great, he was showing depicting his own people.

And then he wrote a note to our librarian, Maud Durlin Sullivan, presenting Senior Jose C.

Who has just shown his drawings with me.

This guy has some stuff.

And she gave him his first exhibit at the El Paso Library downtown.

It's now uh the Mexican American Cultural Center part of it, but still the library.

So when I was serving President Bush, Jose C.

Sneros and Tom Lee were there at the White House.

Tom Lee had passed away, but his painting Rio Grande was in the Oval Office, and Jose C.

Sneros, a refugee from Mexico, was being honored at the same time.

So that's the kind of community we live in, and it's been such a privilege for me to be able to share the message of El Paso.

Thank you so much.

Don't run off, my friend.

Hang on, don't run off, my friend.

And congratulations on all your success and all that you've done for this community.

I would be remiss not to introduce Mayor Margot, who is is here with us uh as well in the audience.

So Mayor, thank you for for joining us and and recognizing all of the great work that uh your wife has done.

I'm really here as Mr.

Adair Margaret.

And and there, you have led so many countless tours uh by national walking tours into Watas and so many groups.

You you actually led a group with the Texas Lyceum when we had a a meeting here, and you have truly changed that negative perception about this community by taking people into Waters and showing them the rich culture of the region.

And we can't thank you enough for all that you do, and congratulations on being inducted into the Texas women's hall of fame.

That is significant for for El Paso, and it's been a long time coming, and you have done so much, and we cannot thank you enough.

So thank you.

And and uh Mr.

Margot, thank you since uh you you you're now Mr.

Margot, Dare's husband.

So couldn't have done anything without this guy, really.

He paid for all those receptions after my gallery openings.

He paid for it's good to see you back in chambers, mayor and and and Darren, congratulations on everything you done.

Thank you.

My favorite job is being a tour guide, really.

Yeah, I know.

You're good at it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

The mayor's not gonna come up with it.

Mr.

Deer Morgan.

That brings us to the next proclamation, which is K L A Q F M Halloween Parade Parade Day.

Good morning.

Good morning, good morning.

How are you guys doing?

Hey guys.

Hey friends.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

And good morning to everyone.

Yes.

Who watched all 18 innings?

Yes.

Yes, way to go.

So thank you for being here this morning.

I really appreciate it.

And with this, I'm gonna start the reading of your proclamation.

Whereas on October 31st, 1986, KLAQ 95.5 FM radio station created the annual Halloween parade as a fun and creative promotion to bring the community together in celebration of Halloween annually.

And whereas over 40 years, KLAQ FM has entertained families, friends, and children alike at our at our annual Halloween parade.

This community event was designed to create a safe and engaging event that is free to the public and free to participants.

Sponsors, high school teams, organizations and bands, local sports groups, clubs, and community organizations have made the KLAQ Halloween parade an annual tradition for Halloween fun, whether participating in the parade or attending the parade as a spectator.

And whereas this great community event was created to provide entertainment to El Paso families, friends, and children in a safe atmosphere that embodies fun, music, candy, and creativity for the Halloween day each year.

And whereas KLAQ has invited thousands of participants and spectators annually, over 40 years, that includes special guests and local heroes as grand marshals.

And whereas it is an honor to recognize the commitment and dedication from the staff at KLAQ FM and Townsquare Media, who have taken the initiative to provide a great community event every year on Halloween for the past 40 years.

One of them was a gentleman named Jerry Wilson, his son now plays for the Utah, his grandson plays for the Utah football team.

But we were like a little bit younger.

We would go to his parents' house at lunchtime, so when it was like disco 95, and I looked at Alban Park and go, this would be a great place to do an event.

And after watching the do-da parade before the Rose Bowl out in LA, we said, let's just give this a try.

And we, you know, gotta, it's easy to say no.

Everybody knows.

So when you say yes, you gotta do the work.

And so bosses and people said yes, and we put the parade together.

And we didn't know which routes we were going, so we would block streets, very important streets on Halloween for about 40 minutes, and people would want to kill us because they were unhappy.

And we ended up getting the parade route through the neighborhoods, and we've been able to work with the city and the police and and thousands of different volunteers to make this event happen.

So on behalf of everybody at Townsquare Media, KLAQ, uh, or the other two jacks I like to not forget would be Courtney Nelson and Magic Mike Ramsey.

They were all both really critical, uh, and even that lamp, so critical in like having this parade and this event continue.

And without the dedication of like Connie and Chad and Marina here, uh, it would not as well.

So it's a commitment from a lot of people, and then afterwards, there's a new part to the parade, the candy bash.

And let you tights talk about that real quick.

Yes, thank you.

I also want to extend my thanks.

It's it's uh true love putting it together.

It's a lot of work, and it's been a great fun.

Um, the week of, it's not so much fun because I'm going crazy, but um we do appreciate the honor and and thank you very much, uh, Councilman Rocha for uh honoring us today and all your help with Julia and your team, they've been great.

Uh we are extending what we do.

Normally it ends right as the sun is setting and everybody disappears instantly.

This year we're actually having a little candy bash in the park afterwards, kind of like a post-celebration.

We've got some food vendors and uh different clients and sponsors that are gonna be having games and additional uh ways of for the kids that show up to get uh get more candy treat bags and get more candy.

So we would invite anyone that is coming to stay and have a Halloween party there and enjoy the the festivities there at the park.

But thank you all for your support.

We appreciate it.

Very welcome.

That's it.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, hey, don't run off.

Uh Representative Fiero.

Oh, thank you, Mayor.

Uh Brad, you know, thank you.

Thank you for your partnership with our community.

The great concert you have brought.

Um, I was looking at your bio.

It said you started at Kelly Q in 1964.

Is that right?

I I I don't know.

I don't look back there anymore.

Brad, thank you for your partnership and what you everything you've done for our community.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, I'm gonna be a little bit easier on my friend there.

I don't think he started in 1964.

But um again, thank you guys for what you do for this community.

Uh a couple things.

So I believe it starts at 3 30.

Album, can you tell us a little more details of where it starts in Album Park and all the good stuff?

It starts and ends at Album Park, and it'll start promptly at 3 30.

Um, it is free to the public, so we do have quite a few people that are pre-registered, but we will take people that just walk up.

We have three categories where we judge folks in the in the parade.

People that are walking in costume have a chance to win cash-in trophies.

Uh rock and drive is our most fun uh category because it's people that just decorate a float in their garage, their truck, their kids' bikes, whatever.

So those are always really really creative.

And then we also have a business category for businesses that want to um support the parade and show up showcase their business.

This year we also have a new category.

We started a high school spirit challenge, and we've got four high schools that are gonna have floats, um, and they're competing for a spirit trophy amongst high schools, which is a really exciting new addition that we had this year.

So it starts at 3:30, it's 1.9 miles along the uh neighborhood, and it usually ends about 4 35 o'clock.

Uh, and it starts and ends at album.

The main streets is Album Street, Zanzibar, and then a lot of the neighborhood streets of Fur, Daphne, Bermuda, and then Zanzibar and Album are the main two streets where everybody is, and it gets pretty crazy crowded.

Wow, this is great.

And and again, thank you guys.

This is you know, a lot of us here on the dais uh, this is part of quality of life.

This is one of my pillars, and thank you guys for all that you do uh for El Pass, all the concerts, all the I I mean, it goes on and on, and you know, Brad's been doing it for as long as you know I've known you.

You've been doing events for everything from the balloon fest to to other events.

Uh I do have one question though.

Do you guys still do the the haunted house?

Actually, we are uh assisting like Wet n Wild with their haunted house this year.

Um we've worked with the people there before in different places, but we're not doing the KLEQ haunted house this year.

We're supporting haunted scare grounds at Wet n Wild.

They're friends and people that we've worked with for years.

Okay, very good.

And and we know it takes, as you said, Brad, it takes a team to to pull these off.

And and I do want to, and I believe I got this right.

I do want to give a shout out to one of your sponsors, and I believe that's one source federal credit union.

Yeah, so we definitely want to thank them for all they're doing.

So we definitely want to thank them for all they're doing, your entire team in the community.

And I think you're gonna have a really, really big uh event this year, and thank you for creating a signature event for our community.

Once again, thank you for the recognition.

We appreciate everything that you do and your support a hundred percent.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you, man.

No, I mean today.

And the next proclamation is Cheryl Gate Lights Parade.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, sir.

Yeah, it is a good team.

Yeah, look at this.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Teamwork.

Look at this.

This is teamwork.

Teamwork.

Thank you, Mayor, for allowing me to read this proclamation.

This is definitely definition of teamwork.

Thank you guys for all the everything that you do.

So proclamation for the city of El Paso, Texas.

Whereas Winterfest, featuring Sherlock Lights Parade, is celebrating its tenth anniversary as a most cherished festival in El Paso, bringing families and visitors together to celebrate the holiday season.

And we're as a heart of downtown San Jacito Plaza, including the Cleveland Square Park and surrounding areas will once again light up with more than one million lights, oversized decorations, and will feature a new forty-five foot holiday tree.

And whereas Winterfest, led by the city parks and recreational department, will offer family-friendly attractions, activities, and entertainment.

And whereas a six-week Winterfest season draws more than five hundred and fifty thousand people in our downtown to enjoy outdoor ice rink interactive holidays displays weekly local performances at San Jacito Plaza, a unique tasting experience at the Holiday Food Truck Village and Musical Display of Lights at Cleveland Square Park.

And whereas Winterfest has become a beloved tradition with the city of El Paso and its partners coming together to enhance the holiday experience for residents and visitors.

And whereas the Shirley Gate Injury Attorneys at Law sponsors the Shirley Gate Lights Parade that features more than 60 decorated floats and attracts more than 65,000 people, making it the city's only lights parade.

And whereas last year more than 3,000 people marched in a one-mile parade route, lighting up our the streets of our downtown, creating holiday cheer in free festive and a safe environment.

And whereas Winterfest is made possible with the support of the lead collaboration between Destination and El Paso that organizes the ice skating rink, which attracts approximately 20,000 skaters throughout the season.

And whereas Winterfest enriches the lives of the residents, neighboring communities, and visitors celebrating our cultural heritage with holiday events across the city from the El Paso Street Cart, El Paso Public Library, City Museums, El Paso Animal Services, and the Parks Recreational Department.

And whereas Winterfest unites more than 20 city departments, Destination El Paso, the downtown management district, and dozens of local businesses and organizations to support El Paso's most cherished event.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and the council of the city El Paso that November 2022, 2025 through January 4th, 2026, shall be known as Winterfest 2025.

Congratulations.

Woo.

Good morning, Pablo.

Good morning, Major and Council.

How's everybody doing today?

Good, good.

Perfect, perfect.

Well, it's that time of the year now.

And as you can see, November 22nd, starting with the Trillicate Lights Parade, and with the Winterfest season.

Now we actually are in the holiday festivities for the entire city of El Paso.

I'm not gonna take long here because I have a lot of people that want to introduce themselves, but I'd like to thank all of you for the support.

Always supporting this is the 10th anniversary for the Winterfest season.

So thank you all.

And I'm gonna start this with uh our Winterfest coordinator, Diana Zapedas.

Thank you, Pablo.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

I'm Diana Cepeda, lead coordinator of Winterfest, the city largest holiday festival in the region.

And I want to thank you, uh Mayor and Council, or City Leadership, Parks and Recreation Department staff, and of course our Pablo Caballero, our director, and our uh deputy city manager, Richard Bristol, for all the support we had over the past ten years.

Since he began Winterfest has grown every year with more than 500,000 people attending last year's season that lasted six weeks.

None of this will be possible with our partners, and I know uh Representative Nino already mentioned them, but we want to thank Downtown Management District, Destinational Paso, Jose Garcia, and his team, and all the city departments that work together to create the biggest holiday celebration.

In our community, we have uh work very hard to be able to bring this event every year, and we also want to thank other city departments, Ben Director, uh Ben Five Managing Director, as well as uh all the staff for all the city departments.

I want to thank our sponsors, uh Telemundo or television sponsor, GECU for providing free pictures with Sana.

They are also the title sponsor for the ice ring this year.

Of course, we also want to thank uh and welcome to a first-time sponsor, Point Homes, uh, as they are a sponsor the holiday fiestas this year.

And a special thanks to Shirley Gay Law Firm for once again stepping up to sponsor the Shirley Gay Lights Parade, and they have been our sponsor for the past seven years.

Thank you, Sam Legate and Jim Cher, and I would like to invite Jim Cher to um say a few words.

Thank you, Diane.

First, uh Mr.

Legate sends his respects and sadness that he's not here today.

Uh I'm here on behalf of Cheryl Gate, and we are so excited to sponsor again the Lights Parade Winterfest, as we have since 2018.

Wow, and we're really proud of it.

Let me give you a little history of it and why this is important to us.

One, we're El Paso, born and raised here.

I'm third or fourth generation, my kids are born here.

And many years ago in 1977, I sat where you're sitting, right?

Where the the West Side representatives are.

I had districts Ms.

Chavez and Mr.

Canales.

That was my district.

And we sponsored our family on Thanksgiving, which I thought was the most exciting and most important holiday of the year.

A Thanksgiving dinner that started off every year with all members of City Council and Chambers.

And since that time, the city has followed through with a major party for all of El Paso to give thanks for what we have our blessings in America for.

Our freedoms, our right, a First Amendment and every amendment that we have, and the right to be solid Americans, and we all stand up for it.

For me, at 24 years of age, being on city council was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

I was tied in with Senator Benson.

I go through all this, but it's all what America's about.

All of us being involved, caring.

And our law firm, Cher Legate is now in its 50 years, is going to start the 50th.

My law firm is 50 years old in January.

Whatever you want to be.

It's a nationally recognized and internationally recognized law firm.

And we've had the honor of having some of the finest lawyers in the country working with us.

And some that have left us that are some of the best lawyers you've you'll ever meet.

And we still have.

Thank you, Jim.

Uh, like I said, sir, uh, there's so many things behind the scenes that I would like to take the opportunity to share the microphone with everybody.

Sure.

On the back.

So absolutely.

Start Jacob.

Hello, I'm Jacob Uries.

I'm the park area supervisor in charge of all the maintenance throughout Winterfest and year around at San Jacinto Plaza.

Um, and thank you guys for having me and letting me be here for a part of this celebration.

Thank you.

Good morning, Jacob.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, Council Amigdi Gonzalez Assistant Director.

Um, thank you for this opportunity to host 70,000 of our best friends in one night for one event.

And thank you for picking the time between the end of one growing season and the beginning of the next one.

We take a breather, we enjoy the sense of community, and we recharge our batteries to be ready for the next growing season.

So thanks for the timing.

You're very welcome.

Good morning, uh council mayor.

Thank you.

Um, my name is Jose Carrillo, I'm part of the corporation superintendent.

Uh thank you for letting us uh serve you one more year uh after the so many years of uh celebrating Winterfest.

Uh, and thank you for your support.

Good morning.

My name is Samuel Lee, I'm the other Parks Operation Superintendent, so uh this is my seventh year being involved with this, and we look forward to it every year.

So thank you.

Yep.

Good morning, Council.

My name is Carlos Rodriguez, um, Parks and Recreation on the uh recreation uh division.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council Raulia's Parks PIO.

Thank you so much.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, Aaron Council.

My name is Linda Hammonds, uh, recreation and sports coordinator for the recreation division.

Good morning.

Good morning, Ricardo Reina, Community Center Supervisor at the Pista.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you for everything.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Jason Corona.

Um with Parks and Recreation as a recreational specialist.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

Part of special events coordination under Diana for the past four years, and it's been a privilege to be able to help coordinate such an amazing event for our city.

Good morning, I'm Vic Kortz.

I'm a recreation and sports coordinator also, and glad to be here.

And this is a great event that I am so proud to be a part of in El Paso.

Good morning.

Jose.

Go ahead, sir.

Good morning, Mayor and Council Jose Garcia with Destination El Paso.

Um we are a proud, proud uh partner of uh the city when it comes to Winterfest.

But uh I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce uh young Miss Uh Stephanie Rivera.

She is the point person for us.

She's our uh our special events manager, and uh she takes a point for us on the rink.

So uh Stephanie, why don't you come up here and introduce the rest of the team?

Good morning.

Good morning, everybody.

Uh again, Stephanie Rivera, special events and sponsorship manager at Destination El Paso.

I have Yasmin Contreras, our special events um coordinator.

Hello, nice to meet you guys.

Good morning.

Um, and then we have uh Marisa La Huerta, our director of event services.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Thank you again for having us, and of course, Amigo Man who is a big part of our team.

But uh go Winterfest.

Yeah, good morning.

Go on for the ring, and then we have um Renee Wang, who's our director of marketing.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Very honored to be here.

Thank you.

Good morning.

And I don't know where she is, but we have um a Jessica who's our social media, she's over here.

Um, an amazing team of Destination El Paso, and we couldn't do the ring without everybody involved in Jose as well.

So thank you.

Very good, thank you guys.

Hi, good morning, Mayor and Council.

Ricky Sayas here, uh communications officer here, spearheading a little bit of the communications portion of Winterfest.

Want to thank you all for the support.

I've been doing this for 10 years now, which is pretty pretty wild.

But uh you'll see me out there pretty much every weekend.

I love, I really really do enjoy Winterfest.

I'm pretty there, I'm there like Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, even though I shouldn't be working those days, but I do it anyway because I really love what I do.

And uh this team behind you, amazing, amazing.

And this is only just a fraction of the team.

We have a huge, huge team that really just does Winterfest for the whole season.

So thank you all so much.

You got it, thank you.

So with that said, thank you so much, and we looking forward to meet you over there on November 22nd.

All right, we got one more person that's trying to hide, but our deputy city manager, Richard Bristol.

Uh Richard Bristol, W city manager, and uh it's a great pleasure to work with this group.

Uh after 20 years in the street department and fighting traffic and infrastructure, it's a lot of fun to work with the quality of life departments.

Thank you.

And Benjamin Good morning, Mayor and Council Ben Fife.

Uh, I've had the privilege of working for this event for 11 years, because I got tasked to actually come up with a way to create a much larger experience for El Pasoans.

Rep Limon remembers that when we redesigned San Jacinto Plaza.

So it's been a pleasure to take it from a very modest display to actually shorting out downtown for a whole night because of how many lights we put on.

So thank you so much.

Representative Fale.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so very much.

And you know, Rick put it best when he said this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the organizations of all the people who helped put this together.

And I want to thank all the sponsors, you're the Parks and Rec and everybody's here that's gonna help us be another successful event.

But Mayor, I'd be remiss if I didn't um uh bring out pull Jim to the front and and bring up that you're fourth generation, just for the record, El Paso and your family's still here, but you're you left out the most important.

Oh, you were the youngest representative to ever sit up here.

I'm sorry, representative and representative.

You guys are not the youngest.

Jim is the youngest.

Thank you.

But but Jim, you're such a mentor, you're such a friend.

Um, you're such a great partner, a community.

And then between there, I don't know where, but you've practiced law here.

But so but thank you for everything you do and give back to our community.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Real quick, Mayor and Council.

If I can recognize I'm gonna get in trouble if I don't recognize Anna Sandoval here.

You guys see her all the time.

Yes, she's our social media coordinator.

She's done a tremendous job, thank you, and as well as uh Laura Cruzacosta, who's over there too.

So they're all involved in Winterfest.

Uh hard course, so thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I am just so excited to celebrate Winterfest, and I want to thank all the departments that are involved in this wonderful event for the community.

But I do have to correct you, Pablo, just briefly if I can.

I think Diana's not the coordinator for Winterfest.

I think she's known as the Winterfest Queen.

Is that right?

So all hail to the Queen of Winterfest.

Thank you so much for the work you're doing.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you guys so much.

I mean, this is an incredible event, not only for the city of El Paso, but for downtown.

And you know, I remember taking my daughters out there and as Jim said, seeing the smile on their faces to see all the lights, the hot chocolate that is spilled in my car.

But it was been so much fun to to witness what you guys have done in transforming our downtown.

Um I gotta tell I gotta tell you that.

No.

Okay.

Okay.

We were gonna say Chris was the youngest council person, but not true.

So we checked his ID.

Okay, good.

Not true.

Okay.

Uh, but there's been more than five hundred and fifty thousand people attend this event.

So let's set a record for this year.

Let's get that up near six hundred thousand.

Okay.

Let's do it.

Congratulations to I know it takes a village.

I know it takes a village to pull this off because this is a big event.

And when you're entertaining this many people for that long of a period of time, it takes sponsors.

It takes the parks, it takes destination out.

So I could go on and on and on and on, but most importantly, we've got the amigo man here to help us celebrate.

Yeah, so thank you guys so much.

Mayor, they do have a destinational pastel has some gifts for you all as well.

And then in your they'll have a folder right in front of you that has the map information for Winterfest.

So please, please join us, not just for opening day, but throughout the season.

Wow.

Look at this.

Picture time.

Okay, Miss Bryan.

Yes, sir.

The final proclamation this morning is for Vernon Randy Carruthers State.

Good morning.

Good morning, sir.

Good morning.

Representative Trejo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I have the honor of reading this proclamation for this beautiful flags across America and Randy.

If you go to Northeast, you're gonna see some beautiful flag that represents our community.

So I'm gonna go ahead and get started.

Whereas El Paso Flags Across America is a nonprofit organization established in 2003 to honor the American flag and to recognize the dedication and sacrifice of those who have served our nation.

And whereas through the efforts of the organization, numerous monuments have been established to honor wartime service members and preserve their memory for future generations.

Whereas Mr.

Vernon Randy Carraters, did he say the name right?

Very good.

Began his volunteer service with the El Paso, Texas Flags Across America in 2007 and served as president from November 2017 to January 2020 and continues to volunteer his time and leadership.

And whereas Mr.

Carruthers created a tracking system for memorial breaks purchase by the community and has led fundraising for the Persian Gulf Memorial, which will honor all who served in the Persian Gulf region, both military and civilian, from 1990 to 2021.

And whereas Mr.

Carruthers proudly serves the United States Army for 23 years, including two develop two deployments to the Persian Gulf Gulf and retired from Fort Bliss, Texas in 2010 as a first sergeant.

And whereas after retirement, he continued to serve as a defense contractor as NASA operations supervisor and now as a Department of Army civilian with the Army Field Support Battalion, serving as a battalion S3 for the past four years.

And now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor's city council and the city of El Paso that August 2nd, 2025 shall be known as Vernon Randy Carruthers Day.

Thank you.

Good morning.

I just want to introduce my name as Vernon.

Well it's Randy Carruthers.

Denise Carruthers.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Terry Larby.

Good morning.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Gloria Nicholson.

Good morning.

Betty Halliburton.

Good morning, Betty.

Cliff Seaman.

I'm vice president of El Paso, Texas flags across America.

And we are so proud of this guy.

He's worked.

He's really worked hard.

Yeah.

Come see that monument.

It's it's a it's a heart thumping tribute.

And it's beautiful.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Randy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Mayor, City Council.

I just wanted to um give you a little back brief on it.

The memorial, we started this project seven years ago.

It took us seven years to um to um raise the funds to to establish and and to install it, and I could not have done it without all the people that standing behind me today.

They're the ones that really um was out there fundraising while I was working doing my normal supposed to be eight to five job, which was not true.

It was a lot longer, but you know, these guys behind me, they're the ones that actually went out there and and and beat the streets and um and strong-armed people for money to um to establish this.

But um, I'm just proud to um to have been a part of it.

The um the memorial is for everyone who served in the military from 1990, which is Desert Shield as a storm, Iraqi freedom, enduring freedom, and then the war on terror, which um basically if you look at it as still going on today.

We're um still still in that fight.

But um this memorial it it it it recognizes the sacrifices of everybody and uh I would encourage all of you to come out and and look at it.

There's four different slabs out there, um, each one front and back, um is designed for that particular era.

But um I would encourage everyone to come out and and check it out and to um to let the people in your districts know um that we're there because for as long as I've been out there, they've every week we do the food truck events on Wednesday, which is tonight is our last one, and it'll be held at Sam's parking lot um as the grand finale.

But um people come out there all the time and they say I've lived in El Paso all my life and I never knew that I could come to this flag site.

You know, and it and it and it kind of blows my mind, but when you go over 54, the only thing you see is the flag.

That's all you see.

But um come down there and actually tour the grounds.

They are they are definitely sacred grounds, and um I encourage everyone to come out and um I'm just proud to be you know a prior president of the O Glory Memorial.

And um it's just it's just a great honor for this.

Thank you very much.

You're very welcome.

Well, Randy, thank you.

First of all, thank each and every one of you for your your service uh to this country and and thank you for honoring so many that have served and and and the especially those who paid the ultimate uh sacrifice.

Randy, can you tell us a little bit more about the the uh the memorial bricks and if there's still bricks available to purchase?

Yes, we um there's still bricks available to purchase all over the old glory memorial.

Um each one the um the funds go toward that memorial to help maintain it and stuff.

The um bricks are a hundred dollar donation.

Um turnaround time is about three weeks on um on all the bricks.

I I do all of those must well I don't engrave them, but I coordinate um the in and out process to getting them there and getting them installed.

But um the bricks are a great way to to honor someone, you know, either past or present.

You don't have to have served in the military um for the bricks to go in certain areas.

Um there's very little stipulations on what you can do if you need help with the bricks, um, formatting them basically.

Um I because people say I don't know what to put on there.

Well, let's talk about it.

And we talk about it, and we start with the rank and the name and the this and that, and lo and behold, you have a full brick.

So um, yeah, I encourage, you know, if you if you need any help or whatever, we just started the um World War II memorial.

Well, we didn't start that memorial, but the memorial has been there for 20 years, and we've just installed the um area in front to put bricks in front of it so we can um go back and um if you have a a a relative or someone you want to honor that served in World War II, we can put bricks out there in front of that also now.

Yeah, very good.

Yeah, we um and as Cliff said, you know, and and and as everyone standing there knows.

I mean, it is an incredible space there in Northeast to to visit.

I've been out there a number of times.

I've seen Cliff, I seen it all of you guys out at the uh flags across America.

And you know, whatever we can do as a community to continue to help you guys improve that area, fundraise and and do what we can.

I encourage my my colleagues uh along the dais here to to go out and visit it.

I mean, there's a store there.

Most people don't know that you have a store.

I mean, you want to tell us about the store?

Storm store manager is right there.

What do you say?

The store manager.

Oh yeah, I'm the store manager.

What I do is I sell anything flag related tonight.

Uh t-shirts, hats, hoodies, windbreakers, and all kinds of flags.

So stop by the store if you're up there and I'll I'll sell you anything.

Thank you.

Very good.

Well, Randy, congratulations on this day, and congratulations to your team that's here in.

And again, I encourage everyone to go out and visit the facility.

It's it's phenomenal, and we got to go in the store and buy some flags.

Yes, sir.

Representative.

Thank you.

Um, thank you very much.

It's always great to see you all.

What a beautiful, beautiful site it is out there.

Happy opportunity to visit.

Betty been out there on different projects and activities that you have headed.

And so I'm going to take the mayor's challenge, and I will be um purchasing a brick that will be, and you will need to help me with it in honor of Carl Robinson.

I'm sure he might already have one, but if he doesn't, if he does, I can't remember.

Here's another one to add to the walk in the Vietnam Memorial.

Thank you very much.

That's great.

Representative Fieral.

Mayor, I can't be outdone by my deskmate here.

Please, I'll purchase a brick too.

Thank you.

Wow.

We've got two bricks already sold there, Randy.

And uh Representative Trejo.

Of course, I need to do that as well.

So yes, I'll be donating as well for the bricks.

Yes, Mayor.

We've got some some bricks sold already, and then um we appreciate that.

So I appreciate the colleagues uh stepping up and getting a brick, okay?

Yes, yes, sir.

Thank you guys so much.

Appreciate it.

All right, Ms.

Prime, before we continue, I just want to take a second and and recognize that today is also National First Responders Day.

So would you join me in giving a round of applause to all of our first responders?

Okay, Miss Bryan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning.

This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Tuesday, October 28, 2025.

Mayor Johnson is president residing in Council Chambers, along with Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, Representative Acevedo, Representative Maldonado Rota, Representative Boy Adrejo, Representative Nino, Alternate Mayor Potem Piero, Representative Limon, and Representative Canales.

It is ten AM.

Well, everyone, please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Johnson.

Council, thank you once again for allowing me to the privilege of coming and praying for this body and for our city.

And now I invite those present to join me as I pray.

Gracious and loving God, we gather today in gratitude for the opportunity to serve the people of this city.

As members of this council, staff, and community, we recognize that leadership is not about position or power, but about service, stewardship, and sacrifice.

Teach us the humility to listen before we speak, the wisdom to discern what is right from what is easy, and the courage to do what is just and compassionate for all who call this city home.

Lord, help us to see beyond our own interests, to value the voices of those who are often unheard, and to remember that every decision made here touches lives, families, and neighborhoods.

May this meeting be guided by mutual respect and understanding.

May each action taken reflect integrity, fairness, and a deep love for our community.

And may we never forget that true leadership means lifting others up and seeking the common good above all else.

I ask your blessings on this council, our mayor, and all who serve, that together we may lead with vision, unity, and grace.

And we pray this in your holy name.

Amen.

Thank you.

Okay, Miss Bryan.

Thank you, Chaplain.

That brings us to public comment on agenda items.

This morning we have uh Mr.

Roberto Avalos.

Roberto Avalo.

He signed up to speak on item number 24.

And this is uh item 24 is uh directing the city manager and city attorney to engage collaboratively with the Transportation Security Administration, TSA and Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, to explore the development of a memorandum of understanding and or lease agreement regarding the TSA security checkpoint at the El Paso International Airport.

Good morning, sir.

You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning.

I was not expecting to be first, so I'll go ahead and blow through this since my back is killing me.

Um thank thank you, everyone for being here today.

I really appreciate you hearing me out.

Um I am here to speak against the uh the item being proposed on the agenda on the issue by starting by saying this specific item, while it's uh may sound administrative, actually steps into federal grounds that distracts us from the issues that El Paso needs to focus on.

This is a distraction, waste of time and taxpayer money, and I mean this with all due respect to everyone here, but it is not something we should be focusing on.

I would like to emphasize on local um on local versus federal boundaries.

Uh and pointing out that TSA and FAA already operate under federal law.

For example, the TSA checkpoints is a federal security zone, not a city-run operation.

And trying to bind a federal agency to city ordinances, especially about political expression, risks creating jurisdictional conflict.

It's not our role to manage or interpret reinterpret federal contracts.

It is our role to serve El Paso directly.

I would like to frame it as a waste of taxpayer time and focus.

For example, we are asking our city manager and city attorney to chase federal contracts and cle clearances that's hours of legal work travel and bureaucracy.

At a time when we're still fighting for a faster 911 response, cleaner streets and a stronger law enforcement recruitment.

This is not where our priorities should be.

This the public expects us to be efficient and people focus, not paper focus.

On to my next point.

Governments should not be in the business of the deciding what political messages can or cannot be seen, just despite whatever side you may be in.

I mean, political messages are meant to be for everyone, free expression, free freedom of speech.

That's our first amendment states.

This is a slippery slope, one that goes against the free speech values we're supposed to protect.

On to my fourth core argument.

There is no tangible benefit to citizens.

It's keeping it simple.

This doesn't make life shorter.

It doesn't make us safer and it doesn't make life easier for travelers.

I mean, imagine if the delay due to a plane for a meeting, especially you, Mr.

Mayor, who are a very wealthy and successful man.

I believe we all have to go to important meetings if we reach that status.

And if the delay of a plane has to go because of a TSA message being uh argued because of a whatever the reason may be, I think that's a reverse reason to delay a meeting.

And to conclude, the TSA and FFA are federal agencies, not city departments trying to make them follow local ordinances, especially on something like political language crosses the line into federal jurisdiction.

And this does not help residents directly.

Our priority should be towards the residents ourselves, not towards government owns properties.

With that, that's my time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Mr.

Joe Gutenrath.

He signed up to speak on item 29.

And this item is uh a presentation on proposed amendments to El Paso City Code 20.20, historic landmark preservation.

Good morning, sir.

Good morning, good morning, Mayor.

Good morning.

Council members, city managers, city staff.

I'm Joe Gutenrath, the executive director of the downtown management district, which includes two of the city's designated historic districts.

I want to first start off by thanking Tony de la Cruz and Daniela Casada and the rest of the city staff for their efforts to engage the public and seek input throughout the process and review of proposed amendments.

I especially want to thank them for attending the DMD board meeting in June to share their presentation.

In addition to that meeting, the DMD was represented at a number uh of the public meetings, and we did help promote the online survey that they conducted.

Despite all that effort, I am very disappointed in the levels of participation from the public in this very important uh code changes.

At our June board meeting, the DMD board did take a position in opposition of the amendments as proposed at that time.

The reasons for the board member opposition are reflected in the presentation that they'll provide you later today and in the backup of this item.

One of the items that we were specific that the board was specifically opposed to was a designation uh without property owner consent.

Uh a different part of the proposed amendments that I specifically want to address is the idea of demolition by neglect.

In the context of historic preservation, it does sound like common sense.

Obviously, we do not want our historic buildings to slowly deteriorate to the point that they are no longer salvageable.

But I I would argue that this concept is unnecessary and duplicative in city code.

There is no building in any part of the city that should be allowed to slowly deteriorate without city intervention.

Not the banner building downtown, not your neighbor's house or any abandoned strip mall across the city and in any of your districts.

It's the main role of code enforcement, and if code enforcement is carried out to the degree in which they are allowed, our historic buildings and all other structures would not be allowed to deteriorate beyond repair.

The DMD is a strong advocate for safe building conditions, strict code enforcement, and securing empty buildings, uh, and already expects code enforcement to provide this community safeguard.

It does not need uh it does not need another layer of oversight and bureaucratic involvement.

Again, on behalf of the downtown management district board of directors and the property owners, business owners, and residents which they represent.

I ask you to vote down these amendments until we can build consensus on the best strategies to preserve, protect, and rehabilitate our historic properties.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Joe.

That brings us to call to the public.

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

The city council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Hope and 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 personnel attacks, nor may any member of the public use this forum 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 members of the public that signed up to speak.

The first person is Elizabeth Crawford.

Ms.

Crawford's topic is fatherhood and abortion.

Ms.

Crawford, star six, please.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Good morning, thank you.

Good morning.

As we approach October 31st, much of the community and much of our nation is celebrating Halloween.

We're warning God's.

Holy word that Satan, the enemy of our thoughts, is the father of life, whose goal is to keep captive whomever he can for eternal destruction.

The devil is the father of life.

By contrast, the Lord is the God of truth and a merciful father to all who fear him.

Psalm chapter 103 date.

So the Lord pities, has compassion on them that fear him.

In recent days, Al Pasoans have been standing outside the plant parenthood business in the city, as well as working hard to stand against the construction of a mega abortion center in Las Cruises that would market their quote services to El Paso women, no doubt.

We're excited that after a campaign of text and phone quote, the number of the contractors have withdrawn their participation in its construction.

They thought that they were going to work on a beneficial health care center, but were made aware, thank God, of the reality of what it actually is.

A mega abortion mill.

One of the big lies propagated by the abortion industry is it's just a clump of belt.

I recently had a young lady outside an abortion center say to me, sorry, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

Get rid of this SH and I won't say the word expletive.

Even the most simple among us know in our heart of heart if we are honest.

This is a little person.

God is the God of truth.

I'm thankful for the rest of Psalm 103 that gives hope even after an abortion on demand.

Psalm 103 for as a heaven is high above the earth.

So great if his mercy toward them that fear him.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you.

Hope you have a good day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Brenda Caravajal.

Brenda Carvajal.

We'll move on to Claudia Contreras Siller.

Ms.

Siller's topic is war against animal cruelty.

She will be followed by Ron Cole.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning.

Brenda is parking.

She's also gonna speak right now.

Uh I'm gonna light up this candle in memory of all the animals that are dying on our streets that are victims of animal cruelty, hunger, injustice, and it's blue because I'm I'm uh fan of the police, and I stand with them every day.

Uh I'm wearing my cat ears, uh, just like the first time I was here nine months ago.

Here is a picture of a cat that was stolen at my cat colony three weeks ago.

So I'm gonna leave my candle here.

Um, animal cruelty is a crime, it's a five-year in prison felony.

The case is as strong as the evidence we can present.

We need the animal cruelty unit to be bigger.

The director needs to have experience in the streets of El Paso.

Stop looking for a business degree.

We don't want a person that's gonna stand, I'm sorry, that's gonna be sitting down in a computer, checking out numbers.

We're not talking about numbers, we're talking about cats and dogs that are dying daily here in El Paso.

Poisoning cats should not be normal for the city to do.

Okay, it should not be the norm.

Education is the key.

We need a director that is not gonna be afraid to face the cameras of the news, and he's gonna educate that is gonna do events, and he's gonna tell the people how to report animal cruelty.

We need billboards, we need signs that is gonna say animal cruelty is a felony, stop doing it.

The officers of animal services, I respect animal services, but whenever they're gonna show up, after we are um saying they're killing cats, they need to look for the evidence, and if they don't know how to do it, hire a police officer to teach them how to do it.

Okay, this has been going on nine years.

Animal cruelty is very stressful.

I know veterans of war that have seen cats in the freeway, and they said, Oh, this is like I'm in war.

They felt the same thing when they were at war, and this is a crisis.

You know, I respect all of you.

I respect animal services.

I have seen they work very hard, but hiring a person that their fort is the numbers is the most stupid thing to do.

Excuse me.

Please hire someone that has experience at least for years.

Um that is uh dealing with animals that is driving the trucks of El Paso that knows the streets, just like we do.

Uh today I encourage people to come and talk here.

I met them in the streets, feeding cats.

Also, feeding cats is not easy.

We get attacked by people.

Please uh tell people to do the TNR program.

And this is only getting worse.

And also, whenever someone is gonna say, hey, this person is taking a lot of animals, investigate them.

If they already presented an ID that has a fake address, don't give them more animals.

Please work on it, animals have souls, and all of us are their boys.

Please hire an expert, not a business person.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Ron Como.

Mr.

Como's topic is exercising his constitutional rights for rescue of 1983 animal services.

He will be followed by Peter Miller Valeri.

Good morning, sir.

Morning.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Ms.

Lilon, I will apologize for my comments from the last meeting.

But just to be honest, the reason why I asked you is you're the only one up there that was here when the shelter was actually successful, and you were part of that success.

Now to go back to the bite situation that's been happening.

The CDC data shows that 2019 through 22, 2022 saw a significant increase in deadly attacks.

In 2019, there are 48 failed dog attacks in the US, followed by 62 attacks in 20, 81 and 21, and 22, there was 98.

Guess what else happened in 20?

We started implementing the Haas Plan all over the place.

Cities sucked it up because they were told they'd save money.

They told they'd reach no-kill, even though it's fake.

And we continued on.

Okay, I sent all of you an email, which I doubt anybody read on how you change the policy the shelter plans for the city of El Paso.

The what's required to be done.

And I challenge the people that are supposed to handle the legal end of this to give us dates for when the Haas plan went through the two required city council meetings, and then you take into consideration the person that was running it, stated he was operating under the uh no-kill equation, which is a another shelter plan, which doesn't include managed intake.

So I'd like to see those dates when they were approved by the two mandatory city council meetings to get the shelter plan changed.

If those cannot be brought to everyone's attention and proven that they happened, we need to go back to our no-kill plan.

That look Miss Lamone and all of her people that were up here worked hard to get done to protect the community, to protect their pets, and to protect the strays of El Paso.

And I challenge you all to do the same thing.

The city's in a crisis, and the city put us in the crisis.

We need a qualified director, not a friend, nobody from Best Friends, nobody from Austin Pets Live, and definitely nobody who supports the sheltering plan.

That's what put us in this situation.

So when do we start having meetings like we had back in 2015?

When do we start talking about how to fix the issue and get a qualified person in here?

Obviously, we haven't done it in the past.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Peter Miller Valerio.

He will be speaking on war against animal cruelty, and will be followed by Barbara Valencia.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm here to speak about multiple occasions of animals being harmed.

Strays, for example, at one of the locations that I feed in water and trap so I could spay and neuter them.

And the person or multiple persons that did that should not get away with it, nor anyone who ever harms an innocent being.

Meaning it was probably benign.

And I took him through the spay and utter program so they could also treat that tumor because I am of low income.

And they had in previous occasions treated, for example, a bite wound from a stray cat that she is still alive and well.

And at uh the three-day mark, they called me letting me know that they put him down.

And I know that it takes more than multiple days for them to get that tested and get results back to know if it was malign or benign, because it's an entire difference.

One meaning the cat can live on well, and the other meaning that it's gonna keep deteriorating, and they chose to put him down, and I have his ashes, his name is Orange.

Another case being when I called uh animal services for them to pick up a dog that was roaming, and when the employee showed up in the truck, she was extremely forceful on this dog who did not want to walk when she put the leash around her his neck, and the leash was the kind that the as soon as you pull it gets tighter on their neck, and she was choking him.

There's no other word for it.

And I did not intervene at the moment, even by saying words, which was a mistake from on my part.

Another case being that I called in a dog that got picked up, and four days later they put him down.

Only four days they gave Miller.

And thank you for the time.

Yeah, thank you.

The next speaker is Barbara Valencia.

Ms.

Valencia's topic is animal services, hiring a new shelter director.

She will be followed by Chris Veles.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Sorry about that.

He might need those.

Yeah.

Good morning, everybody.

I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue.

Hiring a new shelter director.

According to the city manager, the shelter, the animal shelter advisory committee, also known as the ASAC, will be invited to participate in the interview process for a new shelter director.

However, the ASAC should not be involved in any aspect of a hiring a shelter director due to a conflict of interest.

During an ASAC meeting, the vice chairwoman praised Best Friends Animal Society and their in-bed shelter program, claiming it has positively impacted our community.

We have been living the nightmare caused by best friends for almost five years now.

It's time for the city and animal services to end limited intake, refusing to accept stray and lost animals, leaving them to fend for themselves on the streets.

Too many animals have been indiscriminately breeding, suffering, and many died and will continue to die from starvation, exposure, predation, and being hit by vehicles.

Community members are left with the tough decision of either leaving an animal on the street or taking it home, endangering their own families and pets.

Meanwhile, local rescue organizations continue to be overwhelmed, frustrated, and financially strained while receiving no support from the city.

Despite millions of tax dollars, millions of tax dollars allocated to animal services, this department continuously to fail, fails to address the responsibilities as city officials with the power to intervene, refuse to end this ongoing animal welfare catastrophe.

But that is exactly what the ASAC wants for the animals in our community.

In addition to the ASAC promoting best friends, that very same vice chairwoman stated at an ASAC meeting, Best Friends has given us a million dollars.

When asked to elaborate on who is us and how many how was that money used, she refused to elaborate.

Giving money to influence or curry favor is called a bribe.

Bringing in another best friend supporter affiliate representative as a new shelter director will only dig us even deeper into the hole.

Having the ASAC involved in any way when it comes to hiring a new director would be nothing short of corruption.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Bellez.

She will be followed by Brenda Carvajal.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So one thing is I voted for Lily and you sir based on accountability.

Our new city manager is big on accountability, right?

Fiscal accountability.

The biggest problem I have with um this animal situation is that there's no accountability.

There's no oversight.

The ASAC board basically hangs out and pats each other on the back.

They don't really do anything.

So I kind of want to put out there that maybe we sweep out the ASAC board you re-look at putting new people on the board and actually put people that do numbers math and don't have any residual feelings about how we should be going forward because we're not going forward.

It's the same cycle right we don't want to put dogs down because we want our no kill equation but it's not it's not feasible at this state meaning that there's too many strays one thing that I learned is I met with Michael and he does have a plan going forward but he doesn't know how to implement it.

And then one thing that kind of struck me as odd is that nobody speaks.

County doesn't talk to the city the city doesn't talk to the counties right so you have like Socoro those 13 dogs that attack that little girl that was 100% preventable.

Taken to the shelter and the shelter's new contract in 2024 gives them the option to say no but the only shelter that has the capacity to accept animals.

County doesn't even have a shelter and they're the rabies authority of the whole county right so when they went to animal service and said hey we have these 13 strays right the neighbors are kind of mad about them they're kind of dangerous the city told them so sorry we don't have space by so what did Socoro do cut them loose put them right back where they found them.

So these 13 dogs were out and about but now they were a pack because they got released in the same area so when this little girl is just minding her business walking to the bus she gets entangled up with 13 dogs.

Am I saying they were vicious no was she injured she got a couple scratches but had that been a bite right and these dogs were not vaccinated which is another point those 13 was were released back into the community unvaccinated unvetted unchecked it's just like here's my 13 dogs and then I'm just gonna throw them back out there right so one of them had rabies and gave that little girl rabies she could have died.

That's a severe uh injury to a human being right it goes neuro issues and then we eventually die if it's not treated so you have these 13 dogs run around they do what they do and then now they got picked back up and they got put to sleep and some of them were puppies the the public was in uh you know messed up was upset about it but it had to be done and that's one thing is that there's no group that has all these animal protection agencies that forces them to discuss talk about saving money about how are we gonna make a difference how are we gonna work together nobody works together and to me it's obscene that we pay the money we do when they don't speak so that's what I'm charging you guys with is that we need someone that's gonna make that difference meaning bring those groups together and make them work together so that we don't have these situations.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Brenda Carvajal would be speaking in Spanish and council we're trying out a new platform for translation we've sent you a link to follow you can also follow using the QR code displayed on the screen three minutes.

Buenos días me amo Brenda Carvajal de los gatos and the comida propone caiga gente capacita que cuando uno requiera soy no que preguntan las personas inverted animal a veces no nos pregunta animal service cuando llega no nos preguntan que pasó nomás para un lado le preguntan a la otra persona y le dan más claridad a la persona que uno está accusando por la cruz animal que uno que está poniendo al ver que esas personas están envenenando a los animales yeah no investigan como deben investigar no pone in this moment van even los animales can muertos in que nadie que necesitamos un director que educa la gente de la cruz animal que tenga que no tenga miedo de parcerse in las camaras para educar a la gente que educa la gente que no debe maltratar los animales que los de cuidar que no los debe dejar in

El Sargento de la Unidad Animal, porque él se me hace que está capacitado para poder uh educación para poder que I got my respect to los animales, perros orgatos, y que también a multas para la gente que nos canusa comida, nos maltratan, nos dice que no demostramida, nos ofende, nos tiran la comida de los gatos, la com lawa.

Uh, cuando cierran los lugares, exponiendo nos a canus pase algo a nosotros también.

Gracias, senhor.

The next speaker is Wanda Helgeson.

Ms.

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

She will be followed by Rico Velazquez.

Good morning.

Good morning, thank you.

Good morning.

Morning again, Mr.

Mayor, Council members.

My name is Wanda Helgison.

I'm the executive director of Border Rack.

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

Typically we're behind the scenes every day, but I feel very certain that our hospitals and our EMS providers would tell you would speak to our contributions.

We're currently planning NICU and mass casualty exercises for our hospitals over the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2026.

In August of 2012, the council approved a sub-lease at the airport for 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.

We submitted a plan to the city that reflected guidance that was provided by the airport, but after six months receiving no response to that, we received a notice of default.

We resubmitted our plan and waited an additional eight months with no response.

No return phone calls, no return emails, not even communication regarding certified letters.

It seems our attempts to cure that default was ignored.

The termination of the ground lease came to the council on June 24th as part of the consent agenda.

We were notified of that termination July 9th.

The city received FAA determination letter August 7th after the termination was already done.

As a later conversation with them confirmed areas of our earlier intent were never conveyed to them.

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

And yet we have received another notice to vacate.

Unless a predetermined outcome is being sought, I do not understand why the city does not work with us to meet the requirements.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Wanda.

The next speaker is Rico Velazquez.

Mr.

Velazquez's topic is Piedra Street Closure.

He will be followed by Mustafa Refai.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and members of council.

My name is Rico Velasquez.

I'm the owner of Dewey's Corner Pub.

Dewey's Corner Pub is a combat veteran owned and operated small business at the heart of Central Opaso.

When I last spoke before you, I voiced my concern about the proposed 10 month street closure on Piedra Street.

Since then, I've no El Paso Water has clarified that the project could last 16 to 18 months, a year and a half of restricted access.

For small businesses like mine, that's not a delay, and it's certainly not an improvement, it's a shutdown.

What's even more frustrating is that the primary reason for this closure is to widen extend sidewalks.

I sat through countless discussions over the years with three different city representatives about potential exciting area improvements like gas lamps, illuminated crosswalks, and even trees.

Yet the one project being pushed forward is the one area sim is the one our area simply does not need right now.

Opaso Water only joined in because city plans to demolish the street anyway for a sidewalk expansion project.

In other words, this disrupting is being driven by necessity.

It's being driven by a want to use funds allocated from the City Lights Project, and because thousands have already been invested into the surveys and planning.

Over the past decade, Dewey's Corner Pub has generated millions in status, contributed over 1.1 million in taxes, and we're not alone.

The small bars, restaurants, and venues throughout the 79903 zip code collectively generate millions of dollars each year in taxes, measures that help fund the very projects not threatening our livelihoods.

We built this area in a thriving entertainment corridor without city grants, abatements or corporate incentives purely through personal investments, hard work, and community pride.

This is why it's so disappointing that our own district representative, Dr.

Joss Acevedo has not stood up for us.

Every business owner who met with him made it clear that we oppose this closure.

Yet since this meeting, we've heard nothing.

No update, no outreach, no engagement.

And even after I stood here a month ago to raise the issue again, meanwhile, continue to support the project.

That silence feels disrespectful and dismissive to the very people that was elected to represent.

This proposed closure will cripple local businesses, threaten jobs, and erase years of organic growth in Central El Paso.

I'll continue to speak on these matters until this issue is addressed, and if necessary, I'll bring this to the matter to the attempts of local media until we are heard.

I heard city, I urge city council to reevaluate this project.

This timeline is true necessity, 16 to 18 months is unacceptable.

And finally, I want to thank those who listen to my concerns about how code compliance has been reinforcing the city's North Owners policy and how that focus should shift towards much needed area repairs.

Immediately after my last address to council, city maintenance trucks were on site addressing those issues, and that's leadership.

That makes that's what makes business owners feel appreciated and heard.

If that was Dr.

Acevedo's doing, I thank you.

If it wasn't, then please take note.

Thank you guys.

Have a great day.

Thank you, Rico.

The next speaker is Mustafa Refai.

His topic is Piedra Street Narrowing Project.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council, members.

Maybe some of you don't know the history of this project that Rico has spoken about.

So during 2020, uh, the COVID shutdown, larger sidewalk areas with open-air environment were constructed to allow restaurants the ability to serve people.

The same thing happened in New York City and other large cities.

Fast forward two, three years later, and COVID is no longer a thing to worry about.

And sidewalk and street dining is no longer needed or desired.

I'm here to speak about the deception process that has taken place as it's still taking place now to push through a project that is rejected by all parties.

The landlords, the business owners, the residential neighborhoods that will be affected by this ridiculous project.

So everyone on council is informed properly what is going on.

My first point.

Proper procedure of informing the public and more specifically property owners and businesses affected was not done.

When I asked both city reps two and eight about when, how and how, what was who was informed, the answer was we spoke to the Five Points Association.

So we contacted the Five Point Association, better known as Five Points Development Association, to understand who gave them the authority to represent us.

Here's what they said.

One, we were never informed of the full detail of the project since 2020.

Two, when we requested info from city reps, we were told you cannot understand it, even though the person requesting the info on behalf of the association is an architect and teaches at Texas Tech.

Number three, every time we ask for more info and express the neighborhood's rejection of this project as it stands, we were told that it's almost 70% now, 90% design complete, and still refuse to share info on the project or actually stopping the design process until the public is properly informed.

The Five Points Development Association is taking the position that this project is not the best interest of five points and opposes it.

The business and the property owners in the length of pillars have spoken out against this proposal.

Business and property owners held the meeting with representative of Severo, who champions this proposal and strongly voiced their opposition.

Every single person in the meeting opposed it.

When asked of an example of a similar successful microproject that took place in the city of Joaquin Rodriguez of Capital Improvement spoke on the glowing economic success of the Cincinnati Street Project.

The room erupted in laughter since many of the room businesses that had that were there had closed businesses in the area because of that type of project.

Today, a drive-through Cincinnati area will show how many buildings are empty, sales and leases, uh buildings are up for lease, and one of the anchor business geogestic closed last New Year's Eve.

At one point, our city claims the water company wanted to make the three.

Thank you.

Mr.

Appreciate your help.

The final speaker on call to the public is Lisa Turner.

Ms.

Turner's topic is supplemental nutrition assistance program.

SNAP.

Good morning, Ms.

Turner.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

As everybody knows, you've seen everything in the news.

Come one November, there will be no money for SNAP.

State of Texas is sitting on a 24 to 26 billion dollar surplus, and they're unwilling to spend one cent.

The United States Department of Agriculture has funds in reserve to fund SNAP benefits, and they have chosen not to.

Okay.

Now I haven't seen a whole lot coming from any of the churches or anybody else about kicking off any kind of campaign to help fund.

These people are going to be hungry.

Even before this, it was 35% of the people in this county, including this city, didn't know where their next meal was coming from.

You can't be much of a city or a community.

And turn your back on that.

What kind of city can we be if we turn our back on children who go hungry every single night?

And we do it every single day.

We don't take action.

From you and this council to pick up the ball and be the leaders in this.

We can't let our neighbors go hungry.

So I'm going to ask you all to put a plan together first to take care of your own employees and then the rest of the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council per the rules of order, no use of personal cellular devices, no personal communication should take place on the dais while the meeting is in session.

Once you obtain the floor from the mayor, you may speak twice per debatable motion.

And please speak into the microphone and refrain from site conversations at the dance where the meeting is in session.

For those of you joining us virtually, please make sure your microphones are muted to reduce any background noise.

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 Po Tem.

Thank you, Ms.

Prine.

I move to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions.

Page three, item four, move to the regular agenda for representative Maldonado Rocha.

Page four, item eight, move to the regular agenda for representative Mardonado Rocha.

Okay.

We have a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion on any of the consent agenda items?

Mayor, we do have public comment on item five.

Okay.

And item five is a request of waiver of penalties and interest in the amount of two thousand three hundred and seventy-six dollars sixty-six cents for a property owned by taxpayer Chick-fil-A.

Ms.

Turner signed up to speak on this item.

Okay.

Good morning.

Good morning again, Mayor and Council.

I'm opposed to this.

Chick fil A has its own CPAs, its own accountants, and it has its own lawyers.

If they missed it, it's because of their incompetence, or they just didn't want to pay their bill.

Because I account for every single penny I've got.

Because I have to budget.

So I don't think you should give them a free walk.

I think they should be held accountable.

I think they should pay the bill.

I think they should pay the penalties.

Because they have the attorneys, they have the CPAs, they have the bookkeepings, they have the lawyers.

There's absolutely zero excuse for them not to have paid.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Prime?

Yes, sir.

That concludes public.

Representative Canalis.

Can I comment on this item?

I'm pretty sure.

I just wanted to make clear the uh in this particular case uh this taxpayer uh was able to provide sufficient evidence to show that it was an administrative error on our side that caused a late payment.

Um and it reads whereas the taxpayer submits evidence sufficient to show that an actor omission of an officer, employee, or agent of the taxing unit uh caused or resulted in the taxpayer's failure to pay before delinquency date.

And if the tax is paid not later than the 21st day after the taxpayer knows or should know of the delinquency, and so um they met that in this case, and uh that that's the reason for the waiver.

Okay, thank you.

Any further discussion on any consent agenda items?

Ms.

Pry.

So the motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by alternate mayor pro tempheto to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Voting session is open.

Representative Limon?

Thank you.

And the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Miss Bryan, let's take item.

I mean, page number three, item number four.

Yes, sir.

Item four is a resolution with a list of solid waste tax lease of environmental lease.

Okay.

Representative Rocha, do you have a motion?

I motion to postpone this until next week, and the only reason that I want that is because I have an item that's coming up on the November 4th agenda that I'm adding.

I've been working with uh the attorney's office and and Nick uh Ibara to be able to come up with a solution uh regarding the liens.

Also, we just received information this morning that we had I had had a conversation with Nick back on the 24th, I believe.

Um yes, it was the 24th, and so I now have that information.

I know it's standard to go ahead and just approve the liens.

Um this really has to go back and look at the at the environmental piece of it, which is the trash, the debris, everything else.

We're just trying to create a framework for the lien process.

So if you'll just indulge me and postpone until next Tuesday, which is the fourth, that item is already on the agenda, and I'd appreciate any support on that.

Okay, there's a motion to postpone uh representative canalis.

Is there a second?

All right, Representative Canales.

Thank you.

Just to better understand what is what is the issue with the lien process.

It's messy.

So there's if um there's a framework that really goes from code enforcement to ESD to the finance to municipal court and back again, and we're just trying to just create uh a tighter framework for the individuals for the properties owners.

That's all it is.

It's not trying to negate it or trying to say we don't want them to pay it.

It's just trying to create just an absolute framework with a solid time frame in it, because right now there's there's some time frames uh based off of what I've seen that are a little loose.

And is the intent then for the properties listed for liens today to go back through the whole process again?

No, not at all.

No, they're just holding on to the liens, just postponing this item until next week.

We can vote on it next week to approve the liens to go forward or otherwise, but that's that's the only intent of this.

Okay, I'm just not understanding the connection between cleaning up the lien process and then postponing these particular liens that have already gone through the process.

Because it has to do the the so I'll give you some some backstory.

Originally I was requesting to go in and say, okay, well, let's not do code enforcement on trash and debris, weeds mainly, and that was simply because of the fact that we the city had a huge problem in our own backyard.

And so that's not possible because that would be considered there's a health and safety aspect to it, which would mean that my neighbor would not be able to call and get the other neighbors cited, or there's an issue, or whatever the case is.

Then the next step was well, let's go ahead and look at waiving those price those those costs for the citations once it's already been cleaned.

That's considered a gift of public funds.

So then the next piece is now let's look at the lien process.

Let's look to see is there a way to create a payment plan, because that's part of what the issue is.

And part of what we provided, which is not in the backup, and I apologize for that.

Uh, we received it this morning, right before council.

There's about 435 properties that were cleaned by Clean El Paso this year, so far.

Out of all of those, it looks like 10, 20, 30, 45, maybe 75 have been gone gone through a payment plan.

So it's just trying to create a payment plan where it's more visible to the property owners to let's get more people into that payment plan versus requiring a lien or moving them to the lien process.

So there's still an opportunity before they get approved by council to go into the payment plan.

Am I correct on that, Ms.

Ms.

Neiman?

So there is an opportunity for these individuals or these property owners to still go into a payment plan versus having a lien put on their property.

So that's the purpose of it.

It's just to just uh to try to maybe reach out before I say we're already working on it.

It's been something in the works that that we've been working on for I think we finally landed on this after several months of discussion, and so it's just trying to see can we get these people on a payment plan before it goes on a lien on their property?

And that's the only thing.

Okay, so it's just offering these folks the opportunity before a payment plan.

They have had that opportunity.

I mean, these cleanups happened between March and June 2024.

Right.

So more than 500 days ago.

Right.

Um request for postponement is three weeks.

No, just next next week.

For next week.

Yeah.

Because the opportunity is.

I I think so.

It's a very short list.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Representative Lehman.

I'm I'm sorry, I'm just want to be clear, making sure you have a motion.

So you're asking the staff to go back to everybody who's in a lien process right now, or we wait until next week to have that further conversation so we have direction from the body with a presentation before I I have the item next week.

So if we can't do that, you're asking to postpone, right?

To postpone it till next week so that we can decide what the situation is going to be, what the vote will be out of next week's item, and then we can move forward with action.

Thank you.

So right now it's just postponement.

Yes.

Okay.

Representative.

I I'm not sure the need for this.

I I was very concerned when I first came on council this time with those lien list in Nick Nicholas.

I'm not sure where you're in.

I see you over there.

Um I had a conversation with him.

I was concerned that there would be a lien on a property elderly couple, one dies.

I mean, just there's a whole bunch of scenarios here.

And so our office has taken the role of contacting and reaching the people that appear on that lien list.

And it's the most difficult thing to do in the whole wide world.

Uh we have an address, we may not have a phone number, but we we have, we've tried on every single possible level to reach them and make them aware.

Yes, there is a payment plan.

And in the beginning it was stated there is no payment plan.

Yes, there is.

And I'll tell you that they'll be happy to receive five dollars a month.

I mean, it's simple.

And I think that that we're where we're discussing this and asking perhaps staff to go through more, jump through more hoops.

I think the process is in place.

If we want to do something about it, I think that we need to do it because staff has already done everything up to the point of bringing it before city council.

If we want to change it within ourselves, within our office, then we need to do it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

Representative Fierro.

Question for Ms.

Neiman.

Ms.

Diman, once the lien has been posted or placed on a property.

It once the the amount is paid in full, then the lien is removed.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

That's correct.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

And missing, I guess I got a question.

Is there a cost to place these liens?

And then to get them removed?

Yes, it's part of the it's part of what goes on to the lien process that we add to the lien portion.

I don't have those specific numbers, but we can provide them.

Okay.

So uh the motion is to postpone this until next Tuesday, Miss Pry.

And there was a second by Representative Fierral.

Is there any further discussion on this item?

Number four.

All right, hearing none, Miss Prime, please call for the vote.

Yes, sir.

On the motion to postpone for one week, call for the vote.

In the voting session.

And the motion passes 621.

Representative Limon voting nay.

Representative Canales not present.

Okay, uh Ms.

Prime, let's take page four item number eight.

Yes, sir.

And item number eight is a resolution authorizing the director of purchasing and strategic sourcing to notify Aztec contractors in that the city is terminating contract number 2025-0398.

EPIA terminal roof repairs pursuing to attribute 18 subsection 7, liquidate damages for failure to enter into contract of the solicitation documents and the termination shall be effective as of October 28, 2025, and that the city may take all necessary steps to seek forfeiture of vendors bond as liquidated damages.

Thank you, Mayor.

I make a motion to um check.

One give me one.

I make a motion to um deny the approval or deny the termination of the lease.

Okay, is there a second to this motion?

There's a second.

Okay.

Um discussion, representative brocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

And and I know that we had uh I had conversation with Claudia.

Thank you for for taking my call.

I had a a brief conversation with Claudia regarding this.

I had a more extensive conversation with Aztec contractors last week, late Friday, and and I just have a couple of uh well, actually I have a few questions, so bear with me.

So I understand that part of the contract or the reasoning behind the termination of the contract is because there was a failure to provide a payment and performance fund that was part of the packet or the award packet.

Is that correct?

Good morning, Claudia Garcia.

Yes, that is correct.

Okay.

And then I understand that that process of having so let me back up.

The contract had not been executed.

Correct?

That is correct.

Okay.

Now my understanding from from speaking not only to asset contracting, but to other contractors within within the world of federal contracting, department of defense contracting, or even public contracting, that it's not particularly the norm to have a payments and performance payment and performance bond executed prior to the contract being executed.

So I did a little digging, and I went back and I looked at the Miller Act is the one that provides the federal the federal projects.

We go based off of that federally.

In Texas, we have what's called the Little Miller Act, and that's the state of Texas and any municipal properties and projects that go regards to that.

So more specifically, Texas government code 2253.

Now, in there, what I could find was that all it said in that code was that the payment and performance bond had to be provided before beginning work.

So it did not state anywhere in the code, and I scoured it.

It did not state that it needed to be provided prior to contract execution.

So can you explain to me, Claudia, why the city has that stipulation in its award packet when I can't find it in the code that goes directly to projects and contract or contractual projects with the with the municipalities?

Okay, it has been the practice to request those contracts to execute uh a city contract for construction, and uh we have never had an issue with contractors providing PMP bonds before executing the contract.

Okay.

So then so then the next thing is is that um where is that in the city code?

Is there something that says that in the city code, or does it only exist in the packet of the award?

To my knowledge, there is uh no regulation in the city code, it is just standard practice for the city.

So then how does the city the city has a layer which seems to me, which seems to me that um is a layer above what the state provides or the state requires?

Is that typical?

And I believe there's a hot mic somewhere representative for the most part the requirements on executing the contract are part of the purchasing and procurement rules when we put the project out to bid.

So that's part of what they that a bidder is put on notice of, and then the city is allowed to have more stringent items or procedures than the state procurement statute.

So we have had a long-standing practice of requiring these um deadlines prior to the execution of a contract.

So let me, I guess, restate it then.

If if it's in the award packet and I can find it online regarding the state, where can I find it when it comes to the city other than the award packet?

Because I don't have access to that award packet.

So where would I be able to find that?

So the information it is included as part of every solicitation that we procure for construction.

So the requirement of the PMP bond insurance for contract execution, it is part of the documents that are in DESLE station.

But nothing that I would be able to find as part of city code or contractual obligations or requirements.

Not to the extent you're looking for.

Okay.

So then representative yes, ma'am.

If I could just interject for a second, when an awardee is granted the award and they've submitted the package, they are committing to comply with the terms and conditions of the bid award.

Right.

Right.

So when a bidder comes forward and says, I want to submit a bid for X, Y, and Z, they are obligated to be put on notice that they are gonna meet those certain requirements.

So it's part of our process in the procurement process that we put them on notice.

We don't codify it or put it in a separate area because every contract has specific deadlines based on the needs of the department.

Okay.

So it's on a case-by-case basis, and they decide that before it goes out to bid.

Thank you.

Thank you for the explanation.

So that that leads me to my next question.

Um, are required to go down to their surety company in order to obtain their payment and performance bond.

That's typically the the process.

In my conversation, not only with with Aztec contracting, but with other contractors that do um local projects, public projects, federal projects, DOD projects, it's not standard to have the payment and performance bond prior to contract execution.

So I I don't know if that's if if if you'll allow me.

Um I spoke to you last night, Claudia, you said that you had spoken with somebody from the surety company to confirm that they would not provide the payment and performance bond to asset contracting.

Is that correct?

So we met with uh the surety company from uh this contractor, and they indicated that they were not going to provide the PMP bonds after meeting an explanation of our process as included in the association.

Do you remember the date of that conversation with any chance?

October 7th.

And who did you speak with from the surety company?

I don't have that uh that information.

Um but we maybe they have the name of uh the person.

You're in the 10 Jonathan Russell.

You spoke with Jonathan Russell?

Yes, my staff did.

Who on your staff spoke with them?

Good morning, Chris.

I spoke to Mr.

Russell in that meeting.

Okay.

And that was on the 7th.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you so much.

Is it typical for the city to speak with a surety company or the agent of a surety company?

So well, we have as practice.

It is try to help contractors to meet requirements before we move to extreme uh recommendations so we can help them meet the requirements, or if they have questions, we can clarify.

So it is our standard process to try to help to the extent possible.

Okay, and and I know that Aztec has done previous uh very big projects for the city of El Paso, uh pretty significant projects within the city.

Is that something that they were required to do prior?

Yes, correct.

Uh so we have in uh our records uh prior awards and they met the requirement for those awards.

But requirements I I'm asking specifically if the payment and performance bond was required prior to the contract execution.

Yes, we are following the same process or uh contract was awarded.

We provided contract documents, including the request of insurance and PMP bonds, and those were provided before executing the contract.

Okay.

Typical um for so I went in and I dug a little bit more with the surety companies.

It's not practice typically to provide that payment and performance bond prior to the contract execution.

So what was the delay on the contract execution?

Our practice uh it is uh requiring to have PMP bonds insurance and uh execute uh signed contract by the contractor so the city can execute the contract.

So those items are required prior, yes.

Okay, and then uh let me ask you there was an email that was sent to staff on 10.7, correct?

And I believe that they had provided a scan of the payment and performance bond draft.

If and forgive me for not knowing the exact verbiage on that.

Who on staff responded to that email?

So we did get uh some scan documents, let me go to my time.

Okay, thank you.

No, I just think we don't have I know it was last uh week.

I just don't have it in my in my notes.

Is it in the timeline that Ms.

Matt?

I haven't had it an opportunity to review it, Miss Mac, so I don't know if it's in the timeline that she provided.

So we received uh an email with uh some scan documents yesterday uh last week.

I got notification yesterday.

I I show 10.7.

So on the 10-7 date, I'm asking who on staff responded to that email specifically, please.

So that date, that's when we met with uh the surety company and asked it to reiterate the requirements in the solicitation.

It was an it was the email if I believe it was after that meeting.

So I sent the email?

I sent an email yesterday to them when they were requesting confirmation, the receipt of uh the PMP bonds, but I don't have uh the original completed uh documents.

So on so on 10.

That's what you met with uh with them.

Um I'm sorry, in email, Glaudia, please.

Yeah, I don't have uh that in we don't have record now timeline of the email you're referencing now.

Okay, there's there's no record of you all receiving anything from the contractor on the on the seventh.

And then we remember them on the 7th.

Okay, so we we did receive and let me just step back a little bit.

Yeah, please uh 929.

We did receive uh draft PMP bonds.

Then we met with them 10-7 to clarify and uh continue reiterating uh the requirements on the PMP bonds.

So you met so you got the email on 929, yes, then you met with them on 107, yes.

There was no email on 10-7.

Is that my understanding?

It was the meeting that we had, it was just a meeting, but not an email.

Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct.

Okay, represent Brocha, I'm up sorry you're on a roll, but I'm on a Taco.

Yeah, I'm gonna t you back up.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

But what I'm hearing is, and I just want to reiterate um, you know, to the community that we have to be really careful about city process, you know, or what we've typically done versus what we legally need to do.

So there's maybe a fine line between those two things.

I would, you know, encourage staff to review those things, and I know that we're going to be working on that in the future.

Um companies, you know, solicit work with the city.

We have to be very careful about how we manage those things because of course we want to stick to the law of things, but at the same time, you know, we are um dealing with people and businesses and employment and financial stability.

And these matters are very delicate in nature because they could potentially affect a company, a family in a very direct way.

So we have to take the work that we're doing seriously.

Um I just want to reassure the community that that that is why um these decisions hold a lot of weight for all of us.

So just something to consider.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I I have one question, and then if if you'll allow me to hear public comment after my question, I'd appreciate it.

Uh would terminating the contract today result in legal ineligibility in future projects for Aztec.

No, that is not part of the resolution.

Okay.

And then if I could hear the public comment from Aztec, please, Ms.

Pine.

We're gonna take Representative Nino, then I'll go to the public.

He has a quick thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a one quick question.

So after council awards a contract, you guys go through the negotiation process and prepare out the paperwork, correct?

That's the phase that we are at.

So depending on the methodology that we're using, uh negotiation happens before uh purchasing is recommending an award.

Okay.

So right now we're addressing the execution uh of the contract phase.

And so if this motion was to be denied, we would go back to like the the conversation and try to negotiate.

I'm trying to understand what the next steps could potentially be.

So what was the motion, Representative Brochia again on this to the to deny the termination?

Okay.

So if it get if the if the item, if her motion passes, what are the next steps?

I'm trying to understand what is the process.

Is it back to negotiation and ensuring that they have the correct paperwork?

I also didn't get brief, so I'm trying to really get all the picture together so I could understand further.

So after that, we would I guess try to get the missing documents to execute a contract, and then once the contract is executed, um start the project.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Okay, uh Ms.

Prime, can we have cough to the on the consent agendas?

We have the first speaker is Frank Spencer the third.

He will be followed by Nancy Camarena, Adrian Reese, Jonathan Russell, and Jeff Parkhurst.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Uh Mayor, members of council, uh city manager.

Uh my name is Frank Spencer, the third president of Aztec Contractors.

Today I'm here to address a serious lack of communication and responsiveness from the city regarding our awarded contract, bonding requirements, and material cost savings proposal.

From the onset, Aztex complied with every request made by the city.

We've submitted the executed contract documents.

We provided the certificate of insurances in all the mandatory forms.

We began background checks process with our subcontractors.

We submitted the draft performance and payment bonds showing full surety capability.

And we submitted a compliant uh compliant material proposal designed to save the city money while meeting all specifications and warranty obligations.

On August 18th, we met with the mayor, city attorney, and city manager and other officials, and we expressly told the cost savings material alternatives, if equal and in performance will be reviewed in the interest of taxpayer savings.

On October 7th, Aztec hosted a meeting with our bonding agent and city staff to explain the final bond execution requires an executed contract, which is standard national security practice.

The city acknowledged this and said they would consult with the director and provide us with further direction.

From that point forward, Aztec repeatedly followed up in good faith on both the bonding process and the material proposal, but the city did not respond or provide direction.

This lack of communication prevented it, prevented Aztec from moving forward despite every effort to cooperate.

The documents issued by Aztec by the city included the award letter and instructions requires bonds to secure the contract.

Yet nowhere do they state that those bonds must be delivered prior to execution of the contract.

In fact, the bond forms themselves legally bind the surety only to an executed uh agreement, meaning the contract must be finalized before the bonds are effective.

Our Surety confirmed this is standard practice nationwide and under Texas Government Code Chapter 2253.

Aztec acted in full good faith.

We submitted the draft bonds early, explained to the explained surety requirements on October 23rd.

We submitted fully executed performance and payment bonds electronically.

Instead of accepting them, the city responded that hard copies were needed, even though the requirement appears nowhere in the contract documents.

In light of this ambiguity and the city's own lack of response to our repeated follow-ups, we respectfully assert that the termination is premature, procedure procedurally defective, and not supported by the terms of the solicitation or Texas law.

We remain fully ready and able and willing to perform on this project immediately.

At no point has Aztec delayed or refused any requirements, we have fully complied while the city has not provided responses, direction, or necessary contract execution on material determination.

We're here today to respectfully request that we are ready to uh proceed upon notice to proceed on this project.

We want to do this project for the city.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Nancy Camarena.

She will be followed by Adrian Reese, Jonathan Russell, Jeff Parkhurst.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and members of council.

I'm chief revenue officer at Aztec Contractors.

Again, the contractor awarded for this project.

I'm here today because we have identified serious irregularities surrounding the specific or specified roofing material suppliers.

As a result, we have proceeded, proposed a cost saving material substitution that would save the city and taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars without compromising quality warranty or FAADB compliance.

To date, those cost savings options have not been addressed.

During both the pre-bid and the post-bid phases, Aztec and multiple roofing subcontractors attempted to obtain standard pricing, approved subcontractor list, freight costs, and technical guidance from the specified supplier representative, Oscar of Garland.

Instead, we encountered failure to provide pre-qualified roofing contractor list or unit material pricing prior to bidding.

Inconsistent and inflated freight pricing through his personal logistics company.

Statements from the supplier indicating a 300 300 percent markup for personal profit on garland materials.

A non-roofing contractor personally invited by the supplier to bid and offer a profit split of 700,000 dollars.

Different subcontractors receiving different prices, they support with differences exceeding 100,000 dollars.

Comments suggesting procurement favoritism and sole sourcing despite public procurement rules that require fair competition.

These are not allegations made by Aztec alone.

Three independent subcontractors, including vendors who are regularly work with Garland in other regions, reporting this behaviors as highly irregular and inconsistent with Garland's national practice.

Why this matters to the city?

The current specification effectively locks the city into a one source leading to inflated prices.

Taxpayer dollars would be unnecessarily spent on artificial markups and undisclosed logistic arrangements.

Aztec submitted a form and material substitution request offering an equal or better roofing system with fully warranty compliance, equal performance and FAA standards, and significant cost savings to the city.

Those savings could be returned to the city, used for unforeseen conditions of the project or applied to other present city needs.

During our meeting with city leadership on October 7th, we were told this call saving alternatives will be reviewed in alignment with the city's fiduciary duty to taxpayers.

However, we need when never received any response or determination.

We respectfully asking council and the mayor to direct the city staff to formally review or cost saving material substitution proposal, or to allow Aztec the opportunity to present those savings in a public or administrative forum before any termination action proceeds.

We believe due process transparency and fiscal responsibility require that these unresolved material irregularities and cost saving opportunities be reviewed before taxpayer dollars are committed under are committed under potentially inflated terms.

Thank you for your time and your service to the citizens of El Paso.

I am available to answer any questions.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Adrian Greese, followed by Jonathan Russell and Jeff Parkhurst.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

From the onset of this meeting, uh, as the chaplain spoke, you all are stewards of this community.

You are leaders of this community.

We are asking for fairness as a small business as taxpayers of this community as well.

We ask that you all do not revoke this contract.

It's going to revoke if you're going to revoke this contract, you're looking at possible second place bidder, which is roughly $800,000 above our pricing.

$800,000 with the potential cost savings that we've offered the city for about $500,000.

You're talking about 1.3 million dollars that could be used for other projects as a uh change orders, contingency for other things that are necessary for this project or for other things that are necessary for the airport.

We really ask that you consider not revoking this contract.

We have provided the documents stated.

We're asking for clarification and communication through the city with the through the proper forms through the project managers through the architect, but we have not received that information.

We ask kindly that you do not revoke this contract.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jonathan Russell.

Mr.

Russell Star 6, please to unmute your telephone.

Jonathan Russell.

Good morning.

You have three minutes.

Good morning.

I'm Jonathan Russell with Epic Brokers, a surety agent for ASTEC contractors.

Appreciate the opportunity to speak with you on behalf of them regarding the bonding for the EPIA terminal roof repairs project.

As a surety agent, our role is to serve as an intermediary between Aztec and surety carriers.

While sureties focus on underwriting risk assessment, they often don't have full visibility into the specific context of a particular bond request.

That's where agents like myself help bridge the cap gap by managing communication and facilitating the bond execution process on their behalf.

Typically, a surety will not issue performance and payment bonds without a fully executed contract, meaning both parties must sign the agreement.

On September 29th, at Aztec's request, we provided draft copies of the required performance and payment bonds for this project.

These included all required principal and surety details except for the bond number.

It also had a watermark noting they were draft copies.

The intent was to demonstrate bond availability and Aztec's commitment to meeting the bonding requirements, pending contract execution as a standard.

Following providing those bond copies, we participated in a Zoom call on October 7th with ASTEC in the city of El Paso on that call as an agent.

There was no final decision made on that call, and we offer to be available for any follow-up uh questions, but received no further communication from the city.

The next communication we were made aware of was the termination notice dated October 21st.

After Aztec informed us of this notice, we immediately approached the surety to request approval to release the performance payment bonds, despite not having fully executed contract.

We provided the contract copy that was signed by ASTEC, and the surety was comfortable proceeding with the release of bonds under specific conditions given the urgency of the matter.

We provided the electronic copies of those executed bonds on October 23rd and sent the original hard copies out of the email.

At this time, I'd like to reiterate that while issuing bonds without a fully executed contract is uncommon.

Sureties and their underwriters may at their discretion still choose to proceed based on specific circumstances and their underwriting judgment.

During the October 7th call, we outlined standard best practices in the surety industry, but in no way did we indicate that issuing bonds without a fully executed contract was impossible, just that it was not standard.

Had the city communicated with us or Aztec at any point between that call and the issuance of the termination letter on October 21st, that they were absolutely unwilling to execute the contract without the bonds, we would have engaged the surety to explore options just as we ultimately did when we provided those bonds on October 23rd.

Thank you for your time.

The final speaker is Jeff Parkhurst.

Mr.

Parkhurst, are you in the queue?

Jeff Parkhurst.

I don't see his phone number in the queue, Mayor.

Okay.

Representative I'm sorry.

He was unable to attend.

Okay, thank you, sir.

Okay.

Representative Trajo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I did I did get a chance to get briefed with Claudia sometime recently.

I think it was a couple of days ago.

But you know, in my in when I was briefed, I I did have uh a few questions to Claudia, and I'm gonna ask them again, Claudia.

If you had had any issues with this contractor in the past with it receiving any any documentation that was I indicated prior projects, uh they did meet the requirement before executing a contract.

Okay.

If this uh contract is terminated, what would this look like going forward?

Would would you would it go to the next bidder?

Would it would you have to restart the bidding process?

So we would need to start a bidding process again as all the bids had uh expired already.

Okay.

And then rebidding, what does that process look like?

How much time are we talking about?

Is having to go back and rebate it?

So we're uh we're anticipating a four-month uh delay on the project as we would need to go out again uh based on the FAA requirements to have a competitor procurement process to select the contractor that will be doing uh these uh performing under this contract.

Okay, so you would have to go back and rebate it.

What does that look like as far as cost having to have the staff go back and redo all this again?

I don't have those uh numbers, but it would be like starting uh a new procurement.

Starting a new procurement.

This is uh repla uh reconstruction for a roof or fixing the roof.

Yes, more details on the scope of work.

I'm gonna ask Airport to answer those questions.

Sure.

Good morning.

Good morning, and she works at the airport.

Yes, ma'am.

This is the reconstruction of the terminal roof, so it's the middle part of the terminal.

This is one that we won several grants for, so we're excited to get started.

Good.

With with the weather, you know, winter coming.

Is there are there any hazards to not getting this roof repaired immediately?

No, no, no, no, it's an old roof, it's in need of repair, but but we're used to to maintaining it.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

Uh and then more questions for Claudia.

Uh Claudia, we had received the bonds, is that correct?

You've received we did get uh a scan of uh the PMP bonds, so we don't have the original as uh requested in the award letter.

I'm sorry, what is that again?

We don't have the original documents as requested in the award letter.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

Representative thank you, Mayor.

Claudia, I it during the description we were there was the battery going around.

Did I hear somebody say that they changed the specs when they submitted their their proposal or the to the city?

No, so I think that they indicated that they are gonna be providing uh approval to change certain materials as it is allowed after a contract is executed.

Uh there is a process in the general conditions that they can submit uh at the um substitutions if they meet uh performance specifications and design.

Okay, and then we're talking about a a practice that we we we usually do from your office.

Is that that's the whole conversation?

So that is after the contract has been executed and that is uh managed by the user department in this case would be airport after a contract has been executed.

Representative just asked a question about the bonding and um is it a usual so is this process usual practice?

Is that what I'm the PMP bond request?

What we're what we're going through today is it usual practice for bond for a company, a construction company, company, to to supply the bond bond to the city as your requesting.

Correct.

As you're describing.

Yes.

Uh for the past 15 years I've been here with the city, that has been the practice.

And uh when a contract has been awarded, we do request the contract signed by the contractor of PMP bonds and insurance, and we receive them so we can execute the contract.

And this company has done lots of great work for the city in the past, and they've always complied.

But what I'm hearing is this time it's been different it was different.

Yes, it has been different based on our experience.

Thank you.

Okay, representative Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I am trying to get clarity.

I just feel like this is really messy to say the least.

And I want to understand, okay.

What what is missing right now?

That's the PMP bond.

So we are pending the original payment and performance bonds.

That's it.

That's it.

Okay.

And I'm seeing that there was a meeting that was held on October 7th with ASTIC to reiterate the requirements in our solicitation, which means you were asking for the PMP bond at that meeting.

Correct.

Okay.

And they told you we're not going to provide PMP bonds until the contract is executed.

Signed.

Correct?

Yes.

Okay.

And then on October 15th, eight days later, you created termination documentation.

So what happened between October 7th and October 15th?

As soon as you walked out of that meeting, you said, okay, we're terminating it because they don't want to give us this, or I'm not very clear there.

So we started coordinating it with the art board.

Do see what was a plan of action.

Uh then they got in touch with the FAA.

So we recommended, we provided our recommendation to FAA.

So we were waiting on concurrence from FAA.

And we did get uh that concurrence, and that's when we place the item in the agenda.

Okay, so but as soon as you walked out of that meeting, you knew that you were gonna do this.

Because you were at a stalemate, they said no, you wanted those the PMP bond, and then you said, okay, well, it's time to terminate, and you started doing it eight days later.

So we coordinated with the airport based on our documents in the solicitation, and that is one of uh of the notices that we're including in the solicitation where we can uh provide these recommendations if uh the contractor fails to provide the contract documents required.

Yeah, it's still not super clear, but okay, let's let's ask something different.

So ASTIC has done work with the city before, there's been different projects.

Correct.

And they've done a PMP bond before every single time before the contract is executed.

Uh correct.

For sure.

Yes, I have a note of uh two of those uh projects.

It is it was 2021 1445 Prime View and Olin Richardson renovations and 2021 1422 Penguin exhibit.

Okay, um, can I ask Astick if this is true and what's different this time?

Somebody from Asset could come up.

We we I can't.

Ms.

Prime, can we do this?

Yeah.

Come back up for I could give some of my time to it's still his time in here, so he can use his time to ask that question.

Yes.

Thank you, Ms.

Prank.

In the past, all of our bonds provided have been with an executive contract.

We've always had an executed contract prior to submitting a performance and payment bonds, and and it what it stands is within 10 days of execution, it's our responsibility to provide a performance and payment bond.

Okay.

And that's been done.

Okay, so what you're saying is that every work, the 2021 projects that were just mentioned, the PMP bond was submitted after the contract was executed.

Yes, sir.

Okay, not before.

Not before.

Okay, and Claudia, you disagree.

Okay.

Nicole Cody, um the city manager's office, if I may, representative.

I think that the thing that we're confusing is when it's awarded by council, and so many of times, once it's awarded by council, you've already approved it, you've approved everything to move forward.

It's our responsibility and purchasing to ensure we do make sure all the paperwork is completed.

And so when the contract, even the solicitation goes out, just to take a step back and really reiterate what Ms.

Neiman said, is that's the contract.

So council's already approved the contract, and so I think we're interchanging words where here it's very important on how we use these words.

And so once council has approved it, we've got the documentation, and we get the PNP bonds very easily because it's been approved by council.

And who needs anything else really, right?

And so with that, then we get the documentation and it's in the solicitation, which is our contract.

So it was really important when you said our contractual obligations, when they submit their proposal, they're agreeing to those contractual obligations.

That's why the solicitation itself becomes the contract that council approves.

And so that way that we avoid any confusion and we avoid um what what you all want to avoid, right?

Is having it different every time.

So we actually have standardized the template with our help of our city attorney's office to be able to do that.

And so if you want if you have the paper, so in the contract itself, it's part of the solicitation, the solicitation, the contractor won, and it's specifically states under item eight, the bonding requirements.

And everybody gets to see this.

This isn't just someone who has been awarded the contract.

This is anyone who is interested in submitting a bid.

And so that's really important, right?

We've always talking about a fair and competitive environment and ensuring that everybody knows up front what the expectations are.

And so with that, thank you.

Thank you.

Then we have item seven, right before the requirements in item eight, it states liquidated damages for failure to enter into contract in the event the successful bidder fails to refuse to execute and deliver the contract insurance certificates, bonds and resident agent designation as required here in, which is the contract, 14 days after the bidder has received notice of award.

So the notice of award is your approval.

You are providing that notice of award when you approve at council.

So did we try to work with this vendor?

Of course.

Does it make sense that it went beyond 14 days?

Maybe we should only leave it at 14 days.

Contractually, that's all we had to do.

But we and we wanted to work with them because they have worked on business with the city before.

Okay, so from everything you just said on July 23rd, when con when this was awarded by council, so about three months ago, you are kind of saying that is the executed contract.

That's the notice of award, and that has been sufficient for all other awards that have been made that are required a PNP bond.

Because council is the ultimate deciding authority, so the contract's done at that point.

Even if it's not sitting on the dotted line, but we have to verify all the other documentations that are required per the contract have been signed.

And that's what that's what purchasing is for.

And and so if there is the documentation of the PNB, let's say the PMP bond that was given today, would that be sufficient to be good with this contract?

So since since we posted uh recommending termination, it would be up to council to deny the recommendation for termination and to answer representative Nino's question, then we would have the final PMB bond and make sure we have the full packet to execute.

So a denial would say, okay, now get the PMP, it went to council, and if you have the PMP, then it stays with you?

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Nicole.

I have um a few follow-up questions on that.

So council approves of a bid, but then there is a lapse of time between council approval and the actual start time of a project.

Is that correct?

So if if you're saying that when council approves its synonymous with execution of a contract, is that is that what you're saying?

I want to be very clear.

No.

So what I'm saying is the notice of award has been sufficient for previous all other for the past 15 years vendors to provide the necessary documentation because council has awarded it.

Yes.

So there's I'm sorry, just to clarify.

So when um it was discussed as I think one of them said it was best practice to have an executed contract, then we receive, uh, then they're able to give us the performance bonds.

Well, the notice of award has acted in that way.

It's not synonymous because we still have to formally execute.

I know.

So my point is this: if if a company is required to get a bond to the execution of that contract, you're saying that they should go ahead and get the bond months prior to the contract even starting.

I mean, because that's that's that's what we're questioning today.

We're questioning whether the company should be required, even though they're legally not required, which we just determined from Representative Rocha's uh statement of the law, right?

Uh the little, I'm sorry, Representative Rocha, little Miller, little Miller.

The little Miller Act is not legally require them to do it, but it's city practice for that to occur.

So after uh award by the city council, that's when we request those documents because we're notifying them that city council has awarded that contract to them.

So we need those documents in order to fully execute the construction contract and then issue NTP so the project can start.

So when, according to um either of you, when should the company according again, not by law but by city practice, when should they solicit that bond?

Is it when council approves or when the contract is actually executed?

So the outward notice that we submit to them or we provide to them, it is after city council has approved uh the item by the end of that Tuesday.

But then they were then they would have a bond tied up for months potentially, right?

Because the the contract might not be executed, so they would just have to have a bond ready to go potentially for months before it's actually started.

So it is my understanding that contractors uh use that award notification or award letter to provide to the P uh to the charity company, so the HRT company can provide the PMP bonds for the contract.

But if there is a delay in the start of a project, for example, then that contractor, that company would basically have to sit on that bond till whenever the city decides to move forward.

So it is taking capacity of it uh with their charity.

And I think that's where I have an issue with because if they're not legally required to do it, the city is you know basically binding them to something that they don't legally have to do for for when for however much time, right?

We don't know because sometimes um sorry projects are delayed for whatever reason.

So I I think I have an issue with this.

The second question I have is in terms of the FAA termination.

Um we received notice that the FAA had already agreed to terminate this contract.

So what happens now?

I mean, if we deny the termination, the FAA already agreed to terminate it.

What happens next?

So they concur with our recommendation to City Council and they were going to take the determination made by council hasn't hasn't voted on that yet.

So they concurred with what exactly?

With our recommendation to city council.

Isn't that that they approved the termination?

They just concur with uh purchasing presenting the recommendation to city council.

So what happens next?

Did you go back to FAA and say council didn't approve of a termination?

And then you vote, and then we'll make sure that we let the FAA know exactly what the determination was by council.

Okay.

So why does it have to go back to bid then if we deny termination?

If you deny termination, our next steps will be to try to get the performance bonds in place for this contract.

If that is the case, we would then go back to the FAA.

We will let them know that we're moving forward with this.

Um, and then hopefully, you know, we would have a successful project there.

Okay.

We would go back out to bid if you were to move forward with termination, that would help our next process.

Okay, thank you.

All right, Ms.

Bryant, no further discussion on this item.

Would you call for the vote?

Yes, sir.

So the motion was made by Representative Maldonado Rocha, seconded by Representative Boyatrejo, and this is to deny the termination on item number eight to deny the action requested on that motion, call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes 621.

Representative Fiero voting nay, the remainder of council voting aye, representative is not present.

Okay, and Ms.

Bryant, I need the record to show that uh in full transparency, Aztec is not a donor to my campaign, but the principal of Aztec is a donor to my campaign.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Claudia.

Okay, that brings us to items to the Ms.

Bryant, I'm gonna move an item because there's been some people here waiting for quite some time.

Yes, page 11, item number 28.

We're on page 11 item 28 is discussion and action on updates of short-term rentals in El Paso, the presentation by city staff, the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors and the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance will include requested items by City Council on September 3rd, 2025, including identified safety issues and concerns related to short-term rentals in the city of El Paso, and an update on the current state of short-term rentals within the city.

Good afternoon good morning, Still.

It's still morning.

Yeah.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

How are you today?

Good.

Good.

Um go into my presentation, please allow me to express my gratitude and also thanks to uh city council members for accommodating us whenever we come to uh brief you on items like this.

And I also want to thank um uh city leadership as well, uh the city manager, Ms.

Mark, and uh Deputy City Manager, Miss Uh Ms.

Cody.

And also uh our staff, planning staff, Mr.

Smith, Mr.

De La Cruz, and I also would like to um extend my gratitude to the GEPA um Mr.

Ernesto and also um Tony Delgado and also Ms.

Um Heidi Soyez.

So these folks have worked uh tirelessly on these for the last six years going on, seven years now, so we've been dug in this thing for a very long time.

So we've been dugging this thing for a very long time.

And this presentation is in two parts.

Staff presentation followed by the short-term rental alliance presentation by Ms.

Hyans.

So back in September City Council and Mayor, you'd ask staff to come back and report back to you within 60 days.

And to provide updates on the collaboration between city staff, GEPAR and Short-Term Rental Alliance.

Yeah, I'm just trying to, yeah, thank you.

To come back.

Okay.

Okay, so we have to do that.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah.

So like I was saying, you asked us to come back within 60 days to specifically identify issues and concern related to short-term rentals in the city, and also to provide an update on the current state of short-term rental within the city as well.

So this is just the update.

These numbers do fluctuate.

So these numbers are not really tied down, they're not nailed down to anything, but they do fluctuate.

And here you have in 2023, you have about 16, 1700.

2025, you almost have about 2,000.

The occupancy rate dropped a little bit in 2025.

Most of these are listed on the ABMB platform.

So we have different platforms as well.

So we wanted to distinguish because the issue came up during our briefing that some city council members wanted to know which one of these are corporate owned or which are individually owned.

So this is why we have this number there.

So you have locally owned 93%.

And also remember, some of this locally owned can just be under an LLC, or even the corporate ones can be locally on, but under LLC just to protect their investment.

So here's the distribution of short-term rental within the city limits.

So those are factors affecting the distribution of the short-term rental year in the city.

Again, it takes the largest share of this because it's the downtown and everybody coming to your city wants to be in your downtown.

D1 is also trending, and because of close proximity to the downtown area, and also all the facilities and the activities in the um in the uh downtown area.

311 and enforcement cases.

You had asked us, this was one of the issues you'd ask uh director staff to look into.

If you look at the number of um complaints in 2023, it was 18, 2024, 2034, and uh 2025-37.

I want to caution um council members because these numbers when we looked at our seller, which is where we used to track all the uh um cases that come in through um complaints, um those numbers may be accurate, but they are not showing that this uh short-term rentals because in the code we really don't have a definition for short-term rental.

So those numbers could be just calls for um a vacant house or for somebody just having parties.

And when we cross-reference these numbers with um Granicus, which is a platform that we use to verify this information, as you can see, those numbers five um in 2023, eight, uh kind of ramped up a little bit, but less than the 37 that you were currently showing.

Okay.

Again, short-term rental is really not defined in our city code at this time.

So this particular use, if you want to look at it in a strict sense, is an illegal use.

What we may consider close to a short-term rental is the bed and breakfast, which again the classification actually doesn't match the actual use.

It requires a special permit, uh council approval, CPC, public hearing.

So it goes on and on and on, and it requires a lot of uh staff time and also fees associated with that.

The R tax, this the reason uh there's a reason that we have this in the just to demonstrate to City Council the amount of revenue generated by this and also for city council uh action in the future or not.

So today, our ask is just a simple recommendation that after about almost seven years that we need to have something in our code that defines short-term rentals.

So we have to amend our city code, uh especially uh Title 20 to include the definition and also amend the permissible use table to make sure that whenever we get a call, we can actually properly at this point once we have that um definition in the code.

So when a call goes into uh our seller or to 311, we can say yes, this particular use or this particular property is a short-term rental.

So we can classify that, and whenever you ask for the report, we can tell you that out of 60 calls, 40 uh were all short-term rental.

But right now we can't do it because there's no classification for that.

So um there on the screen you see a proposed definition, and we're also gonna be working with our legal team, you know, to um clean up the definition and come back to you at at some point um when we go to CPC, then we'll come back to you, then um we'll have an adoption of the ordinance uh to our uh Title 20.

Okay, the next steps, you know, prepare the ordinance, schedule CPC meeting and all that.

So unless you have any question, uh mayor counsel, I would like to pass the next presentation on to Ms.

Hawens.

Do you want to talk now, Representative?

Representative Fior.

Thank you, Philip.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um one simple question.

Yes.

What happens if we don't move on this or pass this today?

So the definition is a must.

We've been going about this for the last six, seven years.

The definition is a must.

You if you uh you want to allow um short-term rental in your corporate boundaries, you have to have a definition in the zoning code.

This is a must.

Okay.

And then I guess the the next steps would be if this passes today, we would ask Ms.

Mack and her team to come back with the proposed ordinances.

That's correct.

And and I'm assuming that that up to this point we've had stakeholder uh input and involvement that there would be stakeholder input and involvement along the process too.

So part part of the uh directive you gave staff back in September 3rd was to work closely with the Alliance and GEPR.

So last 60 days um we had uh Friday meetings that we had with them and we've been meeting with them.

So the last meeting we had with them was about two weeks ago.

They invited their um state reps to come.

So they were here with us, and we went through this entire presentation.

We made it known to them that a definition is a must, and we had to move forward with that.

And you had Friday meetings?

Correct.

Well maybe it's not Monday.

How do we get on this Friday calendar?

It's it's not Monday.

Uh Philip, one quick question on slide nine.

Yes.

The key assumptions in the upper left-hand corner, or my left-hand corner.

Uh it talks about the occupancy rate at 45%.

Is are these 2024 numbers that were what year is we are we looking at 23 or 24?

Do you know?

Mayor, I'm not smart enough to talk numbers with you.

So I think um this probably is an assumption for maybe 2025 or maybe from 2025, uh 2023 to 2025.

Okay, fair enough.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Philip, for the presentation.

I have a couple of questions.

The first is the draft definition.

Is that labeled draft because you're still working on it?

Correct.

So you have to give us direction once we get a direction from you today, we'll work with our legal team to make sure that we have a better definition, uh, look at some other cities, have a better definition that fits exactly what the use is, and then amend the code.

Uh look at some other cities, have a better definition that fits exactly what the use is, and then amend the code.

Yeah.

And I I do agree that we need to clearly define what a short-term rental is.

The only thing that I would ask for consideration is uh it says here that overnight persons, you know, sleeping areas are rented to overnight persons.

But if you look at the slide and it's occurred in my district quite frequently, like slide number seven, sometimes short-term rentals are rented for parties, right?

Or for events in some cases.

That's why there's excessive noise, parties, trash, and not necessarily people sleeping there overnight sometimes.

So I don't know if other cities um have defined it a little bit more broadly.

And that's that's what we'll be looking at.

And remember again, there's no definition.

So when there's a call that a a house is um generating uh noisy uh loud noise, um that may not be uh an STR.

It may not be a short-term rental.

So I want to be very careful not to label all the calls that we received as short-term rental.

Okay.

Thank you.

I don't know if we have a motion for this item, Mayor.

If we need one.

So there's still another presentation before you do that.

Thank you.

Representative Lima.

Thank you, Mayor.

Philip, I just want to be really, really clear.

The action that you're requesting is to set a definition of short-term rentals.

That's correct, ma'am.

That's it.

That's correct.

As far as this presentation, and then there's other presentations that will have perhaps a different ask.

No.

This ask is just a one-time ask, and this is the definition.

Thank you.

Thank you, Philip.

All right.

So counselor, you know what?

I let me entertain a motion to approve this, if you don't mind.

Okay.

Representative Canalis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, looking at the and I I apologize, I wasn't in the seat listening to your presentation, but I was I I could hear the whole thing.

Um looking at slide number seven, the 311 in enforcement cases, I see the the numbers of complaints each year.

Um is this specifically when the caller calls in and identifies that it is a complaint about a short-term rental?

Or are we asking the question?

Is the property?

Because we really don't have it in code.

So when um a typical neighbor calls, uh, they call, well, my next door neighbor is generating a whole lot of noise.

So that call is tracked through the the the uh our system and we'll send some uh code enforcement to go out.

So code enforcers will not know.

Maybe if they ask the question, if they say specific questions that says, is this a short-term rental?

Because the neighbor may know uh if it's a short-term rental or not, but if that's not the case, I don't want to classify it as a short-term rental because we don't have that in it in our code.

Okay.

So the definition will help us potentially to then identify when a complaint is made whether that that uh complaint gets registered as a short-term rental.

That's correct.

Okay.

Um I mean I I recognize that we entered into this the pilot program and we wanted to track the these complaints.

Um I I'll say, I mean, I think my office has received more complaints about specific short-term rental properties than the numbers that I'm seeing here.

Okay.

I just think that they're not counted because either the the reporter doesn't say the the keyword short-term rental, or like you said, the code officer arrives, um, you know, has some interaction and it never the the word is never said that it's a short-term rental.

Yeah, I mean our code enforcement officers are probably not gonna go out there and say, is this a short-term rental?

So they're just gonna go out and investigate and make sure that um the they take care of the next steps in in the enforcement process.

Okay, if it's a short-term rental, if somebody says it's a short-term rental, there's no way to identify if it is a short-term rental unless you uh talk to the owner and the owner can confirm that.

So the owner confirmed in all of like looking at 2025, there were 37 complaints, 16 cases with verified short-term rental.

How are those verified?

So the reason you see the difference in numbers uh is that we um got those numbers from our system, you know, the the uh top numbers from our system uh seller that we used to track you know these cases then.

Um the platform that we use to verify which uh um short-term rental is Granica's.

Granicus was able to identify that in 2023 that this particular address is a short-term rent rental.

So that's the reason you should see the um cases of uh number of cases uh verified as short-term rental.

How is Granicus able to tell whether a property is?

Granticus is a platform that we've uh retained, you know, to help us run reports and you know give us um idea of how many um short-term rentals we have in in the city.

Okay.

So it there is there's an off-the-shelf product from Granicus that identifies.

Is the pit service true granite because granite coasts when we have issues or uh concern we'll reach out to Granicus and Granicus can uh run the numbers for us.

Okay.

Um and then I just want to note again if we look at slide six, the the short-term rental distribution by district.

Um I think you you can see the numbers eight is significantly the highest along with with two, but it's kind of central El Paso that that tends to have down, you know, the the greater downtown area plus central um has the greatest concentration of these, and uh you know we we've been speaking about it for a number of years now, but I still have uh a lot of concerned neighbors uh reaching out on a regular basis about some specific properties.

I know there's a workflow now where where a lot of these concerns get sent to the short-term rental alliance, and they've been diligent in in dealing with some of them.

Um but there are still concerns from people about not having permanent neighbors in a place and their neighborhoods uh having fewer residents because there are uh the high densities of short-term rentals concentrated in some certain particular areas and even you know more granular, like block by block, some blocks have majority short-term rentals as opposed to permanent residents.

And I know that's a cause for concern for some of the neighborhoods where that are affected in that way.

And so I wanted to still talk about that issue.

Um I know I'm I'm happy to look narrowly for now at this definition and uh give the give the direction to proceed with with this part.

Um I still think there's plenty more conversation to be had.

Um thank you for uh slide nine and running the numbers on the occupancy tax projection.

Um, adding together, not even looking backwards, just looking forward to 2026 through FY 2031.

That's more than 20 million dollars in in hot revenue.

That's potentially out there at a time when we're talking about uh ballpark uh capital needs when we're talking about convention center expansion and not necessarily having a good source of hot for those uh that's sufficient to complete all the needs.

Uh I think it's a worthwhile conversation to have into the future.

Again, happy to today just just look at the definition.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Philip, there's another presentation, right?

Short-term rental.

Yep.

That's it.

Could you bring up the uh next presentation?

Uh yeah uh yeah.

Just go ahead.

Okay.

Now it's officially good afternoon.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

Uh thank you for having us.

So I'm the president of the El Paso Short-Turn Rental Alliance, and behind me we have other members of the Short Term Rental Alliance here today.

And you know, this is just an overdue presentation.

We were supposed to come back to council back in 2024.

We were uh approved for a pilot program in 2023 after we had had many multiple uh community meetings asking about safety concerns, and with the pilot program, um our mission, you know, was to really educate the hosting community and being good neighbors.

So about us, what we value, we value collaboration, respect education, resources, and community engagement because short-term rentals are not Airbnb or a faceless corporation.

Short-term rental hosts are faces you know, your family, your friends, the people next to you at the farmers market, and that's really what we have been really focused on this past two years is how can we serve the community, how can we serve the El Pasoans and our sister cities as well.

And so what are our community resources?

You know, we have our membership, it is free to join as of right now.

Um we offer resources, we have had multiple community meetings along with many city representatives during their community, their community meetings.

Um we offer uh responsible hosting guidelines, and we most importantly educate.

We educate hosts on what they should be doing, how they should be responding, what they should be doing when there's a situation that comes up if someone's having a party at your property, because as short-term rental hosts, we don't allow parties to happen our property.

It's actually goes against our policies, and we have security cameras on the exterior of our homes.

We make sure that we're always taking care of our property at all times.

And so those are things that we like to offer as resources.

We make sure that people understand what it means to be a good neighbor.

And as you saw in the city staff's presentation, um, 90%, and this is something that we've been saying for quite a few years now is that 90% of our short-term rental hosts actually just own one property, maybe two, but they're mom and pop.

This is a mom and pop market here in El Paso.

It's not corporations, it's not someone that's coming over to take over.

Um, all of our especially our short-term rental host, um, everybody that's involved, this is their rental property.

Maybe they were able to save up enough money to have uh enough to pay for a rental property, and then it became a short-term rental along the way.

Um, some have inherited this property from you know previous family members, and this is their retirement, but most importantly, this is their livelihood, and they have been able to continue paying property taxes with with this money that comes through, especially having such high property taxes in in the state.

Um, we are only 0.5% of the housing supply, so I believe there's over 200,000 homes here in El Paso, and you know, as you saw in the numbers, was less than 2,000, and so we're really low on the we're a tiny fraction that has no effect on local housing supply or the real estate prices.

And at the moment, you know, we are paying the 6% of the state occup hotel occupancy tax.

And so we encourage our members to be good neighbors to maintain properties responsibly and to contribute to the overall well-being of our community.

What have we done in the past two years?

So since 2023, when the pilot program was approved, um, we have had multiple collaborations with the city.

We have active, we have been um active participating with the community meetings that are part of your of your representatives.

Um we have continuous communication in 2024, we were meeting with the city mayor every quarter along with the city of police chief and the city manager, and we were continuing to have this conversation to make sure to see the numbers to see where the short-term rental um hosts were doing, and to make sure that we were taking care of those safety concerns because the pilot program was made for the safety concerns of the city, those safety concerns that were brought up back in 2023.

That's what the pilot program was for.

And they launched the 311 where there was a script specifically added so that people could actually say if it was a short-term rental or not.

And that script is in Nicole Cody and City Staff helped us put together that script so that it was part of the 311 calls.

Um, you know, we've been addressing bad actors through the alliance.

We've gotten emails and calls, and we have been addressing those personally into how can we help that person, how can we help that person that's being affected, but it may be a bad actor.

Because again, we are a community, but we know we're not exempt from bad actors, but it doesn't mean that most of us are bad actors.

It's actually a very few people that might not follow the rules just like everywhere else.

And so we make sure that we're able to report to follow the procedure in order to report those bad actors that continue to do things that shouldn't be done.

And one of the other things is that we partnered up with the police department, especially during prom season and graduation, and especially this summer, we were also able to partner up with certain representatives so that we could spread awareness about the entertainment venue ordinance and to make sure that we were able to really differentiate between short-term rentals and people that were just offering their houses for parties, because that is illegal for you to offer your house for just a party, according to the entertainment venue ordinance, it's illegal for you to do so, for you to offer your pool as a venue or your backyard.

And so we were able to get together with representative Rocha as well, so that we could really spread awareness about this ordinance and to differentiate between a short-term rental and those people that were just offering their houses for parties, and that's where this really comes up.

You know, when we have complaints when the numbers show that it's only 16 confirmed, it's because the public is not educated what is a short-term rental and what it's not, right?

So they just see a party happening and someone is bringing a lot of people that they don't know, and they just automatically think it's an Airbnb, even though it's not, because as short-term rentals, you are expected to stay overnight when you have a party three times a day, no one's staying overnight.

And so that that's what we really worked on, um, specifically, you know, this year.

And one of the biggest things that we're really proud of is you know, the short-term rental alliance in action.

So back um in 2024 when we had the fire in Ridoso, we were able to put together uh along with the New Mexico Short-Turn Rentral Association, the emergency accommodation program.

And we did that immediately, as soon as the fire happened, we were able to offer free stays to displaced families and emergency responders that were evacuating from Ruidoso and coming to El Paso.

And we did it as a service to our community.

We are in the hospitality industry, we care for our people, for our hosts, for our guests, and so we were able to coordinate how the local hosts could offer their homes, and then later on, we partner up with Airbnb.org and local authorities so that they knew that they could find a place to stay.

And one of the biggest concerns was pets, you know, during the time that they were coming.

A lot of people have pets, and it's very hard and very expensive to find a hotel that will let you bring five pets with you.

But yet at the same time, us as the as the hosting community, we were opening our homes for free and letting them bring all the pets.

I had one property that I had, they stayed for a full week and they brought six pets with them.

And it was fine.

I never charged them for anything.

I also never charge them for the pet cleaning fee.

But not just like me, there were so many others in that list that were offering their places up for free so that we could help our sister cities, and that's what the El Paso Short-Turn Rental Alliance is.

That's why it was created, so that we could be of service to the community, so that we could be helpful.

And as far as helping with those certain safety concerns of nuances, and that's why we have the noise ordinance.

That's why we have the weeds, like those things that we have, they're already ordinances in place, and we just need to help enforce them.

But you know, specifically with the entertainment venue ordinance, uh, we were very happy how we saw a big difference in the complaints coming from the summertime when people were no longer putting up their pools for for rent because they knew they knew that there were consequences by doing so.

So our ongoing mission is we continue to advocate for responsible hosting to promote collaboration with city leaders and respond with compassion when our community needs us the most.

And the last thing that I want to mention is how are we able to make sure that our hosts are following through.

So we actually have wind technologies, and this is some this is one of many that are offered out there.

But what this is is that it's a device just like a smoking detector, but what it is is that it monitors the wavelengths.

If there's noise, too much noise happening, it will actually let you know that there's noise happening in your property, and it also detects if there's marijuana smell, smoking smell, vaping, and so we're able to do that.

And we started this back in 2023 when the pilot program was just released.

Uh, we were able to offer this to our host our hosting community and to let them know that this is a device that we highly recommend for them to use.

Again, there's other brands that are also available, but um, this has been a game changer for us because again, we don't want those things happening in our homes, and we want to protect our community, and we don't allow those things to happen.

So, but it's it's like everything, right?

Maybe someone's gonna break the rules.

So, how can we make sure that we're able to find a solution?

It's like immediately, as soon as I get a message saying that they detect uh a marijuana smell, I'm able to contact the host the guest, and I'm able to take measures if I have to cancel a reservation and have to charge them.

And the same thing happens with noise, um, the the noise detection.

If we see that it's happening, which is very rare that it's ever I've ever gotten a notification about that, but if it does happen, now I know that hey, you know, we have received this certain um notification.

And what I love about this is that it actually has its own app, but it also tells you how to respond, what message to send when they have received this notification.

So it makes it very easy for the host to have that communication with the guests if they are breaking the rules.

It's not like, oh, what can I say or what should I do?

No, they actually guide you into this is a message that you could send to the guests at this moment because we have received this notification about light lognosis or the smoking.

Um so this is what you know the alliance is all about and what we have been doing for the past two years.

So I thank you so much for your time.

And I'm gonna um have Gepar, which is one of our partners in the alliance um present now.

Thank you.

We got a quick question.

Representative Nino.

No, Heidi, I just want to thank you.

I know that I've seen the birth of the short-term rental alliance, hosting community meetings and really, you know, addressing what the primary primary concern was amongst the community, the safety component, and I know you did a lot of outreach.

So I just wanted to congratulate you on the collaboration and you know, meeting with all of us and really uh also with the you know the Greater O'Paso Realtors Association and city staff and working and addressing all the issues that have come forward.

So I just wanted to to thank you for that.

Thank you.

Very good.

Good presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Um good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Mr.

Garcia from the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors playing cleanup hitter, like Kurt Gibson did in 1988 for Tony Delgado, who decided to visit all your offices yesterday and ended up probably eating more chocolate than he should have.

So he was supposed to speak.

And uh by the way, we love the designs on everybody.

Um I'll get started.

The Greater El Paso Association of Realtors uh continues to collaborate with the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance and the City of El Paso to address the community concerns and continues to implement effective property uh management outcomes.

There's a lot of work to be done.

A partnership formed over two years ago by this council and this staff that took something that is now being a model for other parts in the state.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't get a call from my counterparts wondering how do you do it?

What are you guys doing?

Something is great.

When they see those numbers that you saw, they are pleased to see what is happening, but they also know that's a lot of work.

This has produced positive results in identifying issues such as parking, noise, and safety, while creating fair policies that distinguish responsible hosts from problem operators.

Together, we are trying to reduce conflicts, we are encouraging transparency, and we are protecting private property rights through ongoing communication and data-driven solutions.

Still, there's more work to be done.

Gepar remains committed to facilitating meetings between the city officials, EP, the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance and community members, and to assure any public concerns are addressed or at least met or identified.

I know that Chief Pacias has been very vocal to speak with us and wants to get things done, and when he needs something, Heidi's phone is answered, and that's gonna not go away.

It gets put apart there.

We've had when we talk about when this short-term rental alliance was developed in this pilot program.

There's one partner that's not here with me today, but I know that they have were a big part of it.

That was our Al Paso chamber.

They were a part of this as well to try to find solutions that shows.

So it shows that this community is growing, the effort is growing.

But as Gepar is an advocate is the the an advocate of the current work accomplished by the city and the zoning and planning and zoning commissions.

We can't be we cannot get it done.

Philip is hard to deal with, but he will get it done.

Nicole Cody is hard to deal with.

And she will run out of breath and she will still make it over here.

Um Tony, I don't call him Jose anymore.

De la Cruz has also done very well, and Kevin Smith has done his part to make sure that we get to this point.

But there is a lot of work to be done.

This relationship continues to build trust and accountability by engaging with planning and zoning, and it's a credit to the city council for letting us be a part of this.

We thank Dion Mack and her staff for being able to hang with us here, work with us.

There's still a lot to do.

There's much more to be said.

We have to look at a lot of other factors, but we need a little time.

And that's what we're asking for is to let us continue doing the work in progress.

We will continue to put motions and we will continue to try to address the city concerns and once again keep this project rolling and be a standard to set for the state.

Thank you very much.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you for the collaboration too.

Representative Lima.

Before we actually go into the vote, I just want to be very, very clear that the action we're taking today, Philip, is we're going to set a definition of short-term rentals.

Punto.

That's correct, Matt.

Thank you.

Representative uh Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to wait till the whole presentation.

So I'm gonna go back to the the first part, Philip.

On slide five.

You have some data that says locally owned.

Um you don't have any for 2023, but for 2025.

It says locally owned 93%, and then corporation owned 22%.

That doesn't add up to 100, so I was trying to understand how that makes up.

Well, like I said before, I'm not smart enough to debate numbers with you.

If you look at the number, these are numbers that we generated from that Granicus gave us.

So these numbers may not be accurate or maybe accurate.

Again, if you look at what I explained to me, Philip.

Yeah, we're the same question, sir.

Okay.

Can we recognize that the corporate corporation owned could be also local?

Correct.

So those are people who have set up corporations to protect their property versus people who are registered as an individual.

Yeah.

Okay, perfect.

Just like I explained before, like Ms.

Mark just explained.

So you if you want to protect your personal property from your investment property, so you can go into an LLC and keep that separate.

So that's you asked this question before, and that's one of the reasons this is included in the slide.

Okay, perfect.

Yeah, so they may not be up to Andre, but again, locally owned.

Um I mean, if you don't if you don't want to be um uh safe from any other uh uh lawsuit so you can keep it the way it is.

Okay, so it's it's some double dipping, some are locally owned, corporation owned, and okay.

That makes subtle sense now.

I appreciate the the clarification.

And just overall, I I know we're voting on the definition today.

I'm supportive of that, and I I think it's great, and I appreciate all the the people that presented and gave us some great information.

I I think just as we move this forward, I think we need more data, right?

And in just different areas, and I've had that conversation with Gaphard just to kind of say get us more data that's gonna help us with economic development, which economic development is very important.

And we could have more co-play concerts rather than every five to ten years have some major event and then everything is booked and no one could find anywhere to stay.

Uh that's that's gonna be really vital.

I think the the convention center expansion and trying to figure out what to do with the convention center in terms of renovating it.

That I think that is long overdue because a lot of this is gonna go hand in hand in my opinion.

So I'm just hoping that we could have more data pair it with economic development in order to move us forward into what comes next for short-term rentals.

That's all I wanted to say.

Represent Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

Sorry, kept missing the microphone button.

Um I had one additional clarification I wanted to ask, and that's uh when I asked the question the first time, I was told we are not asking people when they call in if uh the property that they're calling about is a short-term rental.

Uh we heard from from Heidi that there was a script developed for 311 specifically to ask people if it's a short-term rental, which one is the which one is the truth.

So if you go back to what slide, okay.

Um Nicole Cody, yes, we've got oh Carolyn's here as well for 311 and uh Chief Tiagasino.

And the answer is we do ask the question if the the complaint is related, of course.

So it's part of the script.

And that's when somebody calls with what kinds of complaints.

311.

So um it's a specific Carolyn.

Do you want to go over the exact language?

Yeah.

Yes, there are about five.

Uh Carol and Patrick with VIT department.

There are about five service request types.

One is on the noise complaint.

I can get you the list of the types.

I don't have them all offhand.

But the question is asked is what is the um who resides in the home.

And there are five options to answer short-term rental, long-term rental, the property owner, I don't know, is an option.

Okay.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Um, and then just to clarify the the clarification that uh representative Limon asked for.

The action today is not to approve a definition, it is to direct staff to develop a definition that will come back to the council for approval at a later time, correct?

That's correct, sir.

Okay.

I just wanted for the public's clarity.

We're not setting a definition today.

The draft definition that's included in the backup is not the definition that's being adopted.

It's just the draft, correct?

Okay.

That's all.

Mayor, thank you.

Ms.

Prime, we have public comment on this one.

Yes, sir.

We have Ms.

Turner signed up to speak.

Good afternoon, Ms.

Turner.

Good afternoon.

Yeah, it's afternoon now.

It's happened.

Good afternoon.

I'm hungry.

Uh I'm not happy about this.

I think this needs to be postponed.

And I think you need to come back with something substantial.

Could somebody could IT bring up slide six for me, please?

Thank you.

I want you to take a long hard look at that.

And I want you to understand that what you're looking at is the reason why that there's a high cost of housing in this city.

Is not there.

So I understand that.

Second thing is, if you're going to go, you know, I'm afraid if you do this today, this is the last we'll ever see of anything about this short-term rental thing.

You know, because I want to see some rules then.

Example.

If you're selling if you're a realtor, you're selling a house, and whoever's buying the house should know that there are short-term rentals in the neighborhood.

Because I, if I'm wanting to buy a house, I don't want to surround me.

If I'm moving into a neighborhood, I want neighbors.

I don't want people popping in and out every other day.

And on the weekends.

I don't want strangers in the neighborhood.

I want every single one registered with the city.

So you can inspect them for safety.

Inspect them that they are ADA compliant.

I want to make sure that not a single one of these carry any kind of property tax exemption, be it old age.

Or homestead exemption.

Not a single one.

I'm also concerned about liability.

The cities.

And the people who are renting these things out.

I think you need to postpone and bring us something back.

Something real.

Because once you know how many there are, you can actually start to do something.

There may be 2,000 short-term rentals in the city and only a hundred with the short-term rental alliance, which leaves you a lot of people unregulated.

So I'm only asking for some clarification and some straightening out.

I don't think it's too much to ask of you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further discussion on item number 28?

Hearing none, seeing none, Ms.

Prime, please call for the vote.

Yes, and Representative Madonna Varota, can you restate the motion?

Well the motion to approve.

To approve.

You want me to read what the where what the recommendation is?

Yes.

Okay.

One moment, please.

Let me get it.

Are you?

I recommend, I recommend the approval.

First staff.

I move to approve.

Staff.

Well, no, hold on.

I wasn't prepared to do this.

I'm so sorry.

So give me a second.

Are you I move to approve and direct uh city manager and city attorney and staff to define short-term rental in the city code and amend permissible use table?

Second I thought we already had a motion in a second.

There was a motion.

But there was a motion.

Okay, you just clarify.

Okay, good.

The original motion.

Okay.

Thank you very much for your clarification.

Okay.

On that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, council.

It's 1240.

It's up to you guys if you want to break for our mayor.

I'd like to make a motion to return, go to lunch and return at 140.

142.

Okay, there's a motion and can we do 30 minutes?

Oh, you guys.

There's a motion and a second to recess the city council meeting for one hour.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

No.

Let me let me take roll call because I I hear no.

This is to recess for one hour.

Correct.

Mayor Pro Tem Chavez.

May Representative Acevedo.

No.

Rota.

Aye.

Nino?

Aye.

Pedro?

Aye.

Limo?

Definitely aye.

Canales?

No.

The motion passes 523.

We're recessed until 140.

Don't worry about me, Miss Prime.

There wasn't a tie.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene.

The city council meeting.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

The meeting is back in session at 1 43 p.m.

All right, Ms.

Prime, I believe we're on page 7 of 13.

Uh, the first reading of the ordinance number 15.

That's correct, Mayor.

These are items 15 to 19, the introduction of ordinances.

Mayor, make a motion to move on the first reading of the ordinances.

Okay.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Any discussion on the first readings?

Ms.

Prime?

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez to approve the first reading of ordinances.

Items 15 to 19 on that motion.

Call for the vote.

Ms.

Prime.

Oh, I could do it.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Representatives Maldonado Rocha and Fierro not present.

Okay.

Let's take item number 20 on the regular agenda.

Yes, sir.

Item number 20 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of tracks 9 and 13 from R4 residential to C1 commercial and imposing conditions at 7800 and 7804 Alameda Avenue.

Okay.

Is there a motion to approve?

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve item number 20.

Okay.

There's a motion and the second.

Any discussion on this item?

Ms.

Prime.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 20.

There is no public comment on that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Representatives Malonado Rocha and Fierro not present.

Okay, Mayor Mayor Pro Tem, would you take 21 for me?

Item 21 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning of lots 15 to 20, block 13 from C1 SC commercial special contract and SD special development to GMU general mixed use and approving a master zoning plan with a 32% parking reduction.

This is north of Arizona Avenue and east of North Oregon Street.

Thank you.

Is there a motion?

Move to approve.

Ms.

Prime, we have a motion and a second.

Yes, and we do have public comment from Ms.

Turner.

She left.

Okay.

Can we call for the vote?

Yes.

The motion was made by Representative Canales.

Seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item number 21.

On that motion, call for the vote.

In the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Representatives Malonado Rocha and Fierro not present.

Yes, sir.

Item 22 is discussion in action on a resolution that the city of El Paso adopted the Camino Real Regional Mobility Mobility Authority.

Christopher Linder to position 5, whose term will expire on February 1st, 2026.

Move to approve.

Second.

Okay, there's a motion in the second.

Any discussion on item number 22?

All right, hearing none seeing none, Miss Prime, please call for the vote.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Representative Boy Artrejo, and this is on item 22 to approve.

On that motion, call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Representatives Rocha and Fierro not present.

Okay, let's take item 23.

Item 23 is discussion in action on a resolution approving the use of district two discretionary funds for payroll of the part-time administrative specialist and authorizing the city manager or designee to take any and all actions necessary to effectuate such expenditure.

And this is Representative Acevedo's order.

Representative Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move to approve.

Um we are just wanting to extend our administrative specialist in my office.

He's been with us for a few months and he's been doing a great job, and we don't want to lose him just yet.

So this is this will give him a few more months to to be with us.

Second.

Okay, there's a motion in the second.

Any further discussion on this item.

All right, hearing none seeing them, Ms.

Prime, please call for the vote.

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Acevedo, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez to approve item 23 on that motion.

Call for the vote.

And the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Representatives Rocha and Fierro not present.

And Ms.

Prime, I apologize for jumping a little bit out of order, but we have somebody that's been waiting most of the day.

We're going to take number 29.

Yes, sir.

Item 2029 is discussion in action on the presentation on proposed amendments to Al Paso City Code 20.20 historic landmark preservation.

The presentation will provide council an update on the input received from the community and staff recommendations.

Okay, is there a motion?

Oh, there's no motion.

It is a fraction.

Is there a motion?

Can we see the presentation first?

Is there a motion on this item?

Okay.

So to discuss bring the items for discussion.

Correct.

Right.

There can't be a motion to discuss.

We've been we've been doing that all along.

We take a motion, then a second, then we discuss it.

Representative.

The motion has to be to take an action.

It can be too much.

I would like to make a motion to delete it.

Second.

Can we please see the presentation, folks?

There's a motion and a second to delete any further comment on this item.

Yes.

Representative canals.

I would ask the council to uh vote down the motion to delete so that we can see the presentation.

And then this is an informational presentation that I think will be helpful.

We're not there there's no uh action here today to approve anything to adopt any changes to the code.

Correct, sir.

Uh this is an update on the results of the public feedback process and then a change in the the staff recommendation, uh a small adjustment to the staff recommendation.

Yes, sir.

Uh that staff wanted to use today, I think, to present that potential change to the public.

Yes, sir.

So that we can receive additional feedback before the time when this comes back to the council if that's correct.

Yes, sir.

All right, so there's uh representative Chavez.

Mayor, I just wanted to so um council asked that I provide an opportunity for us to bring forward to you before items are gonna be brought forth for a vote for consideration um any feedback we've gotten on ordinances, an opportunity to talk about what we've heard from the public.

This really gives the opportunity for you all to decide what we do next on this.

And so this is really following what I heard during my evaluation process.

So you wanted me to bring those items in a way that were very public.

So I would ask that we be allowed to understand what the action is, whatever that action is, so I know if I'm posting, if it's gone, if we're still doing outreach, I just I want to just have really clear direction on what we do with this item next.

Okay, representative Chavez.

Sorry, Mayor, I wasn't finished.

Oh, you still go on yeah.

So again, I I just asked the council um that we allow staff to present their updated recommendation from what went to the public initially.

They have an updated recommendation that I understand is based on the feedback that came out of the public outreach.

So I'd love to see.

I went to some of the meetings.

I wasn't able to attend every one of the public feedback meetings.

I'd like to hear what the public feedback was from those additional meetings and then understand how staff's recommendation is shifting in response.

Okay.

So I'd ask that we not postpone.

Representative Chavez.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

I I was briefed on this item from staff, and um I stand by my motion to delete.

I know that motion was seconded already.

Um I do not oppose to a presentation.

I've already seen the presentation, and I would like to take a vote on my motion to delete.

Okay, thank you.

Representative Limon Mayor, I've I've had actually two presentations and I attended um our two community meetings, and um this is very confusing, Tony.

I apologize.

I think this is not a place that staff should be put into that you all work and then come forth to do a presentation and then we delete it immediately without information.

My apologies for me in my office for doing that today.

On the same uh route though, I I think that the amount of work that you all have done is good.

This is outreach update.

It's what it is, outreach update.

And if we had been able to go along, I would have some input onto other possibilities of a much deeper dive into outreach.

But I can discuss that with you at another time.

And thank you again for being here.

Thank you.

Representative.

No, Mayor, I was just gonna ask the that we um that we're allowed the opportunity to vote on it.

Okay.

So there's a motion to delete this in a second.

Ms.

Prime?

Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Representative Nino, and this is to delete item 29 on that motion.

Call for the vote.

In the voting session.

And that motion passes four to three.

Representatives Chavez Acevedo Boyetrejo Fierro voting aye.

Representatives Nino Limo Canales voting nay.

Representative Maldonado Georgia not present.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Councilmembers for moving me up a little bit.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

Um let's take item number 23.

Uh 24.

We had 24, Ms.

24, yes, sir.

Let's take number 24.

Thank you.

Discussion and action directing the city manager and city attorney to engage collaboratively with the Transportation Security Administration, TSA and Federal Aviation Administration, FAA to explore the development of a memorandum of understanding MOU and or lease agreement regarding the TSA security checkpoint at the El Paso International Airport, EPIA.

This effort will uh aim to align operations with applicable city of Al Paso guidelines, policies, procedures, and ordinances, including but not limited to those related to the display of political language, further direct the city manager and city attorney to review all relevant documentation related to the security checkpoint at EPIA and formally request any necessary security clearances to access and review existing contract lease agreements, what they report to be presented to city council within 60 days.

This item was placed by representatives Acevedo and Maldonado Rocha.

All right, representative.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm I'm hoping Representative Maldonado Rocha will make it back, but I'm I'm happy to um kind of give some background on what's been happening over the last few weeks.

Did you want to make a motion on this one?

So we have some.

Yeah, I moved to approve.

Okay.

Okay, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

Sorry.

Um October, October 14th, I went by the airport after hearing things on on the news, hearing stuff from constituents about uh a video that was playing, you know, there were there were um airports across the country that were saying that they were not playing it, and then a Texas Tribune article came out and we confirmed that we were playing it at the airport.

So I needed to see this for myself.

And so around 8 p.m.

on October 14th, I went to the airport and there were no more flights for that day.

So TSA had just left and I went to the police officers that um have an office at the airport.

I asked them to escort me up to the TSA um checkpoint, and they were under the impression that nothing was playing.

The airport wasn't playing it anywhere else, and then as soon as we got up there, I saw the screen on the right side of the checkpoint.

I took a video of that, I posted it on social media, and then the next day on October 15th, um two colleagues joined me to write a letter to the TSA.

And we we wrote that letter to Jared Babin, and uh a few days later he did um respond and said that they were not going to stop playing the the video.

And we saw that there were numerous airports in Texas across the U.S.

they were refusing to play the video.

Um the the big thing here was that political content should not be played in airports like this.

Any messages from government officials should be neutral information related to customer service safety and security.

We at the city have a lot of rules, especially during campaign season, you know, we can't um do certain things and we have a a very strict code.

And something that we um realize also is that uh the TSA has a lease at the airport for offices, but that space is in a really gray area that has um quote unquote governance by the federal government.

And so as we're looking through this, we realize that we cannot you know tell them to stop playing the video, even though it's the airport people are seeing the airport as the city of El Paso, and it's just really difficult to explain in conversations with the city manager, um going back and forth on this um later that that week they posted a sign saying that we don't condone this and we don't have partisan language.

And and so I think the the big thing here is that no matter who is in the White House, whatever party is in the White House, there shouldn't be any partisan language coming from our uh federal agencies.

I believe that this is a big violation of the Hatch Act, and um there's legal counsel that said that it's not on behalf of TSA.

That's what Mr.

Batman shared with us.

But I I think if you continue to look at it, and a lot of people have been citing the hatch act, and I agree that it is a violation of the Hatch Act.

And so I think the the idea here is as we go through this government shutdown, it's a very difficult time for people.

Um a lot of people are are hurting across the country, and we need to focus on getting the government open, Congress is at a standstill, they're at a big impasse.

I don't know when it's gonna open.

This will likely become the the longest running shutdown that we've had in history, and so looking through on okay, we can't tell them to stop playing, but what we can do is show a spirit of collaboration on behalf of the city and try to engage in an MOU so we're not blindsided by this because we did not know that this was coming.

They didn't tell us that they were going to play this video, they just kind of did it, and now we can't tell them to do anything.

So what the the idea behind this um this item is to try to get into an MOU with TSA.

So they're looking at our policies, our regulations, open a line of communication.

We've done other MODs in the past where we're sharing that information that we're knowing that these things are coming, and there's a collaborative effort effort at one of our biggest properties.

And the other thing with the shutdown as people are hurting, one good thing is that here in El Paso, our credit unions have really stepped up to help people with low interest or no interest loans, and they'll give them those loans for people to access, and then they could pay them back when they get their back pay when the shutdown finally ends at some point.

And so I I think that I'm asking for your support on this to direct the city manager and the city attorney to engage in these conversations to have a collaborative effort with TSA and see if we could come into an MOU.

And then the other thing is also we realized that there was no real direction that the city manager had, so this gives her direction to go out and try to get that security clearance because the other thing that came up and the questions that I was posing to the city manager was that this is um a very secure area, so even the documents that govern this have a security clearance, and we're asking to get that security clearance, so we're also in the no, and we have an idea of what is happening here, and those are the documentation documents that are really running this area, and that way we have a lot of information sharing, and it's a better partnership.

I think TSA does an incredible job.

They keep us safe, they keep our airport in in great shape, and it's really just coming in and saying, hey, let's be more friendly, let's share information.

So happy to answer any questions that anyone may have.

Uh representative Fiero.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, Mayor, um first I want to start with my compliments to the airport um director.

I I think he did an excellent job and in reminding us and reminding the public that the airport is not showing this video.

This video is not being shown by the airport or any part uh that belongs to the city of El Paso.

First and foremost.

The city manager went above and beyond to keep us all informed via emails, via information on what was happening, pictures of signage, and her communications with the director.

I in and I hope Ms.

Turner, if she's not here is watching, because I totally agree with her.

Our focus shouldn't be on on trying to be rational with the federal government that is unrational.

And who does not care about the the health and security of our country?

Instead, they're worried about about doing petty things like this, putting things on internet for uh on uh HHSC and certain things.

If we what we our focus should be on is again, this is Ms.

Turner brought this up is on the food security of of people who are our need who may not be get receiving their checks in the in the near future of focusing on health concerns.

But in my opinion, Mayor, this is a non-issue.

The the airport we the airport is not running this.

Nobody up here, nobody in city management is condoning or supporting this.

And in I just I hope that we um can vote on this very quickly and move on to to some really important business for the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Lemo.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I must say that uh when this whole thing initiated, my reaction was uh coraje.

You know, I I was just really upset uh to have someone like gnome um blaring um that kind of language.

My first reaction was really real very very quick and reached out to city manager and mayor and simply said um is this something that would require an emergency meeting for us to make some type of a decision.

Uh the answer that I got was was quite frankly exactly what we already know exactly what representative fiero indicated, this is not directly in our area.

On uh October 19th, I had the opportunity to travel.

So I actually went through the airport through the line, and so because I have a global entry card, I moved over to the left, and the monitor is on the right.

The monitor, small, maybe the size of that camera on the extreme right.

When I was traveling, there was a whole line of people.

Not one person, mayor was looking or listening to that video.

Not one.

The line was moving.

And if people are like me, I want to make sure I've got my ID, my wallet, my boarding pass.

That's what I'm thinking about is I'm boarding onto a plane.

When I did get through TSA, and I asked the young man who appeared to be a reasonable person, and I said, does it bother you that that monitor is over there?

And he said, quite frankly, we can't hear it, and no one has commented on it.

And so it was a busy day, it was on a Sunday afternoon.

I was departing, and so I I'm thinking like we've gotten the best information.

This is not ours.

We're leasing, they want to put it there.

This is old news.

Yeah, Paso.

I mean, let's move on to other things.

Bigger and more important.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Representative canales.

Thank you.

I'll be super brief because I think I share this opinion for the most part.

I I'm happy to support this because we can ask the question of the of the uh the TSA, but you know, we've already asked the question to the TSA, and their answer was no, we're going to do what we want in our space.

And I think if we ask them again formally through the city manager, uh their answer will probably be probably again be no thank you, if they're polite enough to say thank you along with their no.

Um so uh again, uh I I think that uh Re Fiero put it very uh very succinctly when he said uh it's it's not uh prudent to focus on trying to be rational with an irrational actor here.

Um I you know immediately condemn the video.

It it's very clearly a hatch act violation.

Um but again, only the the uh Office of Special Counsel in the federal government can enforce the Hatch Act, and we don't even have a special counsel in that office confirmed by by Congress at the moment.

And so um, you know, with that level of of dysfunction happening, uh I I just don't anticipate that we'll be able to enter into any kind of agreement with the TSA that's going to make any difference to a situation like this.

Um again, I I I appreciate it being being brought forward and I'm happy to say yes now, but I I just don't anticipate that this is gonna be fruitful for us.

Um I I hope that you know most El Pasuans and visitors who use the airport, like Representative Limon said, simply passed through the security and didn't pay this too much attention.

Um you know, it really isn't a message that belongs in our airport or any airport within the United States.

Um but TSA is going to put on their monitor what they want.

Um I I hope in the future uh they're willing to enter into agreement into agreements like this to collaborate with us on the operations uh that they have going on at the airport, but uh you know I'll I'll hold out hope for that one day.

Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you.

And forgive me, I'm a little out of breath.

So um I I appreciate and I've been listening to to the comments, and and this was really brought from a from a place of wanting to be able to, you know, to to wrap Canalis' point.

I understand where um what he's saying, and we we do hear that.

We have heard that.

But in the grand scheme of things, there are memorandum of agreements that do exist between federal and municipalities to some extent.

Now I understand that this one, you know, we pass through and we may not see it and all of this, and really the intention of this is never it's not to be um to to impose our will onto the TSA by any means.

This is more of a collaboration to say, you know, if something like this were to happen in the future, would you just be able to give us a heads up and then we can appropriately pull our resources to provide an answer instead of what took place unfortunately that we that week, which was we're scurrying to try to figure out how to address the constituent concerns.

So that approach really provides a more comprehensive way of showing that yes, we know it's the federal government that's going to do what they want to do.

And now the city understood, we know our place, but we can also within our city facility address that same situation to a certain extent.

And the other thing that I wanted to also point out is that when it comes to um this particular situation, I've heard from constituents that have said keep your nose out of it, you know, it doesn't belong there.

Uh keep you know, local politics is local, federal is federal, and and that constituent has every right to have that that opinion at the end of the day.

The city is an apolitical body, and I want it to remain that way for all of us.

This isn't just to call out one party or the other at all.

This is really just to say we want to maintain that apolitical vibe that this city does operate with.

And in addition to that, we also want to say we understand that there's people that need to get back to work and need to get paid, and we are very sensitive to that issue as well.

There's a lot of people, and I believe Miss Turner, I don't see her here, but she made a comment earlier that that I planned on making today as well.

We have a lot of potential, we have potential for losing a lot of people losing those SNAP benefits uh this Saturday, and and that's a real issue.

And and it I can sit here and say, okay, this is not something that we should be delving into, but I'm gonna put on a different hat and one that maybe people are a little bit more familiar with.

If I were a union president and I'm sitting there and saying, can I go and and talk to the federal government and the state government and other people, or even if I'm just a union president within a company, you have to align or at least have some type of relationship or consideration or even collaboration across the board.

You're it's it's not to impose our will on anybody, it's simply to say, can we come to the table and have a discussion where we can all coexist?

And really at the end of the day, that's all it is.

It's not trying to say I want to see uh your policies, I want to understand it and say the city is going to impose this on you.

By no means was that the intention of this.

So I I just want to be crystal clear when I say that this is really coming from a place of let's get everybody back to work, let's get everybody paid, let's get everybody that's on furlough back.

Let's get those snap benefits hitting.

Let's be able to work collaboratively and avoid something that took place, you know, two weeks ago, and maybe nobody's talking about it and nobody worries about it when you when you go through security, and that's fine, but at least we've been able to be proactive about it, and we're not scurring our resources after the fact to work through it.

So that's my piece.

Thank you.

Representative um trail, but another one lit up here at the same time.

That was you, okay.

That was my fault.

Representative trail.

I I'm just gonna be short here, you know, when when we have a violation of federal laws, it's important that we speak up.

And so one of the things many many times I say, you know, silence gives consent.

And so this is not something we should be silent about.

And uh I'm gonna be voting with you all on this.

Thank you.

All right, before we have uh representative chavez.